text stringlengths 0 100k |
|---|
Britain may be on the verge of a “great betrayal” as MPs ramp up their efforts to prevent a hard Brexit, the outgoing UKIP leader Nigel Farage has warned. Speaking on his weekend show on LBC radio, Farage highlighted recent interventions by politicians including Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson, claiming the “political establishment is ganging up together to betray Brexit voters”. “Lord Mandelson, the cheerleader in chief, is trying to get us to stay in the single market,” Farage said. Over the last few weeks, a political distinction has grown up between ‘soft’ Brexit, which means staying within the single market and accepting rules such as the free movement of people which accompany that, or ‘hard’ Brexit, which means leaving the single market and negotiating trade deals. On Friday, former Prime Minister Tony Blair called for a second referendum on membership of the EU, saying: “If it becomes clear that this is either a deal that doesn’t make it worth our while leaving or alternatively, a deal that is going to be so serious in its implications, people may decide that they don’t want to go.” The following day the Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi said that Blair was “preposterous” to demand a re-run, saying: “The British people have spoken decisively and so loudly that not even ‘Remoaners’ with the hardest of hearing can pretend not to have heard them.” But he then made the argument that Britain should hand over £8.5 billion a year to the EU to make up the budget shortfall caused by Brexit, adding: “The only issue to negotiate is how high our payment would be in return for single market access, and that must be left to our negotiators.” Farage countered: “If we stay in the single market it would also mean some degree of free movement of people. So if you think about it, as far as I’m concerned, every single thing that we voted to get out of, in this referendum, we’re now being told, not just by Lord Mandelson, not just by people like Tony Blair, but Tory MPs like Nadhim Zahawi telling us we must stay part of this single market.” He added: “I’m just beginning to wonder, and worry, are we on the edge, perhaps, of a great betrayal? “Because whichever side you voted in that referendum – you know 17.4 million people voted for us to leave the EU – it was the biggest exercise in democracy ever in the history of this country.” He drew support from his audience who called in to agree that the Brexit they voted for was being undermined. Diana, from Putney, told him: “There is a ridiculous argument that we know what we’re going to get if we stay in the EU. We don’t! “And the bits we do know about are not what we want.” Farage agreed, adding: “If Brexit doesn’t happen, there is going to be political anger that has never been seen in this country.” |
The Falcons took their sweet time starting contract talks with their impending free agents, but if the latest report from D. Orlando Ledbetter is accurate, talks are gearing up. The Falcons, who have elected not to use the franchise or transition tag this offseason, have entered into contract talks with defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux, defensive tackle Corey Peters and center/guard Joe Hawley. Out of the list of Falcons free agents, these three stood out as the likeliest re-signings. Corey Peters played a high level in 2013 and is young enough that he should have several quality years ahead of him, so he would seem to be a lock to return. His torn Achilles will require several months of rehabilitation, but assuming he's on track to be ready for the start of the season, Peters is a smart signing for the Falcons. Babineaux is 32 years old and has been an integral part of the team for the last nine years. Assuming he's willing to sign a reasonable deal, he makes a ton of sense as a 2014 starter and future rotational piece who can still be a disruptive force in the backfield. Finally, Joe Hawley provides reasonably priced depth at worst and a potential starting option if he can beat out Peter Konz at center. He's still just 25 years old, so it's reasonable to argue that his best years are ahead of him, and he'll likely come at a reasonable price. I hope all three of these deals get done, myself, and then we can begin free agency in earnest. How about you guys? |
Physics had to come to terms with the transition from commonsense Newtonian theory to the counterintuitive world of relativity and quantum mechanics. Now it's biology's turn Paul Nurse has a modest way with his ideas. "Are you like me when you read books on relativity?" he asks. "You think you have got it and then you close the book, and you find it has all slipped away from you. And if you think you have trouble with relativity, wait till you take on quantum mechanics. It is utterly incomprehensible." Not a bad admission for a Nobel prizewinner. The point for Nurse is that biology is facing a similar leap into the incomprehensible as physics did at the beginning of the 20th century when the ordered world of Newtonian theory was replaced by relativity and quantum mechanics. Now a revolution awaits the study of living creatures. In the past, we have seen biological explanations as commonsense. They have explained how genes direct the manufacture of proteins or account for the appearance of disease through the behaviour of bacteria and viruses. But such simplicity is likely to disappear in the near future, argues Nurse, who won the 2001 Nobel prize for physiology for his work on the role of DNA in cell division. The structure of DNA may be elegant and may reveal the mechanism that controls heredity, but its real importance lies with the way it stores digital information. Nor is it the only system in a living being that stores and processes information. The cell can be seen as a tiny computer, for example. Understanding how the different parts of the body process information and then distribute it is the next task facing modern biology, says the 61-year-old biologist. How does homeostasis – the mechanism by which an organism maintains its biological status quo – work? And how do cells communicate with each other? Understanding these networks will reveal "a strange, counterintuitive world", insists Nurse, who takes up the presidency of the Royal Society at the end of this month. Organisms will be revealed in their true complexity, he believes, and that will be crucial for arriving at a proper understanding of the nature of life. |
The ideal gift for a Toronto Blue JaysTM fan! Order today! The year 2016 marks the 40th season of play for the Toronto Blue JaysTM, who have given Canadians plenty of reasons to rally behind their "home" team! With six East Division titles, two American League pennants and two World Series Championship titles to their credit, "Canada's team" has a history of generating buzz through great plays and incredible moments. Who could forget the final play of the 1992 World Series, when the Jays became the first team from outside the United States to win the Fall Classic? Or a nation's frenzy as Joe Carter's walk-off home run won a second consecutive championship—on Canadian soil, no less! Now, coming off an incredible 2015 season, the excitement and passion builds once again as the Toronto Blue JaysTM look to add more heart-stopping moments to the team's incredible 40-year highlight reel. An ideal addition to your Toronto Blue JaysTM' memorabilia! Order today! Special Features: Includes official logo of the Toronto Blue Jays TM ! ! Show your team colours—celebrate the history of Canada's MLB baseball team and the Toronto Blue Jays TM ' 40th season of play! ' 40th season of play! 99.99% PURE SILVER! A must-have official MLB collectible: Crafted from 99.99% pure silver, the coin's bold colours and limited mintage will make it a home run for baseball fans and collectors alike! A must-have official MLB collectible: Crafted from 99.99% pure silver, the coin's bold colours and limited mintage will make it a home run for baseball fans and collectors alike! CUSTOM GRAPHIC BEAUTY BOX! Packaged in a custom graphic beauty box, whose theme captures the energetic spirit of this sports-themed celebration. Packaged in a custom graphic beauty box, whose theme captures the energetic spirit of this sports-themed celebration. Your coin is GST/HST exempt. About the Design: Designed by Canadian artist Joel Kimmel, your coin combines skilful engraving with the application of vibrant colour in a dynamic design that celebrates the history of the Toronto Blue JaysTM. A wave comprised of the team's official colours conveys energy and motion in the background, which provides a colourful contrast to the silhouette of a baseball player who has just hit the ball—a reminder of the many homeruns throughout the Jays' history. Next to the player is a large engraved "40", which commemorates the 40th season of play since Toronto was granted its MLB franchise in 1976. To the right of the player is the official logo of the Toronto Blue JaysTM. Did you know... A very Canadian start: A snowstorm started just before the Jays' very first home game at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium on April 7, 1977, but the freezing temperatures didn't slow down the home team—they won 9-5 against the Chicago White Sox TM , thanks in part to Doug Ault's two homeruns. , thanks in part to Doug Ault's two homeruns. The initial plan to bring MLB baseball to Toronto involved the relocation of the San Francisco Giants TM —the team would have been known as the Toronto Giants! —the team would have been known as the Toronto Giants! Over 30,000 entries were submitted during a "Name the Team" contest held in June and July 1976, resulting in more than 4,000 suggested names! From that list, specially appointed panels of judges selected 10 names to submit to the Board of Directors, who, on August 12, 1976, announced the team would be officially known as the Toronto Blue Jays TM Baseball Club. Baseball Club. Since the "Blue Jays" name was submitted by 154 people, a draw was held to select the grand prize winner, who won a pair of season tickets for the team's inaugural season and an all-expenses paid trip to watch the club in action during Spring Training in Dunedin, Florida. When it opened on June 3, 1989, SkyDome (renamed the Rogers Centre in 2005) was the first stadium to feature a motorized, fully retractable roof and an adjoining hotel with rooms overlooking the field. Only 16 years after their debut, the Blue Jays made history in 1992 by becoming the "youngest" expansion team in American League history to win the pennant, and the first non-American team in MLB history to win the World Series! The team's first mascot, BJ Birdy, was introduced in 1979 but replaced in 1999 with Ace, who has been entertaining the home crowd ever since! A 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner, second baseman Roberto Alomar was the first Blue Jay to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and is still the only player to have his number retired by the organization. Fans attending a Jays home game can see his number 12 hanging above the video board! Packaging: Your coin is encapsulated and presented in a Royal Canadian Mint-branded maroon clamshell with a full colour beauty box. Order your coin today! Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. Visit MLB.com. |
WOODBURY, NY - OCTOBER 18: Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Long Island Association fall luncheon at the Crest Hollow Country Club on October 18, 2012 in Woodbury, New York. Cheney discussed foreign and domestic issues, including the upcoming presidential election, at the business organization's luncheon. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) The Smile of Secret Power This essay appears in the March 6th issue of the New York Review of Books and is posted at TomDispatch.com with the kind permission of that magazine. The film and two books under review in this piece are listed at the end of the essay. If you're a man of principle, compromise is a bit of a dirty word. -- Dick Cheney, 2013 1. "We Ought to Take It Out" In early 2007, as Iraq seemed to be slipping inexorably into chaos and President George W. Bush into inescapable political purgatory, Meir Dagan, the head of the Israeli Mossad, flew to Washington, sat down in a sunlit office of the West Wing of the White House, and spread out on the coffee table before him a series of photographs showing a strange-looking building rising out of the sands in the desert of eastern Syria. Vice President Dick Cheney did not have to be told what it was. "They tried to hide it down a wadi, a gulley," he recalls to filmmaker R.J. Cutler. "There's no population around it anyplace... You can't say it's to generate electricity, there's no power line coming out of it. It's just out there obviously for production of plutonium." The Syrians were secretly building a nuclear plant -- with the help, it appeared, of the North Koreans. Though the United States was already embroiled in two difficult, unpopular, and seemingly endless wars, though its military was overstretched and its people impatient and angry, the vice president had no doubt what needed to be done: "Condi recommended taking it to the United Nations. I strongly recommended that we ought to take it out." "The primary impetus for invading Iraq... was to make an example of [Saddam] Hussein, to create a demonstration model to guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity to acquire destructive weapons or, in any way, flout the authority of the United States."2 "Syria was facilitating the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq, where they killed US soldiers. Iran was providing funding and weapons for exactly the same purpose, as well as providing weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan. They were both involved in supporting Hezbollah in its efforts to threaten Israel and destabilize the Lebanese government. They constituted a major threat to America's interests in the Middle East." By the vice president's own analysis the "demonstration model" approach, judged by whether it was "guiding the behavior" of the axis of evil countries and their allies, was delivering distinctly mixed results. No matter: "I told the president we needed a more effective and aggressive strategy to counter these threats, and I believed that an important first step would be to destroy the reactor in the Syrian desert." Launching an air strike on Syria, as he tells Cutler, "would sort of again reassert the kind of authority and influence we had back in '03 -- when we took down Saddam Hussein and eliminated Iraq as a potential source of WMD." "Back in '03" had been the Golden Age, when American power had reached its zenith. After Kabul had fallen in a few weeks, the shock and awe launched from American planes and missiles had brought American warriors storming all the way to Baghdad. Saddam's statue, with the help of an American tank and a strong chain, crashed to the pavement. The first of the "axis of evil" countries had fallen. President Bush donned his flight suit and swaggered across the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. It was the "Mission Accomplished" moment. And yet is there not something distinctly odd in pointing, in 2007 -- not to mention in the memoirs of 2011 and the film interview in 2013 -- to "the kind of authority and influence we had back in '03"? Four years after the Americans had declared victory in Iraq -- even as the vice president was "strongly recommending" that the United States attack Syria -- more than a hundred thousand Iraqis and nearly 5,000 Americans were dead, Iraq was near anarchy, and no end was yet in sight. Not only the war's ending but its beginning had disappeared into a dark cloud of confusion and controversy, as the weapons of mass destruction that were its justification turned out not to exist. The invasion had produced not the rapid and overwhelming victory Cheney had anticipated but a quagmire in which the American military had occupied and repressed a Muslim country and, four years later, been brought to the verge of defeat. As for "authority and influence," during that time North Korea had acquired nuclear weapons and Iran and Syria had started down the road to building them. Given this, what exactly had the "demonstration model" demonstrated? If such demonstrations really did "guide the behavior of anyone with the temerity...to flout the authority of the United States," how exactly had the decision to invade Iraq and the disastrous outcome of the war guided the actions and policies of those authority-flouting countries? The least one could say is that if the theory worked, then that "authority and influence we had back in '03," in conquered Baghdad, had been unmasked, as the insurgency got underway, as an illusion. The pinnacle of power had been attained not in Baghdad but long before, when the leaders decided to set out on this ill-starred military adventure. By invading Iraq Bush administration policymakers -- and at their head, Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld -- had managed to demonstrate to the world not the grand extent of American power but its limits. The most one could say is that the "demonstration model" had had the opposite result of that intended, encouraging "rogue states," faced with the prospect of an aggressive United States determined to wield its unmatched conventional military forces, to pursue the least expensive means by which to deter such an attack: nuclear weapons of their own. Now the Iraq war suggested that even if the Americans did invade, a determined core of insurgents equipped with small arms, suicide vests, and other improvised explosive devices might well be enough to outlast them, or at least outlast the patience of the American public. 2. The Smile of Secret Power Two syllables. One word. Hearing it Gates "sort of smiled back." Reading it, we do the same. But what exactly does that word, accompanied by that "sort of" smile, mean? It raises first and foremost a question about power -- secret power. Untrammeled power. Hard power. The power behind POTUS. The Dark Side. The man who, even as he could no longer prevent his longtime mentor and close collaborator from being fired, himself never could be. Richard Bruce Cheney, the man who had acceded to Governor George W. Bush's request in 2000 that he lead his search to find a perfect vice president, and who found that this arduous and exacting effort led to none other than himself, would be there at Bush's side, or somewhere in the murk behind him, until the bitter end. For all his experience and sophistication, that grimly blank expression -- calmly unflinching gaze, slightly lopsided frown -- embodied a philosophy of power unapologetically, brutally simple: attack, crush enemies; cause others to fear, submit. Power from time to time must be embodied in vivid violence, like Voltaire's executions, pour encourager les autres. After Ford's defeat in 1976, Cheney won Wyoming's single House seat and rose with astonishing speed, advancing within a decade from freshman to minority whip, the number-three leadership position. He was on his way to the Speakership when he accepted President George H.W. Bush's offer to become secretary of defense and then, after leading the Pentagon during the wildly popular Desert Storm, left after Bush's defeat to become CEO of Halliburton, the giant oil services company. After gaining wealth and influence as a corporate leader, he finally departed to become -- to use the commonplace but entirely inadequate phrase -- "the most powerful vice president in history." And all the while, like an ominous ground bass booming along beneath this public tale of power and triumph, runs another, darker narrative of mortality, in some ways even more remarkable. While campaigning for the House in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1978, Cheney was struck down by a heart attack. His doctor, and coauthor of Heart: An American Medical Odyssey, Jonathan Reiner, remarks that he knows no one who had a heart attack in the Seventies who is still alive today. For Cheney that 1978 coronary would be the first of five, his survival increasingly owed to the most advanced medical technology that with almost miraculous fortune became available just as he needed it to survive -- as if, Cheney writes, he "were traveling down a street, late for work, and all the lights ahead of me were red, but they turned green just before I got there." In the book's most striking scene, Reiner recalls hearing a colleague summoning him back to the operating table late one afternoon in March 2012: "Hey, Jon, take a look." Entering, he is confronted with a singular vision: "In Alan's raised right hand, festooned with surgical clamps and now separated from the body that it had sustained for seventy-one years, rested the vice president's heart. It was huge, more than twice the size of a normal organ, and it bore the scars of its four-decade battle with the relentless disease that eventually killed it. "I turned from the heart to look down into the chest.... The surreal void was a vivid reminder that there was no turning back." 3. The End of the "Demonstration Effect" No turning back would be a good slogan for Dick Cheney. His memoirs are remarkable -- and he shares this with Rumsfeld -- for an almost perfect lack of second-guessing, regret, or even the mildest reconsideration. "I thought the best way to get on with my life and my career was to do what I thought was right," he tells Cutler. "I did what I did, it's all on the public record, and I feel very good about it." Decisions are now as they were then. If that Mission Accomplished moment in 2003 seemed at the time to be the height of American power and authority, then so it will remain -- unquestioned, unaltered, uninflected by subsequent public events that show it quite clearly to have been nothing of the kind. "If I had to do it over again," says Cheney, "I'd do it in a minute." By 2007, even President Bush had begun to realize this, to understand the pitfalls and risks of Cheney's certainty. Having ventured his own one-word query in the interview with Robert Gates -- "Cheney?" -- Bush supplies his own answer: "He is a voice, an important voice, but only one voice." This observation would appear to be proved true in the debate over attacking Syria, in which Gates as secretary of defense joined Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Secretary Adviser Stephen Hadley in opposing Cheney. "The idea that we could bomb the Syria reactor to make a point about proliferation in the face of uncertain intelligence," Rice remarks in her memoirs, "was, to put it mildly, reckless." Perhaps he could; if so, it would not be the first time that Cheney's voice, isolated or not, had carried the day. The vice president lobbied the president directly and then made his case to a National Security Council meeting in June 2007: "I argued in front of the group and in front of the President.... I thought I was rather eloquent.... The President said, 'All right, how many people agree with the Vice President?' And nobody put their hand up." The days had passed when Bush would ignore the hands and choose Cheney's path anyway. There would be no return to the glorious "authority and influence we had back in '03." Having refused Israeli demands that he order an air strike, Bush also discouraged, at least nominally, direct Israeli action, supposedly intending to follow Rice's and Gates's insistence that the reactor be exposed at the United Nations. But the Israelis had other plans. Late one night in September 2007, American-made Israeli F-15s streaked across the Syrian border and, using precisely targeted bombs, "took out" the reactor. In the event, the Israelis made no grand announcement to promote Israel's "authority and influence" or that of its American ally. The Israelis kept the attack secret and insisted the Americans do the same -- as did the Syrians, who quietly demolished the ruins and plowed them under. The era of the "demonstration effect" was over. 4. Working the Dark Side And yet we live still in Cheney's world. All around us are the consequences of those decisions: in Fallujah, Iraq, where al-Qaeda-allied jihadis who were nowhere to be found in Saddam Hussein's Iraq have just again seized control; in Syria, where Iraqi jihadists play a prominent part in the rebellion against the Assad regime; in Afghanistan, where the Taliban, largely ignored after 2002 in the rush to turn American attention to Saddam Hussein, are resurgent. And then there is the other side of the "war on terror," the darker story that Cheney, five days after the September 11 attacks, was able to describe so precisely for the country during an interview on Meet the Press: "We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies... That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective." "was the most comprehensive, most ambitious, most aggressive, and most risky Finding or MON [Memorandum of Notification] I was ever involved in. One short paragraph authorized the capture and detention of Al Qaeda terrorists, another authorized taking lethal action against them. The language was simple and stark... We had filled the entire covert-action tool kit, including tools we had never before used."8 This memorandum, as Rizzo remarks, "remains in effect to this day." So too does Congress's Authorization for the Use of Military Force that Bush signed the following day. More than a dozen years later these are the two pillars, secret and public, dark side and light, on which the unending "war on terror" still rests. Though we have become accustomed to President Obama telling us, as he most recently did in the State of the Union address, that "America must move off a permanent war footing," these words have come to sound, in their repetition, less like the orders of a commander in chief than the pleas of one lonely man hoping to persuade. What are these words, after all, next to the iron realities of the post-September 11 world? The defense budget has more than doubled, including a Special Operations Command able to launch secret, lethal raids anywhere in the world that has grown from 30,000 elite troops to more than 67,000. The drone force has expanded from fewer than 200 unmanned aerial vehicles to more than 11,000, including perhaps 400 "armed-capable" drones that can and do target and kill from the sky -- and that, following the computer directives of "pilots" manning terminals in Virginia and Nevada and elsewhere in the United States, have killed in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia an estimated 3,600 people. "I don't. Tell me what terrorist attacks that you would have let go forward because you didn't want to be a mean and nasty fellow. Are you gonna trade the lives of a number of people because you want to preserve your, your honor, or are you going to do your job, do what's required first and foremost, your responsibility to safeguard the United States of America and the lives of its citizens? Now given a choice between doing what we did or backing off and saying, 'We know you know their next attack against the United States but we're not gonna force you to tell us what is is because it might create a bad image for us.' That's not a close call for me." Quite apart from the large factual questions blithely begged, there is a kind of stark amoral grandeur to this answer that takes one's breath away. Just as he was likely the most important and influential American official in making the decision to withhold the protection of the Geneva Conventions from detainees, Cheney was likely the most important and influential American when it came to imposing an official government policy of torture. It is quite clear he simply cannot, or will not, acknowledge that such a policy raises any serious moral or legal questions at all. Those who do acknowledge such questions, he appears to believe, are poseurs, acting out some highfalutin and affected pretense based on -- there is a barely suppressed sneer here -- "preserving your honor." What does he think of those -- and their number includes the current attorney general of the United States and the president himself -- who believe and have declared publicly that waterboarding is torture and thus plainly illegal? For Cheney the question is not only "not a close call." It is not even a question. As I write, five men are being tried for plotting the attacks of September 11, 2001. Though one would expect that such proceedings might be dubbed "the trial of the century" and attract commensurate attention, it is quite possible -- likely, even -- that you have not even heard of them. The five defendants accused of killing nearly three thousand Americans are being tried before a military commission at Guantánamo Bay. Those handful of visitors who are able to gain permission to attend, including a very few journalists, find the conditions rather unusual, quite unlike any courtroom they have ever seen, as Carroll Bogert of Human Rights Watch reports: "Visitors observe the hearings behind sound-proof glass, with an audio feed that runs 40 seconds behind. When something sensitive is said in the courtroom, the infamous 'hockey light' on the judge's bench lights up and the comment is bleeped out... "The degree of classification of banal matters is bewildering. A former camp commander issued a memo on exactly what material the defense lawyers were allowed to bring in to their clients. One thing that was not allowed to be brought in? The memo itself." The defendants include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed mastermind of September 11, who was captured in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, in March 2003 and immediately disappeared into the CIA's network of secret prisons, spending time, reportedly, at black sites in Afghanistan, Thailand, and Poland, where he was subjected to a medley of "enhanced interrogation techniques," including prolonged sleep deprivation, beatings, forced nudity, "walling," cold water immersions, and waterboarding, which procedure he endured no less than 183 times. Though this particular information comes from CIA documents, including an authoritative report by the CIA's inspector general, which have long been public, any mention of the treatment of Mohammed, and the other defendants, is forbidden in court. And yet, Bogert writes, "Torture is Guantanamo's Original Sin." "It is both invisible and omnipresent. The US government wants coverage of the 9/11 attacks, but not the waterboarding, sleep deprivation, prolonged standing and other forms of torture that the CIA applied to the defendants. It's tricky, prosecuting the 9/11 case while trying to keep torture out of the public eye. 'Torture is the thread running through all of this,' one of the detainees' psychiatrists told me. 'You can't tell the story [of 9/11] without it.'" And yet in that Guantánamo pseudo-courtroom American military officers acting under color of law as well as some civilian lawyers are trying to do so. This peculiar, mortifying procedure -- a futile attempt to render a kind of disfigured justice to those responsible for killing thousands of Americans and upending the history of the country -- is one more legacy of the misshapen response to the attacks: not a remnant of a past we want to forget but of a present we are trying to ignore. Bogert goes on: "The 9/11 defendants are not being tortured today, at least not in the way they once were. But we don't know much about conditions in their prison. For years, even its name, 'Camp Seven,' was a secret. Proceedings have now ground to a halt while the mental competency of one defendant, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, is evaluated. He kept interrupting the hearings last month with shouts of 'This is my life. This is torture. TOR! TURE!' "We're not sure what else he said.... Bin al-Shibh's audio went fuzzy partway through."10 Mark Danner is Chancellor's Professor of Journalism and English at the University of California at Berkeley and James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and the Humanities at Bard. His latest book is Torture and the Forever War. His writing and other work can be found at markdanner.com. This article, the first of three on Cheney, appears in the March 6th issue of the New York Review of Books. [Under review in this essay: The World According to Dick Cheney, a film directed by R.J. Cutler and Greg Finton In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir by Dick Cheney, with Liz Cheney. Threshold, 565 pp., $16.00 (paper) |
Meghan Roberts, CTV Winnipeg A lightweight soccer ball designed for girls is getting play in Canada. The Eir soccer ball was created in Denmark as a smaller, lighter alternative for teenage girls. Currently, girls twelve and older play with the same size soccer ball as adult men. The creator of Eir soccer balls said that puts strain on teens’ bodies and can cause injury. The Toronto Soccer Association recently decided to use Eir soccer balls in competitive play for girls thirteen and under. But the product may not be making its way into Winnipeg anytime soon. Haydn Sloane-Seale with Winnipeg South End United Soccer Club isn’t convinced the new design is the only way to prevent injury. “I think teaching better technique is a big thing. Strengthening the female soccer player through strength training,” said Sloane-Seale. He’d like to see more research outlining the effects of Eir soccer balls before letting his players use it competitively. The Manitoba Soccer Association said it currently has no plans to bring the ball to Manitoba. |
It was a foregone conclusion that a game as big as Halo 4 would be inundated with various retailer-specific pre-order bonuses, and already there have been more than a few announced for various stores around the world. So, in an effort to make life that little bit easier for you all, in the run up to Halo 4's release at the end of the year, we've gone and rounded up all of the pre-order incentives revealed thus far. There's emblems, weapon skins armours and more, and you can bet your Spartan jock strap that there'll be a load more pre-order bonuses popping up before Halo 4 release in November. Check them out below. Also stay tuned at the bottom of the page for a brilliant BBC blooper in which the broadcaster mistakes Halo's UNSC logo for the UN Security Council logo. Easy mistake to make, I guess... Play.com - Deadeye Helmet (applicable to both Halo 4 Limited Edition and standard release) Gamestop.com - Forest Spartan IV Armor Skin Best Buy.com - Venator Raptor Spartan IV Armor Skin EB Games - Forest Spartan IV Armor, Arctic Battle Rifle Skin Microsoft Store - Pulse Armor Skin Amazon.com - Pulse Armor Skin Mighty Ape - Raptor Spartan IV Armor Skin, Locus Helmet, Assassin Multiplayer Emblem, plus the non-exclusive Pulse Armor Skin and Bonebreaker Emblem We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for more Halo 4 pre-order offers. Halo 4 is out on November 6th, 2012. [Via OXM | Thanks, Mix] And now, here's that Halo UNSC logo BBC Blooper. [Via Eurogamer | Thanks, Stevedb79] |
5 Money Lessons I Learned in 2015 | In In Financial Fitness | By By moneyview Lot of things happened in 2015. I had completed four decades on this planet and three years of freelance life, after chucking off a well paying, corporate job. I was ready to learn more, grow more and develop both in material and non-material terms. Some lessons, which stayed with me, however were Owning a House Two years ago, no one really understood why I needed to own a house, when my parents had a big enough one to house me and my kids comfortably. But at that time, it was very important to me, a single parent to have a small space in my name. It made me feel more independent and more in charge of my life. Early in 2015, after finally repaying the loan, I can say I have never felt more at peace with myself. De-Cluttering and Mindful Spending Somewhere in the middle of 2015, I realized my wardrobe had more clothes than I would probably wear and whenever I purchased, I was only adding to the clutter and chaos. The same applied to the kitchen appliances, blankets, upholstery or whatever I was tossing into my shopping cart. That was when I resolved firmly not to “hoard”. With the exception of books, I decided to give away the clothes, utensils and other items, I was no longer using. Needless to say, it infused a lot of simplicity into my life and was also deeply satisfying. Over the longer term it made me disciplined in my spending habits. Saying No and Re-investing in your skills At the beginning of 2015, I was bidding for freelance projects indiscriminately and in the process losing sleep. That was when; I discovered the latent power of “No”. Saying “No” of course meant a temporary stalling of cash inflows. But the amount of fulfillment it brought was enormous. By being choosy about projects and focusing on the ones that were creative and involved out-of-the-box thinking, I was spreading my wings far and wide. I also re-invested a part of my income in myself by : Subscribing to websites and magazines which helped me sharpen my skills Purchasing books on my craft When I started doing this, I was apprehensive, but with the year drawing close, I am able to see the effects.That was my investment into my craft and it sure is bearing fruit. Talking Money with Kids 2015 was also the year, when I started to talk actively about money with my children aged fifteen and eleven. Keeping them in the loop, about made them feel a lot more responsible. They found it easier to let go of certain demands and even started suggesting means to cut down on unnecessary expenditure. For example, my elder son told me that he no longer needed an auto rickshaw to go to college and he would take the bus. Be Kind to Yourself Deadlines, financial and non-financial commitments can be taxing on anyone. This year, I taught myself to be kinder to myself, to take off some time for myself. I indulge in activities which bring me more contentment, rather than having a major financial impact like reading a favorite author, penning stories, chatting with a friend or spending time with kids. I promised myself that 2016 would be a year filled with more satisfaction and joy. Perhaps I would take up volunteering my time for more worthy causes. What are your plans for the New Year? Sridevi Datta is a Cost Accountant. After working as a Business-SME in a leading E-learning centre, she now blogs regularly at The Write Journey. |
A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has filed a lawsuit against an adviser at the school who allegedly hid that he had been texting with the drunk driver responsible for the 2013 death of the student’s mother. Megan Mengelt’s mother, Maureen Mengelt, was killed in 2013 when then-Lutheran Bishop Bruce Burnside struck and killed her while driving his car. Bishop was intoxicated and texting with Tori Richardson, an assistant dean at the university, while driving to a church event. The lawsuit states that a few days after the crash, Richardson reached out to Megan Mengelt offering to help, but he did not mention that he had been texting with Burnside on the night of her mother’s death, according to Madison.com. Richardson continued to counsel Mengelt in the months following her mother’s death and solicited information about the criminal case against Burnside, as well as a potential civil lawsuit Mengelt was considering filing, the lawsuit alleged. Mengelt did not learn that Richardson had been texting with Burnside before the crash until January 2015. In a deposition for a separate lawsuit related to the incident, Richardson acknowledged that he did not tell Mengelt that he had been texting with Burnside before the crash, according to Madison.com. Mengelt filed the lawsuit April 5, stating that Richardson misrepresented himself, causing her to share information that she would not have divulged otherwise, according to Madison.com. When the University of Madison discovered Mengelt’s allegations, they suspended Richardson without pay for 30 days, according to Madison.com. However, an investigation found that Richardson did not inappropriately share student information, according to the school. “However, it was determined that while his actions were within his job duties, Richardson’s conduct was not in line with our expectations for employees,” university spokesman John Lucas said in a statement. In testimony, Burnside said that Richardson did visit him once after the crash. “He told me one time that he had been contacted by the Sun Prairie police and they — but that’s all,” Burnside said. “But there was never any conversation about the Mengelts, no,” Burnside said, according to Madison.com. |
Islamist Egypt wipes Israel off the face of earth. Now that’s a headline one would be expecting to see around this time if one bought into all the conservative hyperbolic theories that surrounded the Arab Spring (for example). Conservative pundits argued that regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and even Turkey (which technically was not part of the Arab Spring but experienced a more Islam-oriented political revival in recent years in contrast to its secular, Kemalist past) would soon unite in a frenzy of Islamist passions to seek the utter destruction of the Jewish state. One would assume if this theory were true, as Israel began its bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip in recent days, these new regimes would unite to help Palestine fend off and defeat the Israelis. Yet, that is not what is happening at all. If anything, all of these states have been acting in a moderate capacity. Egypt, for one, has been acting as a mediator, hosting both sides for ceasefire talks and urging both sides to come to peaceful terms. And even prior to this most recent Israeli aerial assault, the new Egyptian regime not only pursued militants in the Sinai who attacked Israelis but also continues to destroy smuggling tunnels, often used to import weapons, between its land and Gaza. These actions are a far cry from those of maniacal Islamic extremists hell-bent on the destruction of Israel. But, one may interject, the regimes of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Turkey have all condemned the Israelis for their actions and appear to show favoritism to the Palestinian side. Although this is true, and we will address the efficacy and morality of this shortly, it is most important to note what hasn’t happened. These more religiously-oriented regimes have not begun shipping arms to Hamas nor have they undertaken training and logistical support to anti-Israeli insurgents. In addition, Egypt, which still retains relatively strong economic ties with Israel, has not severed trade with or sanctioned the Israeli regime. Again, these are not the actions of bloodthirsty theocrats. Returning to the issue of moral support, yes, these regimes have aligned more closely with Palestine. Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan recently stated that “those who associate Islam with terrorism close their eyes to the face of mass killing of Muslims, turn their heads from the massacre of children in Gaza. For this reason I say that Israel is a terrorist state, and its acts are terrorist acts.” I would never proclaim Hamas or the more extreme Palestinian factions blameless in all of this. There are plenty of criticisms to pick from concerning their tactics, ideology, and treatment of their own people. But as concerns the Israeli regime and its actions, is Erdogan really that off-base? I think not. |
Hey guys it’s What the Moose here, I’ve been playing a lot of AP Ezreal in solo queue at around 2000 ELO and I’ve really been having a lot of fun. I’m not trying to say AP Ezreal is the best AP carry, I’m just trying to show you his potential, show you some tips and tricks and hopefully encourage you to give him a go!I honestly think he is a better AP carry than Zigg’s and Lux despite the fact he doesn’t give the same CC as Lux, but I don’t want to give away too much about the video!Without further delay please check out the video, let me know what you think in the comments below and please feel free to tell me any ideas/requests for the future. Thanks!Main Tips:1. This isn’t a guide set in stone, it’s just some gameplay for you to take the best bits from, incorporate them into your gameplay and play Ez better than me! I mention runes, masteries and build in the video but encourage you to experiment with what works best for you.2. Put yourself in the enemy’s position when you want to hit your ulti. For example if you were on low HP and the other team has Ezreal where would you go to avoid the ulti, where would you try and hide.3. Take a point in Q early for last hitting in lane and to allow you to harass more often with W and E as Q passively reduces the cool-down of all your other moves.4. Practice using E and W as one move and practice using R E W Q as one move to get the best one shots!5. In team fights you really shouldn’t ulti unless you can hit more than 3 enemies, however if you can one-shot one of their carries it’s more than acceptable.6. When you are chasing someone or you are getting chased and your E and Flash are on cooldown, hit anything with your Q; (minions, neutral camps or the enemy champion if possible) to get your E off cooldown faster.7. When you pick up Lich Bane you will be hitting up to 1,000 damage every 3 seconds with Q (depending on your AP) as well as being able to use your abilities more often.Please check out my YouTube Channel for more advanced guides. Feel free to like and follow me on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date.Stay in the loop with SK Gaming by following us on Twitter and Facebook. |
Update: We are now hearing 75+ employees, many of which long time members. Update 2: We have heard it’s up to 80+, with long time employees receiving appropriate severance pay. Update 3: Here is Stone’s official statement: https://thefullpint.com/beer-news/stone-brewing-issues-official-statement-layoffs/ (Escondido, CA) – Reports are circulating that Stone Brewing has allegedly laid off “dozens” of employees this morning at their main location in North County San Diego. While we have not been able to determine the cause for this bulk lay off, we have heard this may be part of a organizational restructuring. Of note, Stone’s longtime receptionist and San Diego coordinator for International Women’s Brew Day in San Diego, Denise Ratfield was one of the casualties. Here was her publicly facing statement on Facebook shortly after learning of her job being eliminated: “It’s a bellwether day, and one that I did not see coming. Today, along with dozens of others, I was laid off from Stone Brewing. Although it will be a challenging transition after 7 years with a legendary brewery, I know that new opportunities lay ahead. I’m excited to start a new chapter in my career and so very lucky that I am in the best beer community on planet earth. Thanks to all the friends and family I made along the way at Stone that I hold in high regard. You made it wonderful. Let the new adventure begin!” From Andy Tenn, Project Specialist “It’s with mixed emotions that I share that today was my last day at Stone Brewing, due to a round of layoffs affecting so many friends and coworkers. I’m beyond grateful for the 4+ years at Stone, immensely proud of my accomplishments, and even more so of the friends I made there. I wish Stone only good things and am eager to now watch their continued growth in the familiar territory of being “just a fan”. Big hugs to everyone still there and of course, to those in similar circumstance. For now, it’s beer time. Cheers to us all!” We will update this story as more information becomes available. Stone Brewing is not a publicly traded company, and they are not obligated to comment on such a sensitive issue. |
No se sabe más : No more is know Anonymity and the murders of women in Ciudad Juárez Keith Miller En Español Fourteen years after women and girls began to be murdered, raped or disappeared in Ciudad Juárez, the police reports list the gory and tragic details of the cases, often ending inconclusively No se sabe más: No more is known. In 450 WOMEN HAVE BEEN MURDERED IN CIUDAD JUÁREZ, the SAC Gallery brings together 13 artists in an attempt to know more, to shed light on this dark subject. In learning more about the femicide, one can see the stages of shock to mourning, mourning to indignation. This show has been conceived as a result of this indignation. Olga Alicia Carrillo Pérez was twenty years old when she disappeared on August 10, 1995. When her badly decomposed body was found a month later the coroner reported that she had been stabbed repeatedly and her breast had been bitten off. Found in an empty field within the city of Ciudad Juárez, hers was one of nine women’s bodies found in a three month period in that field.[i] Claudia Ivette González’s decomposed body was found in a cotton field in front of the Asociación de Maquiladores (The Maquiladora Association) along with seven other bodies on the November 7, 2001. Her remains showed signs of rape and extreme violence. The two men immediately charged with her murder were tortured. One of the men died under suspicious circumstances while in captivity.[i] When 16-year old Paloma Angélica Escobar Ledesma’s mother went to the authorities to report her daughter’s disappearance on March 3, 2002 the State Attorney assured that her daughter was just out partying. When the state forensic team made an inquiry it found that the student and worker at the maquiladora Aerotec had been dead by the time of the State Attorney’s statement. “When the State Attorney was inventing parties, friends and bad habits, she was already dead. He lied to me,” said Norma Ledesma, Paloma Angélica’s mother. The authorities quickly connected Paloma Angélica’s ex-boyfriend Vicente Cárdenas Anchondo to the murder. After being tortured by the authorities Cárdenas Anchondo confessed. Norma Ledesma does not accept that confession as legitimate.[i] Confessions after torture are a consistent occurrence in these cases. If there are too many factors and too many dead to easily comprehend in the case of the murders in Juárez, there are some basic facts. Over the past decade and a half, women and girls as young as 5 have been beaten, raped and murdered, many with no outcome and often with police impunity. This has created a double bind for the women living in the city. On one side, they continue to be targets of the serial rapists and murderers committing the ‘unsolved’ crimes thus far. On the other, they are caught in a historically bound cycle of violence against women and now face a generalized atmosphere of violence in which women’s lives are without value and the taking of a woman’s life holds no threat of legal ramifications. At the same time, supposed and actual suspects are tortured into confessing to crimes they often did not commit as part of the larger scheme of governmental corruption and collusion. The murders of the women and girls of Juárez began in 1993. Since that time the number of murdered women in Ciudad Juárez has continued to grow at an alarming rate. The current number is well over 450 and over 600 are missing. While the murders are a clear cause of indignation, the many forces active in the injustice obscure the clarity of that ire: political corruption, historically grounded sexism, generalized violence on the border, rampant drug trafficking, endemic class and race war and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) all factor into the equation. The fact remains: women are being murdered in Ciudad Juárez at a frightening rate, in terrifyingly brutal ways and with a consistent and general level of impunity. A stone’s throw away from El Paso, Texas, Ciudad Juárez is home to the maquiladoras, the factories that supply the U.S. with low priced labor and much of its factory goods. Women and men from all parts of Mexico come to the border in hopes of a better economic future. NAFTA, which went into effect on January 1, 1994, briefly after the killings began, created the possibility for these factories to operate out of the reach of many U.S. labor and environmental laws. At the time, predictions by unions and civil liberties activists were dire for the fate of these new workers. Those forecasts continue to be relevant but have, to some, become a sidebar to this much larger injustice. Once the maquiladoras were created the level of social corruption and power the rich and their grown children (known as Juniors) could wield was formidable. In a country with a seventy-year history of government and oligarchical corruption, this new way to exploit wealth was potentially explosive. Also in 1993 the Juárez drug cartel, run by Amado Carrillo Fuentes[i], took control of the drug trafficking zone centered in Ciudad Juárez. At that point the power of the cartel and its collusion with local, state and federal officials grew exponentially with bribes to government officials in the millions of dollars monthly. The level of power, ability for corruption and depth of the cartel would be difficult to overestimate. Among the corrupted officials was at one point the general in charge of pursuing drug traffickers. The continuing violence against women and a generalized level machismo, sexism and misogyny has brought about a reality in which women are still victims of a series of too many ‘unsolved’ crimes, fourteen years after they began. “No se sabe más.” This absence of information seems too often intentional, symbolic and underscoring of the tragedy. In any country it seems that death and murder are inevitable. Why then is the case of these murders and disappearances any different? Perhaps they are not. On the other hand, one might ask: What is it that makes these cases unique? Why are they such a tragedy to some and a non-issue to many? If the death of a single individual is of great import, then how to categorize the death and disappearance of so many women? And, urgently, why the silence?. If the case of these women has achieved a painful degree of anonymity it is perhaps specifically because of the social, cultural, political and, significantly, economic framework within which the crimes occur. The women being murdered and disappeared do not come from the class in power. Just as they make up the supposedly anonymous laborers in the maquiladoras, the apparently nameless workers in bars (sex workers and otherwise) and multitudinous students, they also can be seen to fill spots on a macabre list of nameless deaths. That is one of the great crimes of the murders in Juárez. If I speak of the ‘women of Juárez’ I admit to also participating in the injustice. I do so for lack of a better solution. The injustice is not that 450 women have been murdered. It is that Raquel Lechuga Macías has been murdered. That 12-year old Maria de la Luz Martinez Garcia has been raped and left dead. That Celia Guadalupe Gómez de la Cruz was found dead, buried naked in a field. These are more than a series of murders: they are a single murder that has been committed individually and uniquely again and again. We should serialize them in our heads only to the extent that we must. But we must also keep very present the reality that Olga Alicia Carrillo Pérez was murdered and her killer or killers walked away. And when she was killed she was taken uniquely from her mother and friends, community and family, and not merely as part of a morbidly growing list but of a new list of a single name. The question is what can be done? Anyone who understands police work knows that reality on the ground rarely resembles the neat solutions found on TV. To solve a single case of murder takes hard work, often a clumsy criminal and, more often than not, a large dose of good luck on the part of the investigators. But this is not an injustice due to inept police investigation. This is a systemic failure, a crime committed as much by the murderers as by the authorities and the society that does nothing to stop it. The central issue here is the making invisible women whose skin is darker and whose economic possibilities are lesser. In this vacuum of identity their lives have been traded at no apparent cost. This is an institutional crime. Negligence, cover-ups, ineptitude, arrogance, etc all form part of a larger crime that is clearly a tacit acceptance and complicity in the femicide. In the end, the true crime here is the making anonymous individual women and girls. In this case, corruption is not a local phenomenon created by the stereotypical single officer demanding a bribe. It is a systemic occurrence that permits or demands a certain mentality to exist and which, simultaneously, prioritizes some over others. If we allow ourselves to accept the injustice of a marginalizing corruption as a lamentable fact of a democracy we run the risk of permitting large segments of the population to be more than marginalized, to be eliminated. [i] http://www.senado.gob.mx/content/sp/informes/chihuahua/cedulas/22-F.htm Washington Valdez, Diana; The Killing Fields, pp. 7-8; Peace at the Border Publishing, Burbank CA. [i] http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2003/11/29/038n1soc.php?origen=soc-jus.php&fly=1 [i] http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2003/11/29/038n1soc.php?origen=soc-jus.php&fly=1 [i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amado_Carrillo_Fuentes Even Carrillo Fuentes’ death in 1997 of complications during plastic surgery have been shrouded in mystery. Whether or not it was actually the Narco boss remains for some in doubt. |
701 Shares Immigrants make many contributions to the U.S. economy through their labor power, purchasing power, tax payments, business formation and scientific innovation. Some of these contributions are captured in traditional cost-benefit analyses; others are not. But one of their most valuable economic contributions comes in the form of their native-born children. These children—the immigrant “second generation”—tend to be bilingual and bicultural, are generally high achievers in school, and go on to earn higher incomes than the rest of the native-born population (the “third-plus generations”). Ironically, in most studies, education and healthcare for these children when they are under age 18 is counted as a cost incurred by their “first generation” immigrant parents, while their economic contributions when they are adults are credited to the native-born population. However, a new study correctly counts the costs of education as an investment in the future, which sees a payoff down the line when the children of immigrants make large contributions to the U.S. economy. The scale of the second generation’s contributions to the economy is apparent in the estimates provided by a new comprehensive report from the National Academy of Sciences titled The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Immigration. As the detailed press release announcing the report states: “…as adults, the children of immigrants (the second generation) are among the strongest economic and fiscal contributors in the U.S. population, contributing more in taxes than either their parents or the rest of the native-born population.” In 2012, for instance, the report finds that the second generation contributed 12 percent more in taxes than the third-plus generations. Even at the state and local level, where most educational and healthcare costs for children are incurred, second-generation adults were net fiscal contributors of $30.5 billion. Depending on the assumptions one makes about which fiscal costs should be attributed to them and which should not, the contribution of the second generation to federal finances was anywhere from $981 to $1,927 per person, while their contribution to state and local governments was between $547 to $825 per person. And this is just a baseline. As the report points out, the “long-run fiscal impact of immigrants and their descendants would likely be more positive if their role in sustaining labor force growth and contributing to innovation and entrepreneurial activity were taken into account.” The overwhelmingly positive economic impact of the second generation results from a number of factors. They tend to be better educated than either the first or third-plus generations, so they earn higher wages and pay more in taxes. The second generation is “heavily concentrated at younger ages, including younger adults,” so more of them are paying into the system rather than receiving benefits as either school-age children or retired adults. The ongoing retirement of Baby Boomers would be putting the brakes on labor-force growth—if not for first and second generations. In fact, “growth of the third-plus generation is all but vanishing, with almost all of the 9 million net additions to the working-age population coming from the ranks of the first and second generations” during the 2020s. The second generation will sustain the housing market in coming years given that, from 1994 to 2014, second-generation adults accounted for the largest increase in the number of younger (under-30) households. The children of immigrants are a new generation of natives that contributes to the U.S. economy as workers, consumers, taxpayers, entrepreneurs, and inventors. In an aging society such as ours, immigrants and their children are an integral part of our economic future. Indeed, they already account for one-quarter of the entire U.S. population. Photo by Edward Musiak. |
The RCMP are preparing to carry out a mass arrest operation against the indigenous Unist’ot’en Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in northwestern BC under Harper government’s Bill C-51 labelling as terrorists First Nations activists exercising their Aboriginal Title and Rights to protect their lands from oil and gas development, according to a joint statement by the groups supporters. The Conservatives’ controversial anti-terror act criminalizes protests that may be seen as interfering with ‘the economic or financial stability of Canada’ and opponents of the bill had long feared that it would be used to stifle opposition to oil pipelines aggressively promoted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The RCMP have made a number of visits to the Unist’ot’en as well as other First Nations leadership regarding the Unist’ot’en camp, located on the shores of the Wedzin Kwah and mouth of the Gosnell Creek, tributaries to the Skeena, Bulkley, and Babine Rivers. The activists have been protesting against the proposed Enbridge Pipeline and Pacific Trails Pipeline (Chevron), which are planned to cross the river at the exact points of our Pithouse, and Permaculture Garden that was built on the Unist´ot´en Territory of Talbits Kwah. Today over fifty individuals and organizations have issued a letter to the provincial government, federal government and RCMP to express support for the Unist’ot’en Camp. “The courageous stand taken by the Unist’ot’en and their supporters must not be criminalized by the RCMP nor targeted by government,” states Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians. “Through the draconian Bill C51, the federal government is attempting to brand people defending the land and water as ‘security threats.’ The Unist’ot’en are heroes, while the real threat is this government destroying the planet and economy.” Signatories to this letter include the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, First Nations Summit, BC Assembly of First Nations, Greenpeace Canada, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 718, Idle No More, Council of Canadians, Earthkeepers: Christians for Climate Justice, Defenders of the Land, David Suzuki, Unifor’s Western Director Joie Warnock, Elizabeth May, Naomi Klein. “Why is the Senior Command of the RCMP so hell bent on deliberately provoking a conflict between themselves and the Indigenous Peoples of British Columbia?” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs asked. “Are they taking these instructions from Premier Christy Clark or Prime Minister Harper?” Since 2009, the Unist’ot’en have maintained a camp by Wedzin Kwah (Morice River) that is blocking seven pipelines that do not have Unist’ot’en consent to use their land. On August 15th, 2015, in accordance with Wet’suwet’en laws, the Unist’ot’en Declaration was unanimously signed by five Unist’ot’en chiefs and affirms the continuous governance of the Unist’ot’en. The letter notes, “We denounce any attempt by the federal government, provincial government or RCMP to interfere in the rights of the Unist’ot’en to occupy, manage or maintain their lands…We expect any and all actions taken by the federal and provincial government, industry and policing agencies to be consistent with the Unist’ot’en Declaration and the jurisdiction of the Unist’ot’en Clan. |
What I rely on instead is discipline, not motivation. In other words, they are disciplined about it, building and maintaining a habit. Being disciplined and building a habit is your goal, not “finding your motivation”. Workout A Crawling & Ground Skills Circuit Support & Hinging Circuit Pull & Squat Circuit Bodyweight Cardio Circuit #3 ------------------------------------------------------------- A lot of people wonder where I get the motivation to workout. Usually they are looking for something to make them want to workout because, let’s face it, working out isn’t always fun and easy. To help offset this most of us look for some sort of motivation to drive us. Kind of like Rocky waking up every morning to face Apollo Creed, this kind of motivation burns like a fire inside someone, driving them forward at all costs.So people are usually pretty surprised when I tell them that I’m not motivated to workout anymore. While I’ve tasted and used motivation to help drive my training, I’ve also found that it is unsustainable over the long run.To explain the difference, let me ask you a question…Are you motivated to brush your teeth every morning? I mean, is there a fire inside you that drives you to the sink twice a day, 365 days a year, every day of your life? For the vast majority of people reading this, the answer is “no”. But they do it anyway because it is just what they do as part of their routine.Which is exactly how I look at working out. Just like I don’t want to suffer from bad breath and rotting teeth from not being disciplined about taking care of them, I don’t want to suffer from a loss of performance and increased risk of injury from not taking care of my body.Which means that there no secret other than putting in the work and being consistent.And the perfect time to start is now with this month’s Group Coaching Workout.The goal of this month’s workout is to continue with the transition between the end of the riding season and the Off Season. To accomplish this we’re continuing with the Bodyweight Training theme in this month’s workout. You’ll see that the movements have progressed, the goal of which is to put your body at a mechanical disadvantage to force it to improve its core strength and ability to act as a unit.And the best part is that you aren’t loading your joints with weight, which can add a bunch of wear and tear on top of grind they already go through riding your bike. Plus you can do it at home, making it convenient to fit into your schedule. Below you'll find the first workout in the program. You can download the entire workout, complete with video demos of the warm-up, workout and decompression flow, by clicking the link below:A1 - Marching Bear Crawls (2 X 5-10 reps each side)A2 - Sit Out (2 X 5-10 reps each side)B1 - Pike Rocks (2 X 3-10 reps)B2 - Marching Glute Bridge (2 X 5-20 reps each side)C1 - Scap Pull Ups (2 X 3-10 reps with 3 second hold at each position)C2 - Lateral Lunge (2 X 5-15 reps each side)10 Forward Bear Crawls + 10 Seal Jacks + 10 Backward Bear Crawls + 10 Marches X 5-10 roundsYou can also sign up to get these workouts emails directly to you plus more training tips and other stuff to help your riding by clicking the link below:If you find some of the exercises in this month’s workout to be a little tough then you can start with last month’s workout.Balancing the time and energy demands of riding your bike with doing some strength and mobility training isn’t easy but it will pay off later. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for the monthly workouts.Until next time…Ride Strong,James WilsonMTB Strength Training SystemsJames Wilson is the owner of MTB Strength Training Systems and has been helping riders improve their fitness and skills since 2005. As the strength and conditioning coach for World Cup Teams and 4 National Championships his unique approach has been proven at the highest levels. He has also helped thousands of riders around the world through his blog, podcast and online training programs.You can find out more at www.bikejames.com where you can also sign up for the free 30 Day MTB Skills and Fitness Program to get started on the way to riding with more power, endurance and confidence today. |
Most of us are accomplished watchers of TV and film, so we intuitively understand some of the concepts lurking in dense film-theory tomes. You won’t need them for Internet Film School, The A.V. Club’s column about film and television. In each installment, we explore a basic element of visual composition and analyze examples to understand how the formal properties of film and television manipulate viewers. Narration in film and television is what evolutionary theorists would call an atavism–the reappearance of a once necessary trait long past its usefulness. When Homer roamed the Greek world reciting the Iliad, a narrator was necessary. When Shakespeare broke the fourth wall and told his audience how to feel about a betrayal, narration served a purpose. When Warner Bros. forced Harrison Ford to tell us “Rachel was special,” however, it died a horrible death: Which isn’t to say it disappeared, or hasn’t been used effectively, for example, by Rob Thomas on Veronica Mars, or cleverly in an episode of Homicide from 1995 directed by Alan Taylor, who went on to direct episodes of Deadwood, Mad Men, Game Of Thrones and some movie about a Norse god. Point being, narration is film’s vestigial tail, so much so that it’s easiest to point out its flaws by using a phrase typically heard only in writing seminars: “Show, don’t tell.” Advertisement Narration is all about “telling,” so marrying it to a visual medium in which “showing” isn’t a preference, but a requirement, feels forced. It’s the imposition of a spoken narrative onto facts—in this case visual facts, consisting of what the audience can actually see—and so it shouldn’t be surprising that the most successful use of it occurs in narratives that involve detectives, again, like Veronica Mars or Homicide. Detectives are always up in the world’s grill, imposing inconvenient narratives upon criminals who have wronged it. Films and serials that center on detectives aren’t about telling a story, they’re about hearing bits and pieces of a story and recreating what actually happened. They’re fractured narratives being put back together in real-time, and because audiences aren’t as experienced at doing so as the characters on screen, a little hand-holding is required—hence, the prevalence of narrating detectives. Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective understands this relationship so well it’s willing to be open, framing the “natural” narrative of an investigation within a narrative about the narrative of the investigation. That it does so without ever seeming oppressively “meta” is a credit to Pizzolatto and series director Cary Fukunaga, because without the enthusiastic performances of Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, the series could easily have drifted into an eight-hour recapitulation of Ford’s drugged Blade Runner voice-over. Advertisement There will never need to be 18 “director’s cuts” of True Detective, however, because Pizzolatto and Fukunaga know that detectives are, conventionally, open to sharing their limited understanding of the narrative of the crime with the audience. Detectives may not know everything, but they don’t withhold anything they know—just consider the moment in every episode of Sherlock or Elementary in which Holmes recreates the crime for the benefit of his audience of rubes. Moreover, detectives are supposed to be tellers of truth—the refrain on Homicide being that they “speak for the dead”—not complete and utter liars. In a scene in “The Secret Fate of All Life,” the fifth episode of True Detective, Fukunaga cut from a medium close-up of Harrelson’s Detective Hart describing “something high velocity” tearing into the grass around them to the shot above, which depicts what actually happened. There’s no tree being “blown apart” between him and McConaughey’s Detective Cohle; they’re just running in a field. The narration is telling one story to the detectives to whom Hart and Cohle are speaking, but the visuals are telling another. Advertisement There’s no dispute as to which story is true, either, no question as to what the glowing object in the half-opened briefcase is. Hart and Cohle are lying, but they’re doing so in a way that engenders the trust of the audience. The audience is “in on” the story, they know the “secret” that the detectives interrogating Hart and Cohle never will. How did the audience get “in”? Don’t listen to Cohle. He’s a liar. He knows that the audience was drawn in not just by the narrative frame, but because of Fukunaga’s shot selection of it. He piles on these medium close-ups of Hart and Cohle being questioned about the events of that particular day, and medium close-ups provide the audience with a kind of socially acceptable intimacy. Advertisement A close-up of a face is an intensely intimate shot, an invasion of personal space. Just imagine how close you would have to be to Cohle to acquire the following unwanted perspective: But a medium close-up respects the personal space of its subjects, while still retaining some of the close-up’s intimacy. By the time the scene above aired, about 12 minutes into the episode, members of the audience have spent approximately two hours in predominantly medium close-up conversations with Hart and Cohle, building the kind of trust required to make them believe their eyes over the detectives’ lies. Advertisement And these were some spectacular lies, as Fukunaga’s use of an extreme long shot hammers home. The audience can see everything in the diegetic world, and there’s nary a sign of “heavy shit.” The ferns and whatnot are undetonated, no bark has taken flight, and the shit is neither fucking nor storming. But the audience can only see the magnitude of Hart and Cohle’s lies in conjunction with the scale of Fukunaga’s shot. These aren’t little white lies this pair is selling the glorified beat cops interrogating them—they’re the kind of lies only a true detective could get away with telling. |
Thanks to Channel 37, radio astronomers keep tabs on everything from the Sun to pulsars to the lonely spaces between the stars. This particular frequency, squarely in the middle of the UHF TV broadcast band, has been reserved for radio astronomy since 1963, when astronomers successfully lobbied the FCC to keep it TV-free. Back then UHF TV stations were few and far between. Now there are hundreds, and I’m sure a few would love to soak up that last sliver of spectrum. Sorry Charley, the moratorium is still in effect to this day. Not only that, but it’s observed in most countries across the world. So what’s so important about Channel 37? Well, it’s smack in the middle of two other important bands already allocated to radio astronomy – 410 Megahertz (MHz) and 1.4 Gigahertz (Gz). Without it, radio astronomers would lose a key window in an otherwise continuous radio view of the sky. Imagine a 3-panel bay window with the middle pane painted black. Who wants THAT? Channel 37 occupies a band spanning from 608-614 MHz. A word about Hertz. Radio waves are a form of light just like the colors we see in the rainbow or the X-rays doctors use to probe our bones. Only difference is, our eyes aren’t sensitive to them. But we can build instruments like X-ray machines and radio telescopes to “see” them for us. Every color of light has a characteristic wavelength and frequency. Wavelength is the distance between successive crests in a light wave which you can visualize as a wave moving across a pond. Waves of visible light range from one-millionth to one-billionth of a meter, comparable to the size of a virus or DNA molecule. X-rays crests are jammed together even more tightly – one X-ray is only as big as an small atom. Radio waves fill out the opposite end of the spectrum with wavelengths ranging from baseball-sized to more than 600 miles (1000 km) long. The frequency of a light wave is measured by how many crests pass a given point over a given time. If only one crest passes that point every second, the light beam has a frequency of 1 cycle per second or 1 Hertz. Blue light has a wavelength of 462 billionths of a meter and frequency of 645 trillion Hertz (645 Terahertz). The higher the frequency, the greater the energy the light carries. X-rays have frequencies starting around 30 quadrillion Hertz (30 petahertz or 30 PHz), enough juice to damage body cells if you get too much exposure. Even ultraviolet light has power to burn skin as many of us who’ve spent time outdoors in summer without sunscreen are aware. Radio waves are the gentle giants of the electromagnetic spectrum. Their enormous wavelengths mean low frequencies. Channel 37 radio waves have more modest frequencies of around 600 million Hertz (MHz), while the longest radio waves deliver crests almost twice the width of Lake Superior at a rate of 3 to 300 Hertz. If Channel 37 were ever lost to TV, the gap would mean a loss of information about the distribution of cosmic rays in the Milky Way galaxy and rapidly rotating stars called pulsars created in the wake of supernovae. Closer to home, observations in the 608-614 MHz band allow astronomers track bursts of radio energy produced by particles blasted out by solar flares traveling through the sun’s outer atmosphere. Some of these can have powerful effects on Earth. No wonder astronomers want to keep this slice of the electromagnetic spectrum quiet. For more details on how useful this sliver is to radio astronomy, click HERE. Just as optical astronomers seek the darkest sites for their telescopes to probe the most remote corners of the universe, so too does radio astronomy need slices of silence to listen to the faintest whispers of the cosmos. |
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has a great analysis in his piece “Republican Health Care Panic”. Before going into the most prescient statement in his piece it is essential to quote his interpretation of what the law does. Inasmuch as it has been explained in many forms, Krugman’s one paragraph puts it more succinctly than most. Although you’d never know it from all the fulminations, with prominent Republicans routinely comparing Obamacare to slavery, the Affordable Care Act is based on three simple ideas. First, all Americans should have access to affordable insurance, even if they have pre-existing medical problems. Second, people should be induced or required to buy insurance even if they’re currently healthy, so that the risk pool remains reasonably favorable. Third, to prevent the insurance “mandate” from being too onerous, there should be subsidies to hold premiums down as a share of income. [source] So what ‘horrible truth’ is it that better informed people on the Right seem to finally be facing up to? They are panicking as they noticed that Health care reform, President Obama’s signature policy achievement, is probably going to work. [source] For those that have followed the real news and widely available information, that should not have been hard. After-all, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has been working successfully and effectively in Massachusetts for several years now (Obamacare was modeled on many parts of Massachusetts’ healthcare). Additionally, the information about the success of health insurance exchanges in states that care more about the health of their citizens than ideological politics is coming in. The pricing from these health insurance exchanges, contrary to the myriad of lies and misinformation from Republicans have been much lower than expected. Because of the manner in which Obamacare was implemented, much of it was stealthy inasmuch as it did much for most. As such it was easy to demonize. For those who already have insurance, the fact that it cannot be rescinded or the fact that it no longer has caps which could actually cause one’s bankruptcy, though a huge benefit is rather stealthy. The fact that disease screenings must be covered at no additional cost on policies is likely seen only a few times a decade. Those cost savings and lifesaving potential are huge. The fact that pre-natal care must be covered at no additional cost ensures that America will no longer have one of the worst maternal death rates and worst infant death rate in the industrialized world. The fact that those with pre-existing conditions will be able to now purchase insurance at rates equivalent to everyone else is stealthy except for those it affect. Full implementation of Obamacare begins in 2014 with health insurance exchanges open in October 2013. The truth will be out not by hot air but by reality. It is important that the news media, the blogosphere, and every other medium is ready to call out the lies and hold those attempting to sabotage the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and the well-being of American citizens accountable. Listen to my radio show Politics Done Right on the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) HERE. LIKE My Facebook Page – Visit My Blog: EgbertoWillies.com Follow @EgbertoWillies |
The ask blog is once again open! For the next couple of hours I’ll be taking Magic Anons. (Please hold off on the regular asks just for now!) For anyone who doesn’t know, Magic Anon prompts allow an anon to temporarily change the circumstances surrounding the characters on the ask blog. (Example: “For the next five asks, Stan and Ford have ducks on their heads that they refuse to look at or acknowledge.”) If you want you can ask them off anon too, I’m not really picky. Once I’ve got a few of them in the ol’ inbox, I’ll close the askbox again temporarily, pick one I like, make a response to it, then open the askbox again for questions! I will repeat this process until I get bored with it. SO! HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT! Side note–since I’ll be having a SUPER COOL AND FUN AND ALL AROUND GREAT IN EVERY WAY houseguest this weekend there’s a good chance that I won’t post the response till after the weekend’s over. |
Two members of Congress are trying to stop states from weakening encryption. Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) introduced a bill on Wednesday that would stop states from mandating that a company intentionally weaken its smartphone encryption to facilitate law enforcement action. The bill, known as the ENCRYPT Act, is surprisingly short, saying simply that no state or local muncipality can place restrictions or rules upon device manufacturers, app developers, or product sellers. More specifically, it targets the idea of forcing companies to more easily allow those local governments to "have the ability to decrypt or otherwise render intelligible information that is encrypted or otherwise rendered unintelligible using its product or service." The bill was presented to Congress just weeks after New York and California lawmakers introduced their own bills that would ban the sale of encrypted smartphones. Since Apple and Google encrypt their most recent operating systems by default, though, that would make it difficult to sell iPhones or Android-based devices in those two states. Neither bill has seen activity since being introduced, however. "Different rules in different states create a myriad of issues and will actually make it more difficult for law enforcement officials. We need a unified approach to this issue that both protects security and privacy while enabling law enforcement to keep us safe," Rep. Farenthold said in a statement. "The California and New York proposals do not solve the problem. We need to keep free market and trade between the several states robust, not promote a false sense of security and require things like backdoors and golden keys that can be exploited by hackers." "The ENCRYPT Act makes sure that this conversation happens in a place that does not disrupt interstate commerce," Rep. Lieu said. Regardless of what happens on Capitol Hill, all these bills again bring up the issue of encryption. Law enforcement officials have criticized Apple and Google for hardening their communication platforms. Indeed, if an iMessage user were to communicate with another, it would be impossible for Apple, as well as law enforcement, to intercept that communication. Law enforcement agencies say such features put the public at risk. Apple and Google, among others, say they're protecting individual rights to privacy and security, and have no plans to alter their OSes. |
Largo, Florida (CNN) Ret. Sgt. Tom Block is sitting in the classroom, looking restless. He and 23 other highly specialized, highly coveted candidates are all vying for a job where they will be exposed to some of the most horrifying images humanity can produce. Each candidate is a veteran of America's recent wars. Many were part of the elite special ops forces. They conducted daring, covert missions to take out America's most dangerous enemies. Many were wounded in battles across Afghanistan and Iraq. And now that their military career has come to a close, they are looking for a second chance to find purpose in their lives back at home -- and the answer could be the HERO Child-Rescue Corps, saving at risk kids. J. Christian, CEO of the National Association to Protect Children (Protect) , says: "A lot of the individuals who come into the HERO Corps are truly individuals who have lost their mission on the battlefield." Christian, an Army Ranger who fractured his spine during a mission in Afghanistan, says many of the veterans who come into HERO are hoping to regain that something they lost when they left the service. Block is hoping to get a second chance to "go after bad guys again." "In one second their entire life changed. When that happens, I know from personal experience, you start to wonder, what can I now do? And once you find this opportunity, you know it's truly your opportunity to step back into that role." The HERO -- Human Exploitation Rescue Operative -- program is designed for wounded, injured and ill veterans to receive training in sophisticated computer forensics, to join federal agents fighting against online child sexual exploitation. Developed by Protect, in conjunction with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the veterans receive 11 weeks of intensive training and 10 months of on-the-ground experience. They work alongside law enforcement teams executing warrants and serving as computer forensic analysts as part of a year-long unpaid internship. That means scanning computers and external hard drives on-site to determine whether the suspect possesses child pornography and, critically, whether the suspect is also producing child pornography. During that year-long internship, HERO Corps trainees will sift through thousands of disturbing images of adults sexually assaulting children. "You see groups of children being abused at levels the average American cannot fathom. If you imagine an infant getting gagged and bound and tortured, it's not a rare occurrence to come across," says Christian. JUST WATCHED War vet tracks down pedophiles during Mardi Gras Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH War vet tracks down pedophiles during Mardi Gras 03:50 According to Christian, the U.S. is the largest producer of child pornography in the world. He also points to research showing the U.S. is home to the most commercial child porn websites The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says its Victim Identification Program, which aids law enforcement in efforts to locate and rescue child victims, has reviewed more than 158 million images and videos , since 1998. In 2008, an ICAC Task Force network identified over 300,000 unique computers engaged in trafficking child pornography . A study by the University of New Hampshire found that 55 percent of those who possess or trade child pornography, are hands-on offenders. Block says: "It's horrible. But that's my motivation, that's my drive. To get after these guys. Get them off the internet and hopefully I can get to them before they get to another child." Now in its third year, HERO Corps hopes to place its 100th veteran this year. Once embedded in a law enforcement agency, just one HERO can stop or prevent the exploitation of as many as 50 children per year, by providing law enforcement with the digital evidence they need to identify and locate endangered children. Cpl. Justin Gaertner (left) and Sgt. Gabe Martinez (right) were both injured in action, both are amputees in wheelchairs and both are joining HERO Corps. While the mission may be similar -- finding and capturing bad guys -- the method will be much different. As a HERO trainee, Block will be in a support role, mostly analyzing computer files. It's a far cry from his last, as a soldier in the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, serving in Afghanistan. Block says: "I wanted to be a Ranger my entire life because it's the greatest job you could ever hold. I mean they literally paid you to carry a gun, jump out of an airplane and just be awesome in general." But defending your country doesn't come without its share of danger. Sgt. Block's life changed on October 6, 2013, when he and fellow Rangers embarked on a direct-action raid to root out insurgent bombing attacks. Block spotted a couple in a courtyard and ordered the two to put their hands in the air. That's when one of the insurgents detonated an explosive strapped to her body. He says: "From what I'm told the explosion leveled some of the house. The only thing that separated me [from the suicide bomber] was the guy I was holding onto. And all of his bones ended up in my American flag that was wrapped around my plates and melted. And I think I got a chunk of him in my cheek, because I have shrapnel lodged in there." In 2014, Block was named the Army Times' "Soldier of the Year" for courage displayed on the battlefield and his ability to inspire and motivate other soldiers during his rehabilitation. But like so many who return home, Block struggled to find a purpose and mission once his military career came to a close. That's what brought him to his classroom in Florida, and the HERO Corps which offers a new path to doing what he does best. "It's an opportunity for me to go after bad guys again. The complete scope of the crime is a lot more than people probably think," he says. And while doctors managed to save the vision in Block's left eye, look at his right eye and you will see something unusual -- a prosthetic bearing the Captain America shield. Sgt. Block is turning his setback into a statement. Block says: "He doesn't like bullies. And neither do I." Having vision in only one eye, makes staring at a computer screen all day challenging. But Block imagines one day pointing out the shield, to comfort a frightened child who he and a team of law enforcement officers have just rescued from an abusive situation. "I'll be honest, looking in the mirror can be tough sometimes," says Block. "But you keep your faith, you keep your confidence, and you go out there and try to make somebody else's life better. It's what you do after-the-fact, and I think I'm trying to do a pretty damn good job." |
WASHINGTON ― Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) received death threats after she cast her vote against launching the “war on terror.” She was the only member of Congress to do it. But 16 years later, the California Democrat would do it again. The airstrikes launched by President Donald Trump on Syria this week only further convince her that her vote was the right one. Lee was the only dissenting vote on the 2001 bill that gave President George W. Bush the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, also known as the AUMF, that he needed to attack al Qaeda and its affiliates. “I knew such a broad authorization could be used for any action, anywhere in the world in perpetuity,” Lee told the Huffington Post on Friday. “It’s really shocking to me that we haven’t had any debate and vote on a new authorization.” When former President Barack Obama intervened in Libya in 2011, the administration pointed to the 2001 AUMF as all the authority it needed. Obama nearly struck Syria in 2013, again saying he didn’t need congressional approval but planned to ask for it. On Thursday, Trump approved an airstrike that followed plans drafted by his predecessor, and a number of senators from both parties reasoned that the president had the legal authority under that same AUMF. But that initial war authorization doesn’t have anything to do with Syria or Syrian President Bashar Assad. The White House offered no legal rationale for why Trump felt justified in carrying out the strike during a briefing with all senators on Friday. Lee said she wants to respond to the alleged chemical attack conducted by Assad on civilians as much as anyone else in Congress. “The question is does one surgical strike stop it?” she said. “I would suggest we got to do something to remove Assad from power. But I don’t think military strikes will do that.” If Trump wants to take any further action, the 2001 war authorization should be repealed and Trump needs to send a new AUMF request to Congress, Lee added. “Because presidents ― including President Obama ― they’re hiding behind it to engage in unilateral action,” Lee said of the war powers authorization. After that vote, Lee was ostracized, and during her next reelection in 2002, she faced protesters who carried signs that had images of her smiling in front of the burning World Trade Center towers that read: “Barbara Lee hates America.” But the tone has changed somewhat. “I think more people are beginning to see what a huge blank check that authorization was,” she said. |
Photo by Paul J. Richards "To be black and conscious in America, is to be in a constant state of rage." - James Baldwin A few nights ago, Darren Wilson, the cop who murdered Michael Brown in August, wasn't indicted to face trial on what he had done. I watched CNN with a heavy heart, crying off and on at the verdict that told us where we stand in America, that told us we can be murdered, and that they don't honestly care to bring justice to us; that everything they've sugarcoated for us throughout our early school years wasn't a distant memory, and is continuing right in front of our eyes. I've watched it time and time again, but it's indescribable; beyond a feeling, to say the least. I went on social media and read debates between friends and family, and saw Black folk pouring their souls out desperately trying to burn into everyone's brains that Black lives do matter. Of course I noticed most of my white peers in the hardcore/metal community talking about it, too, expressing their abhorrence for an unjust system. Soon, what appeared to be genuine concern for what's heavily affecting the Black community turned into "No, all lives matter," with rants about how this isn't really a race issue at all, posts from my white friends about how they're happy to be apart of this "New Civil Rights Movement," bands seizing the moment to capitalize on our deep seated hurt with merch, and more allies telling Black people how they should feel. The people I thought were aware—who typically talked a big game—were attempting to tell us that this doesn't matter at all, or to strip the color out of this to fit their personal agendas, as if they couldn't stand by us in our struggle without connecting it to themselves first. I felt increasingly frustrated with how my allies were speaking over and for the Black community with certainty, and then later stating, "I admit I'm fairly ignorant on the matter." It was wild to see people you've been in contact with for years expressing the opinion that your life is valued at less than theirs, and attempting to make your voice small, as if you experiences were invalid. I questioned how they were ever in support of my own explicitly anti-bigotry band . I cringed at how many of the hardcore kids that are indefinitely pissed off at something couldn't understand—regardless of who they believed was in the right in this particular case—that we're angry because another name is added to this incredibly long list of Black men, women and trans women that are killed by cops and vigilantes. I've talked with too many of my peers that aren't educated on these issues, but think that it's acceptable to write powerviolence songs about them because the imagery is cool. Maybe they've never noticed that we're actually still being lynched and dragged from the bumpers of trucks, or set on fire by our neighbors, or that police officers are actual members of the KKK and there isn't anything being done about it. They loved chanting, "We are Mike Brown" at the protest, inciting violence and standing in the front, but they love knowing they won't be the ones called animals more. It's no secret that when it comes to extreme genres of music, they all have one similarity to their formulas: rage. Whether that anger is directed towards the government, social injustice, death, religion, or the heartless ex-partner they wrote an entire twelve track hardcore album about, these are accepted as normal topics. Everyone is right along with you, angry enough to listen and support your every move. It's wonderful...except when you're a Black woman who fronts one of these rage-fueled, aggressive bands. You know, people joke all the time about the Angry Black Woman, but fail to realize why we're angry, and what or who we're actually angry at. Instead, everyone rolls with the stereotype that they've been fed and applies it anytime a Black woman dares to express herself. I couldn't tell you how many times white punks and metal nerds have said, "Kayla from Bleed the Pigs is too aggressive and angry. Why is she so tense all the time?" Think about it. My anger as a Black woman fronting an aggressive, politically charged hardcore/metal band with DIY punk ethics is somehow too much for them. White punks screaming about the same politics, the same fucked-up shit, and even about racial issues and injustices they don't even particularly face, are wholeheartedly accepted, never questioned, never told to tone down, and never told to relax. No matter how justified I am, or how down for the cause they are, they're put off by my very valid rage. Why is that? What is it about a Black girl doing the same shit white men do that makes them feel like it's too much? How am I the only one being labeled too aggressive in a genre that is all about aggression? There have been countless instances throughout my years where I awkwardly smiled off a racist joke or rolled my eyes and chuckled at the dude who promoted my band as "sexy black chick-fronted." I've become desensitized to the most hateful and dangerous comments one could think of. I've watched our teachers, the authorities, and my peers completely shit on Black people publicly. I've had dozens and dozens of women of color tell me they stopped going to shows all together out of fear. Maybe, if my allies are truly listening, they're having a little epiphany right now."Oh shit, that's why Kayla didn't want to hang out at this super white spot. She didn't feel like being the token for the night. She's not given the same leeway to be as reckless as we are. I get it!" Maybe they're even cognizant enough to question why they tokenize me in the first place (I can dream, can't I?). Photo of Kayla Phillips by Rosie Richeson Unfortunately, many still don't get it. They won't believe my stories of police harassment until they're there to witness it, or until another white person can confirm it actually happened. They'll side with a cop. They'll feel uneasy with my anger and tell me I'm probably exaggerating. Then, they'll go give themselves an ACAB stick-and-poke, and turn up the MDC. I see them using, "Hands up, don't shoot" as if they understand the severity of those words, as if they lived that phrase before it even was one. That's not real solidarity to me. Solidarity isn't white guilt and apologies for being white. No one is asking for that. Solidarity is awareness, and the ability to listen if you say you're going to. It's standing beside me or behind me, not in front of me. It's the ability to look at oneself and break down internalized issues, instead of tokenizing someone. It's realizing that not all spaces and conversations are about you personally. It's not shocking that my place in the scene is being used by people that haven't even listened to our music, but who just eat up the idea of how inclusive it looks to have a photoset of a black girl screaming into the mic on their blogs. In the same way Frida Kahlo's face is appropriated by white feminism while her words are not, this not-so-new wave of people are latching onto our identities and experiences and whitewashing every word for easy swallowing. We're used and ignored in the same breath. You want me to be here, but not too much. If I speak up and it's too real, I need to give you a lollipop afterwards, or you'll never learn, and you'll be too scared to talk to me again. These are ways of covering up our mouths with attempts to stifle and contain our liberation. In this subculture, that goes against what we're here for. Our voices and existence shouldn't be tolerated in your scene, it should be accepted. I shouldn't have to silence myself in order to have a place here. I shouldn't have to pretend that there are no issues. The eye-rolling irony that I'm still cast aside as the Angry Black Woman in a scene that is made up of nothing but angry, pissed off, cast aside white men who sometimes use my own struggles for their own benefit isn't lost on me. People are wary of that which they do not know, and one of those things is an unapologetic Black girl voicing herself. So, yes, I'm angry as fuck about a lot of things. I carry it with me just to survive sometimes. You absolutely don't have to like the music I make, or what I sing about, but if you find yourself upset by my level of anger, and not the white guy saying something similar, I'm not going to be complacent and sugarcoat my frustration for you. It's unfortunate that my seemingly like-minded peers can't find it in themselves to actually look at the reasons why race continues to play a part in our daily lives due to its disproportionate presence and history, instead of trying to be louder than the ones affected by it. Photo by Julian Guevara The underlying issue in all of this, is that no matter what subculture we Black folk find ourselves in, as Javon Johnson said, "We are treated as problems well before we're treated as people." Kayla Phillips is the vocalist of Nashville grind/hardcore band Bleed the Pigs. Listen to their latest releases here. |
The Bee Explains: Calvinism Vs. Arminianism Doing theology is hard. But we here at The Babylon Bee want to make it easier than the first world in Super Mario Bros 3! In this article, we’ll briefly explain key differences between Calvinism and Arminianism, so you’ll be smart enough to blast people on your Facebook feed the next time the discussion comes up. DEFINITIONS Calvinism: Theological framework that centers around God’s sovereign choice in salvation. The points of Calvinism include total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints, and being a condescending jerk. Arminianism: Theology that focuses on man’s free will to choose or reject God. The five points are kinda-sorta depravity, election but not really, errybody gets some atonement, grace that looks pretty cool but you can say no if you want to, and better hang onto that salvation pretty tightly. ORIGINS Calvinism: Originally discovered in a remote California forest by a pipe-smoking lumberjack, Calvinism was first codified in book form by John Piper in his 1986 classic Desiring God. Piper was said to have yelled “Eureka!” and hugged his Jonathan Edwards plush doll in joy upon discovering the beauty of the doctrines of grace. Arminianism: Grew out of the backwoods of Appalachia in the 1950s, where the Holy Ghost is active, preachers wear suits, church signs are hand-painted, and snakes are handled. FAMOUS ADHERENTS Calvinism: Anyone named John, that really annoying guy on your Facebook feed, the Apostle Paul. Arminianism: Jacobus Arminius, John Wesley, Billy Graham, Satan. PROMINENT WORKS Calvinism: That long-winded Facebook rant your Calvinist friend goes on almost every week, Final Destination 3, the Book of Romans. Arminianism: Back to the Future, The Matrix, Chick tracts. HOW TO SPOT A FOLLOWER Calvinism: Look for long, flowing beards, flannel T-shirts, and empty bottles of craft brew strewn around their location. The Calvinist can also be identified by that smug sense of superiority he carries about his person. Arminianism: Look for an expression of concern on their face as they desperately try not to lose their salvation today. Calvary Chapel summer camp T-shirts, acoustic guitars, and Rainbow sandals are also key indicators. So there you have it! We hope this helped you make an informed decision on which of these theological systems to choose—or is it “which of these theological systems chose you?” ? |
Looking for a deal this Cyber Monday? Don’t worry. We’ll roundup every good sale in this post, and keep it updated throughout the day as we hear of new offers (just keep checking back and look for italicized listings to see what’s been added). You may also want to check our Black Friday sales roundup, as some of those offers are still active. Oh, and of course, we’re holding a sale at the Put This On Shop. Take 16% off through the end of the day with the checkout code RAMPANTCONSUMERISM. We’ve also got two special Cyber Monday deals – get a free month of our Inside Track when you use the code SECRETCYBER, and get a free pocket square when you sign up for our Gentlemen’s Association pocket square subscription service when you use the code LETSCYBER. |
KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT: Ground crew stand by an Air Arabia Airbus-320 aeroplane on the tarmac at Kuwait International Airport 29 October 2003. The Sharjah emirate launched its own airline Air Arabia 28 October with a flight to Bahrain billing itself as the first low-cost carrier in the Middle East. The airline said it will initially operate two Airbus-320 jets with flights to Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman and Syria from Sharjah, with plans to add two more jets and destinations early next year. AFP PHOTO/Yasser AL-ZAYYAT (Photo credit should read YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images) File photo of airport. (credit: YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images) — An Egyptian couple is accused of trying to smuggle their 5-month-old child in their luggage at the Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates. Officials found the baby after the couple’s luggage went through an X-ray machine Saturday morning. “When customs officials saw the baby inside the bag at the X-ray scanner, they were stunned,” police officials told Gulf News. “This machine is very dangerous for anyone, let alone a baby in a bag to pass through.” View Mugshots Of DC Area Criminals According to Al Arabiya, the unidentified couple tried to sneak their young son through airport screening because they were originally denied entry due to their son not having a visa to enter the UAE. “They said in an interrogation they’d resorted to sneaking him through inside a bag because he did not have a passport or visa and they wanted to have him with them in the UAE,” a Sharjah police spokesperson told The Sun. Police say the child could have died after being put in the luggage . “A case will now be raised against the mother and father,” an official told Gulf News, “but they have put the life of their child at risk.” There is no word how the couple originally got on the plane in Egypt without a visa for their 5-month-old son. |
Joe Paterno, a day before re-entering the hospital with cancer-treatment complications, made his first public statements since being fired after 46 seasons at Penn State, telling The Washington Post he did not know how to deal with the situation when he received a report that his former defensive coordinator was accused of abusing a boy in the showers. "I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was," he told The Post in an extensive two-day interview at his home in State College, Pa. "So I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did. It didn't work out that way." The Post account describes Paterno, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, as physically weakened from his chemotherapy treatments, speaking with a rasp. The interview, conducted Thursday and Friday, was monitored by his attorney, Wick Sollers, and a communications adviser, Dan McGinn. Paterno's cancer diagnosis was revealed Nov. 18, nine days after he was fired by Penn State in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal that has resulted in 52 counts of child molestation against former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Paterno had announced his retirement early on Nov. 9, but the Penn State board of trustees fired him and school president Graham Spanier about 12 hours later. Paterno was admitted to the hospital Friday for observation due to minor complications from cancer treatments. His condition was improved Saturday morning, and he remained in the hospital, his family said. Sandusky says he is innocent and is under house arrest after posting $250,000 bail. His next court appearance is a March 22 pretrial conference. In addition, Penn State athletic director Tim Curley, who is on leave, and a school vice president, Gary Schultz, face trial for charges of perjury and failing to report suspected child abuse and have left the school. Paterno said he wished he knew how allegations against Sandusky didn't come to light until this year. "I don't know the answer to that," he said. "It's hard." Paterno gave The Post his account of how and when he was told of the abuse allegation against Sandusky -- a man with whom he had a professional, not personal, relationship. Paterno said that until assistant coach Mike McQueary, in 2002, approached him, he had "no inkling" of a possible dark side to Sandusky, according to The Post. Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno was interviewed Thursday and Friday by The Washington Post at his home in State College, Pa. John McDonnell/The Washington Post "He (McQueary) told me what he saw, and I said, what? He said it, well, looked like inappropriate, or fondling, I'm not quite sure exactly how he put it. I said you did what you had to do. It's my job now to figure out what we want to do," Paterno told The Post. "So I sat around. It was a Saturday. Waited till Sunday because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing. And then I called my superiors and I said, 'Hey, we got a problem, I think. Would you guys look into it?' Cause I didn't know, you know. We never had, until that point, 58 years I think, I had never had to deal with something like that. And I didn't feel adequate." Paterno affirmed reports that McQueary was not specific in describing what he allegedly saw, and he told The Post that even if he did, "I don't know that it would have done any good, because I never heard of, of, rape and a man. So I just did what I thought was best. I talked to people that I thought would be, if there was a problem, that would be following up on it." Paterno also said he did not know of the 1998 abuse allegation levied by the mother of a boy who was part of Sandusky's youth foundation, the Second Mile. Asked to respond to the Paterno interview, Sandusky lawyer Joe Amendola said in a statement to The Associated Press the former Penn State assistant was "greatly dismayed by the knee-jerk reaction" of the Penn State Board of Trustees in firing Paterno. "In the meantime, we'll continue to keep Coach Paterno and (athletic director) Tim Curley in our thoughts and prayers for a speedy and full recovery from their illnesses and Jerry and I will continue our work in preparation for this trial." Jay Paterno, one of Joe Paterno's three sons, told ESPN's Tom Rinaldi in an interview last week that his father was "very anxious to get out there soon and start to tell his side of the story and start to express -- get all the facts out." Jay Paterno added: "He's fighting like crazy. But it takes some, takes some energy out of him like it does anybody else. I mean, he said to me, 'I get tired from time to time.' " In a statement released to The Associated Press, Paterno's family said he continues to undergo a "regimen of treatments" for what they have termed a treatable form of lung cancer. The family hoped his latest hospital stay would be brief. He had also been hospitalized last month after re-breaking his pelvis following a fall at home. That stay also allowed Paterno to continue taking his cancer treatments, which have included radiation and chemotherapy. Paterno had previously hurt his pelvis when he got run over accidentally by a player in practice in August, forcing him to spend most of the regular season coaching from the press box. Paterno remains employed as a tenured faculty member at Penn State, and details of his retirement were being worked out and would be made public when finalized. The schools trustees have said they intend to honor Paterno's contract as if he had retired at the end of the 2011 football season. The trustees' firing of Paterno has come under scrutiny from several former players, as well as some alumni critical at meetings this week with school president Rodney Erickson about the motivation to oust Paterno. With a media storm descending on the campus, Paterno announced his resignation the morning of Nov. 9. That day, he called the scandal "one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more." The trustees fired him about 12 hours later. Paterno recounted that he was passed a note at the door of his home by an assistant athletic director with the name of trustees vice chairman John Surma and a phone number. According to the Post, Surma told Paterno, "In the best interests of the university, you are terminated." Paterno hung up and repeated the words to his wife, who redialed the number. "After 61 years he deserved better," Sue Paterno said. "He deserved better." Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. |
One of the most revealing things about American politics, and of the journalists who cover it for a living, is the unspoken assumption that Democrats will rescue Republicans, and thus the country, from the reckless way they have treated the statutory debt limit since 2011. If this assumption is correct (and it almost certainly is) then it demonstrates a profound asymmetry between the parties, as well as an awareness on the part of the political media, which often treats the two parties symmetrically, that something is dangerously dysfunctional about one of them. This conventional wisdom, which I mostly share, will be tested in September, when Congress has to increase the debt limit or plunge the country into an economic crisis. Though Republicans control the House of Representatives and the Senate, many of them will refuse to increase the debt limit without accompanying policy ransoms, meaning Democrats will be expected to provide the decisive votes. And this is the best-case scenario. Until recently, cabinet officials in Donald Trump’s administration disagreed with one another over whether the president should side with the hostage-takers or the more responsible faction. They are fortunately all on the same page now— WH budget chief Mulvaney says he & entire administration now on board behind "clean" debt limit increase - no longer seeking spending cuts — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 3, 2017 —but we can’t dismiss the possibility that Trump will do something erratic, like refuse to sign any bills until Republicans pass a health care repeal bill. Democrats, in other words, might have to vote not in modest numbers, but in overwhelming ones, to make a clean debt limit increase veto-proof. |
(Reuters) - The U.S. government, which is pursuing a $5 billion lawsuit accusing Standard & Poor’s of misleading investors by inflating its credit ratings, on Friday asked a federal judge to move similar cases by 15 U.S. states and the District of Columbia back to state courts. In a filing in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where the state lawsuits are now being handled, the U.S. Department of Justice said federal courts do not have jurisdiction because the cases turn on alleged violations of state laws against unfair consumer practices or deceptive business practices. The Justice Department said S&P had argued that the cases belong in federal court because they touch on the meaning of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and a 2006 federal law governing credit rating agencies. But it said these issues touch on potential federal defenses to the states’ claims, and are not inherent in the claims themselves. “Assertions of federal defenses cannot provide a basis for removal of properly pleaded state-law claims,” the Justice Department said. Catherine Mathis, an S&P spokeswoman, said the Justice Department had previously made similar arguments in an earlier unsuccessful effort to return these cases to state courts. “This offering is no more persuasive,” she said. S&P is a unit of McGraw Hill Financial Inc. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan has scheduled an October 4 hearing over the states’ effort to move their lawsuits back to various state courts, and S&P’s effort to dismiss the states’ litigation altogether. Consolidating the state cases may help S&P avoid multiple judgments or conflicting rulings, and reduce its legal bills. The state lawsuits were consolidated before Furman in June, and represent most of the lawsuits that state attorneys general have filed against S&P over its ratings. Many were filed six months ago, on the same day that the Justice Department sued S&P for $5 billion. Last month, U.S. District Judge David Carter in Santa Ana, California allowed the government to continue pursuing that case. S&P has said statements about the integrity of its ratings are “puffery” that cannot be a basis for the fraud lawsuit. The cases are In re: Standard & Poor’s Rating Agency Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-md-02446; and U.S. v. McGraw-Hill Cos et al, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 13-00779. |
After four months without an MPP, citizens of Scarborough–Rouge River will head to the polls in a Sept. 1 byelection that has been unofficially underway all summer. Premier Kathleen Wynne set the date Wednesday in the wake of veteran Liberal Bas Balkissoon’s sudden resignation March 22 – the same day former Toronto mayor Rob Ford died of cancer. Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has set a byelection for Scarborough-Rouge River on Sept 1, ( JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS ) But Wynne, who has refused to comment on the reasons for Balkissoon’s unexplained departure, did not call a vote in the riding of Ottawa-Vanier, held by Liberal cabinet minister Madeleine Meilleur until she resigned in June. The premier’s office said it won’t rush a byelection there because none of the major parties have yet nominated candidates. In Scarborough the race will be hotly contested, with the Progressive Conservatives running long-time Ward 42 city councillor Raymond Cho, who is 79 and counts former councillor Doug Ford among his top campaign officials. Article Continued Below “Scarborough has been represented by Liberal MPPs for years, yet this riding has been forgotten by the Liberal government,” Cho said Wednesday, citing a lack of subway stops, local health care cuts and high hydro rates. He finished third in the riding in the 2014 provincial election behind Balkissoon and New Democrat candidate Neethan Shan, 37. Shan, an educator and South Asian community activist who was just elected as a Toronto District School Board Trustee in a January byelection that cost taxpayers $250,000, is again running for the NDP. “Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals have taken Scarborough for granted,” he said, echoing Cho. The Liberal candidate is Piragal Thiru, a 37-year-old municipal policy planner who works for York Region. “I want to get to work for Scarborough,” said the first-time candidate and former co-ordinator of the Canadian Tamil Congress. All the major party candidates have been door-knocking for at least two months, with Wynne, PC Leader Patrick Brown and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath making occasional appearances. Article Continued Below The byelection follows a June cabinet shuffle that Wynne used to put a fresh face on her government, promoting more women and revamping ministries, as she struggles in the polls at the halfway point of her term. MPPs return to the legislature for the fall session on Sept. 12. The byelection will not impact the balance of power at Queen’s Park, where the Liberals hold 57 of 107 seats. The PCs have 28 and the NDP 20. Read more about: |
New research reveals that BitTorrent swarms can be slowed down significantly by malicious peers. Depending on the number of seeders and the clients they use, download times can be increased by 1000%. The attacks are possible through an exploit of the BitTorrent protocol for which the researchers present a fix. BitTorrent is one of the fastest and most efficient ways to share large files over the Internet. The popular file-sharing protocol is used by dozens of millions of people every day and accounts for a substantial amount of total Internet traffic. This popularity makes BitTorrent an interesting target for attacks, which various anti-piracy companies have shown in the past. One of these possible attacks was recently unveiled by Florian Adamsky, researcher at the City University London. In an article published in “Computers & Security” Adamsky and his colleagues reveal an exploit which allows attackers to get a higher download rate from seeders than other people. In technical terms, the exploit misuses BitTorrent’s choking mechanism of clients that use the “Allowed Fast” extension. Attackers can use this to keep a permanent connection with seeders, requesting the same pieces over and over. The vulnerability was extensively tested in swarms of various sizes and the researchers found that three malicious peers can already slow download times up to 414.99%. When the number of attackers is greater compared to the number of seeders, the worse the effect becomes. The impact of the attack further depends on the download clients being used by the seeders in the swarm. The mainline BitTorrent clients and uTorrent are not vulnerable for example, while Vuze is partly affected. “Vuze is only partly affected as it allows pieces to be downloaded 64 times and then all further requests are rejected. Nevertheless we have listed Vuze as vulnerable since it is possible to reconnect and restart the attack,” the paper reads. Update: Vuze was quick to patch the vulnerability. An older version of Libtorrent also had this vulnerability but that was fixed a year ago. TorrentFreak spoke with Adamsky who predicts that similar results are possible in real swarms. Even very large swarms of more than 1,000 seeders could be affected through a botnet, although it’s hard to predict the precise impact. “If an attacker uses a botnet to attack the swarm, I think it would be possible to increase the average download time of all peers [of swarms with 1,000 seeders] up to three times,” Adamsky tells us. “If most of the clients would have a vulnerable client like Vuze or Transmission it would be possible to increase the average download time up ten times,” he adds. In their paper the researchers suggest a relatively easy fix to the problem, through an update of the “Allowed Fast” extension. In addition, they also propose a new seeding algorithm that is less prone to these and other bandwidth attacks. Update: The article was updated to clarify that only older version of Libtorrent were affected. According to the research Transmission currently has the “Allowed Fast” code commented out, but it could become vulnerable when it’s implemented. |
Moscow (CNN) Russian officials barred activist Alexey Navalny from entering the country's presidential race a day after he held nomination gatherings to kick off his run, according to state-run media outlet RIA-Novosti. Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) rejected Navalny's registration the day after he submitted it, citing a previous embezzlement conviction, RIA-Novosti reported. "Firstly, a citizen who has been sentenced to imprisonment for committing a grave or especially grave crime and who has an outstanding conviction for the said crime, has no right to be elected president of the Russian federation," said CEC member Boris Ebzeev. The decision was not a surprise. Navalny's candidacy was unlikely because Russian law prevents convicted criminals from running for public office, though Navalny and his supporters have said his conviction was politically motivated to block his presidential bid. Navalny will appeal the commission's decision, his campaign press secretary Ruslan Shaveddinov told CNN late Monday. Navalny would be running against incumbent President Vladimir Putin, who announced his intention to seek re-election -- his fourth presidential bid -- as an independent candidate at his annual press conference earlier this month. At the time, he said his aim was for Russia to have a "competitive" and "balanced" political system, but it wasn't his responsibility to create political opponents. "I want this," Putin said, "and I will strive for a balanced political system and that is impossible without competition in the political field." Putin has been either the Prime Minister or President of Russia since 1999. In response to a question about why Russia lacked effective opposition leaders, Putin said most of the current opposition figures were more focused on "making noise" instead of a genuine agenda that could benefit the country. Navalny called for a boycott of the March 2018 election in response to the CEC's decision. "We are announcing a voters' strike," Navalny said. "The procedure in which we are invited to participate is not an election. It involves only Putin and those candidates whom he personally chose, who do not pose a slightest threat to him." The opposition activist is widely popular among young people and has tapped into anger over a sluggish economy and endemic corruption. Navalny first rose to prominence during 2011's large-scale anti-government protests. Expert: Putin will 'almost without a doubt' win election Jill Dougherty, a Russia expert and former CNN Moscow bureau chief, said Navalny still has a role to play in the presidential race, though it probably won't be as a candidate. "I think he will be a factor," she said, "but he will not be an organized participant in any electoral process. He will be kept on the outside and he is definitely opposition, so he's used to being kept on the outside." But Navalny's support among young Russians could also play a factor in the election. "A lot of the people who support him are very young, like 19 or 20 years old -- sometimes even younger," Dougherty said, and they have been exposed to the rest of the world and the way the rest of the world lives, and they are dissatisfied. "Their dissatisfaction, although not very focused at this point, is a factor the Kremlin is worried about," she said. "The Kremlin is very focused on the youth and making sure that young people support Putin." JUST WATCHED Meet the Russian socialite running for president Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Meet the Russian socialite running for president 10:29 Dougherty also pointed to Ksenia Sobchak -- a Russian socialite and reality TV star who has said she wants to challenge Putin -- as someone who could offer a liberal alternative to Putin if Navalny can't run. But Navalny's supporters wouldn't necessarily support her, she said. "Putin will almost without a doubt win the election," Dougherty said, "because he is supported by the majority of Russians and because the system is organized ... to favor his candidacy." |
The Platinum Problem – A Tough Juggling Act There were four in the bed and the little one said, “Roll over!”, so they all rolled over and Scalebound fell out! So it’s happened, the first delay of 2015 – Xbox One exclusive Scalebound has slipped into 2017 – and we’re only five days into 2016! To control Drew and his Dragon called Thuban looked to be a treat, and it’s a shame that we won’t be playing it in 2016 and while I won’t indulge in too much chest beating, outside of saying “I told you so!!!” I will now look ahead to what it means for the game, for PlatinumGames, and of course for the Xbox One. It was only recently (GamesCom 2015) when we last saw Scalebound, the debut of the world first gameplay footage, and it was spectacular viewing. It was wonderful to see Drew and Thuban stomping through the environment and obliterating dozens of enemies, we also saw the reveal of co-operative multiplayer, and while there was no gameplay shown for that feature it was promising none-the-less. So with a year until release, why was I so confident that the game would slip from 2016? There was really only one simple reason; the game didn’t perform well, the biggest issue related to the framerate which was inconsistent to say the least. I don’t have a great eye for framerate, but if I can spot ebbs and flows in the number of frames per second then you know there is an issue. While I’m sure this is not the only issue that Platinum was facing, it would surely have been among the bigger issues the studio was present with. The game may have also been a victim of an issue that also plagues Telltale Games. In recent years both studios have taken on an enormous workload, and Platinum may be struggling to put games out in a timely fashion due to the sheer number of titles it is working on. I wrote a piece for the last site I worked at in early 2015 discussing how Telltale was failing to properly look after its IP because it was simply juggling too many, resulting in large time gaps between each episodes release – I received quite a lot of support off the back of this post. I feel the same mistake has been made by PlatinumGames with Scalebound being the first major casualty. Since it released Anarchy Reigns in 2012, Platinum has *mostly* maintained a pattern of releasing two games in a year. One of these tended to be a big AAA title such as Bayonetta 2 while the other was more akin to The Legend of Korra (A critical flop). For a studio that has approximately 200 people working at it (by last count), two games, regardless of the scale of the pair, is quite a lot to handle, and when they consistently have released two games a year for the last three years, eventually something had to give – Scalebound was the unfortunate game this time around. It’s not the first though when you think that they also develop Star Fox Zero which was delayed from 2015 into 2016. Think about their current development pipeline – though at different stages of development, Platinum is working on Scalebound, Star Fox Zero, Nier: Automata and Project Guard; an incredible number of titles for one studio to be working on. So the big question is, how will this delay impact Platinum, and the Xbox One in the future? Though many are itching for the game, if you’re an Xbox One owner you can be rest assured that you will still have plenty to play in 2016 – I’ll mention Halo Wars 2, Gears of War 4, Quantum Break and Crackdown 3 as just a few of the great titles you are looking forward to over the course of this year. The Xbox One will be just fine in 2016, and the sliding of Scalebound just means that you’ve already got one locked in 2017 blockbuster to go with whatever else Microsoft has in store for next year. How about PlatinumGames though? Well you can expect that they’ll be just fine too. They’ve been known in the past to have worked on more abstract titles that while critically acclaimed haven’t made the retail splash that they have deserved. Even that trend has changed in recent years with the studio working on mega franchises such as Metal Gear, The Legend of Korra, Transformers and Star Fox. With all the titles they’re presently juggling, it will surely be a blessing in disguise that Scalebound gets more time for the TLC that is surely deserves. The money that the studio has brought in from those licensed games will easily keep them afloat for the foreseeable future. Scalebound’s delay is hardly surprising but it’s the delay that had to happen and ultimately it will be to the great benefit of the final product. It’s also the first, but not the last game that will find itself falling out of its initially projected 2016 release window. PlatinumGames probably does need to take a look at its development pipeline and pace themselves a little more, but given the quality of the vast majority of their works I do find it hard to question their thought process. Look out for Scalebound in 2017, and expect it to be a Game of the Year contender! It is just a shame we have to wait that long. Paul James Born and bred on the Super Nintendo era, Paul relishes any opportunity to sink his teeth into an RPG, action or platformer. Despite being an owner of all major platforms, Paul does have a particular love of the Playstation family of consoles – take only a few minutes to skim through his Twitter and you’ll see him ranting about the next big thing on PS4. We swear he’s sane. |
On March 19th the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that the Wilmington Housing Authority’s (WHA) gun ban “is unconstitutional.” The case–Jane Doe v. Wilmington Housing Authority–was filed in 2010. According to the NRA-ILA, Justice Henry duPont Ridgely wrote the opinion of the court and indicated Section 20 of Delaware’s Bill of Rights “specifically provides for the defense of self and family in addition to the home.” Prior to this decision “thousands of Delaware’s most vulnerable residents lived in some of [Delaware’s] most dangerous neighborhoods, but [the WHA gun ban]…prohibited them from possessing firearms to defend themselves and their families.” NRA-ILA’s executive director Chris Cox said this decision “is significant because a person shouldn’t be forced to give up their Second Amendment rights just to have a place to live.” Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com |
July 15, 2012 CR Newsmaker Interview: Image Publisher Eric Stephenson, Part One ***** I'm happy to make Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson the CR interview subject for Comic-Con Weekend 2012 -- both today and tomorrow. I think Image Comics has had a fascinating year thus far. You could argue that the big news of this year's show is that publisher's resurgence in terms of individual comics' sales (Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard putting their Walking Dead at #1 for the month of the show), aggregate sales (a potential huge leap in market share by the end of 2012) and the supportive culture's imagination (creator-centric comics as a way to more sustainable, long-term profits and a bigger cut of individual efforts that hit with that audience). Stephenson is the man on point for a lot of his company's recent success, and I appreciate how unafraid he's been to press issues in a way that could be seen as impolitic. We talked Friday afternoon a bit removed from the convention. I greatly appreciate his making the time for me. Due to poor time management on my part, this interview will appear in two parts and be archived as one. The second installment should appear tomorrow morning. -- Tom Spurgeon ***** TOM SPURGEON: When I look at what you're doing, I wonder how much you conceive of it in terms of a continuity and how much you conceive of it as a break with some of your predecessors. Because I see a lot of what's happening with Image now as a continuation of the policies Erik [Larsen] and even Jim [Valentino] were doing as far as focusing on creator-driven work and refocusing the line on those kinds of works as opposed to classic Image brands. ERIC STEPHENSON: I see it both ways. I see it as a continuity in terms of what Jim and Erik were doing, and I see it as a continuation of the original purpose of Image was. That was to bring more people into the world of creator-owned comics. Those guys didn't just set out to make a company for themselves. They very much wanted it to be a lot of people joining them. I feel like... until a couple of years ago there was a major focus on finding new talent. What we're trying to do now is trying to get more well-known writers and artists to do work for us. SPURGEON: What is something specific you bring to the table for that part of the mission, then? What is in your skill-set that makes you suited for this phase of what the company wants to do? Are you particularly suited for talent recruitment? Or maybe that package sells itself? STEPHENSON: [laughs] I think it's a little bit of both. I think the package sells itself, and I think that having books like The Walking Dead and now Saga and things like that make it even easier for the package to sell itself. They're sterling examples of successful books. On the other hand, I'm not bashful of talking about what our strengths are and why I think it's important it's important to do new, creator-driven comics. And I'm also not sorry for talking about that. SPURGEON: There's an idea I've heard floated where the Image model is being pushed as a positive, as a positive way to go at the issues out there swirling around in terms of creative rights. That it's nice to have Image there -- Ed Brubaker and I talked about this a bit -- to point towards in terms of there being a model that works in a way that gets around some of these issues. It may not work for everybody, but it's a model that works. Do you feel like Image provides an answer to some of the questions out there, at least for the creators you're bringing in? STEPHENSON: For some of the questions and some of the creators. I don't think it works for everybody. There are guys I've talked to that are very happy to do other people's characters. They're like, "I love these characters. It's been my lifelong dream to draw and/or write these characters. I'm happy doing this. I think it's great what you guys do, but it's not for me." Obviously for those guys, they might draw an Invincible someday or something, but we don't work for them. But for people that do have other aspirations than drawing or writing their favorite characters, I think we offer an important option. SPURGEON: Given the nature of your writing on creator's rights topics, do you think you have an impact by virtue of existing? That the model is there as an alternative, is there a positive effect on how they're being treated because there is that option? Do you think about it in those terms. STEPHENSON: I do -- well, yes and no. From the time Image was formed in 1992, a lot of changes were made at Marvel and DC as a result. Like Icon would not exist without Image Comics. That absolutely would not be there now. It is a reaction to what we do. Some of the deals in terms of page rates and what people are offered at Marvel and DC is I think very much in response to the fact of Image. In the '90s, different Image people were paying a lot of money to come and work on stuff. Marvel and DC responded. I think it changed the playing field. On the other hand, things have almost become worse in other respects. Let's just go Before Watchmen. There was a detente between Alan and DC that seems to have chipped away over the last several years. That's obviously because there are different people in charge at Warner Brothers and DC. Look at something like that you can't say that creator's rights have advance to the point where that couldn't happen, because it did. If you look at what's going on with the Kirby Family and their ongoing battle with Marvel, we're almost outside of that. It's not like that somehow Marvel has been guilted into treating them any differently. So there are things that have improved because of Image, but at the same I think there's still a lot of stuff that needs improvement. SPURGEON: Maybe you can speak to this directly, because you work at a company that has made firm decisions to treat their creators a certain way. And you're a company, a business, you're not set up in order to fail. I imagine you're making these decisions with a positive outcome in mind just like any other company. I wonder if you could speak to that defense that is made that companies have to do these things because all companies are by their nature perpetual exploitation machines. STEPHENSON: This is one of my favorite things to talk about. If you go back to Before Watchmen, and people say, "Warner Brothers is a company and how do you expect them to act? They're in business to make money, they own this property, what do you expect them to do? Just not exploit it?" I think that's a ridiculous argument. One, Ed brought this up in his interview, but DC trumpeted Watchmen as an advance in creator's rights. The book was more successful than anyone ever imagined: Alan, Dave, the people at DC at that time. They decided, "Okay, we have this loophole here and we're going to keep this forever." You would have to talk to Alan directly, but my perspective from what I know about him and what I know about Dave and what I know about the situation is I think if DC had gone to them at the time and said, "Here's where we are. We said we were going to give this back to you at a certain point. Now we're in a situation where that doesn't make any sense. Let's find a work-around for this." I tend to think those guys would have been more receptive to that than just, "Hey, we're going to make sure you never get this back." That would have served both Alan and Dave's purposes, and the company's purposes. I think it's possible to be -- for want of a better word -- a moral company. You can make money without fucking everybody over at the same time. SPURGEON: I want to ask after Walking Dead #100 selling in astounding numbers. I wondered if you could talk about the cooperation from retailers on that. It's not like just putting product out there, just putting out what people want, automatically means the market is going to respond. There has to be some building of a relationship between Image and retailers. Have you done work that you think is paying off now that the numbers are as high as they are? The Saga numbers have been pretty incredible, too. STEPHENSON: In terms of outreach... I think we have a good relationship with retailers, but like with Walking Dead: we've done a really good job of keeping the books in print. In terms of building a relationship with retailers, they've got something they can sell, and we're making sure we can get it to them. There are numerous incidents since trade paperbacks have become a driving force in the market where something big hits and then it's out of print almost immediately, for whatever reason there was not a large enough quantity. I think we've managed Walking Dead really well in terms of just making it sure if you want it in paperback, hardcover, whatever, you can get them. The retailers can order Walking Dead with confidence. In terms of Saga, I got to the ComicsPro thing, we sit and retailers tell us... I always ask them, "How can we help you?" Everyone has a different opinion. With out books in particular, I think they don't want to be on the hook for stuff. There have been incidents in the past where they've been burned. In the very early days, things were ordered with wild abandon, and they came back and bit not just retailers but the whole industry on the ass. They wanted to know how we determine what the sure things are. Obviously, you put Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples on a book that's a textbook sure thing, but there are book we've done in the past with big names on them that didn't do well. They needed reassurance. Listening to the feedback from retailers, the thing we came up with was, "We're going to make the first three issues returnable if you order them at a certain level." On paper, it's a really little thing. But I think it helped a lot of people say, "I'm going to take a greater interest in this, because I won't be on the hook for this." [Part Two Will Appear Tomorrow; I Apologize For This, And Hope You'll Stick With Us] ***** * Eric Stephenson's Blog * Image Comics ***** * image from Glory #25 * Image anniversary logo * photo of Stephenson this weekend by me * three of the books featuring high-profile mainstream comics writers: Fatale, The Manhattan Projects, Saga * three more high-profile series for the company: Morning Glories, Chew, America's Got Powers * three different formats for Walking Dead * from the effective ad series * from Prophet bottom * cover image for Glory ***** ***** ***** posted 2:00 pm PST | Permalink Daily Blog Archives February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 Full Archives *****I'm happy to make Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson theinterview subject for Comic-Con Weekend 2012 -- both today and tomorrow.I think Image Comics has had a fascinating year thus far. You could argue thatbig news of this year's show is that publisher's resurgence in terms of individual comics' sales (Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard putting theirat #1 for the month of the show), aggregate sales (a potential huge leap in market share by the end of 2012) and the supportive culture's imagination (creator-centric comics as a way to more sustainable, long-term profits and a bigger cut of individual efforts that hit with that audience).Stephenson is the man on point for a lot of his company's recent success, and I appreciate how unafraid he's been to press issues in a way that could be seen as impolitic. We talked Friday afternoon a bit removed from the convention. I greatly appreciate his making the time for me. Due to poor time management on my part, this interview will appear in two parts and be archived as one. The second installment should appear tomorrow morning. -- Tom Spurgeon*****I see it both ways. I see it as a continuity in terms of what Jim and Erik were doing, and I see it as a continuation of the original purpose of Image was. That was to bring more people into the world of creator-owned comics. Those guys didn't just set out to make a company for themselves. They very much wanted it to be a lot of people joining them. I feel like... until a couple of years ago there was a major focus on finding new talent. What we're trying to do now is trying to get more well-known writers and artists to do work for us.[laughs] I think it's a little bit of both. I think the package sells itself, and I think that having books like The Walking Dead and now Saga and things like that make it even easier for the package to sell itself. They're sterling examples of successful books. On the other hand, I'm not bashful of talking about what our strengths are and why I think it's important it's important to do new, creator-driven comics. And I'm also not sorry for talking about that.For some of the questions and some of the creators. I don't think it works for everybody. There are guys I've talked to that are very happy to do other people's characters. They're like, "I love these characters. It's been my lifelong dream to draw and/or write these characters. I'm happy doing this. I think it's great what you guys do, but it's not for me." Obviously for those guys, they might draw an Invincible someday or something, but we don't work for them. But for people that do have other aspirations than drawing or writing their favorite characters, I think we offer an important option.I do -- well, yes and no. From the time Image was formed in 1992, a lot of changes were made at Marvel and DC as a result. Like Icon would not exist without Image Comics. That absolutely would not be there now. It is a reaction to what we do. Some of the deals in terms of page rates and what people are offered at Marvel and DC is I think very much in response to the fact of Image. In the '90s, different Image people were paying a lot of money to come and work on stuff. Marvel and DC responded. I think it changed the playing field. On the other hand, things have almost become worse in other respects.Let's just go Before Watchmen. There was a detente between Alan and DC that seems to have chipped away over the last several years. That's obviously because there are different people in charge at Warner Brothers and DC. Look at something like that you can't say that creator's rights have advance to the point where that couldn't happen, because it did. If you look at what's going on with the Kirby Family and their ongoing battle with Marvel, we're almost outside of that. It's not like that somehow Marvel has been guilted into treating them any differently. So there are things that have improved because of Image, but at the same I think there's still a lot of stuff that needs improvement.haveThis is one of my favorite things to talk about. If you go back to Before Watchmen, and people say, "Warner Brothers is a company and how do you expect them to act? They're in business to make money, they own this property, what do you expect them to do? Just not exploit it?" I think that's a ridiculous argument. One, Ed brought this up in his interview, but DC trumpetedas an advance in creator's rights. The book was more successful than anyone ever imagined: Alan, Dave, the people at DC at that time. They decided, "Okay, we have this loophole here and we're going to keep this forever."You would have to talk to Alan directly, but my perspective from what I know about him and what I know about Dave and what I know about the situation is I think if DC had gone to them at the time and said, "Here's where we are. We said we were going to give this back to you at a certain point. Now we're in a situation where that doesn't make any sense. Let's find a work-around for this." I tend to think those guys would have been more receptive to that than just, "Hey, we're going to make sure you never get this back."That would have served both Alan and Dave's purposes, and the company's purposes. I think it's possible to be -- for want of a better word -- a moral company. You can make money without fucking everybody over at the same time.Walking DeadSagaIn terms of outreach... I think we have a good relationship with retailers, but like with: we've done a really good job of keeping the books in print. In terms of building a relationship with retailers, they've got something they can sell, and we're making sure we can get it to them. There are numerous incidents since trade paperbacks have become a driving force in the market where something big hits and then it's out of print almost immediately, for whatever reason there was not a large enough quantity. I think we've managedreally well in terms of just making it sure if you want it in paperback, hardcover, whatever, you can get them. The retailers can orderwith confidence.In terms of, I got to the ComicsPro thing, we sit and retailers tell us... I always ask them, "How can we help you?" Everyone has a different opinion. With out books in particular, I think they don't want to be on the hook for stuff. There have been incidents in the past where they've been burned. In the very early days, things were ordered with wild abandon, and they came back and bit not just retailers but the whole industry on the ass. They wanted to know how we determine what the sure things are. Obviously, you put Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples on a book that's a textbook sure thing, but there are book we've done in the past with big names on them that didn't do well. They needed reassurance. Listening to the feedback from retailers, the thing we came up with was, "We're going to make the first three issues returnable if you order them at a certain level."On paper, it's a really little thing. But I think it helped a lot of people say, "I'm going to take a greater interest in this, because I won't be on the hook for this."[Part Two Will Appear Tomorrow; I Apologize For This, And Hope You'll Stick With Us]*********** image from#25* Image anniversary logo* photo of Stephenson this weekend by me* three of the books featuring high-profile mainstream comics writers:* three more high-profile series for the company:* three different formats for* from the effective ad series* frombottom* cover image for*************** |
A recent study contributes to the literature suggesting a bidrectional relationship between schizophrenia and autoimmune diseases. In a Danish cohort, individuals with schizophrenia and infectious exposures (hospitalization), the incidence of autoimmune disease was almost 3x as frequent. Schizophrenia likely shares underlying pathology with autoimmune disorders in the form of acute on chronic inflammation, and dysfunctional immune response. In addition to infection, to which patients are more susceptible in the setting of nutrient-poor diets and stress, there are other important factors that contribute to inflammation and a reactive immune system. These include vaccines, food antigens, and environmental toxins such as metals, plastics, and flame retardants. If we consider schizophrenia to be a manifestation of disordered immunity, we might look to lifestyle factors such as stress, exercise, diet, and a clean environment as first line treatments. Read the abstract of this study suggesting a relationship between schizophrenia and autoimmune disease. |
Boston’s modest $4.5 billion proposal envisions a new Olympic model: a walkable, bikeable, sustainable Games that uses mostly pre-existing structures. This compact city of 646,000 plans a downsized, compressed, antisprawl Olympics. No venue would be more than a 10-minute walk from a subway stop or a commuter rail line. The International Olympic Committee has been forced to encourage this kind of thinking. Interest in hosting has declined as potential hosts watched costs spiral out of control for recent Games in Beijing ($40 billion) and Sochi, Russia ($50 billion). Still, one might wonder if Boston’s proposal was actually made by The Onion: The athletes could live in college dormitories that are empty during the summer; the modular housing of an Olympic village could later become new dorms; and a proposed $700 million Olympic Stadium would be temporary, so it could be razed or relocated. Does anyone think this might be carrying Yankee frugality too far? And are Olympic bigwigs serious about not wanting an extravaganza? Either way, the Boston promoters are trying to win over naysayers by promising tangible benefits like upgrades in roads, bridges and public transit. But many wonder why it would take the Olympics to get those much-needed improvements. The Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi wrote that the promoters were giving Bostonians an impossible choice: Buy in to their bid to get a modern transportation system, or “be labeled a small-minded, provincial party-pooper.” And there you have it: Without the Olympics, Boston cannot be world class. KATHARINE Q. SEELYE |
Sheffield, in south Yorkshire, is famous around the world as a centre of steel production – stainless steel was invented in the city in 1912 and many thousands of the city’s residents worked in crucibles and factories producing steel and steel products such as cutlery and weapon components. On a peaceful hillside thousands of Sheffield’s citizens lie at rest, some with graves marked by grand memorials, others unseen beneath the trees and undergrowth. After a period of postwar neglect and uncertainty, the Sheffield General Cemetery is now a celebrated part of the city’s heritage. The General Cemetery was opened in 1836 – the same year that West Norwood Cemetery was opened in London. Similar to the large cemeteries in London that have been explored on Flickering Lamps, the General Cemetery was opened in response to overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in Sheffield’s churchyards. Sheffield’s population grew rapidly in the early decades of the 19th Century – from around 60,000 in 1801 to over 130,000 in 1841. There had been an outbreak of cholera in the city in 1832 and many of the hundreds who died in this epidemic were buried in a mass grave. Even without the added pressures of an epidemic, the local churchyards were struggling to cope with the city’s rising population and crypts and churchyards were becoming overcrowded and desperately unhealthy places. In response to this, a modern solution was proposed. The Sheffield Cemetery Company was set up in 1834 and land (a former quarry) was acquired on a hillside overlooking the centre of Sheffield, at a cost of £1,900. The cemetery was originally opened as a Nonconformist burial ground, and the cemetery company was a private, profit-making enterprise, not associated with any of the city’s churches. The General Cemetery’s nine acres were landscaped by Samuel Worth, creating an attractive environment with winding pathways, terraced catacombs and many specially-planted trees and plants – a pleasant place for the living as well as the dead. All of this was unusual in the 1830s – Sheffield General was one of the first landscaped, privately-run cemeteries to open outside of London. The Nonconformist Chapel is probably the most well-known structure in the cemetery, and was completed before the cemetery opened in 1836. It is primarily Classical in design, although Egyptian influences can also be seen, particularly in the front doorway. Egyptian features are also visible on the main gateways into the cemetery, in particular the Egyptian Gate situated at the top end of the cemetery. The top of the gateway features a winged sun, and each of the gates is decorated with an ouroboros – a snake biting its own tail, which is an ancient Egyptian symbol representing the infinite cycle of life and death. The landscaping of the cemetery incorporated a number of mature trees that already existed on the site – early images of the cemetery and 19th Century maps indicate that a significant number of trees pre-dated the cemetery’s founding. However, despite the site’s prominent location and beautiful landscaping, it took about six years for the first thousand burials to take place at the General Cemetery. By the end of 1839 just 499 burials had taken place there. Perhaps the cost of burial there was off-putting to some; others may have worried that its relatively isolated location might make it an easy target for bodysnatchers. No doubt other local families did not wish to bury their loved ones in a burial ground set aside for nonconformists, without the consecrated ground sought out by Catholics and Anglicans. In 1850, an extension to the burial ground was consecrated for Anglican burials by the Archbishop of York. The Anglican and Nonconformist sections of the cemetery were divided by a wall, known as the Dissenters’ Wall. An Anglican chapel was completed in 1850, with a disproportionately large spire that was deliberately designed to be seen from far away. The chapel’s Gothic style is a little out of step with the rest of the cemetery’s architecture- this was perhaps a deliberate move. In the 19th Century, Gothic Revival architecture was closely associated with high church Anglican and Catholic churches and burials, whereas the Neoclassical style seen in the General Cemetery’s nonconformist chapel, and many of its prominent monuments, was associated more with nonconformist and more austere Anglican churches. The hillside location of the General Cemetery put me in mind of Highgate, in London. The steep hillside is crisscrossed by curved paths leading into the trees. In keeping with the nonconformist nature of the cemetery’s oldest section, the monuments are less ostentatious than Highgate, but nonetheless they make for a striking sight in amongst the trees and ferns. One of the most prominent memorials in the cemetery is that of William Parker, who died in 1837. Parker, whose father was a table-knife manufacturer, was a cutlery merchant. This article shows his name on a page of the cemetery’s burial records, with his cause of death listed as ‘apoplexy.’ A piece in the Sheffield Independent on 11th February 1837 reported that a large number of the city’s cutlers were set to take part in a procession to the cemetery on the day of William Parker’s funeral. The newspaper report then warmly paid tribute to William: “Mr Parker combined with uncommon talents for business, the strictest integrity and honour, and great urbanity. Nor was he forgetful to cultivate and exemplify those higher virtues which belong to the Christian.” The untold story of Parker’s grave is the sad tale of his wife, Katherine. William Parker died intestate, meaning that he had no will – no binding agreement had been made about the distribution of his money, business interests and property after his death. Even today, dying intestate can be an administrative nightmare for the family of the deceased. Although according to the laws of the time Parker’s wife was not able to legally own property, it fell upon Katherine to manage her late husband’s affairs and oversee the winding up of his business. As well as this, Katherine was left to bring up the couple’s five children alone. Poor Katherine died by suicide in 1844, and the inquest into her death noted that she had had ‘immense anxieties and much to manage.’ Mark Firth was one of Sheffield’s prominent steel manufacturers and his family grave, topped with a carved urn and surrounded by red railings, is difficult to miss. With his father and brother, Firth was part of the Thomas Firth and Sons steel business, which began operating in 1842. As well as being part of the city’s steel manufacturing community, Mark Firth was also elected Master Cutler of the city in 1867, and – standing on the Liberal ticket – was elected Sheffield’s Mayor in 1874. In common with many successful businessmen of the age, Firth used some of his wealth to benefit the city he lived and worked in. He donated the land that now makes up Firth Park, a public park in the city which was opened in 1875. He also founded Firth College, an arts and sciences institution, in 1879 – along with the Sheffield Medical School and Sheffield Technical School, Firth College went on to become the University of Sheffield in 1897. Thomas Firth and Sons continued to operate after Mark Firth’s death, and in the 20th Century merged with a neighbouring steel company, John Brown and Company. The company born out of this merger, Firth Brown Steels, is still operating today – one of the oldest steel companies still existing in Britain. Most famously, the Brown-Firth Laboratories were the location where Harry Brearley invented stainless steel in 1912. The 20th Century was a less prosperous time for the cemetery, in common with so many other grand Victorian cemeteries all over Britain. The site was beginning to fill up, and after the Second World War only a few burials were taking place each year, almost all of them in existing family graves. By this time, around 77,000 people had been laid to rest in the General Cemetery. In 1979, the cemetery was closed to new burials. For a number of years the site’s future was uncertain – a large number of shares in the site had been sold to a development company in the 1960s, but the prospect of exhuming thousands of bodies in order to build housing on the site proved an insurmountable obstacle, and in time control of the site passed to Sheffield City Council. Around 800 headstones were cleared from the Anglican section of the cemetery and the area was laid out as a public park. Some of the headstones moved at this time were set in the ground on the cemetery’s terraces. Today, the General Cemetery is managed by a charity, the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust. As well as securing funding to restore the Nonconformist chapel, the Trust has been instrumental in promoting the cemetery as a nature habitat and an important source of information about Sheffield’s history. Public events and guided tours take place regularly. Information about upcoming history and nature events at the cemetery can be found here. Members of the Trust have also researched and published pamphlets on the history of the cemetery, highlighting the lives and deaths of many of those buried there. This article has barely scratched the surface in terms of the many illustrious and interesting figures who rest in the cemetery. After a few decades where the cemetery became overgrown and sad, threatened by redevelopment, the Sheffield General Cemetery has now found a prominent place in the celebration of Sheffield’s history and is a beautiful place to walk among the gravestones and discover the names and stories of many of Sheffield’s residents. Sources and further reading Sheffield General Cemetery Trust She Lived Unknown: a celebration of women in the Sheffield General Cemetery, pamphlet produced by Sheffield General Cemetery Trust, 2013 revised edition Sheffield General Cemetery – Historic England, List Summary View From A Hill – an excellent resource for stories about individual graves and people buried in the General Cemetery The newspaper reports quoted in the article were accessed via the British Newspaper Archive. |
Speaker Bronwyn Bishop and Senate President Stephen Parry have contradicted Prime Minister Tony Abbott, revealing he did not contact them to ask they reconsider their controversial plan to segregate women wearing a burqa or niqab. That plan, which was dumped by Parliament's presiding officers on Monday morning, was put in place earlier this month after what Senator Parry said were "credible" concerns that up to 10 men, wearing facial coverings, had planned a protest to disrupt question time. Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has denied speaking to PM Tony Abbott about reconsidering the burqa ban. Credit:Andrew Meares Hours after the decision to segregate wearers of the garment was taken in the last sitting fortnight, Mr Abbott indicated he would seek to have the segregation plan overturned. And the next day, Mr Abbott said: "I asked the Speaker to rethink that decision and my understanding is that it was an interim decision, that it would be looked at again in the light of security advice that will come in coming days and I'm sure that the matter will be fully resolved before the Parliament comes back in a fortnight." |
At a certain point I might as well admit that we drink a rather obscene amount of coffee. It’s almost all frugal, brew-at-home type coffee, but still: that stuff ads up. Luckily, the grounds are almost as valuable as the liquid coffee, and we save them for use in the garden, thereby getting the most bang for our fair-trade-coffee-buck. These are my five favorite ways to use coffee grounds in the garden. Sheet Mulch The majority of our grounds get dumped out, directly on the soil, as sheet mulch around around our berries and fruit trees. The common assumption is that coffee grounds are acidic, but tests on the pH of grounds have shown results from mildly acid to mildly alkaline, and research indicates that the pH of the grounds tends towards neutral as it decomposes. I use coffee grounds as a mulch around blueberries, fruit trees, currants and cane fruit, all with good result. When you mulch with coffee grounds, don’t pile it on. That’s a sure-fire way to get moldy mulch. A good half-inch thick layer atop your normal organic mulch in any one spot will do nicely. It will break down relatively quickly as worms and soil microbes go to work, and when it does you can add more. Coffee works like any other organic mulch, with a few added advantages discussed below. Side-dressing for Heavy Feeders You probably know that the main nitrogen component in DIY organic fertilizers, like Steve Solomon’s famous mix, is seedmeal. Well, if you think about it, a coffee bean is a processed seed. As you’d expect, coffee grounds are high in nitrogen, at about 10%. Depending on the exact beans and extraction process, “the carbon to nitrogen ratio of coffee grounds can be as low as 11:1, an ideal ratio for plant and soil nutrition,” according to WSU extension. With nitrogen levels like that, pure coffee grounds make an excellent side-dressing for leafy greens and hungry fruiting veg, like tomatoes and squash, early in their growth. I particularly like side dressing spinach with used coffee grounds. Natural Slug Deterrent Slugs get the heebie-jeebies crawling over coffee grounds. I think it scratches their slimy underbellies in an unpleasant way. Do you have some veg, like Napa Cabbage, that seems like a total slug magnet? Try banding coffee grounds in a uniform circle around the plant as a seedling, and keep the band topped up. It helps. I’m not giving away my Sluggo just yet, but it helps. Vermicomposting I know some people say that you shouldn’t feed worms coffee grounds, but I have Seattle worms. They’re all holding teeny Starbucks cups and wearing fleece vests as they crawl around their worm bin, talking about Python hacks and when they’ll finally be able to get up to the mountains to go snowboarding. Coffee grounds aren’t the only thing I put in my worm bin, of course, but mixed in as part of a balanced diet of cardboard, shredded paper, kitchen scraps, banana peels and the like, the worms seem to process coffee grounds without any issue. Suppression of Fungal Diseases Decomposing coffee grounds have their own fungal and mold colonies and those fungal colonies tend to fight off other fungal colonies. If this seems weird, just remember that the antibiotic penicillin was developed from a mold. The world of teeny, tiny things is fighting for space and resources just as fiercely as the world of big, visible things, and you can use that to your advantage. The natural mold and fungus colonies on coffee “appear to suppress some common fungal rots and wilts, including Fusarium, Pythium, and Sclerotinia species,” according to research. It’s hard to quantify exactly how this all plays out in the big outside world with millions of variables, but incorporating coffee grounds into your compost may help to prevent build-up of nasty verticulum and fusarium wilt inoculates. I figure it’s worth a shot. If I have coffee grounds on hand, I will throw a handful of grounds into the transplant hole for tomatoes, peppers or eggplant, since these plants tend to be susceptable to various wilts. How do you use coffee grounds in your garden? |
For decades we have wrestled with feminism. Too many men and women still say they are feminists on the assumption feminism seeks equality – a prevarication drilled into our heads by feminists for 50 years. When you watch the feet and ignore the lips, the primary political and social goals of feminism are obvious. The core feminist agenda all along has been the destruction of marriage, the persecution of men, the killing of unborn children, gratuitous self-victimization and entitling a massive welfare state. This column is not sensationalist click-bait. It is a brief tour through a real part of American history. What you read here is historical fact. The root ideologies and slogans of feminism as we know it today were drafted by members of the Women’s Ku Klux Klan (WKKK) beginning in the 1880s. This is documented by Kathleen L. Blee in her book “Women of the Klan.” Below is a brief synopsis of what is proven in “Women of the Klan.” The WKKK played a controlling role in the KKK. Early feminists in the WKKK demanded great power in the Klan, applying powerful sexual imagery to get it. Women were placed on a pedestal of motherly sexual purity requiring knee-jerk protection from black men. WKKK activists quickly discovered that the power of sexual victimization was just as effective against white men, too. In the late 1880s, a broadside was published by the Evansville, Indiana, WKKK chapter proclaiming; “No longer will man say that in the hand of woman rests the necessity of rocking a cradle only. She has within her hand the power to rule the world.” This and other early radical feminist mottoes reappeared in the suffragette movement and the 1960s as a core agenda of the “great society” and sexual liberation revolutions. The WKKK established many memes and institutions still central to contemporary feminism. Motherhood was drudgery. The YWCA was established to offload child care. Abortion of black babies was urged in cohort with Margaret Sanger. Women exercised sexual power fluently. The movie “Rosewood” documents a white woman claiming rape by a black man to cover up for an affair she was having, resulting in a massacre of blacks in the town of Rosewood, Florida. The KKK was also America’s first child-support collection agency and a prototype for our one-eyed Title IV-D system. Elizabeth Tyler, the first WKKK grand chief of staff, seized control of the KKK, removing Grand Dragon Simmons by accusing him of sexual improprieties. She replaced him with her paramour whom she controlled along with the membership of the Klan. By 1925, the WKKK had about 4 million members – a very large organization in those days. One reviewer of Kathleen Blees’ book wrote, “The significance of ‘Women of the Klan’ rests not in its somewhat ebullient celebration of feminist principles, but rather, that it documents in great detail a direct lineage between the Women’s Ku Klux Klan and the radical feminist movement as it exists today. The book draws from a wide variety of historical documents, letters, and in-camera interviews that the author recorded with older women who were still alive at the time the book was written.” Contemporary feminism still functions on the same visceral sexual-political mechanics as the WKKK. By the 1960s, the feminist machine was now armed with Freudian victim psychology and Kinsey’s sexual liberation agenda, expounded by degreed professional feminists (“women’s studies” majors). Old Frankfurt school Marxism previously ineffective in America was retargeted by Herbert Marcuse, who theorized that contented middle-class America could be divided and destroyed by a youthful sexual revolution. The rise of Saul Alinsky’s New Marxist movement created a generation of politically powerful young Americans bent on destroying their own country. The KKK collapsed about the same time radical feminism rose to prominence because feminists re-pointed their agenda at all men, not just black men. They demanded equality, destruction of “the Patriarchy,” evisceration of religion and special protections for “liberated” women. The only difference between racism and contemporary sexism is the target of social and economic repression. Racism focused on black males, but feminism targets all males. Racism did not truly end with the rise of feminism. Black males bear the brunt of feminist policy. When boys do not grow up expecting to be fathers and husbands, how can black Americans succeed? Black males, as a group, are the most likely to end up in prison or dead at an early age. The ejection of black men from the own communities is the primary reason they are so easy to recruit into radical masculist Muslim activism. Meanwhile, black females are provided massive social and educational supports along with preferential treatment getting “apron ready” jobs they are often unqualified for. Welfare is an entitlement for women and a sentence to indentured servitude for men funded by governmental socioeconomic destruction of marriage – especially in the lower classes. Today, one-third of children are raised by unmarried mothers supported with our tax dollars. Child support is then forcefully collected from low-income men (who must support themselves, too). From a policy perspective, it is madness to destroy marriage with welfare state “income guarantees” that are also recoupments, expecting the poor to lift the poor out of poverty. Most of these children lack necessary parental and economic resources that cannot be effectively replaced by government. We spend 30 times more per-capita on welfare than China does and wonder why so many children are failing in school. Congress has been unable to balance the budget – so it raises the debt ceiling another notch every few months. Indeed, as much as 70% of poverty would be erased if fathers and mothers simply married – a policy direction professional feminists discount as meaningless. Feminist policy has left more women barefoot, pregnant and in poverty than any other event in American history. It is time we hold feminists squarely responsible for it – which Phyllis Schlafly accomplished in her new book “Who Killed the American Family?” In this short column, Dr. Gina Loudon proves the “eight important benefits of marriage, controverting nearly the entirety of the feminist agenda. There is scant evidence feminism impacted public policy positively. Feminists have little girls dressed up as sexy princesses using filthy language. At age 24, there are 148 women with college degrees for every 100 men. The “gender pay gap” is a reflection of women’s choices. Rape rates have declined significantly since 1973 – long before feminist policy kicked in. Women now commit at least half of all serious domestic violence. Widely disseminated feminist myths about domestic violence have been thoroughly debunked. A crisis of child sex abuse in schools is perpetrated by female teachers, who rarely go to prison, and nobody is doing anything about it. The feminist power agenda has caused serious problems on college campuses. California just enacted “Yes Means Yes,” a widely criticized law converting college life into a witch hunt for a non-existent campus rape “crisis.” This law was thoroughly eviscerated by feminists Camille Paglia in Time magazine, Margaret Wente in the United Kingdom, professor Alan Dershowitz, and challenged by at least 30 men suing colleges for discriminatory dismissal. The feminist movement is falling out of favor in public. Many young Americans see that feminism is a cult and reject it on its face. Voters are learning that feminism is the movement driving liberalism, socialism, taxes, deficits, dystopian government, and our nation’s greatest social and criminal problems. Even in massively liberal Portland, Oregon, feminism is on the skids. The feminist bookstore featured in the TV show “Portlandia” is going out of business for lack of paying customers. Unfortunately, professional feminists have firm control of government, law schools, universities and media – forcing their agenda on the rest of us. We must strive for more balance in perches of power. Title IX holds the keys to end the reign of radical feminist sexism. We must establish new, sensible supply-side socioeconomic policy focusing on rebuilding the marriage culture and a pro-social God-loving country. |
We have seen Etta Bishop’s future, and it is very, very… cool. TVLine has learned that ABC’s Once Upon a Time has cast Fringe alum Georgina Haig in the plum Season 4 role of Queen Elsa of Arendelle — aka the chillin’ quasi-villain of filmdom’s Frozen. RELATED Once Upon a Time Creators Preview Season 4′s Frozen Twist Previously, TVLine broke the news that newcomer Elizabeth Lail and Greek grad Scott Michael Foster have been cast in the arc’s other two roles, as Anna and her beau Kristoff. In her Once incarnation, Elsa has long struggled to control her “chilling” powers, and once even — Frozen spoilers ahead! — unleashed upon her town an eternal winter. Ultimately, she realized that the key to keeping her powers in check is love — namely, her bond with younger sister Anna — and now she is aware of the threat she poses if she were to lose control of her magic again. Previewing the show’s introduction of Elsa, which came about after negotiations with Disney brass and then was teased at the close of the Season 3 finale, Once cocreator Adam Horowitz told TVLine, “We are very well aware of how beloved [Frozen] is, so we’re very careful that we want to tell a story that is uniquely ours but also honors those characters that everyone fell in love with this past year.” Added Eddy Kitsis: “The thing we love about Elsa is she is perceived to be a villain but is clearly misunderstood, and that goes to the heart of our show.” In addition to her run on Fringe, Haig’s TV credits include CBS’ Reckless (where she’s playing disgraced cop Lee Anne Marcus) and the Aussie drama Underbelly. Want more scoop on Once Upon a Time, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line. |
Thanks for stopping by. Lots of ground to cover in short form. WWE Extreme Rules in Chicago on PPV delivered a stellar product Sunday night. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and watched the last match while STANDING in my living room. Yep, I'm still a fan and loved what I saw in the physically demanding final bout. I had to get out of my chair and walk around. Thought that Orton and Kane was the perfect way to kick off the night. Good brawl. Will be interesting to see what's next for RKO and the Big Red Machine. Happy the match ended in the ring for all to see. The Brodus Clay Experience is entertaining as it is designed to be at this point in time. Too bad some impatient, microwave generation fans have to have what they perceive that they need immediately. I do know Clay is an athletic big man and am anxious to see how his TV persona eventually evolves. Clay delivered a statement making big splash to put Dolph Ziggler away. I'm still of the belief that it is merely a matter of when and not if that Dolph Ziggler breaks through to main event status on a regular basis. He's highly athletic and has excellent skills. Oklahoman Jack Swagger's haircut has more angst than Cole used to have in his cubicle days. Speaking of Michael Cole, I thought he did an excellent job Sunday night. Also, felt that Booker T gave Cole a free pass or two when it would have been easy for Booker to have inserted his foot into his colleague's mouth...but I digress. Watching the continued maturation and development of Cody Rhodes' in ring and mic skills, I'd suggest that chances are good that Rhodes will be WWE or World Champion by year's end or by WM29...if you weeeilll. The conclusion of the Tables match was perplexing while watching at home but Big Show's facial expression expressed that much better than I can write about it. Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan had, arguably, the best, pure wrestling match on the broadcast in the 2X3 Fall contest. I thought that they took fans on a great ride which these old school, 2X3 fall bouts can times often do. Both men are talented, Sheamus a strong brawler while Daniel Bryan is arguably the most skilled, overall mat technician in the WWE at this time. Seeing Ryback on Extreme Rules was a surprise. Wasn't expecting to see him on the PPV but it's a positive for the up and coming, young talent to be provided that opportunity. Twitter followers have multiple ways of describing Ryback as it relates to other wrestlers but my take is that Ryback just needs to continue to improve his game and to be the best Ryback that he can be. Some comparisons as it relates to physique and attire are simply going to be there. Jusst about every wrestler one sees can remind us of someone that we've seen in yesteryear. Punk vs. Jericho was outstanding as the two laid the foundation early for a memorable crescendo that the live, Chicago audience devoured. These two are mega talented and have outstanding chemistry. They are exactly the types of talents that comprise great rosters. Athletic, skilled, physically tough, driven, reliable, smart and both have 'it.' Plus, like Daniel Bryan, among others, both Punk and Jericho paid their dues long before coming to WWE. I thought that their Chicago Street Fight was the perfect blend of brawling and wrestlilng. Knowing how hard that Layla rehabbed her surgically repaired knee over the past year, it was nice to see her return in such a positive way Sunday night. I recently saw Layla working out in Tampa and she was certainly putting in the time and the work for when she eventually got the phone call to return. Rehabbing an injury for that length of time is often times thankless and frustrating but Layla hung in there and the results were evident as she's the new Divas Champion. John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar was a gut check of the human spirit. Lesnar had been out of a WWE ring for approximately eight years and many, including me, wondered how ring rust would affect the former UFC and WWE Heavyweight Champion's performance. Some uninformed fans felt that being in the Octagon and being in a WWE ring were similar but they are far from it for a variety of reasons. Lesnar was impressive especially while on offense and delivered some of the most unique and wicked strikes and submissions that I've ever seen in WWE. Cena survived the supreme gut check after sustaining, obviously, a hellacious beating. I knew that Cena was a tough kid back when we signed him. That assumption was further verified when I spoke to the former offensive lineman's college football coach. We've all seen Cena's will and toughness over the years in WWE but in Chicago John took it to unchartered and dangerous waters. Whether one is a Cena fan or not, to not acknowledge John's toughness is simply Pet Coon Goofy. Bottom line is that both Cena and Lesnar are athletic freaks with tons of mental and physical grit and each should be commended for their performance on Sunday night. For displeased Lesnar fans, no one is unbeatable in WWE, or any where else for that matter, and one loss doesn't sink Brock's Battleship. Far from it. I remember a guy named Austin who seemingly didn't win a match for a year and ended up doing o.k. The genre of sports entertainment is about execution and effort and not simply about wins and losses. Yes, it's better to win but losing isn't the proverbial kiss of death in sports entertainment as some knee jerkers espouse. WWE came out of Extreme Rules with many fans talking, buzzing, etc and it will be interesting to see how WWE harnesses that momentum tonight on Raw. Striking while the iron is hot is crucial in this business and I fully expect WWE to deliver a strong Monday Night Raw live tonight at 9/8 Central on USA. Fans of the outstanding, Legends Roundtable series on WWE On Demand can rest easy knowing that more episodes are being planned. The @cmpunk DVD that is in the works sounds like a great project and I'm pleased that I will be able to offer my thoughts on the WWE Champion on the DVD as I'm big fan of Punk's work and his real life character. I enjoyed sampling the Premier League Football today on ESPN featuring Manchester City vs. Manchester United. Great sporting event with rabid, loud fans. I'm not a European football expert but the great fans made it an enjoyable experience. I thought the announcing was good as well. I may have missed my calling....so to speak. :) The UK is a strong #2 as it relates to sales of JR's premium products from http://www.wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss just behind the USA. I remember working in Manchester for WWE years ago and we stayed at a downtown hotel near the China Town area of Manchester as in an easy walk and had a great meal there. Don't recall the name of the restaurant but it was a pleasant find while on the road. I'm also a big fan of the full, English breakfast if you're keeping score at home. For @okcthunder fans, it's time to Thunder Up and to encourage the team to play physical, smart basketball for four full quarters against Dallas. I see the Mavs as being a hard out. Still say that @mcuban would have been a great WWE manager. The question that lingers is the veteran Dallas a tougher team that OKC? Speaking of managers or manager like TV personas, keep an eye on AW, AKA Abraham Washington. The dude can talk. In my opinion, Antonio Cesaro is going to be an impact player in WWE and it could happen sooner than some think based on what I've seen of the Swiss athlete in the ring. He's another guy that has traveled the world and paid his dues in hopes of making it to the top level of his vocation and I fully expect Cesaro to take advantage of the opportunity. He's focused, in great shape, deceptively strong, and wrestles a unique style. Please keep us in mind for all your grilling needs such as JR's BBQ Sauces, Chipotle Ketchup, Main Event Mustard, and All Purpose Seasoning. Not to mention five flavors of beef jerky and autographed copies of JR's Cookbook all available for worldwide shipping from http://www/wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss. You're invited to follow us on Twitter @JRsBBQ. Boomer Sooner! J.R. |
It was not immediately possible to confirm the message’s authenticity, although the Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, had hours earlier said the statement would be released soon. The statement itself referred to an episode that took place Friday in which civilians were killed by the Afghan National Army in an accidental attack. Image Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, the supreme leader of the Taliban, in an undated photo. Credit Reuters Two Taliban officials who knew Mullah Mansour, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect themselves from capture, confirmed that the audio was his voice and they believed it to be genuine.In recent days there were reports from some Taliban quarters as well as from the Afghan government that Mullah Mansour had been either killed or wounded in the shootout, which was said to have erupted after a dispute between the mainstream Taliban leader and dissidents. The dissidents were said to be upset by the killing of a breakaway leader, Mullah Mansour Dadullah, and hundreds of his followers, in fighting with the mainstream Taliban. Mullah Dadullah had reportedly aligned with the Islamic State. “Do trust me if I say that I have never been to Kuchlak for years,” the man in the recording said. “I am among my friends, fine, sound and well.” There was no proof, however, that the Taliban leader had not been wounded, as some accounts had insisted. Kuchlak is a suburb of Quetta. While the man purported to be Mullah Mansour in the recording said that “we would never fight for leadership positions,” the new Taliban leader has faced significant opposition from within the Taliban’s ranks, in addition to the Mullah Dadullah faction, since he emerged as the Taliban’s leader this summer. The Taliban were sensitive to claims that their new leader was dead, because Mullah Mansour himself took power after the organization falsely maintained for two years that its founder, Mullah Muhammad Omar, was still alive. That led to criticism within the organization because Mullah Mansour had apparently lied for many years, even to senior Taliban followers, about their leader. |
In the previous post, we have started exploring CPython in order to find a way to turn the default base of integer literals in Python source code from decimal to hexadecimal. (The last post ended with a short recap. Feel free to check it out for a fast recall.) Without further preparations, we would continue right where we have stopped last time. So, we found out parsetok in Parser\parsetok.c does the tokenizing and the parsing. For this purpose, it receives a pointer to a tok_state struct (i.e. a tokenizer struct) that contains (among others) the Python source code string. parsetok is a little big, but we are not intimidated: /* Parse input coming from the given tokenizer structure. Return error code. */ static node * parsetok(struct tok_state *tok, grammar *g, int start, perrdetail *err_ret, int *flags) { parser_state *ps; node *n; ... if ((ps = PyParser_New(g, start)) == NULL) { ... } ... for (;;) { char *a, *b; int type; size_t len; char *str; ... type = PyTokenizer_Get(tok, &a, &b); if (type == ERRORTOKEN) { err_ret->error = tok->done; break; } ... len = b - a; /* XXX this may compute NULL - NULL */ ... if (len > 0) strncpy(str, a, len); str[len] = '\0'; ... if ((err_ret->error = PyParser_AddToken(ps, (int)type, str, tok->lineno, col_offset, &(err_ret->expected))) != E_OK) { ... } } if (err_ret->error == E_DONE) { n = ps->p_tree; ps->p_tree = NULL; ... } else n = NULL; ... PyTokenizer_Free(tok); return n; } Cool. First, PyParser_New is called to create a parser_state struct (i.e. a parser struct), which also contains an empty CST. Then, in a loop, PyTokenizer_Get is called to get the next token’s string and type (in my humble opinion, ‘token_str_start_ptr’ and ‘token_str_end_ptr’ would have been more suitable names for the variables ‘a’ and ‘b’). If the token is valid (type != ERRORTOKEN), PyParser_AddToken is called to add the token to our CST. When there are no more tokens left, the tokenizing and parsing are completed. Subsequently, the tokenizer is freed, and the CST is returned. We search for ‘PyTokenizer_Get’, and find it in Parser\tokenizer.c: int PyTokenizer_Get(struct tok_state *tok, char **p_start, char **p_end) { int result = tok_get(tok, p_start, p_end); ... return result; } Ok, we go straight to tok_get (which is also in Parser\tokenizer.c), and… Oh my. tok_get is almost 500 lines of code. This is it. The tokenizing function. This is going to be a hell of a dive… Well, actually we don’t feel like drowning today, so we would split it to some smaller dives: /* Get next token, after space stripping etc. */ static int tok_get(struct tok_state *tok, char **p_start, char **p_end) { int c; ... /* Get indentation level */ if (tok->atbol) { ... tok->atbol = 0; for (;;) { c = tok_nextc(tok); if (c == ' ') ... else if (c == '\t') { ... } else if (c == '\014') /* Control-L (formfeed) */ ... else break; } tok_backup(tok, c); ... } tok->start = tok->cur; /* Return pending indents/dedents */ if (tok->pendin != 0) { if (tok->pendin < 0) { tok->pendin++; return DEDENT; } else { tok->pendin--; return INDENT; } } ... /* Skip spaces */ do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (c == ' ' || c == '\t' || c == '\014'); /* Set start of current token */ tok->start = tok->cur - 1; /* Skip comment */ if (c == '#') while (c != EOF && c != ' ') c = tok_nextc(tok); /* Check for EOF and errors now */ if (c == EOF) { return tok->done == E_EOF ? ENDMARKER : ERRORTOKEN; } First, if the tokenizer’s atbol (which stands for ‘at begin of line’) flag is set, spaces and tabs are counted. This is done by calling tok_nextc repeatedly to get the next char from the tokenizer, until a char other than a space or a tab is encountered, and then calling tok_backup to restore the extra char consumed by tok_nextc. If any erroneous indentation is spotted, ERRORTOKEN is returned (I have removed those checks). Otherwise, if the indentation of this line is bigger or smaller than the last one, either INDENT or DEDENT is returned respectively. After that, tok_nextc is again called repeatedly in order to skip spaces and tabs. There are some states in which we might or might not reach this spaces-skipping code: This token is at the beginning of a line: This line’s indentation is invalid, and so ERRORTOKEN is returned before we reach here. This line’s indentation is valid but different than the previous line, and so either INDENT or DEDENT is returned before we reach here. This line’s indentation is the same as the previous line, so we reach here after consuming all indentation spaces, and there aren’t any more spaces to skip. This token is in the middle or at the end of a line. Indeed, if we encounter any spaces here, we must be in the middle or at the end of a line, where spaces are meaningless, and thus they are just skipped. Later, everything from a ‘#’ char until a new line or until the end of the file is skipped, as it is simply a comment. Finally (for this brief dive), if EOF is reached, tok_get returns. Just to make sure it does what we think it does, we search for ‘tok_nextc’, and find its definition and tok_backup‘s definition next to each other, also in Parser\tokenizer.c. tok_nextc is quite long, but its comment is good enough for us: /* Get next char, updating state; error code goes into tok->done */ static int tok_nextc(struct tok_state *tok) { ... } /* Back-up one character */ static void tok_backup(struct tok_state *tok, int c) { if (c != EOF) { if (--tok->cur < tok->buf) Py_FatalError("tok_backup: beginning of buffer"); if (*tok->cur != c) *tok->cur = c; } } tok_backup is kind of straight forward. tok->cur is decremented, but if it was already pointing to the beginning of the buffer, something, obviously, is terribly wrong, so a fatal error is raised. Now, in case the previous char is not already the char we wanted to restore, it is overwritten. We are having trouble figuring out why that should ever happen, but whatever. Back to tok_get, it seems like we are finally starting to deal with chars that aren’t white-spaces: ... /* Identifier (most frequent token!) */ ... if (is_potential_identifier_start(c)) { /* Process b"", r"", u"", br"" and rb"" */ ... while (1) { if (!(saw_b || saw_u) && (c == 'b' || c == 'B')) ... else if (!(saw_b || saw_u || saw_r) && (c == 'u' || c == 'U')) ... else if (!(saw_r || saw_u) && (c == 'r' || c == 'R')) ... else break; c = tok_nextc(tok); if (c == '"' || c == '\'') goto letter_quote; } while (is_potential_identifier_char(c)) { ... c = tok_nextc(tok); } tok_backup(tok, c); ... *p_start = tok->start; *p_end = tok->cur; ... return NAME; } We take a quick look at is_potential_identifier_start and is_potential_identifier_char, which turn out to be two simple macros (also defined in Parser\tokenizer.c), that do exactly as their names claim. #define is_potential_identifier_start(c) (\ (c >= 'a' && c <= 'z')\ || (c >= 'A' && c <= 'Z')\ || c == '_'\ || (c >= 128)) #define is_potential_identifier_char(c) (\ (c >= 'a' && c <= 'z')\ || (c >= 'A' && c <= 'Z')\ || (c >= '0' && c <= '9')\ || c == '_'\ || (c >= 128)) Back to tok_get, if is_potential_identifier_start returns true, a clever while loop checks whether it is actually some combination of a string or bytes literal prefix followed by an apostrophe or a quotation mark. If it is, it could only be a string or bytes literal, so we jump to letter_quote, which would treat the token as a potential string or bytes literal. Now that we know this token must be an identifier or a keyword, we consume chars until we reach the end of the token. This is done by calling tok_nextc and is_potential_identifier_char repeatedly, until is_potential_identifier_char returns false. Subsequently, tok_backup is called to restore the extra char that was consumed. At this point, we have the whole token, so we can determine whether this is a valid ‘async’ or ‘await’ keyword (which is done by some checks I have removed). Otherwise, it must be an identifier or another keyword, so NAME is returned. We wonder why ‘async’ and ‘await’ receive such a special treatment, as it seems any other keyword (e.g. ‘if’, ‘else’) would be classified as a NAME token. We could probably find some smart answer in a PEP, but we would leave that for another time. Anyway, we continue exploring tok_get: /* Newline */ if (c == ' ') { ... return NEWLINE; } /* Period or number starting with period? */ if (c == '.') { ... return DOT; } /* Number */ if (isdigit(c)) { if (c == '0') { /* Hex, octal or binary -- maybe. */ c = tok_nextc(tok); if (c == '.') goto fraction; if (c == 'j' || c == 'J') goto imaginary; if (c == 'x' || c == 'X') { /* Hex */ c = tok_nextc(tok); if (!isxdigit(c)) { tok->done = E_TOKEN; tok_backup(tok, c); return ERRORTOKEN; } do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (isxdigit(c)); } else if (c == 'o' || c == 'O') { /* Octal */ c = tok_nextc(tok); if (c < '0' || c >= '8') { tok->done = E_TOKEN; tok_backup(tok, c); return ERRORTOKEN; } do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while ('0' <= c && c < '8'); } else if (c == 'b' || c == 'B') { /* Binary */ c = tok_nextc(tok); if (c != '0' && c != '1') { tok->done = E_TOKEN; tok_backup(tok, c); return ERRORTOKEN; } do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (c == '0' || c == '1'); } else { int nonzero = 0; /* maybe old-style octal; c is first char of it */ /* in any case, allow '0' as a literal */ while (c == '0') c = tok_nextc(tok); while (isdigit(c)) { nonzero = 1; c = tok_nextc(tok); } if (c == '.') goto fraction; else if (c == 'e' || c == 'E') goto exponent; else if (c == 'j' || c == 'J') goto imaginary; else if (nonzero) { tok->done = E_TOKEN; tok_backup(tok, c); return ERRORTOKEN; } } } Next, if the token is a new line or a period, NEWLINE or DOT is returned, respectively. And then… Unbelievable. We actually got to where tok_get identifies a NUMBER token. isdigit is called to check whether the first char of the token is a digit. If it is, then it could only be a number. First thing first, if this char is a zero, we would check for some special cases of number literals that start with a zero. We call tok_nextc to get the next char, and check whether it is a dot. If it is, it could only be a fraction, so we jump to the code that handles fraction literals. Then, we check whether the char following the leading zero is the letter ‘j’. If it is, it is the imaginary number zero, so we jump the code that handles imaginary number literals (which probably does kind of nothing, as the letter ‘j’ must be the last char in an imaginary number literal). Later, we check whether our number token starts with any of the three prefixes: Hex, octal or binary. If indeed it starts with any of those prefixes, tok_nextc is called again, and the next char of the token is checked. If the char is invalid in that number base, tok_backup is called to restore the invalid char (it is not a part of this token, even though it is invalid), and ERRORTOKEN is returned. Otherwise, it must be a valid NUMBER token, so tok_nextc is called repeatedly to consume all following digits (in that number base), and reach the end of the token. Now we have the required knowledge to understand the following behavior: >>> 0x123g File "<stdin>", line 1 0x123g ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> 0xg File "<stdin>", line 1 0xg ^ SyntaxError: invalid token In the first one, the tokenizer identified the NUMBER token ‘0x123’ and the NAME token ‘g’. Then CPython tried to make sense of the syntax, but failed, and so raised an error saying ‘invalid syntax’. In the second one, the tokenizer identified a token starting with a hex prefix (‘0x’), and concluded it must be a NUMBER token, but then realized the hex prefix is followed by a char which is not a hex digit. Therefore, it raised an error saying ‘invalid token’. Back to tok_get. If the starting zero is not of a prefix, it is a leading zero in a NUMBER token, which is exactly the same as multiple leading zeros in a NUMBER token, so we might as well call tok_nextc repeatedly to consume all leading zeros. After that, tok_nextc and isdigit are called repeatedly to consume all decimal digits, until a dot (which means it is a fraction), the letter ‘e’ (which means it is a number with an exponent part) or the letter ‘j’ (which means it is an imaginary number). If the decimal digits are followed by any of these 3, we jump to the appropriate code. Wait a moment… We have already checked for a dot and the letter ‘j’ earlier! Looks like the first time was completely redundant. (I have opened an issue about that in CPython’s bug tracker.) At last, if the token is a non-zero number that starts with leading zeros, and it is not any of those 3 special cases, tok_backup is called to restore the extra char that was consumed, and ERRORTOKEN is returned. This sounds a little weird, so we try it out in our interpreter, and realize that indeed everything works exactly like that: >>> 00000004 File "<stdin>", line 1 00000004 ^ SyntaxError: invalid token >>> 00000004e3 4000.0 >>> 00000004j 4j >>> 00000004. 4.0 >>> 00000004.3 4.3 >>> 0000000 0 >>> 0000000.0 0.0 Maybe the ‘maybe old-style octal’ comment is related to that odd behavior. We google ‘python PEP octal’, and the first result is PEP 3127, which explains that in the ancient Python 2 (the wording is mine, of course), leading zeros in a number literal were the same as adding the ‘0o’ octal prefix. The old and wise core developers had decided this behavior had been confusing, and deprecated it. It seems a little weird that numbers with an exponent part, fractions and imaginary numbers are still allowed to start with leading zeros, but whatever. All right, so we are done with numbers that start with a zero. Let’s go back to tok_get, and examine the way other numbers are treated: else { /* Decimal */ do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (isdigit(c)); { /* Accept floating point numbers. */ if (c == '.') { fraction: /* Fraction */ do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (isdigit(c)); } if (c == 'e' || c == 'E') { int e; exponent: e = c; /* Exponent part */ c = tok_nextc(tok); if (c == '+' || c == '-') { c = tok_nextc(tok); if (!isdigit(c)) { tok->done = E_TOKEN; tok_backup(tok, c); return ERRORTOKEN; } } else if (!isdigit(c)) { tok_backup(tok, c); tok_backup(tok, e); *p_start = tok->start; *p_end = tok->cur; return NUMBER; } do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (isdigit(c)); } if (c == 'j' || c == 'J') /* Imaginary part */ imaginary: c = tok_nextc(tok); } } tok_backup(tok, c); *p_start = tok->start; *p_end = tok->cur; return NUMBER; } ... } If this else block is reached, the token starts with a decimal digit other than zero, which means it could only be a decimal number. So tok_nextc and isdigit are called repeatedly to consume all following decimal digits. If the next char is a dot, it must be a fraction, and so tok_nextc and isdigit are again called repeatedly to consumed all decimal digits of the fractional part. Then, if the next char is the letter ‘e’, it might be a NUMBER token with an exponent part. Now, there are some options: The letter ‘e’ is followed by a plus or a minus, which means it must be a number with an exponent part: The plus or minus is followed by a decimal digit, i.e. this token is definitely a NUMBER token with a valid exponent part. The plus or minus is followed by a char which is not a decimal digit. This is considered illegal, so that char is restored (as it is not a part of the invalid token), and ERRORTOKEN is returned. The letter ‘e’ is followed by a char which is neither a sign symbol nor a decimal digit. This means the NUMBER token didn’t have an exponent part after all. Thus, tok_backup is called twice, to restore both that char and the letter ‘e’, and NUMBER is returned. The letter ‘e’ is followed by a decimal digit, which means it is indeed a NUMBER token with a valid exponent part. If we reach the do-while loop after the else-if block, it is already known to be a NUMBER token with a valid exponent part, so tok_nextc and isdigit are called repeatedly to consume all of the decimal digits of the exponent part. Now we have the necessary knowledge to unravel the difference between the following errors: >>> 123expelliarmus File "<stdin>", line 1 123expelliarmus ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> 123e+xpelliarmus File "<stdin>", line 1 123e+xpelliarmus ^ SyntaxError: invalid token In the first one, the tokenizer determines it is the NUMBER token ‘123’ followed by the NAME token ‘expelliarmus’ (it is only later that CPython realizes this is a syntax error). In the second one, the tokenizer identifies the potential NUMBER token ‘123e+’, and then determines it is an ERRORTOKEN, because the plus is not followed by a decimal digit. At last, if the NUMBER token (whatever kind of a NUMBER token it is) ends with the letter ‘j’, it is an imaginary number. After confirming the NUMBER token really is an imaginary number, tok_nextc is called to consume another char. This is done because all other flows reach the shared return code with an extra char consumed, so in order to make the call to tok_backup also a part of the shared code, the imaginary number flow must align with all other flows, and consume an extra char. And then, finally, NUMBER is returned. Phew. Tokenizing is not an easy task, and that was only a NUMBER token. Hmmm… after all that exploration, we realize CPython happily accepts some strange number literals, so to make sure we didn’t get it all wrong, we try them out in the interpreter: >>> 243.j 243j >>> 123.e2 12300.0 Whatever… Anyway, it looks like we are ready for our first patch. We want the tokenizer to identify a hex integer literal without any prefix as a NUMBER token. Also, we don’t want to mix hex integer literals with fractions or imaginary numbers (we don’t have to worry about mixing with numbers that have an exponent part, as the letter ‘e’ would be treated as a hex digit anyway). Therefore, if our patched tokenizer identifies a hex integer literal without a prefix, it shouldn’t accept a dot or the letter ‘j’ as part of the token. However, if it identifies a decimal integer literal without a prefix, it should treat it as a decimal integer literal (i.e. accept a fraction and or an imaginary number). Someway, this turned out to be quite a small patch: else { /* origComment: Decimal */ /* orenmnComment: Hex or Decimal */ int orenmn_is_hex_int_literal = 0; do { c = tok_nextc(tok); if (isxdigit(c) && !isdigit(c)) orenmn_is_hex_int_literal = 1; // origLine: } while (isdigit(c)); } while (isxdigit(c)); // orenmnLine // origLine: { if (!orenmn_is_hex_int_literal) { /* Accept floating point numbers. */ if (c == '.') { fraction: /* Fraction */ do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (isdigit(c)); } if (c == 'e' || c == 'E') { int e; exponent: e = c; /* Exponent part */ c = tok_nextc(tok); if (c == '+' || c == '-') { c = tok_nextc(tok); if (!isdigit(c)) { tok->done = E_TOKEN; tok_backup(tok, c); return ERRORTOKEN; } } else if (!isdigit(c)) { tok_backup(tok, c); tok_backup(tok, e); *p_start = tok->start; *p_end = tok->cur; return NUMBER; } do { c = tok_nextc(tok); } while (isdigit(c)); } if (c == 'j' || c == 'J') /* Imaginary part */ imaginary: c = tok_nextc(tok); } } We build our patched CPython, and get the following behavior: >>> 2f3 ValueError: could not convert string to float: 2f3 >>> 2f3j File "<stdin>", line 1 2f3j ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> 243j 243j >>> 2f3. File "<stdin>", line 1 2f3. ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> 243. 243.0 >>> 2f3.j ValueError: could not convert string to float: 2f3 >>> 243.j 243j >>> 2f3.123e2j File "<stdin>", line 1 2f3.123e2j ^ SyntaxError: invalid syntax >>> 243.123e2j 24312.3j >>> 3e8 300000000.0 >>> 3e8a ValueError: could not convert string to float: 3e8a Well, at least we have got some of it right (looks like hex integer literals actually don’t mix with fractions and imaginary numbers). But why did CPython try to convert ‘2f3’ and ‘3e8a’ into floats? This has probably happened because the functions that do the parsing (or those that do the transforming of the CST into an AST) had received a supposedly valid NUMBER token, which is not really that valid. Yet. And thus, again, we must end this post abruptly, as it too became longer than it had any right to be. As usual, we would continue our journey on the next post. part 4 Advertisements |
ACCC puts businesses on notice over use of 'drip pricing' to boost prices in online bookings Updated The consumer watchdog has warned it is likely to take legal action against companies who use so-called "drip pricing" to boost prices. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) defines drip pricing as the "incremental disclosure of fees and charges over an online booking process". Anyone who has booked an airline ticket recently would be familiar with the system, with charges added as the consumer moves through the various stages of securing a flight. The ACCC is particularly concerned about the travel industry and also event tickets. ACCC chairman Rod Sims says the practice causes "both competition and consumer detriment". "Drip pricing is where the price you end up paying is very different from the price that enticed you to begin the transaction," he told the ABC. "Typically you can get on a website, it says you can get a product for say $20, you find when you get into it that the only real way to buy the product is to pay $30 or $40." Drip pricing is where the price you end up paying is very different from the price that enticed you to begin the transaction. ACCC chairman Rod Sims Mr Sims says the problems are two-fold. "One is that consumers get enticed into a transaction they wouldn't have otherwise done because they invest a lot of time in it, and that at the end of the day they say 'well I've come this far, I'll pay', but they wouldn't have done that had they been in a more rational decision-making framework," he said. "The second separate problem is those competitors who are honestly advertising their price are losing out. "So somebody who might have been advertising that price for $28 gets beaten by somebody who advertised at $20 only to find the real cost was $40." Mr Sims will speak on the issue in his 2014 Compliance and Enforcement Policy speech at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) conference in Sydney. Your say: It is bad ecommerce practice not to reveal costs upfront. I've ended quite a few transaction, or just left websites, because things like transaction costs or postage were not clear upfront... fontofall via via comment He says the ACCC has been investigating drip pricing in response to complaints and the behaviour the commission has seen in the marketplace. "We will probably be taking action in the Federal Court reasonably soon, dealing with some of this behaviour," he said. "I'm afraid I can't tell you which companies, but we are at an advanced stage of investigating some of this behaviour." More complaints about fuel dockets Late last year, Woolworths and Coles reached an agreement with the ACCC to limit fuel discounts, amid concerns the businesses were affecting competition by cross subsidising the discounts from other areas of their business. Mr Sims says he has received complaints that the offers out in the market do not comply with the court enforceable undertaking the ACCC was given. "And so naturally we're looking at that to see whether that is the case, that is probably all I can say at this stage, but we are looking at those offers to see if they comply with the undertaking that was given," he said. At his CEDA speech today, Mr Sims will outline nine consumer protection priorities for 2014: Activity in the telecommunications and energy sectors including door to door selling and telemarketing, with a particular focus on savings representations, also referred to as "discounts off what?" Emerging consumer issues in the online marketplace, particularly drip-pricing and comparator websites. Competition and consumer issues in highly concentrated sectors, in particular in the supermarket and fuel sectors. The disruption of scams that rely on building deceptive relationships and which cause severe and widespread consumer or small business detriment. Complexity and unfairness in consumer or small business contracts. Credence claims, particularly those with the potential to adversely impact the competitive process and small businesses. Misleading carbon pricing representations. The ACL consumer guarantees regime, particularly in the context of the sale of extended warranties. Consumer protection issues impacting on Indigenous consumers. Do you know more? Email investigations@abc.net.au Topics: consumer-protection, business-economics-and-finance, australia First posted |
US Attorney Threatens California Medical Marijuana Farmers SACRAMENTO, CA — In the second escelation of the fed’s War on Medical Marijuana in California this week, the US Attorney for Central California is warning of an impending federal crackdown of medical marijuana growers in the Central Valley. It comes following the announcement from the Southern California US Attorney’s office that more than 50 medical marijuana dispensaries must close within 2 weeks. U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner plans to tour agricultural areas with representatives from the Fresno County Farm Bureau and the Kern County Sherriff’s Department to warn agricultural landowners that they could lose their property or be prosecuted if they permit large marijuana plantations on their land. Wagner said he plans to only visit those landowners who allow their properties to be used for medical marijuana cultivation. “Those farmers who plant large crops of marijuana or who lease their land to people who do are risking forfeiture of their lands or, in the egregious cases, criminal prosecution,” Wagner said. Article continues after ad Advertisement In the Central Valley, medical marijuana growing has become almost as mainstream as the industrial farming in the area as farmers grow marijuana in plain sight under local and state medical marijuana laws. Although many medical marijuana growers lease land from existing farms, some small independent farmers have supplemented their income by adding medical marijuana into their crop rotation. But the Department of Justice sees it differently. Wagner claims that medical marijuana is “a hazard to people in those farming communities.” Ryan Jacobsen of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, who will be joining Wagner in his tour of the area, agrees, claiming that residents are endangered by the large-scale medical marijuana grows. “We’re not talking about backyard size. One bust was 55 acres. There’s many, many 20-acre parcels down here that are being fully grown with marijuana. It’s probably on a scale much, much larger than most people are familiar with,” Jacobsen said. “There’s guard towers that have gone up in the middle to protect the grows.” Article continues after ad Advertisement “It looks like it’s mostly outsiders. It’s not most of the mainstream farmers and ranchers who have been there for generations,” Jacobsen added. One Central Valley farmer, who asked not to be identified, believes that authorities are overreacting. “My family has farmed this land for three generations. We grow [medical marijuana] in about a tenth of our fields,” he said. “It’s just a cash crop to us. And a good one, too,” adding that growing marijuana has helped his family farm rely less on government subsidies, which are paid to farmers to grow less profitable crops. When asked about Jacobsen’s claim of guard towers protecting marijuana fields, the farmer replied “We’ve been patrolling our fields with a shotgun long before we had marijuana growing here.” Tags: California |
The sun had gone down in Laos by the time I finished dinner, and I realized I was lost. Not completely lost, but definitely more than a little turned around. Which way had I walked from my hotel? I looked down a few streets. Tuk tuks were everywhere. The lights on each street looked the same. Vendors were selling everything from chicken liver to snake to types of fish I didn’t recognize. The smells and the streets all seemed to blend together. I didn’t speak the language and my phone didn’t have service. So I did what I’m used to doing back home in New York City: I started walking. I must have walked twice as far as I had on the way to dinner earlier, but I found my way back. When I was a kid, I lived near New York and I was fascinated by the city. You could go anywhere by foot. The city seemed neverending and I wanted to explore every part. Later in life when I moved there, I would walk everywhere I could. If it was less than 20 blocks away, I was walking. No brainer. I had gone to Laos to disappear for a little while. I told my friends and family it was “just a vacation,” but it was more than that. A lot of Major Leaguers take a vacation in the off-season, but for me this off-season was different. Just two months before, I was lying on an operating table under bright lights as a surgeon operated on my throwing arm — Tommy John surgery. A pitcher can throw late into his 30s if he stays healthy. I was only 25. My pro career was just getting going, and I was worried. Everyone, starting with my surgeon, reminded me that Tommy John has a high success rate. Countless pitchers have bounced back stronger than before — John Smoltz, Adam Wainwright, Jordan Zimmerman, Stephen Strasburg, A.J. Burnett, and the list goes on. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t a big setback. I had never had an injury. Never missed a game. It was going to be the first time in my adult life that I wasn’t able to throw a baseball for four straight months. Truth is, it wasn’t just traveling to a foreign country that made me feel far away. From the moment I decided to go through with the surgery, I felt far away from the Mets. One day I was the starting pitcher, part of a hopeful new era of Mets baseball. The next day I was facing a one year break from the sport I had played my whole life. Up to that point, I had worked so hard for the Mets. Now I had to just wait. As an athlete, being on the sidelines makes you feel useless. I felt helpless because I wanted to contribute. An injury makes you invisible. On my trip to Laos, my right arm was still in a brace and a bending sling. What do you do when you’re a pitcher who is used to throwing a baseball every day of your life? I had to get used to a new schedule. Not a pitching schedule, but a rehab schedule. Every morning for the first few weeks after surgery, all I could do were arm curls with five-pound weights. It was an eye-opening experience — realizing that one year you can pitch in an All-Star Game in front of your home crowd and then a few months later all you can do is curl five-pounders. But being away was good for me. It gave me time to do some soul searching. Just like in New York, I walked around a lot to clear my head. Being alone in a country and not speaking the language turned out to be a good temporary escape. For the first time in a long time, I was in a place where nobody recognized me. In New York, occasionally people will say hello to me on the street. (Other times, even hometown fans have a hard time recognizing me, like I had fun showing in this video I did for Jimmy Fallon.) In Laos, I was invisible and that was fine. I remember talking to a street vendor and having a funny “conversation” — we had to use hand gestures — but when I asked to take a photo with her, she refused. To her, I was just an American weirdo with one arm in a sling and the other arm making crazy hand signals. I couldn’t blame her. We waved goodbye and I went on my way. Everywhere I went, I saw monks walking around. Monks in Laos live a life of poverty but they command a lot of respect, so it’s a custom for people to offer them food in the mornings. After doing my arm curls, I would leave my hotel and join other people on the street to offer the monks food. (I had to scoop the rice with my left hand.) It was a little gesture that felt big to me because it put my injury in perspective. Because of the language barrier, I didn’t interact much with the monks, but they communicated how thankful they were. It made me feel grateful for my health, even despite my surgery. And it reminded me of how much I missed the connection and camaraderie that tight-knit groups have. I missed the clubhouse. I knew I had a job to do back home. I got back to New York and the 2014 season was approaching. The first practice I was allowed to throw, I tossed 20 strikes in a row. My arm felt great. The surgeon said he didn’t expect to ever hear from me again. My arm was as strong as the day before my surgery, he told me. I had to take it slow and stick to a strict throwing regimen, but there was light at the end of the tunnel. At the 10 month mark, I was back to throwing 95. I still had to sit out the entire season, and that killed me. You don’t make it in the Majors if you’re not a competitor, and I wanted to be out on the field so bad. But to be honest, the worst part about my injury was feeling like I was letting my teammates down. My team is my second family. That’s how I’ve always felt about the game of baseball. It’s the same on the Mets as it was at UNC, where I played college ball for three years. Whether you’re winning or losing, when you’re sidelined, you miss out on the energy that makes a team a team. I would go to all the home games, but I didn’t travel with the team. There were a lot of times I couldn’t watch our games on TV because it just made me feel too distant from the team. I was back in the U.S., but sometimes I still felt like a visitor. A pitcher has to learn to be isolated. Pitching is a solitary thing. It’s you and the batter. I crave that isolation because it forces you to focus on the task at hand. But people forget that even if you’re alone on the mound, you have your team behind you, backing you up. You have your catcher backing you up. That’s why I love to pitch. You know they’ve got your back. In the end, maybe my surgery and my trip were the best things to happen to me. I had to embrace being alone, like a pitcher on the mound. I had to go through rehab to prove to myself that there’s nothing I’d rather do than be a pitcher. Spring training is right around the corner. Pitchers and catchers have to report on February 19. But actually, I’m already down at the training facility in Florida. I wanted to get here early. Photographs by USA TODAY Sports |
I made candy Gastly for Halloween! I had so much fun making my Pokemon GO Candy last month that I wanted to see what else I could do with the concept. I did some brainstorming, and was so excited when I thought of this! I’m really proud of the results. Details on how I made them below! I made their bodies using a cake pop mold like last time, melting down milk chocolate in the microwave and scraping it along the insides of the half-spheres, chilling it in the fridge between coats. I then popped them out and heated up a metal frying pan. I took the pan off the heat and placed each half sphere on it, edge-side down, to melt the edges. This made it very easy to join each half-sphere, and the results look a lot more seamless. For the eyes, I used white Wilton Candy Melt chocolate, which are little round disks. I levelled the non-flat side, making them more flat, and cut each disk in half to get a single pair of eyes, creating that sinister look. I added the pupils using edible food markers. I then melted the white Candy Melts in the microwave, put it in a Ziplock bag, used that as glue to attach the eyes to the bodies, and made little triangles on parchment paper to create teeth! While they dried, I melted and dyed some white Candy Melts pink/purple for the mouths, and used a toothpick to draw them on, and attached the teeth before it dried. The most important part was the purple, gassy haze, and I knew cotton candy would be perfect for that! It was surprisingly difficult to find any cotton candy in my city, forget finding it in purple! In the end I went to a specialty candy store and got them to make some freshly-spun purple cotton candy. It wasn’t cheap, but it was worth it! The teeth were definitely the hardest part since they’re so tiny and delicate. There were a couple breaks by the end of my photo shoot! I accidentally put the teeth on at totally different angles on the Gastly on the left, so I’ve nicknamed that one Undyne, haha. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.