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The head of Louisiana's state police has announced that two law enforcement officers have been arrested over the fatal shooting of a six-year-old boy and the wounding of his father earlier this week. Colonel Mike Edmonson said in a news conference on Friday that the two officers were being booked on charges of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder over Tuesday's shooting in Marksville. Edmonson identified the two officers as Norris Greenhouse Jr and Derrick Stafford. State police have been investigating the death of Jeremy Mardis, who was in a vehicle with his father when pursuing officers opened fire. Edmonson gave few details of what happened but said the investigation was ongoing. Two other officers were involved in the incident. "He didn't deserve to die like that, and that's what's important," Edmonson said at a news conference. Citing camera footage of the incident, he said: "I can tell you, it is the most disturbing thing I've seen, and I'll leave it like that." |
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates used to memorize employees’ license plate numbers so that he could keep track of when they were arriving at work and leaving. Gates, who is now co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, described his intense management style from Microsoft’s early days during an interview on the BBC Radio 4 program “Desert Island Discs.” Related: Paul Allen's mega-yacht blamed for destroying coral reef "I had to be a little careful not to try and apply my standards to how hard [others at the company] worked. I knew everybody's licence plate so I could look out the parking lot and see, you know, when people come in,” he said. “Eventually I had to loosen up as the company got to a reasonable size." Related: Clock is ticking for Windows 7, Windows 8.1 on new PCs as Microsoft focuses on Windows 10 Gates was 19 when he dropped out of Harvard to start Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. He stepped down as the CEO of the software giant in 2000 and stepped down as the company’s chairman in 2014. The philanthropist also described his relationship with Apple co-founder and tech icon Steve Jobs during the radio interview. Related: 5 Windows 10 tricks you need to know "Steve really is a singular person in the history of personal computing in terms of what he built at Apple,” he said. “For some periods, we were completely allies working together - I wrote software for the original Apple II. Sometimes he would be very tough on you, sometimes he'd be very encouraging. He got really great work out of people.” Gates also described how his relationship with Jobs changed over the years. The former Apple CEO lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2011. Related: Microsoft unveils billion-dollar cloud plan to help nonprofits "In the early years, the intensity had always been about the project, and so then [when] Steve got sick, it was far more mellow in terms of talking about our lives and our kids,” he said. “Steve was an incredible genius, and I was more of an engineer than he was. But anyway, it was fun. It was more of a friendship that was reflective, although tragically then he couldn't overcome the cancer and died." On “Desert Island Discs” guests are invited to choose the eight records that they would take with them to a desert island. Among his selections, Gates chose “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Queen, Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced” and “How Can Love Survive” from “The Sound of Music.” |
On June 30, two astronomical objects are destined to meet: The planet named after the Goddess of love, Venus, and the planet named after the God of Thunder, Jupiter. On Earth, they will appear so close together that they will look like a dramatic "double star." These two planets have been gradually approaching each other for the last few weeks, creeping toward their closest point: 1/3° apart. That's close enough to be able to cover them with the tip of your pinky finger with an outstretched arm. In reality, they will be around 670 million kilometers (416 million miles) apart in space. The planets will also look like they're of a similar size, but Jupiter is actually the largest planet in our solar system and Venus is smaller than Earth. It is thanks to their relative distances that they appear to be of a similar size when peered at from Earth. From left to right, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Lunar and Planetary Institute. This phenomenon will be visible to the naked eye in the Western sky. If you have a pair of binoculars handy, or, better yet, a telescope, you can have a peek at the pair and hopefully even see Jupiter's four moons. This converging in the sky is known as a conjunction. A conjunction between Jupiter and Venus is not unusual; the duo were last seen close together in the sky on August 18, 2014. Fortunately, if you miss this sighting and you missed the one in 2014, Venus and Jupiter have scheduled another date for the morning of October 26, 2015. On this day, they will be separated by 1°. And if you still can't see this meeting, then next year, on August 27, the planets will reunite once again. Here they will be separated by a stunning 0.1°. Night Skies: Moon, Venus, Jupiter In Tight Company. Taken in 2008. George M. Groutas/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Header image: Benh LIEU SONG/Flickr Central Image: George M. Groutas/Flickr |
This map of the 2008 election results shows the concentration of Democratic voters in just a few cities. (The Washington Post) It looks as though divided government might be inescapable for the foreseeable future. There are more Americans likely to vote Democrat, and it will be a challenge for a Republican to win the presidency. Meanwhile, Republicans look set to hold onto the House for the next several cycles due to their broader geographic distribution. Jim Geraghty laid out a plan for untying the knot over the weekend, one that will make Democrats livid: Republicans in the state legislatures in several swing states could change how their states' votes are divvied up in the Electoral College, using their authority under the Constitution. The result would be that Republican candidates, not Democrats, would be the odds-on favorite in any presidential race. Most states allocate all their votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the most ballots statewide, but they're not required to do things that way. The statewide winner gets only two votes in Maine and Nebraska, while each remaining vote is awarded for winning a congressional district within the state. Since Republicans are more spread out across the country, this system would benefit Republicans if it were used in every state. Even implementing it in a few swing states where Democratic candidates could otherwise hope to win all the votes would destroy their chances of winning a majority in the Electoral College. For example, in the winner-take-all system that most states use now, a Democratic candidate could hope to win all of the votes that Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin have in Electoral College. As Geraghty writes, if Republicans who control the state governments in those states switched to the model that Maine and Nebraska use, neither party's presidential nominee could expect to win much more than half of the electoral votes from each of those states. With little hope of winning those votes, a Democrat would have little chance of winning the presidency. This isn't a new idea. As Matthew Yglesias notes, this idea has been proposed and rejected by Republican elected officials already in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Perhaps the proposal just seemed too slimy, even though it's constitutional. Perhaps those Republican politicians remembered why so many states adopted the winner-takes-all system in the first place, about 200 years ago: when a state's electors vote as a bloc, they're much more influential. Take a state like Ohio, where the congressional districts aren't all that competitive. With luck, a candidate campaigning hard in Ohio might win a couple of additional votes in the Electoral College under Geraghty's proposal, but it wouldn't be worth the time or the money. Ohio voters and their concerns would simply be left out of the presidential election. (They would also be excluded if the legislature simply appointed a slate of Republican electors to cast votes for the party's nominee, without even holding an election, which is another constitutional option. In that case, even if a majority of voters preferred the Democratic nominee, all the state's electoral votes would go to the Republican.) In short, any changes would require Republican governors to sacrifice their state's interests in order to advance the national party's chosen candidate, whoever that might turn out to be. Given all the dissent and bitter differences of opinion among the G.O.P. rank and file, that sacrifice is probably not one that state leaders will be eager to make. Welcome to Wonkbook. To subscribe by e-mail, click here. Send comments, criticism or ideas to Wonkbook at Washpost dot com. Follow Wonkblog on Twitter and Facebook. What's in Wonkbook: 1) Loretta Lynch named for attorney general 2) Opinions: Republicans, immigration, the Berlin Wall 3) Supreme Court takes challenge to Obamacare 4) Window-shopping for health insurance begins 5) The jobs report, GM's recall, rogue drones at football games, and more Number of the day: 17,230. That's how many kids under 6 have gotten sick from eating those little laundry detergent capsules, according to a new study. A small percentage were hospitalized, and at least one child was killed. Paul Ziobro in The Wall Street Journal. Chart of the day: Even after a solid jobs report, wages remain depressed. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 1. Top story: Loretta Lynch nominated for attorney general Lynch is an uncontroversial pick. As the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, she's accustomed to bringing cases against elected officials, cops, terrorists and white-collar criminals. She chaired a commission that advised Attorney General Holder on matters of policy, and she's been confirmed by the Senate twice already. Sari Horwitz and Juliet Eilperin in The Washington Post. She's stayed out of the public eye throughout her career. Even those who have worked with her closely know little about her. Her best-known case was probably the trial of a group of police officers who beat and sodomized a Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, 20 years ago. Stephanie Clifford in The New York Times. Republicans call for her to take a stand on immigration. Several G.O.P. senators want to know whether Lynch believes that Obama's plan to delay deportations through executive action is legal. Susan Crabtree in The Washington Examiner. 2. Top opinions: Republicans, immigration, food, Ebola, and the Berlin Wall MANN & ORNSTEIN: Which Republican Party won the midterms? The coming internecine warfare between G.O.P. factions will be just as important as their disputes with Obama. McConnell and Boehner have a difficult task ahead of them, made more difficult by the fact that now Republicans have real power and will want to use it. The Washington Post. DOUTHAT: Here's rooting for a Rand Paul-Marco Rubio Super Bowl. The two senators best embody the opposed tendencies in the Republican Party. One supports using government to create opportunity and social mobility, while the other is a pure libertarian. Both have good ideas, and a contest between the two of them for the G.O.P. nomination in 2016 could be genuinely worth paying attention to. The New York Times. BARRO: Republicans are only sometimes the party of Uber. Most regulations on business are enforced at the state level and below, often by Republican politicians concerned about protecting local business interests. "In practice, it's not clear Republicans are any more pro-market than Democrats when it comes to business regulation." The New York Times. COWEN: Immigration can save First-World economies from decline and help people in developing countries get by. Aging and declining populations in the developed world are a serious problem that doesn't receive enough attention from policymakers. One solution is immigration. Another is encouraging people to have more kids. But will countries be willing to do what's economically necessary? The New York Times. BITTMAN et al.: The United States needs a national food policy. Because of bad food, children today are expected to live shorter lives than their parents, marking the end of a century of progress in human health. Yet no one person or agency is responsible for setting the policy to address the problem, and we don't have an agreed-upon set of principles for doing so. The Washington Post. SUMMERS: Ebola is nothing compared to the pandemics the world could face in the future. A catastrophe on the scale of the Spanish flu of 1918, which killed 50 million people, is more likely than not this century. The good news is that we can prepare ourselves now by investing in better public health systems everywhere. The Washington Post. MELVYN LEFFLER: The free market didn't bring down the Berlin Wall. Neither did President Reagan, since you ask. The convenient history that names the United States as the force that ended Communism ignores the contributions of individuals and civil society in Eastern Europe, and the fact that European democratic socialism was the compromise that won over ordinary people living behind the Iron Curtain. Foreign Policy. 1989 German industrial rock interlude: KMFDM's More & Faster. 3. Supreme Court will hear new challenge to Obamacare King v. Burwell will be heard in February or March, and a decision is expected this summer. "The case concerns tax subsidies that currently help millions of people afford health insurance under the law. According to the challengers, those subsidies are being provided unlawfully in three dozen states that have decided not to run the marketplaces, known as exchanges, for insurance coverage." Adam Liptak in The New York Times. If the challengers win, about 11.3 million people will probably drop their health insurance. They would lose access to the subsidies that make insurance affordable for them and their families. Jason Millman in The Washington Post. FELDMAN: How will Chief Justice Roberts rule? Will he maintain the centrist, restrained attitude he adopted when he cast the deciding vote in favor of Obamacare? Or will his conservative colleagues persuade him? Bloomberg. ADLER: The case was inevitable given the simple language of the law. Opponents observed as early as 2010 that the law limited subsidies to those states that were running their own exchanges. The Washington Post. (From January 2014) ABBE GLUCK: Being true to the text of the law means rejecting the challenge. Textualism requires reading the entire law and looking at each sentence in context, not focusing on a single word or a single line. SCOTUSblog. BEUTLER: The Supreme Court has appointed itself as a death panel. If the court upholds the challenge, people who depend on medication to live will no longer be able to afford it, and they will die for want of health insurance. The New Republic. 4. Window-shopping opens for Obamacare The doors aren't open yet, but consumers can peek in at what's available and how much it is likely to cost. The new features are designed to make shopping for insurance like shopping on Amazon. Consumers are confused about what they need to do to enroll again, according to surveys, so it's important that using the site be intuitive in order for the markets to succeed. Alex Wayne in Bloomberg. This is it -- Round Two for Obamacare. "This is when people are going to start poking around Healthcare.gov, getting a sense of what is available, what it costs, and whether they want to buy it." Sarah Kliff at Vox. Officials are 'scrambling' to be ready in case anything goes wrong on the big day. Publicly, administration officials are optimistic that the Web site will function much more smoothly than it did last year, but they're preparing in case it doesn't. "They have been making contingency plans in case the information technology or other aspects prove less sturdy than the administration predicts. And some preparations are coming down to the wire." Amy Goldstein in The Washington Post. British history interlude: "4. Arguably, The Earl's need to juggle his duties as head of navy and his sex life led him to invent the sandwich." -- @HeerJeet 5. In case you missed it Friday's jobs report was very strong. The top-line number, 214,000 jobs added to nonfarm payrolls, is encouraging and it's probably an underestimate of the total number of the economy added last month. Justin Wolfers in The New York Times. People are flying drones over stadiums during games, and the FAA is not pleased. Rogue drones equipped with cameras are a safety concern at sporting events and a violation of airspace restrictions. " The problem has become most common at football games, with at least a half-dozen drone sightings reported at major college and NFL contests since August." Craig Whitlock in The Washington Post. General Motors didn't tell regulators about a safety problem for two months. The automaker placed an "urgent order" for 500,000 new ignition switches without telling federal regulators. A problem with the switches has been blamed for at least 30 deaths. Jeff Bennett in The Wall Street Journal. Valerie Jarrett is the president's longest-serving and most influential aide -- and has long been the target of critics. She's the subject of all kinds of paranoid speculation, and she's also the person who can reveal the most about President Obama's thoughts. "A decade after his ascent, there is still a basic unknowability about him, a puzzling gap between his talents and the public’s enthusiasm for his years in office. No wonder Jarrett inspires such fevered theorizing. She is the closest we have to a human decoder ring—the only person who can solve the mystery of why this president has left so many feeling so unfulfilled." Noam Scheiber in The New Republic. |
NASHVILLE – When you have the hero’s journey of John Scott, Jaromir Jagr wigs, Chewbacca masks and a goalie making saves with a guitar, the actual NHL All-Star Game itself might have been overshadowed a bit. But the NHL nailed it. It really did. The 3-on-3 format not only worked this season, but showed good potential for being the format that finally figured out how to take a moribund event and inject both excitement and drama into it. Along with putting the skill of the NHL’s best and brightest on display, of course. Scroll to continue with content Ad The genesis of the 3-on-3 format was a desire from the NHL and the NHLPA to go in a different direction after last season’s unwatchable game in Columbus; and from Nashville Predators officials to have something new as the hosts of the 2016 game. “We sat down and we said that we don’t seem to be getting the bang for our buck at All-Star. Let’s reevaluate what we’re trying to do at All-Star,” said Mathieu Schneider, special assistant to the executive director of the NHLPA. “Everyone was in agreement that it needs to be something special and unique. It should be a great weekend for hockey, and it hasn’t seemed to be translating like that for the last few years.” The Predators had a hefty investment in All-Star Weekend, and the last thing the team wanted was for the lingering bad taste of the previous All-Star Game to dampen the enthusiasm for theirs. “We felt very strongly that we wanted to make this the best All-Star Game ever. There was negative feedback about the All-Star Game, so why not make a change?” said Predators GM David Poile last November. “And once we saw the 3-on-3 overtime format … for most hockey guys, general mangers or owners of the clubs as well as the players, we thought it was time to try something different and make it special.” Story continues It was different, and it was special. Here are six reasons the new NHL All-Star Game format was a blockbuster success: (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) 1. It Stopped Trying To Be A Real Hockey Game, And Started Trying To Be A Real Hockey Overtime Here’s the problem with vegan burgers: They can look like hamburger patties, right down to the fake grill marks, and fit perfectly on a hamburger bun. But take a bite and … well … not a hamburger. The NHL All-Star Game always looked like an actual hockey game: Same number of players, same length of periods, same rules. But it never actually resembled an actual hockey game because it was a hit-less, methodically paced affair without any semblance of intensity. So by shifting to the 3-on-3 format, the NHL actually stopped attempting to present a watered-down version of a regular season game and instead presented a slightly-less-intense version of their current overtime format. Which, it turns out, is more in line with how an All-Star Game should play. “In the 3-on-3, even in the regular season, there isn’t any hitting. So it felt like we were playing the same kind of game that we were in the regular season,” said Cory Schneider of the New Jersey Devils. Don’t underestimate the subtle psychological encouragement that provides: NHL players aren’t motivated to compete in a cheap recreation of a regular-season game. But by playing in a 3-on-3, it almost tricks their brains into competing in something that looks, smells and tastes like overtime. “In 5-on-5, you don’t want to look like you’re trying to hard. Like if a guy gets a breakaway, do you really want to hack him?” asked Brent Burns of the San Jose Sharks. “In 3-on-3, there are all the opportunities to try hard. All the guys in here are dripping sweat.” (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) 2. Actual Stakes And Drama A lot was made of the $1 million prize for the winning divisional team, but most of the players downplayed that as a motivator. What does motivate players? Winning and being eliminated from a tournament. “That’s exactly what it was,” said Corey Perry of the Anaheim Ducks, of the new elimination tournament format. “You want to win. At the end of the day, you want to win. For everybody in here, we were having fun.” Two of the games were one-goal affairs, with an extra attacker on the ice at the end. John Gibson had to make a tough save at the buzzer to preserve the Pacific Division’s victory. “There’s actually something to play for,” said goalie Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals. “You wanted to win the mini-tournament.” 3. Goalies Were Given Chance To Shine Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning predicted that goalies – who have long been nothing more than props in the All-Star Game – would have a chance to shine in the 3-on-3. “It’ll let the goalies showcase a little bit more than in the 5-on-5, where it seemed like there were a lot more backdoor plays and stuff. Not as many big saves,” he said. “The players are going to have a couple of goals here or there, but I think you’re going to see some big saves in a 3-on-3 format.” That it did, including this Jedi moment from Jonathan Quick. If nothing else, the All-Star Game was a reminder that scoring chances, rather than actual goals, are what make hockey exciting. And there were plenty in that 1-0 finale between the Pacific and the Atlantic, but the goalies were up to the task. 4. Breaking Up The Monotony Twenty-minute period. Musical act. Twenty-minute period, same players. Musical act. Twenty-minute period, same players, final buzzer, MVP gets a car, we all go home. That’s been the NHL All-Star Game for at least the last 25 years. So this new format breathed new life into it. Three different games provided three different experiences. The musical acts were spread out. The whole thing felt looser and more relaxed, and yet there was actual anticipation for that finale for the All-Star Game “championship.” John Scott had a weird and difficult road to the NHL All-Star Game in Nashville, but he made the weekend more fun than it's been in years. 5. Rooting Interests Quick: Name five players from Team Foligno last season. We’ll even spot you Nick Foligno. The All-Star Game works best when there are some ties to NHL allegiances, which is why “East vs. West” was always better than “North America vs. The World” or “Team Alfredsson vs. Team Chara.” In this case, the allegiances are even more specific: Asking fans to get behind division, rather than conference, rivals. And for the players, there was a sense of divisional pride on the line. At least when it came to the Pacific. “I think with the way things have gone this year with our division, and everyone calling it the weakest division in hockey, I think maybe as a group we might try to stick it to them a bit,” said Calgary Flames defenseman Mark Giordano before the game. After the Pacific Division victory, he relished the way they won the game. “It was a typical Pacific Division battle for us: 1-0, grind it out,” said Giordano. "One-nothing, grind it out, chip-and-chase sorta game.” And finally … 6. The Sense Of Fun It’s almost unfair to project what the 2017 NHL All-Star Game experience will be like, because the John Scott story was so unexpected and so unrepeatable. There’s no question that the cult of personality that surrounded him elevated a very entertaining event into something almost operatic. But overall, the weekend felt more playful, and not just because of the mullet wing and the Chewbacca mask on Saturday night. It was P.K. Subban sprawled on the ice in an attempt to block a shot that no one wanted to take. It was some fancy scoring moves and dynamic saves in the 3-on-3. It was the odd coach’s challenge on Corey Perry’s goal in the finale, that may or may not have been commissioned by recording artist and celebrity coach Amy Grant, who also gave Subban a serious of shoulder massages during the game. It was fun. Which is what it’s supposed to be. The best news for the NHL coming out of the Nashville All-Star Game is that it doesn’t need another John Scott moment to have a successful All-Star Game. The bones of thing are stronger than they have been for years. And so were the ratings. -- Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold. |
Mr. Zinke would be a continuation of the long tradition of interior secretaries from western states, where the agency oversees millions of acres of federal lands. A third-generation Montanan who grew up in Whitefish, a small railroad and logging town, he has defended keeping the nation’s public lands in federal hands, saying he would never advocate their sale or transfer. But he has also been a staunch advocate of mining and logging on those lands. He has also consistently voted in favor of maintaining the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is funded by royalties from oil and gas exploration on public lands but intended to preserve other natural habitats. Mr. Trump hopes his interior secretary will reverse the Interior Department’s role under President Obama, who used the agency to advance his climate change, land conservation and renewable energy agenda. Under Mr. Obama’s interior secretary, Sally Jewell, the department put forward plans to block oil and gas drilling on expanses of public land and water, freeze new leases for coal mining on public lands, and promote the development of renewable energy on federal property. Mr. Zinke would have the authority to reverse most of those initiatives, although some changes could take as long as three or four years to put in effect. Environmental groups said they feared that Mr. Zinke would be prepared to carry out Mr. Trump’s agenda. “Though Mr. Zinke has expressed support for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and opposes the sale of public lands, he has prioritized the development of oil, gas and other resources over the protection of clean water and air, and wildlife,” said Theresa Pierno, president and chief executive of National Parks Conservation Association. “Mr. Zinke has advocated for state control of energy development on federal lands, a move that threatens our national parks.” But his confirmation could help Democrats in the Senate. Senator Jon Tester of Montana is one of 10 Democrats up for re-election in 2018 in states carried by Mr. Trump. If the Interior post suits Mr. Zinke, Mr. Tester has lost a formidable challenger. |
SINGAPORE: A 20-year-old man covered in blood was found at Northpoint Shopping Centre in Yishun on Friday (Aug 12). Police said preliminary investigations suggest that it was a case of attempted suicide. The man was found in a semi-conscious state on the third level of the mall. They were alerted to the incident at about 1.15pm and investigations are ongoing. Advertisement The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said it was informed of the incident at 1.22pm. It despatched an ambulance and conveyed a man in his 20s to Khoo Teck Puat hospital. "He had multiple injuries and the hospital was on standby to receive him," the spokesperson said. A passerby, who asked to remain anonymous, said he was walking around Northpoint at about 1.20pm when he saw a crowd of people gathering outside the Cantine food court on the third level. "I was really shocked (to see) a man lying down on the floor covered with blood. There were security guards and policemen guarding the premises," he said. "He was unconscious. He wasn't responding at all. The security guards were telling people to go away from the scene." Advertisement Advertisement Photos of a bespectacled man wearing jeans and a green T-shirt soaked in blood were circulating on Twitter on Friday afternoon. Eyewitnesses said the man collapsed in front of Cantine's Indian cuisine stall. An employee from Chen Kang Body Spa next to the food court said he heard some sounds and decided to check it out. "When we came out, he was already lying on the floor," said the man who declined to be named. Chen Kang Body Spa at Northpoint Shopping Centre. (Photo: Calvin Oh) "We asked what happened, but he couldn't speak," he said. "The injury seemed to be near the neck." Unconfirmed reports said the man had stumbled out of the toilet. The toilet near the food court was closed off to the public following the incident, according to an employee at Konsortium travel agency. Ms Teck Jin, 38, said: "We wanted to go to the toilet but we couldn't because the guards were blocking (it off). So we didn't see what happened." When Channel NewsAsia visited the scene on Friday afternoon, the security guards had left the area. The toilet also looked as if it had been cleaned. A spokesperson for Frasers Centrepoint Malls, which manages Northpoint Shopping Centre, said they were alerted to the incident at 1.20pm. "The police cordoned off the area for about an hour. The area was made accessible to the public again at 3pm," the spokesperson said. "We continue to work closely with the police to support their investigations." |
On Twitter Sunday afternoon Bill Kristol courted mockery and scorn from GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump when he teased the imminent announcement of an “independent candidate — an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.” Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate–an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance. — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 29, 2016 The Weekly Standard editor has been leading the charge in recent weeks for an independent conservative to challenge Trump in the general election. Trump responded in characteristic fashion, lashing out at Krisol as a “dummy” and a “loser.” He also echoed his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski who said on Fox Sunday that if a third-party candidate entered the race, it would spell the end of the Second Amendment, because a Democrat would make new appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. Bill Kristol has been wrong for 2yrs-an embarrassed loser, but if the GOP can’t control their own, then they are not a party. Be tough, R’s! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016 The Republican Party has to be smart & strong if it wants to win in November. Can’t allow lightweights to set up a spoiler Indie candidate! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016 If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an Independent, say good bye to the Supreme Court! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2016 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com |
Turns out there’s a good reason municipal governments are rated the junior partners of Confederation. As Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has made humiliatingly clear, cities — this one, anyway — are not just dysfunctional, but incompetent. It’s up to Premier Dalton McGuinty to take control of the transit file to save Toronto from itself. The ball’s in his court. ( VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR ) The ritual firing of TTC chief general manager Gary Webster this week was a case in point: The five Ford minions who did His Worship’s dirty work at the commission didn’t know the first thing about what they were doing. In the end, they couldn’t even appoint Webster’s 2IC, Australian Andy Byford, acting chief general manager because his work permit doesn’t allow it. Nobody had bothered to look. Like their bosses, Rob and Doug Ford, the fulsome fivesome are as weak on detail as they are the big picture. That’s why it’s up to Premier Dalton McGuinty to take control of the transit file to save Toronto from itself. The ball’s in his court. Article Continued Below That the premier has no appetite for such an exercise in leadership is both obvious and understandable. For years, the city has been whining about how nobody takes it seriously, how no one loves it or respects it. Now we know why. The truth is that Toronto can’t look after its own interests; as the transit file illustrates, we are chronically unable to make a decision and stick with it. For McGuinty, making the choice that eludes Toronto will be tricky. Though he doesn’t want to ignore the mayor, there’s no option. The expert panel has yet to speak, but it’s a foregone conclusion that the numbers are against “subways” not just on Eglinton, but also Sheppard and Finch. Cheaper and more efficient, surface light rail transit is the way to go, the experts tell us. Subways are nice, but cost three times as much. Ontario, let alone Toronto, is economically strung out, lurching from crisis to crisis, its credit rating hanging by a thread. Given that the province is covering the $8.4 billion price tag of Toronto’s transit expansion, it will want to ensure we get the biggest bang for its buck. In Ford’s scheme, the Eglinton LRT would run underground from end to end, adding $2 billion to the cost, money that could be better spent elsewhere on Sheppard or Finch. Ford’s rigid insistence that all new transit go below grade makes so little sense, it provoked an unprecedented council revolt led by his chosen TTC chair, Karen Stintz. She persuaded council to bury Ford’s plan in favour of hers, which would run partly above and below the street. Article Continued Below Ford’s response, nasty, brutish and petulant, was to brand council “irrelevant” and fire Webster “without cause.” Perhaps to bolster their sagging popularity, the Fords have now bullied radio station Newstalk 1010 into giving them a Sunday afternoon phone-in show. This will allow them an opportunity to bump Councillor Josh Matlow’s program and provide them with a platform from which to hold forth. Those who lament the loss of Matlow needn’t worry; putting the Fords on air will give listeners a rare chance to experience first-hand the full extent of the brothers’ banality. In the meantime, Toronto must face the fact its clueless chief magistrate is in way over his head and lacking the wherewithal to serve as mayor. Instead, we must rely on McGuinty to snatch victory from the jaws of self-inflicted Fordian defeat. Not since Bill Davis cancelled the Spadina Expressway in 1971 has an Ontario premier been called on to play such a critical role in the life of the city. Then, as now, the future is at stake. Christopher Hume can be reached at chume@thestar.ca Read more about: |
Unvanquished ships with its own stock set of ten maps, ranging in size from small maps meant for clans to duel on, to larger ones meant for huge public games. Our maps have all been made by members of our development team, and are continuously updated across our release cycle. Some maps have been upgraded from their original incarnations as Tremulous maps, while others are entirely new creations. This article presents an overview of our current collection of maps, and we are always looking to expand our collection. It’s an easy way to join our team, too! Here’s a word from Viech, our art director, gameplay designer, and all-around cool guy who does a million other things: First of all, if you have experience mapping for Tremulous, there are a few new features you may like! We support textures with normal and specular maps and we also ship seven texture sets that you can use right away. The texture sets are shared between maps, using our new filesystem that allows for pk3 dependencies, so your map releases can be really small, shipping only the textures you made or added yourself. The textures are also compressed using the DXT family, which boosts map load time quite a bit even for high resolution sets. If you have made a Tremulous map and want to port it, we have Chameleon to support you with that. It’s a tool that allows you to exchange textures in your map with textures of different size without losing your alignment, among other things. If you want to create your own texture set there’s also Sloth, which auto-generates .shader files for you. For both NetRadiant and GTKRadiant we have been working on new entity definition files to reflect a new entity naming scheme and new map features, which include color grading and audio reverb effect. You will find that a few entities have been deleted or corrected which were already outdated under Tremulous. We cleaned up the pk3 structure a bit adding a subfolder for meta-data such as the levelshot and the .arena file. You will also notice that the new file system prevents other packages from interfering with your own resources as they are only loaded if you add them as a dependency of your map or mod. Now for all our maps, in alphabetical order: Antares Designer: Pevel Version: Alpha 4 Size: Small Originally a small map for Tremulous, and one of Pevel’s first maps, Antares has been massively overhauled in comparison to its previous incarnation. The map as a whole is much more detailed, has new rooms, and is still in development. Chasm Designer: Supertanker Version: Beta 1 Size: Small Consisting of two bases connected by a series of corridors on one end and and a snowy field on the other, Chasm fulfills the niche of a small, nearly symmetrical map for clan matches. The map also features a large chasm of instant death, which led to its current name. Previously, it was called Snowstation. Forlorn Designer: EmperorJack Version: Alpha 11 Size: Medium Another one of our new maps, Forlorn has been in development since last year, with new releases constantly updating its appearance as Jack details the rooms and corridors. The map has been in development alongside a new texture pack that will be the first from our project. Parpax Designer: Viech Version: Delta 4 Size: Medium One of our earliest maps, Parpax has seen continued progress since its inclusion in our project several years ago. The present map is a result of constant updates to reflect game balance changes, as well as feedback from players on its layout. Perseus Designer: Pevel Version: Beta 5 Size: Medium A medium-large map designed as a sort of futuristic prison complex, Pevel has ported it from Tremulous and provided it with an overhaul. The map is heavily detailed, and displays some nice color grading. In addition, a few gameplay flaws have been fixed, such as the vent facing the alien base. Plat23 Designer: EmperorJack Version: Beta 13 Size: Small The first map made for our project, and the only one to have been included in our very first release back in 2012. It has come a long way since then, and has been massively improved over the years. The map functions as an ATCS alternative, having a similar layout to the old map, but with a larger scale and more detail. Plus, it also has a chasm of instant death! Spacetracks Designer: Supertanker Version: 1.0 Size: Large Originally made for Tremulous, Spacetracks has been ported to our project by Supertanker, featuring new textures and better lighting. It still has the old elevators of death, where players can enjoy luring their teammates, only to chuck a grenade in at the last second. Station15 Designer: Supertanker Version: 1.0 Size: Large Also ported from Tremulous, Station15 is a large map with plenty of pretty rooms and a variety of routes to take to the opposing base. Compared to prior versions of the map, it’s been completely retextured and features nicer lighting and shadows. Thunder Designer: EmperorJack Version: Beta 3 Size: Enormous An absolute beast of a map, Thunder is the largest by far, and is likely even more massive than several of our other maps combined. Featuring dozens of rooms and double the amount in corridors, the map is served well by our minimap and beacon systems. It’s great for satisfyingly long public games! Yocto Designer: Pevel Version: Beta 2 Size: Small One of our smallest maps, Yocto still manages to present an eerie atmosphere. Meant to represent an abandoned undersea research base, the map has an abundance of hiding spots to plan ambushes from, and plenty of tight twists and turns. It’s also unique in having a violet-blue tone throughout. |
The Phoenix Suns missed the 2015 NBA Playoffs, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn from them There’s nothing that rivals the experience that a team can gain by making the NBA playoffs for the first time as a unit. The Phoenix Suns know that — but it doesn’t mean they should just sit at home and feel sorry for themselves. This is an opportunity to learn by watching the clubs that did make the playoffs, to see what they can learn from each team. In each of the last two seasons, the Suns have had an opportunity to make that initial push — that first bit of growth that every team receives as a result of making the playoffs. Unfortunately, the team has had it’s share of fatal flaws that have reared their ugly heads late in the season. In 2013-14, the Suns finished 48-34 but couldn’t take care of business in the last two weeks of the season, including a horrific road loss against the Los Angeles Lakers, when they needed a win badly. In 2014-15, that same situation came to light, as the Suns were battling to sneak into the playoffs but they had a terrible home loss to the Sacramento Kings that in retrospect, ended their season. Let’s look at four different teams that the Suns should be watching intently, so that they can improve and finally break through in 2015-16. |
Remember when Bill de Blasio, the People’s Mayor and not at all one of those imperious out-of-touch/out-of-town billionaires, promised a new era of transparency in city government? Now that he’s in charge, he’s about as transparent as oak. This week the Press Club of New York blasted de Blasio in an open letter that said, “You have departed from a precedent set by at least eight mayors before you, which has been to take questions in open press conferences without restriction as to the subject matter.” That doesn’t sound like the Billy Blazes we were promised. “I will increase transparency with a series of reforms of the Freedom of Information Law,” candidate de Blasio told the New York City Bar in an interview published in 2013. “I will include FOIL [Freedom of Information Law] statistics in the Mayor’s Management Report . . . I will also levy fines and penalties against city agencies that regularly duck and delay FOIL requests, and proactively post online information that is most-frequently sought by FOIL request . . . I have continued to go beyond the current laws when it comes to transparency and disclosure and will continue these practices when Mayor.” These days, though, de Blasio has established an alarming habit of walling off reporters from his public appearances. By May he had already logged 83 events at which journalist access was restricted or barred. At press conferences, he bristles when asked a question he doesn’t want to answer, telling the hacks that they’ve gone “off topic,” a phrase de Blasio evidently hopes sounds less self-incriminating than “no comment.” The trick is this: de Blasio holds a presser, warns everyone to stay on topic, then answers questions on anything that comes up. Until he is presented with a question he doesn’t like: Then he swats it away for being “off topic.” Meanwhile, the unanswered FOIL requests are piling up. Asked about burying FOIL requests he promised to treat as lovingly as a mom does her kid’s crayon portraits, de Blasio told Capital New York, “I’m no lawyer.” The buck stops . . . over there. Go talk to my general counsel. And what did he say? “Most of us favor transparency in the abstract,” Zachary Carter told Capital New York. Concrete transparency might actually involve giving up information that could hurt his boss. Which is exactly why we have freedom of information laws in the first place: accountability. People who purport to be doing the public’s business prefer to do so secretly. Capital New York published this priceless summation of Hizzoner’s new tune on FOIL: “The de Blasio administration said no records would be turned over under the FOIL law, which protects certain government records from being disclosed, like some ‘intra-agency communications’ and ‘instructions to staff that affect the public.’ ” Those are some pretty big asterisks. It’s like you bought a jar of vitamins and discovered the fine print read, “may cause jaundice, heart palpitations, projectile vomiting and irreversible brain damage.” De Blasio’s campaign vow, “I will increase transparency with a series of reforms of the Freedom of Information Law” meant, “I will strangle transparency until the little monster is gasping for air, suckers. Now let’s get back to me giving meaningless crowd-pleasing speeches about inequality!” As Mayor, de Blasio has gotten a little more sophisticated. He sounded like Slick Willie II when he told the New York Observer, “I believe deeply in transparency. By definition it is in the eye of the beholder. We believe there is a whole swath of information that needs to be available to the public [if it] . . . is appropriately disclosable.” Amusingly enough, de Blasio’s previous gig was public advocate, which despite being a small-to-irrelevant office did successfully produce a lot of verbiage — much of it about transparency. Last April, for instance, Public Advocate de Blasio trotted out a “Transparency Report Card,” discovering “many agencies have failed to obey the law and make records public. At the NYPD and Housing Authority, which both received an ‘F’ rating on the report card, nearly a third of Freedom of Information requests went altogether unanswered. Across all agencies, one in ten requests to the fell through the cracks — a clear breach of Freedom of Information Law.” All year long, de Blasio’s NYPD has been charged with stonewalling FOIL requests. In February, an NYPD official wrote to a Gothamist reporter that he was unable even to provide a copy of the department’s FOIL handbook, citing attorney-client privilege. De Blasio is merely borrowing from his idol, President Obama, who famously promised to deliver the “most transparent administration in history.” That promise has so been so belied by Obama’s information-restricting White House that it prompts “snickers . . . tipping toward outrage,” reported Politico. Larry Seary, the president of the New York Press Club, might have been thinking of both men when he said in his open letter to de Blasio, “It is sad that a man who deems himself a progressive, is retrogressive — when freedom of the press is at stake.” |
The Pittsburgh Steelers might have come out to a slow start on Monday Night Football against the Washington Redskins, but they certainly finished the game with authority. After a 38-16 victory, the Steelers solidify their spot as one of the favorites in the AFC to reach Super Bowl 51. A lot can change throughout the course of a 16-game season, but how might the team rank among all 32 NFL teams after Week 1? We take a look at some of the more well-known Power Rankings and show you where they have the Steelers ranked, what they said about them and also the Top 10, according to that specific website. 1. New England Patriots 2. Denver Broncos 3. Pittsburgh Steelers "Terrell Davis. Jamaal Charles. Curt Warner. Larry Johnson. Those are just a handful of the many, many running backs who have fewer career rushing yards than DeAngelo Williams. Now in his 11th season, 33-year-old Williams is just 71 yards from leapfrogging Garrison Hearst and becoming a top-50 rusher all-time. He has been a godsend for the Steelers during Le'Veon Bell's repeated absences from the lineup." 4. Cincinnati Bengals 5. Carolina Panthers 6. Seattle Seahawks 7. Green Bay Packers 8. Houston Texans 9. Arizona Cardinals 10. Kansas City Chiefs 1. New England Patriots 2. Denver Broncos 3. Green Bay Packers 4. Pittsburgh Steelers "Statement game from the Steelers on the first stanza of Monday night's double-dip. Please allow for us to spotlight one player: DeAngelo Williams. The dude is absolutely amazing. He rushed for 143 yards, including 73 in the fourth quarter, and pulled off the sickest move between two defenders you'll ever see. What a pro. Meanwhile, part of being a powerful team is winning with depth, thus the leapfrog over the Seahawks." 5. Seattle Seahawks 6. Carolina Panthers 7. Arizona Cardinals 8. Cincinnati Bengals 9. Kansas City Chiefs 10. Minnesota Vikings 1. Green Bay Packers 2. New England Patriots 3. Seattle Seahawks 4. Pittsburgh Steelers "If you forgot how good Antonio Brown was, let a 126-yard, two-touchdown Monday night performance serve as a reminder. Look for Brown to have another big game in Week 2 against the division rival that ended his season early with a hit to the head last postseason." 5. Arizona Cardinals 6. Carolina Panthers 7. Houston Texans 8. Denver Broncos 9. Cincinnati Bengals 10. Oakland Raiders 1. New England Patriots 2. Denver Broncos 3. Seattle Seahawks 4. Cincinnati Bengals 5. Green Bay Packers 6. Pittsburgh Steelers 7. Carolina Panthers 8. Minnesota Vikings 9. Oakland Raiders 10. Arizona Cardinals |
Abbreviated as #!, Crunchbang Linux is a Linux distribution that derived from Debian. Using very few system resources, this software was designed to an Openbox window manager as opposed to the common desktop environment. In fact, the GTK+ widget toolkit were used for a variety of its applications. While most of its packages were drawn from Debian repositories, CrunchBang also had one of its own. While the product had a good run, developer Philip Newborough announced on February 6, 2015 that development had ceased. He encouraged consumers to instead use vanilla Debian. However, there were still enthusiastic users who made attempts to keep the environment alive by introducing similar software to take its place such as BunsenLabs and CrunchBang++. The Many Editions CrunchBang Linux users got the advantage in the fact that there were a variety of architectures that Linux provided an OpenBox version for including: i686 i486 i64 For users who required less power behind their technology, there was a cleverly-developed the Lite version to meet their needs that featured fewer installed applications. However, this development enjoyed a relatively short lifespan when it was abruptly discontinued. This occurred when Lite’s distribution base, Ubuntu 9.84, was no longer supported. All in all, CrunchBang itself lived a short lifespan of just over two years. The first version made available based on Debian, CrunchBang 10, was introduced to the world in February 2011 while the final version, CrunchBang 11 made its way into the public eye on May 6, 2013. Satisfied Clients Respond Positively The possibilities stemming from CrunchBang technology was certainly recognized, and many users of the product were very excited when they realized how the system could make lives easier. Just a few of the functionalities that have been praised include: One of the most efficient distros currently available It’s able to run on top of the line hardware Wonderful product for those who prefer functionality over form The Sudden Demise of CrunchBang Linux They say all good things must come to an end. However, most concepts at least have a chance to shine before dimming out from view. With CrunchBag Linux, though, the moment of fame would be a brief one. Technology is developing at an exponential rate. It can feel as though, once you purchase the latest gadget, something faster and more powerful becomes available. This was the case for CrunchBang Linux when, in February 2015, it was announced by the developer that the product no longer served a purpose to consumers. While this may have been the opinion of one man, there was certainly dissent when it came to the accuracy of this belief. Following the marked ending of the development of CrunchBang Linux, a number of users attempted to keep the fire alive by developing successor distributions including: BunsenLabs- A community-based successor, this Debian 8 stable release eventually received the traffic intended for its predecessor when CrunchBang’s domain traffic was routed to their website CrunchBang++ got the ball rolling as it was the first to be developed shortly after the announcement of the discontinuance of the original CrunchBang-Monara- also based on the Debian 8 stable release Both Sides of the Fence We are all individuals with our own opinions and thoughts, and that’s part of what makes life interesting. This fact doesn’t change when it comes to the thoughts shared when CrunchBang made its way off of the market. It’s plain to see that a large number of dedicated users were more than ready to keep the legacy alive. However, there were others who felt, as the developer, that it was simply time to move one. Just a few of their rationales include: The needs fulfilled by the product are already satisfied by Arch, Gentoo, and Debian Unstable Many of the defaults were highly difficult to replicate, especially for novice users Newer technology is in place that improvises on this outdated model An Exciting Future in Technology While CrunchBang Linux only lasted two years, both sides of the debate can agree on one thing: we live in an exciting time in history, and the possibilities in science and technology are vast. It takes a predecessor like CrunchBang Linux to provide the underlying knowledge to discover future advancements that the entire world can use and enjoy. |
Project CARS 2 recreates the high-adrenaline rush of pure motorsports like nothing that has come before. Exploring the main race settings options in-game offers a clearer picture of the type of experience that will come with Project CARS 2 when it releases on September 22nd, 2017. Here’s a little preview of what you can expect Date and time matter The main race setting offers you two options for the duration of your race—laps-based (maximum 999), or time-based (anything between five minutes to 24 hours). Setting the race length is ideally complimented by the date option. Here, you can choose the traditional race date for that location—Le Mans in early summer, for instance, or the Indy 500 in May—or you can choose any date that springs to mind. Selecting any random date that strikes your fancy matters because of LiveTrack 3.0. Choosing, say, a December date for Fuji will invariably mean your race will occur in cold conditions, opening up the possibility of snow. Project CARS 2, with its GPS-located tracks, will replicate your chosen track’s real-world weather: In other words, if the forecast is for snow in December at the scanned ’Ring, and you choose that date and track, snow is what you’ll be racing in. Wind, meanwhile, can play havoc with your open-wheel, aero’-dependent IndyCar—getting a tail wind on a crisp morning in October into Turn 1 that has yet to be warmed by the sun is the kind of racing that will make Project CARS 2 both challenging and viscerally unforgettable. This is what anytime, anywhere means in Project CARS 2. The weather and time of day scenarios—given the real-time weather options—are practically limitless. Moreover, you can experience, for instance, a full night-to-dawn progression, you can decide to speed up time with the time progression option which will, in effect, decide how quickly the earth revolves around the sun. Sounds fanciful, but given the game uses GPS positioning, the angle of the sun now has a direct bearing on your racing experience. For instance, in a scenario where it has rained through the night but the dawn comes clear and the morning sunny, those turns lying in the shade will take far longer to dry than turns that are directly warmed by the sun. Deciding, then, what lines to take, and which tyres you want to be on, becomes as crucial in Project CARS 2 as it does in real-world motorsport. Weather in Project CARS 2 is one of the core experiences of the game because it is reflected in the surfaces of the tracks which, in turn, directly affect the grip afforded to your car. LiveTrack 3.0 is the culmination of a decade’s worth of refinement by Slightly Mad Studios, and with Project CARS 2, the weather, combined with the surface you’re racing on that will alter grip levels corner-by-corner, guarantees one of the most exhilarating experiences you’ve ever enjoyed. The angle of the sun at a particular time of year, the shade of trees and their foliage, the type of race surface, all of this will have a direct consequence on the feel and grip of your racing machine. You can also choose the season for your race—winter, spring, summer, or autumn—or you can make use of the four “weather slots” that come with your race settings. With a simple tile design, creating four distinct weather “events” is as simple as a click of the controller. If these four (or less) slots are filled in with standard weather acceleration, your chosen weather “events” will each last one hour before the next “event” is transitioned via a fluid, realistic transformation. You can also speed up the weather events via the weather progression option that will modify how quickly the weather will transition—anything from “real time” to “Sync to Race”, which will change the weather in accordance to the speed of the race that you have chosen. The weather also plays a role in determining whether you’d like to run a formation lap. In Project CARS 2, the revamped tyre model has resulted in tyres that have been optimized for real-world performance, and that means they take a while before heating up. Using the formation laps to heat them as well as the brakes—carbon-based brakes, in particular, need time to get up to operating temps—brings a whole new realism to the motorsport experience. Pit-stops are live and fully animated Project CARS 2 will allow drivers to manually control their vehicle and manoeuvre it into the pit-box. If you come in too hot and miss your box, you’ll need to reposition your car. Drivers, meanwhile, who prefer to sit back and let the game’s AI take control while in the pit-lane will be given the option to do so too in race settings. Pit stops in Project CARS 2 are now fully animated. Motion capture technology was used to replicate the human actions that take place during a pit-stop. 3D character models will now run around your car and complete tyre changes and fuel refills just like real-life pit crews. The biggest challenge in creating this fully dynamic and beautifully realised animation was in capturing all the required body movements that take place in the many varied motorsport series featured in Project CARS 2, and their associated pit-stop rules. For example, some series allow tyre changes and fuel refills to happen simultaneously, whilst others must see tyre changes completed before fuel can be put into the car. You will experience pit-stops precisely as they occur in the real-world motorsport discipline you have chosen to run. Opponent settings and multi-class action The AI in Project CARS 2 has been the subject of an overhaul from the first instalment. Depending on the level that you choose to run them, you’re going to find opponents who will challenge you like never before. You can set the number of AI in your race up to the amount of grid spots at the chosen track. Their ability ranges from 0 (easy to defeat) to 120 (AI that has been optimized to crush your ego). The novelty to Project CARS 2, though, is the opponent field setting where you get to decide what cars the AI will drive. There are three choices here—the AI can drive the same car as you (useful for series such as IndyCar), or the same class (useful in series such as GT3, where you can race against GT3s from a dozen or so automakers), or, finally, you can decide to run a multi-class race (perfect for those 24 hour races at Spa, or Le Mans) where each class is scored and timed individually by class and not just overall. So you may be ninth at Le Mans, but you may also be winning in-class, and the game will now score both scenarios simultaneously. Multi-class racing recreates all the excitement of proper endurance racing; if you choose to run an LMP1 at Le Mans, for instance, you’ll need to deal with much slower GTLM cars, and if you choose a GTLM, you’ll be spending much time checking your mirrors as LMP1s come streaming through the night and pass you as if you were standing still. This opens up a whole new challenge for drivers in Project CARS 2. Mimicking the terrifying speed-differences between varying classes of cars on track simultaneously, all battling for position, is going to be keep you seriously busy, whether you’re the car that needs to give way to a suddenly-appearing Audi LMP1 monster, or you’re the LMP1 coming up to a stream of battling Porsches and Nissans. Motorsport Presets If you don’t want to modify the settings for the race weekend one by one, and want nothing but a recreation of a representational motorsport type, you can take a shortcut by going straight for the motorsport filters option. The purpose of these filters is to offer a number of presets that you can use in order to quickly set-up a race weekend that resembles one of multiple motorsport types in Project CARS 2. You may still modify the changes made by the motorsport filters option, but this is a useful shortcut, and also demonstrates the types of motorsport that will come with the game. Rallycross, IndyCar, GT, Endurance, Prototypes, Open Wheeler, Touring Car, Trackday, Road. Favourites Everyone will have a favourite car, track, weather, and even seasonal combination that feature settings that make it an ideal event. Maybe you like night racing at Long Beach, or you’d like to experience sunrise after a dark and foggy night in an LMP1. With a single press of a button, you can now use the favourites screen to set all options to the values that recreate that one setting you have come to adore. The list of favourites consists of four slots in which you can assign previously-used race weekend configurations. So if, for example, you have just driven a race that felt flawless, you can go to the favourites screen and save this event’s setup. This will make it possible to recreate that setup whenever you want to race it again. Anywhere, anytime is at the core of the Project CARS 2 experience, and the race settings is just one piece of the jigsaw of features in-game that guarantees you an authentic motorsport experience as no other. |
Toronto Police are looking for a name to match DNA in a cold case murder. Margaret McDonald was found dead in her 36 Lascelles Boulevard home, in the Yonge Street and Davisville Avenue area, on June 24, 1994. She’d been sexually assaulted, bludgeoned, and her throat was slashed. Although police gathered fingerprints and DNA, the case went cold. Now they’re turning to social media in hopes of identifying McDonald’s killer. Police say forensic phenotyping has narrowed the suspect down to a man of European descent, likely with dark hair and blue or intermediate coloured eyes. He would have been between 20 and 30 years old at the time of the murder, and would be between 40 and 50 years old now. He likely lived in the same general area as McDonald, and may have known she lived alone. Police also say the suspect likely had trouble having or maintaining intimate relationships with women at the time. Who killed Margaret McDONALD? #TPSCold Case. Homicde 26/1994. We have the killer's DNA. Info required, pls RT pic.twitter.com/btN0hRlRvI — Homicide Squad (@TPSHomicide) April 4, 2016 “There’s no doubt that there are people close with the offender, or were close to him at the time of the event,” Detective Sergeant Stacy Gallant explained. “You know that he did this, I am confident of that. If you want to remain anonymous, that’s perfectly fine. We have his DNA, so all we need from you is his name, nothing more.” A $50,000 reward has been authorized for information that leads to an arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the murder. |
A humorous metaphor for highly simplified scientific models of complex real life phenomena Spherical cow as illustrated by a 1996 meeting of the American Astronomical Association, in reference to astronomy modeling. [1] Cow as a homeomorphism of a sphere, leading to a related mathematical joke that topologists can't tell the difference between a coffee mug and a donut. A spherical cow is a humorous metaphor for highly simplified scientific models of complex real life phenomena.[2][3] The implication is that theoretical physicists will often reduce a problem to the simplest form they can imagine in order to make calculations more feasible, even though such simplification may hinder the model's application to reality. Overview [ edit ] The phrase comes from a joke that spoofs the simplifying assumptions that are sometimes used in theoretical physics.[4] Milk production at a dairy farm was low, so the farmer wrote to the local university, asking for help from academia. A multidisciplinary team of professors was assembled, headed by a theoretical physicist, and two weeks of intensive on-site investigation took place. The scholars then returned to the university, notebooks crammed with data, where the task of writing the report was left to the team leader. Shortly thereafter the physicist returned to the farm, saying to the farmer, "I have the solution, but it works only in the case of spherical cows in a vacuum". It is told in many variants,[5] including a joke about a physicist who said he could predict the winner of any race provided it involved spherical horses moving through a vacuum[6][7] or a physicist whose solution to a poultry farm's egg-production problems began "Postulate a spherical chicken ...", as presented in a 1973 letter to the editor of the journal Science titled A Spherical Chicken.[8] Alan Turing, in his 1952 paper "The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis" asserted that: "a system which has spherical symmetry, and whose state is changing because of chemical reactions and diffusion ... cannot result in an organism such as a horse, which is not spherically symmetrical."[9] In popular culture [ edit ] Consider a Spherical Cow is the title of a 1988 book about problem solving using simplified models. [10] is the title of a 1988 book about problem solving using simplified models. "Spherical Cow" was chosen as the codename for the Fedora 18 Linux distribution. [11] In an episode of the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, the joke is told by Dr. Leonard Hofstadter with the punchline mentioning "spherical chickens in a vacuum".[12] See also [ edit ] |
By now, we’re used to seeing some pretty garish finishes on exotic cars coming from the Middle East. Over the years, we’ve witnessed everything from rides with chrome wraps to 24 karat gold plating. The brighter, the louder, the gaudier the better it would seem. But until the 2009 Dubai Motor Show, we had yet to encounter an OEM manufacturer who had caved to this aesthetic. Custom shops typically perform the painting and special appliques that have the rest of the world screaming the equivalent of automotive blasphemy. However, Mercedes-Benz has decided to follow the path of least resistance and embrace this cultural quirk. Enter the 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG “Desert Gold” Edition, a tasteful rendition of the German automaker’s latest supercar done up in a garb that would make any sheik proud. Beside the vibrant matte paint job, the trim, badging and grill work have gone from chrome to high-gloss black for a striking contrast. The wheels follow the same motif as well with painted black insets and a gold rim flange. As it stands now, this is a one-off creation. That said, Mercedes has indicated that if there is enough demand, they will provide said creation through their AMG Performance Studio program. I can only imagine how many orders are flying in as you read this… Source: Mercedes-Benz |
[Featured Image: Creative Commons, danielleellis55 on Flickr.] First off here’s a video I recorded for the CEM FOAMed network on “approach to the injecting drug user“. Be sure to subscribe on iTunes and check out the site. There’s a podcast feed and a blog feed, so be sure to get both. httpv://vimeo.com/98215239 [Direct Download ]] Injecting Drug User (IDUs) are frequent attenders at EDs for lots of reasons. While there is no doubt that there are a lot of social factors involved in these attendances, we can all too easily forget that these patients get really sick and often get left in the bottom of the queue of patients waiting to be seen. I think “the approach to the IDU” would make a great chapter for Rosen’s but it’s not in there yet. Harwood Nuss is the only one I’ve seen with a good chapter on it. Complications of injection drug use Hardwood-Nuss 5th edition p1398 I find this population of patients perhaps the most fascinating to treat. Generally ostracised by society in the way homeless people usually are. Usually undertriaged at the front door (“just another junkie”) I frequently find them in the waiting room with fairly dramatic vital signs. Without doubt injection drug use is usually not compatible with a stable and productive lifestyle and low grade criminality abounds. Certain aspects of the doctor patient relationship can be challenging here but they aren’t always drug seeking the way we expect they are. And if your waiting room is anything like mine by the time they’ve waited 12 hrs to be seen then they’ve usually gone into withdrawal and it’s easy to blame all their symptoms and abnormal vital signs on withdrawal (even though their symptoms and abnormal vital signs all occurred prior to their withdrawal…) All this to say that we approach them with so many cognitive biases and good old fashioned prejudices that it’s no wonder we fail to diagnose lots of the really interesting illnesses they bring with them. Soft tissue infections Probably higher incidence of MRSA Most tentanus and wound botulism these days is associated with IDU Necrotising fascitis is a much higher risk Pyomyositis is a nice complication Vascular DVT Arteriovenous malformations Pseudo aneurysm Here’s a quote “any mass over a vascular territory may actually be a pseudo aneurysm and should be approached with caution” I know a number of people with great stories of enthusiastic junior surgeons incising and draining these with impressive and unexpected results Associated abscess All 4 of the above in the same leg as I saw once… Those lovely cutaneous groin sinuses that descend to dear knows where. Mycotic aneurysms, typically with infectious endocarditis Pulmonary ‘Pocket shooting’: injecting into the supraclvaicular space in the hope of finding a vessel. Can result in pneumo, haemo, hydropneumo and the wonderfully titled pyopneumothorax Dissolving tablets and injecting them can result in what I’ve heard called trash lung or talc lung. [Check out BroomeDocs podcast with @dreapadoirtas on this] This can cause granulomas in the pulmonary and even retinal vasculature (in fact looking at the retinas for talc might be better CXR or pulmonary function tests) Restrictive and obstructive dysfunction can occur. I suspect this is commoner than we suspect. I see a lot of IDUs with lowish sats and it gets blamed on something like COPD from smoking. Chronic pulmonary hypertension can result Skeletal Osteomyelitis and septic arthritis can be local or haematogenous Commonest is vertebral osteomyelitis usually lumbar which may have associated disc it is with or without the even more emergent spinal epidural abscess Pain is often chronic (as has been in the cases I have seen) Don’t expect fever (unless you’re the admitting doctor in which case it can’t possibly be vertebral osteo without a fever…) Joint involvement is axial. Think sacroiliac, sternoclavicular, hip and pubic symphysis. (Mainly fibro cartilaginous joints if you’re into the anatomy of it all) This is really important as no one will consider septic arthritis in someone with tender central chest pain. Central nervous system Meningitis both fungal and bacterial Various sites for epidural abscesses Brain abscesses CNS aspergillosis Cerebral murcomycosis (even when HIV negative) Headache, fever, cranial and motor deficits Apparently basal ganglia lesions on CT are the key Fungal endophthalmitis Decreased acuity, eye pain White vitreal exudate on fundoscopy Blood Born Viruses Hep C (almost ubiquitous amongst IDU. >80% in our population) Hep B (up to 80% become seropositive over lifetime) HIV (about 10% in our local population) Endocarditis (lifetime incidence of 5%) Classic signs are rare Mainly right sided Cotton fever A brief, febrile episode following injection when the solution is filtered through cotton balls No way to distinguish this in the ED from the other more serious occult causes of fever in the IDU It might be easier is to think about common clinical presentations and then apply appropriate IDU pathologies IDU with stroke Brain abscess Subdural empyema Botulism Mycotic aneurysms Good old fashioned stroke Groin pain Abscess AV fistula DVT Pseudo aneurysm And I suppose it could be just a hernia Chest pain Pneumonia PE (esp in groin injectors) ACS (chronic inflammatory states like HIV lead to accelerated atherosclerosis. Never mind the cocaine use) Sternal joint osteomyelitis Headache Brain abscess Meningitis SAH (remember all the cocaine use that goes with the heroin) Complications of associated HIV Toxoplasmosis Lymphoma And yes it could just be a migraine too i suppose… Back pain Epidural abscess Discitis Vertebral osteomyelitis And yes it could just be good old fashioned back pain too I suppose Fever Endocarditis Meningitis Osteomyelitis Cotton fever HIV related TB (a lot of these guys are homeless and in Dublin anyhow there are reasonably high rates of TB amongst the homeless) Haematological malignancy And yes I suppose it could just be a flu or the dreaded ‘viral illness’ Shortness of breath PE Talcosis or trash lung Chronic pulmonary hypertension Pneumothorax from trying to inject a neck vein Aspiration from their recent OD, GCS 3 episode And yes I suppose it could be a good old fashioned chest infection too Cellulitis in IDU necrotising fasciitis Pyomyositis Subcutaneous abscess And yes I suppose it could be a simple staph or strep cellulitis References/FOAMed Resources: |
A former Utah high school teacher has been sentenced to serve a minimum of two and up to 30 years in prison for three counts of forcible sex with 16- and 17-year-old boys, after she was caught having sex with one of those 17-year-boys while she was out on bail during her trial. 35-year-old Brianne Altice from Farmington, Utah was arrested in October 2013 after three students from Davis High School reported their relationships with the teacher. Fox 13 Salt Lake City reports that originally, Altice faced rape charges, but the charges were pled down to forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony. Altice pled guilty to all three counts in April. One of the students previously testified that the charges against her are "ridiculous." He admitted to having sex with Altice once before her arrest, and three times while she was out on bail in December. Her lawyer, Ed Brass, argued in court on Thursday that Altice was not any of the boys' teachers when these sexual relationships occurred, and that the boys aggressively pursued Altice by with her: “She was relentlessly pursued for months by these young men,” Brass told the judge on Thursday. “I’m not excusing what she did. She’s plead guilty to some very serious crimes, there’s no question about that.” The prosecution, Deputy Davis County Attorney Cristina Ortega, countered that Altice was in a position to ignore the boys: While Davis County prosecutors acknowledged the teenage boys were flirtatious with Altice, they pointed out she was in a position to say no to any misconduct and she caused real harm to her victims. “Society for some reason says, ‘Well, they’re boys, they’re men. This would be any kid’s fantasy,’” said Deputy Davis County Attorney Cristina Ortega. “It’s not. This is real life.” Judge Thomas Kay agreed. POST CONTINUES BELOW “The point is, you’re the teacher. You’re the adult,” he told Altice. Judge Kay sentenced Altice to serve 1 to 15 years in prison for each count of sex abuse, two of which would be served consecutively. He also questioned Altice's remorse and understanding of the case against her. When she spoke in court, Altice said, "I've learned lessons beyond what you can imagine," adding, "Though I am flawed, I am better than this." [via Fox 13 Salt Lake City] |
Image copyright EPA Image caption Alexis Tsipras and his party are suspicious of Greece's creditors Red lines - everyone has them, including Greece and its creditors. Lines they can't cross. Commitments they say they can't break. But suddenly the red lines are everywhere. A counter-proposal put forward by the creditor institutions, in response to Greece's offer of budget reforms, is full of them. Put simply, Greece has offered to meet its budget targets mainly by raising taxes rather than cutting spending. But the creditors - and the IMF in particular - say that is unacceptable. They see it as a squeeze of a different kind, snuffing out any hope of economic growth. So there is still pressure for more cuts in the pension system, and the abolition of a larger number of subsidies. The Greek government may think it has given significant ground in its latest proposal. The creditors appear to be saying think again. Image copyright EPA Image caption If the Greek parliament rejects a deal with Europe then Tsipras may have to consider his position So the mood goes from bad to good and back again. In terms of absolute numbers, the distance between the two sides isn't huge. But the political gulf is significant. And Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is caught between a rock and a hard place - between the promises he made to his voters back home, and the commitments the creditors insist he must respect. But these negotiations aren't just about budget targets. The Greeks are also demanding that there has to be serious discussion of debt restructuring. On that issue there is more sympathy from the IMF. But there is less from the European Central Bank and several eurozone countries. 'An impossible position' One proposal is to transfer €27bn ($30bn; £19bn) of debt that Greece owes to the ECB into the ESM, the eurozone's permanent bailout fund. It has a more gentle long-term repayment schedule, and lower rates of interest. If Mr Tsipras can go home with a deal which feels terribly tough, but which includes promises to reduce the suffocating embrace of the debt burden, he has a chance of selling it. But he's now saying publicly that perhaps the creditors don't want a deal, or that they are pandering to specific interests inside Greece. That speaks to the suspicion within Syriza that the creditors are determined to put the prime minister in an impossible position. If he puts an agreement to the vote in parliament and loses, he will have to resign. And the EU's only government of the radical left would go with him. |
OTTAWA—Canada’s spy agency is gearing up to assist Ottawa’s new mission against the Islamic State, even as its assistant director questions whether the extremist group can ever be truly defeated. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale confirmed Thursday that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service will be part of the Liberals’ new strategy to stem Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale confirmed Thursday that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service will be part of the Liberals' new strategy to stem the Islamic State. ( Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo ) “We are providing new and additional intelligence capabilities in the region. . . . CSIS will have a role to play,” Goodale told reporters Thursday. “It will certainly be an increased role to accomplish larger objectives. It has some very valuable expertise that will be of assistance.” The spy agency was active during Canada’s long engagement in Afghanistan but Goodale said he couldn’t say more about this new role, adding, “that would be counterproductive.” Article Continued Below Michael Peirce, the assistant director of intelligence at CSIS, served up a blunt assessment of the challenge facing Canada and other nations working to curb Islamic State. “We won’t defeat ISIL and have rainbows and unicorns,” Peirce told a gathering of military and security officials and academics at a gathering organized by the Conference of Defence Associations. “Even if we were able to proclaim victory over ISIL, take back territory, we’ve seen what happens.” He pointed to the example of Al Qaeda’s Somalia-based group, Al Shabab, which he said was pushed back from territory it held but simply retreated to an area where it could continue its terrorist activities. “With over 20,000 foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, defeat of ISIL is really just going to be moving those foreign fighters to other theatres, other kinds of warfare,” Peirce said. “It will be an ongoing battle,” he said. With CSIS preparing to take on a larger role against Islamic State, Peirce offered insights about the agency’s role in Afghanistan, where he said it first forged a close working relationship with the military. Article Continued Below He admitted that CSIS first arrived in the war-torn country uncertain of its role. “But very quickly we started developing the capacity, using one of our greatest strengths: our capacity to recruit human sources,” he said, adding that those contacts were able to provide tactical intelligence. Early on, Peirce said CSIS was able to provide timely warning to the military about a potential attack, saving Canadian lives and highlighting the kind of work the agency could do. “From that moment forward we started working very closely together . . . . There was a recognition that we could have an impact,” he said. Peirce said his agency is now looking to forge similar ties to the intelligence capabilities within the foreign affairs department, which he said has been “up and down over the years.” “There have been times when it’s been an effective operating unit and other times when it has stumbled,” Peirce said. Read more about: |
BitTorrent Inc. released the SDK for uTorrent Apps today, allowing developers worldwide to code their own Apps for the popular BitTorrent client. To motivate developers into contributing their creations, the company has also announced a challenge with a $1000 prize for the best App to be submitted during the coming month. Earlier this year BitTorrent Inc. launched uTorrent Apps, a web-based extensions framework to add new functionality to the popular BitTorrent client without compromising the lightness most users have come to love. uTorrent App files have a .btapp suffix and consist entirely of HTML and Javascript. The Apps can be added to the client with a single click and are displayed using an embedded browser window. Similar to other apps, addons and extensions in today’s web browsers and phones, uTorrent Apps will allow 3rd party developers to create applications that will integrate seamlessly with the client. Initially only a handful of Apps were included with the experimental ‘Griffin‘ client. This project merged with the latest uTorrent 3.0 alpha release last week and today BitTorrent Inc. made an SDK available that developers can use to code their own Apps. “Apps for uTorrent is something that we are really passionate about. For us, it is a natural and important evolution of uTorrent,” says Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management. “It is a way for users to create a personalized experience by adding Apps that offer new features and services that are important to them – without compromising the lightness that they have come to love with uTorrent.” “Another important component of Apps for uTorrent is the developer community. Apps that inspire new and innovative uses of uTorrent – built by developers – are an important part of our vision.” To stimulate the development of uTorrent Apps, BitTorrent Inc. is also starting a developers challenge, awarding a $1000 prize to the best App to be submitted during the coming month. With the challenge they hope to encourage developers worldwide to create Apps that will highlight new use cases and redefine how uTorrent is being used. The Apps bundled with the latest release of uTorrent 3.0 are far from groundbreaking, so it will be interesting to see what creative implementations other developers come up with. Entries to the Apps developer challenge will be judged based on originality and innovation, quality of product, product or service appeal and technical expertise. The contest closes on Friday, August 13, 2010. |
The parents of James Foley, the journalist ISIS beheaded in August, learned about the U.S. government’s attempt to rescue him about an hour before the rest of us did. The grieving parents got word from President Obama himself. “I told Obama that Jim worked hard to get him elected,” John Foley, James’s father, told The Daily Beast. “He believed till the end his country would come and get them.” The president, according to John, responded, “Well I should tell you, we did try to save him.” Then Obama stunned John and his wife Diane, informing them of the failed special operations rescue mission from early July. In the call, Obama explained that this information about the rescue mission was classified. But not for long, it would seem. Foley added, “An hour later he went and told the world.” White House spokesmen have said that there was never any intention to share with the public details of the failed rescue mission in Syria. Word of the mission began to leak out on August 20, a day after James Foley was beheaded in a gruesome and slickly produced internet video narrated by a man with a thick British accent. White House officials briefed reporters that afternoon on the failed mission. For the Foleys, it was a tragic ending to an awful ordeal. Since their son first went missing right before Thanksgiving in 2012, Diane Foley, in particular, began a mission to find any way she could to try to get her son back alive. She pressed the White House, the FBI and the State Department for any information she could find on James. Often, she and John would tell the FBI about what they learned from other European hostages who were released this year by ISIS. The response the Foleys received was, for the most part, beyond disappointing—little more than a “pat on the head,” John said. Two months after the murder of James Foley, his parents are still frustrated with how they were treated by the White House—even as the Foley family works to establish a legacy fund for their son. In an interview with The Daily Beast, John Foley explained that the President seemed upset during their phone call. Diane was unimpressed with Obama’s empathy. “In between golf games mind you,” she said. “He did stop to call us in the middle of his vacation,” she continued. “In the United Kingdom, the prime minister came home from his vacation.” In September, the Foleys began to talk to the media about their frustrations with the Obama administration. At the time they said the White House threatened them with prosecution if they tried to raise private funds to purchase their son’s freedom. On Thursday they went into more detail. They discussed a moment in May, right after the White House announced a prisoner exchange that released Army Private Bowe Bergdahl. Diane Foley said she and other families of ISIS hostages thought there was hope the Obama administration would reverse its longstanding policy against paying ransom or negotiating with ISIS. But only a few days after Bergdahl’s release, the Foleys and other families of the hostages were on the phone with a senior White House official who informed them there was no chance at all for negotiations with ISIS. “It was out of the question,” Diane Foley remembers the official saying. (The Daily Beast is declining to name the official at the request of the White House). John Foley remembered the White House official going even further than that, saying there was no chance third parties would pay ransom or trade hostages with ISIS either. “’We will not ask any of our allies to do something we ourselves wouldn’t do like pay ransom, or trade hostages,’” Foley recalled the official as saying. Bernadette Meehan, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, declined Thursday to discuss the details of the communications with the Foley family. She did, however, defend the policy of not negotiating with ISIS. “The United States has a long-standing policy that we do not offer concessions to hostage takers because doing so would only put more Americans at risk of being taken captive,” she said. “Sergeant Bergdahl was not a hostage—he is a member of the U.S. military who was detained during the course of an armed conflict. His return was consistent with the longstanding practice of prisoner exchanges in war and, as such, is different from policy and practice relating to civilians held hostage.” While Meehan speaks for the White House, other parts of Obama’s government have pressed to change the U.S. policy of not paying ransoms to terrorists. Foreign Policy magazine’s Shane Harris reported this month that the White House and the State Department remain opposed to paying ransoms to terrorist groups, while the FBI and the Justice Department have asked for more flexibility. Diane Foley detected a difference in tone and emphasis on ransom payments from the FBI, which “was very willing to walk us right up to that point,” she said. “They made it clear that an exchange of funds may be necessary, but they themselves could not do that.” For the most part the Foleys had high praise for the FBI. Diane Foley said that the bureau gave them advice on how to craft a response to an email they received from ISIS at the end of 2013. “The FBI told us to write back a letter humanizing Jim,” she said. “They would look them over and tweak a word or two.” As the summer dragged on, the Foleys began to seek out their own ways to get their son back. Towards the end of Foley’s captivity, John and Diane Foley began a pledge drive to raise money for a possible ransom, even though they say the White House informed them that any efforts to pay a ransom to ISIS would violate U.S. law. “We had a million dollars in pledges at the end,” Diane Foley said. “Our hands were tied, we could not make it obvious, it had to be done under the guidance of pro bono attorneys… We didn’t want the money, we didn’t want to handle it, so we sought pledges. We didn’t want the money unless we needed it.” European governments, for their part, have long agreed to pay groups like ISIS ransom money. And that has yielded tangible results. Foley was held in Syria at the same location as several European hostages. But the Europeans had been freed in the weeks before Obama ordered the rescue mission into Syria, the Foleys said. In the end, the Foleys say they hope other families of hostages will be able to learn and benefit from their experience. They were in Washington this week to receive an award given posthumously to their son on behalf of the Oxi Day Foundation, a Greek American organization that celebrates Greek resistance to the Nazis. “The enemy is ISIS, not our government,” Diane Foley said. “All we are saying is that our government can do better for our citizens. We hope the James Foley foundation can foster dialogue for a more consistent policy on this.” |
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New Delhi: Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), a far-right Hindu nationalist outfit has been at the centre of controversy for raking up the issue of Nathuram Godse, the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. The organisation that claims its origin to Hindu Maha Sabha (1926) wants to resurrect Godse and make present-day India aware of his contribution and "the real cause" that led to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination on 30 January, 1948. The 45-year old Chander Prakash Kaushik, all-India president of ABHM speaks to Firstpost on Godse, reconversion, Hindu-Rashtra, etc Does the Hindu Mahasabha want Nathuram Godse to be seen as a national icon? Yes. We’ve written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh to install the statues of Nathuram Godse. If we can have a road in the name of the atrocious Mughal ruler Aurangazeb, why can’t we have one on Godse? If the government refuses, we’ll install Godse’s busts in all our offices in the state headquarters across the country. We’re also planning to release a film on patriot Nathuram Godse on 30 January, next year. Don’t you think invoking Gandhi’s assassin is akin to blasphemy in our country? We’re not speaking against Gandhi. We’re highlighting the sacrifice and contribution of Godse, who was projected as a ‘killer and a villain’ by the Congress, the party that relegated several of our freedom fighters into oblivion. Intentionally, a negative image was created against Godse by the then government. He was a patriot, freedom fighter, an editor, and not a criminal. He’s a martyr and we want the people of this nation to know the truth that compelled Nathuram Godse to assassinate Gandhi. Let me remind, the former Chief Justice of Punjab, GD Khosla, who heard Godse’s appeal and sent him to the gallows, mentioned in his book that the people had a strong sentiment in favour of Godse and if public had been the jury, he would have been a free man. What's your view on the reconversion or ‘Ghar vapsi’ of Muslims and Christians? The issue of reconversion doesn’t arise. In India, there’s no original Muslim. If one tracks their genealogy, one will find that they have the same ‘gotras’ (clan or patriline) as we Hindus have. It shows they were originally Hindus. Take the case of Congress leader Ahmed Patel. Does an original Muslim suffix ‘Patel’ to his name, which reflects a Hindu caste? Unfortunately, there a few politicians, who have been politicising this issue for quite some time. Do you agree that reconversions are done forcibly? This is a rumour spread by the politicians. ABHM never converts anyone forcefully. We give people Gita, Quran and other religious scriptures to read, and they take the final call. Hinduism is a ‘Sanatan Dharma’, an eternal religion’, unlike Islam or Christianity, which is a sect. Hindus never forced anyone to get converted into Hindu fold. And, no one can prevent a Muslim who wants to get reconverted into a Hindu. We explain them the difference between the two religions – the good and the bad. Everywhere, we see in the name of ‘Holy Jihad’, innocents are being killed irrespective of their religion and caste. Even, children are not spared. It’s the Muslims and the Christians who forcefully converted the Hindus in our country. Have you set any target and deadline to reconvert Muslims and Christians into Hindus in India? We have no target or mission of any kind. It was Dharm Jagran Samiti that announced a target of making India a Hindu Rashtra by 2021 through reconversion, and we don’t have anything to do with them. Do you think that those who get reconverted get their due in the mainstream Hindu society? If it’s not so, it’s due to the government and its policies that reconverted Hindus are denied acceptability. But, during conversion, ‘Shuddhikaran’ (purification) is done and the person is taken into a ‘gotra’. Why is the intellectual class vehemently opposed to the activities of Hindu groups? It’s due to the mentality developed over the last 65 years under the Congress regime, which always made a Hindu feel alienated in his own country. It’s the politicians who made it so. As a result, often an Indian shy away from calling India, a ‘Hindu Nation’. Under the two-nation theory, the Partition took place and Pakistan was formed as a separate country for the Muslims. Don’t you think we are headed the same way? This will never happen in India, because this country accepted everyone irrespective of religion, caste or origin. So, is with Hinduism, which is an all encompassing religion and has accepted every faith and belief. It’s these politicians who decided everything in the Parliament and thrust upon the people of this country. Has the public ever been asked about its choice? India has always been a Hindu nation, and it continues to be so. No compromise on this issue will be accepted. Let’s not forget it was due to Gandhi that the Partition took place and he asked the then Indian government to pay Rs 55 crore to Pakistan as compensation. Why so? Gandhi’s presence led to several communal riots like in Noakhali, where thousands of Hindus were massacred, but he went on to support Muslims. He recited Quran inside a Dalit temple, but did he recite Bhagwad Gita inside a mosque or church? Why should Gandhi be called – Rashtrapita (Father of the nation)? Is the Bharatiya Janata Party going to support you on the issues of Godse and reconversion? Neither we’re a political party, nor contesting any election. We don’t need any support from any political party. The unfortunate part of BJP is that its Lok Sabha MP, Sakshi Maharaj hailed Godse, but after succumbing to pressure from “secularists” took a U-turn. Even, the BJP used Syama Prasad Mookerji as party’s slogan (Jahan hue balidaan Mookerjee, woh Kashmir hamara hai), when it came to Kashmir; but how many in the party know him or recognise his contribution. Will you take up the issue of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who is said to have not got his due? This issue hasn’t come up yet, because Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee was already the president of Hindu Mahasabha, who later moved out and formed a new political party -- Jan Sangh, a predecessor of today’s BJP. Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button. |
By Yomi Adegoke Follow @sittingwitty The comic book Gods have been doing some serious redecorating this year. After colouring an entirely alabaster comic book canvas with a mixed race Spiderman and Muslim Ms. Marvel, they took it to new heights, administering makeovers even Gok Wan would gawp at. With a strike of lightning, roar of thunder and heaps of derision from brooding fans, out from the bellowing froth of character creation stormed a new Thor; a new Thor with a very new vagina. And they didn’t stop there. Out of the same comic primordial goop sprung the formerly known Falcon as a black Captain America. The Internet trolls cracked their fingers. “Why mess with already established characters?” Red-faced pseudo fans huffed. But surely even the most oblivious of comic book enthusiasts must know that aside from a penchant for wearing undies outside of outfits, superheroes love a good ol’ switcheroo. The Turk to the Captain’s JD, Falcon was the most logical choice for the next wielder of the star spangled shield, so why have these alleged superhero super-fans taken such offense? “Well, because what’s next?” They cried in droves, “A transgender, Muslim, wheelchair-bound Hulk?” Well, why not? If Hulk’s going to be that angry, I can’t see anything better to rile him up than the everyday microaggresions Muslims, transgender and disabled people face on a daily basis. As someone who is black, a woman and a long time fan of comics, I warmly welcomed the changes. Sure, they could have created another anthropomorphic insect thing with a pair of (no doubt gigantic and unnecessarily exposed) breasts or a levitating black guy who controlled the winds (Is there a ‘Wind Whisperer’ already?) but I saw the move as both innovative and inclusionary. Superheroes are swapped all the time; a regeneration with a bit more melanin or estrogen should hardly shake up the forums anymore than any other. Unsurprisingly they did, and for all the wrong reasons; there were many who anything but welcomed the switches. “These changes alienate comics’ core fan base” the masses sulked. Here’s some food for thought for the diversity-hating; perhaps this so–called ‘core fan base’ is so homogenous and easily alienated because they’re who comics have solely represented for far too long? As the world continues to integrate, does it really make sense that superheroes continue to reincarnate as blonde, white, men for the rest of eternity? People of colour have managed to connect with characters that haven’t physically represented them for years; why are ‘fans’ dry-heaving at the sacrifice of two out of their trillions of white guys in capes? It’s as if they expect female Thor to spend her panels fretting over what brand of Tampon to buy rather than pummel adversaries into a fine paste. More importantly, Marvel has always sided with diversity, as the naysayers should know. The X Men series drew very clear and intentional parallels with the civil rights movement and there’s even been a gay wedding. In trying to preserve what they believe to be Marvel’s ‘purity’ they actually go against everything the brand has ever stood for. As current Marvel editor Axel Alsono so succinctly summarised it: “Simple fact is Marvel comics reflect the world in all its shapes, sizes and colours.” They haven’t turned Captain America into a phone booth. Thor hasn’t transformed into a gerbil (though the idea of a superhero gerbil, helmet fastened and look of steely determination affixed, is hilarious). What Marvel comics still seek to represent (and now, more accurately will) is humankind. And with mainstream media quite passive over a very white Christian Bale playing a very Israeli Moses, why all the hubbub over a chocolate-covered Captain and a Thor with an incredible rack? _____________________________________________________ All work published on Media Diversified is the intellectual property of its writers. Please do not reproduce, republish or repost any content from this site without express written permission from Media Diversified. For further information, please see our reposting guidelines. _____________________________________________________ Yomi Adegoke is a recent law graduate and writer of Nigerian descent. She is founder and editor of Birthday Magazine, a publication aimed at providing representation for black teenage girls and writes about race, popular culture and intersectional feminism. You can find and follow her on Twitter: @sittingwitty. Related articles |
Story highlights Americans can now expect to live 78.8 years, on average Women can still expect to live longer than men: 81.2 years vs. 76.3 years (CNN) For the first time since 1993, life expectancy in the United States has dropped significantly for the entire population, not just certain groups. On average, Americans can now expect to live 78.8 years, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Thursday, a statistically significant drop of 0.1 year from last year. Though this doesn't sound like much, it may foreshadow a larger dip to come, or it may prove to be a blip reversed when the 2016 numbers are released next December. Women can still expect to live longer than men -- 81.2 years vs. 76.3 years -- but both of those estimates were lower in 2015 than they were in 2014. Life expectancy at age 65 remained the same in 2015. Once you've reached that age, you can expect to live another 19.4 years. Again, women fare slightly better: 20.6 years, vs. 18.0 years for men. The 10 leading causes of death remain unchanged -- and accounted for 74.2% of all deaths in the United States in 2015, according to the report. Age-adjusted death rates increased for eight of the top 10 leading causes of death: heart disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, kidney disease and suicide. The age-adjusted death rate for cancer decreased. The rate for influenza and pneumonia did not change significantly. Read More |
The Edmonton Oilers are dealing with a potentially serious early-season injury. Ahead of Saturday's game against Ottawa, head coach Todd McLellan disclosed forward Leon Draisaitl is dealing with concussion-type symptoms. Draisaitl missed practice the past few days after suffering en eye injury during the team's loss Monday against Winnipeg, a game in which he played over 18 minutes, and scored a goal. "He’s had an eye injury and the eye was swollen shut but obviously the eye is attached to the head which leads to concussion-type symptoms,” McLellan said per Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal. He will therefore not play against the Senators and will be held out of the lineup until deemed clear of the concussion symptoms. Draisaitl, who signed an eight-year, $68 million extension this past summer, recorded a goal and two assists in three games so far this season. |
Rogers Place is a multi-use indoor arena in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Construction started in March 2014, and the building officially opened on September 8, 2016. The arena has a seating capacity of 18,500 as a hockey venue and 20,734 as a concert venue.[12] It replaced Northlands Coliseum (opened 1974) as the home of the NHL's Edmonton Oilers and the WHL's Edmonton Oil Kings. The arena is located at the block between 101 and 104 Streets and 104 and 105 Avenues. Public transit access to the arena is provided by the Edmonton Light Rail Transit system (MacEwan station on the Metro Line) and Edmonton Transit Service bus. Development [ edit ] Rogers Place in April 2017 The arena building was initially estimated to cost $450 million. The City of Edmonton was to pay $125 million, the Katz Group of Companies was to contribute $100 million, and $125 million was to come from a user-paid facility fee.[13] The remaining money was expected to come from the province or federal agencies.[14] Estimated cost then increased substantially during continued discussions to a current estimated price of $480 million for the arena, and $604.5 million for the entire project.[15] On October 26, 2011, the Edmonton City Council approved a funding framework for the arena by a vote of 10 to 3.[16] A year later, however, with costs escalating and the Katz Group making increasing demands, the city passed a motion to end negotiations with the Katz Group and to seek out a new deal or find other options but would still be open to communicating with Daryl Katz for future talks.[17][18] On May 15, 2013, the Edmonton City Council passed a deal that saw the City of Edmonton, and Oilers owner Daryl Katz each put in more money to offset the $55 million shortfall needed to build the new downtown arena. Katz chipped in an additional $15 million through the Edmonton Arena Corporation and another $15 million came from the Community Revitalization Levy (CRL).[19] On December 3, 2013, Rogers Communications announced a 10-year naming rights deal for the new arena, henceforth known as Rogers Place.[20] Rogers Place is one of three Rogers-branded sporting facilities in Canada (and one of two in the NHL), alongside Rogers Centre in Toronto and Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The arena was funded by the following sources:[21] $279 million from the Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) and other incremental revenues (increased parking revenue, reallocation of existing subsidy paid to Northlands and new taxes from business in the arena) $125 million from ticket surcharge on all events in the new arena $137.81 million from lease revenue for the Arena $23.68 million in cash from Edmonton Arena Corporation $25 million from other government sources A new agreement was reached on January 23, 2013 between the two parties on moving forward with the arena.[22] On February 11, 2014, it was announced that the project was completely funded, and would go ahead.[15][23] Construction of the new arena broke ground in March 2014.[24] The arena triggered a "hospitality explosion" downtown before ground was even broken, as businesses competed for properties around the arena site. In early 2014, there were far fewer options to lease or purchase as competition mounted,[25] including Brad J. Lamb, who announced a $225 million pair of new condo towers.[26] By December, it was estimated that $2.5 billion in downtown development had been directly connected to Rogers Place.[27] On July 13, 2015, it was announced that the arena district would be officially branded as Ice District, spanning from 103rd Avenue to 106th Avenue.[28] Ice District has ranked as the fastest growing arena district in the history of similar projects.[29] History [ edit ] Rogers Place officially opened on September 8, 2016.[30] The first ever hockey game played in the arena featured the Edmonton Oil Kings taking on the Red Deer Rebels in a WHL match up on September 24, 2016. Trey Fix-Wolansky scored the first ever goal in the arena at the 0:22 mark of the second period as the Oil Kings would go on to win the game in a shoot out, marking the teams first win in the new building. The Oilers played their first game on October 12, 2016, against their nearby rivals, the Calgary Flames. Prior to the game, there was a pregame ceremony featuring former Oilers Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, where a statue of Gretzky was unveiled outside of the arena. Patrick Maroon scored the first NHL goal in the arena, as the Oilers went on to defeat the Flames 7-4; earning their first win in the building. The Oilers' first season in the arena saw them qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2006, ending an 11-year playoff drought. The first playoff game was played on April 12, 2017, where the Oilers lost in overtime to the San Jose Sharks 3-2. Two days later, the Oilers picked up their first playoff game win at the arena by defeating the Sharks 2-0. Events [ edit ] |
70% Think Government Regulation Hurts Small Business More Than Big Business Voters don’t care much for government regulation of the economy and think it has a bigger negative impact on small business. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% of Likely U.S. Voters believe government regulations hurt small businesses more than big businesses. Just 13% think big businesses are hurt more. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here). Sixty-three percent (63%) think big businesses take advantage of the political process to hurt smaller competitors. Only 15% disagree, although 22% more are not sure. These findings mark little change from October of last year. This skepticism is perhaps not surprising considering that most voters have said in surveys for years that government and big business work together against the interests of consumers and investors. Voters overwhelmingly prefer a free market economy to an economy managed by the government, and most voters believe increased competition rather than increased government regulation is the best way to hold big business accountable. (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 6-7, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. OR |
TBILISI, DFWatch–Over half of Georgians think the state should protect the rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and other sexual minorities, but four out of five want it to be illegal to demonstrate for LGBTI rights, according to a new survey by Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG). The feminism and minority issues NGO presented its findings at Radisson Blu Hotel in Tbilisi on Thursday, together with Human Rights Education Monitoring Center (EMC). One of the main findings in the study is that Georgians think LGBTI rights should be protected, but that sexual minorities should not impose their lifestyle on others. EMC presented a report about the challenges faced by the LGBTI community in Georgia in legal terms. The conference was dedicated to a discussion about the problems of the gay rights community in Georgia and Armenia. Human rights activists from both countries attended the meeting. The questions in the survey also dealt with stereotypes about LGBTI people. For example, over 83 percent of the respondents believe that most gay men are feminine; 35.5 percent think that HIV/AIDS is primarily a disease found among gay men; 35 percent think that lesbians hate men. There were also a minority of 7 percent, who believe that in order to join the EU, Georgia has to legalize same-sex marriage. 51 percent agreed that LGBTI rights had to be protected, 29.5 percent of respondents somewhat agreed, but said gays and lesbians should not impose their lifestyle on others. 5.1 percent said they were neutral in this issue, others disagreed or did not know. 59.4 percent strongly disagreed with the statement that people who don’t hide their orientation or gender identity and fought for their rights were praiseworthy for their courage; 20.7 percent somewhat disagreed; 7.8 percent were neutral; 7.9 percent somewhat agreed and 4.2 percent strongly agreed. 80.5 percent of the respondents said that the LGBTI rallies should be banned by law, 4.3 percent were neutral, the rest agreed. 80.2 percent said they thought homosexuals should not be allowed to work with children and adolescents, 4.5 percent were neutral, the rest agreed. Read the full report by WISG here: http://women.ge/data//WISG%20HomoBiTransPhobia%20Study_for%20web.pdf The other report, presented by EMC during the same conference, was an in-depth analysis of the legal environment for LGBTI people in Georgia. “Regardless of the determined legislative guarantees, the adoption of which was mainly related to the fulfillment of international obligations, the human rights situation of LGBTI individuals in the country is grave, manifesting in their subjection to systemic violence, discrimination, and harassment,” the authors of the report wrote. The report described in detail why LGBTI people do not have an equal environment and how homophobic or transphobic attitudes found in people violate their basic human rights. The conference ;Solidarity for Equality: The Rights and Conditions for LGBTI Persons in Armenia and Georgia’ was organized by South Caucasus Regional Office of the Heinrich Boell Foundation. It was the part of the EU-funded project Solidarity Network for LGBTI in Armenia and Georgia. |
Looking forward to Resistance 3? Don't want to subscribe to PlayStation Plus? Well, you might be out of luck when it comes to playing the demo. While US users can access the demo by purchasing SOCOM 4, the only way Europeans can play is to have PlayStation Plus. “If you’ve checked out the US Blog, you will see that the R3 multiplayer demo will be accessible to SOCOM: Special Forces (aka SOCOM 4) purchasers in North America," said Euro product manager Elliott Linger. “In PAL, this demo will be opened up to PlayStation Plus subscribers at exactly the same time – additional info (such as how and when) will be unveiled in due course." Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't demos used to exist for the purpose of helping consumers make purchasing decisions? When did they become, instead, these things that publishers could hold to ransom in order to make people who already decided to buy the game jump through hoops and spend more money? Seems to undermine exactly what a demo is supposed to be, but then, that's why I'm not in marketing. Resistance 3 Multiplayer Demo Coming To PlayStation Plus; Get In The Game Winners [EU PS Blog] You are logged out. Login | Sign up |
In the 1880s, early in her career, the American suffrage leader Anna Howard Shaw sported what was at that time a distinctly mannish hairdo. When someone snidely asked her in a roomful of people why she wore her hair so short, she retorted, “I will admit frankly that it is a birthmark. I was born with short hair.” 1 Shaw was obviously intending to be clever, but she had unintentionally delivered a Krafft-Ebingism. It was only a few years before her witticism that the sexologists had defined the female sexual invert as congenitally “a man trapped in a woman’s body.” Whether or not Shaw was aware of how she had revealed herself as a sexual invert, shortly after this incident she began to grow her hair longer and to arrange it in a decorous bun—a style she continued to wear until her death thirty years later. As she later observed of her willingness to adopt a more conventional hairstyle: “No woman in public life can afford to make herself conspicuous by an eccentricity of dress and appearance. If she does so she suffers for it herself, which may not disturb her, and to a greater degree, for the cause she represents, which should disturb her.” 2 Shaw saw the suffrage cause as so crucial that she would make whatever concessions to conformity she was convinced she must make in public. As her personal correspondence indicates, however, at home with her lover, Lucy Anthony, she was as butch as she pleased. Shaw’s position points up a conflict that I have found ubiquitous in my recent work on late-nineteenth-century women whom we, in our era, would describe as lesbians and who were absolutely crucial in the movements to get the vote for American women, to open higher education to them, and to make a place for them in the professions. The conflict led to ironic contradictions and double lives. In brief, the conflict was this: the nineteenth century had constructed a clean and [End Page 315] clear definition of “woman.” She was, needless to say, white and middle-class—and she was precisely the creature who did not want a voice in politics, who had no use for any form of education that did not enhance her domestic role, and who would not have dreamed of desiring a profession that would have taken her out of her proper sphere. Indeed, many sexologists of the era suggested that such interests were not only unwomanly but also the inevitable hallmarks of the female sexual invert, that is, of a female who inverted all the natural instincts of womanhood and was characterized instead by what was natural to manhood. In his 1886 Psychopathia Sexualis, for instance, Richard von Krafft-Ebing’s description of the lesbian emphasized, much more emphatically than her love for the same sex, her “masculine soul heaving in the female bosom.” That masculine soul was manifested by, for example, her “painful reflections” in “her consciousness of being a woman and being thus deprived of the happy college life.” 3 Havelock Ellis and Edward Carpenter came to similar conclusions in the next decade, observing, for instance, that females in the forefront of agitation for the various rights of women—for the vote, education, entrance into the professions—were frequently not only “inclined to attachment to their own rather than the opposite sex” but also “mannish in temperament.” 4 A tautology was thus constructed: if it was mannish to want to step out of the sphere that defined the woman, then of course these pioneers were mannish. However, to be dubbed mannish, that is, “sexually inverted,” was far from neutral. It was linked with congenital anomaly, hereditary taint, and morbidity. The challenge that faced “inverts” such as Susan B. Anthony, Mary Lyon, M. Carey Thomas, Emily Blackwell, and Jane Addams was how to make their movements grow—how to build a critical mass of females who would help them promote suffrage, women’s education, expanded work opportunities—despite the fact that such ambitions in a female bosom were dubbed “mannish” and therefore morbid. The nineteenth-century pioneers who were particularly successful in promoting their goals were almost invariably sexual inverts who believed, nevertheless, that they must present themselves to the public as “womanly” in order to be spokespersons for women’s rights. Their successes on behalf of “woman” eventually permitted their female legatees (that is, huge numbers of middle-class women in America and eventually in the Western world) to occupy roles that had earlier defined “man.” I want to look first at the nature of the sexual inversion of these nineteenth-century leaders and pioneers, then at the ways in which they wore what they perceived as necessary masquerades—“lady’s drag”—and finally at how they turned [End Page 316] huge numbers of “women” (in their society’s meaning of the term) into “men,” that is, individuals who could assume a political voice, the right to higher education, and the right to a profession. Many of the most effective pioneers appear to have stepped right off the pages of Krafft-Ebing or Ellis. Krafft-Ebing, for instance, observed that the young female sexual invert “may be found chiefly in the haunts of boys. She is the rival in their play, preferring the rocking-horse, playing at soldiers, etc. to dolls and other girlish occupations. The toilet is neglected, and rough boyish manners are affected.” 5 In perusing the papers of dozens of nineteenth-century feminist leaders for my latest book, I found that this description of the young female sexual invert fit almost every one of them. Susan B. Anthony, for instance, the chief leader of the nineteenth-century suffrage movement in America, was described by her detractors as “a grim Old Gal with a manly air” (even though they apparently knew nothing of her several women lovers). She complained bitterly and autobiographically of the state of girlhood, in which the female “is sacrificed to clean clothes, glossy curls, and fair complexions,” all the while wishing she could be “a boy like my brother, so I would wear long boots and thick pantaloons, romp on the lawn, play ball, climb trees.” 6 Frances E. Willard, head of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who brought her organization’s 2 million sympathizers into women’s suffrage and gave the movement its first important boost in the nineteenth century, similarly confessed that as a girl she had loathed all things that were constructed as feminine, especially the pressure to learn to sew, cook, and iron. Carpentry, on the other hand, she adored. At the age of fifteen, she wrote, she had fashioned for herself sleds and whip handles and had repaired her own guns, while her sister had tended to the dishes. Her childhood playmates had always been boys, whose tree climbing and stilt walking she had preferred to the tamer pursuits of girls. Like the female sexual inverts about whom the nineteenth-century sexologists wrote, Willard admitted to her deep discontent at having to become a “woman” as that creature was constructed in her day: “No girl went through a harder experience than I when my free, out-of-door life had to cease, and the long skirt and clubbed-up hair spiked with hairpins had to be endured.” 7 When M. Carey Thomas, the revolutionary leader in women’s education and president of Bryn Mawr College, was six years old, in 1863, her aunt, with whom she was spending the summer, wrote of her that she was interested only in being dressed in pants and playing with the boys. “Min says she wants to turn into a boy and wants to know why she can’t,” her aunt informed her mother with great amusement. 8 [End Page 317] What did it mean to “turn into a boy”? To the young Thomas it meant to be able to range widely through life and to escape the overdetermined narrowness of a female’s existence. If she had been a daughter of the lower classes, she might well have donned men’s clothes on growing up and gone through the world passing as a man. She would thus have been able to travel freely without concerns about molestation, as did various of her working-class contemporaries, such as “Harry Gorman,” “Charles Warner,” and “Ralph Kerwinieo” (all of them women). Then she would have been able to do working-class men’s jobs (and get paid double what she would have received had she worn skirts). But she was a daughter of the upper middle class: her father had been a medical doctor and a respected community leader. The binary opposite of domestic trammels in her milieu meant not adventuring on the roads in men’s clothes or working in men’s trades but engaging in “serious” and “dignified” pursuits, as she decided at the age of thirteen, when she and a friend did scientific experiments with a mouse they had caught. She confessed to her diary, “I greatly prefer cutting up mice to sewing worsted.” 9 To prefer dissecting animals to hemming skirts meant not only that Thomas refused to act like a young woman but also that she was not a woman, according to the era’s conception of the term. Women “naturally” preferred domestic occupations. Yet if she was not a woman, what was she? A new answer to that question, based precisely on a female’s refusal to accept her society’s construction of womanhood, was being devised by sexologists at just that time, but for now Thomas could exuberantly advise herself in her 1872 journal: “Go ahead! Have fun! Stop short of nothing but what [is] wrong (and not always that)! Never mind if people call you ‘wild,’ ‘tomboyish,’ ‘unladylike,’ ‘masculine.’ They like you all the better for it in the end.” 10 In contradistinction, to be a woman, in the nineteenth-century definition of the term, was to be imprisoned in domesticity and powerlessness. For a young female like Thomas, womanhood was thus profoundly disturbing. She wrote, for instance, of having translated as an adolescent “the most indecent book I have ever read,” a work titled Les Femmes. “I was beside myself with terror lest it might prove true that I myself was so vile and pathological a thing,” as the author had described “woman.” 11 The pioneering medical doctor Emily Blackwell, founder in the nineteenth century, with her sister Elizabeth, of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children and of a medical school connected with it, similarly rejected any identification with womanhood. She was the first to admit that her achievements would not have been possible if she had not escaped those inculcations that were called “woman’s nature.” In her diaries she expressed disdain for the qualities of “femininity” [End Page 318] in women and compared them to her own qualities: “very persevering and very resolute—and very ambitious,” with “a something sprawling in my character and way of doing things.” “Women,” as they had been constructed in her era, were not and could not become medical doctors, she believed, since the attributes required for such a profession were seen as patently unwomanly. As administrator of the infirmary, Blackwell worried about interns who had “little womanly airs,” as she described them. Some of those women may have been intelligent, she granted, but intelligence alone was not sufficient. “Lady-like” women, her characterization of the types opposite to herself, “had no more idea of taking hold of things and working like a man than of flying. . . . They are most utterly disqualified by their nature itself.” 12 Thus, when her detractors accused her, as they often did, of not having a “woman’s nature,” it must have been to her an assurance of her fitness for the challenging work she had elected to do. But while these females all vehemently rejected the role of “woman,” they felt that they must achieve success at least partly for the sake of womankind. Only through their success could they change the meaning of “womankind” to something grander than what, it seemed to them, it was. Emily Blackwell, for instance, claimed to be determined to alter once and for all the very construction of “woman.” Her reasons were personal as well as principled: ostensibly (though superficially), she was herself a “woman,” and therefore she suffered from the prejudices against females no matter how she dissociated herself from their “feminine” characteristics or prided herself on her “sprawling” character. She was plagued by the notion that in their present form women could never equal men in inventiveness and intellect. Thus she felt that it was crucial to make “woman” something higher than the category presently was. “If I might but see that I was doing something to raise them not in position only but in nature—to inspire them with higher objects—loftier aspirations—to teach them that there is a strength of woman as well as of man,” she fantasized when she was twenty-six years old, imagining woman in very opposition to her contemporaries’ definition of the category. 13 None of the women whom I have mentioned ever married, and all of them had significant long-term affectional and domestic relations with other women. In short, they were, because of their gender views and their sexual preferences, what the twentieth century would have described as lesbians. However, it was not their domestic and affectional preferences that they had to keep hidden. Most of them, apparently, continued throughout the nineteenth century to be convinced that what they had to disguise from others was not their love for other women, which might still be construed as socially condoned romantic friendship or—if it became domestic—as Boston marriage. As Thomas wrote, without inhibitions, to her [End Page 319] Quaker mother in 1880: “If it were only possible for women to select women as well as men for a ‘li[f]e’s love’ . . . all reason for an intellectual woman’s marriage wd be gone. It is possible but if families would only regard it in that light! Apriori women understand women better, are more sympathetic, more unselfish, etc. I believe that will be—indeed is already becoming—one of the effects of advanced education for women.” Similarly, Anthony suggested in her public lecture “Homes of Single Women” (1877) that, rather than marry, more women ought to consider living together and thus enjoy domestic bliss without the terrible drawbacks of marriage. 14 What was problematic and conflictual for these women, however, was not that they would be exposed as homosexuals but that they would be exposed as unwomanly. If they were unwomanly, how could they presume to speak for womankind? And if they could not speak for womankind, how could they lead movements that would get women the vote and open higher education and the professions to them? If they were not real women and could not speak for womankind, they could not produce the critical mass necessary to change the state of the female to what they found not only more equitable but also far more comfortable and interesting. They were indeed, as sexologists had dubbed females like them, sexual inverts. But to begin to revolutionize the concept of woman into what females have enjoyed in the Western world since, particularly during the last four decades, they had somehow to masquerade as “woman” while thinking and feeling in the fashion that their society had constructed as “man.” For me, it has been a fascinating historical paradox that every one of these lesbian pioneers felt constrained to assume lady’s drag, in one way or another, in order to rid females finally and forever of the need to wear lady’s drag. They could not have helped understanding that their enemies’ primary point of attack against them was that they did not represent women because they were “unsexed,” as the euphemisms for “mannish” and later “sexual invert” went. For example, when the New York Herald reported the Reverend Antoinette Brown’s speech to the New York Suffrage Convention in 1853, it was to describe her and her audience as “a gathering of unsexed women, unsexed in mind, all of them publicly propounding the doctrine that they should be allowed to step out of their appropriate sphere to the neglect of those duties which both human and divine law have assigned them.” 15 At about the same time, when Emily Blackwell entered a medical classroom at Western Reserve University, the only woman present, she found scrawled on the board a cartoon of an outlandish female in bloomers, with the words “strong-minded woman” (that mid-nineteenth-century equivalent of “dyke”). The insult was intended, obviously, to point up her mannish behavior in invading the male territory of the medical classroom. 16 A few decades later, when [End Page 320] Jane Addams established the profession of social work for women by leading social housekeeping campaigns in Chicago, she received an anonymous letter: I love your sex . . . but no man can love a woman who takes her place among men as you do. . . . Of course I can speak very plain to you, as your highest ambition is to be recognized as capable of doing a man’s work. When your maker created you, it was evidently a rush job as the most important part of the work was overlooked. Here then is your only resource. Did it ever occur to you that while on a tour of inspection, through alleyways, old barns and such places where low depraved men with criminal records may be found (such a place a virtuous woman would be afraid to go) you might for a small sum induce one of such men to sell you his pecker and balls? It would not be much loss to him and will be your only chance to prove yourself a man. 17 If merely leading a social housekeeping campaign elicited such a violent personal attack regarding a female’s gender, it is hard to imagine that a more openly “rebellious” public persona, such as the women I am discussing felt constrained to avoid, would have had any power at all during the Victorian era to effect the changes they desired. Most of all, if they wished to win converts to their cause, they needed to counter the widespread image of them and their pursuits as mimicking those of men. Therefore, seemingly in contrast to their revolutionary intent and accomplishments, they believed that they needed to find ways to speak in the voice of woman for the purpose ultimately of altering the meaning of woman, of raising females, as Emily Blackwell said she hoped to do, both in “position” and in “nature.” How did they do this? Their approach was pragmatic. In our freer and easier times it is perhaps difficult to condone their perceived need to dissemble, their conviction that the end justified the means, their willingness to package their goals in a way that would be palatable to the common run of woman in order to achieve those goals for vast numbers of females. The approach of honest firebrands such as the suffragist Alice Paul may well seem more admirable to us. Paul’s less subtle tactics included such “masculine” approaches as setting fire to public buildings and self-chainings to monuments. Anna Howard Shaw was as impatient for women’s suffrage as the most radical militant. But in contrast to Paul, she possessed the deep conviction, always manifested in her speeches, that the best approach was to allay the fears of recalcitrants, who were already terrified by the uncontrolled potential of women [End Page 321] that suffrage seemed to threaten. The militants’ approach, she believed, exacerbated those fears. But Shaw knew how to use the militants to make her own brand of suffragism look less frightening and less inconsistent with womanliness. “Votes for women can never be obtained by militant methods,” she insisted publicly, pointing up her organization’s sweet reasonableness in its determined pursuit of suffrage. 18 Before Shaw left the presidency of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1915, 2 million American women in twelve states could vote, and total victory was all but inevitable. The tone of the American press had become distinctly favorable toward suffrage; everywhere pro-suffrage audiences were huge, overflowing even the largest halls; and the association’s annual budget had increased tenfold. Though Shaw’s correspondence with her life partner, Lucy Anthony, and with other women who were her lovers suggests that she was what our era would describe as a stomping butch, her public persona was very different. She crafted her appearance to conform to her audiences’ standard of decorum, but it was a superficial concession. In all other ways she undermined appropriate gender behavior. She was a forceful, dynamic public speaker at a time when virtuous women were supposed to be demure and silent, and she was powerfully assertive when passivity was the norm for women. Shaw was convinced that if she presented herself as being as radical, as angry, and as impatient as she truly was, she could do nothing for the cause. Therefore, as she grew older, she cultivated a “grandmotherly” persona, which helped make her “esteemed by her countrymen, males as well as females.” 19 In her public life Shaw was too shrewd to be a man basher. “We will never win the battle by ‘bully ragging,’” she warned a more “plainspoken” suffragist. But in her private life she had little use for the male of the species. To an old friend who expressed the desire to be married Shaw wrote, “Just think of the men along your street,” and enumerated them with their various faults. “If a human being or a god could conceive of a worse hell than being a wife of any one of them I would like to know what it could be.” After delineating her own rich, full life without a man, she concluded, “I have seen nothing so far which does not make me say every night of my life, ‘I thank thee for all good but for nothing more than that I have been saved from the misery of marriage.’” 20 But it was not merely that she disliked men as a species. How could a female such as Shaw have functioned in a traditional nineteenth-century middle-class marital relationship? She traveled across the United States repeatedly for the suffrage cause. Before she was through, she had lectured to well over a million [End Page 322] people. 21 She led a major organization. How could she have run a large Victorian household and borne and raised eight to ten children, as most of her woman contemporaries did? How could she have spent valuable energy struggling with a husband for time and freedom of movement? But obviously, she never voiced such realizations in her public life. Indeed, in a lecture of the early 1890s, “The New Man,” Shaw hastened to allay even the pettiest fears of conservatives, such as that the “New Woman” desired to rid herself of her femininity by “invad[ing men’s] prerogative in dress.” “This is a useless fear,” Shaw quipped, “as the real new woman will always want to look as well as she can and no human being could look well in men’s clothes, so the new woman will not wear them for that reason if for no other.” However, after such trivial levity and some crucial assurances that what she was arguing for was not particularly radical (“The new woman is the same old woman, with a few modern improvements”), Shaw moved to the nugget of her message, which was indeed radical: women had the right to the advantages of an education, to the opportunity to acquire any trade or profession that suited them, to walk down any avenue that would bring them into contact with “the larger life of the world” and would permit them to become “more broad-minded and better developed.” 22 As an orator, Shaw was intent on getting her mass audiences to identify with her, which enabled her to bring them to her side. Thus before she delivered her radical “punchlines” Shaw often disarmed her listeners by speaking in the voice of a heterosexual woman and seducing them with her folksy but “womanly” humor, which distracted them from meditating on her “unsexed,” “spinsterly” state. For example, in her lecture “The Fundamental Principle of a Republic” Shaw mocked the antisuffragists who worried that women’s enfranchisement would bring discord into the home in the form of political disagreements. She argued that if two intelligent human beings never disagreed, their relationship would stagnate: “Now it may be that the kind of man . . . the anti-suffragists live with [would prefer stagnation to occasional disagreements], but they are not the kind we live with, and we could not do it. Great big overgrown babies! Cannot be disputed without having a row!” Her audiences would howl at her poker-faced annoyance, and she would continue, “While we do not believe that men are saints, we do believe that the average American man is a fairly good sort of fellow.” 23 The men in her audiences would, of course, agree that they were the “good sorts” who could handle a little disagreement, and none of the women in her audiences would admit that they would tolerate being married to “big overgrown babies.” Having captured her listeners, Shaw would lull them further into domestic coziness before hitting them with her chief argument. She claimed to grant that [End Page 323] “men and women must go through this world together from the cradle to the grave.” But just as you can’t “build up homes without men,” you can’t “build up the state without women.” Women’s participation in the state, Shaw concluded, must be “the fundamental principle of a Republican form of government.” 24 Such speeches by Shaw were wildly popular, in small towns as well as New York. Shaw drew rave reviews. For example, the North American Magazine, a mass-circulation periodical, opined that she was generally considered “the greatest woman speaker who ever lived” and that many even believed her “without peer in either sex among orators of her day.” The Pomona (Calif.) Weekly Times’s assessment of her as a lecturer reveals the enthusiasm she met everywhere and testifies to her success in persuading her audiences that her assumed persona was authentic and admirable and, most important, that her cause was just: “Miss Shaw occupied seventy minutes and devoted her time to the legal rights of women. Her facts were so evident, her arguments so forceful and logical, her diction so elegant, her satire so velvety, that when done many thought she had used up twenty minutes instead of seventy. Those who differ with the policies she advocates admit that as a good natured, polished, and convincing speaker she has no superior. And she is a woman—a true, lovable woman.” 25 Many of Shaw’s contemporaries who were most salient in the battle to procure the vote, higher education, and entrance into the professions for women were like her not only because they were what nineteenth-century sexologists called sexual inverts, and what our century has called lesbians, but also because their public persona was that of “a woman—a true, lovable woman.” For instance, Willard, called “Frank” by her women lovers, Kate Jackson and then Anna Gordon, accomplished what had appeared entirely unlikely: getting the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) to support women’s suffrage. She moved the WCTU’s very feminine, conservative membership into the suffrage camp by co-opting the antisuffragists’ prime shibboleth, “home-protection,” in claiming not only that women would not be unsexed if they were enfranchised but that they could bring their womanly virtues to bear on the public sphere, uplifting it and making politics as pure as women were. Willard’s womanly public image may seem incredible in juxtaposition to her blustering private persona, “Frank,” but it was convincing enough to bring the WCTU in line and to induce journalists to help her in her proselytizing by observing that “her manner is never abrupt or angular [i.e., masculine] but rather gentle, sympathetic, kindly to all who come near her.” Willard’s very interesting slogan, “Womanliness first—afterwards what you will,” says much about her modus operandi. 26 Though females such as Shaw and Willard forced themselves to speak in [End Page 324] the voices of heterosexual women to accomplish their ends, their own loves and domestic lives were not heterosexual. Shaw lived with Lucy Anthony for thirty years. Early in their relationship, as they planned the home they would have together, a refuge from Shaw’s travels all over America in the service of her cause, Shaw wrote her: “I wish I could let you see the inside of my love for you, but, better still, that you could know the depths of my trust and faith in you. I have had so many happy thoughts of that little house we are planning.” Once the home was found, Shaw’s letters to Lucy Anthony became filled with her joyful anticipation of returning home, her loneliness outside their domestic life together, her weariness that could be cured only by being at home with Lucy. “My dear, dear Balance,” Shaw called her. “If I am of any use under the sun, it is because you have given me courage and hope, and my triumphs [as a leader in the movement] are due as much to you as to myself.” 27 Willard, like Shaw, lived in “female marriages” with other women for almost all of her adult life. Near the end of her life, she revealed in her autobiography the truth that she had always felt about what the ideal domestic life was—and it was not heterosexual. The successes of the women’s movement, she observed happily, made possible these new-style marriages: The loves of women for each other grow more numerous every day, and I have pondered much why these things were. That so little should be said about them surprises me, for they are everywhere. . . . In these days when any capable woman can honorably earn her own support, there is no village that has not its examples of “two heads in counsel,” both of which are feminine. Often-times these joint proprietors have been unfortunately married [to men], and so have failed to “better their condition” until, thus clasping hands [with a woman], they have taken each other “for better or worse.” 28 What did women such as Shaw, Willard, and the others whom I have discussed mean for lesbian history, and what did they really accomplish for the position of women? Their public disguise, which they thought necessary in their day, was surely unfortunate for those of us who call ourselves lesbian today, since their relevance to lesbian history was long hidden. Though they thought like “men,” they acted in public like “women.” They long fooled us, as well as their contemporaries. For the better part of a century, we had no idea that in many meaningful ways those females had much in common with many contemporary lesbians —and that any lesbian who wishes has a right to call them foremothers. Until their letters [End Page 325] and diaries were revealed, they could not serve us as direct inspirations, which is one of the necessary uses of history. Yet they acted as their times forced them to act, if they wished to accomplish anything for females and to change the meaning of “woman.” Sadly, despite their attempts at masquerade, their detractors continued to call their goals unwomanly and unsexed. The die-hard womanly women continued to fight these pioneers’ achievements. On the eve of the suffrage victory, for instance, the women officers of the Michigan Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage ran an ad campaign that declared: “As women we do not want the strife, bitterness, falsification and publicity which accompany political campaigns. We women are not suffering at the hands of our fathers, husbands, and brothers because they protect us in our homes. . . . Keep mother, wife, and sister in the protected home.” 29 Yet up to 1920 the successes of the lesbian pioneers seemed limitless. Their leadership had procured the vote for American women. Due in good part to their efforts, females by 1920 made up more than 43 percent of all college students in America and more than 30 percent of all college professors. Women had also begun to make a significant dent in the learned professions. For example, there were about nine thousand women doctors. When Emily Blackwell had begun her studies several decades earlier, there had been only her sister Elizabeth, and almost no medical school in the country would admit a woman. Thus by 1920 it truly seemed that these inverts had succeeded, that the definition of woman had been permanently altered—at least for middle-class women—and that it now looked more like what males had earlier claimed the definition of man was, that is, an independent human being who could fulfill himself in a variety of ways. Then a hiatus ensued for almost half a century, until the rebirth of feminism in the 1960s. I will not speculate here on the cause of the hiatus except to suggest, as Christina Simmons and others have done, that it was related to a new heterosexual imperative and a feminine mystique that reclaimed and revalorized the nineteenth-century image of the “true woman.” 30 I also will not speculate here on the complex reasons why women fell for this tactic. 31 But I will say that among the weapons used against those who fought for women’s rights was one that depicted the entire women’s movement as a lesbian plot. So, in view of the long hiatus, what did the nineteenth-century lesbian pioneers accomplish for women, after all, despite their uncomfortable masquerade? This: They made the absolutely crucial first steps. They set the machinery in motion, so that when a generation of females came along who were not so terrified of challenging gender notions, they did not have to start from scratch. In the nineteenth century Mary Lyon, the lover of Zilpah Grant, had been one of the first to [End Page 326] fight for women’s right to higher education by arguing that a stringent program of study would better train young women as “educators of youth,” rather than as mere teachers. In the 1990s more women than men attend college in the United States. In the nineteenth century Emily Blackwell, the lover of Elizabeth Cushier, argued that women should be permitted to study medicine because there were certain areas, such as gynecology and pediatrics, to which they would naturally be more suited than men. In 1994 women composed 40 percent of all medical students in the country, and the 1996 entering class at the top three medical schools, Harvard, Yale, and Johns Hopkins, was more than 50 percent female. Women are now almost equally represented in other professions as well; for example, 44 percent of all students enrolled in American law schools in 1996 were female. In the nineteenth century Jane Addams, the lover of Mary Rozet Smith, was constrained to argue in Chicago that women wanted suffrage so they could better do social housekeeping. “None of these busy women wishe[s] to take the place of men nor to influence them in the direction of men’s affairs,” she reassured her listeners, “but they do seek an opportunity to cooperate directly in civic life through the use of the ballot in regard to their own affairs.” 32 As the 1990s come to an end, America’s attorney general and secretary of state are female; women make up about a quarter of the membership of the state legislatures; and in the states that have lieutenant governors, women fill almost half of those positions. In a little-known lecture delivered at the start of this century, “The New Century’s Manly Woman,” Susan B. Anthony, that “grim Old Gal with a manly air,” now more than eighty years old, took the daring but necessary next step after women had won the rights to an education and to economic independence, which she had helped procure. Anthony, perhaps among the first to insist on what we have come to view as a radical, postmodern understanding of the constructed nature of gender and of its mutability, argued that the woman who has been called “manly” is simply the woman who is fully human. In the ideal future, she said, such a woman will be considered entirely equal to men, and men will not be reluctant to develop so-called womanly qualities, such as gentleness, sympathy, and affection. Gender, Anthony implied, will be quite erased as a category that distinguishes male from female. 33 If that ideal future has not yet universally arrived, it is nevertheless a consummation devoutly to be wished. |
Photo Days after two of Hillary Clinton’s most prominent female surrogates, Madeleine K. Albright and Gloria Steinem, drew fire for their comments about young women supporting Senator Bernie Sanders, another Clinton surrogate proposed that the two women be pulled from campaigning for Mrs. Clinton. On a conference call with elected officials supporting Mrs. Clinton on Tuesday, Deb Goldberg, the Massachusetts state treasurer, suggested that Ms. Albright and Ms. Steinem be “kept away” from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, according to a person briefed on the call who could only discuss the private conversations without attribution. Christina Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign who was on the call, replied that she appreciated the feedback but did not elaborate on how the campaign would handle the two high-profile supporters, who in recent days called for young women to basically grow up and support Mrs. Clinton. The dust-up began on Saturday when Ms. Albright, 78, the first female secretary of state, criticized Mr. Sanders’s “revolution” and said electing the first woman as president would be the real revolution. She then repeated one of her best-known phrases, telling the crowd, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other!” Ms. Steinem, 81, and an iconic spokeswoman of the feminist movement, told the talk-show host Bill Maher that young women supported Mr. Sanders to attract the attention of boys. “When you’re young, you’re thinking: ‘Where are the boys? The boys are with Bernie,” Ms. Steinem said. After the comments provoked a firestorm, Ms. Steinem apologized. “I misspoke on the Bill Maher show recently,” she wrote on Facebook. “Whether they gravitate to Bernie or Hillary, young women are activist and feminist in greater numbers than ever before.” A Clinton aide declined to comment specifically on the conference call, but said the comments of Ms. Albright and Ms. Steinem had been taken “a bit out of context.” |
Let's face it, reach plays a huge influence on how a fight can play out. In mixed martial arts, having a larger reach than your opponent can be a big advantage. It can make you harder to hit, your opponent easier to hit, and it can keep you on the outside of takedown attempts. It can also give you more leverage and torque in both striking and grappling. Ape index measures your arm span relative to your height. A common method of calculation is having the height subtracted from the arm span. Most people have a neutral size ratio. However, there are individuals who possess an arm span that exceeds their height by a huge margin. A good example is the boxer Sony Liston. He stood at 6'1" but had a whopping 84" reach. Therefore, he had a positive ape index of 11". The height among fighters in a given weight class rarely offers a significant difference, so having a very high positive ape index can be quite advantageous. A larger arm span can potentially create a bit of balance if facing an opponent who is significantly taller. |
From Hideaki Anno, the mind behind EVANGELION. The King of Monsters receives a terrifying resurgence. It's a peaceful day in Japan when a strange fountain of water erupts in the bay, causing panic to spread among government officials. At first, they suspect only volcanic activity, but one young executive dares to wonder if it may be something different - something alive. His worst nightmare comes to life when a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and begins tearing through the city, leaving nothing but destruction in its wake. As the government scrambles to save the citizens, a rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster's weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side, and the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes. Special Features |
A new book titled State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity reports, as Café Mom puts it, that “women are cheating on their husbands more and they aren’t the least bit ashamed.” It turns out that many women still feel like their fundamental needs, whether it be sexual, emotional, or psychological, aren't being met within their marriage, so they outsource it. Cheating is their alternative solution to being wholly satisfied while avoiding a divorce or a complex open-marriage situation. As a result, while there is deception, there is very little regret or shame in their extramarital affairs. It's almost pragmatic. Remember the romance-novel fad? Our town once had a used bookstore devoted to the pulp paperbacks. Somewhat above-average looking women clutched the bare chests of Fabio-like men whose appearances promised wild adventures in and out of bed. Once upon a time, married women pored over those novels with such zeal that you could literally grab the book by its covers, hold it upside-down and let the pages fall open to the sex scenes. As one friend explained, the reader would naturally pull the book open that much more and return to those pages much more often. Such was the extent of housewife/working woman infidelity in the '80s and '90s. Now, books aren’t real enough. And the wives who cheat are okay with that. Why? According to sociologist Alicia Walker, these women are “subverting traditional heteronormative gender roles” by cheating. To put that in layman’s terms, she’s embracing Lifetime Movie logic: He’s a man, society rewards him, therefore it’s my turn to let the bastard suffer. Carrie Underwood would’ve just destroyed his car. These wives prefer to hit him where it hurts, even if he hasn’t done anything more than happily let his wife manage the household calendar and truck the kids to soccer practice. The new trans-logic, that is, the idea of “breaking gender norms” to suit personal preferences, is now being used to justify the idea of marital infidelity in the straightest of senses. One expert politely refers to a woman’s choice to cheat on her husband as her way of “outsourcing” the sexual, emotional or psychological needs she feels aren’t met at home. Trans-logic permits the interpersonal to become impersonal in the pursuit of narcissistic pleasure. Screw his sexual, emotional or psychological needs. He can meet them somewhere else. What’s important is that, at the end of the day, the bills still get paid and the kids still get to soccer practice on time. Right? Until, of course, those messy emotions get in the way. Maybe she falls in love with the guy she outsourced and he doesn’t like the idea of a corporate merger. Or her husband gets tired of not being valued sexually, emotionally or psychologically. And the kids, well… soccer can’t heal everything. Much like those recovering from gender dysphoria halfway through reassignment therapy, these families will have to face a lifetime of consequences for their actions. But, please, let's listen to the experts who'd rather you justify such destructive, selfish choices as seemingly selfless moves to change “norms” that have been working just fine for thousands of years. |
US swimmer Michael Phelps, who turns 27 next month and has 16 Olympic medals to his name in all, has hinted that he will only allow himself one more tilt at Games glory and then retire. Following the success in the pool in China four years ago the Baltimore Bullet, who is 6ft 4in and weighs a colossal 185lbs, found it difficult to motivate himself to train again, he revealed on an American chat show on Sunday. Speaking on 60 Minutes Phelps said that he would give up his life in the pool after the London Games, if he manages to become the most decorated OIympian ever to have lived. "It was hard [after Beijing], because I didn't know if the passion or the fire was still inside of me. And it took a while for me to actually realise it myself. [Coach Bob Bowman] couldn't tell me, my mom couldn't tell me. They couldn't help me find it. "I kind of feel like my old self again. I'm swimming times like I used to. I'm swimming races how I used to. "I've been able to go to all these amazing cities in my travels and I haven't been able to see them at all. I see the hotel and I see the pool. That's it. And [after the Olympics] I'm just going to go and do whatever I want to do. "It's just like a giant box. So, it's like the boy in the bubble." |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video Shortly after free agency began on July 1, Courtney Lee received a call and immediately recognized the voice on the other end. It was New York Knicks President Phil Jackson. The Hall of Famer was the first person to express interest in Lee, and the 30-year-old shooting guard was extremely flattered. Soon after, Joakim Noah (who agreed to a deal with the Knicks) was also recruiting him to New York. It didn’t take long for Lee to make up his mind and commit to the Knicks on a four-year, $50 million contract. He made the decision around 6:30 p.m. ET on July 2, choosing New York over teams like the Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks (who discussed the possibility of adding Lee to replace Kent Bazemore when it looked like he might sign elsewhere). Lee is a strong addition for Jackson and the Knicks in what has been a very busy summer for the organization. The team also hired Jeff Hornacek as their new head coach and added Noah, Derrick Rose, Brandon Jennings and Willy Hernangomez among others. Jackson and his staff have assembled some intriguing talent around cornerstones Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis, and the squad will look drastically different next season as they try to end their three-year playoff drought. While the addition of Lee didn’t make as many headlines as the Rose trade or Noah signing, there’s no question that Lee will have an enormous impact on both ends of the court. Lee has averaged 9.6 points over the course of his nine-year NBA career, shooting 45 percent from the field, 38.4 percent from three-point range and 84.6 percent from the free throw line. Last year, he spent time with the Memphis Grizzlies and Charlotte Hornets, averaging 9.6 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 29.5 minutes. In Charlotte’s first-round postseason series against the Miami HEAT, Lee averaged 8.6 points while shooting 44.4 percent from three-point range. But Lee is the type of player who does plenty of important things that don’t show up in a box score. He makes hustle plays, does the dirty work and makes his opponent work for every point. To get an idea of how hard he works when he’s on the court, consider that he ran an average of 2.64 miles per game during the playoffs (ranking fourth among all players, behind only C.J. McCollum, Damian Lillard and Paul George). In today’s NBA, the ‘3-and-D’ role player has become very valuable and Lee is a perfect example. He’s a two-way threat who will knock down efficient threes and then lock his man down on the other end of the court. Lee is also an excellent locker-room presence, leading by example while knowing his role and playing within it. On a Knicks team that features scorers like Anthony, Rose and Jennings, it’s important to have individuals like Lee and Noah surrounding them (and holding everyone accountable). Last season in Charlotte, Lee ranked first among qualified players on the Hornets in offensive rating (111.4), net rating (+6), true shooting percentage (57.6 percent) and assist ratio (18.9 percent). In the playoffs, Lee contested 12.1 shots per game, which not only ranked first among all Hornets but ninth among all postseason players. Charlotte’s top three lineups in terms of plus/minus in the playoffs all had one thing in common: Lee playing on the perimeter, either at shooting guard or small forward (when they went small). In fact, Charlotte had two of the top five lineups of the 2016 postseason and both featured Lee. Now, Lee will join a talented Knicks lineup and try to duplicate his success under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. Basketball Insiders caught up with Lee to discuss his free agency process, why he decided to join the Knicks, what he thinks of New York’s other moves, the expectations for next year, how much we’ll see the Triangle Offense under Coach Hornacek and more. Alex Kennedy: You told me that the Knicks were the first team to show interest in you, with Phil Jackson contacting you shortly after free agency started. What was it like receiving that call? Courtney Lee: “Man, hearing from Phil and it being the Knicks, it was an incredible feeling. It took me back to all of the things that Phil has accomplished, and it also took me all the way back to my childhood because I grew up in Indianapolis so I used to always watch the Pacers and Knicks battle against each other. It just brought back so many memories. For them to be the first team to call me, it was a good feeling. I mean, it’s Phil Jackson. It’s New York. You’re playing in the Mecca.” Kennedy: Did you have any discussions with Jackson or Coach Hornacek about how they plan to use you and what they want to see from you? Lee: “We spoke about that briefly. First and foremost, he wants me to bring energy on the defensive end. I kind of feel like me and Noah will be similar in that standpoint, bringing that energy. He’ll be a rim protector and I’ll be a perimeter defender, and we just want to cause as much havoc as possible for opponents. Then, on the offensive end, they just want me to be able to spread the floor, knock down open shots, get out in transition and play freely within the offense.” Kennedy: You mentioned Madison Square Garden being the Mecca and spoke highly of New York. What will it mean to put on that Knicks jersey and play in front of those fans? Lee: “It’s still sinking in, man. I wake up every day and I have butterflies in my stomach, ever since I made my verbal commitment to them. Being in the NBA for going on nine years, I’ve played in the Garden a lot and there’s a special feeling when you play there. There’s so much history. The fans are there night in and night out. Even during tough times in the past when they didn’t have the best seasons, the fans were still there and supporting their team. If they’re down 20 points, you may hear some boos in there because the fans are so passionate, but then if someone makes a play or shows that they’re giving maximum effort, the fans will cheer non-stop. That’s exactly what you want. You want the fans to be just as passionate as you, so that when you’re fighting through fatigue or battling through an injury, those fans are right there cheering you on as you try to make a play or get a big stop. New York definitely has those type of fans.” Kennedy: The fans are really excited now because of the offseason acquisitions. What are you expectations for this upcoming season? Lee: “We’re contenders, man. They didn’t make the playoffs last year, but we’re looking to change that and win big. The ring is the ultimate goal for everybody on the team; I know it is for me. When they talked to me and told me about the pieces they were adding alongside the players who were already there, I didn’t think anything less than a championship [was the goal]. We’re trying to get the Knicks back into the playoffs and win big.” Kennedy: Did any of the players on the Knicks recruit you as you were weighing your options? Lee: “Before free agency, I was talking with Noah and it’s great seeing how passionate he is. This offseason, he’s getting out of breath just being on the phone – like he’s running sprints – but it’s because he’s talking about the city, talking about the fans, talking about the team and talking about everything we can accomplish together. He’s excited and he was recruiting me pretty much the entire time, telling me that I was the missing piece and what not. He kept telling me, ‘Let’s get it done!’ Noah was in my ear a lot.” Kennedy: There have been questions about Noah’s recent production and injuries, just as there has been talk about Rose’s injuries. How do you think the team can hold up and what do you say to the people who are concerned about the team’s potential health issues? Lee: “It’s part of the game. When you play 82 games, plus eight to 10 preseason games, plus playoff games, you’re looking at around 100 games a year. We’re all human, so there are going to be injuries. It’s just about whether they’re serious injuries and whether you can bounce back from them. It’s a long season and we all know that injuries occur, but they probably have one of the best training staffs in New York. I think they’ll help us stay on the court as much as possible. All of the injuries from previous years are behind us. That’s the past. We’re looking forward to the future and the future looks bright for New York.” Kennedy: You’re known for your perimeter defense, and you’ve spent time matched up against some of your new teammates like ‘Melo and D-Rose. What is it like guarding those guys and what makes them so effective offensively? Lee: “Well, ‘Melo is one of those players who makes things tough for a guy like me since I’m 6’5 and he’s standing 6’8 or 6’9. He can play on the wing, but he’s also able to play in the post. He gave me mismatch problems a lot of times. But playing on this team, it’s going to be fun because he’s going to draw so much attention. Most nights, he’ll probably draw double teams and that’s just going to open things up for everybody else and make the offense flow that much easier. “With D-Rose, I feel like he’s hungry. He’s been criticized a lot in his hometown. He’d been in Chicago his whole career and then he’s hearing things like, ‘He’s not the same player. He’s injury-prone.’ The city flipped on him. He was the guy who was taking them to the playoffs and he was the MVP, so people can’t forget about that. As a player, I will never forget how talented that man is. I think he’s eager and hungry, and he’ll use all of that as fuel. This is his fresh start in a new location. He’s going to come out with a chip on his shoulder. “And it’s not just D-Rose. Noah has a chip on his shoulder. Carmelo has a chip on his shoulder because he’s eager to win a championship. KP (Kristaps Porzingis) is still learning, but he’s a dog so he’s going to go out there and compete. Brandon Jennings, every time he touches the ball he wants to score 50 so I know he’ll compete. And as far as myself, I’m always hungry and I’m always ready to scrap. We’re going to try to get the job done night after night.” Kennedy: That’s an interesting point. Can a team come together and bond over something like that, the fact that you’re all trying to prove yourselves and are motivated by these slights? Lee: “Yeah, no question. Our core group of guys who will be battling together, in the locker room together, on the plane together, we have to stick together and make sure everybody’s confidence is at an all-time high. If one person falls down, we have to be right there to pick them up. Everybody is hungry and everybody has their own motivation or chip on their shoulder. We just need to come together, get that chemistry and see it click. Once everybody is together and everybody is hungry, I think we can be very scary.” Kennedy: Fans in New York were very excited when you chose the Knicks because the fit makes a lot of sense. What’s it like to get that kind of reaction and support from the fans? Lee: “It’s a good feeling. Throughout my journey, I’ve been on a lot of different teams. Teams always say they want me and then I end up getting traded or whatnot. Now, to get a nice contract and the chance to play for Phil Jackson and Jeff Hornacek, and the chance to play in the Mecca, it’s rewarding. But even before I committed to New York, the fans were getting in touch with me on social media. Everybody was telling me, ‘Go to New York! New York! New York!’ Then, once I committed to the Knicks, my Instagram went nuts. The fan support here is like no other.” Kennedy: Have you discussed how much Coach Hornacek is going to use the Triangle Offense? Will he only use some elements of it, or will it be used less? Lee: “The only thing that Phil has told me is that he’s going to let Coach Hornacek have the [say] and be able to do what he wants to do. Phil may have some input and we talked about the Triangle a little bit, but I don’t think that Phil’s going to stress it too much.” Kennedy: Now that you’re playing with Kristaps Porzingis, what do you think of his game and potential? Could we see a breakout season for him during his sophomore year? Lee: “You should never judge a book by its cover. I remember when he was first drafted, there were a lot of people unhappy that they picked him. Then, when he got on that court, he let his game do the talking. He’s going to be a good player for years to come. The guy is 7’2 or 7’3, can shoot the ball, can dribble the ball and has moves. He’s going to be huge for us. Never judge a book by its cover.” |
A few years ago, Stephen Sharnoff, a botanical photographer and forest advocate from Berkeley, California, visited Redwood National Park in the northwest corner of the state. Marveling at the towering trees, he began thinking about other protected places where people can experience iconic trees within their naturally functioning ecosystems, like Sequoia and Joshua Tree National Parks. Why shouldn’t another great tree of the West—the Douglas fir—also have a place of its own, he wondered. Sharnoff began giving presentations on the idea of a protected area for Douglas firs to conservation groups. David Stone, a Eugene, Oregon, conservation photographer and key figure in establishing the 37,000-acre Waldo Lake Wilderness Area in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, was at one of them. He was looking for a new project when he heard Sharnoff’s idea. “After that,” says Stone, “I ended up being president of the Friends of Douglas Fir National Monument.” Sharnoff signed on as vice president. The Friends’ goal is to have 750 square miles of Oregon Cascade Mountains federally designated as the Douglas Fir National Monument, which would, over time, be restored to a healthy, functioning, protected Douglas fir forest that delivers a host of benefits, from outdoor recreation to clean water. Unlike redwoods and sequoias, which grow within limited ranges, Douglas firs are found in many areas of the West. But in the forests of the Pacific states, they are the dominant tree species. Probably the most common tree in Oregon, the Douglas fir was designated the state tree in 1936. This is partly what makes them so important. “Douglas fir forests are unique in the world in that they only grow in the Pacific Northwest and are of such economic and ecological consequence,” says Jim Furnish, former deputy director for the U.S. Forest Service, past supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest, located in the Oregon Coast Range, and current member of the Friends of Douglas Fir National Monument advisory council. Making up a significant part of the world’s largest temperate rainforest, which stretches along the West Coast from Northern California well into British Columbia, extensive old-growth Douglas fir forests were once filled with massive trees, some more than 300 feet tall and six feet in diameter, rivaling redwoods and giant sequoias. Those primeval forests eventually brought the timber industry to the region. In Oregon, commercial logging was well underway by the 1850s, and by the early 20th century was a major driver of the state’s economy. The peak decades of the 1950s thorough the late 1980s saw seven to more than 9 billion board feet of timber cut annually from the Oregon forestlands that make up 47 percent of the state. In 1970, nearly 17 billion board feet of timber was taken from Oregon and Washington forests. The Douglas Fir National Monument would encompass 750 square miles of Douglas fir forest in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains, in various stages of growth and ecological health. Most of the old-growth Douglas firs on the lower slopes of the Coast Range and western side of the Cascades had been logged off by 1900, and timber companies had to shift to other parts of the state or less accessible forestlands for the ancient trees. As late as the 1980s, foresters still regarded old-growth Douglas fir forests as "decadent" and thought they needed to be logged before their valuable wood fiber rotted. Clear-cutting them in 120-acre swatches, then replanting seedlings to grow Douglas fir plantations slated for logging over short time intervals was the order of the day on both private and public lands. But scientists were also beginning to unravel the secrets of Douglas fir ecosystems, finding them far from decadent. Their multilayered vegetation from canopy to understory—live trees, standing snags, underbrush, decaying logs, woody debris in streams—create habitat for animals like American martens, goshawks, red-backed tree voles, flying squirrels, Pacific salmon, and the most famous of all, a shy forest bird called the northern spotted owl. In steep decline because its habitat was being cut down, the northern spotted owl was listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1990, sparking a fierce battle between timber interests and environmentalists, the latter wanting to protect the last of the ancient Douglas fir forests and the former wanting to continue cutting them down. In 1994, the federal Northwest Forest Plan was established, calling for protecting and restoring the remaining old-growth forests while also permitting continued logging on federally managed forestlands within the owl’s range in California, Oregon, and Washington. However, under the plan, logging on federal lands has been greatly reduced from historical levels—just 540 million board feet in 2011 from Oregon national forests—and it continues to be criticized by the timber industry and rural communities where logging on public forests once provided many more jobs. And that is the other reason why a Douglas Fir National Monument is needed, say its proponents. “Even though there are lots of Douglas firs, we are down to 20 percent of old-growth forest ecosystems, and the Northwest Forest Plan is all we have to protect those forests,” says Dominick DellaSala, president and chief scientist for the Ashland, Oregon–based Geos Institute, who specializes in forest science. “While it’s stood up so far, there are regular runs to weaken the plan. If old-growth forests are not protected or in a remote area, they will eventually be logged.” For their proposed national monument, the Friends chose 480,000 acres of forest real estate that makes up the Santiam River watershed on the west slope of the central Oregon Cascade Mountains. Located mostly within the Willamette National Forest and some Bureau of Land Management lands, it includes three designated wilderness areas, a wild and scenic river, two national byways, a mix of remnant old-growth forests, mountain meadows, roadless areas, clear-cuts, tree plantations, and a checkerboard of private land inholdings. In other words, it’s a pretty good cross-section of what Douglas fir country in the Pacific Northwest looks like today—the good, the bad, and the ugly. The 28-mile-long Quartzville Creek, located within the proposed Douglas Fir National Monument, is a federally designated wild and scenic river and a popular summer recreation destination. Keeping the good, eliminating the ugly, and fixing the bad is the goal of the monument and would be achieved through "restoration forestry." “The proposed monument has sufficient size to restore and preserve a meaningful remnant of a Douglas fir forest,” says Furnish, who as supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest in the 1990s spearheaded a similar old-growth restoration program. Instead of creating new clear-cuts, they thinned trees, allowing the rest to eventually return to old-growth. “Our goal was to accelerate growth of fewer trees and bring back old-growth out of the clear-cuts,” he says. Furnish sees a prime opportunity to do the same in the proposed national monument. Establishing the monument would also entail closing unmaintained roads and improving water quality in the watershed’s streams—the Santiam basin has ESA-listed runs of Chinook salmon and steelhead. However, Stone is quick to point out the monument would be far from “locked up.” “There will still be plenty of roads for recreational access, firefighting, and other purposes,” he explains. In addition, restoration forestry work would provide some timber and jobs for local communities. So far, except for local county commissioners, there has not been much formal opposition to the proposal. The Forest Service is remaining neutral and the timber industry has not weighed in, probably because it is so early in the process. “I think that the national monument idea can gain some momentum, although certainly not with the current administration,” observes Lon Otterby, chair of the Many Rivers Sierra Club Group, which, along with the Mary’s Peak Group, supports the monument proposal. With an administration extremely hostile to the idea of national monuments, it may seem like the timing for proposing a new one couldn’t be worse. But in a perverse sort of way, the election of Donald Trump may help by forcing the group to take the time to garner lots of public support rather than rushing prematurely for a designation. Stone notes that the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon and California—slated for possible shrinking by the Trump administration to benefit logging and cattle grazing interests—was two decades in the making. Realizing that most of America’s national monuments involved many years of work before they were established, the Friends are taking the long view in their quest to turn a huge chunk of public forest into a healthy Douglas fir ecosystem, and Stone is spending a lot of time on the lecture circuit, promoting the idea of a Douglas Fir National Monument to everyone who will listen. “We have done so much manipulation of nature that we have a responsibility to send the forest back to what it wants to be,” says Stone. “And it’s probably not timber.” |
by Barbara A. Reynolds Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (Justin Sullivan/GETTY IMAGES) I raise this question because I don’t understand how logical well-adjusted people can continue to insult, condemn and ridicule blacks non-stop to the point that sometimes it is hard not to feel like a rag doll that people keep pricking holes in. The latest outrage du jour was Republican Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal forwarding around an e-mail poking fun at First Lady Michelle Obama. According to the Lawrence Journal-World, it said “I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing Mrs. YoMama a wonderful, long Hawaii Christmas vacation—at our expense, of course. “YoMama?” Neal later apologized for the condescending remark, but the damage of this toxic hateful speech has been done. Could you see former first ladies Jackie Kennedy or Barbara Bush receiving this kind of disrespect without national outrage? O’Neal is a little Kansas fish in a big pond and since he is not running for national office his remarks aren’t important, it could be said. Not so, because this anti-black ideology runs from the top down. Tea Party darling Michelle Bachman kicked off the current trend of bigoted thinking last July when it was revealed that she had signed a pledge containing a statement inferring that African American children and black families were better off during slavery presumably because, according to her logic, they had both parents living with them. What ignorance to suggest people, children among them, being sold like cattle and separated from their families during slavery had virtue. Flashbacks of racial insensitivity continue with Texas Congressman Ron Paul who finished third in the Iowa caucus. Who can forget his vote in Congress against awarding the iconic Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement, a Congressional Gold Medal? And then there are the anti-black statements that surfaced in a newsletter he published in 1980 which reportedly accused the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of having sex with under-aged children and stated that 95 percent of black men in Washington, D.C., are either “semi-criminals or entirely criminals.” Paul denied having any knowledge of the statements, but his vote in 2006 against renewing the 1965 Civil Rights Act to remove voting barriers for minorities frames him as a foe of civil rights. Even hot- to-trot former presidential contender Herman Cain tried to score points with his bigoted benefactors by bashing black Democrats as brain-washed and describing himself as a family member of the ultra-conservative billionaire Koch brothers: “I am a brother of another mother,” Cain professed. It is intriguing to watch former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum duke it out to see who can become the Top Offender of Black America. The champion, perhaps, is Gingrich who said that he would appear before the NAACP conference to explain to the African American community why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps. The NAACP called Gingrich’s statement “divisive and problematic.” In actuality, however, it was a brutish attempt to target blacks as dependent losers based on erroneous information and history. First of all the majority of people on food stamps are not African Americans. So why is Gingrich singling them out? And why has he labeled President Obama “the food stamp president?” Gingrich is trying to create stereotypes of blacks as welfare queens as was done under the Ronald Reagan administration, while ignoring billion dollar bailouts and welfare handouts to corporations. Earlier Gingrich advanced the GOP’s repugnance for inner-city blacks with his suggestion that child labor laws be modified so that poor children can work as school janitors. “Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods,” he said “have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works … They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal.” This script of casting blacks as villains, either surviving by illegal means or on the public dole has also been commandeered by ex-Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. “I don’t want to make black peoples’ lives better by giving them somebody else’s money,” he said in Iowa. Has he somehow forgotten that blacks are taxpayers and like millions of other unemployed Americans would be working if the failed policies of the Bush administration had not created massive unemployment? So that leaves Mitt Romney, who should also be judged by what he has not said. Romney served as a leader in the Mormon Church whose doctrine until 1978 stated that people with black skin were cursed by God, could not enter heaven, nor serve in the Mormon priesthood. It seems a fair-minded person would have condemned this policy but Romney apparently did not. So far this election year has unleashed a constant stream of bigotry. Is this a requirement to run for high office as a Republican or does it just happen that way? To think that among this bunch could be our next president should surely keep most of us awake at night. Barbara A. Reynolds, the author of six books, including “Jesse Jackson: America’s David.” An ordained minister, she is a former columnist and editorial board member of USA Today. Read more on The Root DC Bishop T.D. Jakes coaches at conference Essay: Forget the Medicare, pick up an instrument African American dating: fear, pressure and bridezillas Chat: Parenting in the hip-hop age |
Who are 'they' that Jacob says are coming? Who is the man in black with Jacob at the beach in the episode 'The Incident'? Why does this man in black want to kill Jacob?Why can't he?Why is he searching for 'loopholes' for it? What is the secret of the four toed statue? What is the secret of the 'Smoke Monster'? Is there any explanation for why the island is the way it is? And many others. Will the last season answer all our queries? I guess thats not going to happen.It will surely leave some unanswered question for the fans to wonder about.That's the essence of the show after all. All in all, it is one of the most anticipated seasons of all time. Think you know the answer to any of those questions?Then share it right here and lets see what others think about it. If you have seen the series upto now i.e the 5 seasons of some serious drama,action and mostly mystery then you are eagerly awaiting the day of the start of the sixth and the final season.Well,the wait is about to be over.The last season of the amazing series is coming back on the 2nd of February with a grand three hour premiere event.All the fans eagerly await the day hoping that it will be as good as the earlier ones and most importantly it answers the mysteries it has left behind it.The ABC entertainment president claims that it will be a highly shocking finale.An official teaser was released quite a while back which added one more question to the already long list of unanswered questions.See for yourself and try to figure out:The fans expect a lot of questions to be answered in the Final season.The most prominent ones being: |
The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community. The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Running an indie game studio means that I have to develop lots of different skills and undertake a huge range of tasks. Some of these are great fun, like working with extremely talented people and getting to watch a vision take shape. Talking directly with fans is also incredibly rewarding. Then there's the marketing and PR side of things, which, after two years of thinking up cool PR campaigns and succulent headlines to promote our games, I thought I was pretty good at it. But something happened this week which has shown that I really have no idea how PR really works, and that the world is not the way it should be. It is rather sad. You see, we've just made a game that absolutely rocks. It delivers innovation and fun on a level that is, let's be honest, extremely rare in the console games industry these days. Velocity has been very well received critically across the board, with Edge Magazine awarding a 9/10 score, along with IGN, Pocketgamer and a host of others following suit. Velocity is currently in the top 5 PSP games of all time on Metacritic and GameRankings, and it runs beautifully on PS Vita and PS3. All is good then? Well, not really. We're still struggling to gain exposure from some of the biggest gaming sites out there, at a time when the shiny new PS Vita - which everyone wants to succeed - desperately needs games like Velocity. Despite all the things we've done right with the game, it seems we're still not worth writing about... ...that is until we say something negative. This week I did an interview with TheSixthAxis (one of the most mature, friendly and clued-up gaming communities out there by the way), about how there are issues with the minis platform; a lack of trophies, networking features and demos specifically. Barely an hour passed since the post went live, and I'm told that IGN picked up on the story, including a statement that FuturLab thinks a lack of trophies is a major problem. Not words that I used. The IGN post now has over 400 comments, which is far more than the incredibly positive Velocity review on their site. In case you missed it, the review is subtitled: 'One of the best downloadable games on PlayStation Store.' Baffling, and really quite frustrating that Velocity wasn't even mentioned in the post. Since writing this article, I noticed that Eurogamer and CVG have also run the story. CVG boosted the drama further and failed to spell our company name correctly. These are leading sites that I've worked very hard to try and get content posted on; positive content about our story - our success on minis, and how minis represents a really good choice for indie developers getting started. It is clear to me now that negativity sells, which is just not the way it should be, is it? I'll leave you with a disturbing nugget of truth, which until now I've kept under my hat: I was once advised by a journalist for a leading games industry publication to make a racist comment in an interview, to guarantee wide exposure. The journalist was joking of course, but they clearly had a better idea than I did about how the human condition actually operates. [ From http://www.futurlab.co.uk/blog/ ] |
A year ago, I drove a couple hours south of Cleveland to a strip mall off Interstate 71 to film part of an episode of Bourdain’s “No Reservations” heartland episode, at a stellar Japanese restaurant called Kihachi (google map it, look at all the parking lots and new housing developments). During the meal Bourdain, I made an off-handed remark about how extraordinary to find a restaurant of this caliber in the heart of Applebee’s country. That was it, that was all! And it’s still how I still see it, namely that strip malls off interstates, miles from any actual metropolis, is, indeed, Applebee’s country. Regrettably, this episode of the show featured Columbus, Ohio, the state capital, home of OSU and the Buckeyes, and the good people of this heartland city, eager for the national spotlight to show themselves off, were a tad miffed that one of their own had seemed to directly disparage their city. I had only been there once or twice before for book events, not food tours, so I did not mean to suggest that Columbus was Applebees’ country, only that ex-urban interstate cloverleafs were. But that’s not how it came off. Talk about a hornets nest, sheesh (here’s but one example, good to meet you nonetheless, Bethia!). I more or less covered my head with my arms to keep from getting clobbered and ran away. But not for long. Aided by one of my oldest and dearest friends (a life long Buckeyes fan), a Columbus food mafia conspired to get me down there for a proper exploration (followed for all I knew by a tar and feathering). Lured by the promise of 50-yard-line seats for the OSU-Penn State game, my friend convinced me and down we went for a 24-hour Columbus food binge, led by two lawyers, Steve Stover and Rich Terapak and one financial advisor, Jim Budros, all of the them food devotees, occasional culinary instructors, restaurant reviewers, and one of them, Mr. Budros, a principal of his financial firm, also firmly enmeshed in the food business as a co-owner of City Barbecue. I’d been warned that we would need to be eating through the pain, something these gents seem to relish, and by the time we hit the massive buckwheat pancakes at Skillet Saturday morning, the pain was abundant. But not from the food itself. Skillet’s rib sticking breakfasts were stellar, neo-croque madames (my fave) and stinky cheese omelets, griddle cakes and sausage would hold us till the game later on that amazingly warm sunny November day. We began the trip early the previous eating at the Los Gauchos food truck for tacos (pictured above)—and they would remain perhaps my favorite dish of the entire visit. I love genuine tacos. What followed was a stop at Middle West Spirits, a new micro distilleryl working in vodka, of all things. I was dubious, as vodka by federal definition should have no aroma or flavor. But theirs did, but also, distilled at 195 proof remained vodka, so much so that the Gray Goose we tasted next to their OYO seemed by comparison better suited to a cotton ball on a flesh wound. The coolest part what owners Brady Konya and Ryan Lang are doing is making this premium hooch from locally sourced soft red winter wheat. Cooler still, they have used the same wheat to create a whiskey, which is the same stuff as the vodka, distilled at a different proof and aged in barrels. But exact same grain. Amazing stuff. From there to local favorite Alana’s. What my pal Lester and I loved about this place, beside the excellent chuck, was the retail wine case and $5 corkage fee. Brilliant. Next up, Basi Italia, chef-owned by the affable Johnny Dornback and his wife Trish Gentile, followed by Rigsby’s Kitchen, both superb. The next morning up early for dry-cured sausages and pate, the breakfast of champions, at Thurn’s, a 125-year-old family business. Next on to Mr. Budros’s kids bakery and patisserie, Pistachia Vera. Spencer, who leads the kitchen, and his sister Anne have created a fabulous shop, that would more than hold its own in New York or Los Angeles. Spencer said he’d put his macaroons up against any in the country. I would only change that to add, brioche and croissant dough as well. I terms of technical accomplishment, this was the highlight, and situated as it is in the heart of the very cool neighborhood known as German Village, it was also a very pleasant spot simply to arrive at. We followed Skillet with the North Market, a killer collection of shops, artisan bread, great cheese, and locally sourced meat, fresh spices, Jeni’s Ice Cream, fabulous stuff (and her vanilla-cranberry combines the efforts of four local businesses, including the OYO vodka, in which the cranberries soak), not to mention a grand of great prepared foods. And we concluded the tour with pre-game Texas-style barbecue at City Barbecue. Co-founder Jim Budros has created a great model for this kind of barbecue (not to mention incredibly succulent brisket). Wish Cleveland had one! I’m willing to say now that Columbus exceeds Cleveland as a worthy food destination. And what that means is that Ohio itself has become an awesome food state. Thank you, Columbus food mafia for the tour and the game. Go, Buckeyes! |
Terms of trade is an international measure which looks at the value of exports and imports to an economy. If a country makes more on exports than it spends on imports, then it will have strong terms of trade. If terms of trade weaken, this means that the economy is spending more in imports than it is making on exports. On the foreign exchange market this means that more money is flowing out of the currency than into it. We mentioned terms of trade in our previous post as one of the reasons we expect the Australian Dollar to finish 2015 below US 70cents Australian terms of trade have recently fallen to their lowest level since before the GFC in 2006. One of the main reasons is falling resource prices, as well as reduced demand from China for Australian exports. To put things in perspective, it is estimated that China represents over 57% of global demand for iron ore, and over 30% of global demand for copper ore. The Australian export price of Iron ore has fallen almost 25% in the past year. It is little wonder that Tourism has replaced Iron ore as our largest export. |
Although medicine and science have developed massively in the past few decades, we are still facing some global menaces at the beginning of the 21st century. The discovery of vaccines played an essential role in modern medicine, helping eradicate various diseases that were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people all over the globe. Unfortunately, once the most powerful weapon against bacteria and germs, antibiotics started to lose their efficiency as new generations of bacteria suffered mutations. So why is antimicrobial resistance dangerous? Here is everything you need to know about the topic. What are microbes? There are billions of microbes existent in the world, but most of them are harmless to people. The human immune system can efficiently fight against these microbes so that we don’t end up sick after simply getting in contact with another person or elements in the environment. However, types of microbes like fungi, parasites, viruses or bacteria are potentially dangerous to people and can cause serious health problems and diseases. They are called pathogens but are also referred to as bugs or germs. How can we fight microbes? Certain pathogens can simply be destroyed with the help of good personal hygiene and some common sense rules of eating. Drinking water only from uninfested sources and washing our hands with soap or gel on a regular basis are usually enough to get rid of various microbes. Unfortunately, other groups of microbes are more dangerous to humans and can only be eradicated with medicines and antibiotics. These are usually prescribed by the doctor and are only taken under the strict surveillance of a physician for a determined period, generally lasting between three and ten days. What causes antimicrobial resistance? Microbes represent living organisms with their own DNA. Similar to humans, plants, and other animals, microbes also have the ability to evolve in order to adapt to new environmental and climate conditions. Thus, what seemed to be enough to kill bacteria a few decades ago may not have the same effect today. Antibiotics can fight against bacteria, but traces of them remain in our bodies, leading to genetic mutations in time. It is said that the body has a memory of its own and can automatically adjust in order to survive. So, what used to kills us or make us sick a century ago will no longer have the same effect on our bodies today. Unfortunately, since we have been extensively using antibiotics in the past decades, microbes became immune to them and evolved into more resistant strains. This led to dangerous mutations that no longer respond to the treatments we were used to so humanity is facing yet again the threats of the environment. |
Donald Trump’s victories in seven states on Super Tuesday left many Americans ready to hightail it to the Great White North. The phrase “how to move to Canada” began trending on Google as results poured in from across the nation. According to Google data editor Simon Rogers, searches for the phrase spiked 350 percent between 8 p.m. and midnight Eastern time. By midnight, that number jumped to 1,500 percent, according to Google Trends. Also Read: Donald Trump Bought John Deere Stock Before His Weird Super Tuesday Endorsement The controversial candidate won seven states in the Tuesday primaries, namely Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Virginia, Arkansas and Vermont. Trump’s victories came despite the fact that he initially refused to speak against the recent statement of support he received from former KKK leader David Duke. Speaking to supporters at his Mar a Lago estate in Florida, Trump congratulated Ted Cruz for the senator’s win in Texas before taking a swipe at Hillary Clinton’s record, saying she has been in politics a long time and “isn’t going to straighten it out” if elected president. Trump also took aim at GOP rival Marco Rubio, saying the “little senator” had a “tough night.” Clinton, meanwhile, took the delegate-rich states of Massachusetts, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Virginia, Georgia and Tennessee in the Democratic primaries. Also Read: Super Tuesday, The Culling: Trump and Clinton Gain, But Who Else Survived? She told supporters in Florida that “this country belongs to all of us, not just those at the top, not just to people who look one way, worship one way or even think one way,” while opponent Bernie Sanders promised his supporters he would take the fight to the 35 states that remain in contention. |
The Oscar winner tells a Sun Valley crowd that Romney will "restore a decent tax system that we need badly." Clint Eastwood officially endorsed Mitt Romney on Friday evening, during a fundraiser for the presumptive Republican candidate in Sun Valley, Idaho. According to a pool report, Eastwood told the crowd that he was backing the Republican candidate because "the country needs a boost." PHOTOS: 20 Biggest Political Players in Hollywood Eastwood, long considered one of Hollywood's most influential conservatives, had been sitting in the audience at a 325-person fundraiser when Romney spotted him and asked him to come to the stage. "There is a guy here from the world of acting," Romney said, "who has pursued his dreams in a very unusual way: He stood up to the industry and did things his own way." The crowd at the Sun Valley Resort lodge applauded and pointed at Eastwood, according to the pool report. Romney asked, "Can I get Clint Eastwood to come up here and say hi to everybody?" Eastwood greeted the candidate warmly and then took the microphone: "This is very nice to be here today, tonight, today. Let's clear the smoke. "I was doing a picture in early 2000s called Mystic River in his home state," said Eastwood. "At that time, Gov. Romney was running for governor. I said, 'God, this guy is too handsome to be governor, but he does look like he could be president.' As the years have gone by, I'm beginning to think even more so that. He's going to restore a decent tax system that we need badly so that there is a fairness and people are not pitted against one another of whose paying taxes and who isn't. PHOTOS: Young Hollywood's Secret Breakfast with Obama "Also, we don't want anybody taking away the Olympic medals, tax-wise, from the Olympic athletes," he continued. "The government is talking about getting a couple of nickels. It's now more important than ever that we need Gov. Romney, and I'm going to be voting for him as I know most of you will be. ... We've got to just spread the word and get the whole country behind this." Romney then took back the microphone: "He just made my day. What a guy." Earlier this year, Eastwood made waves when a Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler that he appeared in was interpreted as a nod to President Obama. The actor denied the allegation in interviews. He tersely told Fox: "l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about job growth and the spirit of America." On Friday, there was no doubt that Eastwood was a Romney man. |
The Remain campaign flouted Electoral Commission rules so it could overspend by up to £7.5 million during the referendum, a Guido investigation can reveal. Over the next few days Guido will be looking at how the various Remain groups coordinated their messaging, campaign plans, data, materials and donations, causing them to overspend by more than double the legal limit. Sorry Electoral Commission HQ, you’re going to have to come back early from your Christmas holidays… The Electoral Commission rules are clear: if one campaign “coordinates [its] activity with another campaigner”, then they are “highly likely to be working together”. This definition of “working together” is important, because the Electoral Commission also says: “the lead campaign group must count all of the spending of all the campaigners it works together with towards its own limit”. Guess what… they didn’t. Two books provide detailed accounts of a number of Remain campaigns coordinating plans and working together in the weeks leading up to the referendum. Tim Shipman’s All Out War reveals “[Craig] Oliver led an early-morning conference call for the media teams at 6.15am. At 7.30am there was a second conference call, in which Stronger In would tell Labour In, Conservatives IN and the Liberal Democrats about their plans for the day”. This clearly counts as “coordinating” and “working together” under the Electoral Commission’s definition. In his book Unleashing Demons, Craig Oliver somewhat ill-advisedly admits to coordination between the various Remain campaigns: “I join a 7.30 a.m. cross-party call chaired by Will Straw. It’s designed to catch up with what the In campaigns for the various political parties are doing that day. I want to get across a blunt message: this matters. We failed on immigration yesterday, hardly anyone stuck to our line that we accept it’s a problem, but Leave’s solution of trashing the economy is no way to deal with it”. This reveals clear coordination between Remain campaigns both in terms of messaging and campaign plans for individual days. It would have allowed numerous Remain campaigns to provide a unified message on key issues, as well as adapt their individual campaign activities to complement those of other Remain campaigns. Remember the Electoral Commission rules: “the lead campaign group must count all of the spending of all the campaigners it works together with towards its own limit”… The combined spending of The In Campaign Ltd (Britain Stronger in Europe), Conservatives IN, Labour and Liberal Democrats during the control period was £14,496,806. Given the clear evidence of coordination between these campaigns, this means that Britain Stronger in Europe looks to have breached its spending limits by up to £7,496,806, more than double the legal limit allowed under Electoral Commission rules. There has been a lot of attention in the Remain media about alleged coordination between the various Leave campaigns, yet no focus on Remainers breaching the rules. Imagine what the Electoral Commission would have done if they discovered that Vote Leave, Leave.EU and UKIP had a daily morning call to discuss campaign plans. Guido has a lot more to come on this. Stay tuned… |
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