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Fox Sports is getting into the horse racing business, entering a multiyear agreement with the Jockey Club to present prominent graded stakes races on television starting in February. The 10-date package provides programming for Fox Sports 1, which starts Aug. 17, and gives horse racing valuable exposure beyond the Triple Crown in the spring and the fall Breeders’ Cup, both presented by NBC Sports. The series will focus on the premier races for older horses — many of whom competed in the Triple Crown as 3-year-olds — and will span some of the most historic racetracks in North America, including Del Mar, Gulfstream Park, Keeneland, Santa Anita Park and Woodbine, as well as Belmont Park and Saratoga. The new series premieres on Fox Sports 1 on Feb. 9, 2014, from Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla., and features the Grade 1 Donn Handicap and the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap. |
Santo Domingo.- The head of the Dominican Republic’s biggest truckers’ union (Fenatrado) on Wednesday said rigs began crossing into Haiti since Monday, guarded by UN peacekeepers (MINUSTAH) and Haitian police. Blas Peralta said 160 Dominican trucks enter and leave the neighboring country with different cargo daily and noted that the north border area near Dajabón is the most dangerous for truckers. In that regard Peralta proposed construction of five storage facilities in Haitian territory but next to the Dajabon border crossing, where Dominican truckers can deliver the freight, so the Haitians themselves can distribute it from there. The union leader met with the Chamber of Deputies committee which investigates the alleged kidnapping of several truckers in violent incidents where a peacekeeper was shot dead near the Haiti town Ouanaminthe. Just last week Peralta called the life of a truck driver who enters Haiti worthless. “They know they’re safe only when they cross back into Dominican territory.” |
The Google I/O developer conference kicks off in San Francisco this week and – like Apple's WWDC – it promises to be one of the most popular developer events of the year. Wearable technology is likely to be a major focus of the conference, with the expected launch of Android Wear – Google's operating system for wearable devices – along with a host of smartwatches and other devices from partners such as HTC, LG and Asus. Google Glass is also expected to feature at the event, following the announcement of new partners for Google's Glass at Work programme earlier this month, which aims to encourage developers to create Glass apps for specific industry sectors – from medical and media to sports and entertainment. A new version of the Android operating system for smartphones and tablets is due to appear, with various performance improvements and support for 64-bit processors, opening Android up to more powerful devices in the future. Rumours also suggest a modified interface with flatter, more minimalist icons. Meanwhile, Forbes magazine reported earlier this month that Google is gearing up to launch a new health service called Google Fit, which will aggregate data from health-related apps and popular fitness trackers, such as the FitBit, Jawbone Up and Nike Fuelband, helping users to get a holistic picture of their health. Another theme of the conference is likely to be the connected home, following the acquisition of Nest Labs, maker of smart thermostats and smoke detectors, earlier this year, and video-surveillance startup Dropcam, announced today. Google is expected to reveal more details about how these devices will integrate together in the smart home of the future. Google could also unveil a long-rumoured version of Android for the living froom, called Android TV, which would compete with Apple TV and serve as a hub for media content, such as Netflix and Spotify, and video games. Google's self-driving cars are also likely to make an appearance at Google I/O, following the annoucement last month that the cars could be on the road within a year. The company may also show off its progress in developing an in-car entertainment system, based on Android. At a stretch, Google may offer glimpses into what it is doing in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence, following its acquisition of seven robotics companies last year, and its efforts to bring internet connectivity to hard-to-reach parts of the world using low-altitude satellites. However, these are unlikely to feature prominently. “I expect a frenetic pace of new announcements across a number of market segments – mobile, cloud infrastructure, wearables, software services, home automation, and a dollop of just over-the-horizon craziness with robots, self-driving cars, and internet enabled satellites,” said Jeffrey Hammond, principal analyst at Forrester. “Under it all I expect the message to developers will be this is all linked, and there is an end-to-end vision of how apps and software come together with the phone, the cloud, and the physical world around us. It’s our ecosystem you want to bet on, because it’s larger, extends further, and it’s more open.” Google I/O 2014 takes place on 25 and 26 of June at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. |
A guide to promoting your business with a Facebook business page and the importance of growing your page with a sense of community. There aren’t many small businesses out there that can afford to drop a boat-load of money onto an all out marketing campaign. If you can, chances are you’re not a ‘small’ business any more. With all the methods available, from Google Adwords to sponsored tweets, it’s tempting to go mad with the advertising budget only to come back with very little. The reason you’re returning with so little is that the competition is vastly increased. Selling a specialist product in one town and to a given radius is one thing, but offering that to the entire UK is another ball-game altogether. Narrow Your Focus With A Facebook Business Page The trick is to narrow your focus when starting out and for a physical, trade based business the obvious choice is a Facebook business page. Facebook has by far the widest demographics of any of the social media platforms, with everybody from 16 year old goths, your Grandma and everyone in-between as regular, consistent users. By narrowing down the focus, the potential rewards are smaller at the start, yet more consistently measurable and more importantly something that every business owner can fit into their working day. In the future, when deciding to tackle another social network, your Facebook business page can provide an excellent jumpstart. Some of the plus points to this approach include: Higher rates of conversion A far more granular level of targeting A chance to build word of mouth Encouraging reviews via Facebook, Google Plus and local business directories. Get A Step Above The Competition Many, many small business owners need to update their knowledge base of local marketing techniques, particularly those who aren’t leveraging online techniques. In the medium sized town we live in, we can safely say that less than 40% of business’s have a website and of those few, only 20% are actively participating with their social media audience to any great degree. Leverage Promotions and Giveaways Your business has a Facebook page. That page has followers. Now, how do you go about building that following and growing exponentially? The simple answer is – promotions and giveaways. Promoting this across social platforms is a low-cost way to get MORE potential customers in. As an example, this is a small example of how we handle it at the salon I co-own: Once a month, we pick a random person from our ‘likes’ and offer them a free treatment. The full monty, from dry trims to colours and foils. This is how we leverage Facebook to bring in more users: We make a big Facebook business page post, announcing the winner and what they have won. We make sure to add that all anyone else has to do to be in with a chance is like our page We promote this page with granular demographic marketing – target women, living within a 10 miles radius of Louth, who aren’t already a member. Promote that post with £25. Bingo! 50 more likes (local, targeted likes) over the course of two days. To advertise in the back of the local paper costs THREE TIMES that much and lasts a week. When we get to 500 likes, start giving away 2 free treatments; that’s 2 more promotional posts each month. Obviously, there will be a point where multiple giveaways each month becomes detrimental, but by that point your business page has become a self-sustaining ecosystem without the hassles of direct email marketing. The same goes for FaceBook offers; this is a tool you can use to create special offer coupons and gives you a chance to build likes with ongoing special offers. If there’s one thing the general public likes, it’s a chance to save cash. How do I get Facebook likes right at the start? By promoting it! Those first 100 likes are always the most difficult to come by; but fear not, there are ways! Ensure social media is linked up to your website, even if it’s just an icon link to your page. If possible, use a call to action: ‘Like us on Facebook and win xxxx’ Inform your customers verbally Use other social media networks (if possible) to drive likes, for example Twitter. Use keywords within your business page to show more prominently within Facebook search Advertise it – use a page promotion (targeted within your demographics!) and a small budget. Make it a highlight on printed media, such as business cards Attach a link to your Facebook page in all your email signatures. Promote it within Facebook itself; groups are ideal. Most suburban areas have a group set up. Understanding The Difference Between Personal And Business A Facebook business page has to be attached to something; it can’t be in existence without a personal account to latch onto. Therefore, you will have a personal page running at the same time. I can’t stress how important it is to not get the two confused. Posting that amusing photo of erotically arranged vegetables on your personal account is always great for a laugh and to be encouraged, but please don’t make the mistake of accidentally posting it on your business page! It may get a laugh all the same, but it kind of takes the focus off of your skill set and may imply something about your love of cucumbers. Turning your Facebook business page into a community Now, you may want to give this one some thought – moderating hourly questions may well get on top of you. It’s best to steer important queries towards the telephone or email. Keep the tone of your comments fairly informal; uptight and straight-laced isn’t very inviting for a community audience. At the same time, keep your information succinct and to the point; don’t go rambling off with the words. Provide interesting articles to read – preferably your own content, but there’s no harm in interspersing it with other people’s as long as it’s not driving traffic to a competitor. Fresh content gives people a reason to come back. Draw up a weekly plan with a list of the goals you need to achieve and use your content tactically in order to drive folk that way. The important thing to remember about this approach is: great content gets shared. Mediocre muck goes in the toilet. You should also be very wary of overloading your audience with your Facebook business page, keep it to three or so posts a day at maximum. Never forget that everyone can click ‘hide’ and bury you forever. Use your new-found community to pose questions that you NEED to know in order to improve your business. Questions such as ‘what could we do to improve our McGubbin?’ may lead to surprising answers that you’d not get face to face. |
The naked teenager shot and killed by an Austin Police officer Monday morning was unarmed, police confirmed at a press conference Tuesday. Police say they received multiple calls of a naked black male, identified as 17-year-old David Joseph, acting erratically just before 10:00 a.m. Monday in the 1200 block of Nature's Bend. According to police, the responding officer gave commands to Joseph, who did not comply. Joseph then charged at the officer, who ordered him to stop. Joseph again did not comply, police say, and he was shot by the officer. Austin Police also identified the officer who shot Joseph as Geoffrey Freeman, a 10-year veteran of the department. Sources say that Freeman is African-American. Pflugerville ISD confirm to KEYE TV that Joseph was a student at John B. Connally High School until May 2015. He did not graduate. Police said part of the incident is caught on a patrol car's dash camera. |
ISTANBUL – After the Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid ship in May, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “nothing would ever be the same again.” Six weeks later, his ominous prediction appears to be coming true. The rift between the once close allies has never been wider. The entire region, as well as the United States, is now anxious to see how Israel will respond to a statement by Turkey’s foreign minister that the country would sever ties unless Israel issues a formal apology, or at least accepts an international investigation. With no response from Israel so far, rumors swirled Thursday on the streets of Istanbul and elsewhere that Turkey might soon make good on its ultimatum. Turkey — irate over the deaths of eight Turks and one Turkish-American — has reacted strongly to the flotilla incident. Since recalling its ambassador from Jerusalem shortly after the attack, Ankara has banned Israeli military planes from its airspace, halted military exercises between the two countries and ended a 20-year agreement to supply Israel with water. Erdogan, already infamous for his fiery rhetoric, has been true to form, calling Israel’s actions “pirate-like” and “barbarous.” “I am sure that Israelis are disturbed by a perception equating the Star of Zion to the Nazi swastika,” he said in a speech in Konya the week following the attack, taking even those sympathetic to the Turkish position by surprise. For its part, Israel hasn’t taken Turkey’s anger lightly. Israeli defense advisors were quickly withdrawn from Turkey following the incident and the government has warned Israelis against visiting Turkey. Convinced that Turkey provoked the incident and wanting to avoid an international investigation, Israeli officials said, Israel has refused to apologize for the deaths. An Israeli military investigation, in fact, found this week that while there were failures in its planning, intelligence and coordination, the killings onboard the Gaza-bound flotilla were justified. A further investigation, led by a retired Israeli Supreme Court justice, is in the works but it seems unlikely that Israel — still reeling from the U.N.-led Goldstone report into human rights abuses that took place during the 2009 Gaza invasion — will agree to the full international investigation called for by Turkey. “At the moment it’s hard to imagine a way out of this situation,” Henri Barkey, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said. “It could take years for things to be civil between the two countries again.” The current state of Turkish-Israeli relations is now a far cry from the mid-1990s when Turkey’s military turned to Israel for help in improving its forces — leading to more than $1 billion in known deals. But with the rise of a new middle class that is sensitive to issues affecting the Ummah, or the Muslim diaspora, the priorities of the governing Justice and Development Party — brought to power in 2002 in large part by this same constituency — are shifting gears, translating into a decreased role for the military and a larger one for the public, business and civil society. “The government is no longer taking orders from the generals,” Lale Kemal, a journalist who writes a column on military affairs for the Turkish newspaper Zaman, said in an interview. “They are more assertive of their own power, rather than the military controlling politics.” The administration of President Barack Obama, concerned about the chill in relations between the two formerly strong allies, is now trying to mediate the conflict. Some analysts are hopeful that talks with the United States can bring an end to the standoff. “The U.S.’s uneasiness with the strained ties will help push Turkey and Israel to reconcile,” Kemal said. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held a 45-minute discussion Monday with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in which “the Secretary encouraged the foreign minister to continue important dialogue with Israel because that relationship remains a vitally important one to the future of the region,” P.J. Crowley, a State Department spokesman, said at a press briefing. Both Turkey and Israel have something to lose if bilateral relations get any worse. Turkey is hoping for help from the United States in its ongoing conflict with the outlawed Kurdish Worker’s Party, which has tormented the country for decades and cost tens of thousands of lives, and Israel faces the potential loss of its first and only Muslim-majority ally in the region. There is also the more than $2.5 billion in trade the two countries have shared since 2009. The president of neighboring Syria, Bashar al-Assad, is also concerned about what the dissolution of relations between Turkey and Israel would mean for the region. Assad warned last week that the crisis could affect stability around the entire Middle East and undermine Ankara’s role in the region’s ongoing peace negotiations. “The chances of peace grow slim, and the prospect of war grows,” he told reporters. |
Michael Helfrich, of Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper, is pictured at the Conowingo Dam. He is raising concern that silt and nutrient pollution attached to the sediment buildup at the dam could undermine restoration effort of the Chesapeake Bay. (Photo: Baltimore Sun image by Kenneth K. Lam) The owner of the Conowingo Dam may lose a key permit to generate electricity from the dam in the years to come because of "insufficient information" about the dam's impact on the state's water quality. The Maryland Department of the Environment said in a statement they intend to deny Exelon Corp.'s application for a license to continue operating the 500-megawatt dam, claiming Exelon has provided "insufficient information ... regarding the impacts of the activity on State water quality standards." Exelon received a one-year operating extension from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission while federal and state agencies reviewed how sediment and nutrient runoff from the dam was affecting the Susquehanna watershed and the Chesapeake Bay. While the corporation filed its application to obtain the operating license on Jan. 31, Exelon is required to demonstrate to the Maryland Department of the Environment its ability to meet standards outlined by the federal Clean Water Act. In its statement, the department said no final determination has been made about license, but officials pointed to a three-year study led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as proof Exelon has not met the department's standards. "The draft report found that the loss of long-term sediment trapping capacity at the Conowingo Dam is causing impacts to the health of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem," the department's statement reads. "It also found that additional nutrient pollution associated with these changed conditions in the lower Susquehanna River system could result in Maryland not being able to meet Chesapeake Bay water quality standards ..." Exelon spokesman Robert Judge said in response "We expect to continue this dialogue as we work together to assure the state standards on water quality are met." "Our goal is to keep Conowingo, the largest single source of renewable electricity in Maryland, operating through the middle of the century, while continuing to work with key stakeholders to ensure the long-term health of the Lower Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay," Judge said. Chip MacLeod, the attorney for the Clean Chesapeake Coalition which consists of officials from nine counties who all contend the dam presents a larger threat, said the departments intended denial "really shows that this bay cleanup agenda, this whole watershed initiative, has gotten very convoluted." "In (the department's) press release, statements made by the Maryland Department of the Environment are the same thing that the coalition counties have been saying and advocating for three years," MacLeod said. "There are some significant admissions there and they're long overdue." Tom Zolper, spokesman for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the foundation also supported the license being withheld. "Downstream of the dam, Maryland needs to better understand the impact of all pollutants scoured from behind the dam, and originating upstream," Zolper said. "Right now we don't know enough to decide the best strategy for mitigating the impacts of the dam." Department officials added they would be seeking public comments on the matter during a public hearing on Jan. 7 at the department's Baltimore offices. More on the Conowingo Dam and the Chesapeake Bay: Report: Conowingo Dam not major threat to bay Conowingo report sees praise, criticism after release pdavis3@gannett.com 410-341-6544 On Twitter @DT_PhilDavis Read or Share this story: http://www.delmarvanow.com/story/news/local/maryland/2014/11/20/conowingo-dam-exelon-permit/19321471/ |
Gabe Okoye and Brittany Mayti just received an early Christmas present. The couple, who lost $800,000 for answering a question incorrectly on Post-it Notes during Monday's premiere of Fox's "Million Dollar Money Drop", have been asked to return to the quiz after the show admitted a mistake in the question. Okoye and Mayti were asked whether the Macintosh computer, Sony Walkman or Post-it Notes were sold in stores first. The couple bet $800,000 on Post-its and $80,000 on the Walkman. The show said that the Walkman was correct, as it debuted in 1979, while Post-its first appeared on store shelves in 1980 (the Macintosh debuted in 1984). After the broadcast aired, several outlets, including this one, referenced several articles noting that Post-it Notes were test-marketed in four cities in 1977 under another name. The product's inventor, Art Fry, told the Financial Times earlier this month that the product was "launched in four cities" in 1977, but that "the results were disappointing." "Money Drop" executive producer Jeff Apploff released the following statement to CNN: "Unfortunately, the information our research department originally obtained from 3M regarding when Post-it Notes were first sold was incomplete. As a result of new information we have received from 3M, we feel it is only fair to give our contestants, Gabe and Brittany, another shot to play 'Million Dollar Money Drop' even though this question was not the deciding question in their game. The revised information regarding the Post-it is as follows: the product was originally tested for sale in four cities under the name 'Press 'N Peel' in 1977, sold as 'Post-its' in 1979 when the rollout introduction began and sold nationwide in 1980. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to the viewers who brought this to our attention, and we're thrilled to give Gabe and Brittany the opportunity to return to play the game." Okoye and Mayti have not decided whether they will accept the show's offer. "Money Drop" returns with new episodes January 4. |
A commercial for an Icelandic phone company from a few years ago depicted a couple waking up after a one-night stand. They both pick up their smart phones. They both log into a family-tree website, Islendingabok. And that’s where things get awkward. There are only 320,000 people who live in Iceland, and most are descended from a small clan of Celtic and Viking settlers. Thus, many Icelanders are distant (or close) relatives. Sometimes too close. The desire to avoid unwitting incestuous pairings at one point even spawned an app, created by a group of engineering students at the University of Iceland, that allows its users to bump their phones together to determine whether they share a common ancestor. (Tag line: “Bump in the app before you bump in bed.") Concerns about wading into the shallow end of the gene pool are just a small part of the Icelandic obsession with genealogy. As Iva Skoch explained in Global Post, when two Icelanders meet, the first question is usually, "Hverra manna ert bu?" (Who are your people?) Bookstores are stocked with thick volumes on the histories of Icelandic families. For nearly a millennium, careful genealogical records had been kept in the Islendingabok, or “Book of Icelanders.” In 1997, Icelandic neurologist Kári Stefánsson created a web-based version of Islendingabok in order to offer his countrymen 24/7 access to their family trees. Along with developer Fridrik Skulason, he scoured census data, church records, and family archives in order to encompass what he claims is 95 percent of Icelanders who have lived within the past three centuries. It has since become one of the most popular sites in the country. Olga Khazan/The Atlantic “If you take the old Icelandic sagas, they all begin with page after page of genealogy,” Stefánsson told me. “It assures that the common man won't be forgotten.” |
Dragonfly: Contemplating a Return to Titan Our continuing interest in Titan as a possible venue for life was energized last year with the publication of a paper by Martin Rahm and Jonathan Lunine, working with colleagues David Usher and David Shalloway (all at Cornell University). I’ve written about this one before (see Prebiotic Chemistry on Titan?) and won’t revisit the details, but the gist is that hydrogen cyanide produced in Titan’s atmosphere can condense into aerosols that are transformed into interesting polymers on the surface. Of these, the most intriguing seems to be polyimine. The authors see polyimine as capable of producing complex, ordered structures that absorb light, producing energy that can be used to catalyze prebiotic chemistry. Rather than looking in Titan’s seas, the authors think we’ll find hydrogen cyanide reactions in tidal pools on the shores near seas and lakes. It’s an interesting proposition, and like so many notions about Titan, it requires us to get a payload back to the surface, as we did in 2005 with Huygens. But this time, we’ll want to have extended survivability on Titan and a full suite of instruments. Image: This composite was produced from images returned on 14 January 2005, by ESA’s Huygens probe during its successful descent to land on Titan. It shows the boundary between the lighter-coloured uplifted terrain, marked with what appear to be drainage channels, and darker lower areas. These images were taken from an altitude of about 8 kilometres with a resolution of about 20 metres per pixel. Credits: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. Thus the news that Dragonfly has won approval as a finalist concept for a robotic launch to Titan in the mid-2020s is encouraging. Dragonfly offers not just a useful instrument package but mobility on the surface in the form of a rotorcraft that could explore numerous sites on the moon. We have to be creative indeed in imagining life that would exist at -180 degrees Celsius in an environment that gets a tenth of one percent of the sunlight Earth’s surface receives. But as Rahm, Lunine and colleagues have reminded us, mechanisms may exist to make it happen. Elizabeth Turtle (JHU/APL) is lead investigator on Dragonfly, with APL providing project management. The concept involves an eight-bladed drone — two rotors at each of its four corners — capable of sampling widely. Dragonfly would be able to look at prebiotic chemistry of the kind Rahm and Lunine have studied, selecting sites with varying geology and surface composition. Another key issue for the lander: Is there exchange of organics between the surface and Titan’s interior ocean? Using a Multi-mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) for power, Dragonfly should be capable of remaining operational not just for months but for years in answering these questions. Image: Dragonfly is a dual-quadcopter lander that would take advantage of the environment on Titan to fly to multiple locations, some hundreds of kilometers apart, to sample materials and determine surface composition to investigate Titan’s organic chemistry and habitability, monitor atmospheric and surface conditions, image landforms to investigate geological processes, and perform seismic studies. Credit: NASA. NASA’s competitive peer review process whittled a dozen proposals submitted under the New Frontiers program announcement of opportunity down to a final two, the other being a Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR). Here we’re talking about a return to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, following up the European Space Agency’s highly successful Rosetta mission. Both CAESAR and Dragonfly will receive funding through the end of 2018. One of the concepts will be selected the following year for subsequent mission phases. Expect more on CAESAR in an upcoming article. The Rahm et al. paper mentioned above is “Polymorphism and electronic structure of polyimine and its potential significance for prebiotic chemistry on Titan,” published online by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 4 July 2016 (full text). Matt Williams interviews Elizabeth Turtle about Dragonfly in a fine Universe Today article from May of this year. |
With Jupiter Ascending currently in theaters, it conjures fond memories of the last time the Wachowskis delivered a film that was not a sequel or adaptation. The 1990s were a great decade for science fiction films, and The Matrix certainly counts as one of the best. What other films represent the best in sci-fi from the 1990s? Here’s the Top 10, as ranked by the users of Flickchart: Unique visuals were at the forefront of many ’90s sci-fi films, and the sunless Dark City, from director Alex Proyas, is certainly one that stands out. currently ranked #591 of all time ranked 183,272 times by 81,115 users wins 51% of matchups 859 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 37 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time Roland Emmerich‘s quintessential alien invasion film was the highest-grossing film of 1996, thanks to the spectacular destruction of famous buildings, its “rah-rah America” attitude, and the star power of Will Smith. currently ranked #580 of all-time ranked 572,936 times by 74,930 users wins 47% of matchups 8529 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 424 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time The directors of Delicatessen, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, brought their decidedly unique vision to this dystopian fantasy starring future Hellboy, Ron Perlman. currently ranked #479 of all-time ranked 31,377 times by 2,956 users wins 51% of matchups 101 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 6 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time The year after Independence Day, Will Smith returned to dominate the box office once again with this comedy about a secret organization that polices alien activity on Earth. Based on the comic book, back before being based on a comic book was a requirement for blockbusters. currently ranked #430 of all-time ranked 617,908 times by 79,797 users wins 49% of matchups 9,299 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 428 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time Arnold Schwarzenegger goes to Mars in Robocop director Paul Verhoeven‘s action extravaganza. Spectacular makeup and creature effects are a highlight. currently ranked #392 of all-time ranked 397,543 times by 52,966 users wins 48% of matchups 5,012 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 237 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all time The most colorful film on this list, Luc Besson‘s light and breezy sci-fi romp is notable for over-the-top characters portrayed by Gary Oldman and Chris Tucker, Bruce Willis in fine action-hero form, and introducing the world to future Resident Evil action heroine Milla Jovovich. currently ranked #281 of all-time ranked 509,948 times by 63,085 users wins 55% of matchups 8,864 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 536 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time Bruce Willis is back, this time for Terry Gilliam‘s time-travelling mindbender. Featuring a brilliantly realized dystopian future, this movie also garnered an Oscar nomination for Brad Pitt. currently ranked #174 of all-time ranked 486,381 times by 54,388 users wins 57% of matchups 7,465 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 388 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time The highest-grossing movie of 1993 wowed moviegoers with its startling creation of CGI dinosaurs that still holds up to this day. To think that Steven Spielberg released this movie in the same year he created the Oscar-winning Schindler’s List is almost mind-boggling. currently ranked #81 of all-time ranked 768,172 times by 80,060 users wins 61% of matchups 13,945 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 903 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time Director James Cameron‘s spectacular sequel outdoes the original in every way, featuring high-octane action set pieces and the first major character in a studio film to rely heavily on CGI. currently ranked #49 of all-time ranked 630,415 times by 64,698 users wins 64% of matchups 11,747 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 692 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time Was there any doubt? Introducing the world to “bullet time”, the Wachowskis‘ action epic blew the walls out of multiplexes everywhere. In a word: Whoa. currently ranked #39 of all-time ranked 838,797 times by 79,641 users wins 70% of matchups 18,354 users have it ranked in their personal Top 20 1,424 users have it ranked as their #1 movie of all-time Want to see the other movies that didn’t quite make the cut? Check out Flickchart’s list of the Best Science Fiction Movies of the 1990s. And don’t forget to rank films on Flickchart to create your own list of favorites. |
Despite one high-profile defeat in Florida, the progressive revolution galvanized by Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign scored three state-level victories on Tuesday, in keeping with its stated goals to transform the nation one down-ballot race at a time. After carrying their state senate districts in Democratic primaries, Dwight Bullard in Florida and Martín Quezada and Juan Mendez in Arizona now join Zephyr Teachout, Pramila Jayapal, and others as successful Our Revolution candidates, bolstered by the backing of Sanders' vast network of supporters. In southern Florida, Bullard easily defeated his Democratic opponents, receiving nearly half of the vote in Senate District 40. The high school history teacher, an incumbent, won endorsements from several unions as he fought to keep his seat. The Miami Herald said the contest was "perhaps the ugliest legislative race in Miami-Dade." As CBS Miami reported, opponent Andrew Korge "and supporters had tried focusing on a trip Bullard took to the Middle East with members of the Dream Defenders, a group affiliated with the Black Lives Matter organization." Bullard will now face Republican State Rep. Frank Artiles in November. In Arizona, incumbents Quezada and Mendez also fended off challenges and came away with big wins. In Quezada's west Phoenix district, he and opponent Lydia Hernandez "waged a bitter battle that included allegations of stalking, tire slashing and intimidation," according to AZ Central. The paper reported: SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Help Keep Common Dreams Alive Our progressive news model only survives if those informed and inspired by this work support our efforts The race in Legislative District 29 revolved less around policy issues than on loyalties: Quezada reminded voters that Hernandez endorsed Republicans Doug Ducey and Michele Reagan in the 2014 elections, suggesting she would be willing to sell out her party. Hernandez attacked Quezada for worrying more about his re-election than the concerns of the heavily Latino district. While Quezada picked up an endorsement from local educators, Hernandez benefited from the support of the pro-corporate, pro-charter Stand for Children. Meanwhile, in District 26, which covers Tempe and parts of West Mesa, former state representative Mendez—who was part of a so-called "Clean Team" of candidates running on a clean elections platform—made Sanders-esque rejection of big money a cornerstone of his campaign. "Representative Mendez has served our district for four years and continues to turn down big donors and lobbyist money," Tempe councilmember Lauren Kuby said when endorsing him. "His commitment to voters to run clean is a value that our community shares, understands, and appreciates." Mendez, who won 75 percent of the vote on Tuesday, "is virtually assured of being District 25's next state senator since no Republican is running," according to the local East Valley Tribune. So, even though Our Revolution candidate Tim Canova failed to unseat incumbent U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, there were bright spots in local races on Tuesday. As Our Revolution president Jeff Weaver said in a fundraising email on Wednesday, "As we move forward into the next chapter of our political revolution, we are going to win some elections, and we are going to lose some elections. But through it all, as Bernie said, our job is to transform the Democratic Party and this country." "Our involvement in all of the races we endorsed last night made us a better, stronger, and more progressive Democratic Party," he said, "and showed the continued power of our movement." |
CLOSE Get a sneak peek inside Husk as David Howard, president of The Neighborhood Dining Group, talks about what the restaurant will bring to Greenville. LAUREN PETRACCA/Staff David Howard, president of The Neighborhood Dining Group, is pictured inside of Husk Restaurant in downtown Greenville on Monday, November 27, 2017. (Photo: Lauren Petracca, LAUREN PETRACCA\STAFF) The much lauded restaurant that has helped elevate Greenville as yes, that foodie town, now has an official opening date. Husk Greenville will open Tuesday, Nov. 28. With the restaurant’s original announcement has come a slew of emotions, anticipation, discussion and curiosity, much of which will be quelled when the doors open. But, there remains a mystique that surrounds Husk, the eatery that approaches sense of place dining with what could almost be classified as a fierce passion. This is something the Husk team acknowledges, relishes and continues to work hard to preserve. The opening does not signify an end, but the roots that are being dug within the Upcountry community, said David Howard, president of The Neighborhood Dining Group, which owns Husk Charleston, Husk Nashville, McCrady’s, McCrady’s Tavern, as well as the casual Mexican-inspired concept, Minero in Atlanta and Charleston, and Husk Greenville and Savannah. Husk Greenville today will be different from Husk Greenville tomorrow. “It’s more than a restaurant to us,” Howard said. “What we would like to think is that we are having an impact on history with our commitment to the South and ingredients and culture and hospitality.” Executive chef, Sean Brock, along with chef de cuisine, Jon Buck and a full team of other Husk alums, has spent countless hours infusing the Husk message into the staff of around 65 that will populate the Greenville location. That education has included days of 4-hour-long trainings covering everything from table settings, serving protocol and types of wine glasses to individual presentations from local producers who will be supplying the restaurant. The restaurant will open with just dinner for now, but will add lunch service in the New Year. It seats 120 in the downstairs and upstairs dining rooms, and 18 at the custom designed bar. Bar manager, Kevin King, of Husk Charleston, has collaborated with bar manager, Regan Cannon on an approachable but interesting menu of creative non-alcoholic cocktails, custom cocktails, wine, unique spirits and beer. Husk was slated to open in fall 2016, and then in October of this year, but the building renovation, along with business and personal matters arose. The Neighborhood Dining Group oversaw the very intense reimagining of McCrady’s into two concepts, including the counter, which changes its 14-course tasting menu daily, something Brock calls “my career-long dream.” And Brock himself went through a deep internal renewal that involved recovering from addiction and battling an autoimmune disease that left him unable to see clearly, or to use his hands properly. The chef underwent numerous eye surgeries and spent time studying at what he calls “human university,” learning to take care of himself from the inside out. Brock is open about his personal transformation, particularly as it pertains to this opening. Husk Greenville is the first restaurant he has opened since his new life, and it feels intensely different. “It’s funny, everybody is like you’re opening two Husks this year, you must be so stressed out,” Brock said with a gentle chuckle. “I’m actually the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. I’m the calmest, clearest, happiest, filled with joy I’ve ever been. “So this opening, I don’t know before I was miserable and now, I’m just grateful and thankful and calm, and reflective.” As with the other two locations, the local restaurant will change its menu twice a day to reflect the freshest ingredients and the moment when they are at their peak, however that process will likely not come to full fruition until the New Year, as the restaurant finds its rhythm, Howard said. What Greenville guests can expect is intensely thoughtful dishes that have been cultivated from the seed up, and infused with flavors that continue on even after the last bite, and a menu that conjures and challenges food memories. For all its variability, within are some rules, Brock said. The menu will generally contain 8 – 10 first course items and around six entrée items. Always included will be a regular country ham offering, pimento cheese, a salad offering and almost always shrimp and grits. Here, it just comes served with house ground, local corn, homemade hominy miso butter and a house cured shrimp sauce made from in the Japanese fish sauce style and an umami-packed shrimp oil made from grilled shrimp shells. Everything at Husk is done with intention to elicit the deepest flavor, no more, no less. The kitchen follows the basic treatise of generally using no more than three components per dish and of touching the ingredients as little as possible in order to best preserve their integrity, Brock said. “You pick a lettuce and you eat it in the field, it’s unbelievable, it’s alive, it’s vibrant. It still tastes like sunshine and soil,” Brock says. “And every hour that passes, that starts to fade away.” Currently, Buck and team have relationships with around 15 local producers who will service the restaurant throughout the year, providing everything from eggs and pork to radishes and greens, and will inform the twice daily menu changes that will happen every day. Each day brings new possibilities. “I think if we can say OK this is what we think this place tastes like today, and it’s delicious, then the prize that comes along with that is communal connection occurs,” Brock said. “Our goal is to figure out what it tastes like to eat in Greenville on a specific day and have everyone at the welcome table.” Husk Greenville is located at 722 S. Main St., Greenville. The restaurant opens for dinner service, at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 28. The restaurant will serve dinner 5 – 10 p.m., Sunday – Thursday and 5 – 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday. The bar opens at 4:30 p.m. daily. The restaurant will add daily lunch service beginning in 2018. Prices range from $9 - $16 for appetizers and $25 - $35 for entrees. Reservations are available now and can be made through the Husk website, http://huskrestaurant.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/entertainment/dining/2017/11/27/exclusive-details-husk-greenville-much-anticipated-restaurant-opens-week/878619001/ |
Politically active sex worker Hande Kader was last seen getting into a client’s car – and her body was finally identified by prosthetics at the city morgue. The badly-burned body of a young transgender woman who went missing last week has been found BURNT by the side of a road in Istanbul. It is the latest in a series of hate crimes in Turkey shocking the LGBT and international community. Sex worker Hande Kader was last seen getting into a client’s car – and her partner raised the alarm and filed a missing persons’ report when she did not return last week. Despite being badly mutilated, the 22-year-old’s body – found in the upmarket neighbourhood of Zekeriyakoy – was finally identified by prosthetics at the city morgue. Politically active, Kader had been photographed participating in protests and demonstrations for LGBT rights. She had reportedly even been arrested for doing so on at least one occasion. Kader’s friends took to Facebook in anger following the news of her death – one of them claiming that the “common mongrels” who had carried out the attack will one day “pay the price”. The chilling incident comes less than two weeks after the murder and decapitation of a gay Syrian refugee just a few miles from where Kader’s body was found. Muhammed Wisam Sankari had settled in Istanbul after fleeing the ongoing conflict in Syria was found dead after having been raped and beheaded. His body was so badly mutilated that he was only identifiable by the clothes he was wearing. The Turkish city has been a haven for many fleeing persecution and war in neighboring Syria and Iraq – however hate crimes against LGBT people have soared recently. Last week in the southern city of Mersin, a transwoman survived an attack by knife-wielding thugs. And a gathering is being held this evening in Istanbul’s Taksim Square in memory of the woman. Although Turkey is traditionally seen as one of the most tolerant countries in the region, a recent poll by PEW Research Centre showed that almost 80% of Turks believe homosexuality is “morally unacceptable”. Source: mirror.co.uk BY STEPHEN JONES RELATED STORIES |
TAMPA, Fla. -- Tyler Myers and Ryan Miller helped give Ron Rolston a memorable night. Myers scored a go-ahead goal early in third period, Miller made 30 saves, and Rolston won for the first time as Buffalo's interim coach in the Sabres' 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night. "It was great, especially the way it was done," Rolston said. "Just the battle level and the competitive nature we had tonight was outstanding. You could just feel it on the bench, the guys, how dialed in they were. I'm really happy for our team. We've seen a lot of really good signs, and we just needed something to keep us moving in the right direction." Myers made it 2-1 from the top of the left circle 52 second into the third after a Tampa Bay turnover. Rolston replaced long-time Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff on Feb. 20. "It always feels good to score," Myers said. "It felt unbelievable to get the win after the way things have been going." Miller improved to 19-7-0 against the Lightning. The Sabres also got a goal from Cody Hodgson, while Thomas Vanek had two assists. "I think there's been some hard work over the course of the season," Miller said. "The battle was there, but the smarts are coming back around. We didn't spend as much time running in our zone, and that translates into a game we can win." Miller made several quality saves during three short-handed situations, including a 5-on-3, during the second. He also had a point-blank stop on Steven Stamkos in the third. "The penalty kills in the second period were huge for us," Hodgson said. "It was a win we earned." Tampa Bay finished 0 for 6 on the power play. The Sabres failed to score on their one opportunity. Stamkos extended his goal-scoring streak to six games with his 14th. "We had a lot of good chances, and their goalie played well," said Stamkos, who had eight shots. Stamkos put the Lightning up 1-0 at 1:24 of the first on a rebound goal from the slot after Miller made a save on Teddy Purcell's shot. Hodgson tied it at 1 with 9:58 left in first from behind the net when his pass toward the slot deflected off a Tampa Bay defender and past goalie Mathieu Garon. "Obviously, it's frustrating, but we did enough things to win," Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman said. Garon stopped 19 shots. Buffalo had lost in four in a row, including two under Rolston. "It was good for all of our guys to sit in that room and have that feeling where they did a lot of things right tonight and got rewarded for it," Rolston said. Lightning defenseman Sami Salo left in the second with an undisclosed lower-body injury. Tampa Bay coach Guy Boucher said he didn't know how long Salo will be sidelined. "It was a tough game," Boucher said. "We lost a defenseman. We got beat by a goaltender." |
Hello and welcome to When’s Melee, your weekly source for Melee tournament stream information. If you have info on other events and their streams, please reach out on Twitter (linked below) or here in the comments. Also, If you missed last weekend’s Melee action, you can click here to see the results. Get On My Level 2016 — 5/20 – 5/22 Region: Toronto, Ontario (EDT) Stream: EvenMatchupGaming and AfinityPlay Featuring: Armada, Hungrybox, Leffen, Mang0, Mew2King, Westballz, SFAT, Shroomed, Lucky, Ice, MacD, Druggedfox. HugS, Duck, Wizzrobe, Nintendude, The Moon, Swedish Delight, Professor Pro, Mikehaze, DJ Nintendo, Kage the Warrior, Prince Abu, Kjh, Ryan Ford, n0ne, and more! » smash.gg: Brackets, Attendees | Schedule | Facebook | GOML FAQ | Trailer | Event Preview by PikaPal Rubicon 10 — 5/21 Region: Chicago, Illinois (CDT) Stream: MeleeEveryday Featuring: S2J, Laudandus, Kels, Darkatma, Dart, ORLY, Sago, Vro, Lanceinthepants, Ginger » smash.gg: Attendees | Brackets | Facebook | Trailer CEO Prologue — 5/21 – 5/22 Region: Orlando, Florida (EDT) Stream: PolarityGG Featuring: Plup, Colbol, Pengie, Harriet, and more! » smash.gg: Attendees | Facebook Friday – 5/20 Man On A Ledge 107 Region: PGH (PA, EDT) Stream: PGHNEOHSmash » Challonge | Schedule | Facebook | Smashboards | Website | NEOH/PGH Melee Aurora Smash Heroes @ WIT Region: Midwest (IL, CDT) Stream: AuroraSmash Featuring: S2J, Laudandus, Kels, Vro, ORLY, Sveet, Hot, Hindawg, Azzu, and more! » Challonge | Facebook Group Hyperbolic Time Chamber #5 Region: Central Florida (EDT) Stream: GdLkGaming » Challonge | Facebook: Event, Group The Break Smash Biweekly Region: Tri-State (NJ, EDT) Stream: 8wayrun » Challonge Lancaster Open Smash Tournament (LOST) Region: New England (MA, EDT) Stream: TedGreene » Challonge | Facebook Four Stock Friday @ SJSU #14 Region: NorCal (PDT) Stream: SJSUmelee » Challonge | Facebook Saturday – 5/21 UCSD Super TriWeekly #3 Region: SoCal (PDT) Stream: SDMeleeTV Featuring: Captain Faceroll, Squid, PTK, and more. » Challonge | Facebook HYES! 2 Region: SoCal Stream: UplandMelee Featuring Fly Amanita, Stomach Flu, Army, Daddy, Sergio, and more. Challonge | Facebook Press L+R+A+Start 21 Region: Las Vegas (PDT) Stream: PressStartLV Featuring: SK92, Trahh, Jpegimage, Saiko, Bacon, Dansdaman, Prinny, Swordsaint, and more. » smash.gg: Attendees | Facebook Bluegrass Smash Region: Kentucky (EDT) Stream: xanthus1 Featuring: Drephen, Hanky Panky, Darkshad, Amida, and more! » smash.gg: Attendees | Facebook OHSNAP! 8 Region: Oklahoma (CDT) Stream: stockcancelgaming » smash.gg: Brackets, Attendees | Facebook Flashback Tournament 25 Region: South (GA, EDT) Stream: ClashKingStudios » Challonge | Facebook LUST 11 Region: Midwest (LA, CDT) Stream: LSUSmash Challonge | Facebook Smash at The Dojo #14 Region: Texas (CDT) Stream: SmashUnited » Facebook Sunday- 5/22 Super SmashNest v7 Region: PNW (OR, PDT) Stream: CACAWGaming » Facebook New Jersey Arcadian Region: Tri-State (NJ, EDT) Stream: 8wayrun » smash.gg: Attendees | Brackets | Facebook Desync at Frame 0 #13 Region: Much of the Southern US (Netplay) Stream: QueueSS Details/Bracket Last Week’s Results SSS (SoCal) 1. Westballz 2. HugS 3. Flim Amanana 4. Captain Faceroll (Happy late birthday) 5. Kira / Jace 7. PsychoMidget / mixx Bracket , VODs: Twitch Youtube (not up yet)1. Westballz2. HugS3. Flim Amanana4. Captain Faceroll (Happy late birthday)5. Kira / Jace7. PsychoMidget / mixx Mayhem (SoCal) Youtube 1. MacD 2. Westballz 3. CDK 4. Captain Faceroll (fourth place master) 5. Reno / Jace 7. HugS / ARMY Bracket , VODs: Twitch 1. MacD2. Westballz3. CDK4. Captain Faceroll (fourth place master)5. Reno / Jace7. HugS / ARMY To watch multiple streams at once in the most effective way, go to multistre.am or VGStreams.com For a list of weekly weekday streams, check this /r/ssbm post. Eventually we’ll make a more organized list to which people can add. Sam “Dingo was his name-o” Greene can be found on Twitter @SSBMDingus. flwns can be reached on Twitter @flwns Logo by @FishWithIt |
Yesterday, Ski Mask the slump god wash rushed off of stage by rob Stones squad not appreciative of his behavior and presence at the desiigner outlet tour. Apparently a bit of jealousy has built up in the rapper’s ranks and led to the attack you saw yesterday. But today some outrageous footage of Ski mask the slump god surfaced on the internet showing him pants down almost unconcious. Apparently the first footage that was shared by fans didn’t show the whole situation as it continued out the venue. Ski mask can be seen buttnaked getting beat up laying down on the ground barely concious. It says long on the evolution of violent behavior in the rap scene as his best friend and him have always surrounded themselves with this extremely violent imagery and music Outrageous Footage Of #skimasktheslumpgod The Unconcious Surfaced #vr #xxxtentacion Une publication partagée par Drillking Magazine (@drillkingmag) le 11 Avril 2017 à 22h28 PDT According to Rob, Ski Mask’s L.A. performance was strike three in a series of actions he felt were disrespectful. “First show, the nigga ran out on my set in Seattle during my third song and started trying to shake hands with fans in the middle of my song,” says Rob. “Pretending to turn up with me, it wasn’t no genuine turn up. The nigga was ruining my spot. So that was the first strike and I told the nigga, ‘Don’t do that. If you’re gonna run on my set, come on ‘Chill Bill’ at the end.’ So he was like, ‘Aight, cool’ and it was straight. “Then we get to San Diego for my hometown show. His set time is 8:30 [p.m.], mine is 9 [p.m.]. This nigga is acting like he’s not gonna show up, all this weird ass shit. So they push the set times back, they push mine to 9:30 and he was supposed to go on at 9. And then this nigga don’t show up until 9:25, so when it’s time for me to hit the stage, my DJ is onstage opening my set up and [Ski Mask] is trying to run on stage and take the mic from my DJ. My DJ ain’t give him the mic, so this nigga’s gon’ stand in the middle of the stage with his arms folded, wanna act tough with my security and shit.” Rob says he pressed Ski Mask after the show and claims the South Florida rapper was acting “like a pussy nigga.” He later went back and forth with Ski Mask and the rapper’s friend XXXTENTACION on Twitter. “Let them know whoever the fuck that is getting fucked in they mouth when I go on tour for putting their peasant hands on my brother,” X tweeted, seemingly in response to Rob $tone. “So then they talk all that shit, and the next day [XXXTENTACION] all on Instagram Live talking about Ski Mask gonna slap the shit outta me, they gonna fuck me up, they gonna do this, they gonna do that,” continues Rob. “So that night [April 10] at the Fonda, I pull up and Ski Mask don’t wanna come to the green room and check in on the bullshit he pulled at my hotel. He don’t wanna say nothin’. He don’t show up to soundcheck. “[Ski Mask] shows up early for his set and runs straight to the stage like a bitch. He don’t come check in and holla. I wasn’t even trying to run onstage and do bro like that. I was supposed to get at bro behind the scenes, but he wanna run onstage and not holla at me like a real nigga, so I run onstage and take the mic from blood and then we beat his ass from the stage to the street. And that’s how it goes. And I left his ass out in the street with his ass out and his underwear. And that’s exactly what happened, from beginning to end.” Ski Mask tells a different version of events. According to him, AEG, the touring agency putting on Desiigner’s tour, was trying to get Rob $tone thrown off the tour. Read fulll report at XXL. |
Matthew Gdovin, an associate professor in the UTSA Department of Biology, has developed a newly patented method to kill cancer cells. His discovery, described in a new study in The Journal of Clinical Oncology, may tremendously help people with inoperable or hard-to-reach tumors, as well as young children stricken with cancer. Gdovin's top-tier research involves injecting a chemical compound, nitrobenzaldehyde, into the tumor and allowing it to diffuse into the tissue. He then aims a beam of light at the tissue, causing the cells to become very acidic inside and, essentially, commit suicide. Within two hours, Gdovin estimates up to 95 percent of the targeted cancer cells are dead. "Even though there are many different types of cancers, the one thing they have in common is their susceptibility to this induced cell suicide," he said. Gdovin tested his method against triple negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive types of cancer and one of the hardest to treat. The prognosis for triple negative breast cancer is usually very poor. After one treatment in the laboratory, he was able to stop the tumor from growing and double chances of survival in mice. "All forms of cancer attempt to make cells acidic on the outside as a way to attract the attention of a blood vessel, which attempts to get rid of the acid," he said. "Instead, the cancer latches onto the blood vessel and uses it to make the tumor larger and larger." Chemotherapy treatments target all cells in the body, and certain chemotherapeutics try to keep cancer cells acidic as a way to kill the cancer. This is what causes many cancer patients to lose their hair and become sickly. Gdovin's method, however, is more precise and can target just the tumor. In the past two years, he's developed his photodynamic cancer therapy to the point where it's non-invasive. It now requires just an injection of the nitrobenzaldehyde fluid followed by a flash of an ultraviolet light to cause the cancer-killing reaction. Gdovin has now begun to test the method on drug-resistant cancer cells to make his therapy as strong as possible. He's also started to develop a nanoparticle that can be injected into the body to target metastasized cancer cells. The nanoparticle is activated with a wavelength of light that it can pass harmlessly through skin, flesh and bone and still activate the the cancer-killing nanoparticle. Gdovin hopes that his non-invasive method will help cancer patients with tumors in areas that have proven problematic for surgeons, such as the brain stem, aorta or spine. It could also help people who have received the maximum amount of radiation treatment and can no longer cope with the scarring and pain that goes along with it, or children who are at risk of developing mutations from radiation as they grow older. "There are so many types of cancer for which the prognosis is very poor," he said. "We're thinking outside the box and finding a way to do what for many people is simply impossible." |
Update: Kamloops RCMP say another man connected to the home was arrested on Monday. Kamloops RCMP Crime Reduction Unit began investigating the area of Sandpiper Dr. in Westsyde after receiving numerous complaints of criminal activity in the last couple of months. RCMP arrested a man after leaving the residence on a stolen bicycle. According to RCMP, the suspect is a known property offender and was arrested for breach of probation and possession of stolen property. He remains in custody. Police then executed a search warrant on the residence where they located more stolen property. "Due to the ongoing investigation on this residence, police refrained from releasing details surrounding this matter until additional arrests could be made. Kamloops RCMP want to thank the concerned residents of Sandpiper Drive in assisting police and encourage continued support towards safe communities," Sgt. Bob Fogarty said in a press release. The investigation is ongoing. Original Story: Two men were arrested on Tuesday evening after Kamloops RCMP received a call of suspicious activity on Sandpiper Drive. Upon arrival, RCMP located an unoccupied vehicle with two long barreled firearms inside the rear of the vehicle in plain sight. RCMP located the two suspects nearby and arrested them for possession of stolen property obtained by a crime, unlawful possession of a firearm, and theft. Both males have been released on documentation and will appear in court later this month. |
"If you don't think white privilege is a fact, you don't understand America." Donald Trump and his white nationalist cheering section at Breitbart might think they’re winning a culture war with reckless and irresponsible attack on public, peaceful protests in the NFL. But more and more we’re hearing unexpected voices, like four-star generals and GOP billionaires, come forward and push back on Trump’s mindless jingoism. Monday night on WFFA in Dallas, Texas, longtime sportscaster Dale Hansen dunked on Trump with a pointed, passionate commentary. Hansen reminded Trump about the power of the U.S. Constitution and of free speech, and warned him against using a racist “dog whistle” to try to divide the country, and to try to divide sports fans. The sportscaster especially demolished Trump’s claim that the NFL protests in particular are in bad taste. “Donald Trump has said he supports a peaceful protest because it’s an American’s right. But not this protest, and there’s the problem,” said Hansen. “Any protest that you don’t agree with is a protest that should be stopped. Martin Luther King should have marched across a different bridge. Young black Americans should’ve gone to a different college and found a different lunch counter. And college kids in the 60s had no right to protest an immoral war.” A U.S. veteran, Hansen lectured Trump, who sat out the war with a sore foot: HANSEN: I served in the military during the Vietnam War, and my foot hurt too. But I served anyway. My best friend in high school was killed in Vietnam, and Carroll Meyer will be 18 years old forever, and he did not die so that you could decide who is a patriot and who loves America more. The young black athletes are not disrespecting America or the military by taking a knee during the anthem, they are respecting the best thing about America. It’s a dog whistle to the racist among us to say otherwise. They, and all of us, should protest how black Americans are treated in this country, and if you don’t think white privilege is a fact, you don’t understand America. That much we can confirm: Trump doesn’t understand America. |
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers What’s more worrisome? A. The Army Corps of Engineers is repairing a newly-built levee that has subsided as much as six inches — the second such repair in a year and just as the state is about to take ownership of the $14.5-billion system. B.No one with the regional Flood Protection Authority was surprised. In fact, they’ve been expecting this news. Welcome to life on a starving, sinking delta – in the middle of Hurricane Alley. Officials recently discovered that a 1.1-mile long stretch of the levee along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway had sunk 3 to 6 inches below its design height of 25 to 27.5 feet. It will cost about $1 million to repair, according to the Corps of Engineers. “Actually the corps has estimated it will probably cost about $35 million over the next 10 years to keep this system certified for flood insurance,” said Tim Doody, president of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. “I mean, anyone who lives here knows this is a problem. We certainly do, and it’s one of the biggest challenges for us going forward.” Delta sinking all the time The cause of the problem is simple and well-known. All of southeast Louisiana consists of deltas made of sediment laid down by Mississippi River floods over the past 7,000 years. The sheer weight of that massive layer of soft mud, 400 feet thick in some places, causes it to constantly compress against the bedrock far below. If new layers of sediment are not added, subsidence begins. New sediment layers were blocked in the 1930s when the Corps of Engineers completed a system of world-class levees to keep those river floods from damaging communities. But if the cause of the problem is simple, the way it unfolds locally has a complexity that makes fighting subsidence more challenging here than almost anywhere on earth, engineers say. As our delta was built over the millennia, different parts were covered at different times by a variety of surface features, ranging from marshes to beaches to swamps to forests. Over time, more sediment buried these surface features and new ones emerged. The result is a complex weave of different types of soils — soils of varying thickness, compressing at varying rates. “We might have one section of levee sink rapidly over a period of months and another next to it sit perfectly stable during that time. … You can make your best guess at what’s going to happen – but that’s all you’ve really got: guesswork.” —Stephen Estopinal, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority So not only is the entire landscape settling at one of the highest rates on the planet, it’s happening at different rates across the landscape. Worse, for builders, those different rates can take place over a few yards, not a few miles. “We know there will be subsidence, but there is no predictability about the rate of subsidence over distances here,” said Stephen Estopinal, a civil engineer on the board of the Flood Protection Authority. “We might have one section of levee sink rapidly over a period of months and another next to it sit perfectly stable during that time. Then the reverse will happen. “You can make your best guess at what’s going to happen – but that’s all you’ve really got: guesswork,” Estopinal said. “This place is moving in three dimensions all the time, so you’ve got to stay vigilant.” J. David Rogers, a forensic engineer who worked on the postmortem analyzing why and how levees collapsed after Hurricane Katrina, famously summed up the challenge of levee-building here this way: “It’s like putting bricks on Jell-O.” The analysis concluded that Corps of Engineers of the 1980s hadn’t studied the Jell-O thoroughly enough and chose the wrong kind of bricks to put on it. Post-Katrina vigilance Unlike the levee boards that it superseded, the Flood Protection Authority was required to put engineers and other professionals on its board, and it has monitored construction of the new system to make sure the same mistakes are not repeated. The corps, too, is more vigilant now. The agency has done extensive work to get a better profile of soils under the entire system. And it builds levees taller than required in anticipation of their predictable subsidence. But both the corps and the Flood Protection Authority know that local subsidence can outfox even the best-laid plans. The levee along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is a case in point. Chris Gilmore, the corps’ senior project leader for this section, said not only were extensive samples taken to discover what types of soils underlay the levee, but the entire stretch was built on a type of cement pilings. The corps injected concrete into holes in the soil and built the levee on top. “It’s what we call deep-soil mixing,” Gilmore said. And yet, a final inspection before handing over responsibility for the levee to the Flood Protection Authority revealed that a 6,000-foot stretch tied into the Lake Borgne Surge Barrier was 3 to 6 inches lower than the 25 to 27.5 feet it was designed to be. The predicted rate of subsidence had been exceeded, and no one was really surprised. A year earlier, the corps discovered that a stretch of new levee between U.S. Highway 11 and Interstate 10 had dropped a startling 3 feet more than expected. There, design elevations range from 16.5 to 25 feet. “As most folks who live in the area know, the ground in Louisiana is always sinking,” said Gilmore. He estimated the 6,000-foot fix will cost about $1 million and take two to two-and-a-half months to complete. 350 miles Length of storm protection system $38 million Cost to maintain it over 10 years The impending change in ownership means the local flood authority – funded by property taxes – will now be responsible for the cost of shoring up sinking levees. The tab won’t be chump change. Corps of Engineers spokesman Ricky Boyett said the agency estimates the cost for “Operation, Maintenance, Repair, Replacement and Rehabilitation” will be about $38 million over the next 10 years. He said that figure was for the entire 350 miles of levees, floodwalls and associated structures such as floodgates. The contract between the Corps of Engineers and the state seems to offer a loophole to local agencies. It states that the agreement is not intended “to require the Non-Federal sponsor to perform future measures to restore the New Work to the authorized level of protection to account for subsidence or sea level rise,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers But Doody said the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East wasn’t counting on that as an escape clause. First, the agreement doesn’t require the corps to do the work. Second, Congress hasn’t appropriated the money. “We can’t sit around and wait for someone to settle the issue; we have to make sure we keep this system certified,” Doody said. There is one thing they can be certain of: The flood authority’s new levees, like the rest of southeast Louisiana, will continue to sink. |
Greetings Citizens, $44 million! I think I can safely say that this will be the last letter I write before Arena Commander launches, and I can’t wait to share the first taste of what you’ve been helping us build. Getting to dogfight in deep space is going to make Star Citizen real for a lot of people… but I also know that everyone who has supported us to this point already understands. Thank you for getting us here! The final week push to get Arena Commander V.8 out the door has begun here, so I’ll keep this letter short… but I would like to share a piece of concept art. You’re looking at what we call the “negotiation room” in the Banu Merchantman freighter. It’s a place where traders can invite others into their ships, display their cargo (the bay is visible) and make deals! As we look to the next stages of Star Citizen beyond dogfighting, we’re putting more and more thought into how systems like cargo and trading will take shape. We’re building a system that makes sense, measuring ship interiors, building a standardized cargo container measurement system (see diagram) and determining exactly how cargo will be loaded, unloaded and interacted with in port (and during flight!) As the most recent set of changes to our preliminary ship stats reflect, transporting cargo is going to be more complex than just finding the ship with the highest storage capacity… it’s going to involve finding the right ship type for the job. Everyone who pledged for Star Citizen before this point will be getting an additional room added to their hangars, once the modular room system launches: Stellar Cartography – Walk among the distant horizons you’ve charted in Star Citizen’s dedicated “map room” featuring a 3D holographic representation of the known universe. Your map room will start with a basic guide to the United Empire of Earth, and will expand into something that is unique to you as you explore uncharted worlds and discover new secrets. Build the most in-depth universe map possible and show it off to visitors, or lock down your secret jump points and hidden trading posts so that no one else can follow. Interface directly with the Observist guide to find out everything from what ores are in demand on MacArthur to who serves the best pasta on Terra. And with the ability to leave your own notes about your encounters and travels, it’s more than a map: it’s your digital diary! And the results of the penultimate player reward stretch goal are in! Backers who pledge before $46 million will get an updated scanning software suite from Chimera Communications. Here are the details: Updated Scanning Software – Chimera Communications unveiled the latest version of their SBit scanning software, also announcing a one-time free upgrade for their current and long-standing customers. The new SBit upgrade offers advanced scanning capabilities for prospecting asteroids above and beyond their baseline systems. SBit is a FIB -based system that floods the scan-zone with energy then processes the frequency of the energy reflected back, providing the operator with a composite sketch of potential ore deposits. With the new version, Chimera included an updated library of searchable frequencies as well as variable scan sizes, allowing smaller surface, higher-resolution scans. The general public will be able to purchase the update when SBit is officially released. Again, thank you for your continued support. That support means a bigger, better game… the first part of which you’re going to play very soon. Remember to vote in the poll below, which will determine the final player reward stretch goal! — Chris Roberts |
We’re in the middle of a long Heat offseason. Well, not right in the middle, but you know what I mean. Anyway, it’s the time to speculate about trades and free agency. So, we did just that in this week’s installment of the Heat mailbag. If you weren’t able to ask a question this week, send your questions for future mailbags via Twitter (@Anthony_Chiang and @tomdangelo44). @MajinSpo: If the Heat get a top-three pick in the lottery, Pat Riley is trading it for Paul George, right? Anthony Chiang: Knowing how badly Pat Riley wants to win right now, he probably would trade that top-three pick. Remember, the chances of Miami getting a top-three pick in this year’s draft is very small — a 1.8 percent chance, to be exact. The Heat have a 98.2 percent chance of getting the 14th overall pick. But … in the unlikely scenario that the Heat luck into a top-three selection, I think a trade will definitely be considered. Will the trade be for Paul George? Who knows. But a high pick in this year’s talented draft is a trade asset that could definitely bring a big name to Miami. However, it’s important to note that Miami is restricted from trading its 2017 first-round pick because teams can’t trade out of the first round in consecutive future seasons under NBA rule. But the Heat can trade this year’s first-round pick after the draft. So, there is a loophole. @MatzoBry95: Chris Paul… unhappy superstar who wants to win. Feels like the Shaq trade … any footing there? Anthony Chiang: I would say, no. First, Chris Paul is expected to opt out of his contract to enter free agency this summer. The Heat would not trade for a player who is about to become a free agent. Second, expect Chris to re-sign with the Clippers even if they are eliminated by the Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. Chris, who turns 32 on May 6, is eligible to sign a five-year contract with Los Angeles that could reach $210 million this summer after the “over-36 rule” was changed to the “over-38 rule” in the new collective bargaining agreement. So forget about that Chris Paul pipe dream. [Heat to face Hawks, Hornets, Wizards at home in preseason] [The case for the Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra for Coach of the Year] [Want more Heat news sent directly to your Facebook feed? Make sure to like our Heat Facebook page] |
For a number of Arizona Cardinals players it is now or never in the 2015 season There are Arizona Cardinals players who probably have hung around longer than they should have. Some of those guys are still on the roster and you have to believe it is get the job done now or you’re gone next year. Guys like Rob Housler and Lyle Sendlein finally moved on after the 2014 season from the Cardinals but their time was up here probably the season before. You like seeing the Cardinals not be trigger happy getting rid of guys but sometimes enough is enough. Here are five guys that need to get it done now or their Cardinals career should be over. 1. Michael Floyd, WR No doubt he would be number one on a lot of Cardinals fans lists. While exciting at times, he can still disappoint with the best of them at time as well. One example from last season is he had two first quarter touchdowns against the Detroit Lions last season in November. I thought we were finally seeing him come around. Then he was practically silent again the rest of the season. His fifth-year option was picked up a few weeks ago by the Cardinals. Rumors though have him being possibly shopped around the league. It really comes as no surprise. I boldly predicted this week that he would eventually get traded. My hope is he shows us all enough to finally solidify the number one or two receiver spot. I’m not holding my breath. 2. Bobby Massie, OT You know the Cardinals believe this is a make or break year for him as well. They wouldn’t have drafted D.J. Humphries out of Florida otherwise. Humphries should push Massie for time on the field. That will be one of the closer competitions you’ll see this summer in training camp. 3. Kevin Minter, ILB Still not quite sure what to make of Minter. Yes, he was slowed by injury early on after being drafted a couple of years ago out of LSU but he still hasn’t shown Cardinals fans any type of consistency that would warrant steady playing time. He needs to step it up this year or I believe he’s done in a Cardinals uniform. 4. Bradley Sowell, OT I think he has already overstayed his welcome as far as I’m concerned. However depth has been an issue and when Sowell has been good it has been at times they needed him the most. He is just another offensive lineman though that hasn’t proved he can consistently perform well. 5. Logan Thomas, QB You say he’s just going into his second season in the NFL. I say he still hasn’t shown enough improvement to warrant being a third string. Heck, he was third string last season and then was fourth. How not ready are you for the NFL when you are passed over for Ryan Lindley? We all know the story of Thomas being the starter for one half of one practice before head coach Bruce Arians had seen enough. Thomas has competition for that third string this offseason. |
I don't believe in on-chain exchanges. They're like good jobs, or comfortable shoes. Wonderful at first, but always sour eventually. Every decentralized exchange has a breaking issue. For Etherdelta, there's miner frontrunning. To see the problem, we need to understand a bit more about Etherdelta, Solidity, and the EVM. Etherdelta Etherdelta is a pretty normal exchange. Users ("Makers") place orders. Orders sit on the orderbook. Other users ("Takers") fill orders from the book. You can find the code on their github. Makers place orders using the order function (code here). They specify the tokens and amounts they want to trade. The hash of the order is recorded on chain, and an Order event is fired to log the details of the order. The order is referenced in the contract by its hash, and in function calls by its full details. Takers find orders via the transaction logs. When a taker wants to fill an order, she calls the trade function (code here). She specifies the exact order she wants to trade against, by providing the full details of the order. She also specifies the amount of the order she'd like to fill. Orders that are partially filled are recorded in the orderFills mapping, indexed by their user and hash. Trades, even partially filled ones, may be canceled by the user that placed them using the cancelOrder function (code here). Transaction fees Typically, the fee paid by a transaction is a function of the EVM instructions executed. Each instruction has a cost, in gas. The sum of the instruction costs is multiplied by the transaction's gas price to calculate the fee in Ether. The network enforces the refund of unused gas. When the contract is called, it checks that the order has enough unfilled capacity. If it does not, the contract will throw . When the contract throw s, the transaction fails. The failed transaction is included in the chain. When a transaction throw s, all the gas is consumed rather than being refunded. I'll repeat myself: all the gas is consumed. And when we say "consumed" we mean "paid to the miner of the transaction." This occurs whenever a contract throw s, regardless of the work performed. Therefore, when a contract throw s, the miner is guaranteed a transaction fee higher than she would receive if the transaction completed successfully. This provides a perverse incentive. Miners get more money when contracts error, so miners will try to make contracts throw . The problematic code Etherdelta's problem is in the trade function. if (!( (orders[user][hash] || ecrecover(sha3("\x19Ethereum Signed Message: 32", hash),v,r,s) == user) && block.number <= expires && safeAdd(orderFills[user][hash], amount) <= amountGet )) throw; First, the smart contract checks that the order is valid. It checks that either the hash of the order is recorded in the orderbook, or the order is accompanied by the user's signature. Then it checks that the order has not expired, and that the order has enough capacity remaining to cover the incoming trade. If any of these conditions are not met, the function throw s, and stops. The order is not filled, and the trade is not executed. On the surface, this makes sense. The smart contract must enforce the rules of the exchange. All of these conditions are necessary to the function of the order book. However, it leaves incoming trades vulnerable to an attack by miners. Here's the problem: safeAdd(orderFills[user][hash], amount) <= amountGet Frontrunning to force throws The miner of a block can always cause this condition to fail. She does this by inspecting incoming transactions for calls to the trade function. When she finds a trade transaction, she creates a new transaction that causes the in-flight transaction to overfill the standing order. Miners control transaction order in blocks, effectively do not pay transaction fees, and can ensure that their trade executes before the in-flight trade. In this way, the miner can guarantee the maximum transaction fee from the in-flight trade transaction. For example: Alice places an order selling 5 indivisible tokens. Bob broadcasts a trade transaction to purchase 3 of those tokens. Eve, a miner, sees Bob's transaction, and creates her own transaction, which purchases 3 of those tokens. Eve does not broadcast her transaction. Eve orders transactions in her candidate blocks such that her transaction will execute before Bob's. Eve mines as normal If Eve does not find a block before Bob's transaction confirms, Bob purchases 3 tokens, and Eve discards her transaction. If Eve finds a block before Bob's transaction confirms, Eve purchases 3 tokens. If Eve purchased tokens, Bob's transaction throw s, and Eve takes all of Bob's gas. The net effect is that Eve can acquire tokens on the Etherdelta exchange below the current market price in every block that she mines. By purchasing tokens, Eve improves the expected value of mining Bob's transactions. Therefore, her purchase of tokens is subsidized by the additional fee that Bob pays when his transaction throw s. Eve also saves any computation she would have spent making the state transitions associated with Bob's transaction. If Eve maintains tokens in an exchange account at a centralized exchange, she can treat this as a risk-free, semi-permanent arbitrage opportunity. She always acquires tokens below market price, no matter what that price is, and thus can always profit at Bob's expense. Mitigations aren't enough The throw keyword will be deprecated in future versions of Solidity. Its replacement, revert() , will undo state changes made by its caller, bubble up an error, and refund unused gas. Refunding gas is a pretty good mitigation, but doesn't fully address the problem. Eve can still use her privileged position as a miner to trade more efficiently on the Etherdelta market than others. Eve, in effect, gets advance information. She gets the first opportunity to fill new orders, and limited control over market movements. Even when not trading on the exchange, she gets to order transactions to maximize the number of throw s and revert() s and thus maximize her transaction fees. Anywhere that she can cause a contract to predictably error, she should. Anywhere she can affect the latest market price by reordering transactions, she should. Anywhere she can arbitrage manual orders, she should. Broken by default To put it bluntly: Miners and pool operators can tax users of Etherdelta. They can extract value from the Etherdelta ecosystem by manipulating the order and outcome of the underlying transactions. In the long run, once other optimization channels are exhausted, miners will pursue attacks like this. Users of vulnerable systems will suffer. There is no negative consequence to the miner. There's no minimum hashpower to execute these attacks. The attacks are easy to implement. Most pooled miners see only block headers, so pool operators can perform these attacks without the knowledge of the pool members. It is difficult to distinguish these attacks from normal operation of the exchange. Miners get free money. There is no known model for an on-chain order book that is not vulnerable to a variation of these attacks. On-chain exchanges are broken by default. For more info on these types of attacks, and discussion of some of the tradeoffs, read: The Cost of Decentalization by Hacking Distributed. |
Getty Images In Houston, the Texans refuse to cut receiver Andre Johnson because they think someone is going to offer to make a trade for his $11.5 million payroll burden in 2015. In New York, the Jets could do the same thing with receiver Percy Harvin and his $10.5 million payroll burden in 2015. The Jets most likely won’t. Per a league source, the Jets are expected to release Harvin on Monday, three days after trading for receiver Brandon Marshall. In theory, the Jets could squat on Harvin until March 19, at which time the sixth-round pick they gave the Seahawks to get Harvin becomes a fourth-rounder. For now, the plan is to let him go — putting him on the market for the first day of free agency. The teams to watch continue to be the Chargers, Packers, and Patriots. Harvin may be inclined to do a reasonable one-year deal in the hopes of teaming up with a great quarterback and re-establishing himself as a premier weapon. Still only 26, Harvin could have plenty of solid years left — and he could end up cashing in next year if he manages to get through a full season as a model citizen who performs at a high level and shows true durability. It’s unclear whether the Jets and Harvin made any progress toward a revised deal. Harvin reportedly was not inclined to reduce his pay for 2015, although a restructuring may have been possible. |
Dreaming a Hymn 1 December 2014 Of all the Christmas songs in the Latter-day Saint hymnbook, only one was written by a Latter-day Saint. “Far, Far Away on Judea’s Plains” was written in St. George, Utah, by John Macfarlane in 1869. Macfarlane had written music before, and a few times had even dreamed music and woken up “in the middle of the night to jot down a melody, lest the light of morning should erase it from his memory.” But this Christmas song is the only hymn text he wrote. “One night it came, suddenly, in a dream. John was awake instantly. He shook Ann [his wife] into wakefulness, crying out, ‘Ann, Ann, I have the words for a song, and I think I have the music too!’” The song was a success that year in St. George and for many years to come in branches and wards around the world. Karen Lynn Davidson, Our Latter-day Hymns: The Stories and Messages, rev. ed. (2009), 244–45 |
View Caption Hide Caption The 2015 draft is so over. So let’s turn our attention to next year, when draftniks could see a heavy dose of Baylor green and gold. Who are the hottest players a year out? (In speculating this far in advance, let’s also remember such talk has to be fluid.) Scouts will start looking at Baylor’s super-sized defensive end Shawn Oakman, who opted to stay for his senior year. The Sporting News first mock draft of 2016 projects Oakman as the second overall pick behind Ohio State defensive lineman Joey Bosa. On Monday, NFL.com lists Oakman as the second-best senior prospect available for next year, writing “It doesn’t take long to find Oakman (6-9, 280) on the field, as his tall frame and No. 2 jersey stand out even among the Bears‘ top competition. “It was a bit of a surprise when the massive lineman decided to return to school, as he likely would have been a first-round pick after a 19.5-tackle-for-loss, 11-sack season as a junior. But the Penn State transfer wants to be picked at the very top of the draft, and apparently loves being a Baylor Bear. Lofty expectations are sometimes difficult to live up to, however; scouts will be looking for consistent explosiveness, leverage, and motor from Oakman, in addition to his bullish strength, before labeling him a “can’t-miss” prospect worthy of a top-five pick.” Dane Bugler for CBSsports.com likes Oakman at No. 11, writing: “A first-player-off-the-bus type, Oakman has a tremendous physique and skill-set, but needs to consistently play up to the measureables.” But the Bleacher Report’s lead NFL writer lists Oakman as middle to late first round. “The hype of Shawn Oakman became oversized thanks to an Internet meme, but the actual player is pretty good too. Oakman isn’t the J.J. Watt of college football, but he’s huge (6’9″, 280 lbs.) and surprisingly athletic and versatile for his size. Oakman’s potential is through the roof, and he’s a fit for what head coach/general manager Chip Kelly likes in his linemen.” Bears offensive tackle Spencer Drango also makes the first-round cut by the Sporting News. Drango, like Oakman, returned for his senior year. He told the American-Statesman that the draft committee told him he would’ve been a third rounder if he’d declared for this year’s draft. The CBS mock projects Drango as and says “next year’s version of Zack Martin or Brandon Scherff, Drango is a college left tackle, but his skill-set projects him best inside as a terrific NFL guard. NFL.com says Drango is the fifth best senior prospect: “If any senior is going to challenge Decker for the top senior offensive tackle slot, it will be Drango (6-8, 315). A four-year starter, there’s no questioning his intensity or strength at the line of scrimmage. But like Decker, Drango needs to consistently hit targets in space and look comfortable holding off any top pass rushers during his final year on campus before earning a top-10 draft slot. ” CBSsports likes Baylor defensive tackle Andrew Billings at 19 in the first round, writing: “Everyone knows about Shawn Oakman, but he’s not the only potential first round pick on Baylor’s defensive line. Billings loves to wreck the dreams of the offense. Oklahoma linebacker Eric Striker also is getting a first-round mention from Sporting News. CBS likes Oklahoma State defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah late in the first round. The site also projects that Texas A&M offensive lineman German Ifedi as the last pick of the draft. Maybe it’s a safe bet that A&M will produce another first-round offensive tackle. The Aggies are riding a three-year string in Luke Joeckel, Jake Matthews and Cedric Ogbuehi. All three were signed by former coach Mike Sherman in the class of 2010. Ifedi is a recruit of coach Kevin Sumlin. How about some more names? Texas Tech, after having zero players drafted this season, will get back on the board with offensive lineman Le’Raven Clark. NFL.com lists Clark as one to watch: “Clark (6-6, 313) has started 38 straight games for the Red Raiders, two years at left tackle and his freshman season at right guard. It’s unclear where Clark’s best position will be at the next level; he flashes the lateral agility and recovery speed to play on the edge against college pass rushers, but he might be best inside where he can lock on and create creases for the running game. NFL.com also wants to watch TCU receiver Josh Doctson, saying: “Doctson (6-3, 195) started his collegiate career at Wyoming before transferring back to his home state. He became Heisman Trophy candidate Trevone Boykin’s favorite target (65 receptions, 1,018 yards, 11 TD) by finishing routes inside, turning short routes into long gains, as well as getting deep. And NFL.com also likes Sooner receiver Sterling Shepard: (who) “wears the same jersey number (No. 3) as his late father, who lettered for the Sooners as a receiver in the 1980s. Despite his slight frame, Shepherd’s toughness and explosiveness in the middle of the field make him the sort of in-space player NFL coaches appreciate. He could be next year’s Phillip Dorsett.” |
WINNIPEG — Indigenous activist, author and politician Wab Kinew will launch his bid for the leadership of the Manitoba New Democrats on Monday. Kinew was first elected to the Manitoba legislature last year when the N-D-P were defeated after 17 years in power. He says he wants to unite a party that has suffered from in fighting. Kinew says he has support from people on both sides of an internal power struggle in 2014, when then-premier Greg Selinger was challenged by five cabinet ministers. Kinew ran into controversy last year when misogynistic and homophobic rap lyrics and social media messages from his past surfaced. He says he has changed his ways and apologized, and will continue to own up to his actions. The leadership will be decided in September. The only other candidate so far is Michelle McHale, a labour executive who joined the N-D-P a year ago and has not had any major endorsements. |
"My son was showing me all the memes that fellow students all over Perth had put on Facebook and the comments they've made - it just cries out, a feeling of loss of hope. "Some kids have actually written down and said 'I've just withdrawn my uni application'. Mrs Kunjan said her sister-in-law shared her concerns, saying the difficulty with exams was wider than just Perth. "My sister-in-law is the head of the English department at a school in Malaysia and told me the students were in a state of shock when they finished their physics exam," she said. "They had to sit the English exam the same day and the teachers had to give the students counselling and positive encouragement so that they could sit for the afternoon paper – that's how bad it was." A student from Rossmoyne Senior High School told 7 West Media it was "the most horrible exam ever" and that she was "scared for the rest". But Mrs Kunjan said the teachers should not be blamed. "It's not the teachers fault, I would not blame the teachers," she said. "Some of them have no idea what to expect because there's no consistency. "You've got consistency in A levels, you've got consistency in other exams, but you don't have consistency in these Australian examinations – not just Perth, but everywhere." According to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA), ATAR course examinations are developed by teams of experienced teachers and are checked several times to ensure the questions examine the syllabus content. The SCSA states the questions are designed so that candidates can demonstrate their understanding of the syllabus after a year's study. Mrs Kunjan expressed concerns the outcome would have an impact on future exams the students must now sit. "The damage has been done, the students confidence has been set back," she said. "We as parents have just got to keep encouraging them. "They already struggle day and night, burning the midnight oil studying – they're hard working kids who really want to do something good in life, why do they have to make their lives miserable? "I hope they do something about it for the future generation because this is ridiculous - it's sheer torment." Science Teacher's Association of Western Australia president Stacey Fairhead said the concerns of parents had not been raised with her organisation. "Some teachers have expressed that they thought the paper was more challenging than previous years," she said. "There are standardisation procedures in place which means that students will be treated equitably. "The organisation's advice is that students should not dwell on the difficulty of one paper and remember that it is only one of many exams. Loading "Other students who sat the paper are probably feeling the same way. Their raw score may not be as high as they were expecting, but their position amongst their peers is unlikely to change. It is our hope the students can go on to achieve their personal best." Additional information regarding WACE examinations can be found on the SCSA at https://www.scsa.wa.edu.au/ |
My Secret Santa knew me so well considering the little bit of information I've given. I'm a foodie, I love cooking so much, and my Secret Santa picked one of my wishlist items which was a Victorinox Chef knife. This thing is huge! I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the note with the knife; my Secret Santa went above and beyond and picked not one, but TWO gifts and the second one is on the way. I waited patiently for the gift to arrive, and lo and behold, it's a personalized cutting board! My name, my wife's name, and the date of when we got married are engraved on it. This is one of the best personalized gifts I've ever received! So now I have a new high quality knife and a new beautiful cutting board to go with it. I can't thank you enough! I love everything about this gift, I'm a happy man this Christmas and I promise you that your gift will be used generously and I'll think of you every time I use it. I didn't get to know you, but you're my favorite person this year and I love you <3. Be well, happy holidays, and have a merry Christmas. |
tl;dr: Rewards begin shipping, new patch, and work on additional content begins. Hi Castoffs! ‘Tis I, Eric Daily, here for an update. We have a few exciting topics to cover today, so let's jump right in! Rewards Shipping The first wave of shipments of backers’ physical goods has begun as of March 16th! They are shipping via UPS, and many of you will have already received shipping confirmation emails. You should receive a tracking number as part of your shipping confirmation. Many backers have already received theirs, but please be patient if you haven't got your shipping confirmation yet, as there are still many thousands of boxes rolling out! Shipping Address Changes & Delivery Issues If you receive a shipping confirmation, and the shipping address your package is being sent to is incorrect, or you encounter another delivery issue, you can use the button at the UPS web site under your tracking page to request changes to your shipment. Please note that because the shipping is being done by UPS, you can contact UPS customer service directly to discuss change of address or possible pick-up at your nearest UPS pick-up point. If you are unable to resolve any shipping issue with UPS, however, please submit a support request and we shall assist further! Also, note that signed goods require some extra time due to the additional turn-around required for the signing process. These will ship a bit later as a result, so if you are receiving signed goods and don't get your confirmation immediately, DO NOT PANIC!!1 This doesn't indicate a problem. inXile Help Center Over the last few months, we've received an increasing number of help requests, especially around release of our games, and we've sometimes had trouble keeping up with the feedback. To better serve you, and make sure relevant information can be found all in one place, we have launched a new Help Center page. This also comes with a new ticket request system, which will help both you and us stay on top of messages more easily and they get answered in a timely fashion. New Patch Next, we have a new patch for Torment on PC! (It will also be coming to consoles very shortly.) Below you can see the highlights. If you are playing on Steam you will have already likely downloaded it, while if you're on GOG, it'll be up as soon as possible! Highlights Fixed a large number of freezes that would happen in various states. Numerous performance optimizations Addendum text should now be appearing on item descriptions. Many dozens of items now have more details depending on your lore skills and other factors! Fixed an issue that was preventing party members from bantering. Party members should now be much more talkative! Updated a number of crisis sequences to rebalance a number of enemies. In some situations, it will make combat proceed more quickly with combats that were sluggish. Numerous fixes and improvements to movement grid, pathing, and AI. This should prevent issues where the game would hang as combat could get stuck in numerous situations. Several quest and conversation fixes. Inspiring Presence and other looping sound effects have been removed. As you can see from the highlights, this update is focused mostly on performance improvements and bug fixes. For the full release notes, see here. But, of course, we have more in the works... Oom & Voluminous Codex Design and writing work has begun on some of the content additions that we spoke about last Kickstarter update. Oom's character is currently being built out by Colin McComb and Gavin Jurgens-Fyhrie, and they're working hard to make it a unique character that also fits in with the overall storyline of the game. On the design front, initial work has been done on figuring out what kinds of abilities and features Oom will have, both during exploration and Crisis gameplay. Meanwhile, the art team has begun the initial stages of figuring out his character model and design. Regarding the Voluminous Codex, most of the writing and user interface design work has been completed, and we are in the beginning stages of integrating it into the game itself, both in the interface itself as well as all the hooks and triggers to make sure the entries are unlocked at the right stages of the game. Similar to other RPGs, the Codex entries you receive will give you details on companions and characters you meet as well as provide additional lore about the world, factions, creatures, and cults. As we stated last time, we don't have dates for these additions just yet as our focus is on doing them right. However, as mentioned, these will be completely free to all backers and owners of Torment. We hope to have them in time to give you an even more fresh experience for your second (or third, or fourth...) playthrough. We will keep you informed as progress is made! Thanks for all your support and stay tuned! Eric Daily Follow Us: Facebook | Twitter |
Five months ago, Egypt’s Military Engineering Authority announced that by June 30, 2014, they would be able to cure those living with HIV/AIDS and the Hepatitis C virus (HCV). They gave hope to millions of patients; the message was: “Finally we will get rid of the scourge of these crippling diseases, and our patriotic army has the cure.” A month later, defense minister at the time, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, announced that he would run for presidency. The promise for the treatment of HCV and HIV was part of a larger package of hopes and dreams projected into the people’s imagination. In the instance of the HIV/HCV cure, the false hope was orchestrated by a team headed by a crackpot herbal medicine peddler, General Ibrahim Abdel Aati, with no relevant scientific qualifications whatsoever. No one seems to know how the man became an honorary general; his odd character and the claims he made were a gift to all who doubted the legitimacy of this treatment or who wanted to have a laugh at the regime’s expense. Abdel Aati pitched his grand claims—claims that completely defied the laws of nature—directly to the media. He explained that he had been working on his own for 20 years; he does not have a single paper published in a peer-reviewed journal. He stated that powerful entities like pharmaceutical companies and foreign intelligence bodies were after him to suppress his work. Yet, despite these obvious indications that Abdel Aati’s claims fell in the realm of pseudoscience, the Military Engineering Authority went ahead with one announcement after the other. Abdel Aati’s foolishness resulted in bad public relations and ridicule for the military, and he gave this scandal its name: Kofta. Trying to simplify the way the cure works to laypeople, he explained that the device breaks down the HIV or Hepatitis C virus in a patient’s blood by a form of electromagnetic radiation, and the outcome are nutrients: “I take the virus out break it down and return it to him as kofta.” Hilarity ensued. While its detractors may have reveled in the absurdity of the announcement, the promise of a cure was certainly no laughing matter for the forty thousand people that signed up for the miracle cure, the figure described on the official Facebook page of the research team. Patients with HCV will develop liver cirrhosis or liver cancer if untreated, and many are denied work in neighboring countries if they test positive. (Working abroad is often the last opportunity for many Egyptians to secure a decent life.) For patients living with HIV, not only do they endure physical suffering, they are constantly discriminated against and stigmatized. The Kofta fraud features two devices: one for diagnosis and the other for treatment. The first is called C-Fast and is claimed to work without any electronics inside it, has no batteries, and can work from a distance of 500 meters. These wild claims would cast doubt on any device, not to mention one that is designed for something as particular as diagnosing HCV or HIV. By way of explaining these wild claims, the Engineering Authority asserts that C-Fast uses the static electricity in the body of the user to move an antenna towards the source of infection. On May 9 2014, the Engineering Authority ran a booth in a commercial exhibition for medical devices. They displayed their diagnostic device, C-fast, along with other versions they claim can detect HIV, Malaria and Corona virus. As a doctor and a concerned citizen myself, I was very curious to see the device closely, and so I attended this exhibition to garner an up-close view. C-Fast is formed of a handle with an antenna attached to it through a free-moving, unstable hinge. Minor movements of the handle are translated through the unstable hinge system to bigger movements in the antenna. Thus, either consciously or unconsciously, a user may guide the antenna indirectly towards whatever he or she is inclined to look at (or suspects to be infected). This function is similar to that of dowsing rods or Ouija boards, and it is known in psychology as the Ideomotor effect: a mental effect on physical action. No wonder when I asked the person using it to close his eyes, it didn’t work! The claims, the appearance, and the functions of the device are very similar to a device that was made by a British businessman and sold to Iraqi security. The device, called ADE651, was intended to detect explosives, but its performance was no better than guesswork. An Iraqi campaign against ADE651 claims that it may have been responsible for failing to prevent the loss of 26,000 lives. The British businessman is currently in jail in the UK for fraud. When I asked one of the generals at the exhibition if the bomb detection device was similar he said “yes, both work according to the same principle.” This C-Fast device will soon be used for infection control and in blood banks; this is a disaster. The Ministry of Health has decided that C-Fast works based on a low quality paper published in a “peer-reviewed” journal that is as big a scam as the C-Fast device itself: a recent sting operation revealed that the journal, World Academy for Science, Engineering and Technology, was happy to publish a paper intentionally written as an incoherent jumble of Wikipedia articles and plagiarized materials. Details about the second device were kept secret until the latest press conference by the Engineering Authority on June 28, 2014. Even during the press conference, details about how it works were not made clear and no patents or reports of any clinical trials were published anywhere. To prove the point, a hospital is being built in Ismailia to provide this new treatment, and a tourist resort will be dedicated to treat foreigners with HIV. On March 20, in response to the media storm surrounding the initial announcement, Sisi tasked a committee of a number of doctors with examining CCD. The main aim was to respond to skeptics. The committee could hardly be called independent, as half of it was comprised of either military doctors or doctors that took part in the development of CCD. General Ibrahim Abdel Aati was excluded. The timing of the committee formation is extraordinary, as scientific and ethical committees should examine any treatment before human trials starts and not after. Although there was never a specific date set on which the committee would announce the results of its investigation, there was no reason for a three-month delay other than to avoid the presidential elections. By the last press conference, inventor Abdel Aati had vanished. There was no mention of him, and this time we were told that ultraviolet light is how the device destroys viruses in the blood. When asked about the viruses in the rest of the body, specifically in the liver, it was explained that some pills will take care of that. Weeks earlier, Ibrahim had explained that the pills were some herbal concoction he has prepared. The committee examining the device decided that further trials were necessary before starting the treatment, and the claims were reduced from announcing total cure to “we saw some response in some patients.” For this reason, the Engineering Authority said they would need another six months before providing the treatment to patients. Sovaldi is the trade name for a new FDA approved drug for the treatment of Hepatitis C. It is effective in more than 90% of cases. The manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, has set the price of a 12 weeks treatment at the equivalent of 84,000 USD. This is highly unaffordable for the vast majority of those living in Egypt, which has the highest prevalence of HCV in the world; a quarter (by the most modest estimates) of Egyptians live in poverty (less than two dollars a day). Earlier this year the Ministry of Health, headed by the National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute, began negotiations with the manufacturer to lower the price of treatment. These negotiations were independent and parallel to the Kofta announcements and received less coverage in the media. They were paradoxical given the claims that the army vanquished HCV. The price of the treatment has been reduced to 2,000 USD for private patients and 200 USD for patients with national health insurance coverage, representing a huge reduction in cost but remaining quite expensive for the majority of patients as the national health insurance coverage is very limited. The treatment will be available in September; this is a positive step. Now, at least, a proven and effective medication will be available and with fewer side effects than drugs currently on the market. But since more than 60% of Egyptians pay for health care out-of-pocket and until generics are available, this deal was criticized as one that will cause a huge financial burden for so many and is a highly profitable venture for Gilead. While there is no shortage of pseudoscientific claims and fraud around the world, this scandal is taking place in one of Egypt’s largest state institutions, with its most respected leaders promoting and defending it. The Ministry of Defense collaborated with civilian university professors to put their names behind those devices. The Ministry of Health approved the trials of CCD and the herbal pills on humans before any tests on their safety and without any valid scientific basis. The scientific committee tasked with examining those claims—that decided that further tests were required—kept silent until after Sisi was elected. Public money is being spent on building a hospital for what is—now officially—a tentative treatment. The C-Fast will be used for infection control and in blood banks, potentially harming people. The scientific and medical community has not reacted, and those who did were smeared. Finally, the government invested time and resources into developing sham treatments, resources that could have been used to make bona fide treatments such as Sofosbuvir more affordable for those in need. The Ministry of Defense did not keep its promise of a cure to millions of HCV/HIV patients by June 30, which is an embarrassment, yet until today there are no guarantees that this will not happen again. No public apologies were given, no investigation was announced, and the only signal that the army may have realized that something went wrong is that very recently the head of the Engineering Authority was promoted to a higher position with no responsibilities. Yet, we still do not know if that decision was because of the wasted money, credibility, and the dashed hopes of its most vulnerable citizens or because of the public ridicule and failure to silence critics. All pictures were taken by Mostafa Hussein |
It is not a carnival, or a show of pride – but an overt demonstration of Russians' current dignity, honor, and courage The notion of the Motherland has been fading for a quarter-century. All that was considered old-fashioned, ignorant and unnecessary, because the entire world is free and all people are brothers. However, according to Hollywood, some people keep up the idea of Motherland and do not consider all others as brothers, on the contrary, entire nations are considered to be villains. Immortal Regiment march in Nizhny Novgorod where the author, a famous Russian writer and left wing political activist, comes from It was funny to see how a drunk, tattooed Russian villain, even if unwillingly, was replaced by a Chinese villain, then a Serb, then a North Korean and then an indistinct Arab (we had to guess where he come from: Afghanistan? Iraq? Who cares…) Between the Arabs and the Serbs, the Russians appeared by force of habit, then Cubans and then again Russians, because the enemy should be recognizable after all. They raised ghosts, and the ghosts came to life. Russians suddenly realized they were being fooled. Yes, there is a big, free world, international cooperation and offshore places, opportunities to go abroad to lie on the beach, but nobody does anything against his or her best interests. Against his language and his wallet. And finally, against his voters. If you want to get something from rich white people, give them at least a little of your independence. Many nations have had to make this choice. A friend of mine from Romania told me, laughing: what kind of independence are you talking about when my own country doesn’t have the right to set the price of bread? The price for bread in our country is set by Brussels. For a long time, Russia was weighed down by its independence. It had to control both poles, the Pacific and Arctic oceans, maintain various experts and specialists all over the world. It seemed we needed to leave all that to begin a new life. Experts would come home, money would remain in our pockets; why do we need this outer space after all – what have we seen there? We gave up everything, and it seemed we started a new life… But our new life couldn’t be compared to what we had to give up. And the most important thing was that we no longer wanted to respect ourselves. It’s hard to respect yourself just for the fact that you are able to pay off three loans at once. We want to have something that is forever, - something bigger than we are. The memory of Victory awakened from sleep, not when our life was empty and dry. On the other hand, we reveled in those days when a Russian man took up arms and met death face-to-face – thank God, outside the country. We realized that if we stay out, this doesn’t mean that the war is over. They almost convinced us that we are responsible for every gunshot fired during last century. But it suddenly turned out that if we don’t shoot, continents burn, countries are ruined and military bases are mushrooming around our country anyway. All of a sudden, there came a mournful understanding that fascism is not a Fritz from a black-and-white Soviet film but a dire reality come to life. It finally turned out that no one would carry our independence. “Grandpa, help me!” – a Russian man said, then took on the burden himself. The Immortal Regiment is not a carnival, or a show of pride in the feat of the other hundred million people – but an overt demonstration of our current dignity, our honor and our courage: we too can do this, we are ready. Every family bears the portrait of their grandfather, with all his wrinkles, all his medals, as a personal banner. And all these banners constitute the colors of the Motherland. According to demographers, losses during the Great patriotic War amounted to 11% of the USSR's population. Considering that the average family consists of four people, this means that almost half the country’s families lost one or more of their closest relatives. Half! Every house has a banner. Who has the right to prevent us from being proud of that? May 9th is not about wreaths and fireworks, or drinking a shot or two of vodka. It’s a day of mobilization, remembering when the people of an almost completely ruined country stood up shoulder to shoulder and said: We are a nation. Anyone who shares our joy, our grief and our happiness on this day is our brother. Anyone who betrays and despises it – is our foe. The world is multicolored but not simple. With our sins, our exhausted, rickety, complicated and rather wild country, - we stand for the good. Grandfather knows what I’m talking about. |
An anonymous Saudi prince faces beheading after he killed a local man, the Gulf state’s crown prince declared on Sunday as reported by local media. “Sharia [Islamic law] must be enforced on all without any exception because there is no differentiation between the strong and the weak in Islam,” Deputy Premier and Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, said as he demanded the anonymous prince’s execution. He underscored the importance of the law in a letter labeled ‘very urgent’ - a copy of which was publicly published in the English-language, Arab News. The name of the prince has not been disclosed. He recalled that, according to Islamic law, a convicted person may avoid the penalty if the relatives of his victims agreed to accept the ‘diya’ - a ransom paid for the death of their relative. “No one has the right to intervene in the judiciary system…this is the regulation in our country…in case the relatives of the victim refuse mediation and insist on the enforcement of Sharia, you are asked to implement the sentence against the killer,” he added, as quoted by the Arabic language daily Ajel. “Justice must be served. ” The victim’s father previously stated that he was not ready to pardon his son’s murder and the amount of blood money offered was not enough to recompense the loss of a son. There was no name provided for the victim of the murder or his father – while both were mentioned in the prince’s letter, they had apparently been censored by the newspaper. Saudi Arabia has come under a great deal of criticism for its strict system of Sharia law, which has resulted in a high number of executions. Some 47 people were executed in the Gulf State from the beginning of 2013 to May, according to Amnesty International, in comparison to 82 executions in 2011 and around 80 in 2012. Members of the ruling family are very rarely executed. However, the nephew of Saudi King Faisal, Faisal bin Musaid al Saud, rose to prominence in 1975 after he assassinated King Faisal. A Saudi Prince was also sentenced to life in jail in Britain in March. Saud bin Abdulaziz bin Nasir is the grandson of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. He was jailed in 2010 for subjecting a male servant to a ‘sadistic’ campaign of violence and sexual abuse before murdering him. He was flown back to Saudi Arabia in March to serve out the remainder of his sentence. |
FOXBORO — It’s never been all that complicated for Patriots rookie left guard Joe Thuney. Throw him a scrambled Rubik’s Cube as he’s walking off the practice field, and he says he’ll return a solved version momentarily. “About a minute and a half,” Thuney said. “I think I can do a minute-10, a minute-20.” Or when it took Thuney just three years to complete his major in accounting at North Carolina State, he racked his brain for new ways to bide his time. He liked Spanish, so why not earn a minor in that? And to add to his affinity for the business world, Thuney worked toward a new major in international studies, which he’ll complete with another nine credit hours at some point down the line. Thuney has always challenged himself, and he has a history of mastering rare feats. That’s why his accomplishments during his short time in New England shouldn’t be all that alarming. The third-round pick has been the team’s starting left guard since organized team activities in the spring, though his starting status seemed like it could be temporary while Shaq Mason, Josh Kline and Tre Jackson recovered from offseason surgeries. Thuney swatted aside that theory July 30 with a physically dominant practice during the Patriots’ first padded workout of camp. Since then, there’s been no question that he is the best left guard on the roster. “There are a lot of things I can’t control,” Thuney said. “The only thing I can try to do is have a good practice each day and not look too far ahead. I’m not thinking about starting and not starting. I’m just trying to think about how I can improve today. The coaches make the decisions, and I’m glad to have an opportunity out here.” Thuney turned in a nearly flawless performance Thursday against the Saints, and he was solid again yesterday when the Patriots hosted the Bears in a fully padded joint practice. The 23-year-old pancaked defensive tackle Eddie Goldman in an 11-on-11 rep and stonewalled Mitch Unrein by the left sideline on a screen pass to James White. Thuney plays with good athleticism and leverage, and he has displayed the capable strength to handle any bull-rushing veterans over the last two weeks of nearly live reps against opposing teams. Though the rookie has tried to compartmentalize each step in the process, he definitely can feel the improvements since May. “I think you can go back and look at the film and see,” Thuney said. “I think I’m playing a little better now than three months ago. I think you can check the tapes, and you can see a difference.” He has applied his book smarts to the Pats’ advanced playbook, and he wouldn’t have been entrusted with those quality reps if it were a detriment to the team. And again, Thuney has a history of finding success in life by outsmarting those around him. Trace it back to the Rubik’s Cube. When his older brother, Eric, brought one home and figured it out about 10 years ago, Thuney quickly worked to one-up him and discovered the patterns within the block that is maddeningly confusing to oh so many. “I think I can beat him,” Thuney smirked. And while Thuney humbly downplays his ability to communicate in Spanish, a local reporter has raved about a pair of interviews with Thuney, whose Spanish never broke during the extended back-and-forths during training camp. Thuney appears to be set for a long NFL career, but former Rutgers player Eric LeGrand reminded the Patriots and Saints last week the game can be taken from anyone in an instant. That’s why Thuney is proud of the path he has paved for his future, whenever life after football falls before him. “I don’t really have a set answer of what life after football will be like, but I think they’re pretty cool degrees to work off of,” Thuney said. “So whatever happens, I think it’ll be good. “Football doesn’t last forever. You never know when your last down or play is, so you’ve got to make each play count, give it your all each time. And I think I’ll be OK with what I’ve done academically. I’m not thinking about that right now, though.” It might be an early camp overreaction, but Thuney has exceeded the expectations befitting of his draft status. He had the physical tools, and his mental aptitude has helped him translate the playbook that, quite frankly, is nothing like solving a Rubik’s Cube or learning a new language. Then again, Thuney can simplify the fundamental core of conquering each challenge. “Gradually break it down,” Thuney said, “and work from there.” It’s nothing he hasn’t done before. |
radv and the vulkan deferred demo - no fps left behind! A little while back I took to wondering why one particular demo from the Sascha Willems vulkan demos was a lot slower on radv compared to amdgpu-pro. Like half the speed slow. I internally titled this my "no fps left behind" project. The deferred demo, does an offscreen rendering to 3 2048x2048 color attachments and one 2048x2048 D32S8 depth attachment. It then does a rendering using those down to as 1280x720 screen image. Bas identifed the first cause was probably the fact we were doing clear color eliminations on the offscreen surfaces when we didn't need to. AMD GPU have a delta-color compression feature, and with certain clear values you don't need to do the clear color eliminations step. This brought me back from about 1/2 the FPS to about 3/4, however it took me quite a while to figure out where the rest of the FPS were hiding. I took a few diversions in my testing, I pulled in some experimental patches to allow the depth buffer to be texture cache compatible, so could bypass the depth decompression pass, however this didn't seem to budge the number too much. I found a bunch of registers we were setting different values from -pro, nothing too much came of these. I found some places we were using a compute shader to fill some DCC or htile surfaces to a value, then doing a clear and overwriting the values, not much help. I noticed the vertex descriptions and buffer attachments on amdgpu-pro were done quite different to how radv does it. With vulkan you have vertex descriptors and bindings, with radv we generate a set of hw descriptors from the combination of both descriptors and bindings. The pro driver uses typed buffer loads in the shader to embed the descriptor contents in the shader, then it only updates the hw descriptors for the buffer bindings. This seems like it might be more efficient, guess what, no help. (LLVM just grew support for typed buffer loads, so we could probably move to this scheme if we wished now). I dug out some patches that inline all the push constants and some descriptors so our shaders had less overhead, (really helps our meta shaders have less impact), no helps. I noticed they export the shader results in a different order from the fragment shader, and always at the end. (no help). The vertex shader emits pos first, (no help). The vertex shader uses off exports for unused channels, (no help). I went on holidays for a week and came back to stare at the traces again, when I my brain finally noticed something I'd missed. When binding the 3 color buffers, the addresses given as the base address were unusual. A surface has a 40-bit address, normally for alignment and tiling the bottom 16-bits are 0, and we shift 8 of those off completely before writing them. This leaves the bottom 8 bits of the base address has should be 0, and the CIK docs from AMD say that. However the pro traces didn't have these at 0. It appears from earlier evergreen/cayman documents these register control some tiling offset bits. After writing a hacky patch to set the values, I managed to get back the rest of the FPS I was missing in the deferred demo. I discussed with AMD developers, and we worked out the addrlib library has an API for working out these values, and it seems that it allows better memory bandwidth utilisation. I've written a patch to try and use these values correctly and sent it out along with the DCC avoidance patch. Now I'm not sure this will help any real apps, we may not be hitting limitations in that area, and I'm never happy with the benchmarks I run myself. I thought I saw some FPS difference with some madmax scenes, but I might be lying to myself. Once the patches land in mesa I'm sure others will run benchmarks and we can see if there is any use case where they have an effect. The AMD radeonsi OpenGL driver can also do the same tweaks so hopefully there as well there will be some benefit. Otherwise I can just write this off as making deferred run at equality and removing at least one of the deltas that radv has compared to the pro driver. Some of the other differences I discovered along the way might also have some promise in other scenarios, so I'll keep an eye on them. Thanks to Bas, Marek and Christian for looking into what the magic meant! |
I recently wrote about keeping Scala simple. That’s something you have to work at. Let me explain. While packing up to move house I came across my undergrad vector calculus notes. Although I, sadly, don’t remember the definitions of div, grad, and curl I do remember that course as marking a turning point in my academic career. Like many academically inclined people I had cruised through high-school, always able to pick up whatever I needed to know without working very hard. When I got to University the jig was up. The material was difficult enough that I couldn’t just absorb it by sitting in lectures—I had to actually work! You can imagine my shock. It took nearly failing first year maths for the message to get through. In vector calculus the next year, I made a habit of heading straight to the library after lectures to write notes and work through exercises. I found the material difficult, as did all my friends, but then an amazing thing happened. At some point I got it, and what had seemed a dense jungle of definitions and notation became a simple and elegant arrangement of concepts. I’ve had that experience many other times since. Learning functional programming from SICP, studying Bayesian statistics, and tackling Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are some of the occasions that stick out in my memory. Every time the process has been the same: confusion, concentrated study, and then understanding and clarity. Functional programming (via Scheme in my case) is an example particularly relevant to this blog. One feature of FP languages is that they are expression-oriented, meaning that most program components evaluate to a value. In imperative languages, if is typically a statement that does not yield a value, and functions only yield a value if they include a return expression. Expression-oriented languages do away with this. This is undeniably a simpler model, with fewer components and rules to remember, but it isn’t easy to adopt if you have spent years with the imperative model. Sadly, in programming circles a lot of language discussions revolve around appeals to “intuitiveness”, which is usually a short-hand for “works like other things I know”, even if those other things have complex models. As an industry this greatly holds us back. When I argue for keeping Scala simple, I’m talking about the kind of simple that builds from a few core concepts. That doesn’t mean writing simple code is easy! It’s much more about an approach to design and problem solving than it is about language features, and it is quite a different approach to what you may have learned if you come from an object-oriented background. Ultimately it is worth, though. Tunneling through the learning barrier will get you to the place where it makes sense and the simplicity is evident. |
Kelly Digges has had many roles at Wizards over the years, including creative text writer, R&D editor, website copyeditor, lead website editor, Serious Fun column author, and design/development team member on multiple sets. Sarkhan Vol has arrived in Tarkir's past, more than a thousand years before his birth. When he first arrived, he saw the plane's long-extinct dragons for the first time, watching them emerge from a crackling storm. Then he saw her: a human woman fighting with a glowing dragon's claw on her staff and a sabertooth cat at her side. She killed a dragon broodling with powerful magic and drove the others away. She is everything he hoped for when he yearned for Tarkir's dragons. He has to know more. Snow crunched under Sarkhan Vol's boots. He and his guide were moving higher. The cold mountain air seared his lungs, and he savored the feeling, like breathing dragonfire in reverse. She might not know she was guiding him, but she'd certainly made herself easy for him to follow. Every mile or two, she'd found or cleared some bare patch of stone and gouged two sweeping curves into it with the clawed staff she carried. When he first saw it he had thought she was marking the place where she had defeated a dragon. Now, as the trail grew longer, he was not sure what to think. Thornwood Falls | Art by Eytan Zana Perhaps she was Ugin's herald, leading him onward. Perhaps these signs really were meant for his eyes. Yet they meant nothing to him. Each was the same. With wiser eyes he might see…but he did not dare take dragon form where she might see him, not if he wanted any hope of speaking to her. This patch was still warm, the marks glowing with the red heat of her staff. He was catching up with her. She was Temur, native to these mountains. He was Mardu, out of place and time. She wanted him to catch up with her. There was a whistle, like a bird's, behind him. He got no more warning than that. Something slammed into him from behind, huge and living and warm. He sprawled face down in the frigid snow, pinned beneath what felt like one enormous paw. Huge fangs and hot breath pressed against his neck. He did not struggle. Another whistle, different. The fangs lifted, but the weight on his back still held him immobile. He could not see what held him, but he suspected. Snow crunched, heavy boots tracing a wide semicircle around him, until at last she came into view. She was older than he—far older, some inane part of him whispered—built compactly, with a stern but unlined face. The claw at the tip of her staff glowed red, and her eyes were cold and appraising. Dragon's claw, dragon's eyes. Yasova Dragonclaw | Art by Winona Nelson "You're following me," she said. Her voice was rich and vibrant. "You left a trail to be followed," he said. His voice came in choked gasps, crushed beneath who knew how many pounds of sabertooth cat. He gestured weakly to the mark she had made. "You left signs." "Not for your eyes, vagrant," she said. Her tone was unhurried, but she glanced frequently at the sky. "You're following me," she said again. "Why?" Cold snow, cold eyes, hot breath. He considered his answer for as long as he dared. "I am following a…voice, the whispers of a spirit," he said. He hesitated, then: "I seek the great dragon Ugin. I think…I think this might be a vision, and you my spirit guide." She laughed once, harshly. "I think you might be out of your mind," she said. "I may be," said Sarkhan. "Time will tell." The woman whistled, and the weight lifted off of Sarkhan's back. "Get up," she said. Had his seeming madness moved her? Or his mention of Ugin? He crawled toward his staff on his knees, like a beggar. The hedron shard he had taken from the Eye of Ugin was still securely tied to it. It had fallen across the woman's mysterious mark, and for a moment, when he moved it, he thought he saw both of them shimmer. Leaning on his staff, he stood. She was shorter than him. He might even have called her small. But with that sabertooth cat curled around her, with a clawed staff glowing with fiery magic, with those deadly dragon eyes, she looked anything but. "Who are you?" she asked. "My name is Sarkhan Vol," he said. He saw her eyes take in his strange clothes and wild hair. The claw on her staff began to glow red. Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker | Art by Daarken Sar-khan, great khan. High khan, sky-khan. To anyone else on Tarkir, it was an absurd claim on anyone's part, most of all coming from an anonymous wanderer. He should have known better, but he'd forgotten himself. In his own mind, it was his name. The voice in his head called him Sarkhan, before it fell silent. But Bolas called him Vol. "Sar-khan," she said flatly. She bowed with a flourish, but there was iron in her voice. "In that case, Yasova Dragonclaw of the Temur pays her respects to you, O khan of khans, and bids you welcome to her lands." Dragonclaw! Even in his own Tarkir, was that not the title of the Temur khan? "And over what," she asked, pronouncing every word carefully, "do you claim dominion?" He had dealt with khans before. With Zurgo. With Bolas. No khan, even a friend, could tolerate disrespect. They knew only one language, the honeyed tongue of flattery, and in his time as Bolas's thrall he had learned to speak it well. Vol is ever your servant, said a voice in his head. It was his voice, pathetic, squirming in the silence of his mind. It awakened a memory, an echo of himself that answered a khan's question. "No one and nothing," he said hurriedly, averting his eyes and bowing. "It is a nickname, given to me in jest, to mock my arrogance. I took it for my own." "And your khan tolerates this?" No. But Ugin… "I have no khan," he said. "I have traveled far from my home." "An exile," said the woman, with contempt. "No wonder you're dressed in castoffs." She lowered her staff at him. The claw's glow intensified. "You follow me," she said. "You insult me. And you trespass in my lands. Give me a reason to spare you, Vol, or I'll kill you and be on my way." He dropped to his knees. "Please, forgive my rudeness," he said. "As I said, I have traveled far, and even the mighty khan of the Temur is known to me only by reputation. Clearly, you're not here to guide me. Perhaps instead I am here to serve you. You are a khan. I am nothing, a beggar…" She regarded him for a long moment, then shrugged and lifted her staff. "Enough," she said, with obvious disgust. "Get up." He stood back up, brushing snow off of his clothes. "Thank you," he said. She scowled. "Thank you, khan," she corrected. "Your delusions are forgiven, but I'll tolerate no further disrespect." "My thanks, khan," he said, a small rebellion. "And my apologies." The sound of his own voice was thick in his ears, cloying. She acknowledged him with a nod. "I am Yasova Dragonclaw," she said. "Khan of the Temur Frontier, dragon slayer many times over, and lord of these lands." She swept her arms wide. "Vol, exile, khan of nothing and no one…welcome." He looked around the mountain, seeing it with new eyes. Yes, these were Temur lands. Not far from where he'd been when he…when time fractured. There was less snow than he remembered, more bare and steaming rock. Rugged Highlands | Art by Eytan Zana He turned back to see that she was already walking away, her back turned. He hurried to follow, but a snarl from behind him stopped him where he stood. The enormous cat's carrion breath washed over him. "Follow me, if you're certain that's your path," said Yasova, without turning. "But I wouldn't walk too close. Anchin is very protective, and he won't be gentle with you a second time." They walked in silence, for a time. Sarkhan struggled to follow—but not too closely—as Yasova scrambled over the rough terrain at full speed, his breath coming in steaming gasps. She led him up the sides of a high ridge lined with stout trees. Behind him, the sabertooth padded along, just loudly enough that he could hear it. Yasova stopped on a wide ledge. Sarkhan kept a respectful distance, mindful of the great cat behind him. He breathed heavily. Yasova, seemingly unaffected by the climb, ignored his wheezing. The dragon claw atop her staff began to glow again, and Sarkhan feared for a moment she was going to kill him after all. But she brought the staff's red-hot head down, sweeping it across the snowy surface of the ledge. The snow hissed and melted, rivulets of steaming water running down the hillside, until bare rock revealed itself. She reversed the staff and made that mark again—two long, sweeping curves, symmetrical, carved in stone. Sarkhan waited until she was finished. "What is that symbol?" he asked. "Why do you keep making it?" Yasova turned. Her eyes were reptilian, cold and hot all at once. "No questions, Vol," she said. In her mouth, his birth name was a curse. "Not until you've told me about these whispers you're following." Why was she indulging him? What use to her could a madman's ravings be? "I was in…." He faltered, unsure how to translate his history into words she could accept. "I was in a distant place, far from my home and far from here. I visited a cavern called the Eye of Ugin—" Eye of Ugin | Art by James Paick "Where?" she asked, sharply. So the name did mean something to her. "As I said, it is very distant. Across an…"—ocean, he almost said, before remembering he had learned that word on another world. "Across a vast lake, so wide you cannot see from one shore to the other." She snorted. "There is no such lake." "Even so," he said, "I have crossed it." "And then?" "After visiting the Eye, I heard Ugin himself, speaking to me. He drew me to this place. But then…everything changed. Ugin's voice fell silent, and I found myself alone, with no whispers to guide me. I mistook you for a herald of Ugin." Tormenting Voice | Art by Volkan Baga Yasova looked out over the valley, her back to him. "May I ask you something, Yasova khan?" said Sarkhan. "You might as well." "That storm, that birthed the dragons…what was that?" She turned and stared at him, mouth agape. "Forgive my ignorance, khan," he said. "In my homeland, we do not have such things." "Then where do the dragons come from?" she asked. He thought a long time before answering. "In my homeland, we have no dragons." "Vast lakes and empty skies," said Yasova, her eyes narrowing. "You really are mad." "I know how it sounds," he said. "But there are no such storms, none of these…" "Dragon tempests," she said, as though to a child. "The source of all dragons. How can you not know this? Where are you from?" Doubts swirled like phantoms. Ugin's voice was silent, his thoughts were his own, and yet he felt less clarity than ever. Was he mad? Had he dreamed all this? Was he dreaming now? "I knew a Temur shaman once," he said, "who taught me a great deal about the spirits of dragons." "You know the Temur, but you do not know their khan? Are there Temur in this distant home of yours, too?" "I beg your indulgence," he said. He tried to remember if he had ever said exactly those words to Bolas. "My story may seem nonsensical, but it is the only story I have to tell. Consider it a mere vision, a fever dream, if it aids your patience." She nodded at him to go on. "This shaman and his cohort showed me many things. I heard the low, steady voice of an ancient dragon, long dead, whose spirit yet lingered. I would hear that voice again, years later, when I came to the Eye. The Eye of Ugin, my khan. The voice of Ugin." "Ugin lives," she said flatly. The sabertooth, roused by her tone, took its place behind her. He backed away, arms wide, palms out. "My khan," he said. "It's all very confusing to me, but…my home, my life…I believe they are not yet written." The unwritten now, the Temur conception of things yet to come. Shrouded by the now, all around it, circling it like beasts, were the possible futures of the unwritten. Shamanic Revelation | Art by Cynthia Sheppard "Nothing lives in the unwritten," she said. "It's not a place. I don't know what this shaman told you, but it simply doesn't work like that." "Then perhaps I had it backwards," he said. "Perhaps I am your spirit guide—a phantom of the unwritten, here to tell you of one possible path from this now to the next. Ask. I will tell you anything." She advanced on him, her staff crackling to life. "This place you speak of, your supposed home," she said. "It's this place, isn't it? Tarkir, but beyond the now?" He nodded. "Yes," he said. "I was Mardu, once, and I traveled among the Temur. But my khan's name, and that Temur khan's, would not be known to you. They are not yet born." "And there are no dragons?" she asked. Her eyes gleamed eagerly. "Not one?" "Not in all of Tarkir," he said. "Only bones." Flooded Strand | Art by Andreas Rocha "And Ugin?" "Long dead," he said. "Only whispers remain. The whispers that brought me here." "Then it's true," she said. "If Ugin dies, the storms cease. The dragons fall." Ugin and the storms, connected! No wonder he had been greeted, on his arrival, by one of those tempests. Ugin was not yet a whisper, and could not or would not speak to him as he had. But he had sent a storm to guide Sarkhan. To guide him…to Yasova? "Where did you hear that?" he asked, heart racing. "In a vision of my own," she said, but she would not be deterred. "Tell me of this unwritten now. Tell me of its people. It must be glorious." He recognized, now, the gleam in her eye. It was greed, the same greed he had seen in the eye of every khan he had ever met. Zurgo sought blood and vengeance, Bolas sought power beyond imagining, even gentle Narset sought knowledge above all else…and Yasova, his spirit guide, sought the end of all dragons. "No, my khan," he said hurriedly. "The people, the khans, of my now…they are not like you. They are weak, foolish, grasping at the shadows of the past. They no longer have to fight for their lives, so they fight for glory or greed or nothing at all. "They are not like you," he said again, pleading. "You are better." She thrust her staff at him. A wall of heat hit him, the claw dangerously close, and he staggered back, lost his balance, and fell. He sprawled across the mark she had made in the bare rock, the gouges in the stone still uncomfortably warm through his furs. "Better," she spat. "We watch helplessly as our homes are ravaged and our children killed. We glance to the skies like frightened rabbits, dedicate our lives to nothing more than survival, scratch out a living as simpering peasants in someone else's domain." Frontier Siege | Art by James Ryman She stood over him, eyes filled with fury, holding a claw torn from a dragon, glowing with the fire of her magic and the heat of her rage. "And for this you call us better?" "Please," he said. "I have seen the unwritten—" "I don't know what you are," she said. "I don't know how you came here, or what any of this means. But I've seen the unwritten myself, seen a world with no dragons. And it was paradise." "I have played your spirit guide," he said. "I have told you, as true as I know it, what I have seen. Please, I beg you, do the same for me. Tell me of the vision that guides you." She planted her staff. "I saw fields choked with dragon bones," she said, eyes distant. "Skies clear of those cursed tempests. There was no more fighting. No more war. The Temur had been freed to conquer, and my descendant, a daughter many times removed, was sar-khan, lord of all Tarkir. The people lived off the land, hunting and herding, with enough for everyone and to spare. And I heard a voice, smooth and quiet, telling me how I might bring it about." "That is not how it happens," he said. Confusion reigned. "There is no sar-khan. There is no peace. Ugin showed you these things?" "No," she said, "although he spoke of Ugin. He told me to chart the storms, to track them, to leave a trail." She gestured to the scratched stone beneath him. "He told me that if I showed him the way to the spirit dragon's lair…he would kill Ugin." Bile rose in Sarkhan's throat. "Who?" he whispered. "Who spoke to you?" "A great dragon," she said, her tone filled only with awe. "The greatest, as unlike them as a khan is to a packbeast. He spoke, in true words, not dragon's howlings, and he towered above me, bigger than Atarka herself, with scales like burnished gold. Above his head, between his horns, floated an egg, and in my fever-dream I thought it might crack and hatch the world anew." "No," said Sarkhan. "No." Curved horns, like the double curves of Yasova's marks. He should have seen it. But how could he have known? Bolas. Bolas had followed him. No—impossible. Fool. Bolas was already here! What had the dragon said? I know where Ugin lays. I put him there myself, not so long ago. Not so long. Damn him! What was a hundred years to a creature such as Bolas, or a thousand, or ten thousand? It's happening here! Now! Fire rushed through him. It burned his pink, soft flesh away and stole his voice, forcing out a roar that shook the snow from the trees. Now it was Yasova who fell backward, shrinking before him. Form of the Dragon | Art by Daarken His jaws burned and stretched, and he opened his mouth, breathing in a lungful of cold mountain air, ready to breathe out a gout of pure, glorious flame. But Yasova was no morsel, much as she looked like one. Her cat backed away from him, hissing, but she sprang to her feet. Her staff glowed as she drew it back, and he thought back dimly, in dragon-mind, to the claw of flame that had arced through the sky and killed one of the dragon broodlings before his eyes. Ugin was in danger. Bolas was here, now, or would be soon. He could not risk injury fighting this little creature. Not when he was so, so close. Flame spilled from his mouth as he exhaled, but it was no jet of fire. She tumbled back, singed but no doubt still alive. With a kick from his powerful legs, Sarkhan Vol launched himself into the sky. |
Seven people were hospitalized after a family deep fried a turkey inside of their apartment. Several Treated For Carbon Monoxide in Turkey Cooking Several people were taken to the hospital Thursday due to carbon monoxide poisoning. The incident happened at an apartment complex at the 15000 block of Southwest 80th Street in Kendall West. Officials said a family started using a deep fryer connected to a gas tank last night and then went to bed. Residents woke up this morning overcome by fumes. The fumes from the fryer were released into the unit and possibly surrounding units. Four Hospitalized After Using Fryer Inside Apartment Four people were taken to the hospital after using a deep fryer connected to a gas tank inside of an apartment unit in Kendall West. (Published Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017) At least four people were taken to the hospital, while three others were treated on scene. Their conditions are unclear at this time. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue officials urge people not to grill indoors – only in open areas. |
Volatile tennis dad Damir Dokic has foreshadowed an appeal to a European Union court after he was sentenced to 15 months in jail for threatening to blow up the Australian ambassador to Serbia and possessing illegal weapons. Tennis star Jelena Dokic is reportedly preparing to fly to Serbia from London to support her father and could arrive in Belgrade around 8pm Melbourne time at the earliest. Dokic, 50, received a 10-month sentence on a charge of endangering the safety of Ambassador Clare Birgin and seven months for illegally owning two nail bombs and 20 bullets. Immediately after the sentence was handed down overnight Australian time, Dokic's lawyer, Bosiljka Djukic, indicated she would appeal to the Ruma District Court and also to EU courts in Strasbourg due to lack of faith in local authorities. "You can make your own conclusion on whether the sentence is political,'' she told reporters as she left court. |
The Federal Reserve is using a rather obscure exception to the Freedom of Information Act to keep it’s list of investments secret: Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve refused a request by Bloomberg News to disclose the recipients of more than $2 trillion of emergency loans from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. Bloomberg filed suit Nov. 7 under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act requesting details about the terms of 11 Fed lending programs, most created during the deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression. The Fed responded Dec. 8, saying it’s allowed to withhold internal memos as well as information about trade secrets and commercial information. The institution confirmed that a records search found 231 pages of documents pertaining to some of the requests. “If they told us what they held, we would know the potential losses that the government may take and that’s what they don’t want us to know,” said Carlos Mendez, a senior managing director at New York-based ICP Capital LLC, which oversees $22 billion in assets. (…) The Bloomberg lawsuit said the collateral lists “are central to understanding and assessing the government’s response to the most cataclysmic financial crisis in America since the Great Depression.” In response, the Fed argued that the trade-secret exemption could be expanded to include potential harm to any of the central bank’s customers, said Bruce Johnson, a lawyer at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Seattle. That expansion is not contained in the freedom-of-information law, Johnson said. “I understand where they are coming from bureaucratically, but that means it’s all the more necessary for taxpayers to know what exactly is going on because of all the money that is being hurled at the banking system,” Johnson said. |
President Donald Trump paid a rare personal visit to House Republicans on Tuesday morning to pitch his newly revised health care plan in front of a deeply skeptical caucus of conservatives. Apparently frustrated by the continued resistance within his own to party to one of his signature campaign promises, Trump took to directing threats at specific conservatives on Capitol Hill — a move that appears to have already backfired. "He said, 'Y'all ran on repealing Obamacare. Looks like you'd be ripe for a primary if you don't keep your promise,'" Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold told reporters after Trump’s hourlong visit to the basement of the Capitol ended. North Carolina Republican Rep. Richard Hudson further explained to reporters, "The president's message was that the American people are counting on us to repeal Obamacare and this is our one chance to do it. And if we fail, there will be consequences for our party and for us as individuals.” Advertisement: According to The Washington Post, Trump told the divided Republican conference meeting, “I’m gonna come after you, but I know I won’t have to, because I know you’ll vote yes.” On Monday the House GOP leadership unveiled a series of tweaks to the Republican law, formally known as the American Health Care Act, in an effort to appease the entire caucus before a crucial Thursday vote. “They want a tremendous health care plan. That's what we have, and there are going to be adjustments to it. But I think we'll get the votes,” Trump told reporters as he left the meeting. “Honestly, a loss is not acceptable, folks,” he added, according to the Post. Trump after meeting on GOP health care bill: “It was a great meeting . . . I think we'll get the vote on Thursday" https://t.co/I31ENWrW8j pic.twitter.com/a7IOLhrs14 — CNN (@CNN) March 21, 2017 As part of his strong-armed negotiation strategy, the president even singled out the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, the group of hard-line conservatives most staunchly opposing Trumpcare. Advertisement: "I'm gonna come after you," Trump threatened the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows, R-NC, according to Meadows. The threat, however, apparently rung hollow. "I'm still a no," Meadows said afterward, "because the bill that we're currently considering does not lower premiums for the vast majority of Americans, and that's what we need to do." The co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, echoed his colleague’s continued opposition to the bill. “The president always does a good job in these settings,” Jordan conceded. “But the legislation is still bad, and doesn’t do what we told voters we would do.” According to a count by NBC News, 17 House Republicans remain opposed or are leaning against the House bill, even after Monday’s supposed fixes. Advertisement: The changes to the bill unveiled late Monday night, according to Talking Points Memo, include speeding up the repeal of Obamacare's taxes by one year, to 2017, while increasing tax credits for people ages 50 to 64 — who represent a major voting bloc for Republicans. The newly revised bill has not been "scored" by the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan entity that provides cost and coverage estimates to Congress, and this is not likely to be done before Thursday’s scheduled vote. The GOP leadership can afford only 21 defections from its House caucus in order for it to still be able to pass this bill, the first major piece of legislation backed by the Trump administration. On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., referred to President Trump in this way: "He's the closer." And at a campaign-style rally in Louisville, Kentucky, Monday night, Trump unveiled a new slogan for his administration: “"Promises Made. Promises Kept." Advertisement: Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after the president's visit to Capitol Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., agreed with Trump that the House majority will be in jeopardy next year "if we don't keep our promise" and pass the Obamacare repeal and replace measure. Meanwhile, the conservative Club For Growth announced on Tuesday a half million dollar ad buy targeting moderate Republicans in vulnerable districts to not support the new version of the bill. According to a polling average from Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com, nearly 50 percent of Americans oppose the GOP House bill and just 30 percent of voters support it. As Silver pointed out, “By comparison, Obamacare had a 40 percent favorable rating and a 49 percent unfavorable rating when it finally passed Congress in March 2010. Later that year, Democrats lost 63 seats in Congress.” |
On January 29, 1931, the world's premier physicist, Albert Einstein, and its foremost astronomer, Edwin Hubble, settled into the plush leather seats of a sleek Pierce-Arrow touring car for a visit to Mount Wilson in southern California. They were chauffeured up the long, zigzagging dirt road to the observatory complex on the summit, nearly a mile above Pasadena. Home to the largest telescope of its day, Mount Wilson was the site of Hubble's astronomical triumphs. In 1924 he had used the telescope's then colossal 100-inch (254-centimeter) mirror to confirm that our galaxy is just one of countless "island universes" inhabiting the vastness of space. Five years later, after tracking the movements of these spiraling disks, Hubble and his assistant, Milton Humason, had revealed something even more astounding: The universe is swiftly expanding, carrying the galaxies outward. On the peak that bright day in January, the 51-year-old Einstein delighted in the telescope's instruments. Like a child at play, he scrambled about the framework, to the consternation of his hosts. Nearby was Einstein's wife, Elsa. Told that the giant reflector was used to determine the universe's shape, she reportedly replied, "Well, my husband does that on the back of an old envelope." That wasn't just wifely pride. Years before Hubble detected cosmic expansion, Einstein had fashioned a theory, general relativity, that could explain it. In studies of the cosmos, it all goes back to Einstein. Just about anywhere astronomers' observations take them—from the nearby sun to the black holes in distant galaxies—they enter Einstein's realm, where time is relative, mass and energy are interchangeable, and space can stretch and warp. His footprints are deepest in cosmology, the study of the universe's history and fate. General relativity "describes how our universe was born, how it expands, and what its future will be," says Alan Dressier of the Carnegie Observatories. Beginning, middle, and end—"all are connected to this grand idea." At the turn of the 20th century, 30 years before Einstein and Hubble's rendezvous at Mount Wilson, physics was in turmoil. X-rays, electrons, and radioactivity were just being discovered, and physicists were realizing that their trusted laws of motion, dating back more than 200 years to Isaac Newton, could not explain how these strange new particles flit through space. It took a rebel, a cocky kid who spurned rote learning and had an unshakable faith in his own abilities, to blaze a trail through this baffling new territory. This was not the iconic Einstein—the sockless, rumpled character with baggy sweater and fright-wig coiffure—but a younger, more romantic figure with alluring brown eyes and wavy hair. He was at the height of his prowess. Among his gifts was a powerful physical instinct, almost a sixth sense for knowing how nature should work. Einstein thought in images, such as one that began haunting him as a teenager: If a man could keep pace with a beam of light, what would he see? Would he see the electromagnetic wave frozen in place like some glacial swell? "It does not seem that something like that can exist!" Einstein later recalled thinking. He came to realize that since all the laws of physics remain the same whether you're at rest or in steady motion, the speed of light has to be constant as well. No one can catch up with a light beam. But if the speed of light is identical for all observers, something else has to give: absolute time and space. Einstein concluded that the cosmos has no universal clock or common reference frame. Space and time are "relative," flowing differently for each of us depending on our motion. Einstein's special theory of relativity, published a hundred years ago, also revealed that energy and mass are two sides of the same coin, forever linked in his famed equation E = mc². (E stands for energy, m for mass, and c for the speed of light.) "The idea is amusing and enticing," wrote Einstein, "but whether the Almighty is…leading me up the garden path—that I cannot know." He was too modest. The idea that mass could be transformed into pure energy later helped astronomers understand the enduring power of the sun. It also gave birth to nuclear weapons. But Einstein was not satisfied. Special relativity was just that—special. It could not describe all types of motion, such as objects in the grip of gravity, the large-scale force that shapes the universe. Ten years later, in 1915, Einstein made up for the omission with his general theory of relativity, which amended Newton's laws by redefining gravity. General relativity revealed that space and time are linked in a flexible four-dimensional fabric that is bent and indented by matter. In this picture, Earth orbits the sun because it is caught in the space-time hollow carved by the sun's mass, much as a rolling marble would circle around a bowling ball sitting in a trampoline. The pull of gravity is just matter sliding along the curvatures of space-time. Einstein shot to the pinnacle of celebrity in 1919, when British astronomers actually measured this warping. Monitoring a solar eclipse, they saw streams of starlight bending around the darkened sun. "Lights All Askew in the Heavens. Stars Not Where They seemed or Were Calculated to be, but Nobody Need Worry," proclaimed the headline in the New York Times. With this new insight into gravity, physicists at last were able to make actual predictions about the universe's behavior, turning cosmology into a science. Einstein was the first to try. Yet as events showed, even Einstein was a fallible genius. A misconception about the nature of the universe led him to propose a mysterious new gravitational effect—a notion he soon rejected. But he may have been right for the wrong reasons, and his "mistake" may yet turn out to be one of his deepest insights. For Newton, space was eternally at rest, merely an inert stage on which objects moved. But with general relativity, the stage itself became an active player. The amount of matter within the universe sculpts its overall curvature. And space-time itself can be either expanding or contracting. When Einstein announced general relativity in 1915, he could have taken the next step and declared that the universe was in motion, more than a decade before Hubble directly measured cosmic expansion. But at the time, astronomers conceived of the universe as a large collection of stars fixed forever in the void. Einstein accepted this immutable cosmos. Truth be told, he liked it. Einstein was often leery of the most radical consequences of his ideas. But because even a static universe would eventually collapse under its own gravity, he had to slip a fudge factor into the equations of general relativity—a cosmological constant. While gravity pulled celestial objects inward, this extra gravitational effect—a kind of antigravity—pushed them apart. It was just what was needed to keep the universe immobile, "as required by the fact of the small velocities of the stars," Einstein wrote in 1917. Twelve years later, Hubble's discovery of other galaxies racing away from ours, their light waves stretched and reddened by the expansion of space-time, vanquished the static universe. It also eliminated any need for a cosmological constant to hold the galaxies steady. During his 1931 California visit, Einstein acknowledged as much. "The red shift of distant nebulae has smashed my old construction like a hammer blow," he declared. He reputedly told a colleague that the cosmological constant was his biggest blunder. With or without that extra ingredient, the basic recipe for the expanding universe was Einstein's. But it was left to others to identify one revolutionary implication: a moment of cosmic creation. In 1931 the Belgian priest and astrophysicist Georges Lemaître put the fleeing galaxies into reverse and imagined them eons ago merged in a fireball of dazzling brilliance—a "primeval atom," as he put it. "The evolution of the world can be compared to a display of fireworks that has just ended: some few red wisps, ashes and smoke," wrote Lemaître. From this poetic scenario arose today's big bang. Many were appalled by this concept. "The notion of a beginning… is repugnant to me," said British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington in 1931. But evidence in its favor slowly gathered, climaxing in 1964, when scientists at Bell Telephone Laboratories discovered that the cosmos is awash in a sea of microwave radiation, the remnant glow of the universe's thunderous launch. Ever since then the image of the big bang has shaped and directed the work of cosmologists as strongly as Ptolemy's celestial spheres influenced astronomers in the Middle Ages. In 1980 Alan Guth, now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gave the big bang a boost, adding new particle physics to Einstein's flexible space-time. He realized that for its first trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second, the infant cosmos could have undergone a supercharged expansion—an instant of "inflation"—before settling into more measured growth. Inflation would have helped smooth out the matter and energy in the universe and flattened its overall space-time curvature, just as satellites have found by making precise measurements of the cosmic microwaves. And these days some theorists believe inflation wasn't a flash in the pan. In an ongoing process of creation, spacetime could be inflating into new universes everywhere and all the time—an infinity of big bangs. Within our own universe, the high priests of astronomy have continued the cosmological quest initiated by Einstein and Hubble, first at Mount Wilson, then at the 200-inch (508-centimeter) telescope on California's Palomar Mountain, 90 miles (145 kilometers) to the south. How fast is the universe ballooning outward? they asked. How old is it? "Answering those questions," says Wendy Freedman, director of the Carnegie Observatories, "turned out to be more difficult than anyone anticipated." Only at the turn of this century, with the help of a space telescope aptly named Hubble, did Freedman and others confidently peg the universe's current rate of expansion, as well as its age. A birthday cake for the universe would require some 14 billion candles. Astronomers have found some strange objects in this expanding universe—and these too are Einstein's children. In the 1930s a young Indian physicist, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, applied special relativity and the new theory of quantum mechanics to a star. He warned that if it surpassed a certain mass, it would not settle down as a white dwarf at the end of its life (as our sun will). Instead gravity would squeeze it down much further, perhaps even to a singular point. Horrified, Eddington declared that "there should be a law of Nature to prevent a star from behaving in this absurd way!" There was no such law. Chandrasekhar had opened the door for others to contemplate the existence of the most bizarre stars imaginable. First there was a naked sphere of neutrons just a dozen miles (nineteen kilometers) wide born in the throes of a supernova, the explosion of a massive star. A neutron star's density would be equivalent to packing all the cars in the world into a thimble. Then there was the peculiar object formed from the collapse of an even bigger star or a cluster of stars—enough mass to dig a pit in space-time so deep nothing can ever climb out. Einstein himself tried to prove that such an object—a black hole, it was later christened—could not exist. Like Eddington, he loathed what would be found at a black hole's center: a point of zero volume and infinite density, where the laws of physics break down. The discoveries that might have forced him to acknowledge his theory's strange offspring came after his death in 1955. Astronomers identified the first quasar, a remote young galaxy disgorging the energy of a trillion suns from its center, in 1963. Four years later, much closer to home, observers stumbled on the first pulsar, a rapidly spinning beacon emitting staccato radio beeps. Meanwhile spaceborne sensors spotted powerful x-rays and gamma rays streaming from points around the sky. All these new, bewildering signals are believed to pinpoint collapsed objects—neutron stars and black holes—whose crushing gravity and dizzying spin turn them into dynamos. With their discovery, the once sedate universe took on an edge; it metamorphosed into an Einsteinian cosmos, filled with sources of titanic energies that can be understood only in the light of relativity. Even Einstein's less celebrated ideas have had remarkable staying power. As early as 1912 he realized that a faraway star can act like a giant spyglass, its gravity deflecting passing light rays and magnifying objects behind it. He eventually concluded that this tiny effect defied "the resolving power of our instruments" and had "little value." With today's telescopes, astronomers are seeing galaxies and galaxy clusters act as powerful gravitational lenses, offering a peek at galaxies farther out. Since the light-bending depends on the mass of the lens, the effect also lets observers weigh the lensing galaxies. They turn out to have far more mass than can be seen. It's part of the universe's mysterious dark matter, the roughly 90 percent of its mass that can't be found in stars, gas, planets, or any other known form of matter. A cosmic web of dark matter is now thought to have governed where galaxies formed. Dark matter is the universe's hidden architecture, and gravitational lensing is one of the few practical ways to "see" it. An effect Einstein thought insignificant has become a key astronomical tool. Theorists have also dusted off his discarded cosmological constant to explain a startling new discovery, and now Einstein's "biggest blunder" is starting to look like one of his greatest successes. Astronomers had assumed that gravity is gradually slowing the expansion of the universe. But in the late 1990s two teams, measuring the distances to faraway exploding stars, found just the opposite. Like buoy markers spreading apart on ocean currents, these supernovae revealed that space-time is ballooning outward at an accelerating pace. For Einstein, the cosmological constant was a way to steady the universe. But if its repulsive effect—now called dark energy—is big enough, it could also drive the acceleration. "The need came back, and the cosmological constant was waiting," says Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute, one of the discoverers of the acceleration. "It's totally an Einsteinian concept." So is a prediction of general relativity that, if confirmed, could open new insights into the cosmos: ripples in space-time called gravity waves. To detect them, physicists have built three giant sensors, in south-central Washington State, Louisiana, and south of Pisa, Italy. In each one, laser beams run up and down miles-long pipes to measure the slight stretching and squeezing of space-time expected if a gravity wave passes by. By triangulating these measurements, scientists might trace gravity waves back to their sources. Only stunningly violent events could cause spacetime to shudder—a supernova, for example, or the titanic collision of two neutron stars or black holes. "If two black holes collided, gravity waves would be the only signals to come out," says Adalberto Giazotto, a scientist with the Pisa project. The mighty jolt of cosmic birth probably also generated gravity waves, which would still be resonating through the cosmos. These remnant ripples could hold direct evidence of the fleeting moment when physicists believe all of nature's forces were united. If so, Einstein's gravity waves could at last offer clues to something he tried and failed to develop: a "theory of everything." Physicists are still seeking such a theory—a single explanation for both the large-scale force of gravity and the short-range forces inside the atom. Catching these faint echoes of the big bang is a major goal of NASA's next generation of space astronomy missions, a plan the agency has tagged "Beyond Einstein." |
Do you support the troops? So does your local congressman! And he would like to tell you all about it using a “public service announcement” aired for free by your local television station owner. While viewers might mistake the ads for campaign commercials, media companies say they’re airing the PSAs to fulfill a civic duty. For 30 years, the National Association of Broadcasters — a lobby group for media companies such as NBC-Universal, IHeartMedia, Sinclar Broadcasting and CBS Radio — has worked with members of Congress to produce special public service announcements that are aired on radio and television stations around the country. The spots are distributed to local broadcasters, who may choose to air them as part of their public interest programming obligations. Radio stations in Missouri and Arkansas have recently aired such PSAs, according to the NAB. Below are two examples of PSAs produced this year: Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., recorded a message about cyber bullying: Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, provided a message about remembering to thank the troops: But for media watchdogs, the ads appear more like a special in-kind contributions — lucrative gifts by companies seeking favorable treatment in Congress. “Why are broadcasters using members of Congress for these?” ask Tim Karr, senior director for strategy for Free Press. “Can’t the NAB simply run PSAs from public interest organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the USO?” Karr added that the ads appear designed to “curry favor with elected members of Congress by giving them an opportunity to speak to voters via local stations.” Dennis Wharton, the executive vice president for communications for the NAB, said that “in this era of ultra-cynicism and hyper-partisanship,” the ads could be considered “nefarious.” But, he said, “I suspect most viewers and listeners will see the spots for what they are: an attempt by broadcasters to get positive messages to millions of people about cancer awareness, kids literacy and the importance of emergency preparedness, among other topics.” Wharton said the ads only appear in off years, when lawmakers are not running for reelection, to avoid “equal time” issues with other candidates. After reaching out to every member of Congress, the NAB said a record 307 members participated in the PSA program this year. The NAB is a powerhouse on Capitol Hill. The group currently has 58 lobbyists on its payroll, and spent $18.4 million on federal lobbying last year. The NAB is interested in a broad range of issues, from tax policies impacting broadcasters to rules governing media consolidation. The NAB has also served as a pivotal force in influencing campaign finance reform, helping to defeat key provisions of the landmark McCain-Feingold reforms passed over a decade ago. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., once remarked that the NAB is “the most powerful lobby in Washington” because “these are the people that shape the opinion to a large degree of the people who are your constituents.” Though many lawmakers from both parties participated in the ads this year, McCain was not one of them. |
Android users the world over were treated to quite the change of pace last year when the folks from the newly formed Cyanogen Inc. and a spinoff from Oppo launched a new high-end phone with a mid-range price tag. One of the many questions to come from the launch of the OnePlus One was the availability of updates, and with the giant Material Design curve ball Google threw with Android 5.0 it was clear that even veteran software update teams were going to struggle with getting Lollipop on existing phones in a timely fashion. The OnePlus One is a little late to the party, but Android 5.0 — in the form of Cyanogen OS 12 — is finally on its way. This update brings all of the Lollipop goodness with a few extra Cyanogen bits tossed in, and the end result is a decent step forward for all OnePlus users. As has frequently been the case with Android 5.0 updates for most existing devices this year, the first thing you'll notice when the OnePlus One powers up with Cyanogen OS 12 is a whole lot of Lollipop — specifically Android 5.0.2. Cyanogen did a great job shifting their existing features so they work around Lollipop, instead of trying to create some weird mix of the two feature sets. The lockscreen gives priority to Lollipop notifications without sacrificing the music playback UI, the notification shade keeps the ability to pull down on the left and right hand sides to access notifications and quick settings but does so without interrupting the Lollipop shade format, and Cyanogen's own home screen and drawer settings are tucked away in a clever third drawer without interrupting the default Lollipop UI. It's exactly what we've come to expect from Cyanogen OS — Android with some extra bits sprinkled in all over the place. Cyanogen stuck with the default Interruptions system that Google introduced with 5.0, which means Mute is gone and None has taken its place. The volume controls from 5.0 are largely untouched, which is either a great thing or a terrible thing depending on your position on the subject. The same is true for Ambient display and Adaptive brightness, which are both new to the OnePlus One. Ambient display, while a cool feature in concept, is somewhat less impressive on an IPS LCD panel that has to fire up the entire display to show the greyscale lockscreen, especially when compared to the Amoled version of this feature on the Nexus 6. Meanwhile, Adaptive brightness is a hugely positive step above the auto brightness controls that existed in Cyanogen OS 12, and even includes a Sunlight enhancement option that cranks the LED backlight up well above its normal max brightness to compete with the sun. While the layout is perfectly comfortable for any who have already used Lollipop, and the general look and feel is incredibly smooth, there are a few features that don't behave as expected. Gesture controls, for example, don't always play nice with Google's solutions to the same problem. Drawing a "V" on the screen to activate the flashlight works great, but it doesn't play nice with the Lollipop flashlight controls. The gesture control doesn't activate the flashlight controls in the notification tray like it did in Cyanogen OS 11S as a result, because there are two different Flashlight systems on the phone that aren't able to talk to one another. It's a relatively small issue, right until you're in the middle of a crowd of people with your phone out and you're the only one that doesn't know the flashlight is on because you've accidentally triggered the gesture in your pocket and there's no notification to indicate the feature is on. Themes are obviously going to be a big thing for Android OEMs of all shapes and sizes, and the folks at Cyanogen have taken their initial offering in this space and improved them dramatically. The Cyanogen Themes app has been heavily updated, making it easy to browse or shop for themes and only apply the parts that you want to apply. The app now also includes a per-app theme system, which floats a small paintbrush over everything and allows you to go from app to app and apply whatever theme you choose. While I've only used this new system for about a day now, so far there have been no issues. It's a great way to put a quick dark theme on a single app, and the ability to mix and match across the apps in your drawer is just plain cool. When you're done theming an app, the paintbrush just gets dragged down to the "X" at the bottom of the screen. |
Experts have warned that a government delay in reviewing building regulations could be endangering tower blocks throughout the UK. Story credit: Inside Housing Following a catastrophic tower block fire at Lakanal House in South London in 2009, which claimed six lives, fire safety failings were uncovered in the resulting investigation. These failings included inadequate fire risk assessments and panels on the exterior walls not providing the required fire resistance. Southwark Council were recently fined £570,000 after pleading guilty to four criminal charges relating to lapses in fire safety. Housing Minister Gavin Barwell said last year that the government will review part B of the Building Regulations 2010, which relate to fire safety, in the aftermath of the fire at Lakanal House. Honorary administrative secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group, Ronnie King, said the building regulations 'haven't taken account of the Lakanal House fire inquest, or updated recent accredited research'. There are still 4,000 tower blocks within the UK which have the same regulations applied to them. King added: 'The message to other social landlords and housing providers is unless there is a review the regulations you could face multi-million pound legal costs and compensation should you experience a Lakanal House tragedy.' Sam Webb, fire safety expert, said 'really serious questions' should be asked in parliament about fire safety, and that there is a 'conflict' between fire safety and the materials that are used to construct more energy efficient buildings. He said: 'The materials are not fire-resistant and in some cases they're flammable.' A spokesperson for the Department for Communities and Local Government declined to give a date for the building regulations review, adding that it will place 'in due course'. |
Okay, it's official. There is absolutely nothing that the Republican party won't say no to. Today, RNC Chairman Michael Steele refused to sign a joint statement with DNC Chairman Tim Kaine that would read: As leaders of our respective national parties, we want to speak to all Americans about the importance of conducting our political debates in a manner and tone that respects our political system and demonstrates to the world the strength of our democracy. We have a system of government that allows the great issues of our day to be resolved peacefully and civilly and that serves as a beacon of hope to those around the world who yearn for political freedom, political stability, and governing without the threat of violence. We have a system that allows people to express approval of their government or change the party in power peaceably through the ballot box. Our Constitution affords Americans the right to assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Clearly, we have different positions on the merits of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. However, we together call on elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry. We also call on all Americans to respect differences of opinion, to refrain from inappropriate forms of intimidation, to reject violence and vandalism, and to scale back rhetoric that might reasonably be misinterpreted by those prone to such behavior. |
Revelation Online CBT1 Beta Keys Giveaway 2 Thanks to the generosity of My.com, I will be giving out another set of 20 Revelation Online CBT1 Beta Keys on two giveaways running from October 20 to October 23. Giveaway 1: October 20 00:00 AM Eastern to October 21: 23:59 PM Eastern (48 hrs in duration) 10 Keys will be given away. Winners (Check your email for beta codes) lanoren1701 sleepbetter Jennifer Hildebrand Grayson Hammer vik izzy Melitros Revan Lightning Riwan Bodereau Filipe Apolinário Giveaway 2: October 22: 01:00 AM Eastern to October 23 23:59 PM Eastern (48 hrs in duration).10 Keys will be given away. Winners (Check your email for beta codes) Mihail Goliscev Jahedur Felicia Johnson Filip Varga Francesco Pio Bocci Rand Tess Berskila Simone Liquindoli Ciro Ramirez Dave M Closed Beta 1 will start on Nov 3 How to Enter Use the Giveaway interface below to enter the giveaway. There are a couple of actions you can do to increase your chances as well so read all the entry options carefully. Read about details of CBT1 here: https://goo.gl/KABU6Q (It will start on Nov 3) Check here and your email on October 22 and October 24 to see if you have won. Winners will be contacted by email with instructions on how to redeem the code. Contest Rules One beta key per person. I reserve the right to cancel, terminate, modify or invalid contest entries if I suspect security, fairness or proper conduct has been compromised. Any person found to be tampering with the entry process will be disqualified. Winners will be notified by email so make sure to provide a valid email address. Dulfy.net Revelation Online CBT1 Beta Keys Giveaway 4 Buying Founder Pack? If you do not wish to participate in the beta key giveaway and want to purchase founder packs instead (guaranteed access to closed beta), feel free to click the banner below to purchase them. Each purchase from the link below will help me and the site out with expenses. |
In 2008 , Gutiérrez won the Formula BMW Europe championship title, [5] becoming the youngest Mexican driver to win an International Championship at 17 years old. He also won the inaugural GP3 season in 2010 . With the Lotus GP team in 2012 , he became the first GP3 graduate to finish in the top three of the GP2 parent series. Gutiérrez was born in Monterrey , Nuevo León , the second of four brothers and one sister. His father Roberto Manuel Gutiérrez and mother Clara Gutiérrez are frequently seen at Esteban's races. [6] Esteban shares the passion for karting with his brother Andrés, seven years older than him. Gutiérrez is part of the young talent program of Escuderia Telmex . Gutiérrez enjoys karting, motorcycling , golf , virtual races and skiing . [7] Karting Edit Gutiérrez started his career in 2004 in the Mexican Rotax Max Challenge when he raced in the last 3 events of the season. In 2005, he again competed in the Mexican Rotax Max Challenge, and also raced in the Grand Nationals in South Bend, Indiana, where he finished third, which earned him a place at the World Finals in Malaysia, where he finished 22nd due to mechanical problems. In 2006, Esteban won all 5 races in the Camkart Challenge Mexico, and again he raced in the Mexican Rotax Max Challenge. He also finished 4th in the Mexican Grand Nationals in Zacatecas, Mexico. Formula BMW Series Edit 2007 Edit In 2007, Gutiérrez made the step up into the single-seater ranks, competing in the Formula BMW USA series. He finished second overall in the championship, with 4 wins, 8 podiums, 9 pole positions and 3 fastest laps, earning him Rookie of the Year honours. Despite finishing second, Gutiérrez finished some 87 points behind runaway champion Daniel Morad. Gutiérrez raced at the Formula BMW World Final in 2007, eventually finishing last of the classified finishers in 25th.[8] 2008 Edit Gutiérrez moved across to Europe to compete in the 2008 Formula BMW Europe championship, which was the championship's maiden season after the merging of the British and German series. He won the championship by 26 points from his closest rival Marco Wittmann, taking 7 wins, 6 of which consecutively, and appearing on the podium another 5 times. Out of the seasons 16 races, he only finished outside the points twice in the whole season and retired once overall, giving him a final score of 353 points. In his final FBMW race, Gutiérrez qualified on pole and finished third at the 2008 World Final in Mexico City, beaten only by the current FBMW Americas champion at the time Alexander Rossi and Michael Christensen.[9] Formula 3 Euro Series Edit For 2009, Gutiérrez moved up to the Formula 3 Euro Series with a seat at reigning champions ART Grand Prix alongside Jules Bianchi, Valtteri Bottas and Adrien Tambay. He finished ninth overall in the championship, taking two podiums at the Nürburgring and Dijon Prenois. He ended the season with 26 points altogether, putting Mexico sixth in the Nations Cup. GP3 Series Edit 2010 saw Gutiérrez move to the GP3 Series, competing for ART Grand Prix. He joined Pedro Nunes and Alexander Rossi at the team.[10] Gutiérrez won the inaugural season with two races to spare by taking pole position, and the resultant two bonus points that came with it, for the final race weekend in Monza.[11] Gutiérrez dominated the whole season as he scored 10 times out of the 16 races, with 8 podium finishes and 5 wins. He only failed to finish once during the last sprint race at Monza.[12] GP2 Series Edit 2009 Edit Gutiérrez was invited to the GP2 test in Jerez, Spain for the 2009 season on 6 October for ART Grand Prix, his first time in a GP2 car. During the morning session, he finished 11th fastest, and for the afternoon session, he finished 6th with a time just over half a second slower than the fastest time set by Jules Bianchi, who was also driving for ART. He was also recognised as the third fastest rookie of the day.[13] Gutiérrez again participated in another test session for GP2 at the end of year test in Paul Ricard, France for Telmex Arden International. On the first day on 10 November, he finished 10th in the morning session,[14] and 11th in the afternoon.[15] He was called back for the third day on 12 November, and finished 7th in the morning session,[16] and back to 11th in the afternoon.[17] 2010 Edit At the end of 2010, after winning the Inaugural GP3 season with ART, the GP2 sister team signed him for a full drive for the 2011 season[18] so he participated at the end of year tests in Abu Dhabi throughout November. The first day of testing on 23 November was good for Gutiérrez, as he finished 6th in the morning session, and then followed that up by finishing 2nd in the afternoon session.[19] On the second day, he finished 5th in both morning and afternoon sessions.[20] After a 2-day break, the tests resumed on the 27th, with Gutiérrez finishing 5th in the morning session, but dropping down to 24th in the afternoon, giving him the 17th fastest lap of the day after driving the most laps of both sessions combined at 62.[21] On the 4th and final day of the test, he achieved the 5th fastest lap in the morning session, but again dropped to 24th position in the afternoon, giving him 16th overall.[22] 2011 Edit After being signed for the team at the end of 2010, ART Grand Prix was renamed Lotus ART for the 2011. He was paired with Jules Bianchi for both the GP2 series and GP2 Asia series. He finished eleventh in the 2011 GP2 Asia series after taking a single 4th-place finish at the Imola sprint race, after failing to score during the other 3 races in the series. In the main series, he scored his first points with a 7th-place finish in the Valencia feature race after not scoring a single point during the rounds beforehand, and then he followed this up with his first GP2 series victory at the sprint race as well as setting his first fastest lap.[23] He eventually finished 13th in the drivers' championship after only scoring twice more including a 2nd-place finish in the sprint race at Hungary. He remained with Lotus ART for the 2012 season, with the team being renamed Lotus GP after the increased sponsorship from Lotus, and was partnered with James Calado.[24] Gutiérrez participated in the 2011 GP2 Final in Abu Dhabi on 12 November, which was supposed to be the starting round of the 2012 GP2 Asia series, but as the series was combined with the GP2 main series for 2012, it was made as a non-championship round. He finished first in the practice session for the race, after setting a time that was 0.5 seconds faster than the nearest competitor.[25] He had qualified in 8th position for the feature race, but he had to enter the pits in order to repair a damaged rear wing sustained when he was hit by Stefano Coletti at Turn 1 on the first lap and eventually finished one lap down from the race winner in 21st place.[26] The sprint race was a different story however, after starting from the 10th row of the grid in 21st, he made an exceptional race out of it and finished 5th, even though he was down in 9th on the last lap, taking 2 points and finishing 8th overall for the Final.[27] 2012 Edit Gutiérrez follows teammate James Calado in 1st place out of the first corner at the 2012 Malaysian Sprint race. Gutiérrez started the 2012 season with a double points finish at the first race in Malaysia including a second place in the sprint race.[28] He followed this up with a third and another second-place finish at the first Bahrain round in the feature and sprint races respectively. However, after the Lotus GP drivers opted to sit out the practice session for the second round to conserve tires, Gutiérrez qualified poorly in 14th due to the difference in conditions, but eventually made up enough places to score a point with tenth, and then finished fourth in the sprint race.[29][30] At the race in Catalunya, he managed another double points-scoring result with tenth and seventh-place finishes, and also the fastest lap in the feature race.[31] Gutiérrez's run of points-scoring finishes ended in Monaco where he was running in eighth position for most of the feature race before hitting the barriers several laps before the finish. He pitted for a new nosecone, but by then he was well out of contention for points and eventually pulled into his pit-box, but he was classified as a finisher since he had completed 90% of the race distance.[32] His sprint race was considerably better, as a first-lap crash between ten other drivers enabled him to jump from 23rd to 12th in a few corners, and after consistently setting quick laps throughout the rest of the race, he once again made it into the final points-scoring position of eighth.[33] In Valencia, Gutiérrez qualified on the second row in third,[34] before he was penalised for impeding other drivers and dropped two places down into fifth.[35] During the race, Gutiérrez managed to make up a few places at the start and was running in third position for most of the race before the first safety car came out, leaving his team mate in first place the only one left to pit. A few laps later the race started again but there was another scrap which led to a second safety car period, where Calado finally pitted for fresh rubber bringing Gutiérrez up into second for the restart, where he dived down the inside of Fabio Leimer to take the lead and kept it until the checkered flag, giving him his first feature race win at the same track he won his first sprint race the year before.[36] During the sprint race, Gutiérrez ran into the back of a crashed Ericsson on the second corner, where he was then hit from behind by Coletti and Valsecchi taking him out of the race and giving him his first retirement of the season.[37] Silverstone was to be another great round for Gutiérrez, where he managed to get himself up on to the second row of the grid after benefiting from near by drivers suffering from penalties, as well as his closest championship rivals receiving penalties too.[38][39] For the second feature race in a row, he was again in the right place at the right time after pitting first of all the drivers and moving up to second before a safety car was released while the race leader, Leimer, had yet to pit, leaving Gutiérrez to inherit the lead and hold it long enough to finish first, giving him his second feature race win in as many races.[40] He pushed hard in the sprint race to get back on the podium, where after climbing up to fourth from eighth, he out-braked himself trying to pass Felipe Nasr who was running third at time, and lost out to Johnny Cecotto Jr. and dropped to fifth position. However, he made a do-or-die overtake around the outside of Cecotto at Stowe corner, where his cold tires caused him to have tremendous oversteer and he careered off the circuit, and in his attempt to get back onto the track, he slid off the grass and clouted into the side of the Venezuelan who in turn smashed through a safety barrier and into a tire wall. Gutiérrez managed to limp to the line with a severely damaged car to take the checkered flag in fourth place.[41] A few hours after the race, Gutiérrez was found to have caused an avoidable collision and was given a 10-place grid penalty for the next race.[42] In Hockenheim, Gutiérrez qualified down in 12th position, which was then 22nd with his penalty from Silverstone applied.[43] For the feature race, he managed to make up many places on a drying track and was locked in a last lap battle for ninth with Ericsson before Tom Dillmann overtook the both of them leaving Gutiérrez to reclaim tenth and the final points position.[44] For the sprint race he made a good start off the line and gradually took place by place but was unable to pass Fabio Leimer on the last few laps and had to settle for fifth. With only 7 points to his name, he failed to capitalise on championship rivals Luiz Razia and Velsecchi's short comings at the round.[45] A week later in Hungary, he managed to qualify up in seventh position,[46] and led the race with a 20-second lead at one point, but with a one stop strategy and failing to get up to speed after the pit-stop on his new super-soft tires, he finished down in eighth.[47] Starting from reverse pole for the sprint race, Gutiérrez easily cruised to another series win by 3.5 seconds over Nathanaël Berthon with Razia a further 12 seconds behind, giving him his 3rd win of the season and keeping him in third place in the championship for another round.[48] Belgium ended up as his worst round of the season despite qualifying in third for the feature race. He had a good start and kept position but touched the grass while attempting to pass Rio Haryanto and slipped back into fourth. He did manage to pass his teammate down the hill from turn 1 but a first corner collision meant he passed under yellow flags which was under investigation for most of the race. A botched pit-stop where his rear right wheel stuck was only the beginning of his bad luck where a major crash caused a safety car period and then the race was red flagged a few laps later. Despite allowing Calado to re-take his position under the safety car earlier in the race, he was still deemed to have overtaken under yellow flags on the first corner and was given a drive through penalty, and despite racing back through the field, he finished 11th.[49] During the sprint race, crashes throughout the first lap meant that championship rivals Razia and Valsecchi were out of the points giving him a great opportunity to catch up. He did manage to get up to eighth on the first lap, but while running in fifth, he made an over ambitious overtake around Les Combes on Julián Leal caused them both to spin into the gravel trap effectively ruining his race and leaving him in 13th at the finish line.[50] The no points scoring round moved him down into fourth in the championship. Monza did not go well again for Gutiérrez, as he qualified down in ninth,[51] and then went on to finish exactly where he started, after being mugged of his reverse pole position in the dying moments by Colleti.[52] The sprint race went no better, as damage on the first lap caused his front wing to lose a lot of downforce before he finally went straight into the wall around the Parabolica corner, giving him only his second retirement of the season.[53] At the final round in Singapore, he was out of the running for the championship, but could still achieve third in the championship. He qualified in third on the grid[54] and jumped ahead of a slow moving Luca Filippi up into second, where he stayed for the rest of the race as he could not get by Max Chilton.[55] He took the fastest lap of the race giving him his third place in the championship back, but he was only 3 points ahead of Chilton. During the sprint race, both Chilton and Calado dropped out of contention for points giving him third place overall in for the season as he cruised home in sixth position.[56] His third place in the championship marked him the first GP3 graduate to finish in the top 3 of the GP2 series, with 176 points, 3 wins, 4 other separate podiums and 5 fastest laps, equalling Valsecchi's total for the year for most fastest laps of the season. |
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