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Earlier this week, Chance the Rapper, Lil Wayne, and 2 Chainz were revealed as guests on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” They performed “No Problem” from Chance’s latest mixtape Coloring Book, while trashing a record label office assembled on set. Wayne also snuck some new lyrics into his verse: “And if that label try to stop me/I’m gon’ let ’em rob me/Yeah, right, like Ryan Lochte.” Watch the performance below. Chance also sat down for a chat on the Ellen couch, where she reminded him of their encounter this year at the White House, when she invited him to the show. “When you said that, we were at a White House Party,” Chance responded, “and I don’t get invited to White House parties. But I was in it, I was revelling in it, I was drunk... and when you said that to me, I was telling stories, like, ‘Yeah man, Ellen said she was gonna have me on the show!’ And I was like, ‘Did she say that? Or...’” Chance then told the story of how he met Obama as a teenager—then shared the photo to prove it. According to a tweet from Chance, the stage design and concept for the performance was something he pitched to “a few award [and] TV shows,” but was turned down. Read “Charting Chance the Rapper’s Unsigned Success” on the Pitch. |
(Optional) During Google Account registration if you choose Restore device phone return to same screen.After that choose Configure as new device and restore start normally!!! Stock rom browser generate random soft reboot if you enable Location sharing with device only mode in Location options!!! Possible fix to rild daemon permission to try to acticate SIM (test needed!!) fix 3g Data Connection broken fix to libstlport bootloop stuck Kernel 3.1.x compiled with last 4.9 toolchain reworked to avoid random freezes after deep sleep Compiled with latest commits of AOSP sources 6.0.0_r1 New BootAnimation based on Nexus factory Images MM Possible fix to autorotate sound and GPS bug and random sensor problems (test needed!!) fix NFClost on Settings-->Other fix bootloop Kernel 3.1.x compiled with last 4.9 toolchain now support f2fs Kernel 3.1.x compiled with last 4.9 toolchain now support f2fs Kernel 3.1.x compiled with last 4.9 toolchain now support f2fs Kernel 3.1.x compiled with last 4.9 toolchain now support f2fs Kernel 3.1.x compiled with last 4.9.2 toolchain now support f2fs Kernel 3.1.x compiled with last 4.9.2 toolchain now support f2fs 1. UPDATE RECOVERY to TWRP 2.8.7.0 2. FACTORY RESET3. Download ROM Build 06/07 4. Gapps 6.0 5. Root6. Optionally,to speed up device,consider to flash ParrotMod 7. Reboot and enjoy...AOSP/Google, Dmitry Grinberg for great initial support on buildInitial support for N7 2012 WIFI on AOSP MarshMallowKernel compiled with Christopher83 4.9 arm toolchain based on google asus 3.1.10 lollipop-mr1 and kernel patch of Dmitry Grinberg Enable sparsemem option on kernel to optimize memory managemnt and free up memory quicklyAdd some options to speed up first boot and dex2oat compilationHack ril vendor files to try to activate 3g on MM code[/I][/B]/I][/B]/I][/B] |
Spring 2018 Rattlesnake Orchid, Downy Rattlesnake Plantain - Goodyera pubescens We have had a relatively late Spring, but the greenhouses are full of plants ready to be shipped. See our Supplement for descriptions of some of our recent additions. We have updated our Supplement and Plant List/Order Form for 2018 and they can be downloaded now. Please don't forget to download our Handbook for complete descriptions of our plants as well as a plethora of useful knowledge. For more information please visit our Download Page and get our informative Handbook, Plant List, and Supplement. You may also call us at (828)683-2014 to request that we mail these to you (Printed Handbook is $5), or to place an order. For over 30 years The Sandy Mush Herb Nursery has been collecting, propagating, and selling herbs, perennials, and other interesting plants. Our Handbook/Catalog contains close to 1600 varieties of plants including: Traditional Culinary and Medicinal Herbs Scented Geraniums (94 varieties) Wild Flowers and other native plants Perennials Trees and Shrubs Bonsai Plants And Much, Much More. We also carry wonderful, carefully selected books, seeds, and handy items. |
ZF 24 Premierul Ponta a folosit în prezentarea bilanţului la doi ani de activitate un infografic publicat în Ziarul Financiar, fără să citeze sursa Premierul Victor Ponta a folosit astăzi, în prezentarea bilanţului la doi ani de activitate, un infografic publicat de Ziarul Financiar pe 9 iulie 2014, în pagina 3, care ilustrează scăderea randamentelor la titlurile de stat în lei, fără să citeze însă sursa infograficului. Datele arată “evoluţia randamentelor medii la titlturile de stat în lei după maturitate în ultimii cinci ani ( % ) pe şase luni, 12 luni, trei ani, cinci ani şi 10 ani”. Titlul graficului, compoziţia sa, culorile folosite, maturităţile şi exemplele date sunt identice, după cum se poate vedea în imaginile ataşate. De asemenea, nota explicativă, “randamentele 2009-2013 sunt pentru luna decembrie, iar cele din 2014 sunt pentru martie şi iunie”, este identică. Sursa datelor este mfinante.ro, de unde ar fi putut şi specialiştii premierului Ponta să culeagă aceste date şi să-şi realizeze propriul infografic, cum a fost cazul cu celelalte date macroeconomice prezentate astăzi. Ziarul Financiar, 9 iulie 2014 Sursa datelor este mfinante.ro, de unde ar fi putut şi specialiştii premierului Ponta să culeagă aceste date şi să-şi realizeze propriul infografic, cum a fost cazul cu celelalte date macroeconomice prezentate astăzi. Prezentarea premierului Victor Ponta, 22 iulie 2014 UPDATE: 23 iulie: Guvernul a corectat în prezentarea premierului privind economia la 2 ani de la preluarea guvernării sursa infograficului referitor la randamentele titlurilor de stat în lei, indicând că ea este zf.ro. |
Get the biggest daily news 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 Doctors are performing illegal abortions on pregnant girls as young as nine who were kidnapped and raped by twisted Islamic State fighters. The traumatised children are from the Yazidis religious minority community, it is estimated some of 40,000 them were taken at gunpoint by ISIS thugs in August last year. Thousands of girls and women torn from their homes in Iraq were raped, tortured, forcibly married and enslaved. Now many of the traumatised victims have now found their way back to their families in Kurdistan; battered, broken, humiliated and several of them pregnant. (Image: Reuters) Dozens are reportedly having illegal abortions and many are also secretly seeking surgery to reverse the loss of their virginity, the Sunday Times reports. A teenager told how when she was 13, she was kidnapped by ISIS thugs and regularly tied up and raped - one of them was even trying to make her pregnant. But she and two other girls escaped their captors by tying bedsheets together and climbing out of a second floor window. The girl said: "I try not to think about it. When I do, I get hysterical and start throwing things at my family. If I ever saw him, I would like to cut him to pieces.” One of the youngest victims who fell pregnant is a 9-year-old girl, according to Canadian-based aid worker Yousif Daoud. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now He told the Toronto Star: "This girl is so young she could die if she delivers a baby. "Even a caesarian section is dangerous. The abuse she has suffered left her mentally and physically traumatised.” More than 200 elderly and infirm Yazidis were freed earlier this month by Islamic State militants. (Image: Reuters) They were handed over to Kurdish forces near the city of Kirkuk and many were too exhausted and disoriented to speak. One elderly woman said she had been captured by the insurgents last August when they overpowered Kurdish forces in the Sinjar area and proceeded to purge its Yazidi population, killing hundreds and taking thousands captive. The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had told her son and two young daughters to run away as the militants closed in, but stayed behind herself because she was unwell and did not want to slow them down. She said: "I had lost hope of seeing my children again, but today it has happened." Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now It was not clear why the radical jihadists had decided to release the Yazidis, whom they consider devil-worshippers, but the group previously freed 200 more it was holding under similarly mysterious circumstances. Some of the Yazidis said they had been held in the Islamic State stronghold of Tel Afar most of the time, but in the days leading up to their release, they were moved from one town to another in Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate. (Image: Reuters) The Yazidis thought they were being led to their execution, but instead, were piled onto a minibus that drove them to peshmerga positions in batches. Yazidi community leaders were there to receive them and an ambulance was on standby. Yazidi activists say many remain in the hands of Islamic State, which has often subjected women to rape or sexual slavery. The United Nations said last month Islamic State may have committed genocide against the minority. The Yazidis are an ancient, predominantly Kurdish people who follow their own religion derived from Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrianism. |
BEIJING (Reuters) - After months of speculation, China confirmed on Thursday it is building a second aircraft carrier to go with an existing one bought second-hand, as neighbors worry about Beijing’s new assertiveness to claims in the South China Sea. Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said the carrier had been designed in China and was being built in the port of Dalian. Foreign military analysts and Chinese media have for months published satellite images, photographs and news stories purporting to show the second carrier’s development. “China has a long coast line and a vast maritime area under our jurisdiction. To safeguard our maritime sovereignty, interests and rights is the sacred mission of the Chinese armed forces,” Yang said. The design draws on experiences from the country’s first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, bought from Ukraine in 1998 and refitted in China, Yang said. Yang said the conventionally powered carrier has a displacement of 50,000 tonnes, will be able to operate the Shenyang J-15 fighter and, unlike the 60,000-tonne Liaoning, have a ski-jump take-off. Little is known about China’s aircraft carrier program, which is a state secret. Yang would not say when the second carrier would enter service, saying it depended on progress in the design process. A Shanghai-based naval expert who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter said tensions in the South China Sea made the carrier particularly necessary to furthering Chinese interests. “The U.S. has many aircraft carriers that are traveling all over the place in the South China Sea, which has caused problems for us,” he said. “Having a second aircraft carrier reduces the pressure on us. It will keep us from being bullied.” China claims almost all the South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and has been building up military facilities like runways on the islands it controls. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. China says it has no hostile intent and wants to manage the dispute through bilateral talks with the other claimants. Yang also announced the defense ministry had just set up a new hotline with Vietnam, as it seeks to manage the tensions. But Beijing has been involved in a diplomatic spat with Washington too over ship and aircraft patrols in the region. Asked whether China was thinking of a third carrier, Yang said that “relevant authorities” would take various factors into consideration about future carrier plans. The Pentagon, in a report earlier this year, said Beijing could build multiple aircraft carriers over the next 15 years. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in September China was building two aircraft carriers that would be the same size as the Liaoning. Successfully operating the Liaoning is the first step in what state media and some military experts believe will be the deployment of domestically built carriers by 2020. The Liaoning has taken part in military exercises, including in the South China Sea, but is not yet fully operational. Last week, the military said the Liaoning had made a “key breakthrough” in shifting from the testing phase to being able to operate ship-borne aircraft, as the country’s navy chief paid a visit. |
Toronto firefighters have a new collective agreement, cementing them as the highest-paid firefighters in the province in terms of base salary. The decision, awarded on Friday after arbitration between the city and the Toronto Professional Firefighters’ Association, also maintains the long-standing practice of advancing firefighter wages in lock-step with police salaries. Toronto firefighters take a break while crews continue to battle a six-alarm blaze at the Badminton and Racquet Club of Toronto on February 14, 2017. ( Jesse Winter / Toronto Star ) “With arbitration you don’t get everything you want, but overall we feel the decision is balanced,” said Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association president Frank Ramagnano. “By 2018 we’ll be at the exact same level as Toronto police, we’re just taking a slightly different road to get there,” Ramangnano said. The new deal covers 2015-18. The arbitration award represents a roughly 8.5-per-cent-increase over four years. Most of those increases are loaded on the front end of the four-year period. In 2018, salaries will increase by only about half a per cent that year. Article Continued Below As of July 2017, the base salary for a first-class firefighter will be $97,910 per year — about $8,000 per year more than under the previous collective agreement. Retroactive wage increases will be paid out within 90 days to the city’s 3,000 plus firefighters, the arbitration ruling says. That means the majority of cost increases from the new agreement must be paid out in lump sums. Toronto firefighters had been without a contract since 2014, when talks broke down between the association and the city. While no other Ontario firefighters earn as high a base salary, Ramagnano said in terms of total compensation, including benefits like bankable sick days and paid-duty assignments, Toronto firefighters are the lowest-paid emergency services workers in the city. “Our vacation isn’t as generous,” Ramagnano said. “We didn’t get any increase to our eye care packages, like other comparables did.” Ramagnano also pointed to lower pay on statutory holidays, and a work week that’s two hours longer than that of Toronto police officers. Given that the new deal covers up to only 2018, Ramagnano said he hopes the next collective agreement can be reached through negotiation, instead of going to arbitration. Article Continued Below The increased costs of the new deal will put more pressure on city coffers, even after city council voted in May to freeze all budgets at 2017 levels for a year. After accounting for inflation, that’s the equivalent of cutting $11 million from the operating budget. The city faces an initial budget shortfall of $343 million in 2018 unless property taxes are raised above the roughly 2-per-cent inflation mark. With files from Betsy Powell |
TagYerit Presents: The Madison Museum of Bathroom Tissue Flushed with excitement??? For the Full Flush LISTEN to TagYerit's embarrassing song while you EXPLORE the Museum. Sorry but the MMBT had been looking for a new permanent home when we last spoke with them several years ago. Unfortunately we have not heard from them since. Our biggest fear is that they got desperate and (gasp - NO) used them. Here then are excerpts from their brochure, as well as a sampling of a few of their finest specimens. Note that the numbered arrows are highlights of the audio-tape tour provided to interested visitors. "Located in downtown Madison WI, the Madison Museum of Bathroom Tissue offers the public a unique opportunity to view an impressive assemblage of toilet paper from across the country and around the world. ... Besides the obvious purpose of displaying the collection, the Museum often sponsors evening socials with the purpose of garnering roll donations ... Entertainment for such events is often provided in the Down Below Lounge (directly below the Museum proper) where live music, cocktails, and socialization occur for the enjoyment of members and visitors alike." (Gee, I wonder if they do weddings?) "Upwards of 2,500 rolls are labeled, cataloged and presented for public perusal ... rolls from Ellis Island, the Alamo, Graceland, the Guggenheim, Caesar's Palace ... of special interest are the Mexican Display, the African Shelf and the European Collection. " Here are a few other links for any toilet paper detectives out there. Time Magazine March 3, 1997 Former Home of TP Collection Razed Roll Call TP Museum Resurrected The Whole World Toilet Paper Museum - What's where? Links etc... You are here. Just one of TagYerit's many creative outlets. Read on for more options. |
The Asian currencies declined today against the U.S. dollar as the delay of the U.S. financial rescue plan may diminish the attractiveness of the risk-ridden regional currencies in conjunction with the economic output decline in Asia. The basket of the 10 major Asian currencies fell today after the yesterdays testimony of the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson before the Congress regarding the $700 billion plan. The Congress reaction to this plan isnt obvious and the debates about it may rise, delaying the much needed solution. The financial markets all over the world are monitoring the U.S. situation now. If the worlds largest economy wont get the stimulus and will start to decline, the emerging markets currencies will also react with a decline due to the natural risk-aversion during the recession. Korean won led the todays downfall of the Asian currencies. It actually continues to decline for more than a year against the U.S. dollar now. This situation may probably change soon, as the Korean central bank may intervene to support the national currency. According to Kang Man Soo, the Finance Minister of South Korea, the current value of the won should reflect the countrys economic fundamentals. USD/KRW rate fell from 1,160.3 to 1,154.5 as of 6:00 GMT today; this year won has lost almost 19 percent to the dollar already. USD/SGD declined from 1.4246 to 1.4189 today. If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the South Korean Won, feel free to post them using the commentary form below. |
Powder Mountain ski resort in Ogden, UT will soon be the largest ski resort in the USA at 7,957-skiable acres (8,464 acres if you include their cat skiing terrain). The only ski resort with more lift served terrain in North America is Whistler Blackcomb, B.C. at 8,171 acres. Powder Mountain is currently going through the largest lift-served ski terrain expansion in North American history by adding 2 chairlifts (Mary’s Bowl & Village) that are increasing their terrain by 1,060 acres. This expansion is slated to be completed this winter. POWDER MOUNTAIN, UT STATISTICS: 500″ of annual snowfall 2,205′ vertical feet Opening date: “as soon as mother nature lets us” Closing date: April 9th Powder Mountain is also executing an unprecedented skier cap. This mean that Powder Mountain will only sell 2,000 daily ski passes per day and only 1,000 adult season passes this year. This skier cap will make Powder Mountain the lowest skier density of any major ski area in North America at only 14 skiers per acre and an advanced sale adult day ticket is only $79. The two new Powder Mountain lifts: Mary’s Lift at 3,880 feet long and rising 867 vertical feet Village lift at 3,680 feet long and 582 vertical feet. “We strive to maintain the uncrowded, wide open, adventurous experience Pow Mow is known for. By adding two new lifts and over 1,000 acres of new lift accessible terrain, capping ticket sales at 2,000 per day and establishing a limit of 1,000 adult season pass holders annually, we aim to keep our skier density of 1 acre per skier. Compare that with some of the largest resorts in the region who routinely see skier densities in excess of 14 skiers per acre, it is easy to see that we are truly committed to Preserving the Pow!With an advanced full price lift ticket price of $79, we truly offer all the terrain of the largest resorts in the country at half the price and a fraction of the crowd.”” – Mark Schroetel, General Manager of Powder Mountain Resort Before Powder Mountain, Park City/The Canyons was the largest ski resort in the USA at 7,300 acres. Before Park City, it was Big Sky/Moonlight Basin at 5,800 acres. Powder Mountain will also be building a new town at 8,600′ on the mountain. This new town will be modeled after the Swiss village of Wengen and will be the size of historic part of Aspen and Telluride. Town Details: “The two lift expansions, along with 6 miles of new roads, connects the existing resort to the new town location, which rests on a saddle intersecting the top of three bowls at an elevation of 8600 feet. This new town location features topographic features and views unlike any location in the US, including sprawling meadows and views of the Great Salt Lake. Ultimately, the new town, which was modeled after the Swiss town of Wengen, will be similar in size to the historical parts of Aspen and Telluride. The town will feature a main street with pop-up stores, micro-apartments, farm-to-table restaurants, yoga boot-camps, public art, media labs and educational outlets offering training in everything from transcendental meditation, software development and athletic performance. It will embody a next-generation urbanism that nourishes social entrepreneurship, connection and collaboration, and responsible living.” – Powder Mountain POWDER MOUNTAIN, UT PRESS RELEASE: Powder Mountain Announces Largest Lift-Serviced Resort Expansion in North American History and Unprecedented Skier Cap; Adds Over 1,000 Acres of Terrain with Two New Chairlifts While Capping Day Passes at 2,000; Announces New Town Location Six Miles from Mid-Mountain Base Eden, UT – Powder Mountain Resort is excited to announce the addition of two new lifts accessing over 1,000 acres of new terrain adjacent to the core of our future town for the 2016-2017 winter season. This is the largest lift-serviced resort expansion in North American history. Additionally, the resort is capping season and day passes which will increase the amount of acreage per skier, making Powder Mountain the largest and most spacious ski area in the United States. 2 New SkyTrac Lifts: Village Lift & Mary’s Lift Over 1000 Acres of New Lift Serviced Terrain 4 Lift Accessible Side Country Areas 7900+ Lift Accessible Skiable Acres – Largest in US 8464 Total Skiable Acres Lowest skier density of any major ski area in North America Day Tickets Limited to 2,000 per Day Adult Season Passes Limited to 1,000 |
At an underground military base in the heart of Ramat Gan, the IDF is preparing for a new kind of war. In large, advanced, windowless war rooms, with giant screens, young IT soldiers make the large IDF's dependence on the small computer a fait accompli. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter A year ago Operation Protective Edge was declared the first IT war in the IDF's history, during which the chief of staff could watch the pursuit after the abductors of Hadar Goldin on Black Friday in Rafah live, and even get in touch directly with the Givati Brigade commander Ofer Vinter; a war in which nearly every battalion and company commander could see the location of terrorist cells in ambush positions in Shuja'iyya from Aman (military intelligence), all on small mobile devices in real time. It was a war in which the Air Force, infantry, engineers, tanks and the artillery were concentrated on a single screen. Like in a video game, everyone could see and speak to everyone, with a single touch. "During Operation Protective Edge we dealt with dozens of cyber events, but there was no breach," recounts Col. H., who commanded an elite unit during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 and is now completing his term as commander of the IDF's computer unit Mamram (Center of Computing and Information Systems). "We estimate that a Lebanese hacker acting independently does not pose a significant threat to us. If we’re worried, it's about a body or organization, not necessarily state-sponsored." IDF IT soldiers. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson) In his next stint, as commander of the defensive cyber unit, he expects to deal with a deadly threat: at least 100,000 Hezbollah rockets, or Hamas’s tunnels. "We are a cyber superpower, and in order to confront us, the enemy has to be the size of a state," he points out. "In the next war it will be much more important and significant for the enemy to bring down an operational computerized system than to destroy an armored brigade." Dependent on computers - for better or worse The IDF operates on internal networks, physically detached from the external Internet, which are protected 24/7 by thickened virtual walls, with cyber-guard soldiers maintaining and monitoring the system during routine or emergency. Still, a successful breach by the enemy, like Iran or its proxy Hezbollah, can result in damage to any operation relying on the computers, and today there is almost no combat system that doesn't – from the operating systems of fighter planes, to Iron Dome missiles, to the sirens of the Home Front Command. A takeover of these computers, even one that lasts only a minute, could allow reversing their operating commands, which would bring about disaster and chaos the likes of which the IDF has never seen. Mamram. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson) Even so, the military's confidence in its Computer Service Directorate has only risen since Operation Protective Edge. "If in the past, field commanders struggled to acclimate to computerized combat systems, today they don’t want to go back to maps and board briefings," said Col. H., "This requires us to provide the army with full, continuous IT control, since during Operation Protective Edge a failure of data transfer delayed IAF air strikes in Gaza by 15 minutes. “The IT control system of the General Staff, for example, was only rendered unavailable for 30 minutes during the past six month," added the colonel. "It sits on two different sites for backup, so that if there is a crash, users won’t notice. The Chief of Staff, in the midst of a war, could demand to be shown any point in the Gaza Strip from which rockets were fired at Israel in the last couple of hours. This reduces operational processes, saves munitions, and allows us to hit thousands of targets in a day during the next war in Lebanon." But, as is the case with real battlefields, risks grow along with the IDF’s dependence on computers and the people who run them. The military has tens of thousands of servers operating underground today, with about 1,000 added every year. Meanwhile, a virtualization process is ongoing, with the intent of conserving electricity by compressing more applications into each server. “We’ve become the largest broadcaster in Israel,” admits Col. H.“We know how to take any photo from IDF sources and deliver it to the necessary parties. Hot and Yes (Israel’s largest cable TV and satellite TV operators, respectively) have dozens of broadcast channels; we have hundreds.” Mamram’s main method of enabling the IDF’s continuous IT activities, and preventing risks that result from reliance on computers, is to anticipate errors instead of waiting for them to happen. “In the past, an officer would call us and say he had a problem with his computer,” explains Col. H. “Today, we have technology that can identify and take care of bugs in all IDF computers.” "We’ve developed the ability to perform open heart surgery on our system, to take care of it while the ‘body’ goes on as usual," the colonel continued. "We did this in the middle of peak combat operations during Protective Edge, even implementing new technologies during war, and the fighting forces didn’t notice. That’s like replacing a tire on a car that’s driving 100 KPH without a single scratch, but it requires working 24/7 during emergency situations. Last year, they came to understand how integral they are to the IDF’s operations.” |
After all the ‘umm-ing and ahh-ing‘, GNOME has decided against shipping with “full support” for Wayland in its upcoming release. According to the GNOME Wiki, the intention had been to default to a hybrid Wayland session in the next major release, version 3.12, due this March. But, announcing a change in those plans in a mailing list post, GNOME developer Matthias Clasen explained: “GNOME 3.12 / Wayland will still be [a] preview. There are still too many unfinished tasks, and we are only a few short weeks away from hard code freeze. We don’t want to risk destabilising the X support at this point, so we will defer the merging of the mutter-wayland branch until after 3.12.” Whilst basic functionality of GNOME Shell as a Wayland compositor does, at present, work – with most of GNOME’s core apps fully supported – there are gaps remaining that GNOME developers are hoping to plug before the March 26 release of 3.12. Items on the to-do list include enabling a Wayland session to be launched from the GNOME Display Manager (“login screen” to you and I); supporting keyboard shortcuts, and supporting the libinput library. Like the last major release, Wayland will be included as an ‘experimental preview’. But this won’t, however, be able to handle Wacom tablet input; and will lack support for mouse and trackpad device configuration, drag and drop and clipboard features, and status icons. Like Canonical’s Mir display server, Wayland is not currently supported by proprietary drivers, but is supported by a number of open-source drivers, including Mesa. It also supports an X server compatibility layer for running legacy applications. |
In one of the most speculative stock moves around the bitcoin mania, the tiny stock of a former fruit juice company briefly soared more than 200 percent Tuesday. Future FinTech (FTFT) has a market value of just $12.5 million with Tuesday's gains, according to FactSet. The stock closed up 64 percent at $3 a share. Traders on Twitter were quick to link the company to blockchain technology and the bitcoin craze, since Future FinTech announced in June it had changed its name from "SkyPeople Fruit Juice" to focus on financial technology. However, there is no mention of "blockchain," "bitcoin" or anything crypto-related in the release or the company's November presentation to investors. The documents show the company intends to focus on commodities trading and e-commerce platforms, given its background in agricultural goods. David Rudnick, Future FinTech's investor relations representative, had no comment. Trading volume topped 7 million shares, versus the 30-day average of about 248,000 shares, according to FactSet. Earlier Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in shares of The Crypto Co. until early January due to concerns that included potential stock manipulation. When contacted by CNBC, the company had yet to provide a statement by Tuesday afternoon. |
Get the biggest Weekday Swansea City FC 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 In this first ever press conference, Garry Monk joked: "I won't be going to Paris next week because we won't lose on Saturday." If you don't understand the context of that gag, then where have you been? The point is, under Monk, Swansea are back and they will do it the Swansea way. Flick through the gallery for our 10 reasons why they will win the South Wales derby Because history’s on their side You may have heard this one before, but no side has completed the derby double. A century of rivalry has taught us that no-one holds the bragging rights for too long so surely fate favours the Swans. Because they still have matchwinners For all the talk of loss of form, a quick glance down the Swansea teamsheet shows the fact there’s still game changers in the side that can turn it on – and these players haven’t become average ones overnight. If Cardiff think recent problems mean victory is a shoo-in, more fool them. Because Michu could be back (Maybe). Hasn’t been the same this season because of nagging injuries that has eventually led to this latest two-month layoff, but what he did to Valencia this term should worry Cardiff if he’s anywhere near close to a return. With a place in the World Cup for grabs, Michu is on a mission. Because Swansea love proving people wrong. They’ve done it so many times so don’t be surprised if they pull it off once more with the world seemingly against them. From Sam Hammam saying they had a cat in hell’s chance of making it to the Premier League, to passing their way to success when they were tipped for second-season syndrome, no-one enjoys making people eat their words more than the lot at the Liberty Stadium. Because no-one’s made it a treble. Cardiff have back-to-back wins in this fixture (albeit over a gap of a few years as the Swans lived it up in the Premier League) but not even the greatest South Wales sides have managed to make it three wins on the bounce in league and English cup competitions. This time it’s Swansea’s turn ...history says that’s official! Because Bony is a beast The immovable Ivorian didn’t even start the last game as he struggled to settle into the Premier League but those tree-trunk thighs are up and running now. Steven Caulker and co. know they’re in for a battle to try and handle the 16-goal striker. Because Ashley Williams will get angry if they don’t. Swans skipper Williams isn’t one to tolerate things going wrong and there’s been a few players on the wrong end of ear bashings from a captain who won’t stand for complacency. If the thought of beating your arch-rivals wasn’t motivation enough, avoiding a hairdryer from the Wales defender will be. Because Cardiff aren’t sure who they are anymore. No, that’s not a reference to the red rebrand but because of new boss Solskjaer’s attempts to move away from the energetic but cautious approach of Mackay into a more possession-orientated team. The danger could be that Cardiff end up mastering neither – and trying to take on the pass-masters at their own game could play into Swansea hands. Because there’s too many new boys in the Bluebirds. While Swansea fans were left disappointed not to add too many names to their options in January, Cardiff went the other way and while victory over Norwich saw Kenwyne Jones and Wilfried Zaha fire, to get the complete performance needed to win the derby may be asking too much too soon of a new-look Cardiff side. And plus, Fabio’s four-minute red the last time he played Swansea doesn’t bode well. Because they have to. All the speculation and scare stories is one thing, but the need for Premier League points is huge. For Swansea fans, the thought of Cardiff doing the derby double and dragging them right down to the bottom places doesn’t bear thinking about. |
Tramaine Gaines was in the kitchen of his Florida home this week eating pizza when he noticed something big searching through his things just a few feet away. "I look to my right and to my disbelief I see two eyes looking at me in the darkness," Gaines said. Hungry Bear Pays Visit to Colorado Restaurant, Gets Meal to Go Those two eyes belonged to a black bear that had made himself at home inside the screened patio of Gaines' Lake Mary home. "The bear was actually on his way back in[side]," said Gaines, who captured the encounter with the bear on his cellphone. California Bears Break Into Cars to Get Food, Often Can't Get Out The encounter was Gaines' second with a bear in a week. Gaines also found a bear poking around his home Thursday after it ripped through the screen patio. In that case, Gaines said he had left out cooking oil that might have attracted the hungry animal. Bear Attacks Leave 4 Injured "This time there was no food outside," Gaines said of this week's bear encounter. "I pulled everything in." But not everyone has been as fortunate as Gaines. Six miles away in Longwood, Fla., a black bear attacked Susan Chalfant earlier this month while she was out walking her dogs. Chalfant was left with serious injuries. Wildlife experts are urging residents who live near woods or wetlands to watch out for bears as they search for food to prepare for winter. "The first time it was really funny," Gaines said of his own bear encounters. "This time I'm a little more concerned." ed." |
Part of my series on neomexicanus hops. When I began the journey of discovery that led me to neomexicanus I had no idea just what a sensation this series would become. My only thought at the time was “I just spent $50 on six ounces of hops, I should write an article or two so I feel justified,” not “I should spend the next few months of my life researching the history and future of neomexicanus.” Unsurprisingly, it appears there are many adventurous homebrewers out there looking to explore the horizons of this new hop variety with as much eagerness as myself. In a cruel irony of fates I was in the same place at the same time as none other than Stan Hieronymus himself, but missed the opportunity to serve him some neomexicanus beer by mere minutes (Stone Escondido is a huge place and the 59th Annual American Hop Convention was having a reception there). @derekspringer dang, on bus & just read this. Sorry I missed you. And the beer. — Stan Hieronymus (@StanHieronymus) January 22, 2015 As for the reception to the Chama Pale Ale: it received almost standing ovations at my club and equally positive reviews from the handful of individuals to whom I shipped bottles. Folks were having a hard time believing that there was so much character from only three ounces of hops and were tossing around words like mellon, peach, and (of course) weed to describe the aromas and flavor. Needless to say, it has been a hit; I think there is going to be quite a demand for Chama next fall! Since I have been on a bit of a lager kick recently (’tis this season) I decided a simple (but delicious!) German Pilsner would be a good showcase for Latir which is described as “spicy, herbal, and flowery.” Before I get into the recipe and hop review let’s take a closer look at the hop details. Latir Details Unlike the Chama variety, The Holy Hops website provides a nice broad analysis of the composition of Latir hops. I was surprised to discover the Myrcene content, at 71.2% of total oil, is higher than even woody/piny hops like Simcoe (60 – 65%) and Northern Brewer (50 – 60%). Though on the flip side, Humulene is only present in trivial amounts, which clearly contributes more of the classic woody organic character that folks think of when they hear woody/piny. It is really interesting that, minus Myrcene, almost all of the levels I would associate with “spicy, herbal, and flowery” are far lower than other similarly described lupulus varieties. Availability: Holy Hops Description: Spicy, herbal, flowery. Alpha: 7.2% Beta: 5.0% HSI : 25.3% (stores decently) Chemical Composition Substance Principle Aromas Composition Total Oil (mL per 100g) 0.79 Caryophyllene (% of total oil) Piney, Woody, Spicy, Herbal 2.8% Farnesene (% of total oil) Floral, Piney, Woody 0.1% Geraniol (% of total oil) Floral, Sweet Rose 1.4% Humulene (% of total oil) Piney, Woody 0.2% Linalool (% of total oil) Floral, Orange, Tropical 0.8% Myrcene (% of total oil) Piney, Woody 71.2% Pinene (% of total oil) Piney, Herbal, Spicy 1.3% For those of you that are not hop chemists it is interesting to note that a total oil content of 0.79 mL per 100g is substantially lower than many contemporary hops (but on par with noble varieties). For instance, varieties like Citra (2.2 – 2.8 mL per 100g) and Simcoe (2.0 – 2.5 mL per 100g) can have up to 4x the oil content as this batch of Latir. This rings true with Sierra Nevada Product Manager sierranevadabill’s description of neomexicanus hops as “low potency, but man, what a flavor.” Latir Pils The description for Latir seems very noble to me and we are in the middle of lager season, so I decided that a simple and delicious German Pilsner would make a great base for the beer. German Pilsner is almost the definition of simplicity and this is possibly one of my simplest recipes–just a dash of Carapils and Melanoidin to bolster the complexity and head retention–besides some grainy Pils character there should be nothing to get in the way of the Latir hops. Similar to my Chama Pale Ale, my approach is to maximize hop flavor and aroma. At 7.2% AA Latir has some good punch behind it, so I decided on 100% hop burst additions, adding 1 ounce each at 20-minutes, 10-minutes, and a 15-minute hop stand. I decided on WLP940 Mexican Lager the same reason I chose WLP090 for the Chama Pale Ale: it is a great fermentor and does a good job of highlighting hop character. Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 90 min 28.5 IBUs 4.2 SRM 1.049 1.010 5.1 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 9.5 lbs 95 Carapils 4 oz 2.5 Melanoidin 4 oz 2.5 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Latir - Neomexicanus 1 oz 20 min Boil Leaf 7.2 Latir - Neomexicanus 1 oz 10 min Boil Leaf 7.2 Latir - Neomexicanus 1 oz 15 min Aroma Leaf 7.2 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Mexican Lager (WLP940) White Labs 74% 50°F - 55°F Mash Step Temperature Time Beta Sacc 149°F 60 min Alpha Sacc 158°F 15 min Mash Out 168°F 10 min Notes Water profile: Ca 46 | Mg 6 | Na 24 | Cl 64 | SO4 66 Tasting Notes Aroma I cannot quite tell if I have become used to the herbal/weedy character of the neomexicanus hop varieties or if Latir just has a mellower (natch) herbal character, but I would not consider “herbal/weedy” as the main descriptor of this variety like it is for Chama. The main aroma this time is a nice floral bouquet followed by a mellower herbal note, some light grainy Pils malt character, and a trailing spicy/peppery note. I would say 50% floral, 30% herbal, and 20% spicy. No vegetal, earthy, fruity, or piney character. Otherwise, maybe the tiniest sliver of sulphur and no ester or alcohol character. The kind of clean lager character you would hope for! Appearance A very clear light golden color, probably the palest beer I have ever made. Creamy white head that does not last quite as long as I would like but leaves some decent lacing. Head retention can be affected by hops so I wonder if the long-lastingness of the head has been effected by Latir specifically or of some other factor of my recipe/process. Flavor Crisp and bitter, with a dry finish and a slight Pils maltiness. Smooth hop bitterness dominates and lingers into the aftertaste; perhaps a result of adding all the hops in the last twenty minutes of the boil or perhaps Latir might just be very smooth–I do not know the cohumulone levels so I cannot be completely certain. I still get the same dank herbal character I found in Chama, but it is more balanced by the floral and spicy notes. The floral character is a bit rosy and a bit generic flowery (I really need to work on my flower vocabulary) while the spicy has a light peppery character. The overall mix this time is a bit more herbal and closer to 40% floral, 40% herbal, and 20% spicy. Clean, no fruity esters, no diacetyl. Mouthfeel For finishing as dry as it is (1.010) the slight creaminess and moderate carbonation lends to a fuller medium body. I get the same slight orange-pithy astringency that I noticed in the Chama hops. I am beginning to believe this is a character trait of the neomexicanus varieties in general. Overall Impression So is Latir worthy of your time and dollars? Yes, but it is not the grand slam that Chama is; if Chama is an A+, Latir is an A-. The character is interesting and unique, but I guess I was hoping for a bit more out of it: there is some good dank character, but I wanted the floral to be more floral and the spicy to be more spicy. At $25 for three ounces it is hard for me to justify choosing Latir over other herbal/floral/spicy varieties like Hallertauer or Saaz at a quarter of the cost. However, if Latir were to come down to “only” twice the cost of noble varieties I would recommend it in a heart-beat. Though I have to wonder if I would feel this way if I tried Latir first and Chama second… Chama is a tough act to follow. That said, Latir would fit very well in any number of classic lagers or light ales where you are interested in a little something more than classic noble character. In all fairness, Latir does have great neomexicanus character which I would liken “dank-noble”, so it would be a great way to bridge the gap between traditional styles and something new. In fact, if you bolstered Latir with the noble variety of your choice you would probably come up with something spectacular. Alternately, just enjoy Latir for what it is–it is pretty good! Advertisements Like this: Like Loading... |
Beginning this month, central Ohio library users can enjoy a virtual newsstand of more than 150 magazines for use on personal computers, tablets and smartphones. Beginning this month, central Ohio library users can enjoy a virtual newsstand of more than 150 magazines for use on personal computers, tablets and smartphones. Columbus Metropolitan Library, along with the Worthington and Southwest Public libraries, began the program with eight others in the Central Ohio Library Consortium after hearing from customers who wanted the same digital access they have to books. �We had some customers who were asking about magazines, but there wasn�t really a product out there to get them, until now,� said Robin Nesbitt, technical services director for Columbus� 21-branch system. The consortium pays Maryland-based Recorded Books $100,000 a year to administer the program. Each library then decides which magazines to offer and pays the regular subscription rate for each. Users with a library card can check out as many magazines as they want and never have to return them, said Matt Walker, vice president of sales and marketing for Recorded Books.The company also is building a database of back issues. Columbus will spend about $3,700 for its 150 subscriptions this year. Other libraries in the consortium are Fairfield County; Grandview Heights; Marysville; Pickaway County; Pickerington; Plain City, in Madison County; Alexandria, in Licking County; and Wagnalls Memorial, in Fairfield County. The magazine titles range from the serious � Audubon, Smithsonian and National Geographic � to the more leisurely � Cosmopolitan; Billboard; O, The Oprah Magazine; and US Weekly. Users access their accounts through California-based Zinio, which charges nonlibrary members regular newsstand prices for digital access. �Magazines are struggling,� Walker said, explaining what�s in it for publishers. �If we can get this into the hands of 1 million users, then they can justify the cost (of advertising) for their product.� About 400 to 500 public libraries around the country use the service, Walker said. More than 2,000 Columbus library users have checked out magazines this year, Nesbitt said. �They�ve been very excited about it,� said Heidi Dowling, technical services manager for the library. Upon learning the news on Columbus Metropolitan Library�s Facebook page, longtime library user Denise Stewart wrote: �I was thrilled to see that I can now use my library card to download and read so many magazines.� With more tablet devices being sold, demand for digital books also has continued to rise, Nesbitt said. Columbus users borrowed 72,000 titles in December, compared with 45,000 last December. Users can check out up to 10 digital books for up to 21 days. Westerville and Upper Arlington libraries, which are not in the consortium, have begun similar contracts for magazine downloads. And Westerville hopes to soon offer streaming video to its users. �It�s changing the way that people receive our resources,� Don Barlow, Westerville library director, said of computer access to information. �Everything is about convenience.� dnarciso@dispatch.com |
While I think expectations are always too high for these things (from myself included), I highly doubt this is just an Asian release date.That will be a part of it, of course. But according to Nico Nico's schedule , this thing is an hour long. It doesn't take an hour to announce the release date.Then you have Toshihiro Nagoshi saying we'll have an update on Yakuza: Ishin, the new Yakuza game with a still unannounced platform, on the same day as the conference. And it was said before that we'd get the platform announcement prior to TGS.Point is, it'll be more than a release date. Unless, like, they speak reallllly reallllly slowly.Also, they're broadcasting this on western PlayStation sites , as well. Which would lead one to believe the English translation isn't just for English-speaking Asian territories. So there's that, too. |
America’s lawyers aren’t happy. One in five licensed lawyers having a drinking problem, while almost one in three experienced symptoms of depression, according to a new study published in the February issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine. Men and young lawyers were found to be particularly at-risk for drinking problems. For instance, 25% of male lawyers tested positively for hazardous, potentially dependent drinking. And over 30% of lawyers 30 years old or younger had similarly alarming scores on the alcohol use test. Only about 11.8% of the highly-educated workforce has a drinking problem, according to the study, which was conducted by the American Bar Association in tandem with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. The more than 12,000 lawyers surveyed didn’t fare so well on the mental health questions either. While 28% reported at least mild symptoms of depression at the time of the survey, 46% self-reported experiencing depression of the course of their legal careers. “This long-overdue study clearly validates the widely held but empirically undersupported view that our profession faces truly significant challenges related to attorney well-being,” the study’s lead author, Patrick Krill, said in a press release. “Any way you look at it, this data is very alarming, and paints the picture of an unsustainable professional culture that’s harming too many people.” The concern over lawyers’ well-being reflects a similar dialogue in the medical field, after a recent study found that one-third of young doctors suffered from depression during their residencies. |
An international group of researchers believe they may have discovered a new species of beaked whale. This corpse, which washed up St. George Island, Alaska, in 2014, helped to match the DNA of the new species. Since the 1940s, Japanese whalers have spoken of a rare whale variety, a smaller and darker version of the Baird’s beaked whale. They called the animal karasu, or raven, and said that you could only see them at the Namuro Strait between April and June. While a group of Japanese scientists did some preliminary research into these stories of a legendary whale, a dead whale washed up on the beach of St. George Island, an Alaskan Island in the Bering Sea. The scientists that came across the corpse originally thought it was a Baird’s, but soon they started to realize that they couldn’t identify it, with its different dorsal fin and head shape, and darker coloration. This morbid discovery was passed on to Phillip Morin of NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in California. Already on the trail of the legendary karasu, Morin and his team added these samples to their collection to compare. With their samples, also including skeletons from the Smithsonian Institution, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History and Unalaska High School in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, the team has released a study in the journal Marine Mammal Science that sets up the path to naming a new species. "It's just so exciting to think that in 2016 we're still discovering things in our world—even mammals that are more than 20 feet long," Morin said to National Geographic. |
Conversely, large government-linked stocks have rallied in recent days. Petro China is up almost 20 per cent since the start of July, while ICBC, the world's biggest bank, is up 15 per cent over the same period. "This is a friends and family bail-out," said one analysts who asked not to be named. News of more stock suspensions came as China's state media reported that an 80 billion yuan fund was being readied to boost the market. The reports suggest it will be delivered via the China Securities Finance Corporation, a state backed company which provides capital for margin loans to approved stock brokers. On Sunday the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said it would provide liquidity to this vehicle, which would be used as a conduit to boost the market. In addition the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said it would allow "qualified insurers" to double the amount of blue chip stocks they can hold. The previous limit was 5 per cent of their total portfolio, but on Wednesday this was increased to 10 per cent. Advertisement "This will promote the long term, healthy and stable development of capital markets," the insurance regulator said in a statement. On Monday, it was reported China Life Insurance bought 10 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) worth of stocks via exchanged traded funds, while other insurers bought around 1 billion yuan worth of stocks each. The increasingly desperate measures being deployed by China's central government come after it failed to deliver a second day of face saving gains across local share markets on Tuesday. In another erratic day on mainland markets, government buying of large companies continued, as smaller stocks were once again sold off. The Shanghai Composite Index was down 1.3 per cent, while the Shenzhen Composite Index was off 5.8 per cent. The technology-heavy ChiNext was 5.7 per cent lower. "There is a good chance the market rescue efforts are seen to be a failure in a few months' time," said Mark Williams, the chief Chinaeconomist at Capital Economics. "Our view remains that a market rally cannot run ahead of economic fundamentals indefinitely." Advertisement China's central government has rolled out a series of policies to stabilise the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets over the last three weeks, after they lost a quarter of their value amid panic selling and wild fluctuations. These measures have seen the halting of 28 initial public offerings, allowing the country's sovereign wealth fund to buy local shares, having the central bank provide liquidity for margin lending and forcing the country's main stock brokers to create a 120 billion yuan market stabilisation fund. On Monday Independent media group Caijing reported the National Social Security Fund had also order its fund managers "not to sell a single share". The state-pension fund had $159 billion of assets at the end of last year, split between bonds and equities. The Communist Party newspaper, The People's Daily, has warned people not to "lose their minds" and "bury themselves in horror and anxiety" as the "positive measures will take time to produce results. Since reaching a seven-year high on June 12, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has tumbled 27 per cent, but it is still up 82 per cent since June last year. |
Japan has a well deserved international reputation for having some of the most lively, bizarre and dangerous festivals in the world. Most of these are organised by various Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines and typically involve receiving blessings which can be channelled into all kinds of practical, or devotional, benefits. However, despite the ubiquitous nature of Japanese festivals, and their general high attendance levels, Japan consistently ranks amongst one of the lowest countries in the world for overt religious belief, coming last in this 2012 survey by Gallup. This seeming paradox can be resolved in a number of ways; one solution is to argue that Japanese festivals aren’t really religious just ‘cultural’ but this seems to be somewhat contradicted by the high level of involvement of religious authorities, the array of religious images and motifs and the fact that most events take place at, or near, temples and shrines. Another alternative is to emphasise that religion in Japan is much more concerned with practice than personal belief and hence, while most people may be personally non-religious they are practically religious, as and when is culturally appropriate. This explanation is more compelling to me but I would add to it that, while Japanese people en masse show a lack of engagement with official religion, there is certainly no shortage of ‘folk’ beliefs in supernatural forces (such as ghosts or spirits) or pseudoscience (i.e. blood type is widely believed to determine personality) in Japan. Regardless of the motivations underlying people’s participation in festivals, what is indisputable is that a large amount of Japanese people chose to participate in the events every year and thus, as a researcher working on the social and psychological effects of collective ritual participation, Japan provides a rich environment (indeed, that is a large part of why I now live in Sapporo). From amongst those that attend festivals, a much smaller amount also chose to participate in extreme ritual events, such as cold water immersion (misogi 禊) and firewalking (hiwatari 火渡り), and these are the events on which I am currently conducting research. Motivation for participation in such events can be framed as due to some form of religious devotion but obligation and tradition have been more frequently invoked, at least by the participants I’ve spoken to. However, seeking any single explanation for participation is inevitably a doomed endeavour, as motivations are always multifaceted and many operate below the levels of conscious awareness. As such, it’s often valuable to look not just at what people report but also what they do. This is why my current research attempts to collect both behavioural and self reported data. I won’t go into details in this post about the specific measures I use but there are some recent studies which provide useful illustrations of how behavioural measures can be productively employed in this area. For instance, a recent psychology study, led by Brock Bastian, demonstrated through a series of clever laboratory experiments that experiencing shared pain increased ‘bonding’ and enhanced co-operation with an in-group, when compared against similar collective experiences that did not involve pain (see my previous review for more details). Significantly, the methods employed to measure ‘bonding’ and co-operation included both self reported items (such as, “I feel connected to the other participants” and “I feel like there is a unity between the participants in this study”) and, in the later experiments, an economic game in which participants could earn higher rewards when all the members of the group cooperated. The results obtained in these experiments also echoed recent findings from the innovative field research of Dimitris Xygalatas and his collaborators, which demonstrated that observers and participants of a dramatic Hindu piercing ritual were willing to sacrifice more of their awarded research payment by donating it to a local Hindu temple, than those who had performed prayers, as part of the same event, a few days earlier. In Mauritius, where this study was conducted, self reported religiosity and religious self identification are much higher than in Japan and, as such, it is an open question whether the prosocial effects observed in religiously committed devotees would also be found amongst ritual participants in a population that lack strong devotional beliefs. My hunch for what its worth is yes. But this is one of the questions that I am currently seeking to address empirically by conducting research at extreme ritual events in Japan. Recently, as part of these efforts and together with a small research team, I visited two fishing towns located in the North of Hokkaido, the most Northern (and largest) prefecture in Japan. These two towns (Furubira and Shakotan) hold dramatic tengu themed fire walking festivals every year organised by the local Shinto shrines. During these festivals one local performer dons an elaborate tengu costume and leads the festival celebrations, which culminate each evening with a series of dramatic fire walking events. A tengu, for those unfamiliar, is a mythological Japanese creature that, in the modern era, is most commonly represented as a red faced humanoid figure, with a long protruding nose (as illustrated at the top of this article). The original concept of the tengu is believed to have derived from the Chinese legendary concept of a ‘heavenly dog’ (天狗) and migrated to Japan from China, along with Buddhism, sometime during the 6-8th Centuries. However, following their arrival in Japan, these ‘heavenly dogs’ underwent a rather dramatic transformation; morphing first, from celestial canines into monstrous demon birds, and then later, becoming anthropomorphised into the long nosed, mischievous creatures seen above, and sometimes portrayed as lesser deities associated with mountain asceticism. The protector deity version is the type that featured in the fire walking festivals I attended but, despite being co-opted as protective entities, the ambiguous nature of the tengu and their association with trouble and danger, have by no means disappeared. Thus, the head priest of one of the shrines visited took visible pleasure in recounting to us how, when he performed as the tengu, he had infamously punched a bus driver for startling him with the glare of his headlights and struck with his spear an inpatient car that had tried to pass the festival procession. He did, however, admit that these actions were at least partly, fuelled by significant amounts of alcohol and hence, might have less to do with the channeling of some primordial tengu spirit and more to do with the mischievous nature of that particular shrine priest. Returning to the events from this year, the tengu strikes an impressive character and the image of this long bearded figure striding (remarkably slowly) through a wall of flames will stay with me for a long time. However, he is not the only person during these festivals to walk (or in the latter case, to charge) through the flames. There are also a number of groups consisting of about twenty local people who carry heavy wooden ‘portable shrines’ (mikoshi 神輿) through the fire, and during the event in Furubira, there were four local teenagers who performed a fire walking version of a ‘lion dance’ (shishi-mai 獅子舞). Incidentally, detailed (and very readable) first hand accounts of participating in the Shakotan firewalking events are available on Luke Kelleher’s blog (an ex-English teacher/resident) here and here. As the images above and below indicate, the fire walking in these events are much more fire-based than is typical in other well known ‘fire walking’ events, which usually involve walking over hot coals. My experiences to date suggest that these kinds of flaming festivals are more typical of Shinto fire walking events, rather than of Buddhist ones, which also occur in Japan but tend not to feature the tengu motifs or collective fire walking. In such Buddhist events individuals walk, one by one, over the coals and while this is undoubtedly also a physically arousing experience (even if only through psychological stress) it certainly seems to present a less ‘visceral’ shared experience than that experienced by the mikoshi carriers at the Shinto festivals (see the images below). Whether the consequences of these different varieties of shared arousal translate into different behavioural outcomes, produce distinct psychological impacts or contribute to differing social interactions/structures, are all unresolved questions and are also part of what I’m currently investigating in my research. For now however I am not attempting to offer answers, just to share some information and images from my current research, but you can expect further posts in the future concerning the data we collect and my evaluations of related theories. Finally, I would also be remiss not to point out that my research is funded by a subgrant from the John Templeton foundation but is also part of a larger ESRC funded Ritual, Community and Conflict project headed by my supervisor Harvey Whitehouse. Philosophical objections/debates about accepting Templeton funding can go in the comment section but from my experience there has been absolutely no interference with my research agenda. I also could not collect any data without the cooperation of the shrine/temple authorities and the assistance of Masaki Yuki and his research lab, some of whom you can see in the image below. |
I recently played Night in the Woods for the first time - and I fell head first in love with it. It's a beautiful game - the art style is beautifully simple and yet full of meaning, the characters are real, compellingly flawed and natural-feeling people, the storytelling is poignant, nostalgic and deeply introspective... I was shocked with how much I loved it. More than anything, I loved the dialogue between Mae and her friends and family. It was the most realistic dialogue I had ever seen written, anywhere. It felt like conversations my friends or family and I would have. There were so many little scenes that felt so honest - like sitting in front of the TV, late at night, with your mom or dad, watching late shows that really aren't that good - but it's the feeling of being there. The feeling of being with people you cared about. There was also a wonderful plot involving ghost stories and the paranormal - but I loved it for these characters, and their stories. So I just had to do fanart, of course! It occurs to me that some of my favorite pieces are all night scenes... but hey, night skies are so fun to paint, and stars take a part in the story of Night in the Woods, so it works for me. ^^ Also, my favorite character is Bea. Bea is a gem. So yep, I highly recommend the game, and its supplement games you can download online for a few bucks. They help make the story even more meaningful. Night in the Woods (c) Finji Art (c) me |
Ionic framework is the youngest in our top 5 stack, as the alpha was released in late November 2013. Built on top of the popular AngularJS framework from Google, Ionic utilizes AngularJS to provide the application structure, while Ionic itself focuses on the user interface. In other words, we see a match between the power of Angular and the beauty of Ionic UI. Ionic provides a set of Angular directives (custom HTML elements) for it’s own components, making it as easy to use the widgets as writing a line of HTML code. In addition to directives, Ionic uses Angular’s touch recognizers, view animation logic, HTML sanitation, and asynchronous communication. While you can use Ionic straight after cloning or unpacking the library zip, you can also install their Node.js-based CLI through NPM and start quickly with their seed project. Even though Angular is currently the Ionic’s workhorse, the developers are keeping their (and ours) options open with plans to support other frameworks such as Knockout or EmberJS. This particular review is strongly influenced by AngularJS and it doesn’t vouch for the accuracy with other frameworks when Ionic support emerges. MV* Pattern Angular JS used to be an MVC framework, but over time it became closer to MVVM where the $scope object acts as a ViewModel, manipulated through a Controller function. With such a flexible approach developers can use MVC or MVVM per their liking, as long as the goal is achieved: separating presentation from business logic while boosting maintainability and productivity. Class System Neither Angular JS or Ionic are object oriented JavaScript frameworks so they don’t make use of a class system. This can (but shouldn’t) be observed as a weakness or a strength, depending on the level of simplicity requested on the JavaScript front end. DOM control Angular embeds jqLite, a fraction of jQuery that allows DOM manipulation in a cross-browser compatible manner, leaving a very small footprint. For extended functionality, jQuery can be loaded with the document. UI and Theming When it comes to UI, Ionic shows its potential. Ionic’s true beauty is its simplicity. In almost Google-like (but not Android-like) style it uses the existing HTML5 and CSS3 capabilities to deliver fast experiences. The speed is exactly in its simplicity – no unnecessary shadows, rounded corners, gradients but just flat, clean simple, powerful, unadulterated HTML5. Ionic doesn’t promise you native-looking UI, but it does deliver very fast and consistent interface, even on the devices you considered to be slow with rendering HTML5 apps. Customizable through SASS, Ionic comes with handy variables and mixins to extend for customized appearance. Additionally, it’s packaged with its own open sourced icon library featuring over 440 icons to chose from. Widgets Ionic’s components are powerfully simple. They are custom HTML elements, as per Angular directive principles, but Ionic also provides Controllers to complement configuration and interaction. While some frameworks may provide more complex widgets, Ionic offers somewhat simpler building blocks that can be combined to deliver rich user interfaces. As of alpha version, the framework provides with a plethora of form elements, header and footer bars, buttons, a simple list with customizable items, grid elements, and more. Responsive Design (RWD) Internally, Ionic leverages Responsive Web Design principles to yield optimized experience such as based on screen size or pixel density. Any app-specific RWD scenarios are welcome and will play very nicely with Ionic. Desktop support Meant for hybrid mobile applications (installable on a mobile device through an app store), Ionic is not meant to be be used for desktop web apps/sites. While the content will be displayed nicely, it will be optimized for its intended purpose. Those wishing to create apps that fit both environments can stay with Angular JS, but use Zurb Foundation, Twitter Bootstrap or similar UI library. Third party plugins No third party plugins or extensions are available at the moment. Extensibility Much of extensibility in Ionic will come either from (S)CSS or creating Angular directives and controllers. That makes extensibility an integral part of application development – unavoidable, but not demanding at all. Even the developers new at Ionic and Angular won’t struggle. Building tools Gulp is used for building Ionic making that #1 JavaScript building tool that much more attractive for your project’s purposes. Packaging (native) Ionic apps will require external tools for packaging purposes. It is tested to work with PhoneGap, Cordova, and Trigger.io. Device API Ionic does not support device APIs. Documentation Ionic’s documentation is decently complete considering the alpha stage of the framework. Example rich, the docs show a preview of what most of components will do on a mobile device. And the preview is very attractive, too. Angular’s documentation will satisfy beginner developers, but may soon become insufficient. As the appetites for information grow to expert levels, developers may be forced to resort to the source code or elsewhere. License Both Ionic and AngularJS are available under the MIT license. Community Since it’s in a very early stage of life, Ionic still doesn’t have a mature community. However, given the same circumstance, its popularity is raising faster than for many other (and older) frameworks. What would they say? JavaScript developer: A refreshing and straight forward way of building rich apps no matter the size. The MVC and MVVM patterns are done cum grano salis, as the old latin would say had they had the opportunity to work with Angular JS. Additionally, as views are defined using HTML and data models as simple as plain JavaScript objects, the developers will easily end up writing less code and use less of the expensive time to produce high quality apps. Designer: Passionate designers will love Ionic as it allows them to customize the layout to their liking, without having to modify someone else’s complicated widgets and potentially break the app’s functionality. Customizing the UI may remind of working with Zurb Foundation or Twitter Bootstrap. Product manager: The initial barrier to get started with AngularJS is very low, without needing to know the entire framework in order to build an easy app. However, beginners faced with more advanced tasks in a complex application will face an increasingly steep learning curve. Also, Angular is built with testing in mind. Make use of it early in the game. Keep in mind that Ionic is meant to be used for hybrid apps and not mobile websites. Five Best Mobile Web App Frameworks |
Ángel di María should be an excellent signing for Manchester United – but the £60m Argentinian will not solve the desperate lack of dynamism that has haunted the club in central midfield After another dismal Manchester United performance against Sunderland on Sunday came a Louis van Gaal revelation regarding his desperation to solve the dearth of central midfield talent at the club. “Kagawa – I have tried to play him in that position in the US and he could not fulfil my wishes and my philosophy,” the manager said of an experiment with the Japanese on the summer tour. “We have spoken about that and he is more of a No10. Mata was playing at No10 [at Sunderland] and I thought I had to change the other players, which is why I chose to bring on Januzaj.” Van Gaal thereby signalled that Shinji Kagawa’s United career may be in critical condition and also illustrating why Ángel di María may be a £60m red herring. The Argentinian is a fine footballer, a member of the elite band below Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but he is no chief conductor of central areas. To audition Kagawa for the role shows, in one stroke, Van Gaal’s assessment of Tom Cleverley, Marouane Fellaini, Darren Fletcher, Anderson and Ander Herrera as a squadron, and illustrates where the manager feels he really should strengthen. To compound this Fellaini, Herrera and Anderson, plus Jesse Lingard, the forward Van Gaal is forced to deploy further back, are all unavailable. Michael Carrick, another central midfielder, is also injured. This caused the use of Adnan Januzaj – a No10 or wide man – in the engine room when the Belgian entered the fray in the 63rd minute of Sunday’s 1-1 draw. “It is not usual that we have four injuries in midfield,” Van Gaal said. “Every club that has that has a problem. That is why I played Januzaj in midfield because as a coach I want to win. I have said that we need creative passing and I thought Januzaj could provide that. That is the reason. “It is because of creation. Kagawa can also create, but I asked Adnan to play there because of the lack of midfielders. When he played in Belgium, he played in midfield so I asked if he could do it for us. I said to him: ‘You are on the bench as a midfielder,’ because I want him to focus. He played there and you could see it’s not so many times that he’s played there. But he did his utmost and I cannot demand more.” The United midfield problem is not new. Doctorates could – and maybe should – be written about how and why it is yet to be resolved. Van Gaal joins Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes as managers who, since Roy Keane and Paul Scholes faded and Owen Hargreaves suffered a career-hobbling injury, have found the problem a puzzle. The word is that Di María, a wide player by instinct, could be moved inside though into the No10 position at present given to Juan Mata by Van Gaal. Yet even here doubt hovers. “At this moment, we have five No9s and four No10s and don’t have wingers to give us attacking width,” the Dutchman said a couple of weeks ago, before describing Di María as a winger of the “highest level”. This suggests Van Gaal is not paying a British record fee for Di María to be a fifth No10. So where will he play? As a wing-back in the 3-5-2? If not then in a 4-3-3, maybe? The conundrums keep coming. Van Gaal switched United from a traditional four-sentry defence to a three centre-back system to accommodate the attacking trident of Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Mata. To tear this plan up after a summer-long bedding-in period and the season’s opening matches may confuse a squad Van Gaal is adamant requires three months to adjust to his methods, as the 63-year-old retrains them to use “brains” rather than instinct. A glance at United’s competitors shows how all harbour midfield gold. Manchester City boast the A-lister Yaya Touré, plus Brazil’s World Cup player Fernandinho, as well as Frank Lampard and Fernando. The latter was a £12m summer bargain from Porto and precisely the ilk of midfielder United should be acquiring. At Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers has a Premier League great, Steven Gerrard, supported by Jordan Henderson, Lucas Leiva, Adam Lallana and Joe Allen, plus the potential of Emre Can. Chelsea have two gun midfielders in Cesc Fábregas and Nemanja Matic, who are complemented by Ramires and Mikel John Obi. And how Van Gaal might like to choose from Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Santi Carzola, Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini. Or even Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who Arsène Wenger believes will one day be a deep-lying maestro “very similar to Steven Gerrard”. Against Sunderland Van Persie and Rooney were starved of chances. Even Phil Jones hinted at the lack of creation. “We were dominant in possession and created glimmers of chances, but never really carved them open like we would have liked,” he said. “We need to keep working on everything.” The hope is that the closing week of the window will prove to be a particularly long time in the club’s transfer fortunes. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley Blind, who is also a defender, are on Van Gaal’s radar. Any of these trio’s signature would strengthen midfield and transform hopes. United would arrive at 2 September having ended the summer by adding Luke Shaw, Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Di María (assuming that he arrives) plus AN Other midfielder. The continual line of players offering post-match promises to improve next time could then end. “We dropped two points today,” Van Persie said post-Sunderland. “We were a bit too sloppy in possession, and in that sense we made it too hard for ourselves. We’ve played two games and only picked up one point. We would have loved to have got six points but it didn’t happen, so we have to bounce back.” • This article was amended on 29 August 2014. Because of an editing error, the names of Frank Lampard and Fernando appeared in the wrong order, leading to the implication that it was Lampard who was a £12m signing from Porto. |
0 [This feature was initially published at a prior date, but in celebration of the show’s 20th anniversary we’ve bumped it up to the front page.] Night has fallen on Sunnydale High School as a young couple looking to find some privacy wander the darkened hallways. Spooked, the girl asks the boy to take a look around, but as he turns to assure her they’re safe, the once-helpless beauty easily sinks her teeth into his prone and unsuspecting neck. So begins Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one of the most iconic series of the ‘90s and what would become Joss Whedon’s first indelible mark on pop culture. The concept for Buffy is simple, centering around a “Chosen One” called upon by the universe to protect the innocent world from various (and seemingly endless) demonic shenanigans. That One is Buffy Summers, a clever subversion of the “little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and dies in every horror film,” who reserves as much affection for frosted lip gloss and miniskirts as for a freshly sharpened stake and a witty zinger. The series, which ran on the WB (and later UPN) for seven glorious seasons, featured Sarah Michelle Gellar in the titular role as a member of the eventually nicknamed “Scooby Gang,” with Alyson Hannigan as the witchy Willow and Nicholas Brendon as the ever-dopey Xander in tow. And while the scope of the show was never what you could call small, each season was devoted to the vanquishing of a unique “Big Bad” (a term eventually coined by Whedon in Season 3), meaning a specific evil generally hell-bent on bringing destruction to the world as we know it. Impossibly, it’s been 19 years since ‘Welcome to the Hellmouth,’ the series’ first episode, aired, beginning a legacy of female-centric television and Whedon witticism that continue to this day. In honor of its anniversary, we’ve got all seven of those Big Bads, ranked from the totally silly to the deliciously evil. Cue that Nerf Herder theme song. |
Something strange is going on in the world of Windows Phone development – it seems, rather unexpectedly, Windows Phone devs are actually making money. This is if we believe InMobi’s State of Mobile App Developers 2016 report, which surveyed more than 1000 mobile developers worldwide. While Windows Phone was by far not the most popular platform for developers (21% developed for Windows Phone, vs 57% for iOS and 86% for Android), Windows Phone developers on average earned $11,400 per month, more than double the average earnings of $4,900 on Android and nearly 50% more than the $8,100 developers earned on iOS. Of course the money is heavily skewed to the larger developers, but still 49% of self-identified Windows Phone developers earned more than $10,000 per month, vs 53% on iOS and 45% on Android. Inmobi explained the unexpected finding by noting “Since Windows has only a niche audience, the app store is not as fragmented as the Android and iOS counterparts. Hence app discoverability is way easier and the competition among apps is much lesser. Thus developers on the Windows App Store seem to enjoy the highest monthly revenue.” Interestingly 28% of developers expected their Windows Phone business to increase, while only 16% expected it to decrease. A larger segment was unfamiliar with the platform however. With Microsoft making it ever easier for mobile developers to bring their apps to Windows Phone, and the Universal Apps platform now actually bringing large numbers of users to the store, the numbers clearly suggest there is a huge first mover advantage for developers who bring their apps to the platform rapidly, before the gold rush runs out. The free report can be read here. |
Tripwire’s Killing Floor 2 will be using its bloodied hands to claw out of Steam Early Access and into full release mode on 18 November, the company announces today. It’ll be priced at $30 USD / £20 GBP, as it currently is in Early Access, unless you get the previously announced Digital Deluxe Edition which is $40 / £30. Like the first game, Killing Floor 2 leans towards co-op play (you vs hordes of zombies), but does also have a solo mode and PVP offerings as well. The sequel takes place around one month after the events of the first title, where groups of surviving civilians and mercenaries have banded together across continental Europe. Systems and communications have collapsed, but these remaining groups plan to descend into “zed-laden hot zones” on a quest of extermination. Here’s the bullet-point feature list. |
The 1986 World Series was the 83rd edition of Major League Baseball's championship series, and the conclusion of the 1986 Major League Baseball season. A best-of-seven playoff, it pitted the National League (NL) champion New York Mets against the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox. The Mets won the Series in the seventh game, after overcoming a deficit of two runs with two outs and no one on base in the bottom of the 10th inning of Game 6. This was a game in which the Red Sox were twice one strike away from victory, and known for the famous error by Boston's first baseman Bill Buckner after their lead had already been blown. Game 6 has been cited in the legend of the "Curse of the Bambino" to explain the major comeback.[1][2][3] It was also the first World Series to use the designated hitter only in games played at the American League representative's stadium, a policy which has continued since (prior to this, since 1976, the DH would be used in all parks in the World Series for even-numbered years, but in odd-numbered years, the DH rule would not be in effect).[4] Bleacher Report ranked the 1986 World Series as the greatest World Series of all time.[5] Background [ edit ] New York Mets [ edit ] The New York Mets finished the regular season with a franchise-best record of 108–54, winning the National League East division by 21 1⁄ 2 games over the division rival Philadelphia Phillies.[6][7][8] They then won a tightly contested 1986 National League Championship Series against the Houston Astros, 4 games to 2, clinching the series with a 7-6, 16-inning win in Game 6. On July 19, Mets' infielder Tim Teufel and pitchers Rick Aguilera, Bobby Ojeda, and Ron Darling were arrested after fighting with policemen outside a bar in Houston. Just three days later, the Mets played a game in Cincinnati that saw Ray Knight, Darryl Strawberry, and Kevin Mitchell get ejected, forcing starting catcher Gary Carter to play third base and the Mets to play a pitcher in the outfield, with lefty Jesse Orosco and right-hander Roger McDowell alternating between the pitcher's mound and the outfield as needed. Despite the adversity, the Mets won the game, 6-3 in 14 innings, on a three-run homer by Howard Johnson.[9] Boston Red Sox [ edit ] Boston went 95–66 during the season, winning the American League East division by 5 1⁄ 2 games over their biggest nemesis, the New York Yankees.[10] The gritty play of eventual ALCS MVP Marty Barrett and Rich Gedman; clutch hitting from veterans Jim Rice, Wade Boggs, Don Baylor, Dwight Evans and Dave Henderson; and quality starting pitching, especially from 1986 American League MVP and Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens, Bruce Hurst and Oil Can Boyd, pushed the Red Sox to the World Series. The team's defining moment occurred in Game 5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series against the California Angels. With the Angels leading three games to one in the best-of-seven series and their top reliever Donnie Moore on the mound, the Sox needed a last-out miracle home run from Henderson to survive Game 5; they later loaded the bases and got the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly from Henderson off Moore in the eleventh. The Angels never recovered from this blow, and with Boston capitalizing on some defensive miscues by the Angels, and clutch performances by some of their big name players (namely Rice and Clemens in the deciding game), the Red Sox clinched the pennant with a seven-game series win. Summary [ edit ] NL New York Mets (4) beat AL Boston Red Sox (3) Game Date Score Location Time Attendance 1 October 18 Boston Red Sox – 1, New York Mets – 0 Shea Stadium 2:59 55,076[11] 2 October 19 Boston Red Sox – 9, New York Mets – 3 Shea Stadium 3:36 55,063[12] 3 October 21 New York Mets – 7, Boston Red Sox – 1 Fenway Park 2:58 33,595[13] 4 October 22 New York Mets – 6, Boston Red Sox – 2 Fenway Park 3:22 33,920[14] 5 October 23 New York Mets – 2, Boston Red Sox – 4 Fenway Park 3:09 34,010[15] 6 October 25 Boston Red Sox – 5, New York Mets – 6 (10 innings) Shea Stadium 4:02 55,078[16] 7 October 27 † Boston Red Sox – 5, New York Mets – 8 Shea Stadium 3:11 55,032[17] † : postponed from October 26 due to rain Matchups [ edit ] Game 1 [ edit ] In the opener, Boston's Bruce Hurst dazzled the New Yorkers with his looping curve and forkball, allowing only four hits over eight innings, and getting Ray Knight to ground into an inning-ending double play to escape trouble in the bottom of the sixth inning. New York's Ron Darling was equally effective, yielding only an unearned run in the seventh inning when Mets second baseman Tim Teufel committed an error eerily similar to the one committed by Félix Millán in Game 1 of the 1973 World Series that allowed two unearned runs to score in Oakland's 2–1 victory over the Mets. Red Sox closer Calvin Schiraldi walked Darryl Strawberry to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning, giving Mets fans visions of a rally. However, Schiraldi got Ray Knight to force Strawberry at second base, and got Wally Backman to fly out to left field. With two outs, Danny Heep was called upon to bat for weak-hitting shortstop Rafael Santana. Schiraldi worked him to a 2–2 count, and got Heep to swing at the last pitch for a strikeout and a save. Just as they did in the League Championship Series against Houston, the Mets opened the series with a 1–0 defeat. (Mets legend Tom Seaver, as a member of the Red Sox, got a large standing ovation from the Shea Stadium fans during the Game 1 introductions. Seaver did not pitch in the series because of a knee injury.) Game 2 [ edit ] After dropping the first game, the Mets turned to young phenom Dwight Gooden in what figured to be a classic matchup with Boston's own young pitching sensation Roger Clemens. That duel did not materialize, as neither pitcher went beyond five innings. The Red Sox drew first blood in the top of the third inning, when after a leadoff walk to Spike Owen, Keith Hernandez fielded a Clemens bunt, but threw it away trying to catch Owen at second base. This was costly, as Wade Boggs drove in Owen with a double, Marty Barrett drove in Clemens with a single, and Bill Buckner drove in Boggs with a single to give the Sox a 3–0 lead. The Mets struck back in the bottom half of the inning, putting runners on second and third base for Wally Backman. Backman grounded one up the middle, plating Rafael Santana, and Hernandez grounded out, allowing Gooden to score and bring the Mets within one run. However, Dave Henderson, the hero of the ALCS, drove the second pitch from Gooden in the top of the fourth inning to left-center field for a home run. Dwight Evans followed with a two-run home run in the top of the fifth inning, bringing the score to 6–2. Although Clemens had a comfortable lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning, he was pulled in favor of Steve Crawford after facing three batters, leaving runners on the corners. Crawford promptly gave up a single to Gary Carter that sent Backman home, cutting the lead to three runs. Crawford struck out Darryl Strawberry and got Danny Heep to ground out to quash any threat, but this left Clemens ineligible to receive a decision in the game. Gooden was gone after five innings, being relieved by Rick Aguilera in the sixth inning. Aguilera loaded the bases in the seventh inning, and after consecutive RBI singles by Henderson and Owen, was pulled in favor of Jesse Orosco, who shut down the Red Sox over the next two innings. The Red Sox were not done, however. Facing Sid Fernandez, pitching in relief with runners on first and second base in the ninth inning, Boggs drove in Henderson with a double to make the score 9–3. The Mets were unable to recover from this deficit, and took the loss, giving Boston a 2–0 advantage heading to Fenway Park. Game 3 [ edit ] The Mets bounced back from their early-series sluggishness in the top of the first inning, when Lenny Dykstra led off with a home run to give the Mets an early lead. After two singles, Gary Carter followed with an RBI double, and Danny Heep drove in two runners with a single to give the Mets a 4–0 lead in the first inning. After the rocky start, Red Sox starter Oil Can Boyd settled down, but Bob Ojeda pitched well and Boston was unable to overcome their early deficit. In his first at bat in the World Series, Don Baylor almost homered in the second inning but it turned out to be a double off the Green Monster. Ojeda gave up an RBI single to Marty Barrett in the bottom of the third inning, but this would prove to be the only Boston run of the game. Carter drove in two runners with a bases-loaded single in the seventh inning, and Ray Knight drove in Darryl Strawberry, who singled and moved to third on two wild pitches, with a double in the eighth inning off of Joe Sambito. Roger McDowell pitched the final two frames to seal a 7–1 Mets victory. Game 4 [ edit ] Ron Darling faced off against Al Nipper, as the Mets looked to tie the Series. Neither starter allowed a run until the top of the fourth inning, when Gary Carter ripped a two-run home run over the Green Monster and Ray Knight drove in Darryl Strawberry, who doubled after the home run, with a single. Lenny Dykstra came through with a two-run home run of his own in the top of the seventh inning, and Carter hit a shot in the top of the eighth inning, both off of Steve Crawford. The Red Sox did not go quietly, scoring two runs on a Dwight Evans single after a double and a Dave Henderson sacrifice fly after a single in the eighth inning off of Roger McDowell, but it was not enough, and the Mets evened the series at two games apiece. Game 5 [ edit ] Thursday, October 23, 1986 8:35 pm (ET) at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E New York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 10 1 Boston 0 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 X 4 12 0 WP: Bruce Hurst (2–0) LP: Dwight Gooden (0–2) Home runs: NYM: Tim Teufel (1) BOS: None The Red Sox struck first in the second when Dave Henderson doubled with one out off of Dwight Gooden and scored on Spike Owen's sacrifice fly. Dwight Evans's RBI single next inning with two on made it 2–0 Red Sox. In the fifth, Jim Rice hit a leadoff triple and scored on Don Baylor's single. After Evans singled, Sid Fernandez relieved Gooden and allowed an RBI double to Henderson. Bruce Hurst pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings before Tim Teufel's home run in the eighth put the Mets on the board. In the ninth, Mookie Wilson doubled with two outs and scored on Rafael Santana's single before Hurst struck out Lenny Dykstra to end the game as the Red Sox's 4–2 gave them a 3–2 series lead heading back to New York. Game 6 [ edit ] Saturday, October 25, 1986 8:25 pm (ET) at Shea Stadium in Queens, New York Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E Boston 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 5 13 3 New York 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 3 6 8 2 WP: Rick Aguilera (1–0) LP: Calvin Schiraldi (0–1) Home runs: BOS: Dave Henderson (2) NYM: None In Game 6,[18] Boston took a quick 2–0 lead on RBI base hits from Dwight Evans and Marty Barrett. The Mets tied the score in the fifth inning on a single from Ray Knight and a run-scoring double play by Danny Heep (his last at-bat ever as a Met). An error by Knight led to Barrett scoring in the seventh to give Boston a 3–2 lead. In the top of the eighth, the Red Sox had Dave Henderson on second with one out. Manager John McNamara sent rookie Mike Greenwell to pinch hit for Roger Clemens in an effort to match Greenwell, a left-handed batter, against the Mets' dominant short-relief man Roger McDowell even as righty slugger Don Baylor sat on the bench; Greenwell struck out and the Sox scored no runs that inning. It was initially said that Clemens was removed from the game due to a blister forming on one of his fingers, but both he and McNamara dispute this. Clemens said to Bob Costas on an MLB Network program concerning the 1986 postseason that McNamara decided to pull him despite Clemens wanting to pitch. McNamara said to Costas that Clemens "begged out" of the game. At the time of the move, McNamara had closer Calvin Schiraldi throwing in the bullpen.[19] McNamara called upon his closer Schiraldi in the bottom of the eighth inning for a potential two-inning save. Lee Mazzilli, pinch hitting for Jesse Orosco, who recorded the final out of the eighth, led off the inning with a single. Lenny Dykstra then reached on an attempted sacrifice to put two runners on. Wally Backman followed with another bunt to move Mazzilli and Dykstra into scoring position, and Schiraldi intentionally walked Keith Hernandez to load the bases for Gary Carter. Schiraldi ran up a 3-0 count on Carter, but Carter swung at the next pitch and flied to left, deep enough to score Mazzilli and tie the game. With Dykstra now on third, Darryl Strawberry stood in with a chance to drive in the go-ahead run. Instead, Strawberry flied out to end the inning. Both teams failed to score in the ninth. In the top of the tenth inning, the Red Sox were to send Henderson and Spike Owen to lead off the inning with the pitcher's spot due third. Henderson hit reliever Rick Aguilera's second pitch of the inning out of the park for a 4-3 Boston edge. Aguilera struck Owen out, and McNamara elected to send Schiraldi to bat where he too struck out. Aguilera then gave up a double to Wade Boggs and a single to Barrett, which scored another run and gave Boston a 5-3 lead. Schiraldi returned to the mound for his third inning of work to face the Mets' 2-3-4 hitters in the 10th. He retired Backman on a fly to left and Keith Hernandez on a fly to center, and the Red Sox were one out away from their first championship in 68 years. After his out, Hernandez went into the clubhouse and undressed and watched the remainder of the game on a clubhouse TV. Because of a mistake by the scoreboard operator, the words "Congratulations Boston Red Sox, 1986 World Champions" briefly flashed on the scoreboard.[20] Carter lined a single into left field. Kevin Mitchell was sent to hit for Aguilera. Mitchell had gone into the clubhouse after Hernandez recorded the second out, allegedly to book a flight home for later that night.[19] Despite the rush, the rookie utility man came through with a single to bring Knight to the plate. After being brought to his final strike with the first two pitches from Schiraldi, Knight singled on the next pitch, scoring Carter from second with the first run the Mets needed and advancing the speedy Mitchell to third with the tying run. With Mookie Wilson batting and the winning run now on base, brought in Bob Stanley. Stanley had yet to allow an earned run in the series. With the count at 2-2 after six pitches, Stanley threw a breaking ball that swerved inside and skipped in front of Wilson, who fell in the batter's box trying to avoid the ball. From his knees, Wilson signaled to Mitchell to break for home and the rookie scored the tying run without a throw. Knight moved into scoring position on the pitch. Stanley missed a chance to end the game without allowing Mitchell to score. Knight had taken a very large lead and caught the eye of second baseman Marty Barrett, who called several times to his pitcher to make a pickoff throw. Stanley never heard Barrett as he focused squarely on Wilson, and the sellout crowd at Shea Stadium made it nearly impossible to hear anything. On the 10th pitch of the at-bat,[21] Stanley finally got Wilson to put the ball in play, forcing a ground ball to first base. Veteran first baseman Bill Buckner, who was playing on the lip of the infield to protect against a hit through the first-second base hole, moved over to the foul line to try to field the ball, but it rolled between his legs and into right field. Knight rounded third and scored without a play, and the Mets tied the series at three with their 6-5 victory. In the 2011 ESPN Films documentary Catching Hell, Buckner explained how, years after the event, he realized from watching a television replay how he had missed the ball. He said, when he played in the field, he liked to wear a very loose glove — i.e., one that was floppy. When he moved to his left to try to field Wilson's grounder and then stopped, the momentum of the leftward-moving loose glove caused the glove to close. The ball then went just past the right side of the glove.[22] After the top of the tenth, NBC began setting up in the visiting clubhouse for what they believed was the inevitable postgame victory celebration. The Commissioner's Trophy had been brought into the Red Sox clubhouse along with several bottles of champagne, and Bob Costas was to preside over the presentation. However, after Stanley's wild pitch in the bottom of the tenth, everything was quickly struck and removed from the room before the Red Sox returned.[19] Costas later recalled the removal of all the equipment for the postgame celebration as being "like a scene change in a Broadway musical. In, out, gone, not a trace." In 2011, MLB Network ranked this as the third greatest game of the preceding fifty years.[23] Game 7 [ edit ] The seventh and deciding game of the series was scheduled for Sunday night, October 26. However, a drenching rainstorm left the field at Shea Stadium unplayable and the game was postponed to the following night. The scheduled pitching matchup was to pit Ron Darling against Oil Can Boyd. Darling had already made two starts, losing Game 1 and winning Game 4. Boyd had started Game 3 and lost after struggling early by giving up four first inning runs. The postponement, however, gave Red Sox manager John McNamara another option. Unlike the Mets, who had been using a three-man rotation, the Red Sox had used four starters. Since the rainout extended the series by a day, Game 1 and 5 starter Bruce Hurst received an extra day of rest and would be available to start with three days having passed. Since Hurst had done so well to that point — after all, he was set to be named World Series MVP before the Mets rallied to win Game 6 — McNamara chose him over Boyd to start Game 7. After Boyd received word he was not starting the final game of the series, he went down into the visitors' clubhouse and remained in there alone for some time. McNamara dispatched pitching coach Bill Fischer to find Boyd, and when he located him Fischer discovered that Boyd had consumed a great deal of alcohol and was in no condition to function much less play. Fischer moved Boyd into the manager's office where he locked the door and left him for the entire game.[19][24] Boston got to Darling early, recording three second inning runs. Dwight Evans and Rich Gedman hit back to back home runs to lead the inning off and with two out, Wade Boggs drove in Dave Henderson with a single for a 3–0 Red Sox lead. Darling did not pitch as well as he had earlier in the series and was pulled in the fourth inning with two outs and a runner in scoring position. Sid Fernandez came in and after walking Boggs, he was able to retire Marty Barrett on a fly ball to right field. Fernandez then retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth. Still trailing 3–0 and having only one hit to show for their outing so far, the New York bats came alive in the bottom of the sixth against Hurst. After recording the first out, pinch hitter Lee Mazzilli and Mookie Wilson recorded back to back hits and Tim Teufel drew a walk to load the bases. Keith Hernandez singled to drive in Mazzilli and Wilson, and Gary Carter followed with a liner to right that Evans dove to try to catch but could not come up with. Pinch runner Wally Backman, who came in to run for Teufel, scored the tying run but Hernandez, who had to wait and see if the ball was going to be caught by Evans, got a late jump and was thrown out as Evans was able to relay the throw to Spike Owen. Hernandez got into an argument with right field umpire Dale Ford, claiming that his delay in ruling on Evans' play caused him to wait too long before advancing. With two outs, Hurst faced Darryl Strawberry and retired him. Roger McDowell came in to replace Fernandez in the seventh. His first batter was Tony Armas, who pinch hit for Hurst and thus ended his night. After striking him out, McDowell induced Boggs and Barrett to ground out to end the inning. The Red Sox now needed to make a pitching change, and with Boyd in no condition to pitch the bullpen was short-staffed and McNamara called on Calvin Schiraldi, his closer who had lost the previous game after pitching 2.2 innings, to face Ray Knight, Kevin Mitchell, and Rafael Santana with the pitcher's spot due up fourth. Knight greeted Schiraldi with a solo home run to give the Mets their first lead of the game. Lenny Dykstra came in to bat for Mitchell and followed with a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Santana then singled to score Dykstra, and after McDowell bunted Santana to second McNamara called on Joe Sambito to face Wilson. After giving Wilson a free pass, Sambito then walked Backman to load the bases for Hernandez. The Mets' captain hit a fly ball to center field that was deep enough to score Santana and advance Wilson to third. Bob Stanley, who allowed the game-winning play in Game 6, was then brought in to face Carter and got him to ground out, but the Mets were now ahead 6-3. Having only one base runner since the third inning, the Red Sox mounted a rally in the top of the eighth. Bill Buckner led off with a single. Jim Rice followed with one, and Evans hit a double after that to drive Buckner and Rice in and cut the lead to one. Davey Johnson brought in Jesse Orosco to try and stop the rally with the tying run now in scoring position. Orosco retired Gedman on a lineout, struck Henderson out, and induced a groundout to pinch hitter Don Baylor to strand Evans in scoring position. McNamara brought in Al Nipper, who started and lost Game 4, to pitch the bottom half. Darryl Strawberry led off with a home run to make the score 7-5. Knight singled and advanced to second on a groundout by Dykstra. Santana was intentionally walked to get to the pitcher's spot, and Orosco helped his cause by initially squaring to bunt, then swinging and singling to center to drive in Knight. Steve Crawford then came in to face Wilson and hit him, loading the bases. Backman then grounded into a force retiring Santana, and Hernandez grounded out and ended the inning. With a three run lead, Orosco took the hill for the ninth facing the top of the Red Sox order. Ed Romero, who replaced Spike Owen at shortstop, was retired on a foul pop. Boggs then grounded out to Backman at second, leaving Marty Barrett as the last hope for the Red Sox. Orosco worked a 2-2 count before getting Barrett to swing and miss to end the game and the series, with the Mets taking the deciding game 8-5. The win went to McDowell, with Schiraldi taking his second consecutive loss. Orosco recorded his second save. Composite line score [ edit ] 1986 World Series (4–3): New York Mets (N.L.) beat Boston Red Sox (A.L.) Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E New York Mets 4 0 2 3 3 3 7 6 1 3 32 65 5 Boston Red Sox 1 5 5 1 4 0 4 4 1 2 27 69 4 Total attendance: 321,774 Average attendance: 45,967 Winning player's share: $986,254 Losing player's share: $974,986[25] $974,986 Television ratings [ edit ] NBC's broadcast of Game 7 (which went up against a Monday Night Football game between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants on ABC) garnered a Nielsen rating of 38.9 and a 55 share, making it the highest-rated single World Series game to date. Series quotes [ edit ] Vin Scully while referencing Oil Can Boyd's performance during game 3 on NBC Sports television: The Can is leaking in the first inning. Vin Scully during game 6 on NBC Sports television: So the winning run is at second base, with two outs, three and two to Mookie Wilson. [A] little roller up along first... behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it! Scully then remained silent for more than three minutes, letting the pictures and the crowd noise tell the story. Scully resumed with: If one picture is worth a thousand words, you have seen about a million words, but more than that, you have seen an absolutely bizarre finish to Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Mets are not only alive, they are well, and they will play the Red Sox in Game 7 tomorrow! Bob Murphy on WHN exactly the same moment as Scully's call: Three and two the count. And the pitch by Stanley. And a groundball trickling, it is a fair ball--gets by Buckner! Rounding third Knight! The Mets will win the ballgame! The Mets win! They win! Jack Buck on CBS Radio exactly the same moment as Scully's call: Here's the pitch to Mookie Wilson. Winning run at second. Ground ball to first, it is a run...an error! An error by Buckner! The winning run scores! The Mets win it 6 to 5 with three in the 10th! The ball went right through the legs of Buckner and the Mets with 2 men out and nobody on have scored three times to bring about a seventh game, which will be played here tomorrow night. Folks, it was unbelievable. An error, right through the legs of Buckner. There were 2 out, nobody on, a single by Carter, a single by Mitchell, a single by Ray Knight, a wild pitch, an error by Buckner. 3 in the 9th for the Mets. They've won the game 6-5 and we shall play here ... tomorrow night! Well, open up the history book, folks, we've got an entry for you. Ken Coleman on WRKO exactly the same moment as Scully's call: Groundball to first base, Buckner, it gets by him! And here comes the winning run!! In popular culture [ edit ] In the 1998 film Rounders, Matt Damon's character (Mike McDermott) references Game 6 while returning into Teddy KGB's place in the final scene. "I feel like Buckner walking back into Shea." In the 2005 film Fever Pitch the main character played by Jimmy Fallon, a die hard Red Sox fan, watches a tape of Game 6 to get over what looks to be his break up with his girlfriend. The collapse of the Boston Red Sox in Game 6 and Game 7 prompted a series of articles by George Vecsey of The New York Times, in which he mentions a "Babe Ruth Curse."[26][27] Although it had long been noted that the selling of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees had marked the beginning of a down period in the Red Sox's fortunes, this was one of the first instances, if not the first, in which mention of a "curse" was made.[28][29] The term "Curse of the Bambino" was not in common use by the press during the 1920s, nor can it be found through the 1970s, as a search of historical newspapers will illustrate.[30] In fact, even though Vecsey's articles mention a "Babe Ruth Curse", the New York Times did not use the phrase "Curse of the Bambino" until 1990,[31] the year that Dan Shaughnessy's book of the same name and a Boston Globe article about it were published.[32] Shaughnessy's book The Curse of the Bambino helped that phrase become a key part of the Red Sox lore in the media thereafter.[30][33] The dramatic sixth game was the subject of Game 6, a 2005 independent film starring Michael Keaton, based on a 1991 screenplay by novelist Don DeLillo. Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman included Game 6 in his list of the top ten films of 1986.[34] In his song "Faith and Fear in Flushing Meadows", twee/folk artist Harry Breitner makes mention of Ray Knight and Mookie Wilson. NBC's telecast of the Series ended with the song "Limelight" from Stereotomy, a penultimate album of The Alan Parsons Project. The Series, and especially Game 6, were referenced in the Seinfeld episode "The Boyfriend", which also guest starred former Mets player Keith Hernandez. Hernandez being referred to Game 6 in the episode suggested that he was part of the winning rally, even though he was the 2nd (and final) out of the inning. In a 1999 episode of The King of Queens, Doug Heffernan promises Richie Ianucci that they will watch the Series that is being rerun on TV, only to abandon him for Ray Barone, who invites him to play golf (with Arthur Spooner tagging along) until a rainstorm ends their plans. In another episode from the same year, Doug and his cousin Danny bring up the Series while revisiting their high school years. In the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode "Mister Softee", Bill Buckner appears as a guest star and mocks his famous 1986 mishap by missing a crucial catch of a Mookie Wilson-signed baseball. As the episode concludes, he redeems himself by catching a baby thrown from a burning building. In 2001 playwright David Kruh had his play Curse of the Bambino premiere at the Boston Lyric Stage.[35] After the 2004 World Series it was rewritten with a happier ending. See also [ edit ] Michael Sergio – a fan who was arrested and imprisoned for parachuting into Shea Stadium during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, wearing a sign proclaiming "Go Mets". 1986 Japan Series Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] |
A mere two years ago, Julianne Hough sparked outrage when she was photographed wearing blackface as part of a Halloween costume of Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren of Orange is the New Black. It was later revealed that fellow actress Isla Fisher had allegedly intervened at the party Hough attended, urging her to remove the offensive makeup. Obviously, anyone considering wearing blackface for Halloween this year should learn from Hough’s experience and give an immediate, definitive “NO ABSOLUTELY NOT” to blackface and other racially and culturally insensitive costumes. But what do you do if you find yourself in Isla Fisher’s position? How should you handle it if a friend or family member shows up to a Halloween bash wearing a racist costume? It’s easy to denounce strangers or celebrities for doing clearly racist things, but when it’s someone you care about — someone whom you know isn’t intending to be offensive — this becomes a trickier problem. Some people don racially or culturally offensive costumes without meaning to offend; they’re simply ignorant or thoughtless about how their costumes might be perceived by others. That doesn’t make these costumes OK, of course — “But I’m not a racist!” is never an excuse for wearing blackface or costumes that perpetuate racism or offensive cultural stereotypes. But in these cases, your friends or loved ones might simply need a stern talking-to about why their costumes are inappropriate and wrong. Sure, they might get defensive and refuse to listen, but I think most friends — in the long run, at least — will appreciate that you tried to prevent them from making a stupid, highly offensive mistake. Obviously, the best time to intervene with a friend or family member is before Halloween, so if you discover that someone is planning on wearing something offensive, get in there and try to put a stop to it right away. But even if you encounter a friend wearing a racist costume on Halloween itself, you should go ahead and say something — they may be able to make changes to do their costume to make it less offensive (or just take the damn thing off). If nothing else, you’ll be giving them the message that their insensitive costume didn’t go unnoticed, which is hopefully something they’ll keep in mind for next year. 1. Try to make the conversation about the costume, not the person. If you start the conversation with “You’re a racist,” there’s a good chance that your friend will get defensive and refuse to listen. It may help to focus on the costume and emphasize the separation between your friend and the offensive getup. You can say something like, “I know that you’re not an insensitive person, but someone who sees that costume might feel uncomfortable….” 2. Talk about the origins of blackface, and the meaning of “cultural appropriation.” It seems crazy in this day and age that anyone would not realize that blackface (or any other painting of one’s skin to look like that of another race) is totally wrong, but there are people out there who are simply ignorant and who need educating. If your friend or family member is one of them, explain that blackface comes out of a history of 19th-century minstrelsy, in which white actors painted their faces black to act out extremely offensive caricatures of black people. These performances were used to reinforce stereotypes of black people as inferior, and thus bolster the systematic oppression, enslavement, and dehumanization of black people in America. Regardless of your friend’s intentions, there is no way to separate blackface from this history. (You can find out more about the history of blackface here. Perhaps forwarding some educational materials to you friend might help? It couldn’t hurt, right?) Some people struggle with understanding cultural appropriation, which, admittedly, can be a fuzzy term at times. Susan Scafidi, professor at Fordham University Law, defines it to Jezebel as “Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission.” She explains, This can include unauthorized use of another culture's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It's most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects. When it comes to Halloween costumes, the lines are fairly simple: Don’t use the traditional dress (or a caricature of the traditional dress) of a culture not your own as a Halloween costume. Your friend may say that he or she simply wants to pay tribute to a culture they find interesting, but you should point out that turning another culture’s traditions into a costume for an American holiday celebrated with beer and candy corn isn’t a tribute; it’s a trivialization. 3. Emphasize that it’s not funny. Some people might respond to your assertion that a costume is inappropriate by saying something like, “Lighten up! It’s funny!” or “Come on, it’s just a joke!” They may dig in their heels and refuse to see your point of view, but it’s important that you emphasize to them that this joke isn’t funny and that you aren’t laughing. Explain that, if an entire race or cultural group is the butt of a joke, it’s not a good joke. There are plenty of ways to make funny costumes out there; race doesn’t need to enter into it. 4. Discuss how your friend could alter his or her costume to no longer be racist. There are certain costumes that are simply offensive from top to bottom, and the only thing to do to make them better is burn them (Remember when someone wore a Trayvon Martin costume? UGH). But some costumes would be just fine if one or two elements were removed. If, for example, someone is planning on painting her skin dark to play a black character or celebrity — as Julianne Hough did in 2013 — the solution is simply to NOT DO THAT. Your friend can still dress up as the celeb or character she loves, just without throwing racist face painting into the mix. For example, when Ellen DeGeneres dressed up as Nicki Minaj for Halloween a couple years ago, she sported a hilariously spot-on costume and left her skin its natural color. Simple! 5. Refer to previous scandals about racist Halloween costumes — Because once you’re in blackface on social media, you are always in blackface on social media. Every year, people wear racist Halloween costumes, and, every year, their photos end up online, and they get blasted by people all over the world. We all know that nothing ever dies on the Internet, and that offensive photos can follow you around for years to come. Obviously, the fact that a costume is racist should be enough to turn someone away from wearing it, but if your friend needs further persuasion, emphasize that, regardless of whether or not they personally believe their costume is racist, others very well might — and that is potentially dangerous to their career and social life. 6. Say, “That costume is racist. Trust me on this.” Sometimes there’s no beating about the bush, and you have declare the problem head-on. If a costume is racist, somebody has to point it out, and better that message come from a friend than the people forced to see it out in the real world. Hopefully, if you have a good relationship with this person, he or she will simply trust that you know what you’re saying and will rethink the costume. If, after all of your explanations and advice, your offensive-costume-wearing friend is still saying “Lalala— Racial insensitivity? Who cares! Cultural appropriation? Whatever!”, then you may want to take a good long look at your relationship. Images: Jazbeck/Flickr; Giphy (1, 2, 3, 4, |
Aisha Tyler will be a big part of the new season of Criminal Minds, which is good because it looks like the BAU will need all the help they can get in season 12. When the show returns, Hotch (Thomas Gibson) has just been arrested for charges of conspiracy, and a murderous group of 13 serial killers is on the loose. The BAU will be aided in these high-stakes investigations by Dr. Tara Lewis (Tyler), who first appeared on the show last season and has now been made a series regular, CBS announced on Wednesday. In addition, Adam Rodriguez joins the show as a series regular — he’ll be new BAU recruit Luke Alvez — while Paget Brewster will return as Emily Prentiss for a few episodes. Season 12 of Criminal Minds premieres Sept. 28 at 9 p.m. on CBS. |
Umbral Announces Change of Business to Cannabis Issuer (via TheNewswire) Vancouver, B.C. / TheNewswire / November 2, 2017 - UMBRAL ENERGY CORP. (CSE: UMB) (the "Company" or "Umbral") is pleased to announce that further to its press releases dated July 5, 2017 and August 18, 2017 in connection with the acquisition by the Company of an aggregate 75% interest in PhyeinMed Inc. ("PhyeinMed"), a late stage Health Canada Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations applicant for the purpose of growing, selling and distributing medical cannabis, that it is proposing a change of business, within the meaning of such term in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange (the "CSE") to a medical marijuana issuer. Management and the Company's board of directors believe that the ideal allocation of the Company's working capital and resources is to focus on the build-out of its facility in Falkland, British Columbia which will position PhyeinMed to meet all of Health Canada's requirements to receive a license to cultivate (see press release dated October 19, 2017 for further details). No definitive decision has been made yet in respect of the Company's mineral exploration project in Quebec. Upon completion of the change of business, the Company intends to change its name to "Heritage Medical Cannabis Holdings Corp", and the CSE will assign a new trading symbol at the time of the formal name change. Pursuant to Policy 8, shareholder approval is required for a change of business. The Company intends to seek CSE acceptance to provide such shareholder approval by way of a written consent of shareholders of the Company holding a majority of the issued and outstanding shares of the Company. Trading in the Company's common shares has been halted effective today and will remain halted until the applicable CSE requirements are met. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF UMBRAL ENERGY CORP. "Jag Bal" Jagdip Bal President and CEO The Canadian Stock Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains forward-looking information, which involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectation. Important factors - including the availability of funds, the results of financing efforts, the results of exploration activities -- that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time on SEDAR (see www.sedar.com). Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The company disclaims any intention or obligation, except to the extent required by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Copyright (c) 2017 TheNewswire - All rights reserved. |
On Friday morning in the Aleppo Governorate’s western countryside, the extremist rebels of Jabhat Al-Nusra (Syrian Al-Qaeda group), Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Harakat Nouriddeen Al-Zinki, Jabhat Al-Shamiyah, and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) launched a large-scale counter-offensive in order to recapture the territory they lost to the government forces. However, from the get-go, the rebel offensive was doomed for failure; especially after reconnaissance planes captured footage of a large concentration of extremist fighters traveling from the Bab Al-Hawa border towards Aleppo’s western countryside. The extremist rebels would launch their large-scale assault at dawn when they stormed Al-Famayli and the Air Defense Battalion headquarters, resulting in a series of violent firefights with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), the National Defense Forces (NDF), and the pro-government Palestinian militia “Liwaa Al-Quds” (Jerusalem Brigade). Following a long and violent battle, the extremist rebels were forced to retreat from Al-Famayli and the Air Defense Battalion headquarters, marking an abrupt end to what was supposed to be their resurgence in western Aleppo. According to a military source inside the provincial capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the extremist rebels lost over 40 militants and 2 armored vehicles (including 1 tank) during their failed offensive on Friday. Deeply angered by their lack of progress, the extremist rebels chose to vent their frustrations on the civilian population in Aleppo City. The rebels would fire several hellfire cannons and mortar shells into the densely populated neighborhoods of Aleppo, killing 10 civilians, including an entire family. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTG5lXYZFeo Advertisements |
In this tutorial we are going to use Ionic 2 App to upload images to Firebase Storage. Before writing any code follow Ionic Framework documentations to make sure that your development environment is up to date. Let’s start by Firebase setup. Go to Firebase Console (https://console.firebase.google.com/) and create a new Project, call it myPhotos On Storage create a new folder call it Photos Now let’s create the App by running the command below through the Command Prompt ionic start 1 2 3 ionic start Assuming you are using the latest ionic release; this command will open a browser window with the new GUI tool used to create apps. Follow the simple steps to create myPhotos App as shown below. This will create a new folder for the App. You need to use that folder in the Command Prompt. Now let’s install Firebase by running the command below in the Command Prompt (remember you should already be in the project folder). npm install firebase --save 1 2 3 npm install firebase -- save Next we need to add Ionic Native to our app by running the following command npm install ionic-native --save 1 2 3 npm install ionic -native -- save We need the Camera Cordova Plugin. use the command below to install it ionic plugin add cordova-plugin-camera 1 2 3 ionic plugin add cordova -plugin -camera Now we have everything ready to start coding. Let’s start by connecting to our Firebase project. change app.component.ts to the following import { Component } from '@angular/core'; import { Platform } from 'ionic-angular'; import { StatusBar, Splashscreen } from 'ionic-native'; import { HomePage } from '../pages/home/home'; import firebase from 'firebase'; @Component({ templateUrl: 'app.html' }) export class MyApp { rootPage = HomePage; constructor(platform: Platform) { firebase.initializeApp({ apiKey: "<your-apikey>", authDomain: "<your-authDomain>", databaseURL: "<your-databaseURL>", storageBucket: "<your-storageBucket>", messagingSenderId: "<your-messagingSenderId>" }); platform.ready().then(() => { // Okay, so the platform is ready and our plugins are available. // Here you can do any higher level native things you might need. StatusBar.styleDefault(); Splashscreen.hide(); }); } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 import { Component } from '@angular/core' ; import { Platform } from 'ionic-angular' ; import { StatusBar , Splashscreen } from 'ionic-native' ; import { HomePage } from '../pages/home/home' ; import firebase from 'firebase' ; @ Component ( { templateUrl : 'app.html' } ) export class MyApp { rootPage = HomePage ; constructor ( platform : Platform ) { firebase . initializeApp ( { apiKey : "<your-apikey>" , authDomain : "<your-authDomain>" , databaseURL : "<your-databaseURL>" , storageBucket : "<your-storageBucket>" , messagingSenderId : "<your-messagingSenderId>" } ) ; platform . ready ( ) . then ( ( ) = > { // Okay, so the platform is ready and our plugins are available. // Here you can do any higher level native things you might need. StatusBar . styleDefault ( ) ; Splashscreen . hide ( ) ; } ) ; } } We applied two changes: we imported Firebase we added the required details for initializing Firebase. you can get those details from (https://console.firebase.google.com) as shown below Now let’s modify the home.html to add a button to allow the user to select from the Gallery and button to start the camera to start the camers <ion-header> <ion-navbar> <ion-title> My Photos </ion-title> </ion-navbar> </ion-header> <ion-content padding> <ion-item> <ion-row> <ion-col width-50> <button ion-button color="danger" type="button" full round large (click)="takePhoto()"> <ion-icon name="md-camera"></ion-icon> </button> </ion-col> <ion-col width-50> <button ion-button color="secondary" type="button" full round large (click)="selectPhoto()"> <ion-icon name="md-image"></ion-icon> </button> </ion-col> </ion-row> </ion-item> <ion-item> <img class="img-responsive" src="{{ myPhotoURL }}" /> </ion-item> </ion-content> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 <ion-header> <ion-navbar> <ion-title> My Photos </ion-title> </ion-navbar> </ion-header> <ion-content padding > <ion-item> <ion-row> <ion-col width - 50 > <button ion - button color = "danger" type = "button" full round large ( click ) = "takePhoto()" > <ion-icon name = "md-camera" > </ion-icon> </button> </ion-col> <ion-col width - 50 > <button ion - button color = "secondary" type = "button" full round large ( click ) = "selectPhoto()" > <ion-icon name = "md-image" > </ion-icon> </button> </ion-col> </ion-row> </ion-item> <ion-item> <img class = "img-responsive" src = "{{ myPhotoURL }}" /> </ion-item> </ion-content> Modify home.ts to the following: import { Component } from '@angular/core'; import { NavController } from 'ionic-angular'; import { Camera } from 'ionic-native'; import firebase from 'firebase'; @Component({ selector: 'page-home', templateUrl: 'home.html' }) export class HomePage { public myPhotosRef: any; public myPhoto: any; public myPhotoURL: any; constructor(public navCtrl: NavController) { this.myPhotosRef = firebase.storage().ref('/Photos/'); } takePhoto() { Camera.getPicture({ quality: 100, destinationType: Camera.DestinationType.DATA_URL, sourceType: Camera.PictureSourceType.CAMERA, encodingType: Camera.EncodingType.PNG, saveToPhotoAlbum: true }).then(imageData => { this.myPhoto = imageData; this.uploadPhoto(); }, error => { console.log("ERROR -> " + JSON.stringify(error)); }); } selectPhoto(): void { Camera.getPicture({ sourceType: Camera.PictureSourceType.PHOTOLIBRARY, destinationType: Camera.DestinationType.DATA_URL, quality: 100, encodingType: Camera.EncodingType.PNG, }).then(imageData => { this.myPhoto = imageData; this.uploadPhoto(); }, error => { console.log("ERROR -> " + JSON.stringify(error)); }); } private uploadPhoto(): void { this.myPhotosRef.child(this.generateUUID()).child('myPhoto.png') .putString(this.myPhoto, 'base64', { contentType: 'image/png' }) .then((savedPicture) => { this.myPhotoURL = savedPicture.downloadURL; }); } private generateUUID(): any { var d = new Date().getTime(); var uuid = 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx'.replace(/[xy]/g, function (c) { var r = (d + Math.random() * 16) % 16 | 0; d = Math.floor(d / 16); return (c == 'x' ? r : (r & 0x3 | 0x8)).toString(16); }); return uuid; } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 import { Component } from '@angular/core' ; import { NavController } from 'ionic-angular' ; import { Camera } from 'ionic-native' ; import firebase from 'firebase' ; @ Component ( { selector : 'page-home' , templateUrl : 'home.html' } ) export class HomePage { public myPhotosRef: any ; public myPhoto: any ; public myPhotoURL: any ; constructor ( public navCtrl: NavController ) { this . myPhotosRef = firebase . storage ( ) . ref ( '/Photos/' ) ; } takePhoto ( ) { Camera . getPicture ( { quality : 100 , destinationType : Camera . DestinationType . DATA_URL , sourceType : Camera . PictureSourceType . CAMERA , encodingType : Camera . EncodingType . PNG , saveToPhotoAlbum : true } ) . then ( imageData = > { this . myPhoto = imageData ; this . uploadPhoto ( ) ; } , error = > { console . log ( "ERROR -> " + JSON . stringify ( error ) ) ; } ) ; } selectPhoto ( ) : void { Camera . getPicture ( { sourceType : Camera . PictureSourceType . PHOTOLIBRARY , destinationType : Camera . DestinationType . DATA_URL , quality : 100 , encodingType : Camera . EncodingType . PNG , } ) . then ( imageData = > { this . myPhoto = imageData ; this . uploadPhoto ( ) ; } , error = > { console . log ( "ERROR -> " + JSON . stringify ( error ) ) ; } ) ; } private uploadPhoto ( ) : void { this . myPhotosRef . child ( this . generateUUID ( ) ) . child ( 'myPhoto.png' ) . putString ( this . myPhoto , 'base64' , { contentType : 'image/png' } ) . then ( ( savedPicture ) = > { this . myPhotoURL = savedPicture . downloadURL ; } ) ; } private generateUUID ( ) : any { var d = new Date ( ) . getTime ( ) ; var uuid = 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx' . replace ( /[xy]/g , function ( c ) { var r = ( d + Math . random ( ) * 16 ) % 16 | 0 ; d = Math . floor ( d / 16 ) ; return ( c == 'x' ? r : ( r & 0x3 | 0x8 ) ) . toString ( 16 ) ; } ) ; return uuid ; } } In the code above we are doing the following Importing Firebase to home.ts Setting a reference (myPhotosRef) to our Firebase Storage project takePhoto() function to start the camera and capture photo selectPhoto() function to select a photo from gallery uploadPhoto() function to upload to Firebase Storage and using the downloadURL to display the photo Follow Ionic Documentations to test this on a device and you will get the screen below Get the full code from Github |
Even in Death enters HGC Premier League as B-Step disbands It's the most wonderful time of the year. That awkward moment in between HGC phases where teams take a step back and review their current standings, along with player changes. Also known as HGC rosterpocalypse. While you've probably seen the changes on your twitter feed, the biggest news so far come from HGC team B-Step, announcing their complete roster disbandment after ending Phase 1 in 5th place with a 6-8 record and failing to qualify for the Mid-Season Brawl. Team manager, Zoia, posted the announcement along with informing that aPm would also be retiring from professional Heroes. The announcement also hints that this will not be the end of the road for these players: “This should not come as a total surprise to most of you as these are all very talented players who deserve the best offers and orgs that can support them.” Considering Gale Force eSports , Team Freedom and No Tomorrow have all announced various player drops, there’s a good chance these players have found offers elsewhere with one of these HGC teams. Regardless of the players future, this begs the question: Who will replace B-Step in the HGC going into Phase Two? According to section 4.6 in the Heroes HGC Phase 1 rules: “The highest ranked Team in the North American Open Division with replace the disqualified team.” By this rule, Even in Death will replace B-Step as they won the Open Division Playoffs. With an update on HGC teams throughout the regions, Blizzard confirmed Tuesday that Even in Death would in fact be replacing B-Step. Even in Death now joins the group of eight elite teams from the North American region for the HGC Premier League which will begin Phase two in June after the conclusion of the Mid-Season Brawl. Follow us on Twitter @GosuGamersHotS for more Heroes of the Storm news and coverage from around the world QUICKPOLL Will Even in Death now be a strong contender going into Phase two? Yes. They belong in the HGC Premier League Thank you for voting! No. They shouldn't be in the HGC Premier League Thank you for voting! |
NEW YORK -- After the Boston Celtics were pushed to the brink of playoff elimination in late April, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Rajon Rondo held a lengthy huddle in the shower area inside the team's locker room at TD Garden. After the powwow, there was a sense that the trio might have been pondering the future and the potential that Garnett and Pierce were playing their final games in a Celtics uniform. That became a reality two months later when, on draft night in late June, the Celtics and Brooklyn Nets agreed to a franchise-altering nine-player, three-draft-pick swap. After formally being introduced as members of the Nets on Thursday at the pristine Barclays Center, Garnett and Pierce sat down for a joint interview with ESPN Boston's Jackie MacMullan (a snippet aired Thursday night, and a longer segment will run starting with Sunday's 10 a.m. "SportsCenter" on ESPN2). Asked about the brother they are leaving behind, Garnett sighed, "Do, Do," invoking his familiar nickname for Rondo (the last syllable of the point guard's last name). For Rajon Rondo, the Nets trade meant losing one of his best friends on the team in Kevin Garnett. "This whole transition, man, we came in as strangers and bonded as brothers," Garnett said. Elsa/Getty Images "This whole transition, man, we came in as strangers and bonded as brothers," said Garnett, a person Rondo has previously suggested was his closest friend on the team. "And I say that with Glen [Davis], Kendrick [Perkins], Tony Allen, with Eddie House and [James Posey], just a connection with what it is. "When Ray [Allen] left [for Miami last summer], it was hard for everybody there. We saw Doc [Rivers] leave [for Los Angeles last month], that blew us out of the water. It's kind of like looking up at the wave coming. And now we're here, so I can only imagine what Do's going through. Obviously, I reached out to him, told him what I was going to do or whatever. I'm sure he's dealing with whatever he's dealing with, obviously he's trying to get back with [rehabbing from ACL surgery in February]. "Whatever that whole universe and his world is presenting to him... It's unfortunate. I had to take away that, what you have established as a brother and as a brotherhood amongst each other, is what you take away from it. Although I'm losing a teammate, I have a friend for life. And that's how I look at it." Pierce said he talked with Rondo recently and, having been the leader on a team in transition before the Big Three was assembled, Pierce dispensed cautious advice about what lies ahead as Rondo rehabs his knee and the Celtics rehab their roster. "Right now, he's injured, and I told him this is probably going to be the toughest year of your whole career, mentally and physically," Pierce said. "Physically, you're dealing with an injury. Mentally, you know nothing but winning since you came into the league... You may be put in a situation where you may not win a lot of games. You have to be a leader now; you know me and Kev are not there anymore. Paul Pierce said he spoke with Rondo recently. "I told him this is probably going to be the toughest year of your whole career, mentally and physically. ... You have to be a leader now." Brian Babineau/NBAE/Getty Images "You have to go through these times. I've been through them. I explained to him how I went through it. I feel like, I'm one of the best players in the league and now... [Rondo is] going to be in that situation for maybe one year or two years, who knows? But you have to be mentally prepared for it, and that's some of the things we talked about." Pierce might simply have been speculating, but he had noted earlier Thursday that Rondo is "probably not going to be back until probably December, January, who knows?" That'd be a change of plans considering that Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has suggested that the team and the player have eyed a return for the start of the season. That's something Ainge echoed earlier this month while noting that the team and training staff were encouraged with Rondo's rehab thus far. Ainge did admit that the team might have to take it slow with Rondo during training camp starting in late September, but said being ready for opening night in late October was a reasonable goal. That's still an aggressive timeline considering Rondo had surgery in February and would be little more than eight months removed from surgery for that partially torn ACL by opening night. Pierce and Garnett hinted that they have suggested to Rondo to take it slow, maybe noting that there's little rush to get back for a team in transition. But after Rondo had to sit out the final three months of the 2012-13 season, it's going to be hard to keep him pinned down. Even if it might help Boston's rebuilding process to lose games and deliver a higher draft pick, players and coaches have been adamant this offseason that the team will not tank. Returning veterans have defiantly suggested that they believe the Celtics can still contend with the talent coming back. |
One week after debating Tucker Carlson on the merits of his city's sanctuary policy, Mayor Virgil Bernero (D-Lansing) returned to break some news on that front. Bernero said that after "democracy in action," he and his city council are reconsidering their decision to become a sanctuary for illegal immigrants. The council was meeting on the issue as Bernero spoke on "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Sanctuary City Mayor Battles Tucker: Policing 'Easy For White Men Like Us' Mulvaney: We're Taking the Tax Code 'Back to a Blank Piece Of Paper' Krauthammer: Russia Now Knows '8 Years of Free Lunch is Over' However, he said that his initial policy was not an example of the liberal sanctuary city policies created by some other municipalities. He said there is no evidence that Michigan's capital is "opening the floodgates" to illegal immigrants as some have characterized. Bernero said he agreed with President Trump's campaign promise to rid the country of "bad hombres" from elsewhere in the world, but added that he saw no issue with allowing the law-abiding illegals to settle in Lansing. He called the possibility that the White House would try to deport tens of millions of illegal immigrants "absurd." Carlson asked if Bernero would follow New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's (D) policy of considering a DUI arrest insufficient grounds for deportation. Bernero said that he would not necessarily deport a first-offense drunk-driving illegal immigrant, but if that person inflicted harm on others or was a repeat offender, he would reconsider. WATCH: 'Who Gave You Your Manners?': Russia's Lavrov Scolds NBC's Mitchell Top Republicans Ask AG to Review IRS' Lois Lerner Case Wallace: Russia's Lavrov 'Dominated' News Conference With Tillerson |
In Kirby Smart’s first two recruiting classes at Georgia, the Bulldogs have signed the No. 1 and No. 3 pro-style quarterbacks on the 247Sports Composite in Jacob Eason and Jake Fromm. While that seem to indicate that UGA is committed to a pro-style offense for at least the duration of Fromm’s career in Athens, one recruit says that he’s been told by Dawgs coaches that changes are coming to the offense. Heard County (Franklin, Ga.) QB Emory Jones is committed to Ohio State, but UGA doesn’t want to let him leave the Peach State, and they’re making a serious pitch. “They’re changing their offense to me,” Jones told Jake Reuse of UGASports.com. “It’d be more of a no huddle, and that’s what I like. They said they see how I run it in high school system, and they believe I could be successful playing at UGA.” Smart and Georgia offensive coordinator Jim Chaney would be far from the first SEC coaches to incorporate no huddle and running quarterback elements into a more traditional pro-style offense. Smart knows all about this from his tenure in Alabama coaching alongside Nick Saban and Lane Kiffin. It is worth noting, however, that Jones’ quote by itself does not make it clear whether the changes are dependent on his signing with the Dawgs or if we can expect to see the system change with Eason or Fromm at quarterback. Willing to change scheme to make use of a prospect’s talent is quite a pitch, but there’s one thing Smart can’t change, and that is UGA’s location. “My mom and dad love Ohio State,” Jones said. “They love the way they make me feel at home. I just feel like I’ll have more success playing at Ohio State, and I really kinda wanna get out of Georgia.” Georgia fans can judge whether Jones’ commitment would be worth a change in scheme after watching his highlights below: [H/T: Campus Insiders] |
With motorists facing record prices, Mr Cameron is under growing pressure to make good on his opposition promise to bring in a fuel duty stabiliser, which would reduce tax when basic fuel prices rose. The idea was all but ruled out by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility but the Prime Minister last week hinted it was still on the agenda. Now Scotland’s Alex Salmond has put his government on a war footing with Westminster by making a cut in petrol tax a key pledge in his bid for a second term in office. Mr Salmond, who faces Scottish Parliamentary elections on May 5, told the Sunday Express he would be taking the battle to control the nation’s economy to Downing Street. His opening salvo was a promise to cut pump prices by 10p a litre if a campaign for Scotland’s own fuel price regulator was successful. Mr Salmond said it was “extraordinary” that drivers in oil-rich Scotland were facing pump prices of between £1.20 and £1.30 a litre. “Before the election, George Osborne said he would have a fuel price regulator, which was originally an SNP proposal,” he said. “The idea being as oil prices increase you use that additional money, that unexpected bonus to offset against the fuel duty so you can provide some stability in fuel prices. You can take 10p off a litre. Oil revenues flowing into the London Exchequer will be £10billion this year, another £1billion from recent price increases, and yet we are paying the highest petrol prices in the world. It’s an unbelievable position. How on earth can you arrive at a situation where Europe’s leading oil producer, along with Norway, is in that position? No other country would stand for it.” |
Chapter One Battle of Yucca Mountain Share This Story Tweet Share Share Pin Email Plans to store the country’s nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain were considered “dead” after then-President Obama cut off funding in 2010. A change in the Oval Office could change all that. In his proposed 2018 budget, unveiled in March, President Trump included $120 million to revive the nuclear waste site in the Nevada desert, reopening a decades-long battle that the Silver State's federal delegation has vowed to staunchly oppose. There's already movement in Congress, with H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, which would help resume the Yucca Mountain project, introduced in June in the House of Representatives. Railroad tracks enter the south portal tunnel entrance of Yucca Mountain, the planned site of a national nuclear waste dump near Mercury. FILE - This June 25, 2002 file photos shows the south portal tunnel entrance of Yucca Mountain, the planned site of a national nuclear waste dump near Mercury, Nev. (Photo: Joe Cavaretta, AP) "Nuclear waste stored at Yucca Mountain will threaten the safety of Nevadans in addition to putting millions of visitors at risk," Rep. Ruben Kihuen of Nevada's 4th Congressional District said. "There are plenty of ways to utilize the existing infrastructure at Yucca Mountain, however, funding a dead project and stuffing a mountain with nuclear waste is not the answer." While Yucca Mountain has unified Nevada's federal delegation — even including Sens. Dean Heller, a Republican, and Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat — there are supporters of the project in the state legislature, including Assemblyman Chris Edwards, a Republican who represents a district that includes Mesquite. “We’ve been dealing with atomic energy for over 70 years and for people to say we can’t handle this safely in the 21st century is just nonsense,” said Edwards, who was one of six assembly members who voted against a resolution during the 2017 session that opposed reopening Yucca Mountain. "We need to find out what can we use this for because we frankly have a multi-billion dollar asset sitting 100 miles north of Las Vegas and its sitting idle. Surely we can come up with a set of options for what can be done.” This week, Nevada Reps. Kihuen, Dina Titus, Jacky Rosen — all Democrats — suffered a setback when their amendments to slash 2018 funding for Yucca Mountain from the House appropriations bill were defeated. Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, the state's fourth congressman, has said he’s open to discussing the project but is against bringing unprocessed waste into Nevada. Earlier this month, the Senate passed its version of the appropriations bill that did not include the $120 million allocated in Trump’s proposed budget, a decision Heller classified as “positive steps in a long fight to ensure Yucca Mountain remains dead.” The disparities between the House and Senate likely means the issue will be headed to a conference committee for resolution. Chapter Two H.R. 3053 The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 was introduced in late June by Rep. John Shimkus, a Republican representing Illinois’ 15th Congressional District. Shimkus serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and chairs the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy. Shimkus has long been a proponent of nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain and toured the facility in 2015. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, Illinois currently has more nuclear waste than any other state, holding 10,180 metric tons (13 percent) of the nation’s 78,590 tons of spent nuclear fuel. Nevada is one of 14 states in the country that does not have any spent nuclear fuel. The bill sponsored by Shimkus, which would amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, identifies Yucca Mountain as the best place to store the country’s nuclear waste. The bill is cosponsored by 43 representatives — 32 Republicans and 11 Democrats —from 22 states. The Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the bill in a 49-4 vote last month. “There are plenty of ways to utilize the existing infrastructure at Yucca Mountain, however, funding a dead project and stuffing a mountain with nuclear waste is not the answer.” Nevada Rep. Ruben Kihuen The Yucca Mountain project appears to have more support in the House than in the Senate, where Heller said the bill would be “dead on arrival.” “Republicans in the House should pay attention to the Senate and revisit their efforts to fund a dangerous and misguided project that is based on bad politics and even worse science,” Titus said in a statement on the Senate’s decision to exclude funding from the appropriations bill. In addition to outspoken criticism of Yucca Mountain from Nevada’s federal delegation, Attorney General Adam Laxalt has vowed to “continue to battle the poster-child for federal overreach — a battle over an unwanted nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in our beloved Nevada.” Gov. Brian Sandoval is also an outspoken critic of storing nuclear waste in Nevada. Sandoval sent a letter to Shimkus and subcommittee ranking member Paul Tonko in April before a subcommittee hearing on nuclear waste that reiterated the state’s official stance against the Yucca Mountain repository. “The discussion draft that will serve as a focal point for this hearing is fundamentally flawed. While past federal legislation has unfairly and without scientific justification singled out Nevada as the only state where a proposed nuclear waste repository is being considered, the draft legislation before your committee goes much farther. It usurps Nevada’s jurisdiction over the state’s water resources, an unprecedented affront to all western states where water is a precious and scarce resource. Further, numerous provisions would truncate the final stages of the NRC licensing in ways that would limit Nevada’s ability to protect public health, safety and the environment. The transportation and benefits provisions are simply false promises that cannot be guaranteed or enforced,” Sandoval wrote. Chapter Three Nevada's opposition “The main reasons the state is against this are the safety and environmental issues,” said Robert Halstead, executive director of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. The state, for example, has concerns about regularly shipping spent nuclear waste across Interstate 15 and near the Las Vegas Strip, one of the most popular tourist destinations in America. The possibility of seismic activity near Yucca Mountain also worries state officials. Halstead contests that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the Department of Energy’s application to construct a repository at Yucca Mountain, which was published in 2015, has been “misrepresented.” The top of Yucca Mountain, a proposed nuclear waste dump near Mercury overlooks vast expanses of vacant land. (Photo: BOB RIHA, JR., GNS) The NRC concluded that “the DOE's license application met the regulatory requirements for the proposed repository, with two exceptions: DOE had not obtained certain land withdrawal and water rights necessary for construction and operation of the repository," according to its website. Some take that to mean the site is ready to go — including Nye County Commission Chairman Dan Schinofen, who said he’d like to see more constructive dialogue about the possibilities of Yucca Mountain rather than unwavering opposition from the state. “As far as the safety goes, the safety evaluations reports, the reports to the NRC staff, it said the science was sound,” Schinofen said. “I really think they’re preferring political science over nuclear science. I respect we can have a difference of opinion, but we can’t have different facts. And the facts that are in evidence now show that it can be operated and constructed safely.” Finding a consensus on the facts, though, appears to be a prohibitive factor. “The pro-Yucca Mountain public relations people and the people in Congress who want this to go forward have taken a lot of liberties in attributing finality to these NRC reports,” Halstead said. The NRC review was ordered to resume in 2013 via a D.C. District Court of Appeals ruling even after the Obama administration’s efforts appeared to have halted the project. The state of Nevada submitted 218 contentions to the proceeding in 2009, but the 2013 decision forced the state to revamp its efforts. “We never completely were convinced that the Yucca Mountain people were going to go away, even after Sen. Reid was able to reduce the funding and even after the Obama administration said, 'Look, the smart thing to do would be to walk away from Yucca Mountain.’ We never stopped doing our work ... we really reactivated our expert team after that court decision in 2013,” Halstead said. “I really think they’re preferring political science over nuclear science. I respect we can have a difference of opinion, but we can’t have different facts. And the facts that are in evidence now show that it can be operated and constructed safely.” Nye County Commissioner Dan Schinofen As a result, the state is ready to submit upwards of 50 new contentions, many of which deal with groundwater issues at the site. The state also is at odds with DOE findings that radiation exposure for the first 10,000 years, and then up until 1 million years, would be below proposed limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency. “If you go issue-by-issue, DOE’s case is full of holes. Their assessment of the site is questionable,” Halstead said. “Our experts will provide a completely different review of what DOE has proposed.” Halstead said that state findings indicate the 10,000-year standard could be exceeded within the first 700-900 years, and the million year standard could be exceeded within the first 2,000 years. The conversation takes on a different tone inside Nevada’s rural counties, where jobs and the economy are often primary concerns for residents. Schinofen said the state should come forward and put its science up against the DOE's findings. “If the state has other facts that show it can’t be (constructed safely), they should be clamoring to have the hearings to show it’s not safe, and the fact that they aren’t clamoring makes me wonder how secure they are in their position,” Schinofen said. He added that Yucca Mountain would boost Nevada’s economy by bringing in valuable construction jobs and on-site jobs, as well as providing a rail line connecting the northern and southern parts of the state. “We’re constantly reminded we don’t speak for the state. We’ve never tried to speak for the state; I speak for my county," Schinofen said. "So while we do have a seat at the table, because we’re the host county, we are often marginalized. I think that’s sad, I don’t know why we can’t all work together on a project the size of Hoover Dam." He added, “I really think this is a political football more than anything.” While Edwards said he understands the state's concerns with transporting high-level nuclear waste across I-15, the assemblyman suggested taking money allocated for the project and using it to construct an alternate delivery route. “I look at a lot of statements that are made in public, I know that a lot of it is fear-mongering, a lot of it is propaganda, it’s inaccurate, it’s erroneous and people need to be smart about it,” Edwards said. CLOSE Gov. Brian Sandoval said he will use every resource to ensure high level nuclear waste does not come to the Silver State following an announcement by President Trump to restart the planning process. Siobhan McAndrew Chapter Four As it stands now The battle over Yucca Mountain promises to be a lengthy one, but what was once considered a closed discussion is now very much alive. In June, Energy Secretary Rick Perry backed the Yucca Mountain project, noting that "we can no longer kick the can down the road,” when it comes to finding a permanent storage facility for the country’s spent nuclear fuel. “We have a moral and national security obligation to come up with a long-term solution,” Perry told members of the House. In a similar Senate hearing, Cortez Masto questioned Perry on his stance. “When you were nominated for Secretary of Energy, we had a frank and serious conversation about my grave concerns about siting nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. Since you visited the site, you went from touting the importance of state sovereignty to a full-throated support for depositing the nation’s waste in Nevada, against the will of my state, undermining the state’s right to defend its communities against dangerous nuclear waste. What has prompted such a change in your viewpoint?” she asked Perry. “What we’re looking for is some sort of commitment that you’re looking for at least the science to prove that it’s safe.” Catherine Cortez Masto In response, Perry said, “With all due respect, I disagree with your analysis of my position. Nothing’s really changed. I think it is wise for us to have a very open conversation with this country but the moral obligation we have as a people. There is statutory requirements for us to move this waste. There are multiple options about where that waste could go ... there is no plan in place to put that in a particular place at this particular point in time but I think we need to be looking at all of our options and having an open and productive conversation.” Later, Cortez Masto brought up consent-based siting, which requires local communities and stakeholders to first sign off on a facility. The Department of Energy under the Obama administration supported consent-based siting, but the Trump administration appears to have taken a different stance. A tab titled “Consent-Based Siting” on the DOE website reads: “We are currently updating our website to reflect the Department’s priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Perry.” “What we’re looking for is some sort of commitment that you’re looking for at least the science to prove that it’s safe,” Cortez Masto said to Perry. Perry answered, “I think it’s important for us to do two things: Pay attention to the science, and also to the rule of law.” Follow Lucas Thomas on Twitter, @LucasThomas14, or call him at 702-232-0603. |
Fidel Castro, the father of communist Cuba who led the country for nearly half a century, died Friday night at the age of 90, President Raul Castro announced on state TV. The former president was expected to be cremated, as he wished, on Saturday, his brother said in the brief televised message, which he concluded with the revolutionary rallying cry, "onward toward victory, always." The Cuban government announced nine days of national mourning beginning Saturday and culminating with a burial ceremony Dec. 4. In the meantime, a mass gathering will be held in the capital Tuesday. The following day, his ashes will embark on a four-day tour of the country retracing the "Caravan of Liberty" he led after ousting his predecessor in 1959. Celebrations erupted on the streets of Cuban-American neighborhoods in Miami and remembrances from world leaders poured in when word spread that the divisive, iconic figure had passed away. Celebrations Erupt in Miami After News of Castro Death Huge crowds filled the streets of Hialeah after word spread of the death of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. (Published Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016) Castro retreated from the public eye in 2006 following emergency surgery for intestinal bleeding. His health problems forced him to temporarily hand power to his younger brother, who permanently took his place as president in 2008. Castro's death follows a historic thawing of relations between Cuba and the United States with the announcement in mid-December that the countries planned to restore diplomatic and economic ties. Six weeks after that announcement, Castro made his first comments about the deal, writing that he backs the negotiations even though he distrusts American politics. "I don't trust the policy of the United States, nor have I exchanged a word with them, but this does not mean I reject a pacific solution to the conflicts," he wrote in a letter to a student federation read at the University of Havana. In a statement released Saturday, President Obama called for continued partnership between Cuba and the United States. "Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro's family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people," Obama said in the statement. "In the days ahead, they will recall the past and also look to the future. As they do, the Cuban people must know that they have a friend and partner in the United States of America." "We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the people of the world, including with our political adversaries," he wrote. President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, assailed Castro as a "brutal dictator" in a statement Saturday. "Today, the world marks the passing of a brutal dictator who oppressed his own people for nearly six decades," Trump said in the statement. "Fidel Castro’s legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights." Trump's statement goes on to say that his administration will work toward ensuring "prosperity" and "liberty" for the Cuban people. "Though the tragedies, deaths and pain caused by Fidel Castro cannot be erased, our administration will do all it can to ensure the Cuban people can finally begin their journey toward prosperity and liberty," the statement read. Since relinquishing power, Castro's health had been the topic of intense speculation. On several occasions, media reported inaccurately that he was near death or had died. Once in 2012, Castro replied to the rumors himself in an article published on Cuba Debate, a state-run website, in which he boasted that he was not only alive, but didn't "even remember what a headache is." Mariel Boatlift: Cubans Flee to Freedom Mariel Boatlift: Cubans Flee to Freedom. (Published Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016) Castro had defied death many times before, both as the revolutionary who led an armed uprising against dictator Fulgencio Batista, and as Batista's communist successor who inspired a number of U.S.-backed assassination plots. Nine U.S. presidents came and went during Castro's rule, which, like him, proved resilient, outlasting most other communist governments around the world. For 49 years Castro ran Cuba, transforming what was once an American playground with striking social inequalities into a poor, isolated country with a notorious record on human rights. To some, he was a hero. Through a rigid system of socialized medicine, education and cultural facilities, Castro's government elevated Cuba's most impoverished citizens and reduced the sort of racial inequalities prevalent throughout the Americas. For challenging and insulting U.S. policies and presidents, he won the devotion of like-minded leaders, including the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. In a 2004 speech slamming the U.S. war on terrorism, for example, Castro accused President George W. Bush of hypocrisy and fraud, while in 2011 he penned an op-ed in the Cuban press calling President Barack Obama "stupid." His own critics, however, were not tolerated. To those who challenged his revolutionary vision or lived outside of the rigid framework he established on the island—which for years quarantined its HIV-positive citizens and jailed everyone from dissidents to homosexuals—he was a brutal dictator. U.S. politicians were among the most harsh Castro critics. Florida Senator Marco Rubio condemned Castro in a statement Saturday, writing in part: "One thing is clear, history will not absolve Fidel Castro; it will remember him as an evil, murderous dictator who inflicted misery and suffering on his own people." Castro's human rights abuses and economic policies prompted throngs of Cubans to flee, many risking their lives to do so. One of the largest mass exoduses came in 1980 when Castro opened the exits to more than a hundred thousand citizens, including prisoners and mental patients who were loaded on boats bound for Florida. In a speech to supporters, Castro happily bid them farewell and mocked the United States for "doing an excellent sanitation job for us." In his final years, however, Castro appeared to be taking a more critical look at the policies he had enacted, calling his government's treatment of gays, for example, an "injustice," and saying in 2010 that "the Cuban model [of communism] doesn't even work for us anymore." Indeed, Raul Castro has loosened both travel restrictions and the government's grip on the economy since taking power in 2008, allowing citizens to open some small businesses and legally buy everything from computers and cell phones to foreign cars, however exorbitantly taxed they may be. The agreement to normalize relations between Cuba and the United States came as prisoners in both countries were freed, among them U.S. subcontractor Alan Gross, sentenced in 2009 to 15 years in prison for trying to set up internet access for the Jewish community in Cuba. But the U.S. trade embargo in place for more than 50 years remained in place. Only Congress can lift it. Raul Castro, currently 85, has said that he will not seek reelection at the end of his second term in 2018, which will leave the leadership of the country open to someone other than an original Cuban revolutionary for the first time since the overthrow of Batista. Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, the son of a wealthy Spanish-born landowner and his cook, was born Aug. 13, 1926. His upbringing, which exposed him to both the privilege and poverty of his nation, laid the groundwork for his revolutionary path later on. His political views were further shaped at the University of Havana, where he studied law. After graduating, he delved deeper into revolutionary politics and ultimately organized the rebellion that would overthrow Batista. Joined by his brother Raul, and the legendary guerrilla fighter Ernesto "Che" Guevarra, Castro succeeded in ousting his predecessor in 1959 after two failed attempts, one of which landed him in prison. While the United States quickly recognized Castro's new government, it cut off diplomatic ties as the country's communist policies – such as the nationalization of U.S. properties in Cuba – became clear. Cuban Revolutionary Fidel Castro Dies at 90 Cuban television has announced the death of Fidel Castro, the former President of Cuba and leader of the 1950s Cuban revolution. NBC's Bruce Hall reports. (Published Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016) The next few years were marked by increasingly desperate attempts on the part of the U.S. to remove Castro from power. The Bay of Pigs invasion, a botched mission that sent U.S.-trained Cuban exiles back home to take down Castro, became one of the biggest embarrassments of John F. Kennedy's presidency, and emboldened Castro and his supporters. Months later, Castro green-lighted the construction of Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island, well within range of U.S. targets. When Kennedy caught wind of the plans, a 13-day standoff ensued, with Kennedy ultimately convincing the Soviets to back down in exchange for the removal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. The so-called Cuban Missile Crisis was a defining moment for both Kennedy and Castro and further embittered relations between the two countries. Castro's prolific writing and famously long-winded speeches regularly featured tirades against the U.S. and insistence that Cuba would never change course. "Socialism or death! Fatherland or death!" was the motto. Though he demonstrated, throughout his life, his willingness to die for his vision and values, he survived one of the longest and most controversial political careers of the 20th century, only stepping down as the result of his declining health. Little is known about how Castro spent his final years. The topic of both his health and personal life have been closely guarded secrets, with Castro revealing only as much as he wished. It is unclear, for example, just how many children he fathered. Asked in an interview for Vanity Fair in 1993, Castro replied, "it's almost a tribe." What is known is this: He was married twice, first to Mirt Diaz-Balart, whom he divorced in 1955 after having one child, and later to Dalia Soto del Valle, with whom he had five sons. Others have been cited as mistresses and children, including Alina Fernandez, a Cuban exile who published a memoir about growing up as Castro's daughter in 1960s Cuba. S. Carolina Pediatrician Stops Taking Unvaccinated Patients A South Carolina pediatrics office is turning away unvaccinated patients, citing the health and safety of other immunocompromised children who are in danger of catching contagious diseases in the waiting room. Parents say their choices for their unvaccinated children are shrinking. (Published Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019) After leaving the presidency, Castro wrote a series of his own personal reflections, though his focused mainly on past and current events. In his final post, published in September 2013, Castro expressed relief that the U.S. appeared to be backing away from plans to intervene militarily in Syria's civil war—a move, he said, that could prevent "global catastrophe." |
Stag Arms introduced a number of new products at the recent SHOT Show including a new rifle called the Stag-10. If you were to guess that the Stag-10 is a AR-10 like gun chambered in .308, you would be correct. The Stag-10 is a semi-automatic rifle chambered in the classic .30 caliber cartridge. According to Stag’s website, the gun was built with the “outdoorsman and tactical operator in mind.” Heaven forbid anyone describe a modern sporting rifle without using the terms “tactical,” “operator” or “tactical operator.” Two versions of the gun will be made: the Stag-10 and the Stag-10s. The guns are nearly identical, excepting a few features. The “s” model has a shorter barrel – 16″ instead of 18″. Both barrels are made with a 1:10 twist rate and are chrome lined. The longer gun uses a Magpul FRS while the Stag-10s uses an ACS. The -10s also has an end plate with two loops for attaching a sling. Both guns have a VG6 Gamma compensator, Diamondhead VRST handguard with KeyMod attachment points, a single stage trigger and Hogue pistol grip. A Magpul enhanced trigger guard is standard. These guns come with a lifetime warranty that is transferrable to another purchaser should you ever decide to trade. The company also includes an “infinite shot barrel guarantee.” |
Computing could soon fundamentally change, and when it does, cryptography will evolve too. Quantum computing "will instantly change the world of encryption," Konstantinos Karagiannis, BT Security's Global Technical Lead of Ethical Hacking, told me. He's set to give a talk on the future of encryption—and breaking it—at the Black Hat Europe security conference next month. Impressive as our current technology is, with even mobile phones now having more power than the systems that put mankind to the moon, classical computers are running out of steam. Computers that utilise the science of quantum mechanics will halt the incremental piling on of stats, and introduce an entirely new way of operating. They'll be able to process far more difficult problems than their predecessors. At bottom, computers as we know them deal in binary states—information can either be a one or a zero, making up a 'bit.' In the quantum world, however, there exists something researchers have called a 'qubit:' a piece of information that can be both a one and a zero at the same time. Algorithms can then be applied to take advantage of this quantum weirdness, giving results that just aren't possible with a classical computer. When someone has a quantum computer, no one is really going to feel safe anymore Applying such quantum states to efforts to crack encryption could be a game-changer. For example, going through all the possibilities of number combinations to crack a code that is, say, 400 digits long is quite the feat for a classical computer. But for quantum computers, blackboard experiments have indicated that they should be powerful enough to do this. Using quantum computers for cryptography is "powerful only if you have an algorithm that can take advantage of it," Karagiannis said. For example, Shor's Algorithm would allow a quantum computer to deal with massive prime numbers in seconds. "When someone has a quantum computer, no one is really going to feel safe anymore," Karagiannis added ominously. "It's going to be this lurking menace, out in the darkness." This is because, theoretically, quantum computers should be able to break a whole host of encryption types that we've come to rely on. According to Karagiannis, public-key cryptography (PK), used extensively by activists, governments, and terrorists alike, will fall, as will the Data Encryption Standard (DES), originally deployed by the US government. Everything you send over the wire will be readable by the entity that gets a quantum computer first According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA is intent on building a quantum computer that could crack most types of encryption. If successful, the $79.7 million research project entitled "Penetrating Hard Targets" would give the agency the power to break into communications, even if they were encrypted. The NSA is also storing some protected messages and files in the hope that someday it will be able to break into them. "One hundred percent, right now, the technology exists to build a tremendous quantum computer," Karagiannis said. Various researchers are trying, including Google, although many in the scientific community don't consider their D-Wave machine a proper quantum computer. Regardless, when this sort of technology does get rolled out, "for sending sensitive data, you're going to wonder, was my transmission just captured?" Karagiannis said. "Forget about worrying if you need to change a password at a particular group of web sites. Everything you send over the wire will be readable by the entity that gets a quantum computer first," he wrote on the BT Let's Talk Security blog. It might sound like a new quantum arms race, but all is not lost. "There are some advanced forms of encryption that on blackboards still haven't fallen to quantum computers," Karagiannis says, although "that could change with the right algorithm." Naturally, quantum computers could lead to new encryption as well, to generate stronger protections. Karagiannis's work has also been dealing with quantum key distribution, which creates a changing encryption key in order to keep data secure. Governments and tech giants may be pushing for quantum computers, but it won't be in the hands of consumers soon, though Karagiannis is sure that, one day, it will. He envisions that BT may in the future sell quantum encryption technology, in order to protect customers' transmissions. "It would be foolish not to," he said. In the meantime, whoever builds a device capable of cracking encryption with quantum computing will have a huge advantage. |
There is a lot of confusion about the difference between CBD Vape oil and CBD hemp oil. Cannabidiol, called CBD, is derived from hemp, the male cannabis plant. The CBD hemp oil of this plant may contain traces of THC, but it will not lift you at all. CBD has been used in medicine for quite some time compared to the way it has been used recently for vaping. The term hemp oil from CBD is usually reserved for oral tinctures that are not to be sprayed, but is now commonly used to describe CBD oil vapors, which are genuine oils. CBD Vape oil, specifically called CBD E-Liquid or CBD Vape juice, is specially made for vaping. Normally they extract cannabis, but industrial hemp is perfectly legal in the United States, provided it contains less than 0.3% THC. Most CBD vapor juices can also be taken orally, while most of the CBDs prepared for consumption cannot be evaporated. Some E-Liquid CBD can be mixed with your existing juice and some are already mixed. CBD hemp oil provides people with the medical benefits of cannabis, minus the side effects. There are currently three common methods for Vape cannabidiol. As with regular e-liquid vaping, there are disposable products, mixed solutions and concentrated e-liquid. CBD e-liquid and concentrated solutions are available in different strengths as e-liquids are available in different nicotine quantities. The effects are stronger when cannabidiol mg increases. However, the effects vary from person to person and from one condition to another. Unlike nicotine levels, where it is common to start and go down high, it is proposed instead that users of CBD oils continue to increase. Best CBD Vape Pens and Kits The Halo Triton II is one of the smallest CBD Vape pens, making it a perfect, invisible device that lets you enjoy your CBD oil in no time. The Triton II kit comes standard with two 750-mAh batteries and three 0.75-ohm coils, which is a recipe for delicious clouds using CBD all year round. It is a starter device perfect for someone who wants to try the CBD e-liquid or just evaporate. The Triton II tank contains 2 ml of CBD oil of your choice so that the tastes are endless. It is powerful enough for the advanced Vaper. Advantages Sub Ohm capable Ultra portable Rechargeable Micro USB charging Disadvantages 2 ml capacity This is an all-in-one Vape device that uses special cartridges filled with Koi CBD juice vapors. The only part of this device is that it uses a respiratory sensor or a manual trigger. This closed-system vaporizer provides a satisfactory evaporation experience and is easy to package. Just open a capsule and continue your day. Envii’s Fitt contains pre-filled capsules containing the best e-liquid with the permission of Koi. The juice contains no solvents or pesticides and is certified by the laboratory without GMOs. Easy to use and very portable, it attaches to your keychain, so you’ll never be without your CBD. Advantages Autonomy of 650 mAh 2 trigger modes (button or breath sensor) Micro USB rechargeable Easy to handle All-in-one system The cartridges are pre-filled with 50 mg CBD Compatible TPD Cartridges Available (2 ml) Use a delicious blue koi (raspberry blue dragon fruit) Disadvantages There is currently only one flavor option The V2 Halo Tracer Starter Kit is not marketed as a CBD pen vapor, but as an ideal delivery system to quickly get your CBD dose. The tank contains 4 ml Tracer juice Vape CBD of your choice and has a powerful 2300 mAh battery full micro USB charging capacity. The Halo Tracer has some of the best features found in the world’s most advanced CDD pen Vape electronic cigarette devices. Made from high quality materials such as 304 stainless steel, organic cotton and wicks, a 30ml bottle has the wide range of delicious halo additives for use with the CBD. Advantages Sub-ohm capable Refillable Vape CDB Pen Organic cotton locks Micro USB charging Fast administration system for cannabidiol Disadvantages Only available in black and silver The Vape CBD kit makes Vaping more convenient with longer battery life, multiple voltage settings and a lightweight overall design. You can insert your own pre-charged cartridges that contain any type of oil or electronic fluid, or you can buy an empty cartridge and fill it by yourself. If you’re new to CBD or vaping in general, it can be complicated in the beginning. CBDfx offers a discreet and easy-to-use device for your oil cartridges. Simply place the magnetic adapter ring on a cartridge and attach. With four temperature settings, you can always get the perfect shot. Advantages Light in weight Easy to handle Perfect for oil cartridges Multiple configurations Micro USB charging One button Disadvantages |
Run the shadow: Alcatraz Escape it's a great unige action/puzzle game. You play a part of Runaway, who must get out quickly as soon as possible from Alcatraz Prison. Over the whole time you need to stay in shadow and be quiet- don't touch the walls and obstacles. Watch guards who becomes more and more nervous. Outwit your enemies and escape dark dungeons. • Free Leaderboards and Achievements Features v1.0 : • 100% FREE • Great and unique levels • Great sound • Sounds, Unvisible and Flash traps • Logic task If you enjoy Jewel God, OneTouchDraw, Jewels, Bejeweled, Bubble Mania, Bubbletown, Monster Stack, Roundy Pop, Jewel Hunter Run The Shadow, Sticky Friends or Coin Mania you will love this game! • 1.0.7 - unlock levels • 1.0.6 - fix level 49 • 1.0.5 - fix power-ups localizable font - improve performance • 1.0.3 - fix power-ups window dialog |
The controversial Scarborough subway extension has moved a step forward. At its meeting on Wednesday, the TTC board voted unanimously to award the $80-million, 10-year contract for managing the transit project to Scarborough Link Joint Venture, a consortium of transit and development firms. SLJV will guide the subway construction to completion and have many vital responsibilities. They include controlling the scope and budget of the project, setting schedules, acquiring property, issuing permits, coordinating road closures, and reviewing subway designs. Commissioners approved the contract despite objections from Councillor Josh Matlow, who wrote a letter urging the TTC to defer the issue, arguing that it was "premature" to hire a company to manage the subway construction when the city has yet to complete an environmental assessment of the extension. That study is expected to be completed next year. Matlow warned that it might conclude that Mayor John Tory's planned SmartTrack line – which would run along the GO rail corridor just west of the Scarborough subway – could undermine ridership projections for the extension and render it redundant. "The city and the TTC don't know how many people will ride the Scarborough subway, how much it will cost, or even where it's going," Matlow wrote, adding, "This information should be required prior to moving forward with an infrastructure project of this expense." But Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who is one of the subway's biggest boosters – it will run through his ward – fired back at Matlow, accusing him of "delay tactics." De Baeremaeker told the board that while Matlow has advocated for a Downtown Relief Line, "for people who live east of Victoria Park, he has done everything he can to stop us from getting [underground transit]." Holding up Matlow's letter, De Baeremaker said he planned to "throw this in the garbage where it belongs." TTC CEO Andy Byford also supported awarding of the contract. He told the board that it's important to assemble a project management team early in order to hit the ground running once the environmental assessment is done. "If you don't, what you are doing is incurring delay at the start that will almost certainly have a knock-on both financially and in terms of schedule," he told the board. Byford said that even without final plans for the subway, the project team could get working on tasks like designing the tunnels. He stressed that the contract does not commit the city to paying the full $80 million - that figure is only the maximum the city could be billed. He told reporters the contract included "escape clauses" which the could get the city off the hook at minimum cost if plans for Scarborough transit change. At the same meeting, the board also approved changes to the TTC's fare inspection program. A new pilot project will see only some of the inspectors carry batons and handcuffs, after some councillors raised questions about equipping the employees with weapons. The board also voted to examine more "customer-friendly" clothing for the inspectors, who currently wear police-style uniforms. Councillor Joe Mihevc, who moved the motion on batons and uniforms, says it was his intention to reshape the inspectors' image to make them less intimidating and lower the risk of a violent confrontation with customers. Byford agreed to study the pilot, but he told reporters after the vote that he isn't supportive. He says the TTC considers the batons defensive weapons that keep inspectors safe. "I really am very concerned at any proposal that says we should send these fare inspectors out without any personal protective equipment," he says. bens@nowtoronto.com | @BenSpurr |
A New Way to Sketch It’s always been difficult for me to maintain a daily sketchbook for drawings. I am not exactly sure what the reason is, but I think part of it has to do with my psychological inability to be visually imaginative and create scenes in my head to transfer to paper. Usually, I am better at sketching things I am looking at in front of me that I can respond to in realtime, but I got tired of drawing people in public or coffee cups at cafes. It’s not easy for me to carry around an array of props and objects to make impromptu still lifes while on the go, and even if I did arrange props at a home studio, they would always end up feeling stale, so eventually I just gave up daily sketching altogether. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I have been finding VR an interesting in-between space where I feel safe to quickly create endless arrangements of objects. In my VR-studio, objects don’t feel stale, because they are lightweight and I can always easily change their scale, color, rotation and position, or instantly change the shape altogether. Additionally, since it is very easy to take in-VR screenshots, I not only create 3D “sketches” (as 3D models) but can also quickly make many 2D “sketches” (as screenshots) based on different angles of the VR scenes, similar to sketching an object from various angles in real life. A sculptural sketch in Anyland made out of cake slices, inspired by ‘Nose (and detail)’ by Rachel Harrison Sculptural sketches turned into 2D screenshots With the addition of mobile-based AR that I’ve recently been using, I’ve been able to take these VR-studio objects (and other 3D scanned objects) out in public as well. When I’ve been inspired to sketch or create imagery, I’ve been able to quickly “materialize” the objects into AR and take screenshots as sketches on my smartphone. I put the AR objects on top of other random objects and surfaces around me, and I take endless screenshots as I find compositions that feel good to me. Using AR versions of ice cream and cake slices as sketching material while I am out A “page” from my “sketchbook” of AR sketches All of a sudden, I have found myself with more sketches than I know what to do with, and it feels refreshing to look back at all my screenshots periodically and take the time to absorb them and see a visual language start to develop. As a painter, I’ve always been inspired by the visual foundations established by post-war abstraction which have led to the more recent trend of collage in contemporary painting seen in artists like Bruce Wilhelm, Keltie Ferris, Lauren Luloff and Zak Prekop. These painters break the depth, texture and color of the canvas in ways that are surprising and jarring but are also somehow harmonious in their dissonance. With my new sketchbook full of VR/AR imagery, I finally have enough source material to make my own collages. I have been editing the images digitally to play with color shifts, and then either collaging them digitally or printing them on paper and tearing them up to make physical collages. Physical and digital collages made from my VR/AR sketches I’m happy to be keeping a sketchbook again, especially since it is leading me to imagery that I feel confident in exploring and maturing further. Now that I am comfortable with this new process of making my sketches in VR and AR, I would love to find a web-based tool that lets me store all the images in a sketchbook-like fashion, so that I can flip through them easily: Flipping through my AR/VR sketchbook Try it yourself! If you’d like to try your own AR smartphone-sketching, try visiting this page and using a HIRO marker to make a stack of red cake slices appear, or remix the page here to use your own 3D models! Click to Launch A New Way to Sculpt Since my new sketchbook has 3D models in addition to 2D images, I realized that I can use them to help me create physical sculptures and not just physical paintings. I recently discovered how to export the 3D .obj models from Anyland into the .fbx format that the Microsoft HoloLens supports, using a freely available app from Autodesk called FBX Converter. Once in the HoloLens, I can open my VR sculptural sketches in 3D Viewer Beta, which allows you to place, rotate and scale objects in a persistent AR scene. One of the first things I did was place my VR sketches in a corner of my new barn studio. I wanted to see how they felt outside of the virtual world and in a physical space, continuing the experiments I began back in January while at Banff. Rotating a sculpture created in VR in an AR setting An enlarged sculpture in the barn These AR sculptures feel different from my previous sculptural experiments with the HoloLens, back when I was using the clunky user interface of HoloStudio to create the sculpture from scratch in AR. Since these sculptures were created as sketches in VR, they were created using the convenient sculpting tools available in Anyland at a comfortable scale, so the sculptures have a more dynamic feeling to them. Seeing my VR sketches come to life in my studio has inspired me to try to materialize them into physical materials. Even though I don’t have any training in sculpture, I have been wondering if having an AR model with me in the studio would serve as a good object to ‘sculpt’ from, much like sketching or drawing from a still life. I recently tried a setup in my studio that looked like this: Building a physical sculpture using an AR sketch as a model Finished physical sculpture next to the AR model Physical and augmented sculptures overlayed I was surprised at how easily I was able to make a physical sculpture using the AR model as a guide. I found that my previous experience in drawing by sight was easily translated to this process; it almost felt like drawing in three dimensions. The process reminded me of a class at the New York Studio School called Sculpture Marathon, which I have always been interested in taking . In this case, however, I skipped over sculpting from real life objects like fruit or props and jumped straight to sculpting from an augmented reality object. The process was so fast and automatic that I found myself intuitively repurposing scrap materials I had around the studio like sponges, foam, plaster and plastic. I tried filming via the HoloLens while I was working, but when reviewing the footage later on I found that I was working too fast to capture anything appropriately. Moving too fast to capture photos In addition to copying the AR model in physical materials, I also found myself trying to take pictures of the surprising moments that are usually lost to the fast artistic process. At one point, I tried to cut a bar of soap in half and discovered that soap doesn’t cut cleanly but instead splinters into beautiful shards. This is usually the kind of moment that I try to remember later on as a potentially useful technique for a future artwork, but which can sometimes get lost in the mess of a studio practice. With AR headsets, it seems like there is a possibility to capture those moments in the moment, and then immediately continue working without having to disrupt the creative flow. I was really happy with the resulting physical sculpture, especially because it felt somehow aligned with the collages I had been creating in 2D: Various views of a sculpture created with an AR model as a guide Now that I have adopted sketching in Anyland as part of my studio practice, I am excited to bring those sketches to life by using them as AR models to sculpt from in my physical art studio. Even though these first few studies are small in scale, they give me ideas for what materials may work at a larger scale. Next, I would like to buy much larger blocks of foam so that I can try making larger sculptures, mimicking the life-size scales that I’ve been experimenting with in VR. A New Way to Assemble I am constantly trying to figure out who my sculptural inspirations are as I add more sculpture-making to my art practice. Some abstract sculptors I like are Phyllida Barlow, Jessica Stockholder, Helen Marten and Rachel Harrison (mentioned earlier in this post). A similarity between all of these artists’ works is a seemingly random arrangement of forms, colors and materials to create a whole. It is a type of collaging that also involves the weight, shape and angles of the materials to create assemblages in the round that fit together not just visually, but also physically. While I have been able to play with similar ideas in VR with Anyland, I eventually found myself wanting to collage those sculptures with other 3D models I had been making outside of Anyland. Using the same HoloLens software that I used to sculpt from AR models, I’ve been experimenting with collaging my growing collection of 3D models in AR: Assembling an AR sculpture out of 3D models created using Anyland and photogrammetry Assembled AR sculpture photos These early sculptural collage experiments feel like they are on the right track for my studio practice, and they feel better to me out in the real world than they do in Anyland. Assembling them in AR lets me use my physical intuitions in a way that working VR doesn’t really allow. I can walk around them, feel their scale, feel their presence in a room and begin to gauge their “surrealness” and emotional affect on my body. Already, I’m finding that I want to combine these 3D models with real life objects as well, which would let me expand the visual and conceptual vocabulary of the cake slices and ice cream cones that I am bringing together. I am interested in collaging techniques both in 2D and in 3D because of the way they let you create meaning out of disparate elements. Here at eleVR, we love collaging anything from software tools to artistic techniques to ideas and disciplines. For my sculptures, I am interested in how different objects and symbols interact and create meaning from proximity. For a first shot at this, I brought in objects from around my home: a plant, a table, a box and a teddy bear: Large-scale, mixed-reality assembling in AR with a cake slice, ice cream cone, table, plant, teddy bear and box It feels amazing, and almost like a “physical” privilege, to be able to easily move these objects around as I find what feels good. Without having to worry about the technical details of how the objects will stick together or stand up without falling over, I am able to just move, rotate and scale them on a whim. This quick way of working lets me quickly come up with arrangements that feel fresh to me. They feel very similar to the experimental still lifes that I have blogged about before, except this time it is at a much larger scale. Since I am not limited by using a smartphone as the viewing window, I can freely walk around the sculpture and work more directly with the objects. Mixed-reality sculpture prototypes Immediately after making these initial sculptural collages, both the purely-AR ones and the mixed physical+AR ones, I imagined using them as models to sculpt from in foam. I can picture myself using the following workflow: Create many 3D model sketches in Anyland or with photogrammetry Using the HoloLens, arrange them in real space, combined with other real objects Use the arranged AR objects as models to sculpt from in foam Eventually replace the AR objects with the foam ones? I’d love to materialize some of these sculptures completely in physical materials so that I can coat them in paper mache or plaster, and then paint freely on them with spray or acrylic paint. I should have been able to make these kinds of sculptures before, but I had never been able to make arrangements that felt right to me; it was either taking too long, or I felt too precious about the materials and objects. With AR, I am finding the arrangements quickly, not having to be precious about materials, and it feels like I’ve finally overcome the obstacle to making the sculptures I’d like. I am really looking forward to making more of these soon, and hopefully at this large scale! Synergies in Art Practices These recent experiments in sketching, sculpting and assembling have been inspired by many of the experiments that M has been doing in their own studio. They’ve also been augmenting their studio practice in cool ways with VR, AR, green screen techniques, and more. Hopefully they can share more of those experiments with you soon, but for now, here is a sneak peek!… I look forward to seeing how our art practices continue to evolve!– Evelyn |
Big winger Jordan Greenway and the Terriers face UMass in the first round of the Hockey East playoffs. No surprise that Jordan Greenway found his way to hockey. He grew up in Canton, N.Y., with hockey-crazed Ontario in his backyard, and with local Division 1 programs at St. Lawrence and Clarkson (short drive up Route 11) dominating the sports conversation throughout the 12 months of winter in upper-state New York. “You really can’t go 5 miles without seeing a rink around there,’’ said Greenway this week, following a workout with his playoff-bound Boston University Terriers. “As a kid, I went to all of them. Wherever there was open ice, I was there.’’ These days, there is an increasing amount of open ice, and scoring chances, whenever Greenway rolls over the boards for the Terriers. A 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound freshman left winger, he was promoted to BU’s top line just two weeks ago and has continued to find abundant success skating with fellow frosh Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson at center and senior Danny O’Regan at right wing. Advertisement But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Again, we’re talking about a 6-5, 225-pound freshman, who only recently turned 19, who looks as if he’ll fill out to 240 or 245, and who might post up on off days for the Terriers’ basketball team. Get Sports Headlines in your inbox: The most recent sports headlines delivered to your inbox every morning. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here “He is such a freak athlete,’’ noted hockey coach David Quinn, his squad set to face UMass Friday in the opening round of the Hockey East tournament. “I joke all the time, if he was a football player, he would be a five-star tight end at Alabama or Notre Dame.’’ Truth is, football once held an interest for both Greenway and his brother, J.D., who is one year younger and has hopes of joining the BU roster next year. Both Greenway boys played football and lacrosse as kids, but ultimately hockey won out, with J.D. following his brother to Shattuck St. Mary’s (Faribault, Minn.) and later to the US National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Hockey was just the thing,’’ said Greenway, who moved from Canton to Shattuck at age 14 to pursue his dream. “I think I just always liked it best, too, and that helps, obviously. I was a rink rat. I liked being at the rink so much, and using a stick and puck instead of a ball.’’ With the speedy, towering Greenway plugged into left wing, BU’s No. 1 line has collected 4 goals and 13 points over the last four games. Greenway started slowly, with only a pair of assists to show by Thanksgiving, but has remained on a point-per-game tear (5-16—21) over the last 21 games. Advertisement “He’s been one of the best players in [Hockey East] these last 2-3 weeks,’’ said O’Regan, the former St. Sebastian’s standout from Needham and a 2012 draft pick of the San Jose Sharks. “I think he has contributed a little bit of puck protection,’’ added Forsbacka Karlsson, who was selected by the Bruins last year in the second round of the draft. “In the offensive zone, he can protect the puck very well and find either me or Danny — that’s something good for us.’’ Lane Turner/globe staff Jordan Greenway is surprisingly nimble and has an excellent skill set for a player his size. Also drafted in the second round last June, No. 50 overall by the Minnesota Wild, Greenway has become a slightly more straight-line player, using his speed to fire straight up the wing, noted Quinn, rather than waste time and energy with crossovers and side steps. Once in the offensive zone, where he can dominate around the net with his size, Greenway’s athleticism is obvious and even somewhat alarming. For such a big guy, he is nimble and quick, showing the dexterity and stick skill more typical of smaller, more compact wingers. “Usually guys that size, you think, ‘Oh, boy, wait until his coordination catches up with his size, he’ll be a great player,’ ’’ said Quinn. “Well, he’s already got it. The physical tools are all there.’’ Advertisement It’s a skill set, Quinn believes, that eventually will convince the Wild to shift Greenway to center. It’s far more typical of a college center to shift to wing in the pro game, the demands of playing the pivot far greater with all of its defensive responsibilities. Quinn is impressed, too, by Greenway’s low center of gravity, his ability to play in a tucked, crouched position, also not easy for bigger players. “Heck, I should put him in the middle because of the way he skates, his vision,” said the coach. “I think he would be a phenomenal center.’’ lane turner/globe staff Jordan Greenway takes direction from BU assistant coach Scott Young during a recent practice. Quinn is also happy to say that Greenway is among the brightest, happiest players he has coached at BU. He comes to practice each day with a smile on his face, then goes about the hard work that translates into something else on the faces of opponents. “It’s to the point now, every time the whistle blows, five guys on the other team are thinking, ‘Where the hell is Greenway?’ ’’ said Quinn. “We talk about that as a team: ‘Who are you making mad out there? Your job is to make them mad.’ “I don’t want guys on the other team tapping our guys on the shin pads and saying, ‘Hey, nice shift,’ you know? And Jordan’s turned into that player. I mean, in the Beanpot final, after every whistle, every BC kid was saying, ‘Where the hell is Greenway?’ ’’ The easy answer: first line, left wing. For now. How much longer is anyone’s guess. Asked if he thinks Greenway will play the full four years at BU before turning pro, Quinn said with a laugh, “Probably not. “This day and age, I think probably we keep him maybe for three years and then drive him to the airport — reluctantly. A happy day for him, but a sad day for us.’’ |
A new report warns that current levels of Arctic ice melting could trigger key "tipping points" leading to catastrophic and uncontrollable climate change. If these tipping points are reached, the effects would become their own drivers of global warming, regardless of human attempts to reduce carbon emissions. The Arctic Resilience Report is the work of 11 research institutions from around the world, including six universities and the Arctic Council, a forum of Arctic states. Its lead author, Marcus Carson of the Stockholm Environment Institute, told the Guardian that "the warning signals are getting louder" and that current Arctic conditions "make the potential for triggering ... much larger." A number of the tipping points relate to shrinking areas of ice, both on sea and on land. As you might expect, sea ice and land ice are both highly reflective, acting like mirrors reflecting much of the sun’s energy back into space. When ice cover is reduced, that energy is instead absorbed as heat, leading to a rise in temperatures. This, in turn, triggers further melting and additional temperature rises. The Guardian’s Fiona Harvey says the risk of ignoring these potential triggers is severe. “There are many of these tipping points — and this has the potential to create a runaway form of global warming that ... would be very, very difficult to stop." Scientists have expressed shock at the huge increases in temperature currently being recorded in the Arctic. Temperatures for November would normally be around -13 degrees Fahrenheit (-25 Celsius). Instead, this month they have been about 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees C). In addition, sea ice coverage is down 30 percent from levels 25 years ago, and is at the lowest levels ever recorded for this time of year. “That’s not a minor fluctuation,” says Harvey. “That is what scientists call way-off-the-charts. We need to understand that the problem is growing ever more urgent." |
Good news – the next video will be an actual update about the game’s development! However, I still need some more time to prepare the video. It should be up on the 15th or the 16th! In the meantime, however, I do have a new build to share with you! It’s mostly bug fixes and minor changes, but there is a little bit of new functionality, too. To see a list of everything that’s different in the new build, scroll down past this gorgeous illustration by LynnTsunami! Click “Continue Reading” to read the rest! Fixes, Changes, Additions Got the Custom Soundtrack feature to work as originally intended. (The current implementation is not final; there will be updates in the future.) Made further adjustments to some of the geometry on the school rooftop to prevent bizarre-looking shadows from forming on the roof. Moved some of the UI elements down by 1 pixel so that there wouldn’t be empty space between them and the bottom of the screen. Fixed bug that would cause the exterior of a trashcan to become completely bloody if a bloody weapon was placed inside of it. Fixed one of Yandere-chan’s hairstyles, which was showing a face texture where a bow texture was supposed to appear. Re-created the list of quality settings that existed in the game’s launcher before the conversion from Unity 4 to Unity 5. Fixed bug that caused the hill behind the school to use different lighting / shading than the rest of the environment. Fixed bug that would cause students to vanish if they walked past the school gate after a certain time in the day. Fixed bug that caused the magical girl wand to play the wrong “High-sanity attack” sound effect sometimes. Fixed bug that prevented male students from reacting to a radio that Yandere-chan had activated. Updated the nurse’s character model so that her skirt won’t clip into her butt when she walks. Fixed bug that would prevent the demonic arms from dismembering victims. Added a collider to an object in the infirmary that was missing a collider. Added a texture to a manga book that was missing its texture. Updated male student “high-sanity bat death” animation. Added a new accessory for Yandere-chan. There was a bug that would cause weapons to fall through the ground if dropped on the hill behind the school. As a temporary workaround, any weapon dropped on that hill will now teleport in front of the hill. A more proper fix will be implemented in the future. Mission Mode Specific Fixed bug in Mission Mode that would make a student fail to recognize a corpse if it was being held in Yandere-chan’s arms. Adjusted one of the criteria in Mission Mode; the player can now get a game over if a security camera notices a corpse. Fixed bug that was preventing some parts of the UI from turning white during Mission Mode. Fixed bug in Mission Mode that made security cameras fail to observe Yandere-chan. Adjusted the volume of a Mission Mode music track that was way too loud. Info-chan now has a reaction to seeing a photograph of Nemesis’ panties. |
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