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Dani Alves came close to tears when Juventus defeated his former club Barcelona in the quarter-final of this season’s Champions League but says he felt disrespected by the Catalan club when he left Camp Nou for the Serie A champions a year ago. Marcelo and Dani Alves make Champions League final a battle of the full-backs | Sid Lowe Read more The right-back is expected to start against Real Madrid in the final on Saturday and has been in exceptional form during Juventus’s European run, creating three of their four goals in the semi-final against Monaco and scoring the other. But, writing exclusively for the Players’ Tribune website, he explained his affection for Barça led to some mixed emotions after the 3-0 aggregate win in April. “When we beat Barcelona in the Champions League I walked up to my brother Neymar and gave him a hug,” he said. “He was crying and a part of me felt like crying too.” Alves, who spent eight years at Barcelona before departing on a free transfer with a year left on his contract, says they are “still in my blood” and he remains frustrated by the manner of his exit. “Was I disrespected by the board of directors before I left the club last summer? Absolutely,” he said. “That is simply how I feel and you can never tell me any different. But you cannot play for a club for eight years and achieve everything that we did and not have that club in your heart for ever. Managers, players and board members come and go but Barça will never go away. “ Before I went to Juventus, I made a final promise to the board at Barcelona. I said: ‘You’re going to miss me.’ I didn’t mean as a player. Barça have plenty of incredible players. What I meant was they were going to miss my spirit. They were going to miss the care I had for the dressing room. They were going to miss the blood I spilled every time I put on the shirt.” Play Video 1:59 Real Madrid look to make Champions League history against Juventus – video Alves won 23 trophies there – with three European Cups and six La Liga titles. He was one of Pep Guardiola’s first signings, arriving from Sevilla in 2008, and describes his former manager as a “genius”. “Pep would tell you exactly how everything was going to happen in a match before it even happened,” he said. “The sensation when we left every one of his pre-match talks was like we were already up 3-0. We were so empowered, so prepared, it felt like we were already winning.” Guardiola, who is under pressure to begin replicating that success at Manchester City, reshaped Alves’s understanding of football. “Pep was the first coach in my life who showed me how to play without the ball,” he said. “And he wouldn’t just demand that his players change their game, he would sit us down and show us why we wanted us to change with statistics and video. Those Barça teams were pretty much unbeatable. We played by memory. We already knew what we were going to do. We didn’t have to think.” Alves played alongside Lionel Messi at Barcelona but believes Juventus have a comparable talent in the Argentina forward Paulo Dybala, who should start behind Gonzalo Higuaín in Cardiff. Dybala scored twice in the quarter-final against Barça. “In training one day, I saw something in Dybala I had seen before in Messi,” he said. “It was not just the gift of pure talent. I have seen that many times in my life. It was the gift of pure talent combined with the will to conquer the world.” Juventus seek their first European Cup since 1996 and Alves believes his team go about things in a different manner to the free-flowing Barcelona of which he was an integral part. Victory against Real would feel sweet but the motivation has nothing to do with his feelings towards his old club. “At Barça, we played by memory,” he said. “At Juve, it’s different. It’s our collective mentality that has carried us to the final. When the whistle blows, we simply find a way to win no matter what. Winning is not just a goal at Juve, it’s like an obsession. There are no excuses. “This Saturday, I have a chance to win my 35th trophy in 34 years on earth. It is a special opportunity for me, and it has nothing to do with proving to the Barcelona board that they made a mistake in letting me go.” Read the full piece by Dani Alves here |
Sam Briggs has been named the champion of the 2015 CrossFit Liftoff, powered by Rogue, after Lauren Fisher’s score was adjusted on the workout. Fisher claimed 508 reps (7+ rounds), one rep more than Briggs, however she completed 436 reps (6+ rounds) which put her in fourth in the workout and seventh overall. "It was a mistake," said General Manager of the CrossFit Games Justin Bergh. "On the behalf of the athlete, the judge and our crew who watched it." The video was spot checked before the announcement of the winners, but upon further review it became clear that there had been a mistake. As the champ, Briggs will receive $3,000 and the largest Rogue equipment package with a Rogue WL barbell, 320 lb. of competition bumper plates, rubber change plates, Oso collars, and a Rogue weight belt for her winning combination of a 180-lb. snatch, 220-lb. clean and jerk and 507-rep score on the workout. For the 2013 Fittest Woman on Earth and fourth-place finisher at the 2015 Games, this was a significant win after a year of battling injuries. |
The majority of students in a Brazilian jiu jitsu academy are not the competitors you see on the cover of the latest BJJ magazines. The majority of Brazilian jiu jitsu students are recreational participants who have families, go to school, or work full time. The majority of people in the workforce spend most of their day sitting, followed by a long commute home or to the academy, which again involves sitting. Sitting is one of the worst things you can do for your mobility. Unfortunately it is one of the things we do most often. Without proper mobility, performing some of the fundamental Brazilian jiu jitsu techniques and warm up movements will be very difficult. Perhaps the most fundamental of these movements is the hip escape. The hip escape is going to be difficult to complete without good range of motion in the hips. Brazilian jiu jitsu is difficult to learn even for the most flexible and athletic student, but when you are limited by mobility it makes it even more challenging. Every technique in BJJ requires some use of the hips, and in order to have a good guard you need to be mobile in the hips. Having proper mobility in all your joints is important for performance and health. Future articles will focus on other joints and how they affect your Brazilian jiu jitsu. The focus of this article is on the hips. The Purpose of the Hips The hip joint is a ball and socket synovial joint designed for movement. The round head of the femur forms the ball of the joint and the acetabulum forms the cup-like structure that the round head of the femur fits into. The hip joint is made up of the following ligaments - iliofemoral, pubofemoral, and ischiofemoral. These ligaments combine with the muscles around the hip to provide stability to the joint. The muscles that surround the hip joint provide the joint with movement. The gluteals, quadriceps, iliopsoas (primary flexor of the hip), hamstring, and groin muscles all surround the hip. The graphic to the right only shows a portion of the muscles involved. As you can see, there are many muscles that provide movement to the hip, and weakness or overdevelopment in any of them will affect everything in the surrounding areas. Often, tightness in the hips can result in low back pain. The hip is designed to move in multiple directions. A hip joint that has normal range of motion should be able to move through the following without restrictions or pain - flexion, extension, adduction, abduction, lateral rotation, and medial rotation. The Hips and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu In Brazilian jiu jitsu the hips are used in every position. From arm bars to controlling someone in the mount, the hips need to be strong and mobile. Since the average BJJ student works full time or goes to school, they spend most of the day sitting. As we know sitting is one of the worst things we can do for our hip mobility. Learning Brazilian jiu jitsu can be very difficult, and students get frustrated when they are unable to learn techniques. They get even more frustrated with they are trying to learn technique and are unable to move their hips properly to complete the technique. For the students who have been training for a while, maintaining hip mobility will keep them training longer. Every single person who trains Brazilian jiu jitsu should spend some time on mobility. Exercises and Corrective Work for the Hips Before every training session, whether it is Brazilian jiu jitsu or strength training, mobility work is important. For the hips, break up mobility work into two types: First, smashing movements. Smashing movements are anything that involves a foam roller or lacrosse balls. Smashing movements should be done before more strenuous activity or, done on their own, they can make a great recovery workout. Use a foam roller or lacrosse balls before your next training session and attack the following areas for two minutes each - thoracic spine, lumbar spine, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Second, do stretching-type movements. These are things that look like stretches but involve resistance bands, or holding a position for a long time. After training, stretching-type movements can be done to cool down. Try some hip extensions using a resistance band. Spend about five minutes on each hip. On the days you do not train BJJ and instead head to the gym for a strength workout, focus on hip movements. Start with any type of squatting movement. Front squats, back squats, and box squats all are great for Brazilian jiu jitsu. Second, do a variation of the deadlift. Sumo, conventional, and trap bar deadlifts provide some variety. Keep your compound lifts heavy and for low reps. Next, add in some accessory movements. A great accessory exercise is leg curls using a resistance band. When you use a resistance band the tension increases, as you get closer to the end range of the movement. Attach a band to any stable surface - a power rack works well. Place a bench or a plyometric box in front of the rack. Place both feet in-between the band and perform leg curls. The further you move the bench away from the rack the more resistance you add. Try fifty repetitions. Break them up any way you want - 10 sets of 5, 5 sets of 10. It does not matter, just try to hit fifty. Finally finish off with some step-ups on a plyobox. Hold two weights at your side. You can use dumbbells or kettlebells. Place one leg on the plyobox and step into your front leg that is on the box. Your leg that is not on the box should come off the ground and you will end up standing on the plyobox. Return to the starting position and repeat. I like my athletes the complete all the required reps on one leg before switching to the other leg. Pay close attention to your glutes. When you reach the top position squeeze you glutes. The single-leg work will help balance any asymmetries developed from Brazilian jiu jitsu. Conclusion There are things in life we cannot avoid. Sitting is one of them. The goal is not to avoid sitting; it’s to minimize the damage. The average person who does not participate in Brazilian jiu jitsu might not notice how tight his or her hips are until it is too late and he or she experiences back and or knee issues. In Brazilian jiu jitsu, limited range of motion in the hips shows up right away. Limited hip movement makes it difficult to perform some of the Brazilian jiu jitsu techniques. In addition limited hip movement will increase your chances of injury. The goal is to be able to train Brazilian jiu jitsu for a long time. Taking the time to focus on your mobility and the strength of your hips will keep you on the mats for many years to come. Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock. Photo 2 by Beth ohara (Own work) [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons. |
Anti-bikie laws report handed to Queensland Government for consideration Updated The Queensland Government has received an independent review into the controversial anti-bikie laws, but is yet to publicly announce how it may amend the legislation. Key points: Queensland Government will not announce decision on amending legislation until report goes before Cabinet on Monday CCC head wrote to review taskforce warning outlaw bikie gangs are poised to regroup SA Police Commissioner says that state's laws have helped reduce gang violence Retired Justice Alan Wilson delivered the report on Thursday after being tasked in June with reviewing what are the nation's toughest anti-bikie laws. The State Government said it would not announce its final decision before it went before a cabinet meeting on Monday. On Thursday, it was revealed the head of the Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) Alan MacSporran wrote to the review taskforce in December warning outlaw bikie gangs were poised to regroup. "Several OMCGs have sought to establish or re-establish a presence on the Gold Coast, after their influence waned in the wake of the 2013 'crackdown'," he wrote in a letter released under Right to Information. "In recent times, the most prominent groups seeking to obtain a foothold are the Hells Angels, Finks, Bandidos and Nomads." Opposition MP Jarrod Bleijie, who was instrumental in the introduction of the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act (VLAD) when he was Queensland attorney-general in 2013, said any move to water down the VLAD laws would be disastrous. "This should send shivers down the spines of every police officer in Queensland, who as a community and society, [are[ sent out to protect the citizens of Queensland and [are] put on the front line to deal with these issues," he said. "You've now got the two major law enforcement agencies in Queensland - the Queensland Police Service and the Crime and Corruption Commission - warning the Government that if they weaken these laws, Queensland will be less safe than it is today." SA laws helped reduce gang violence: Police Commissioner South Australia adopted similar laws to Queensland last year, although some aspects were not as extreme. SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the laws had helped reduce gang violence in the state. "We found those laws so far to be very successful and that's evidenced by the lack of activity that we're seeing around outlaw motorcycle gang members in our public places," he said. "We see that the level of safety in our community has improved as a result of the inability of these members to associate or congregate or exert their influence by wearing their club colours or paraphernalia." "It's made it much more difficult for them to associate, have a shared meeting place and take advantage of the strength they have behind the club." Topics: laws, public-sector, activism-and-lobbying, police, crime, qld, brisbane-4000 First posted |
The Republican-led House Rules Committee late Monday approved a rule for a massive Hurricane Sandy relief package that shuts out most GOP proposals to pare back the size of the bill. The main bill provides $17 billion in relief, and an amendment made in order would add another $33.7 billion, for a total of $50.7 billion. Late last week, Republicans offered amendments that would trim the bill significantly, but few of those were made "in order" by the Rules Committee on Monday. For example, Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) proposed amendments that would have slashed $22 billion from the total package, but none of them were accepted by the committee. ADVERTISEMENT And Rep.(R-Ga.) proposed several amendments that would have cut more than $300 million from the bill. House Rules made just one of these in order — to cut $13 million in funding to "accelerate the National Weather Service ground readiness project."All told, Republican amendments were made in order that would cut less than $200 million from the $50.7 billion package. One of these, from Rep.(R-Texas), would cut $150 million for Regional Ocean Partnership grants.Another amendment made in order, from Rep.(R-La.), would cut nearly $10 million from the Fish & Wildlife Service. And one from Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) would cut $1 million for the Legal Services Corporation, which provides legal aid to low-income Americans.Preventing votes on the larger proposals to cut back the size of the bill reveals the ongoing split within the Republican Party about whether disaster aid should be off set. It is also likely to draw anger from conservatives later in the week, when the bill is considered. Just a few weeks ago, 67 House Republicans voted against a $9.7 billion Sandy aid bill because they believed it would allow the National Flood Insurance Program to go deeper into debt without any reforming of the program.McClintock told The Hill last week that he and many other Republicans believe this week's Sandy relief bill is filled with expensive items that are not critical to providing relief for victims of Sandy."These disaster bills are becoming pork spending," he said. "There's lots of spending in these bills that has nothing to do with the disaster."The only chance Republicans will have to mitigate a significant piece of the bill is by voting for an amendment from Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) that was made in order. His language would require a 1.63 percent cut to discretionary programs to make up for the $17 billion in spending in the main bill.During the Rules Committee hearing, Republicans and Democrats indicated support for keeping away the bigger amendments that might have complicated passed in both the House and the Senate."I am requesting an appropriate rule for this legislation to ensure swift passage," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said. "Hurricane Sandy has brought much of the Northeast region to its knees, and, as it has been in the past, it is once again our duty to help our people and their communities get back on their feet in a timely fashion."Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said she worried about holding votes on GOP amendments that she said would be seen as a "poison pill.""I am deeply concerned the rule will make in order so many as to constitute filibuster by amendment, or any number of small reduction amendments making for death by a thousand cuts," she said. "I ask the Committee not to propose a rule that hinders swift House passage of a bill the Senate can pass and the President can sign."The House will start work on the Sandy package Tuesday by taking up the rule for the bill, but might finish the bill by Wednesday. Other amendments made in order by the Rules Committee are from:Jon Runyan (R-N.J.), to clarify that money in the bill for fisheries can be used by states that were hit by Sandy and suffered a fisheries disaster in 2012;John Campbell (R-Calif.) and(D-Ore.), clarifying the use of federal funds for Corps of Engineers construction projects;Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), increasing the Community Development Fund by $25 million, and offsetting that increase elsewhere in the bill;Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), requiring FEMA to disclose all disaster relief grants;(R-Mich.), to restore a requirement that local investments are required in Historic Preservation Grants;(R-Utah), to prohibit the government from acquiring any more federal land under the bill; andVelazquez, to increase funding for the National Cemetery Administration by $1 million. |
by Noah Davis I didn’t know what I would get paid to write this article. I didn’t ask. It doesn’t matter. It won’t make a tangible dent in paying the rent on my apartment in Brooklyn, or, for that matter, rent on an apartment in any other city. By the time I finish the research, the interviews, the writing, and the editing, whatever small sum — $30, $125, $200 — this site pays me will pale in comparison to the effort. It’s not “worth it” in a traditional monetary sense. I’m doing it for exposure (maybe hire me?), because I’m interested in the topic, and because it’s immediately relevant to my so-called career as a freelance writer. With apologies to H.L. Mencken, this really isn’t about the money. It’s not news that making a living by writing on the Internet is a tough business. Freelancing for websites is nearly unsustainable, especially in the one-off pitch, write and edit sense. But here’s the thing: It rarely makes financial sense for the website, either. This piece alone will almost certainly lose money for The Awl; nearly all the site’s pieces do. (Sorry, gang.) That’s true across the Internet, as a few big hits, the site as a whole, or big-name writers carry the rest. While Nate Thayer and the Atlantic battled over a piece the publication asked to run for free, chances are good that if the editors paid him, they would have lost money. This doesn’t make the request more or less legitimate, but it is relevant in the never-ending calculus of creating a profitable publication. Nicholas Jackson worked as an editor at TheAtlantic.com and saw the math first-hand. He has moved on, first to Outside’s website and now to Pacific Standard (I had or have contracts with him at both outlets). At The Atlantic’s website, he had a monthly freelance budget to use at his disposal, but pieces pitched by the random freelancer rarely made a positive impact on the bottom line. “I can look at it and say that the piece wasn’t worth the $100 we paid,” he said. “These littler freelance pieces are being subsidized by the James Fallows of the world. There’s a small handful of people who can make money online. The hope is that you balance all of that out.” Assume an editor pays a writer $100. Taking as a random decent example a $5 CPM, the piece would need 20,000 pageviews to make that $100. That doesn’t take into account the editor’s salary, the salaries of any developers, or any other costs beyond getting letters into a Word document. (In particular, the people selling the ads tend to get paid more than all the rest of those people.) In any event, a person can’t afford to do much reporting or spend too much time writing if he or she is only getting $100 a story and planning to make a living. The likelihood of that story breaking out in any meaningful way is pretty low. There is a general correlation between good, hard work and success, but it’s not one-to-one. When Ann Friedman edited Good, the magazine produced big, ambitious work, some of which found a wider audience and some that did not. Success was unpredictable. “A lot of that really high quality work were the hits. But there were one or two that weren’t for every one that ‘hit,’” she said. In that way, making money on the web has much in common with book publishing, just with more cat photos. The Internet democratized writing. Obviously. Nearly anyone can string together a few sentences and try to find an audience. Writing seems like an easy gig, or at least one for which no additional knowledge base is required. There’s a reason Will Hunting’s intelligence is shown through his math prowess, not his ability to pen a paragraph. The number of “writers” exploded, even while one estimate for the number of official jobs for full-time journalists decreased from 61,000 in 1997 to 45,500 in 2012. But the destruction of the job market hurts not only the quantity, but the quality. For one thing, it reduces the number of mentors. “There’s a whole generation of kids who are really bright and who are interested in this work. None of them have been trained as reporters and it’s disastrous,” said David Samuels, who writes frequently for Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and the New Yorker. “Reporting is a craft. Like other crafts, you learn it through apprenticeship and by doing the job. You can’t substitute blogging on the Huffington Post for writing long reported pieces for magazines or working your way up from the Quad Cities Times to the Chicago Tribune.” Alana Newhouse is the editor-in-chief of Tablet and a frequent speaker on panels about the state of the media and longform journalism. She argues that the issue is not the increase in people putting pen to paper or keypad to blog, but the lack of a mechanism for separating those who should remain amateurs from those who should make a living from writing. “I’m less concerned with lots of people trying to be writers than I am about an industry that doesn’t know how to distill out who’s good and who’s bad, in part because there are so many open doors but more because a lot of outlets either closed or lost their moorings,” said Newhouse. “I think that’s okay for right now. What I’m hoping is that in the next five years you’re going to see some of those doors close but, more importantly, others — including some of the more established outlets — turning themselves into, or back into, powerful entities that can actually help writers become writers. That’s a challenge for the adults in the room. But that’s not a challenge for kids right out of college.” (Samuels and Newhouse now live together, which doesn’t really matter but seems weird to not mention. I talked to them separately. Newhouse was at work; Samuels had just made his two children chicken cutlets for dinner.) As a result of the lack of a good path to actual jobs — and, maybe, the alternately baffled and entitled Generation Millennial — the prevalence of the freelance lifestyle increases. We want a number for that world, something that reflects What Writing Is Worth Now. But that’s an impossible task, something that a massive Branch discussion proved. Revenue streams on the Internet are too nascent and too in-flux to provide anything concrete. A growing number of publications are able to pay something, which is an improvement, but the value of the written word cratered simply because most of the Internet’s publications, unlike their printed forebears, has no subscriber base. “You’re looking at a business that managed to flush tens of billions of dollars down the toilet. Except it didn’t go down the toilet, it went to Google. The reason Google is worth $30 billion is because an entire industry decided to give away its ‘content’ for free,” said Samuels. “As a working writer, I know that my work isn’t free. I know that it cost the magazine money because I know what they paid me and I know what I filed in expenses, and that’s the lesser part of what it actually costs to publish something.” I went freelance full time in December 2011 and made $17,000 in the first seven months, an average of almost $2500 a month. Making that little was, more or less, the plan. I had savings and I knew I needed to “get my name out there.” I wrote for free. I wrote for very little. I wrote pieces I didn’t want to write. I said no to almost nothing. Slowly, it started to pay off. A story I wrote for The Awl prompted an editor at The Verge to contact me. I’ve written a number of features for them that paid between $750 and $1,500. After flying on Emirates Airlines and enjoying the in-flight magazine, I pitched the editor. He liked them and I continue to write features that pay a little less than a $1/word. I wrote slideshows for Complex.com for $10/slide (about sports, not hot women). I wrote a feature ($1,000) and blog posts ($250) for ESPN.com’s Grantland, and a photo-driven bit for ESPN The Magazine ($800). I did pieces for BuzzFeed ($300), Penthouse ($750-$1,500), The Wall Street Journal’s sports section ($1/word), SBNation’s Longform unit ($1,750), Splitsider ($100), Guyism.com ($300/story), Street Fight ($0 but a slice of equity), The New Republic’s website ($150), and other outlets. Some paid more than they needed to, some paid less than they should. Deadspin gave me $100 for two pieces I wrote in Kiev, Ukraine. That seemed low, especially when they offered Jay Mariotti $1,000. (I’m 1/20th as valuable as he? Perhaps not untrue, but still, ouch.) At various points, I had contracts with mediabistro.com ($900/month), NBC ($350/month), Outside ($433/month), and Pacific Standard ($600/month). I pitched and wrote constantly. I submitted invoices to between six and 12 outlets a month. But while I found consistent work, there were no massive payoffs. The most I made for a single piece was $2,200, although I did help launch and continue to edit American Soccer Now, a soccer website. I was paid a one-time fee of $10,000 and given a bit of equity. In my accounting, I spread that money over the six months starting in June, 2012 and now spend two hours a day working on the site, essentially for free. I did less glamorous work, like ghostwriting a self-help guide ($40/hour) and some light editing and web production for a major media company ($50/hour). These weren’t my favorite assignments, but they paid well and freed me up to take a flyer on other pieces with low rates but potentially a bigger impact. Plus, while we’d all like to think there’s some magical fairytale land where freelancers write what they want when they want, that simply isn’t true. I have talked to many, many freelance writers while trying to figure out how to make it as one over the past eight years, and the vast majority take the occasional (or frequent) lucrative gig when it arrives. I’m lucky. I’m making it work. I learned plenty about the economics of business, the good and the bad, especially that I am a poor negotiator. Still, I made a little more than $50,000 in the last six months of 2012 and around $45,000 during the first half of this year. It’s possible to succeed in this gig economy. It’s also exhausting. I’ve grown more ambitious and pitched bigger stories to larger outlets, but nothing has hit yet. Still, I keep trying. Ken Doctor says that this “gig” model is actually a throwback to the past. “The journalism that developed post-World War II and lasted for so long was able to generate lots of middle-class jobs at middle-class wages. You would work for one employer and make enough money to live a middle-class life. Those jobs have mostly gone away, and the idea of doing two or three things at least for different people and cobbling together enough money to make a desent income is where a lot of this has gone,” the Newsonomics.com founder says. “That’s what a lot of journalists did pre-World War II. They worked two or three different jobs. They were contractors of one kind or another. Clearly, it’s going in that direction.” Tina Brown knows we’ve forgotten that history. New entrants to the freelance world don’t expect to land huge contracts, which are even rarer today than they were in the past when media thrived. Instead, they fit the puzzle pieces together. After Ann Friedman was laid off from Good, she started writing weekly columns for CJR and NYMag.com, brilliant charts for The Hairpin, and other posts for various other outlets. “Reoccurring web columns are the backbone of my income,” she said. Print isn’t the rule; it’s the exception, which Friedman learned (or perhaps already knew in her capacity as an editor). “My plan that I’m going to supplement my weekly web income with a few big print stories might not be feasible even two years down the road. I’m aware of that,” she said. “But for me, it’s a race against time. How can I build a personal brand as a journalist, not to Andrew Sullivan levels or anything, but the recognition that I have job security before the parachute of print assignments goes away? That’s how I see my personal calculus.” “I’m personally very optimistic that I’m going to get there, but I think that there are other ways to do it, too. If the industry stabilizes at 30,000 jobs, which is something like half of the historical number, I plan to be one of those 30,000, because people will know me as a journalist already — not because I have a contract at a magazine.” The plan is working. She called me while on a reporting trip for a major magazine, and AFAR recently sent her to Osaka, Japan to do a feature called “Spin the Globe” that caters to well-known writers. The digital-first publications, even those with massive amounts of venture capital, have decent rationale for their pay rates. The print outfits, however…. “I actually think it would be possible for old-school print outlets to pay better if they wouldn’t over-assign or if they didn’t have super-fancy real estate in Midtown,” Friedman said. “The notion that media is both a struggling industry and a glamour profession is totally ridiculous. If you’re a struggling industry that’s worried about declining advertising revenues, fucking pack up, move to Brooklyn, and stop triple-assigning every issue.” Condé Nast’s upcoming move to the World Trade Center was not actually a great deal; their base rent is something like $60 million a year, on average, escalating over time. That doesn’t count any costs like electricity or sales tax on rent, and their much-vaunted rent rebate of $46 million averages out at less than $3 million a year over 17 years. The World Trade Center hasn’t signed another commercial tenant since, in the last two years, which means offering rents are dropping. Media companies in general are terribly advised regarding real estate: while Time Inc. was being told by one consultant to take on an additional 300,000 square feet, in actuality, they already had 200,000 square feet they didn’t even need. (Time Inc.’s lease is up in 2017.) Here’s a math problem: Condé Nast’s New Yorker, a publication with whom any freelance journalist would love to be associated, pays $250 for all online pieces. On one hand, that’s not much, particularly in contrast to their print rates. Yet it’s about what The New York Times pays for op-eds. And consider the economics: If NewYorker.com publishes eight pieces a day — not unreasonable at all — they pay out $2,000 a day. That’s half a million a year, just in freelance, and also not an insignificant amount of money. There’s a vital distinction to be made between artistic value and monetary value. All writing (at least in theory) has the former, little of it has the latter, at least in any real magazine-world sense. “If my mom is going to blog, it doesn’t mean she should make a living off it,” Jackson said. “It seems like no one is saying that you can’t live on it because there’s too much supply and you’re not great at it. You’re not meant for it.” Of course, there are benefits to this new world, like the opportunity to build something great. “Living in bombed-out Hamburg really sucks if you had a nice house, because you’re probably never going to see that house again,” Samuels said. “But it’s really not so bad if you’re 19-years-old and selling black market stockings in an alley somewhere. That wasn’t going to lead much of anything in pre-war Hamburg, but in the new post-war Hamburg you could end up as the Black Market Stocking King and before you know it, be the mayor of the city, because everybody else had their house leveled and is paralyzed by fear and loss. It’s a level playing field again. That’s exciting.” “The problem now is,” he said, “who are you going to learn your craft from? What structures are going to support you in doing work that’s any good? And how are you going to know if it’s any good? Because what’s out there now is a bunch of shattered buildings and scared people — and that’s not a set of structures that allows for depth of knowledge and craft. Nobody looks at you now when you’re 27 and you write the kind of stuff that everyone who is 27 writes and says ‘hey, man, I know you think this is smart but there’s this, this, and that, and you need to have an aesthetic that governs what you do and isn’t dumb, and you need to actually spend time with the people you write about, and if you just join the herd of smart-asses on Twitter you will end up looking like a tool.’ That’s embarrassing, but you learn that way, or at least I did. Right now, those structures that I had, as limited as they were, don’t really exist at all. When all the older people are begging for spare change by the side of the highway, you don’t have a lot of incentive to listen to their wisdom.” I’m not complaining. I make more money than my dumb-ass 21-year-old self ever thought I would when I decided to “move to New York and become a writer” my senior year of college. The lack of long-term stability can be troubling, especially on those frustrating days when editors aren’t returning my emails, but that’s a conscious trade-off I made for being able to go running in the middle of the day. I work hard, really hard, but not appreciably more or less so than my friends who are teachers, television producers, operations managers, and lawyers. Most of the time, I very much like what I do. This plan might not work forever, but in a world that’s less about traditional, one-company one-job careers and more about bouncing around and trying to find a way, it works for now. When I was nearly done with this piece, I got curious and asked what I was getting paid. The answer is $250. Honestly, that seemed fair. Still, I think it’s worth more, and I would have done it for less. Noah Davis (@noahedavis) should have been a rock star. Photo by “ishawalia.” |
If Unions Were Still Strong, These Workers Wouldn’t Be Dead (VIDEO) Share On FacebookTweet Post Union-busting and the “new economy” are killing America’s middle class…Literally. What do Jeff Lockhart Jr., Maria Fernandes and Ramiro Loa have in common? The so-called “new economy” and our nation’s 30-year assault on unions, workers’ rights, and the middle class have literally killed them. For three decades, both conservatives and neo-liberals have told us bloated unions create a drag on the economy, and too many of us have believed them. And yes, some union leaders were corrupt. Alas, we’re learning the hard way that the wolves of Wall Street and the CEOs who serve them are far more ruthless and less inclined to share their ill-gotten gains. And now, all of us who need to work for a living are paying the price. For most of us, the price come at our ever-eroding quality of life. But Jeff Lockhart Jr., Maria Fernandes, and Ramiro Loa were all young millennial workers, at least two of them with families to support, who’ve literally paid for the ever-swelling assets of the one percent with their tragically short lives. Had the three of them been union workers — or had even had enough unionized companies around them to raise working standards across the board — they might still be alive today. Jeff Lockhart Jr.: Dave Jamieson from the Huffington Post reports 29-year-old Lockhart got laid off, had a wife and three kids to support, and jobs in his impoverished town near Richmond, Va. are hard to come by. He was thrilled when he got a temp job at an Amazon warehouse, and determined to work hard and put himself among the lucky few who get hired on permanently. That meant hustling his six-foot, three-inch, 300-pound frame back and forth across a vast warehouse fetching items to the tune of 12 miles a day. Amazon and the temp company insist they had protocols in place to assure worker safety, but the fact that workers were timed and fired for not meeting fast-paced performance goals belies that. Then one day, on Jan. 18 2013, Lockhart abruptly died of a heart attack on the warehouse floor. Maria Fernandes: 32-year-old Maria Fernandez died in August 2014 after pulling into a parking lot in Elizabeth, N.J. to take a quick nap in between one of her four jobs. NJ.Com reports she succumbed to gas fumes leaking from a tank she carried in the car in case she ran out of gas because apparently, she sometimes didn’t even have enough time to stop at a gas station. At the time of her death, Fernandez cobbled together a meager living with shifts at a sandwich place, a Dunkin’ Donuts, and two small shops. It turns out she was not only supporting herself, she was also helping out a former live-in boyfriend who’d gotten laid off, along his two sons. Ramiro Loa: In July, 2015, the 28-year-old construction worker died after falling three stories and landing head first while working on an apartment building in Austin Texas. Brigid Hall from the Workers Defense Project. told the Austin-American Statesman he’d been working on a “makeshift scaffold” on an “incomplete balcony” when he lost his balance and plummeted to his death. Loa wasn’t wearing the standard fall protection equipment that would have saved the young man’s life. But, of course Charles Cheshire, the president of Maverick Framing, claims Loa had a safety harness, but had taken it off himself. This seems unlikely: A damning 2013 report by the Workers Defense Project and the University of Texas finds that more construction workers die in Texas — which is aggressively right-wing, anti-union, and anti-workers’ rights — than in any other state. After a vigil, the Mexican Consulate arranged to have Loa’s body sent back to his bereaved family in Queretaro, Mexico. Oh, and as for the loved ones they leave behind? Screw them. Do you seriously think their sleazy employers would even lift a finger or part with a single penny to help? Nearly 5,000 U.S. workers died while working in 2014, an increase of two percent from the previous year. Because if you made it through the 2008 recession at all intact, you’re not doing to do or say anything to jeopardize your job if you can avoid it. The saddest thing is how U.S. companies can treat workers like Lockhart, Hernandez, Loa, and all of us like we’re disposable, squeeze everything they possibly can out of us, and then toss us in the trash after they’ve destroyed us and we’re no longer useful to them. And sure, you can say that union workers sometimes die on the job too. But when unions had more clout, they were able to win better safety precautions for their workers (so Loa would have had a safety harness); better pay and steady hours (so Fernandes wouldn’t have had to work so many jobs); and health insurance (so Lockhart would have had access to treatment for his heart condition). All three of them would have been more likely to have had some sort of life insurance policy through their job so their loved ones would at least be able to cover the bills while mourning their loss. New research suggests labor unions are critical to a strong middle class and a growing economy. Luckily, people are finally starting to wake up and realize that unions are a critical part of a healthy free market economy and a strong middle class. Not only that, Business Insider reports on research by the National Bureau of Economic Research that suggests labor unions also play a strong role for ensuring upward mobility for American families. Falling union participation correlates with workers falling from the middle class to the lower class. Children with parents who are union members have higher levels of education, earnings, and good health than children with parents who are non-union members. Children living in areas with higher levels of union participation wind up more well-off than those who grow up in areas with low levels of union participation. This makes sense, because union workers generally have higher levels of pay, benefits and economic security, which give them a boost in good times and a cushion in bad times. Unions also have what Business Insider calls a “spillover effect” that improves working conditions and worker pay even for people working for non-union companies. Without powerful unions that represent workers and push for better pay, more benefits, better worker conditions, and more job security, companies get to do whatever the hell they want: Which usually means screwing workers and treating them like they’re disposable. For those of us who are too young to remember back when ordinary Americans in blue-collar and pink-collar jobs could actually afford to live comfortably, send their kids to college and take an occasional vacation…Here’s a video from A+ explaining the decline of unions and the middle class, and how it happened. Image/composite: (Clockwise, L-R) Jeff Lockhart Jr. with his wife Di-Key Lockhart and their three sons (family photo/HuffPo); Maria Hernandez with Glen Carter and Hannah Wilson/Daily Mail; Memorial to Ramiro Loa/Austin-American Statesman. |
This is just a small update that fixes the game for iPhone 4/4S players. But our LAST update was the real deal. Let's remember it: This is the update that makes the game a better app. SHORTER LOAD TIMES! OPTIMIZATIONS! Our friends at Hidden Variable Studios have done heaps of optimizations and we are delighted to announce SIGNIFICANTLY improved performance and loading times as of this update (especially on lower end devices). Enjoy! DELETING HIGH SCORES Our most requested feature! You can now clear all of your game progress if you're into that sort of thing. LANDSCAPE MODE This one is close to my heart. Use your iPad however you'd like! LANGUAGES As a special thanks to all of our Threes! fans around the world, you can now play Threes! in 14 different languages! If your device is set to use one of the languages below, Threes! will automatically load up that language: ³ English ³ French ³ Italian ³ German ³ Spanish ³ Korean ³ Chinese (Simplified) ³ Chinese (Traditional) ³ Japanese ³ Brazilian Portuguese ³ Russian ³ Arabic ³ Dutch ³ Swedish Thanks for all of your support! We don't feel comfortable interrupting your game experience to ask for reviews, but if you are feeling generous with your time please take a moment and let us know what you think of the game ^__^ |
Note: This article is about the legal history of Anabolic Steroids in the United States and not an endorsement or discussion about steroids and performance. There is perhaps no other topic in sports that garners as emotional a reaction than the use of steroids or performance enhancing drugs by professional athletes. For some the ends justify the means, whilst for others, the use of any ergogenic (something that aids performance) goes against fair play. I suspect that much of this debate is fuelled by the fact that anabolic steroids are an illegal substance in the United States, which is oftentimes the mecca of sports. With that in mind, today’s post looks at the history of steroids in the United States, specifically their first uses and when they became a banned substance. Steroids: An American Love Story The ‘discovery’ of steroids can be traced to Germany in 1931, when chemist Adolf Butenandt found a way to isolate and purify the hormone androsterone. This groundbreaking discovery was soon improved by fellow German chemist Leopold Ruzicka, who found a means of synthesising the hormone for human use. By 1935 Ruzicka and Butenandt were creating batches of synthetic testosterone, a scientific advancement that saw both men awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. That’s right. The inventors of steroids got a Nobel Prize back in the day… By the late 1930s, the first injections of testosterone were being administered to humans for a whole range of purposes and despite the war to come, the invention of steroids brought with it the idea that man could be altered through chemical means. In the US, this was seen informally with the birth of Captain America in 1941, who went from puny to brawny thanks to a secret serum from Dr. Josef Reinstein. Thereby making Captain America the first known juicer in the US. Makes you view the movie differently now right? Comic book heroes aside, by the 1940s the Soviet Union were administrating anabolic steroids to large numbers of its athletes, something which explained their dominance in post-war sporting events. It didn’t take long for America to cotton on to the Soviets ways of doing things. By the mid-1950s Dr. John Ziegler, the U.S. Olympic team physician found a way to soon develop methandrostenolone, which is better known in bodybuilding circles as Dianabol. Ciba Pharmaceuticals was first to market the drug and by 1958 Dianabol was approved by the FDA for human use. Interestingly the first known users of Dianabol were Bob Hoffman and three well known lifters, John Grimek, Jim Park and Yaz Kuzahara. This was a reflection of Ziegler’s close relationship with Hoffman and York Barbell at the time. Interestingly, Grimek was a well known weightlifter and one of bodybuilding’s first stars, making his use of Dianabol a foreshadowing of what was to come for the bodybuilding. John Grimek Importantly, all four men reported greater muscle mass and strength gains, which encouraged Ziegler to administer Dianabol to the entire U.S. Olympic weightlifting team in Rome in 1960 yet despite their new enhanced chemicals, the US still lost to the Soviets. More seriously the 1960 Olympics also saw the first reported death due to doping when Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen died during competition. Stemming from Knud’s death, the media began to take more notice of steroids in sport. That same year Sports Illustrated published ‘Our Drug Happy Athletes’, an expose on the use of amphetamines, tranquilizers, cocaine amongst elite athletes. Regardless it took nearly seven years before the International Olympic Committee established a medical commission to fight doping and it wasn’t until 1968 that compulsory drug tests were brought into the Olympics proper. During that time period steroids had become an accepted means of performance enhancement in several American pastimes such as baseball and American Football. The IOC testing methods introduced in 1968, which remember were the first of their kind, were particularly weak. Almost no one tested positive for performance enhancing drugs at either the 1968 Winter Olympic Games in France, or the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico. In fact, the first Olympic athlete disqualified for doping was not a steroid user at all but rather Swede Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, a member of the pentathlon team who was stripped of his bronze medal in Mexico when he tested positive for excessive alcohol in his system. Remarkably at the same competition, 14 other athletes tested positive for tranquilizers which were not banned at the time. Steroids and the Seventies If the past half century had seen steroids used in abundance by athletes, the following decades would see organisers attempt to expose such athletes. In 1972 the IOC instigated large scale drug testing for all narcotics, resulting in the disqualification of seven athletes. Three years later Anabolic steroids were added to the IOC’s list of banned substances, marking a sea change in public opinion on the drugs. Steroids were becoming the boogey man of sporting endeavours. Not that athletes stopped using steroids. Far from it. In July 1981 U.S. discus thrower Ben Plucknett tested positive for anabolic steroids, losing his world record title and becoming the first athlete to be disqualified by the International Association of Athletic Federations for steroid use. Despite Plucknett’s punishment, American athletes did not stop taking the drugs. In 1983 the Pan Am Games in Venezuela descended into chaos when a surprise drug test resulted in the withdrawal of dozens of athletes. Including a dozen American athletes who withdrew from the competition and returned to the U.S. without explanation. Something was up and it wouldn’t be long before a real scandal hit North America. |
Portugal is one of the countries that I had the opportunity to visit the most, and as a vegetarian, I have to say that the first days of staying here were quite a challenge for me regarding the food. Being a vegetarian in a foreing country is never easy! Portugal iswell known for their very tasty traditional dishes which can be found everywhere and the local cuisine is a delight for the non-vegetarian people – especially with all the food and meat they eat. But I have to say that I also found some vegetarian alternatives of their traditional meals and I’ll share with you some tips and tricks about what, how and where to find some tasty vegetarian dishes in one of the most beautiful countries of Europe, Portugal. Sweets First of all I will start with the desserts, because no matter what, this will be always the “safest” thing to eat as a vegetarian because you know for sure that they won’t put meat in them. Also, it’s just fun to start with dessert! If you are a vegetarian that loves custard, I have to tell that this country is heaven for you. Almost all of their cakes are made with a delicious egg cream. By far the most representative cakes from Portugal are the Pasteis de Nata (Cream Cake). You will find them everywhere (and I really mean it) but the best ones are actually in Belem – Lisbon; still, you can find excellent ones throughout the entire country. There’s only problem with the Pastel de Nata: you can never eat just one. Other very interesting cakes are the Ovos Moles (soft eggs), which are really tasteful if you try them with some good Portuguese wine. You will find the best Ovos Moles in the city of Aveiro, but they also sell them in various supermarkets along the whole country. I personally think that you should really try to visit Aveiro in order to try them, it will be quite an experience ,but I also have to warn you that thes cookies have a lot of eggs you might want to be careful with them if you have problems with your liver. Arroz doce is actually sweet rice with milk and cinnamon. Is a very simple and delicious dessert and you can also try it with some fresh fruits or jams if you want. If you like cheese very much, you should really try the cakes from Sintra. Sintra is an amazing small town just half an hour away from Lisbon, where you can see some of the most amazing castles in the world. They also have a history in making cakes because hey, the lords had fine tastes! They are very tasty, traditional and come in many varieties. One of the most interesting cake is the Queijada de Sintra which is a very sweet cake with lots of good Portuguese cheese. Main courses After so many sweets I think is time to talk about some real food! In the northern part of the country, mostly Porto and Braga, people eat a lot of Francesinha. I have to warn you that the normal Francesinha has a lot of meat so before ordering some be sure that you’re trying the vegetarian version. The vegetarian Francesinha looks like a big Scooby-Doo sandwich – the one which you just stuff in your mouth. It has white bread slices with tofu, zucchini and soya cremwurst, which is all covered with some Flamengo Cheese and a fried egg. The most important part of this dish is the sauce, which is always kept a secret by the good chefs. The sauce is made usually with beer, garlic, onion and tomato sauce, and sometimes it can be very spicy. It is also usually served with French Fries. What I liked the most in Portugal is the Sopa do Dia, which actually means soup of the day. This soup is always a very creamy soup only with vegetables. You can find very different kinds of this soup: cabbage soup, chickpeas soup, turnip soup, carrot soup, beans soup, etc. If you want to get more traditional, the most common soup in the northern part of Portugal is Caldo Verde which is made out of potatoes, Portuguese cabbage or collard greens, olive oil , onion, garlic and salt. Another tasty and traditional vegetarian dish is Migas. This this is usually made with beans, portuguese cabbbage, olive oil, Portuguese corn bread crumbs and different spices like black pepper, garlic etc. Sometimes they mix this with their traditional fish Bacalhau, but you can also find it without any kind of meat. Feijoada is another traditional Portuguese dish that is usually served with meat, but you’ll find the meatless version in some vegetarian restaurants. You should generally ask at restaurants. Feijoada is usually made out of beans from different kinds depending on the region, and vegetables like: carrots, red pepper and cabbage. It’s something more like a stew and usually the vegetarian version has soy sausages and it is best served with white rice. Drinks I won’t end this without talking a little bit about the well known Portuguese wines. I think everybody heard about the Porto Wine, which I really recommend drinking it in one of the Porto’s winehouses (with moderation, of course). The Porto wine comes in three different versions, the white one the red one and the tawny one. It is usually sweet but you might want to be careful with that because is also very strong from all that Brandy that it contains. Just be sure to avoid the very touristic places, which are generally overpriced and quite crowded. Another wine that I really felt in love with in Portugal is the Vinho Verde, which is actually a “fresh wine”. I think that this one is very good to drink in the summer because is lighter than the Porto wine and actually refreshing. If you are not really into sweet wines I think you will like the Alentejo wines. The wine that is made in the southern part of Portugal, is usually dry and strong and I have to say that even the cheap bottles of wine that came from the Alentejo region, never disapointed me. You can usually get a good bottle of wine for even under $6. I have to say that even though many of these wines work very good with the Portuguese traditional dishes, you might want to try them with Portuguese pastry. An old man from a small café in Leiria (a small city close to Lisbon) taught me that real good life is when you eat one of those sweet cookies with a very good wine. I have to say… he was right! Raw Foods In their cuisine, Portuguese people use lots of vegetables like chickpeas, many different kinds of beans, cabbage, cauliflower etc., and you will also find markets full with delicious fresh fruits from bananas, pineapples and mangos, to cherries, nectarines and strawberries. You can eat them raw to your heart’s delight, and I really recommend trying some of the melons they have here, they’re quite delicious. If you’re buying bananas, you should ask for Madeiran bananas, which even though are just a touch more expensive, have much more taste and flavor. Anonas are also interesting, different fruits which you can taste, just make sure to take fluffly ones, as the harder ones aren’t ripe yet. Vegetarian Restaurants There are also quite a few vegetarian restaurants, many of them in Lisbon, but you can also find some in the northern part of the country. However, aside from Lisbon, don’t expect more than a few vegetarian places per city – Portugal has fairly small cities, and it’s not exactly known for its vegetarian inhabitants. The key is to always ask. Sometimes if you can’t find vegetarian restaurants you can just ask for a soup, which is almost exclusively vegetarian, and if they don’t have anything else, people are often so nice that if you ask for a vegetarian dish they will make something just for you without meat. Portugal is a lovely country, with strong, flavored traditional cuisine. Most people eat meat, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have excellent vegetarian alternatives. Enjoy the food, and enjoy the country! |
The United States Treasury department has announced new sanctions targeting North Korean shipping companies and vessels, it announced in a statement on Wednesday. The new sanctions, which follow targeted sanctions by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on a North Korean shipping company on Monday, will hit the Chongchongang Shipping Company and Ocean Maritime Management Company (OMM), as well as 18 vessels. The Chong Chon Gang was detained in July last year by the Panama authorities on the suspicion that it was transporting drugs as it attempted to pass though the Panama canal returning from a trip to Cuba. The Panamanian authorities found ammunition, Soviet-era weaponry and radar systems and Mig fighter jets aboard, contrary to UN sanctions. Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Treasury David S. Cohen said in a statement that the incident “is a perfect example of North Korea’s deceptive activity, and precisely the sort of conduct that we are committed to disrupting”. “North Korea uses companies like Chongchongang Shipping and Ocean Maritime Management to engage in arms trading in violation of U.S and international sanctions,” he continued. The UNSC also blacklisted the OMM on Monday, imposing an international asset freeze and travel ban. “It will be interesting to see now how OMM behaves after being sanctioned by both the UN and the USA,” said Leo Byrne, NK News‘s data and shipping analyst, “North Korea already has a system of paper companies set up in China and Hong Kong that administers a reasonable percentage of their fleet, so perhaps we’ll see OMM’s vessels get moved around this existing network”. “This is of course isn’t to say that the sanctions are ineffective, any tightening of the net on suspicious North Korean shipping is a good thing,” he continued. The treasury department sanctions come amid further pressure from the U.S. following the passing of the North Korean Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2013 through the House of Representatives on Monday. The bill, if passed by the Senate and signed by President Obama, will enact sanctions against private, non-governmental and public entities and organizations believed to be involved in North Korea’s activities prohibited under UN sanctions. |
MOSCOW—With eager anticipation, the Kremlin is counting the days to Donald Trump’s inauguration and venting its anger at Barack Obama’s outgoing administration, no holds barred. Careful not to hurt chances for a thaw in U.S.-Russia relations, President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump and any agenda for those talks until he takes office on Friday. President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have deferred questions about their plans for future contacts with Trump until he takes office on Friday. ( Alexei Druzhinin / AP ) Read more: Even in Trumpian terms, this is getting very far from normal: DiManno Trump’s open admiration of Putin has brought wide expectations of improved Moscow-Washington relations, but Trump has not articulated a clear Russia policy. His Cabinet nominees include both a retired general with a hawkish stance on Russia and an oil executive who has done extensive business in Russia. At the same time, Russian officials are blasting the outgoing U.S. administration in distinctly undiplomatic language, dropping all decorum after Obama hit Moscow with more sanctions in his final weeks in office. Article Continued Below Moscow calls Obama’s team a “bunch of geopolitical losers” engaged in a last-ditch effort to inflict the maximum possible damage to U.S.-Russia ties to make it more difficult for Trump to mend the rift. In a clear effort to avoid risking a rapprochement with Trump, Putin showed remarkable restraint when the U.S. expelled 35 Russian diplomats over accusations of meddling in the U.S. election campaign. Instead of a usual tit-for-tat response, Putin invited U.S. diplomats’ children to a New Year’s party at the Kremlin. Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. were in frequent contact in recent weeks, including on Dec. 29, the day Obama hit Moscow with sanctions in retaliation for election-related hacking, according to a senior U.S. official. Moscow similarly refrained from retaliation when the White House last week added five Russians, including the chief of Russia’s top state investigative agency, to the U.S. sanctions list. On Sunday, Vice-President-elect Mike Pence insisted the Trump presidential campaign had no contacts with Russia and denied that the incoming national security adviser spoke with Russian officials in December about sanctions. He added that such questions were part of an effort to cast doubt on Trump’s victory. While Putin and his lieutenants hope Trump will open up to Russia, they know any attempt to fix ties will face massive obstacles, including possible strong resistance in the U.S. Congress. “Any future contacts will have to be prepared quite accurately and thoroughly, as they would follow a tense period,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Article Continued Below Fyodor Lukyanov, chair of the Council for Foreign and Defence Policies, a group of Russian foreign policy experts, said Syria is one area where a U.S.-Russian rapport is likely. During the call with Flynn, the Russian ambassador invited U.S. officials to a conference on Syria in Kazakhstan later this month, according to a transition official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. In an interview Friday with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said he might do away with Obama’s sanctions if Russia works with the U.S. on battling terrorists and achieving other goals. The Kremlin would be eager to embrace a U.S. offer of co-operation on Syria. Obama’s administration had refused to co-ordinate action against the IS with Russia, saying Moscow was bent on shoring up Syrian President Bashar Assad. The complexity of the conflict in Syria — where opposition groups backed by regional players are pitted against Assad’s troops and often fight each other — makes hopes for quick progress elusive. “Russia and the United States are important players (in Syria) but not the only ones,” Lukyanov said. He noted that nuclear arms control is another possible area where Moscow and Washington could try to find common ground. While new arms control treaties are unlikely, the two countries may try to find ways to increase global stability, Lukyanov said. Putin has pushed for the U.S. to recognize Moscow as an equal global heavyweight and to acknowledge that Russia’s ex-Soviet neighbours are in its sphere of “vital interests” — demands rejected by the West. Many in Russia hope that Trump could be more inclined to strike a “grand bargain” with Putin, carving up spheres of influence and helping cement Russia’s role as a global power. Alexander Lebedev, a multimillionaire Russian owner of Britain’s Evening Standard and Independent newspapers, believes that Putin wants a “big deal” that would envisage co-operation in Syria and possible co-operation in other spheres. “$1 trillion a year is stolen by global banks and companies and moved offshore,” Lebedev said, adding that Russia and the U.S. could launch a worldwide crackdown on corrupt business practices. U.S.-Russian relations have sunk to a post-Cold War low over Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and support for a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine. A 2015 peace deal helped end large-scale battles in eastern Ukraine, but clashes have continued. The U.S. and the European Union have slapped Russia with economic sanctions and made their lifting contingent on the Ukraine peace deal’s progress. While the Kremlin counts on Trump to roll the sanctions back, many observers are skeptical. “In the current atmosphere, it’s very difficult to imagine how Trump could start cancelling the sanctions,” Lukyanov said. U.S. allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election top the list of irritants. U.S. intelligence officials’ accusations that Russian hackers — acting on Putin’s orders — interfered into the vote to help Trump win have put the U.S. president-elect in a difficult position. Trump has grudgingly conceded that Russia was likely responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee, but emphasized there was no evidence that hacking affected the U.S. election results. The Kremlin has rejected the hacking accusations and also hotly denied reports that it has collected compromising information about Trump. Aware that an open show of support for Trump would only make it more difficult for him to restore ties, Russian officials have mostly focused on blasting Obama’s administration. Konstantin Kosachev, the head of foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, described the White House’s decision to expel Russian diplomats as an “agony of not even lame ducks, but political corpses.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova went further. “If ‘Russian hackers’ hacked anything in America, there were two things: Obama’s brain, and, of course, the report about ‘Russian hackers,’” she wrote on Facebook. Zakharova charged that “Obama and his illiterate foreign policy team have dealt a crushing blow to America’s prestige and leadership” and described his administration as “a bunch of geopolitical losers, enraged and short-sighted.” Obama’s administration still has a few days left to “destroy the world,” Zakharova wrote. Read more about: |
Ah Sundays. The day where you can afford to watch a string of classic films on the box (cheers, Jumanji), forget all the impending responsibilities for the coming week or tuck into a lovely roast dinner. It was, after all, the day the Lord dedicated for rest. Rest up we did. Taylor Swift, meanwhile, had no such plans. So while you were tucking into your third Yorkey – she only went and dropped a new single ‘…Ready For It?’, the next taster of her controversial forthcoming album ‘Reputation’. To answer your question, Taylor, no, we were nowhere near ready. From the off – it’s a noticeable marked departure from lead single ‘Look What You Made Me Do’, which thrived on mysterious lyrics, trappy beats and, er, a little bit of Right Said Fred. The song was so talked about it spawned one of the biggest videos of the year, broke all kinds of records and even inspired a weird theory linking Swift and Arya Stark of Game of Thrones. This time, Taylor’s opted for a more straight up, radio-friendly pop formula ie: this one has a distinct, and crystal clear chorus. And as people began to live with the song, a distinct line of thought popped up – ‘This sounds a hell of a lot like Kanye West’s ‘Yeezus’. Kanye West, famously, has had a pretty up-and-down relationship with the singer – so no wonder people were pretty shocked by the song’s potential influence from Yeezy. Sharethrough (Mobile) But you have to remember, Taylor’s fanbase are pretty dedicated – so the new direction was welcome. Either way, this certainly won’t be the last we hear about this… |
We will see plenty of storylines get beaten into the ground, and one such story will be the 49ers kicker situation. While there is plenty of room to celebrate the 49ers victory (and oh boy is there room in the threads from yesterday!), there is also business to be handled moving on. The kicker will be one such area of concern that the team will need to sort through this week. David Akers got one field goal opportunity, a 38-yarder that would have tied the game in the third quarter, and doinked it off the upright. He had reportedly been hitting long-ones with ease in pre-game practice, but it didn't matter come game time as he came up short on his one attempt. If the 49ers do consider alternatives to Akers, they will not be able to bring back Billy Cundiff. The 49ers waived him on Friday, and roster rules prevent the team from signing him back for the Super Bowl. Will the 49ers look at other kickers during the coming week before they head to New Orleans? Or is it Akers or bust at this point? Thankfully it ended up not mattering, but it remains out there to potentially bite the 49ers in the butt in their quest for Lombardi No. 6. At this point, there are really not any decent kickers remaining on the free agent market, so the 49ers might just be stuck with Akers. It's a curious situation to say the least, especially considering the two weeks of chatter we'll see on this issue for the next two weeks. |
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. For those who wore the badge, they could do no wrong. For the “badge-nots,” they could do no right. I only wish this was a work of fiction but it is not. When it comes to drug raids (often no-knock raids), suspects (whether guilty or innocent) are treated with a different standard when a life is taken by mistake. Cory Maye was convicted for defending his home whenever the slain intruder turned out to be Officer Ron Jones who was serving a warrant. But what happens when the police shoot the wrong person? The AP reported on August 5, 2008 that Sgt. Joseph Chavalia was found “not guilty” on counts of negligent homicide and negligent assault which resulted in the death of Tarika Wilson and the loss of a finger of her year-old son. Wilson was carrying her son and was unarmed. The death of Tarika Wilson would have meant that a wrongful death claim against Sgt. Joseph Chavalia could have happened. A wrongful death claim is when a law firm is told that this person is liable for another person’s death. However, in this instance, as started about Sgt. Joseph Chavalia was foudn “not guilty”. Wilson’s boyfriend was the target of the raid as he was a suspected drug dealer. The AP article Officers cheer police shooting verdict in Lima* demonstrates this double standard and is ripe for a thorough fisking. A jury verdict that cleared a police officer in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed woman will allow other officers to do their job without hesitation, police union officials said. Is the police union advocating a “shoot now, ask questions later” policy? If this is the lesson the Lima Police Department is getting from this verdict, then I am very frightened for the residents of Lima (or residents anywhere in the U.S. for that matter). I thought that the police were supposed to identify their target before shooting; this would necessarily require some hesitation. Officers throughout the state closely watched the trial, fearing that a guilty judgment would have changed how they react in the line of fire. If police officers are afraid of being in this situation here’s an idea: how about not raiding a person’s home whenever there is no immediate threat of danger to others? (such as a hostage situation). Also, before police officers “react in the line of fire” there ought to be “a line of fire.” In this instance, no shots were ever fired by anyone other than the police. Jurors on Monday acquitted Sgt. Joseph Chavalia on charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault in the death of Tarika Wilson seven months ago. Her year-old son also was injured. Compare the charges against Sgt. Joseph Chavalia versus the charges against Cory Maye**. For the police officer, the death penalty or life in prison wasn’t even on the table. Had Chavalia been convicted on both counts, he would have served a maximum of eight months in jail. For Cory Maye (a civilian), a person who just as Sgt. Chavalia did, shot someone who he thought was a threat when he pulled the trigger, received the death penalty!*** According to the prosecution in Maye’s case, an individual cannot claim self defense unless s/he has identified the target. Here’s an excerpt from the State’s closing argument in the case: “If you take everything he [Cory Maye] said as being true, he’s at least guilty of murder. He just shoots in the direction of the noise without looking, without calling out, without doing anything. I submit to you that’s totally unreasonable. But if you take what he says to be true, he’s at the very least guilty of murder.” When a citizen “just shoots” “without looking” its murder but when a police officer shoots because s/he is “reacting in the line of fire” its “Oh well, shit happens” (as his/her fellow police officer cheer when the verdict reads “not guilty.”) The article continues: Chavalia had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots. He said he saw a shadow coming from behind the partially open bedroom door and heard gunshots that he thought were aimed at him. It turned out that Wilson didn’t have a weapon and that the gunfire Chavalia heard was coming from downstairs, where officers shot two charging pit bulls. I wonder what would happen if a citizen shot a police dog if s/he were threatened? Prosecutor Jeffrey Strausbaugh repeatedly pointed out during the trial that Wilson was shot even though she didn’t have a gun. But jurors were told by visiting Judge Richard Knepper during jury instructions that they could not consider the fact that she was unarmed because that was known only after the shooting. Citing a 1985 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that set guidelines for use of force by police, the jurors were told they could only judge Chavalia’s actions based on what he was aware of when he fired into the bedroom where Wilson was with her six children. Once again: one standard for the police and one for the citizen. If the Judge in Cory Maye’s case had given similar instructions to that jury, we probably wouldn’t even know Cory Maye’s name. “It was an important distinction and one that had to be upheld,” said Michael Watkins, president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Lima. “If the rules are changed, officers are going to react later,” Watkins said. “You’re going to have them hesitating, and there are more who are going to be injured or killed.” Ugh. What can I say that I haven’t already? All I am asking is that the rules are the same for the citizen as the police. Is that really too much to ask? During the trial, a Columbus SWAT officer and a retired FBI agent both testified that Chavalia had no choice but to shoot because he thought his life was in danger. They also said Chavalia should have fired sooner. “Thank God it wasn’t me there and every officer feels the same way,” said James Scanlon, who has been with the Columbus police since 1978. Watkins, who joined the Lima department a year before Chavalia in 1976, said he understands why Chavalia shot after hearing the gunfire. “I knew there had to be more to it,” he said. “Joe isn’t a trigger happy officer.” And I am sure that those who shoot police officers attempting to defend their homes aren’t trigger happy either. It seems to me that it doesn’t much matter if the intruder is a police officer or a violent criminal busting down your door. Either way, your life is in grave danger. The verdict further angered Wilson’s family and others in Lima’s black community. “The message I got out of all this is that it’s OK for police to go and kill in a drug raid,” said Arnold Manley, pastor of Pilgrim Rescue Missionary Baptist Church. That message couldn’t be clearer if it was up in neon lights in Times Square. In the lawsuit filed in federal court in Toledo, Wilson’s mother said police could have waited until the woman and her children were out of the house to try and arrest Wilson’s boyfriend, Anthony Terry, the target of the raid. No they couldn’t. That would make too much sense. If they would have chosen a more peaceful method, they wouldn’t have been able to wear their spiffy paramilitary SWAT gear. The shooting on Jan. 4 led to protests about how police treat minorities in the city where one in four residents is black. Chavalia is white and Wilson was black. Chavalia’s lead attorney, Bill Kluge, said he thinks the only reason the officer was charged was because of the reaction within the community. I’m not quite sure what to do with that. I’m not one to play the race card but how in the hell did Chavalia get a jury in 2008 without a single black person serving? “Had this case waited two or three months going to the grand jury, it might have been different,” he said. I know that the public has a short attention span but this is insulting. The citizens of Lima are outraged because of this double standard I’ve described here. Chavalia’s career with the city’s police department is essentially over despite the verdict, Kluge said. He would not say what the officer planned to do next. I should hope so! Whatever Chavalia decides to do next, it shouldn’t have anything at all to do with law enforcement. Related by others: Reason TV’s Drew Carey Project “Mississippi Drug War Blues” The Agitator “Police Militarization” * The title of the article in itself is disgusting **I am aware that these cases happened in different parts of the country but I have no doubts that the criminal justice system of Lima would treat a citizen with a different standard than a police officer. ***Maye’s sentence was reduced from the death penalty to a life sentence on appeal. |
Microsoft quietly fixed a flaw in Hotmail's password reset system that allowed anyone to reset the password of any Hotmail account last Friday. The company was notified of the flaw on April 20th and responded with a fix within hours—but not until after widespread attacks, with the bug apparently spreading "like wild fire" in the hacking community. Hotmail's password reset system uses a token system to ensure that only the account holder can reset their password: a link with the token is sent to an account linked to the Hotmail account, and clicking the link lets the account owner reset their password. However, the validation of these tokens isn't handled properly by Hotmail, allowing attackers to reset passwords of any account. Initially hackers were offering to crack accounts for $20 a throw. However, the technique became publicly known and started to spread rapidly with Web and YouTube tutorials showing the technique popping up across the Arabic-speaking Internet. Videos showing the technique (or at least, something close to it) can be found as far back as April 6th. As well as targeted attacks against specific Hotmail users, there was also brute force cracking of accounts with two- and three-letter e-mail addresses. Researchers at Vulnerability Lab discovered the flaw on April 6th, and they reported it to Microsoft on April 20th, with the patch following shortly after. It's also claimed that the flaw was discovered by a Saudi hacker at dev-point.com, and there's certainly plenty of discussion of the attack on that site during the period between Vulnerability Labs' claimed discovery and the decision to notify Microsoft. If your account has been hacked with this technique, you'll know it instantly, as your password will no longer work. Getting it back may be more difficult, as the standard first step in any account hack is to reset all the recovery information so that the original owner can't retrieve it. |
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court's conservative majority voted Wednesday to free wealthy donors to give to as many political candidates and campaigns as they want, further loosening the reins on giving by big contributors as the 2014 campaign moves into high gear. It was a fresh declaration by the 5-4 majority that many limits on big-money contributions violate the givers' constitutional free-speech rights, continuing a steady erosion of the restrictions under Chief Justice John Roberts. The biggest of those rulings was the 2010 decision in the Citizens United case that lifted restrictions on independent spending by corporations and labor unions. Wednesday's ruling voided the overall federal limit on individuals' contributions — $123,200 in 2013 and 2014 — and may have more symbolic than substantive importance in a world in which millions in unlimited donations from liberal and conservative spenders already are playing a major role in campaigns. The ruling will allow the wealthiest contributors to pour millions of dollars into candidate and party coffers, although those contributions will be subject to disclosure under federal law, unlike much of the big money that independent groups spend on attack ads. The early beneficiaries could be the political parties, which have lost influence amid the rise of independent spending, and challengers who may have been cut off from getting money from wealthy contributors who previously hit the cap that the court invalidated Wednesday. Roberts said the aggregate limits do not act to prevent corruption or the appearance of corruption, the rationales the court has upheld as justifying contribution limits. The overall limits "intrude without justification on a citizen's ability to exercise 'the most fundamental First Amendment activities'," Roberts said, quoting from the court's seminal 1976 campaign finance ruling in Buckley v. Valeo. By contrast, Roberts said the individual or "base limits remain the primary means of regulating campaign contributions." The justices left in place limits on individual contributions to each candidate for president or Congress, now $2,600 for a primary and another $2,600 for the general election. Justice Clarence Thomas supported the outcome, but said he would have wiped away all contribution limits as violating the First Amendment. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the liberal dissenters, said that the court's conservatives had "eviscerated our nation's campaign finance laws" through Wednesday's ruling and the earlier Citizens United case. "If the court in Citizens United opened a door, today's decision we fear will open a floodgate," Breyer said in comments from the bench. "It understates the importance of protecting the political integrity of our governmental institution. It creates, we think, a loophole that will allow a single individual to contribute millions of dollars to a political party or to a candidate's campaign." Breyer adopted examples put forward by the Obama administration and campaign-limits supporters showing that an individual now will be able to make $3.6 million in contributions to candidates and parties, hand it over in one check to maximize his sway and have much or all of it directed to a favored candidate. Breyer said the money may have to be divvied up among state and national party organizations and rerouted, but that it can be done without violating the law. Roberts said the dissenters' fears were overstated because other federal laws prohibit the circumvention of the individual limits and big donors are more likely to spend a lot of money independently in support of a favored candidate. Running for federal political office has grown steadily more expensive, driven by the costs of advertising, travel, pollsters and the like. Most candidates pay for their campaigns with contributions from individual donors. That money is disclosed in reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. But under the 2010 Citizens United decision, the wealthiest donors seeking outsized influence on campaigns have found a new avenue for their money. Outside groups known as super PACs or nonprofits can take unlimited contributions and spend independently to sway voters. Those donations are often undisclosed, leading critics to refer to them as "dark money." Reaction to Wednesday's ruling generally followed party lines, with advocates of capping money in politics aligned with Democrats in opposition to the decision. The administration had defended the limits in arguments at the Supreme Court. "We are, in fact, disappointed with the decision that was announced today," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said, "This in itself is a small step, but another step on the road to ruination. It could lead to interpretations of the law that would result in the end of any fairness in the political system as we know it." However, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called the Supreme Court decision "an important first step toward restoring the voice of candidates and party committees and a vindication for all those who support robust, transparent political discourse." The GOP and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had argued that other decisions relaxing campaign finance rules had diminished the influence of political parties. Congress enacted the contribution limits in the wake of Watergate-era abuses to discourage big donors from trying to buy legislative votes and to restore public confidence in the campaign finance system. Republican activist Shaun McCutcheon of Hoover, Ala., the national Republican Party and McConnell challenged the overall limits on what contributors may give in a two-year federal election cycle. The limits for the current election cycle included a separate $48,600 cap on contributions to all candidates. McCutcheon gave the symbolically significant amount of $1,776 to 15 candidates for Congress and wanted to give the same amount to 12 others. But doing so would have put him in violation of the cap. Under the rules that were struck down, a donor could give the maximum amount to fewer than 10 candidates before hitting the cap. The ceiling for giving to parties is higher, at $32,400 per year to a national party and $10,000 a year to a state or local party and a separate aggregate limit of $74,600. So a relative few contributions to party organizations would have been enough to reach the limit. The decision "provides an avenue for an individual to be more directly supportive of more candidate and traditional political parties," said Bobby Burchfield, a partner at the McDermott, Will and Emery law firm who represented McConnell at the Supreme Court. Challengers could now see more contributions because wealthy donors will no longer have to pick among candidates to support. With the limits, "traditionally it's the incumbents who have greater name recognition and greater ability to vacuum in that money," Burchfield said. Relatively few Americans play in the big leagues of political giving. Some 644 donors contributed the maximum amount to candidates, PACs and parties in the last election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The justices resisted one plea from critics of the money restrictions that would have demolished all contribution limits, a call to abandon the court's practice over nearly 40 years of evaluating limits on contributions less skeptically than restrictions on spending. The differing levels of scrutiny have allowed the court to uphold most contribution limits, because of the potential for corruption when donors make large direct donations to candidates. At the same time, the court has found that independent spending does not pose the same risk of corruption. If the court were to drop the distinction between contributions and expenditures, even limits on contributions to individual candidates for Congress would be threatened, said Fred Wertheimer, a longtime supporter of stringent campaign finance laws. The case is McCutcheon v. FEC, 12-536. |
FLINT, MI -- The former director of the state's Bureau of Epidemiology and state epidemiologist stood largely silent as a Genesee District judge read the charges against her stemming from the Flint water crisis. Corinne Miller was arraigned Monday, Aug. 1, on two felonies and one misdemeanor after Attorney General Bill Schuette alleged she told other state employees not to take action on a report showing a spike in blood lead levels in children in Flint then later told employees to delete emails about the data. Miller, 65, of Dewitt, was one of six people named by Schuette last week in charges connected to the city's water problems. She is the first to be arraigned on the new charges, which include felony misconduct in office and conspiracy and misdemeanor neglect of duty by a public officer. Schuette: State workers told to delete Flint water emails about lead spike The charges were announced as warrants were sworn out before Flint District Judge Nathaniel C. Perry III and a news conference with Attorney General Bill Schuette followed shortly after at the University of Michigan-Flint. Genesee Circuit Judge Nathaniel Perry III read the accusations against Miller. Miller responded with brief yes answers when Perry asked if she understood her rights. Miller, along with fellow Michigan Department of Health and Human Services employees Nancy Peeler and Robert Scott, allegedly knew children in Flint were being poisoned by lead and suppressed the information, according to special investigators with the Attorney General's Office. Peeler and Scott were also charged with felonies as part of the investigation. Peeler was the director of the MDHHS Program for Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting in July 2015 when she requested an internal report on blood lead levels in Flint children. The report was created on July 28 and showed a significant spike in blood lead tests for kids in Flint for the summer of 2014, Schuette said. That report was never passed on to the proper health officials, investigators allege. Peeler and Scott, the data manager for the Healthy Homes and Lead Prevention program, created a second report two days later that falsely indicated there was no significate rise blood lead levels of Flint children for the summer 2014. Miller received the report first, but told others not to take action and snubbed other employees who asked about what to do next, Schuette said. She later told another MDHHS employee to delete emails concerning the original blood lead data report from July 28, 2015. She retired from the state in April. Perry ordered Miller released on a personal recognizance bond. A probable cause conference is scheduled for Aug. 9. The felony charges carry up to five years in prison if convicted. |
By Staff Dubai’s first solar-power and zero waste hotel consisting of 170 rooms will open doors in the first half of 2017 will have solar buses to transport guests to different locations in the emirate. The Indigo Hotel by InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG) will be part of Dubai’s first sustainable integrated development The Sustainable City (TSC). The hotel will be a Net Zero energy building, where 100 per cent of its energy needs will be met by solar power. All waste water produced by the hotel will be recycled, and all material waste will be sorted at source and then recycled. A solar powered shuttle bus transportation service will be available to guests of the hotel, ensuring they are well-connected to Downtown Dubai. The complex will include residences, a green school, a community centre, an equestrian centre, solar covered parking lots and an organic farm which will supply all the herbs the community needs, as well as tourist attractions such as a Planetarium and a grass Amphitheatre for hosting events. Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East & Africa, IHG, said: “We’re looking forward to working closely with Diamond Developers to bring this hotel to Dubai and help showcase another great neighbourhood in a way that only Hotel Indigo can do.” Faris Saeed, CEO, Diamond Developers, added: “Dubai is a truly global city and is expanding in new and interesting ways every day. The Sustainable City will set the standard for environmental standards and will include a number of interesting tourist attractions as well as venues to attract business events and meetings.” IHG currently operates 18 hotels in the UAE, with another 10 hotels due to open in the next three to five years. |
In the early 1940s, with speaking commitments stretching years ahead, Norman Vincent Peale threw apparently limitless energy into mass counseling and conservative groups aimed at Christianizing America. He was rapidly making a name for himself in prominent circles, particularly among conservative Christians eager to make piety a sign of the country’s long-awaited recovery from the Depression and religion a shield against its antidemocratic enemies. A surge in public religiosity, it was claimed, would rejuvenate the nation and herald its full return to preeminence. A mass “return to God” would also, Peale asserted, strengthen the population by “inoculating” it against communism—which, because of communism in the USSR (Stalinism in particular), had been cited since the mid-1930s as a grave threat to the nation’s core beliefs. For Peale, the question “Christ or Marx?” summed up a “perilous” dilemma. With “millions espousing [Marx’s] ideals with fanatical zeal,” he warned in October 1948, in a political sermon he titled “Democracy Is the Child of Religion,” freedom itself was threatened. Religious belief was, by contrast, “the best way to preserve” freedom and was, accordingly, the very principle on which America needed to “crusade.” The evangelical thrust was, for Peale, a consequence of standing united in steadfast opposition to forces such as collectivism. “Thus you have the issue,” he summed up: “Christ or Communism, Christ or chaos, Christ or catastrophe, Christ or the police state.” As minister of one of the oldest churches in New York City, Peale was exceptionally well placed to air and promote such assertions, to make being unreligious seem unbalanced, fanatical, and wholly “un-American.” He took on the task with relish, using his pulpit to lob almost weekly tirades at Washington. With the national press riveted by Peale’s every move, he became a lightning rod for national conservative concerns, from the sale of liquor to the perceived threat of labor unions, the godless, and the “alien, un-American ideologies” that, in his view, were behind the threat. Anticommunism was to Peale and his allies a pro-Christian stance, even if the religious component was not strictly necessary for the critique to hold. Aware of Freud’s insights into the nature of religious enthusiasm (itself of vital importance to the experimental Religio-Psychiatric Clinic Peale set up with his collaborator, the Christian psychiatrist Smiley Blanton, and to their organization, the American Foundation of Psychiatry and Religion, Inc.), Peale knew that fervor could fire up Americans beyond the pulpit, especially when packaged as a promise of national renewal through personal and religious redemption. “It is increasingly evident,” he was quoted in the Herald Tribune as asserting, “that the only solution to the present [national and international] crisis is a deeper, more spiritual, more social Christianity.” Even more, he urged—in the kind of accusatory turn that made him popular among hardliners adopting the same refrain a decade later during the McCarthy hearings on un-American activities—“the man who shows no interest in Christianity and fails to support it is the real enemy of our social institutions.” For those who know Peale from his most popular books, such as The Power of Positive Thinking, it can be disconcerting to realize how thoroughly politics imbued his early sermons, talks, and religious activities. Especially in the late 1930s and early 1940s, when Peale was burnishing his reputation as a minister and speaker not just in New York but nationwide, his crammed press folders report the activities and accusations of a man with an extraordinary appetite for political conflict. Peale’s religious and psychological emphasis blended affirmative prayer with practical self-help, in what has been called a “gospel of personal religion” and, more crudely, “God and gumption.” In combining these elements, he signaled with Blanton a strong desire to fuse theology with psychiatry and positive psychology, especially in connection with the power of belief (“faith in faith”). Yet he differed from Blanton in both the scale of his political vision and his willingness to inveigh at others who failed to share it. While many newspaper headlines hinted at an emphasis that he and Blanton shared—“Dr. Peale Sees Faith as Source of Power”—others skewed to a darker worldview: “Dr. Peale Sees Freedom and Faith Periled.” The minister laced his message with drama to heighten a sense of urgency: “Christianity Seen in Race with Chaos,” the New York Times reported of one such sermon, given long before America became embroiled in the Second World War, and continued with: “Final Destiny of Civilization in Our World Is the Prize, Dr. N. V. Peale Declares.” When the country struggled to shake off the Great Depression, including through public works projects financed by the New Deal, Peale was especially active in hardline lobbying groups whose self-appointed mission was to question the New Deal’s very existence, to undermine it even by smearing its White House advocate, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The president was targeted despite his notable religious rhetoric. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address was so “laden with references to Scripture” that it prompted the National Bible Press to release a chart highlighting the “Corresponding Biblical Quotations”; in his second inaugural address, in January 1937, he likened himself to “a modern-day Moses leading his people out of the wilderness.” Peale was unpersuaded. One newspaper article, after declaring, “New Deal Assailed as Curb on Reform: Dr. Peale Charges Hasty Moves for Selfish Ends Impede Real Social Progress,” captures the flavor of Peale’s blunt attack: “Ill-Conceived Experimentation Makes Public Wary of Progress, He Warns.” In the New York Sun, Peale’s target shifted once again: “Peale Assails Class Conflict: Criticizes Methods Used by Roosevelt.” In this piece the New Deal was held virtually responsible for the mass inequality that Congress had hoped to reduce by passing a raft of crisis-stamped bills and reforms. The message was unmistakable, and the New York American spelled it out: “Dr. Peale Asks America to Put Roosevelt Out. Country Must Change Him or Change Constitution, He Declares in Sermon.” It was in alluding repeatedly to the President’s irregular church attendance, however, that Peale found the political vulnerability that suited him as a minister. “Criticizes Roosevelt’s ‘Indifference to Religion,’” the Herald Tribune notes. “Dr. Peale Calls It Cause of Vital New Deal Errors.” Peale was particularly aggrieved by the president’s “Sabbath excursions and fishing trips,” although the relationship of these jaunts to seeming mistakes in the New Deal remains far from clear. President Roosevelt was, Peale said of a conflict over Supreme Court appointees, “a presumptuous seeker after improper power.” In yet another political sermon, he warned ominously of the government’s growing tendency to “autocracy” and the president’s tendency toward “dictatorship”: “We can pull him down when we wish.” Peale’s cheery autobiography and well-known books on positive thinking are carefully shorn of this amply documented history. When it mentions Roosevelt, the autobiography admiringly invokes the President’s famous dictum, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and otherwise celebrates the America of the time as “simple and homey, yet already bursting with the excitement of an incredible future.” Yet as Peale’s clippings and correspondence reveal in impressive detail, his political activities dovetailed with his pitch for a national religious revival, with Peale serving as both its advocate and its partial figurehead. His repeated, enthusiastic politicization of his ministry lent shape and force to the revival, given his outsize role as its popularizer. Though far from original, and rapidly adopted by other conservative revivalists, such as Billy Graham, Peale’s claims that faith in God, country, and self were broadly identical acquired importance by dint of their enormous popularity in postwar America. By 1955, The Power of Positive Thinking had sold almost a million copies and was outselling all other books except the Bible. As his biographer Carol V. R. George concluded, “It was Peale’s message that gave definition to the religious revival” of the early 1950s. Peale’s conservative populism “surfaced in his partisan activities over the years,” George continues, “and because the press gave generous coverage to his political views, he was constantly being sought out by individuals with political axes to grind.” She claims that in his spirit of eager, voluntary participation, “he often jumped on bandwagons whose real destinations he did not know.” Though much of that last claim remains doubtful, Peale’s association with such far-right organizations as the Committee for Constitutional Government, Spiritual Mobilization, the Christian Freedom Foundation—and, briefly, H. L. Hunt’s Facts Forum—sometimes generated enough controversy to be acutely embarrassing to him. When a book on hard-line conservatives appeared in 1943, noting accurately that Peale had shared a platform with Elizabeth Dilling and the Reverend Edward Lodge Curran, the damage to his reputation was considerable. Dilling, “a person the federal government ranked among the worst hate-mongers” was, notes George, “a ‘patriot’ who smeared liberals, Jews, African Americans, and other ethnic groups with the same broad brush.” Curran, founder of the National Committee for the Preservation of Americanism, was the author of alarmist books such as Spain in Arms: With Notes on Communism and Facts about Communism. Under Cover, which had been published by the Armenian-American journalist Arthur Derounian under the pseudonym John Roy Carlson, was supposedly an exposé of “the Nazi Underworld of America.” In it Peale was cast as a patsy for the right—as a “docile Protestant clergyman” who chaired the rigid Committee for Constitutional Government while its executive secretary, Edward Rumely, was under Senate investigation for failing to disclose its murky sources of funding. With the New York Times and other prominent newspapers calling Under Cover “of sensational importance,” Peale was quick to downplay broader involvement. Privately he wrote the author and his publisher, insisting that his reputation had been unfairly maligned. Behind the scenes, however, he tended to respond with alacrity to such challenges, adjusting his emphasis to suit audience and occasion. A brief from Rumely for a 1943 meeting of the New York Economic Club explains, “Dr. Peale is supposed to touch upon the spiritual outlook ahead, which can mean the tracing of our institutions of freedom and free enterprise and constitutional government and their perpetuation in the post-war period.” The memo continues: “Dr. Peale asks for suggestions of material and viewpoint that it would be desirable for him to bring out from this platform under this title.” All told, the idea that America needed a pro-Christian nationalism to head off an attack of atheistic communism was central to Peale’s message, and he stuck to it zealously. “One of the best ways to undercut Communism,” he privately volunteered to conservative businessman and fellow anticommunist crusader Edward F. Hutton in July 1947, “is to reach the masses of the people with some simple religious principles.” These, he had bluntly advised the Syracuse Post-Standard two decades earlier, were designed in such a way as to “generate the enthusiasm and vitality necessary for Christian world conquest.” Excerpted from Surge of Piety: Norman Vincent Peale and the Remaking of American Religious Life. Copyright © 2016 by Yale University Press. Reprinted with permission from Yale University Press. |
Things that use Ed25519 Updated: February 18, 2019 Here's a list of protocols and software that use or support the superfast, super secure Ed25519 public-key signature system from Daniel J. Bernstein, Niels Duif, Tanja Lange, Peter Schwabe, and Bo-Yin Yang. This page is organized by Protocols, Networks, Operating Systems, Hardware, Software, SSH Software, TLS Libraries, NaCl Crypto Libraries, Libraries, Miscellaneous, Timeline notes, and Support coming soon. You may also be interested in this list of Curve25519 ECDH deployment. Protocols TLS 1.3 — Transport Layer Security SSH — thanks to work done by the OpenSSH team, adopted also by TinySSH and others Signal Protocol — encrypted messaging protocol derivative of OTR Messaging cryptosphere — Encrypted peer-to-peer web application platform for decentralized, privacy-preserving applications saltpack — a modern crypto messaging format ORDO — Ordered Representation for Distinguished Objects: A Certificate Format RAET — (Reliable Asynchronous Event Transport) Protocol Evernym — a high-speed, privacy-enhancing, distributed public ledger engineered for self-sovereign identity Chain Key Derivation — a deterministic key derivation scheme dfi — a distributed file sharing and indexing network BLEMeshChat — 100% sneakernet chat via Bluetooth LE Mesh, for iOS and Android (n+1)sec — a free, end-to-end secure, synchronous protocol for group chat PASETO — a specification and reference implementation for secure stateless tokens Networks Tor — The Onion Router anonymity network I2P — an anonymous network GNUnet — a framework for secure peer-to-peer networking that does not use any centralized or otherwise trusted services Serval — Mesh telecommunications Yggdrasil — a fully end-to-end encrypted network URC — an IRC style, private, security aware, open source project Stellar (Payment Network) — low-cost, real-time transactions on a distributed ledger Sia — Blockchain-based marketplace for file storage cjdns — encrypted ipv6 mesh networking Operating systems OpenBSD — used in OpenSSH, signify, and in CVS over SSH OpenWrt — used in package signing All operating systems that ship with OpenSSH 6.5+ from the OpenBSD Project Software projects signed with Ed25519 OpenBSD signs releases, packages, patches, and binary updates with Ed25519 via signify M:Tier signs OpenBSD packages and binary updates with Ed25519 via signify minisign signs releases with Ed25519 via minisign libsodium signs releases with Ed25519 via minisign dnscrypt-proxy signs its resolver list with Ed25519 via minisign SimpleDnsCrypt signs packages with Ed25519 via minisign dnscrypt-osxclient signs packages with Ed25519 via minisign Markdeep signs releases with Ed25519 via minisign Airship signs automatic updates with Ed25519 LibreSSL signs releases with Ed25519 via signify radare2 signs releases with Ed25519 via signify OpenSMTPD signs releases with Ed25519 via signify DNSCurve.io signs downloads with Ed25519 via signify Hardware Software SSH Software SSH software with full modern crypto support (X25519, Ed25519 and ChaCha20-Poly1305) OpenSSH — Secure Shell from the OpenBSD project TinySSH — a small SSH server with state-of-the-art cryptography Win32-OpenSSH — Win32 port of OpenSSH PuTTY — a free implementation of SSH and Telnet for Windows and Unix platforms WinSCP — a popular SFTP client for Microsoft Windows asyncssh — an asynchronous SSH2 client and server atop asyncio Termius — iOS SSH client rlogin — Japanese rlogin, telnet, and ssh client pssht — SSH server written in PHP (X25519, Ed25519 and ChaCha20-Poly1305) SSH software with partial modern crypto support Golang ssh — for both client and server keys ConnectBot — SSH client for Android passphrase-identity — Regenerable ed25519 keys for OpenSSH and OpenPGP teleport — Modern SSH server for teams managing distributed infrastructure Prompt — SSH client for iOS ssh-key-generator — A utility for deterministically generating ssh keypairs determin-ed — Create deterministic ed25519 keys from seedfile and password for openssh-key-v1 format net-ssh — Pure Ruby implementation of an SSH (protocol 2) client SmartFTP — an FTP, SSH, SFTP client Cyberduck — Libre FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Azure & OpenStack Swift browser for Mac and Windows ed25519hetzner — Script to scan OpenSSH host key and known_hosts files for shared keys from server hoster Hetzner 2sshfp — Build SSHFP DNS records - ecdsa & ed25519 support (sh) edkey — write ED25519 private keys in the OpenSSH private key format tinyssh-convert — convert ed25519 hostkeys from openssh format MobaXterm — Windows SSH client Paramiko — A Python implementation of SSHv2 Tera Term — SSH client for Windows TinyTERM (proprietary; support according to this) TinyTERM for Android TinyTERM for iOS pts-dropbear — Dropbear SSH tools with ed25519 and other improvements by pts DNS Software dnscrypt-proxy — securing communications between a client and a DNS resolver dnsdist — dnsdist supports DNSCrypt Unbound — a validating, recursive, and caching DNS resolver PowerDNS Recursor — a high-performance DNS recursor with built-in scripting capabilities DNSCryptClient — A simple DNSCrypt client dnsmasq — network infrastructure for small networks: DNS, DHCP, router advertisement and network boot PowerDNS Authoritative Server — the only solution that enables authoritative DNS service from all major databases SimpleDnsCrypt — A simple management tool for dnscrypt-proxy Knot DNS — a high-performance authoritative-only DNS server Signify software This section is for OpenBSD signify ported to Linux and other operating systems. OpenBSD: signify — cryptographically sign and verify files — cryptographically sign and verify files Adrian Perez: signify-portable — OpenBSD tool to sign and verify signatures mancha: signify-portable — put together by mancha Felix von Leitner: signify-fefe — signify that builds on Linux Vsevolod Stakhov: asignify — Yet another signify tool Jean-Philippe Ouellet: signify-osx — OS X port of OpenBSD's signify(1) Michael Gehring: signify-go — Go implementation of OpenBSD's signify(1) Yui NARUSE: nurse-signify — portable version of OpenBSD's signify with autoconf Christian Neukirchen: chneukirchen-signify Blitznote: bliznote-signify — signify that builds on Linux Aaron Bieber: signify.el — signify package for emacs Tobias Stoeckmann: signify-windows — OpenBSD signify for Windows systems Björn Edström: python-signify — OpenBSD Signify for Python Robert Escriva: rescrv-signify — signify ported from OpenBSD Heinrich Schuchardt: usign — tiny signify replacement Frank Braun: gosignify — a Go reimplementation of OpenBSD's signify Debian packages: signify-openbsd Greg (myfreeweb): freepass — The free password manager for power users + signify support Jan-Erik Rediger: signify-rs — Create cryptographic signatures for files and verify them Minisign software and libraries Minisign is compatable with signify. Frank Denis: minisign — A dead simple tool to sign files and verify signatures. Compatable with OpenBSD signify! Package availability: Homebrew for OS X; Scoop and chocolatey in Windows; Void Linux; Alpine Linux; Nix package manager minisign-misc — macOS workflows and shell scripts to verify and sign files with minisign rsign — A simple rust implementation of Minisign tool go-minisign — Minisign library for Golang minisign-net — .NET library to handle and create minisign signatures TLS Libraries NaCl Crypto Libraries For cryptographic libraries in the NaCl family, including TweetNaCl, uNaCl, and libsodium, as well as wrappers, bindings, and ports. PASETO libraries Note: V2 of PASETO supports Ed25519, so choose this over the lower security V1. The implementations below support V2. Elixir: Paseto — An Elixir implementation of Paseto (Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens) Go: paseto — Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens implementation in GO (Golang) Go: go-paseto-middleware — Paseto middleware for GoLang Go: pasetosession — Web session/authentication using PASETO Java: paseto4j — Paseto implementation for Java Java: paseto — Java Implementation of Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens Javascript: paseto.js — PASETO: Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens Lua: paseto-lua — PASETO (Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens) for Lua .NET: Paseto.Net — .NET Implementation of PASETO (v2 local / public encryption) .NET: paseto-dotnet — Paseto.NET, a Paseto (Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens) implementation for .NET Python: pypaseto — PASETO for Python Ruby: paseto.rb — Ruby implementation of Paseto using libsodium Rust: paseto — A paseto implementation in rust Swift: swift-paseto — Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens implementation in Swift PASETO plugins Phoenix authentication plug: paseto_plu — A Phoenix authentication plug that validates Paseto (Platform Agnostic Security Tokens) Kong (plugin): kong-plugin-paseto — Kong plugin for PASETO (Platform-Agnostic Security Tokens) Libraries Ed25519 standalone (native implementations) Android: Android.Ed25519 (Dave Akers) ASM/C: iroha-ed25519 (Hyperledger Project) C: ed25519-donna (Andrew Moon) C: ed25519 (Orson Peters) WebAssembly: supercop.wasm (Nazar Mokrynskyi) C: libbrine (Kevin Smith) C: Ed25519 (ArduinoLibs) C++ curve25519-uwp (Jeff R) C#: ed25519 (Hans Wolff) C#: curve25519-pcl (Jeff R) C#: Ed25519 (CryptoManiac) Clojure: ed25519 (Kevin Downey) Elixir: ed25519_ex (Matt Miller) Go: ed25519 (Adam Langley) Go: ed25519 (Nebulous) Go: blakEd25519 (Inkeliz) — uses Blake2 instead of SHA-2 Haskell: hs-scraps (Vincent Hanquez) Java: ed25519-java (str4d) Java: ed25519-java (k3d3) Java: ed25519 (Bjorn Arnelid) Java: ed25519-java (Keith M) Java: Punisher.NaCl (Arpan Jati) Java: Ed25519 (GNUnet) Java: ED25519 (Mick Michalski) Node.js: Ed25519 (Boris Povod) Perl: Crypt::Ed25519 (Marc Lehmann) Python: ed25519.py (Ed25519 authors) Python: ed25519 (Python Cryptographic Authority) Python: python-pure25519 (Brian Warner) Python: ietf-eddsa (Simon Josefsson) Python: nmed25519 (naturalmessage) Python: ed25519.py (Shiho Midorikawa) Rust: ed25519-dalek (Isis Agora Lovecruft) Swift: ed25519swift (pebble8888) VHDL: edxcel_old (Software Defined Buildings) Ed25519 standalone (wrappers and bindings) Erlang: brine (Kevin Smith) Haskell: hs-ed25519 (Austin Seipp) Haskell: haskell-ed25519 (Clint Adams) Haskell: hs-ed25519-donna (Thomas M. DuBuisson) Nim: ed25519.nim (niv) Node.js: ed25519 (Dave Akers) PHP: php-ed25519-ext (Krzysztof Rutecki) PHP: curve25519-php (mgp25) Python: python-ed25519 (Brian Warner) Python: ed25519ll (Daniel Holth) Python: py25519 (sundarnagarajan) Ruby: ed25519 (Crypto.rb) Rust: elliptic (Jihyeok Seo) Swift: ed25519 (Zsolt Váradi) Other Libraries PHP 7.2.0+ — a popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development ring — Crypto library for Rust using BoringSSL's cryptography primitives HACL* — a formally verified cryptographic library written in F* Chaos.NaCl — a cryptography library writen in C#, based on NaCl Nettle — a low-level cryptographic library Bindings available in Haskell, Perl, Pike, PostgreSQL, R6RS Scheme, and TCL Monocypher — a small, secure, auditable, easy to use crypto library LuaNacha — Lua wrapper for Monocypher monocypher.cr — Crystal bindings for Monocypher monocypher-go — Go language bindings for Monocypher libsuola — An ENGINE gluing together OpenSSL and NaCl-derived crypto curve25519-java — Pure Java and JNI backed Curve25519 implementation scrypto — Cryptographic primitives for Scala (includes Curve25519-Java wrapper) Noise-C — a plain C implementation of the Noise Protocol curve25519-dalek — a Rust implementation of field and group operations on an Edwards curve over GF(2 255 - 19) libgodium — Pure Go implementation of cryptographic APIs found in libsodium Libgcrypt — a general purpose cryptographic library originally based on code from GnuPG hs-nacl — Modern Haskell Cryptography Signatory — a pure Rust multi-provider digital signature library Elligator-2 — Javascript implementation of the Elligator 2 algorithm for Curve25519 nacl4s — Scala implementation of Networking and Cryptography (NaCl) library kevinburke-nacl — Pure Go implementation of the NaCl set of APIs Megolm — An AES-based cryptographic ratchet intended for group communications Sapient — Secure API toolkit mipher — Mobile Cipher library written in clean TypeScript rust-crypto-decoupled — Experiment on dividing rust-crypto into several small crates OpenPGP.js — an Open Source OpenPGP library in JavaScript Crypto++ — a free C++ class library of cryptographic schemes pycryptopp — Python bindings to the Crypto++ library eddsa — EdDSA python prototype libelligator — A C++ Elligator2 implementation extra25519 — includes AGL's Go implementation of Elligator elliptic — Fast Elliptic Curve Cryptography in plain javascript nsec — A modern and easy-to-use crypto library for .NET Core based on libsodium amber — Cryptography library. X25519, Ed25519, ChaCha20, Blake2, Poly1305, Scrypt nacl-cert — NaCl Certification System cryptonite — a haskell repository of cryptographic primitives easy-ecc — A usability wrapper for PHP ECC edcert — A rust crate for high-performance content-signing and certificate verification dnscrypt-python — DNSCrypt Python Library dnscrypt — Very basic DNSCrypt library for Go dnscrypt-proxy-gui — Qt/KF5 GUI wrapped over dnscrypt-proxy libsignal-protocol-c — Signal Protocol C Library sshj — ssh, scp and sftp for java salt-channel-c — C implementation of Salt Channel xeddsa — port of libsignal's xeddsa implementation to the pitchfork TweetPepper — Formats, PKI using TweetNaCl as the Crypto iroha-ed25519 — RFC8032 compatible Ed25519 implementation with pluggable hash (sha2-512, sha3-512) hc — HomeControl is an implementation of the HomeKit Accessory Protocol (HAP) in Go GO-JWT-ed25519 — A very basic GO implementation of JWT using ed25519 c25519 — Wei25519, Curve25519 and Ed25519 for low-memory systems ara-crypto — Cryptographic functions used in various Ara modules libssh — a library written in C implementing the SSH protocol Personal-HomeKit-HAP — build HomeKit support accessories ocaml-bip32-ed25519 — OCaml implementation of BIP32-Ed25519 (Khovratovich/Law flavour) cryptostack — cryptographic library based on Curve25519, Ed25519, blake2b, Poly1305, XSalsa20 primitives go-tuf — Go implementation of The Update Framework (TUF) prototok — RbNaCl + json/msgpack/protobuf key generation/parsing gem kyber — Advanced crypto library for the Go language Ed25519_DS — Ed25519 node.js library go-lib — Useful, Reusable Golang libraries Neuro:pil — a small messaging library which by default adds two layers of encryption The Update Framework — helps developers to secure new or existing software update systems spring-boot-wow — spring boot integrity and multi modules with spring-boot include ed25519 libaxolotl-crypto-web — WebCrypto implementation of cryptography interface for libaxolotl-javascript libaxolotl-javascript — A JavaScript implementation of axolotl libaxolotl-crypto-node — Node.js implementation of cryptography interface for libaxolotl-javascript ed25519-to-x25519.wasm — Library for Ed25519 signing key pair into X25519/Curve25519 key pair suitable for Diffie-Hellman key exchange crypto — crypto with ed25519 + base58 or other edssh — ed25519 signature support for golang.org/x/crypto/ssh salt-channel — A Java implementation of Salt Channel - a simple, light-weight secure channel protocol SharedEcc25519 — ANSI-C based cross-platform elliptic curve cryptography provider with objc api Virgil Crypto Library — modern cryptography libraries (ECIES and RSA with Cryptographic Agility) and all the necessary infrastructure Sequoia-PGP — a modern modular OpenPGP implementation in Rust arduinolibs-Crypto — Arduino libraries and examples libuecc — Very small Elliptic Curve Cryptography library ecc25519 — combine golang ed25519 and curve25519 libray in one erlang-libdecaf — ed448goldilocks (libdecaf) NIF with timeslice reductions for Erlang and Elixir (+Ed25519) ruby-jose — JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) for Ruby erlang-jose — JSON Object Signing and Encryption (JOSE) for Erlang and Elixir redux-signatures — Cryptographic signing of your redux (or flux) actions HeavyThing — x86_64 assembler library libcryptoconditions — Interledger crypto-conditions implemented in C, including simple JSON api joken — Elixir JWT library jwt_nacl — A Ruby JSON Web Token implementation using NaCl Ed25519 digital signatures go-libp2p-crypto — Various cryptographic utilities used by ipfs libsqrl — a library implementing the SQRL Specification yii2-api — A Yii2 API Skeleton Framework hp_ecc_avx2 — an optimized library for computing EdDSA and the Diffie-Hellman functions X25519 and X448 cryptofamily — a heap of primitives, algorithms, etc. kcl — NaCl substitute of sorts in Elixir c25519 — Curve25519 and Ed25519 for low-memory systems ed25519-streaming — Streaming implementation of c25519 python-signedjson — Sign JSON objects with ED25519 signatures signedjson — Signs JSON objects with ED25519 signatures supercop.js — not to be confused with SUPERCOP molch — An implementation of the axolotl ratchet based on libsodium aws-crypto-lambda — AWS Lambda for Cryptographic functions based on libsodium sshlib — ConnectBot's SSH library tankfeeder — writtein in picolisp Javascript: asymmetric-crypto — Encryption and signing using public-key cryptography (via TweetNaCl) coniks-go — A CONIKS implementation in Golang pspka — password seeded public key authentication curve25519-js — Curve25519 Javascript Implementation ed25519-supercop — ed25519 curve operations using a supercop/ref10 implementation libeddsa — cryptographic library for ed25519 and curve25519 libec — Small PKI library AFEnacl — An AFNetworking subclass providing payload signing via libsodium eddsa — Structures for safe handling of Ed25519 keys ECC-25519 — helps to use ECC with Curve25519 Salt — NaCl cryptography library for PHP (not by the NaCl authors) KCl — NaCl, but heavier (not compatable with NaCl) libgcrypt — a general purpose cryptographic library based on the code from GnuPG 25519 — Key agreement (X25519) and signing (ed25519) js-stellar-base — the lowest-level stellar helper library microstar-crypto — Cryptography library for Microstar, wrapping TweetNaCl libaxolotl-crypto-curve25519 — emscripten compiled version of curve25519 and ed25519 shick_crypto — multi recipient NaCl-style encryption via libsodium SQRL-Protocol — A helper library to handle SQRL requests and responses gryphon — HTTP Request Signing with Ed25519 python-axolotl-curve25519 — curve25519 with ed25519 signatures, used by libaxolotl secret-handshake — Javascript-based authentication python-sshpubkeys — OpenSSH public key parser for Python Cryptocurrencies, blockchains, and ledgers Monero — a secure, private, untraceable currency Nano — digital currency for the real world Decred — Hybridized PoW/PoS cryptocurrency Chain Core — enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure that enables organizations to build better financial services from the ground up tezos — A self-amending cryptographic ledger Chronicle — a self-hostable microservice and append-only public ledger Miscellaneous Matthew Green: "Any potential 'up my sleeve' number should be looked at with derision and thoroughly examined (Schneier thinks that the suggested NIST ECC curves are probably compromised by NSA using 'up my sleeve' constants). This is why I think we all should embrace DJB's curve25519." Ted Unangst: "The one and only supported algorithm is Ed25519. It has a lot of very nice properties, though I really like the deterministic signatures. Anything that makes it harder to screw up is great." GnuPG: "For many people the NIST and also the Brainpool curves have an doubtful origin and thus the plan for GnuPG is to use Bernstein's Curve 25519 as default. GnuPG 2.1.0 already comes with support for signing keys using the Ed25519 variant of this curve. This has not yet been standardized by the IETF (i.e. there is no RFC) but we won't wait any longer and go ahead using the proposed format for this signing algorithm." Cesar Pereida García and Billy Bob Brumley and Yuval Yarom: Make Sure DSA Signing Exponentiations Really are Constant-Time: "OpenSSH supports building without OpenSSL as a dependency. We recommend that OpenSSH package maintainers switch to this option. For OpenSSH administrators and users, we recommend migrating to ssh-ed25519 key types, the implementation of which has many desirable side-channel properties." Adam Caudill: "FYI - Went through 12.5M executions with afl against the minisign verification function, no hits. Good job!" Ted Unangst: "It takes more code for a TLS client to negotiate Hello and do the key exchange than in all of signify." Adam Langley: "Current ECDSA deployments involve an ECDSA key in an X.509 certificate and ephemeral, ECDHE keys being generated by the server as needed. These ephemeral keys are signed by the ECDSA key. A similar design would have an Ed25519 key in the X.509 certificate and curve25519 used for ECDHE. I don't believe there's anything needed to get that working save for switching out the algorithms." Timeline notes Ed25519 support coming soon! "Powered by Ed25519" |
While Jenson Button has signed a one-year contract extension, Perez's future with the Woking outfit remains in considerable doubt, with Whitmarsh making no secret of his desire to bring Fernando Alonso back to McLaren. Nevertheless, the prospect of the team rehiring Alonso remains remote, with the Spaniard poised to stay at Ferrari - at least for next season. The reason why Hulkenberg is set to be overlooked, however, is altogether more disconcerting with the hugely-talented German seemingly out of the running to replace Perez purely on account of his 6ft frame. Indeed, despite being generally regarded as one of the most talented drivers in the sport, there is a growing possibility that Hulkenberg will not find a seat anywhere on the grid next season with the small print of 2014's new regulations making big drivers a potential liability. Although the minimum weight of next year's cars has been increased, it is thought that the extra 43kg will be gobbled up by the extra weight of the turbo and ERS systems. As a knock-on effect, tall drivers are set to be thinner than ever - and thin on the ground. "We have to find a solution, but I doubt we will find one in the next few weeks or months," Whitmarsh admitted to Sky Sports News. "But sadly, the way it has worked out means the heavier drivers will be less attractive. It has happened by accident. We have raised the minimum weight but the new powertrains are heavier than people expected and now have a situation where heavier drivers could be a disadvantage." Hence the widespread expectation that Perez will be retained despite his disappointing performances alongside Button this term, leaving Hulkenberg to look elsewhere for his leap forward on the grid. "I expect things to work out with Sergio," confirmed Whitmarsh. "We're not talking to Nico. He's doing a good job and certainly deserves a competitive seat next year, but we're not talking to Nico at the moment." Another driver fretting over F1's unanticipated weighty issue is Paul di Resta. Just a year ago, the Scot was being linked with the likes of Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes. Twelve months later, it's far from certain that he will still be in F1 next season. "It is a concern for a driver like me," the Scot told The Daily Telegraph. "I am at the upper end, to the point where I am three or four kilos under what I would like to be to be healthy. I'm four kilos lighter than when I started in F1, and I was pretty much on the limit of what I thought I could get to then. "I'd like to see the weight limit raised because it would make no difference to the smaller drivers. It's a little bit of an unfair advantage to be a smaller guy because not only can they move the weight in the car to the right place but they can keep themselves in a healthier state." But according to Button, there is little prospect of the minimum weight being increased because of the sport's natural inclination towards self-interest. "Some teams might not want to change the weight because they have light drivers and know they can make a light car and engine package," the 2009 World Champion said. "That might be us but we should all agree to be fair and raise the weights. I would love to be able to eat again. "In the past three years, I have probably had four races where I have lost half-a-tenth or a tenth of a second because I have been overweight. It sounds small but in qualifying that could be a position or two and in the race it could be five or six seconds. "It is a big deal and something that goes unnoticed." In the meantime, the one big deal that can be all-but ruled out for next year is Alonso's return to McLaren. "As far as I know, he's very firmly contracted for next year. It's an interesting piece of speculation, but probably not relevant to next year anyway," conceded Whitmarsh. "There's no rush and, for the moment, I would rather Sergio concentrated on his own form. He's doing a good job, we enjoy having him in the team and, when it's all done, we will make the announcement." |
The Prescott Daily Courier Surveillance footage from inside the bar where members of an Iron Brother Motorcycle Club, which allegedly included police officers, were involved in a fight. The undercover NYPD detective now charged with taking part in a bike gang’s assault on an SUV is not the only police officer who may have crossed the line between cop and biker. Across the country, say experts, that line has grown blurry as the number of active police officers joining and forming motorcycle clubs has soared. “Within the last 10 or 12 years, there has just been an explosion of these clubs of law enforcement, firefighters and military,” said Terry Katz, a retired lieutenant in the Maryland State Police who is vice president of the International Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Investigators’ Association. Most simply ride with friends in their free time, but some have been involved in violent incidents while in “biker” mode. An Arizona officer goes to court Thursday for allegedly assaulting a bar patron who made comments about his bike gang's “colors.” According to Katz, it doesn’t help that many of the law enforcement motorcycle clubs model themselves on outlaw gangs like the Hells Angels and the Warlocks. They wear the same kind of patches, ride the same bikes, and, sometimes, break the same laws. “You can’t act like something and not become it,” said Katz, who spent three decades investigating bike gangs. “You can’t be a biker by night and a cop by day.” Officer Eric Amato, a 13-year veteran of the Phoenix police force, may have crossed the blurred line one night last December when he and other members of a motorcycle club called the Iron Brotherhood decided to party in full regalia at the bars on Prescott, Arizona’s “Whiskey Row.” The club gathered on Dec. 22 at Hooligan’s to celebrate the Christmas holidays. By about 10:30 p.m., some had moved to Moctezuma's, where the bouncer stopped them at the door. The bouncer later told investigators the bar normally did not let in people wearing biker club paraphernalia, or “colors.” Then one of the Iron Brotherhood bikers, Yavapai County Sheriff’s Dept. Sgt. William “Bill” Suttle, a member of the local narcotics task force, flashed his badge. The bouncer let them in. Prescott Police Chief Clair “Billy” Fessler, the president of the Prescott chapter of the Brotherhood, was also at Moctezuma’s wearing his colors. Most of the club’s members knew him as “Tarzan.” A 23-year-old bar patron named Justin Stafford then approached Fessler and began asking about club patches on Fessler’s motorcycle vest, according to a report later filed by investigators. Both men had allegedly been drinking. A brawl ensued. Surveillance video from the bar obtained by a local newspaper, the Prescott News Courier, shows men wearing Iron Brotherhood jackets taking swings at Stafford and another man. Watch video of the Moctezuma brawl The Special Investigations Unit of the state’s Department of Public Safety launched a probe of the incident. In a report that runs more than 350 pages, investigators reported that Stafford said he was “very intoxicated” when he approached the bikers to ask about their machines and their patches. Fessler said that Stafford’s questions were aggressive, and that he was touching the patches while cursing. Read the report here According to the report, Stafford said that a biker standing next to Fessler grabbed him by the throat, pushed him against a wall and punched him in the face. The report said that Amato, who also used the gang name "Guido," threw the punch. He has been charged with one count of assault and appears in an Arizona court for a preliminary hearing Thursday. Other men traded blows in the scrum that followed the first punch. But the investigators said that their probe of the fight was hindered by an alleged lack of cooperation from Suttle and Fessler. The report recommended charges of felony obstruction of criminal investigations and misdemeanor charges of false reporting to law enforcement against Fessler and Suttle, as well as a disorderly conduct charge for Stafford. None of the three men were ever criminally charged. Fessler, 54, denied taking part in the fight, but retired from the Prescott force soon after the incident to prevent what he called "further uncorroborated accusations." Suttle resigned from the Sheriff’s Department. Amato has declined to speak to the media. The Phoenix police department will not comment on the case due to an ongoing internal investigation, but said Amato is still at the department, though unable to make arrests. In Baltimore in 2008, 65-year-old Norman Stamp, a 44-year veteran of the city police force, was drinking in a strip joint with fellow members of the bike club he helped found, the Chosen Sons, when a brawl started in the street outside. Police said Stamp, off-duty and dressed in his Chosen Sons gear, rushed into the fray with brass knuckles. On-duty city cop John Torres, who’d been called to the scene to break up the fight, used a taser on him. When Stamp, on the ground, allegedly reached for his service weapon, Torres shot him. Stamp identified himself as an officer as he lay dying on the street. Stamp’s widow brought a wrongful death against Torres in 2010, but he was cleared. That same year, five off-duty Seattle police officers gathered at the Loud American Roadhouse bar in Sturgis, S.D., during the city’s annual motorcycle rally, which draws thousands of enthusiasts from around the country. All five officers were members of the Iron Pigs motorcycle club, composed of law enforcement and firefighters who ride American-made V-Twin-engine motorcycles. Several hundred people were in the bar when shots rang out at 1 a.m. A member of the famed Hells Angels motorcycle gang was hospitalized. Investigators found that one of the Seattle officers had fired the shots, but the charges against him were dropped after video evidence showed he acted in self-defense. But it’s not necessary for police officers to join old-school bike gangs for them to find themselves in compromising positions, as the videotaped confrontation between a group of sport bike riders and a New York driver on Sept. 29 shows. In recent years, sport bike enthusiasts have begun forming impromptu packs, sometimes assembled via social media, for massive “runs” that clog highways and can intimidate motorists. On Sept. 29, as many as six police officers who took part in an annual New York City sport bike rally called Hollywood Stuntz were nearby when bikers surrounded Range Rover driver Alex Lien in Manhattan, pulled him from his car and beat him in front of his wife and daughter. Only one officer has been charged with taking part in the attack on the car. Video of the incident allegedly shows undercover NYPD officer Wojciech Braszczok bashing in the rear window of the SUV after it had been surrounded. The officer did not take part in the assault on the driver. This detective had originally been defended by officials as a deep undercover who failed to defend Lien because that might have damaged his cover. When the videotape surfaced those officials felt duped, sources said. Braszczok has been charged with riot and criminal mischief. For some members of formal bike clubs, the growth of these loosely organized and loosely controlled rides has become a black mark on a culture defined by codes and credos. Michael Spano has been riding in New York’s Islanders Motorcycle Club for 14 years, and has designed artwork for clubs across the nation, many of them made up of law enforcement. He says whatever the division between the outlaw clubs and those made up of police, in both, members must follow codes of conduct and rules of the road absent in the big sport bike runs. “We don’t consider them bikers -- they give us a bad name,” said Spano. “They’re like a pack of wolves.” Spano said that any cops who were part of the pack that pounced on driver Alex Lien “should be kicked off the force.” “They should have been the first ones to run over there to pull their gang members off the vehicle,” said Spano. “And they didn’t.” More from NBC News Investigations: Follow NBC News Investigations on Twitter and Facebook |
IANS By The foundation stone of a 212-meter (700-foot) high Krishna temple, reputedly the world's tallest, will be laid here March 16. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will dedicate the temple coinciding with Holi festival. Called Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir, the temple complex will be spread over 5.5 acres along the Chatikara road which connects Vrindavan with the Delhi-Agra national highway. Vrindavan is also connected with the Yamuna Expressway. The temple structure, with 79 storeys, will be three times taller than Qutub Minar in Delhi. Along with statues of Krishn-Radha, there will be statues on separate floors of Chaitnya Mahaprabhu and Sri Prabhupad, founder of the ISKCON movement. The concept and design of the temple has been prepared by the Bangalore branch of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. An official said originally the temple was to be 300 metres tall but the design was revised. The temple is expected to cost Rs.400 crore. "Once complete, pilgrims who reach the top floor will be able to see the Taj Mahal. Thousands of craftsmen and skilled workers will get jobs for the next few years." |
A new type of modular tile promises to help reduce flooding in cities hit by increased rainfall due to climate change. The streets of Copenhagen will be a testing ground for the Climate Tile, which was created by Danish architecture studio Tredje Natur and has been in development since 2014. Designed to be used alongside or instead of existing sidewalks, the tiles are peppered with a system of holes, tunnels and ridges. These collect and manage rainwater, funnelling it away from sidewalks – where it can cause damage – to a preferred use like irrigating nearby plantings. The tiles serve as a supplement to existing drainage systems, easing the stress on sewers at a time when some cities are recording record rainfall. Tredje Natur envisions the Climate Tiles existing alongside pocket parks that add to the street life while serving as a flood defence. "We wish to show the world that climate proofing isn't just hidden technology, but also a chance for everybody to participate in the improvement of our everyday spaces where we understand the city's hidden connections and offer greater life quality," said Tredje Natur project manager Jeppe Ecklon. "The Climate Tile is a solution that can ease the problems with rainwater that cannot get away, whilst creating more urban nature in our grey streets." Water that passes into the tiles through small holes in their surface can be directed towards a managing unit. The unit can store, delay, divert and percolate the water if it needs treatment. Tredje Natur also intends to create plugs for the holes in the surface of the Climate Tile, allowing its uses and catchment patterns to be adapted over time. Some of these will be smart plugs with sensors that measure data about the water supply. There has been a growing awareness of the need for better flood prevention in Copenhagen. A previous project by Tredje Natur envisioned a water retention and draining system for a the city's Saint Kjeld's Kvarter, while landscape studio SLA's plans to regenerate the area of Inner Nørrebro are based on a flood-easing network of basins and parks. The Climate Tile is being supported by Denmark's Market Development Fund and will receive $145,000 (£120,000) in co-financing for further development. It is set for testing at Heimdalsgade number 22-24, Nørrebro – a location chosen together with the City of Copenhagen municipality – from spring 2017 until 2018. Tredje Natur expects to bring it to the market by late 2018. Copenhagen is not the only city planning for the impacts of climate change. Architects and developers working in Miami are belatedly responding to climate change, amid a growing sense of alarm over how rising sea levels are affecting that city. |
In this work, the ability of S-layer proteins from kefir-isolated Lactobacillus kefir strains to antagonize the cytophatic effects of toxins from Clostridium difficile (TcdA and TcdB) on eukaryotic cells in vitro was tested by cell detachment assay. S-layer proteins from eight different L. kefir strains were able to inhibit the damage induced by C. difficile spent culture supernatant to Vero cells. Besides, same protective effect was observed by F-actin network staining. S-layer proteins from aggregating L. kefir strains (CIDCA 83115, 8321, 8345 and 8348) showed a higher inhibitory ability than those belonging to non-aggregating ones (CIDCA 83111, 83113, JCM 5818 and ATCC 8007), suggesting that differences in the structure could be related to the ability to antagonize the effect of clostridial toxins. Similar results were obtained using purified TcdA and TcdB. Protective effect was not affected by proteases inhibitors or heat treatment, thus indicating that proteolytic activity is not involved. Only preincubation with specific anti-S-layer antibodies significantly reduced the inhibitory effect of S-layer proteins, suggesting that this could be attributed to a direct interaction between clostridial toxins and L. kefir S-layer protein. Interestingly, the interaction of toxins with S-layer carrying bacteria was observed by dot blot and fluorescence microscopy with specific anti-TcdA or anti-TcdB antibodies, although L. kefir cells did not show protective effects. We hypothesize that the interaction between clostridial toxins and soluble S-layer molecules is different from the interaction with S-layer on the surface of the bacteria thus leading a different ability to antagonize cytotoxic effect. This is the first report showing the ability of S-layer proteins from kefir lactobacilli to antagonize biological effects of bacterial toxins. These results encourage further research on the role of bacterial surface molecules to the probiotic properties of L. kefir and could contribute to strain selection with potential therapeutic or prophylactic benefits towards CDAD. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
You don't need psychedelic drugs to start seeing colors and objects that aren't really there. Just 15 minutes of near-total sensory deprivation can bring on hallucinations in many otherwise sane individuals. Psychologists stuck 19 healthy volunteers into a sensory-deprivation room, completely devoid of light and sound, for 15 minutes. Without the normal barrage of sensory information flooding their brains, many people reported experiencing visual hallucinations, paranoia and a depressed mood. "This is a pretty robust finding," wrote psychiatrist Paul Fletcher of the University of Cambridge, who studies psychosis but was not involved in the study. "It appears that, when confronted by lack of sensory patterns in our environment, we have a natural tendency to superimpose our own patterns." The findings support the hypothesis that hallucinations happen when the brain misidentifies the source of what it is experiencing, a concept the researchers call "faulty source monitoring." "This is the idea that hallucinations come about because we misidentify the source of our own thoughts," psychologist Oliver Mason of the University College London wrote in an e-mail to Wired.com. "So basically something that actually is initiated within us gets misidentified as from the outside." Mason and colleagues published their study in October in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. To choose people for their study, the researchers asked more than 200 volunteers to complete a questionnaire called the "Revised Hallucinations Scale," which measures the predisposition of healthy people to see things that aren't really there. The scientists picked participants who scored in either the upper or lower 20th percentile, so they could compare how short-term sensory deprivation affects a range of individuals. Study participants sat in a padded chair in the middle of an anechoic chamber, a room designed to dampen all sound and block out light. The researchers describe the setup as a "room within a room," with thick outer walls and an inner chamber formed by metallic acoustic panels and a floating floor. In between the outer and inner walls are large fiberglass wedges. "This results in a very low-noise environment in which the sound pressure due to outside levels is below the threshold of hearing," the researchers wrote. Though participants had a panic button, none of them used it. After spending 15 minutes deprived of sight and sound, each person completed a test called the "Psychotomimetic States Inventory," which measures psychosis-like experiences and was originally developed to study recreational drug users. Among the nine participants who scored high on the first survey, five reported having hallucinations of faces during the sensory deprivation, and six reported seeing other objects or shapes that weren't there. Four also noted an unusually heightened sense of smell, and two sensed an "evil presence" in the room. Almost all reported that they had "experienced something very special or important" during the experiment. As expected, volunteers who were less prone to hallucinations experienced fewer perceptual distortions, but they still reported a variety of delusions and hallucinations. The researchers were not altogether surprised by such dramatic results from only 15 minutes of sensory deprivation. Although few scientists are studying sensory deprivation today, a small body of research from the 1950s and 1960s supports the idea that a lack of sensory input can lead to symptoms of psychosis. "Sensory deprivation is a naturalistic analogue to drugs like ketamine and cannabis for acting as a psychosis-inducing context," Mason wrote, "particularly for those prone to psychosis." We still don't know why some people are more likely to have hallucinations than others, but Fletcher says that some researchers consider the phenomenon particularly important because it suggests that symptoms of mental illness occur on a continuum with normality. "Perhaps this reflects different ways of dealing with sense data, which under certain circumstances might be advantageous," Fletcher wrote. Next, the researchers hope to study how sensory deprivation affects schizophrenic patients and people who use recreational drugs that increase the risk of psychosis. "There are claims that schizophrenic patients paradoxically find that their psychotic symptoms such as hearing voices are improved by sensory deprivation," Mason wrote, "though the evidence for this is very long in the tooth indeed. What happens to people who already hear voices when in the chamber?" Via MindHacks. Image: daveknapik/Flickr See Also: Follow us on Twitter @wiredscience, and on Facebook. |
Persona 5 Director On Its Voluminous Content, Characters, And Its Social Link System By Sato . February 23, 2016 . 6:20am Series chief director Katsura Hashino recently shared the latest on the development of Persona 5 in the March 2016 issue of Persona Magazine. Here are some of the key notes from the interview. [Thanks, Game Jouhou.] Persona 4 got a bunch of extra content added to Persona 4 Golden, and as a result of not compromising with the volume, it was a lot of work. That said, [Persona 5] has some truly gorgeous content. Dungeons and level design will be very different when compared to past titles. There are things that make them all different, and each dungeon will be thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks to having a bit of a stereotypical theme with “phantom thief,” it made it possible to be able to put in work that will surprise the players. From there, they’re looking to mix in contemporary drama with the likeness of Persona, to create something that can express the fun of entertainment. The reason the stage is set in Tokyo is so they can push the idea of having an amazing phantom thief drama play out in the world we know. Most of the characters in the game are labeled, judged, and are living unfortunate everyday lives that have no escape. Rising up and breaking out of such situation is what you’ll see as you move forward in the game. About Ryuji Sakamoto: He’s one to say “let’s change this world!” and pull the protagonist. It’s because of Ryuji that the protagonist begins his life as a phantom thief. He may be defiant, but he’s a nice guy. For this reason, voice actor Mamoru Miyano is a good fit. His Persona “Captain Kidd” is a good fit with Ryuji’s setting and episode. About Ann Takamaki: She’s a quarter-American girl who returned to Japan, and while she may be popular, she doesn’t have any friends, and is a character that looks like she may stand out among her peers, but she’s actually isolated and lonely. Once she joins the party, she’ll take on the role of the life of the party. Her Persona, “Carmen,” has a femme-fatale side to her, and due to a certain incident, they join the protagonist and Ryuji to take on the other world. That said, she’s a character that will have an impact on the fate of the main characters. About Morgana: Morgana is similar to Persona 4’s Teddie, and will help in the navigation of the other world. Morgana has been working in the phantom thief business since before due to certain reasons, and will raise the protagonist and friends as proper phantom thieves. Morgana takes the appearance of a regular cat in the real world, but Hashino will keep the reason for that as a surprise for now. Morgana’s Persona “Zorro” is actually his/her admired form. Since Morgana is little and is often called out with “hey, cat,” the Persona shows its ideal macho form. About Yusuke Kitagawa: An eccentric character, but you might sense a different charm from him than you’d get from his illustration appearance. He’s a talented artist, and is an honor student in art. There will be a similar system to “Social Link.” With the question of how to make communication for the characters of Persona 5 into a driving force, Hashino hopes to see it go a step higher in the human relation part of things than what we saw in the Social Link of Persona 3 and Persona 4. Heading into the Persona series’ 20th anniversary, Hashino hopes they can make an announcement to please the fans, but he hopes everyone looks forward to Persona 5 first. Persona 5 is expected to release in summer 2016 in Japan for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, and sometime later in 2016 for North America. [Editor’s note: We got in touch with Atlus about Morgana’s gender, and Atlus says that while they can’t say whether it’ll have any bearing on the final localization or if things have changed since, they used gender-neutral terms when localizing the interview with GameInformer, where Morgana’s gender wasn’t confirmed when asked. That said, we’ll do the same until further notice.] |
Guild Wars 2 set its fanbase on edge this last week on Twitter and at PAX prime. We learned that raids are coming to GW2 with its next expansion, and on Saturday the base Guild Wars 2 game became free for everyone. Of course, the announcement left fans with more questions than answers. What are the raids going to be like? How are they going to work without the traditional trinity? Are we ever getting a LFR tool? Since Game Director Colin Johanson of ArenaNet was at PAX Prime, it only made sense to ask him directly about how it’ll all work in the game itself and what it means for the future of Guild Wars 2. Putting Guild Wars 2 on a raid team’s radar At the forefront of my mind was raiding. I can’t say that I’ve always been raiding in MMOs, but for the last several years, endgame, group-PvE content has been a large focus of my gameplay. Currently, I stream my raids in other games on Twitch, and my progression raid group has been together for going on three years now. Guild Wars 2 was never on our radar because the group size wasn’t that big, and frankly, the group dynamic seemed to not fit what we were looking for in endgame group content. Johanson assured me that gamers, even in the most difficult Guild Wars 2 content, were barely touching the surface of what players could do in a group. He reiterated to me that although there is no hard trinity, GW2 does have a kind of trinity of its own that players were not always taking advantage of in the current PvE game. He divided the roles into control, support, and damage, and beyond that, groups will have to consider class combos when taking on a raid boss. He said that the only place in the game where all the class abilities are being used to their fullest was in high-level PvP, and he wants to change that so that it takes the same level of skill to raid. Optimal team diversity Of course, this made me wonder if there is then going to be an optimal team make up for a raid or a specific boss. As we know in some cases or in some groups, unless you have the optimal team make-up, then you are just not invited to the raid. I was curious about how the ArenaNet design team plans on mitigating this kind of problem. Johanson said that he believes it comes down to encounter diversity. “Because we have a lot of different boss encounters, we have a lot of different mechanics we can throw at you, and it requires you to bring a really diverse set of skills.” Secondly, the flexibility of classes will help mitigate the problem. He gave an example: “A Warrior’s ability to support the party works differently from a Guardian’s ability to support them, but they are both very capable and fully able to do that. What we’ve seen from our own internal play testing is very different compositions can handle these encounters.” Because of the large diversity of encounters, I was prompted to ask whether players will be able to swap out abilities between boss fights. Johanson said that currently players are in combat the whole time they are in an encounter, so swapping out abilities isn’t possible. But he did say that ANet is still “playing around with what [it] will let you change.” However, he was quick to point out that weapon swapping can easily change a character’s role in the group, and that can be done on the fly. The development team’s “playing around” also extended to group boons another group support abilities. Currently, Johanson said that it’s still in flux and there will be parts where the groups will be split. But as of right now, boons affect only the five people who are in your group. Masteries and attunement In the same vein, I was concerned about the Masteries needed for doing the raid and why that wasn’t considered attunement. And truthfully, that just comes down to a player’s personal definition of attunement. For some, attunement could mean just having to do one tiny thing before being able to do a raid. For instance, we know that one of the boss encounters in the Heart of Thorns raids will require that you have some of the hanggliding Mastery. Johanson said that there will certainly be raid encounters that will require “soft levels of Mastery, like the hanggliding.” He also mentioned that some encounters will require only some members to have certain levels of Mastery. His primary concern regarding attuning is that people who maybe leave the game for a period of time don’t have six months of rep grinding or other activities to do before they can begin raiding again. Although that didn’t completely alleviate all my concerns about raids — I still think that players being players are still going to latch on to an optimal raid-team configuration — it’s good to know the direction ArenaNet is taking with raiding, and unfortunately, we will just have to try some things for ourselves before we can know for sure. No raid finder Being a raider myself and sometimes enjoying the ability to group up with other random people, I asked about a group-finder system for raids — whether there is one in HoT or will be in the future. And he explicitly said no — there will not be one at the launch of HoT, and there are no plans to ever put one in. He emphasized that this was intended to be coordinated endgame content, not something a PUG can tackle: “[For raids,] we focused on players working together on really challenging content. I believe that is part of community building. We cater to a ton to different playstyles. We have content that you don’t have to group for and some that you can do in ad hoc groups. Basically, you can go anywhere you want to join in with other players already.” Don’t neglect the old world After the announcement of HoT, many players were concerned that the old game content would be left in the dust. Unfortunately, that is partially true. But Johanson wanted to reassure players that even though there is a lot of focus on the new HoTness, events like Halloween will still continue and patches will still come to the old game. Johanson believes that there will be plenty to do in the old game for free players. That said, moving forward, everything brand-spanking new coming to the game will be specifically designed for players who have bought Heart of Thorns. Specifically, the Living World story will be only for HoT players. He explained that story itself has moved to Maguuma, and it only makes sense that the new Living World updates will happen over there. As of right now, that’s all that can be revealed about raids and new content. Johanson couldn’t talk about anything more specific because much of it is still in playtesting, and seriously, where would the fun be if we knew everything? You can play Guild Wars 2 for free right now, and if you’re looking to join in the new content when it launches on October 23rd, know that pre-purchases are available through the Guild Wars 2 store. Stay tuned tomorrow for our second interview with the ANet team! |
Scientists at China's Nanjing University created a nanorobot only 150x150x8 nanometers big—a million times smaller than a red blood cell—that's able to place individual atoms and molecules with 100% accuracy. You crazy for this one, Nanjing University scientists. An excerpt: The nanorobotic arm is built out of DNA origami: large strands of DNA gently encouraged to fold in precise ways by interaction with a few hundred short DNA strands. The products, around 100 nanometers in diameter, are eight times larger and three times more complex than what could be built with a simple crystalline DNA array, vastly expanding the space of possible structures. Other nanoscale structures or machines built by Dr. Seeman and his collaborators including a nanoscale walking biped, truncated DNA octahedrons, and sequence-dependent molecular switch arrays. Dr. Seeman has exploited structural features of DNA thought to be used in genetic recombination to operate his nanoscale devices, tapping into the very processes underlying all life. Advertisement The article paints this as the next Industrial Revolution, which is troubling for me personally because the first one was complicated enough (steam? what?) and nanotechnology is way too much for my feeble brain to handle, but I can totally understand tiny robots. And I approve, as long as they're as adorable as their tiny size demands. [H+ Magazine] |
BARCELONA — The accelerating battle over Catalonia’s status hit warp speed this week. Catalan lawmakers voted to go ahead with an Oct. 1 referendum on separating from Spain. Spain’s constitutional court declared the vote suspended. And Catalan politicians said they would proceed anyway. On Monday, Catalonia’s national day, hundreds of thousands of independence-minded citizens are expected to take to the streets of Barcelona in a show of force, further roiling the waters. If it all sounds like a recipe for an unpredictable and chaotic political crisis that threatens to push Spain into uncharted territory, it is. “This has gotten out of control,” said Javier Solana, Spain’s former foreign minister and a former secretary-general of NATO. “We’re no longer in a normal situation of political conflict, where the politicians fight but at least respect the rules of the game.” |
Dr. Martin Ellingham, a London-based surgeon, relocates to the picturesque seaside village of Port Wenn, where he establishes himself as the area's general practitioner. He grew up in the area, having been raised by his now-widowed Aunt Joan Norton. His reasons for leaving London and the high-paid life of a surgeon are not clear initially but related to a phobia he has. He soon meets several of the locals and eccentricity abounds. Martin's situation is made more difficult by what can only be referred as an almost complete lack of an acceptable bedside manner. He is gruff, abrupt, and intolerant, not only in issues related to medicine, but to life in general. He and the headmistress of the local school, Louisa Glasson, are clearly attracted to each other and, despite their awkwardness, slowly develop a relationship. Written by garykmcd |
The story of Free Radical Design begins with one of gaming's milestones, and after almost nine years it ended with the studio's blood on several publisher's hands. Founded in April 1999, the Nottingham-based studio created the much-loved shooter series TimeSplitters and third-person psychic drama Second Sight during the PS2 era. But Haze, the company's final game, received a critical mauling, sold poorly, and shortly afterwards Free Radical entered administration. This article began with the question 'Did Haze Kill Free Radical?' But after speaking to every key figure in the company's history, the story turned out to be much bigger than the poor reception of one title. It's about how big publishers sometimes manhandle the developers they work with, and how badly they handle change. It's about how they asphyxiated one of Britain's finest independent developers, and drove an industry legend out of the games business. David Doak. Free Radical Design was founded by key members of the Rare team that made GoldenEye. Released on N64 in August 1997, it was the first classic console shooter and sold a stunning eight million copies. "I think at the time we naively believed we did everything ourselves," laughs Free Radical co-founder Steve Ellis. "We were kind of a company within a company in Rare and credited ourselves for the success of GoldenEye, without really acknowledging that many other people played a part in that." Dissatisfied with their meagre share of GoldenEye's profits, the team had nevertheless started work on successor Perfect Dark before, in late 1998, David Doak handed in his notice and set off a chain reaction. Doak had originally been hired as a network guy, but was soon one of three lead designers on GoldenEye 007. He's got a knack for getting into games; GoldenEye fans may remember MI6's sleeper agent 'Dr. Doak' (a friendly dig at Doak's doctorate from Oxford University) from the second mission. He later turned up in Haze as rebel leader Merino - the man the corporations want to slay. "Steve and I hadn't really spoken about it very much," says Doak, Free Radical co-founder and director. "I think he was pretty shocked when I left Rare. But to Steve's credit he definitely galvanised me, and he's never been one for inaction." Doak and Ellis set up the company, and were joined by Karl Hilton, Graeme Norgate and Lee Ray. The term 'Free Radical' describes atoms or molecules that are fiercely reactive. Free Radical Design was independent, jammed with talent, and determined to stand up for itself - a combustible mix that meant, initially, publishers were slow to react. Retaining the IP for titles it developed was a priority, which meant that Ellis and Doak had a few wasted meetings before Eidos made a move. "When we set up we weren't going to make TimeSplitters," says Ellis. "We were making a game called Redemption that would end up being Second Sight." The estimated development time was three years. "Redemption was the plan," says Lee Ray. "Then Ian Livingstone says, being the Fighting Fantasy freak that he is, said 'Yeah we'll do it if it has demons in it.' He was obsessed with demons! So there was a bit of arguing and discussions about what exactly this game was going to be, and in that time Steve had banged out a very good first-person shooter engine. So now instead of all that talking, we could be cracking on with something." "We started working on TimeSplitters and didn't tell Eidos about it," says Steve Ellis. "Then we showed them and they said, 'No definitely not, don't do that, we don't want it.' We carried on anyway, and when we went back to them a few months later they came round. The budget for it was very small, six figures, so it wasn't that big of a gamble." That makes an audacious project sound easy. TimeSplitters was aiming to be a launch title for PlayStation 2, which meant October 2000 and a development time of sixteen months. "With a team of 15 everyone had to put the graft in," says Ray. "And everyone did. TimeSplitters was shambolic but bloody hell it was creative. That was a 15-man team working round-the-clock to get a launch game done on a platform we hadn't seen." TimeSplitting "For a long time TimeSplitters was just called multiplayer game or multiplayer shooter," says Doak. "Because that's all we were trying to do. I guess a thing that became a TimeSplitters trademark that grew straight out of our frustrations with the N64's performance and how Perfect Dark was running slower and slower every time you added stuff, was just trying to get the frame-rate high." "We were going for 60 frames per second," laughs Doak, "We didn't get it but we got a solid 30, so that's not bad. For that kind of game that's what you need. I've seen it so many times, people just cram more and more candy and visual stuff and you end up with 12 frames per second. That's crap. Why would you do that? That's driven by people that don't play the games." The trade-off was in the visuals, which Free Radical turned into a strength. "It's hard to be po-faced and serious when your characters look like they're made out of cardboard boxes," says Lee Ray. "Comedy lends itself to that kind of restriction." And there was no time to sit down and plan out the entire game from start to finish. "Dave [Doak] would come in and say 'we're about to start working on some levels, what do you want to do?'" says Ray, "I was mad keen on the Fifth Element at the time so I said, 'I want to do a space port' and he says, 'Cool, great idea' and you get on with it." Free Radical would be one of only two European studios to hit the PS2's launch, and TimeSplitters was the pick of the line-up. It was an FPS with a sense of humour, and 30fps four-player split-screen and a cavernous challenge mode meant it had the chops where it counted. TimeSplitters sold well over a million copies. This delighted Eidos, but Free Radical wasn't so pleased. "The sales figures were good enough," says Karl Hilton. "But GoldenEye had sold eight million and that was our first experience. We were slightly naïve and slightly disappointed." "We had a lot to prove," says Doak. "It was tremendously exciting. I remember getting up and just being so keen to get to work. It felt like a real moon shot, you know, and everyone who joined was really excited to be on board. Everyone pulled together, the artists and animators were sitting testing it until the 11th hour." The next project was intended to be Redemption - but now that Eidos wanted another TimeSplitters. Free Radical began expanding. "At the end of TimeSplitters there were still only about 17 people in total," says Ellis. "We five founders were all still hands-on at that time. By the end of TimeSplitters 2 we had something like 30 people working on it." "With TimeSplitters we showed we could do it," says Doak. "With the second one we wanted to make a genre-defining game. TimeSplitters 2 was great, it was brilliant, because we'd shipped a game, we had some very cool tech, we knew what we wanted to make better, and we just wanted to do the concept on acid." TimeSplitters 2 was released in October 2002 and surpassed the original in every way. "Personally I think the best thing Free Radical did was TimeSplitters 2," says Ellis. "That was the highpoint for the company, the game that was most like what we wanted to do. Given infinite resources, it's what we would have done more of." The reviews were great, and the game would go on to sell well over two million copies across three platforms, but it wasn't the breakthrough hit Free Radical had hoped for. Meanwhile, Second Sight had finally entered full production. The project had changed hands from Eidos to Activision, and Free Radical were about to taste business Bobby Kotick style. "We got some way through it with Activision," says Ellis. "Then they had a day in November 2003 where they made big changes. They decided they didn't like UK development anymore, they didn't like external development anymore, and they didn't like developer-owned IP anymore. Bad for us, because we ticked every box! On that day I think they canned ten projects and in the process put some companies out of business." "It was a troubled development," says Doak. "Because that's when we found out how Activision worked. Bobby Kotick really loves developers! He wouldn't even speak to us, and we never spoke to him. He's quite happy to have some people put us out of business, but only does calls with investors. That was like the night of the long knives. We stood up to Activision, we had good legal counsel and they told us the right things to say. It looked like it was going to put us under for a bit, but didn't." Free Radical's insistence on owning its own IP had paid dividends, and they were able to take the near-complete game elsewhere. But hopes of a big marketing push to back the studio's pet project had been dashed. "It ended up at Codemasters," says Doak, "But at that time they had their own problems - and the game came to them nearly finished, so they wanted to get it out as quickly as possible on a shoestring. We desperately needed someone to publish it, and they needed filler. That was it. Their Lara was Colin McRae, every publisher has one." Second Sight was released in August 2004, and its final form eschewed Ian Livingstone's demons in favour of a unique combination of stealth action and psychic powers. "It was unfortunately timed," says Doak. "I mean what are the chances of people making two Asteroids Hit the Earth movies in one year? Must be a million to one! But there you are. And Psi-Ops came out at around the same time, and that blew our US sales out of the water. You could do more violent things in it like explode people's heads." The sales were far from stellar. Free Radical's other project at this time was the last TimeSplitters game, Future Perfect. After TimeSplitters 2 EA had come sniffing around, and Free Radical was ready to listen. "EA Partners was this part of EA that was involved with third-party things," says Doak. "It was a bit like being groomed, you know. Here's all these friendly avuncular people that will give you all the love and attention you need to get your game out, and then after a while they go away and all the bad guys come around and it's like you're in borstal. Getting held down, beaten around the head with a cue ball in a sock." "In retrospect, what happened after TimeSplitters 2 was that EA saw the Metacritic and came to us," says Ellis. "I don't actually think they'd looked at the game very much." The publisher demanded Future Perfect have a strong lead character in order that it appeal to the US market. "EA turned up with this stuff that was supposed to help us," says Doak. "And it was just big boards with pictures of Vin Diesel on them. Wesley Snipes was on one in his Blade outfit." Future Perfect ended up with Cortez, a cowardly and dumb marine whose catchphrase falls flat every time: "It's time to split!" Future Perfect had the longest development of any TimeSplitters game, and there was a sting in the tail. "We had quite a frank conversation with EA," says Ellis. "Where they told us they weren't going to bother trying to market it very much. Because at the time they had their GoldenEye game [GoldenEye: Rogue Agent], and they said that for every dollar they spent on marketing that game they would get more dollars back. It didn't match up with their original promises." "Throughout the development of Future Perfect we had EA people all the time coming to us saying 'yeah your game's alright, but not as good as this GoldenEye we're making.'" says Doak. "Continuously! 'Yeah I saw GoldenEye, it's awesome, you Brits had better raise your game!' And we asked to see it. 'No, no, you can't see it'. We killed ourselves getting Future Perfect done, only to find that they had made a total balls of GoldenEye to the extent they had to throw more money at it to market it, the money that they might have spent on Future Perfect. I mean, it's like fiction that it's a GoldenEye game, isn't it? I don't think the irony of what they were doing ever occurred to EA." Steve Ellis. GoldenEye: Rogue Agent came out late in 2004 to a muted response, receiving a flat 60 on Metacritic. Future Perfect was released in March 2005, and while it received a warmer reception EA didn't push it, and it didn't achieve better sales than the series had under Eidos. "The problem is they never really got it," says Ellis. "That summarises it. And because they never really got it they tried to change it into something that they did get." Free Radical was exhausted, and at a crossroads. "Second Sight wasn't a great success," says Doak. "Future Perfect sold a lot, but it didn't generate a lot of revenue for us. And we had a lot of people who'd killed themselves to get those games done. Our ethos was to reward these people, but we didn't have the money to do that as much as we wanted to, and that dents morale." The studio's next moves would be made on a shifting battlefield, the move from the PS2 era to PS3 and Xbox 360. Publishers were facing rocketing production costs, and responded by becoming even more conservative, favouring internal studios and franchises that could hit four or five million sales with each instalment. "People were telling us, 'We don't like your cartoony styles, they don't sell. Can you do something more serious for a shooter, something more military?'" says Doak. "They wanted us to pitch stuff to them, but they were directing us down these narrow paths saying, 'Pitch us something a bit like this'. And what we should have said was 'f**k off, no. I'd rather go out and get run over by a car!'" A consequence of the money involved was that retaining IP had become impossible, and Haze ended up signed to Ubisoft under a co-ownership deal. "The amount of money you were asking for to make a game was so much more than when TimeSplitters got started," says Karl Hilton. "Publishers just weren't prepared to invest seven or eight figures in something they didn't own a big part of." "What I was hoping was we could make an anti-militaristic shooter, a kind of Apocalypse Now," says Doak. "But in terms of ambition it was crippled from the start, because we wanted to do this thing about the horrors of war, and Ubisoft were saying, 'Yeah go for it, something really horrific - but it's got to get a 15 rating.'" "Previously we'd had the experience of an engine which just worked and you take everything for granted," says Haze's creative director Derek Littlewood. "Going from that to a situation where you're building everything fresh is very different, you can't throw together a level to test a particular style of gameplay because you don't have the tools to do it. On TimeSplitters 2 and Second Sight we were able to try out a lot of different things in-game during development, but on Haze that process was so much harder." Head-holding Redemption was intended to be Free Radical's first game, but eventually entered full development after TimeSplitters 2. "Second Sight was originally intended to be first-person," says Doak. "It was a lot harder to make than we anticipated, we'd never made a thirdperson camera game and we learned the hard way about the gnarly things you have to think about." As with TimeSplitters 2, the cutscenes were a learning process, but the game succeeded in creating a freaky, tense atmosphere. "What can I say," says Graeme Norgate, "I like the dark stuff! Second Sight was perfect for me from a scoring point of view. I wanted to make playing the game feel like watching the Shining." "The story never actually changed at all," says Doak. "I'm very proud of that story actually, and the twist, I think it stands up well. We were thinking there was no reason we couldn't be making a Metal Gear Solid, and if you look at it it has many elements along those lines. If I could go back and change anything about it I'd spend more time refining the controls. We made it too clunky to control, switching the powers and things. But the lock on targeting stuff in Second Sight, with things like the sniper, I still think is really innovative." But what crippled Haze wasn't the age rating. "We made the decision to continue developing our own technology," says Steve Ellis. "Because that had worked well in the past, and we had a new generation of programmers who wanted to do away with our previous engine, which was C-based, and replace it with a C++ one. It sounded like a good idea. It sounded like we were going to solve a bunch of problems we might run into as things scale up. It didn't, and that was the start of our problems." The problems meant delays were inevitable, and Free Radical approached Ubisoft. "When you're talking to any publisher about delays the first reaction is denial," says Steve Ellis. "You spend a lot of time talking and effectively making the situation worse. The next stage is reluctant acceptance, coupled with compromises as a result of us missing our date. We were made to do things because we had lost our ability to say no. That's where things went wrong." Free Radical had to work to moving dates, as the game was delayed in small increments rather than the big one it needed. "It's like you're in a race and you're racing along, and there's a mechanic hanging on to the front trying to finish the car," says Doak. "And every lap you've got to smile, wave to the grandstand and pretend you're doing really well, even though on the other side you can see two wheels have just come off." If things weren't bad enough, Haze soon had another problem. Ubisoft had agreed a deal with Sony whereby the game would become a PS3 exclusive in return for significant marketing support. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Derek Littlewood," says Haze's project manager Martin Wakeley. "Because it became exclusive late in the project. And to be quite candid, it had never really ran on the PS3." "We had internal people getting frustrated with some of the things we were making," says Doak. "But people were killing themselves to get Haze done, and they did amazing work. Some of the coders were those mechanics working on a car in a race, and hurting themselves doing it. I have enormous respect for the work people did on Haze. You always kind of hoped it might come together. But, you know, we're not stupid, we knew it wasn't what it could have been... we could see the problems." Haze was released in May 2008, didn't receive the all-out marketing push than Sony had promised, and received a critical kicking, though with hindsight it's a game that, while flawed, is far from the disaster people say. Regardless, it didn't sell - and by now Free Radical had a much bigger problem. The studio had completed Future Perfect and Second Sight with around 70-80 staff, but had been rapidly staffing up - thanks mainly to a deal signed in summer 2006. "The people at Lucasarts came and found us," says Doak, "and said we'd like to talk to you. Guys like Jim Ward and Peter Hirschmann, who I still have tremendous respect for." Jim Ward was then the president of LucasArts, and his strategy involved a 'reboot' of the company's own IP - hence titles like The Force Unleashed and the aborted Indiana Jones project. Another was Star Wars: Battlefront 3, and LucasArts wanted Free Radical to develop it. "They had good but very ambitious ideas about technology," says Doak. "And they seemed like nice people. We were fairly disappointed with where we were with Haze, and so even though we thought we didn't want to do work for hire as a principle, the fact that the work for hire was Star Wars did make a difference - it's not a bad one. It was also a fantastic tonic for the troops at Free Radical, because you don't have to go very far in development to find someone with Star Wars shit on their desk. It looked like a marriage made in heaven." The studio hunkered down to its most ambitious project yet. "It was going well," says Doak. "They wanted to massively upgrade the scope, and consequently we were being required to be very ambitious technology-wise - when you see those leaked videos of it you can see it looks spectacular." The key idea of Battlefront 3 was that players could seamlessly transition from a small-scale gunfight into a space battle simply by climbing into a ship and taking off. "It was so ambitious because you had to populate an environment like that on a scale like that, so we had some tough nuts to crack," says Doak. "We were continually trying to improve that, and it was going well, in fact it was going so well that we were going to make two, and they were letting us do some really interesting stuff with the mythology." 'Trying to get anything into Haze was a battle of wills,' says audio director Graeme Norgate. 'Another guy said that trying to get sounds into the game was like papering a wall while the rest of the house is burning down. Haze had high ambitions and potential but the engine killed it.' Battlefront 3 had started in mid-2006, and development continued until early 2008. Then things changed. "Steve and I began thinking that the dates were looking a bit tight for the first one," says Doak, "so we thought we'd do what we had never done before and let LucasArts know our concerns. Because LucasArts had been so good to work with, we thought they'd see the sense of what we were saying. And that coincided with Jim Ward not being there one day." Internal forces at LucasArts had lost faith in Ward's 'reboot', not helped by new IPs like Fracture failing to make an impact, and on 4 February 2008 he left the company. "That was worrying," Doak continues, "but it didn't seem like it would be a bad thing. We still thought we'd done the right thing. And then we went from talking to people who were passionate about making games to talking to psychopaths who insisted on having an unpleasant lawyer in the room." The appointment of Darrell Rodriguez as president of LucasArts was announced on April 2nd 2008. He wasn't the only new face. LucasArts was making sweeping changes as part of a new strategy, the first step of which was cutting their outgoings in half. Huge numbers of staff were fired, an entire layer of management was removed, and countless projects were canned. "For a long time we talked of LucasArts as the best relationship we'd ever had with a publisher," says Ellis. "Then in 2008 that disappeared, they were all either fired or left. Then there was a new guy called Darrell Rodriguez, who had been brought in to do a job and it was more to do with cost control than making any games. And the games that we were making for them were costly." The conversations with LucasArts became incredible, wars fought from different perspectives, and an internal video lampooned the attitude Free Radical was facing. Funny as that is, it's gallows humour - the effect on the studio would soon become no laughing matter. Any ally Free Radical had, like LucasArts' own UK producer, soon exited. Battlefront 3's development remained ongoing, and despite talks over the release date Free Radical was delivering on milestones. An anonymous Free Radical Design employee's foul-mouthed tribute to LucasArts (warning: explicit language). But LucasArts began to press hard on other, less quantifiable, issues. "Stalling tactics," says Graeme Norgate. "If a publisher wants to find something that is wrong with a milestone, it's very easy for them to do so as there are so many grey areas within a deliverable. If the contract says, 'Graphics for level X to be release quality,' who can say what's release quality? And there you have it." "LucasArts hadn't paid us for six months," says Norgate "and were refusing to pass a milestone so we would limp along until the money finally ran out. They knew what they were doing, and six months of free work to pass on to Rebellion wasn't to be sniffed at." Part of the eventual agreement between LucasArts and Free Radical saw certain assets passed on to Rebellion Studios. For a time LucasArts was tempted by the thought of a hastily put together Battlefront 3, but nothing came of it. When presented with the allegations put forth by this investigation, LucasArts said simply that it does not comment on rumour and speculation. 'I've seen some people saying how can they cancel something that was finished,' says Doak, 'And to be fair [Battlefront 3] wasn't finished, but it was very far from a car crash and had interesting ideas. They had some edict from above about restructuring, had to save a certain amount of money per year, and there you go. Game over.' "We had a lot of good people," says Doak. "We'd got ourselves into this situation where we had staffed up to fulfill these contracts. And LucasArts said to us, 'Well we've got rid of our people, you get rid of your people.' No, because I'm attached to my people. Some people who work for them did terrible things to us." "In many ways it was a depressing farce talking to them," says Doak. "They had an agenda motivated by purely financial considerations. Their goal was to stop doing it. And it didn't matter that we had a contract that protected us. If we wanted to fight about it they were quite happy to fight about it, but it would be on their terms, on their turf, and we would lose not because we were wrong, but because... well, we wouldn't be able to ante up." LucasArts wanted to find an exit, and the balance of power swung firmly in its favour. "What we found out in 2008 is that your contract is only worth as much as how far you can pursue it in court," says Steve Ellis. "Say the contract is, 'If publisher wants out, they have to pay X million pounds to developer.' Well, what if they don't? What are you going to do about it?" LucasArts presented Free Radical with a choice. "The amount of time [court] would take was more than the money we had left," says Ellis. "So in practice the publisher wants out, and what they do is offer a fraction of that amount. And you either accept a smaller payment and hope to pull through one way or another, or you don't accept the payment and go out of business quite quickly." Free Radical had no choice at all. Mapmaking "Steve and I were adamant we'd do some kind of mapmaker [in TimeSplitters] from the start," says Doak, "We'd seen how much time people spent on GoldenEye, how they loved the maps, how there were PC mods based on it, and we were thinking there was no reason you couldn't do that on console. When we were doing that, everyone on the publisher side is saying, 'Don't do that, why are you wasting time doing it?' And the reason of course is that it was exactly the kind of feature we'd want if we were a player. It's about acknowledging how people play games." "In every iteration of TimeSplitters the publishers wanted us to take it out.," Doak continues, "Not only the publishers, the firstparties as well. Certainly with Microsoft, it's so funny especially now when you look at stuff like Trials doing user-generated content on XBLA and it's the bee's knees. At the time they were saying, 'This is a waste of time, how will you monetise it, it doesn't fit with our plans, you're causing all these troubles.' Very annoying to have been at the vanguard of getting that kind of tool into console games, but having to bleed on the floor in order to do it." "I remember EA and Microsoft panicking about the Xbox version saying, 'Well with this people can go out and make a map that says 'F**k!' They can make 'F**k' maps!' We said, well you can write that word on a piece of paper if you want to, don't worry about it. Then one of the first user created maps that came out online was a mission which was to go to EA HQ and assassinate John Riticello!" The pressure on David Doak was unimaginable. "My role at Free Radical meant that I was simultaneously involved in these unpleasant 'high level' discussions with psychopaths who wanted to destroy us, and then the next day sitting with our dev staff at their desks trying to boost people's morale. Helping them to pass milestones that I knew would subsequently be manipulated to cause them to fail. It was the most depressing and pointless thing that I have ever been involved in. The dream job which I once loved had become a nightmarish torture." "I found it impossible to reconcile that situation in my head and I had a nervous breakdown. I had to stop and take time off for the sake of myself and my family - ultimately I left the company I founded feeling like I had failed it." The vast majority of Free Radical's employees had no idea about Doak's circumstances. But the situation of the studio was clear; over 200 employees, but no projects signed and no money coming in. "At that point it hit home," says Derek Littlewood, "and people worked very hard to try and put together prototypes and design documents, we were gathering pitches that we could take out to publishers. I think everyone realised the seriousness of the situation." "We had money in the bank, so we were able to carry on operating," says Ellis, "and Free Radical was in the probably unique position of not having borrowed any money." But this was mid-2008, and the height of the global financial crisis. "Big publishers were wondering what was going to happen," says Ellis, "And finding it very difficult to talk about signing up anything new." One project they didn't want was TimeSplitters 4, which had been in development during the final years of Haze. "We tried to do TimeSplitters 4 with everyone," says Martin Wakeley, "and they weren't interested. People say they love it, but no-one wants to sell that game." The game had been built using an upgraded version of the original engine. "Running at a constant 60 fps," says Norgate "and with more lighting effects than we could even dream of in Haze. Too little too late, unfortunately." Time was running out, and something amazing nearly happened. "Activision came to us and said do you want to make the next GoldenEye game?" says Ellis. "And that was a thing that gave us hope, and made us determined to turn things around." For a brief moment, it existed. "In a very short space of time I had to throw together some ideas for what we would do with a remake of GoldenEye," says Littlewood, "and then one of our artists put together a new dam. We did it all in the end for PS3 and Xbox 360, the engine we had for that, so it was actually playable on there and all updated with minutiae and textures. It never saw the light of day, but we did that initial work because we wanted to show our willingness." "Then GoldenEye suddenly disappeared," says Ellis. "Without ever any explanation, really. That sounded like a brilliant opportunity. That was one of the things that was happening right at the end when we didn't have many more options. In the end, they chose not to do it." Administration loomed. "I can tell you exactly when it happened," says Ellis. "It was a memorable day. The day of our Christmas party in 2008. We always had a Christmas party and we always paid the bonuses then. Even at that stage we had a couple of good prospects that looked like they'd sort things out. That day it became clear they wouldn't happen, and administration was unavoidable. I remember quite clearly being at the party, seeing all these happy employees saying things like, 'Thanks for the bonus, I love working at Free Radical, it's great.' I didn't really know what to say. 12th of December 2008. A memorable day, and not a good one." 'I still think the top people did the right thing,' says Derek Littlewood, who now runs Eggbox Interactive, 'and Dave and Steve's effort to shield the people who were making the games from the business reality of where we were was a very honourable thing to do, and a tough thing to do.' The administration process saw around 140 people losing their jobs, while a skeleton staff of around 40 was kept on to keep the company running. During this time Rebellion, always on the margins, turned up to put in bids for certain of the studio's assets. "Rebellion were one of the interested parties [during administration] and yes, put in an offer," says Ellis. "The sad fact is that in a situation like that, everyone is looking for a bargain so there were no 'good' offers - only 'preferable' offers." But the process ends with Crytek purchasing Free Radical Design, and keeping a small but significant number of its people in a job. Crytek UK, managed by Karl Hilton and with Graeme Norgate on audio duties, has subsequently worked on Crysis 2's multiplayer and is current developing Homefront 2. Steve Ellis and Martin Wakeley have gone on to found Crash Lab, Derek Littlewood now runs Eggbox Interactive, and Lee Ray is an affable freelancer. David Doak remains outside the industry. "The thing is we stood up for ourselves, we weren't afraid to tell people we disagreed with them," says Doak on the fall of Free Radical. "I think almost a decade later there were many people happy to stand around and watch the company go under. Maybe there were a few grudges. How come no publisher wanted to save Free Radical? Well we weren't well-behaved compliant boys. We were passionate about what we did and wanted to protect ourselves and be rewarded for our work. Perhaps if we'd been a bit more submissive that would have saved us. But who knows?" The story of Free Radical runs in parallel to how the big console publishers have changed over the last decade. Free Radical was a studio that made its own tech, tried to keep control of its own IP, and even in 2012 stands as one of the few developers honest enough to pay their employees overtime. There are so many other ways it could have gone. What's hard to take is that it's done. Timesplitters may return, but Free Radical never will. "Everyone knows all the horror stories about development," says Doak. "And it's a real shame, because it turns people off it in the end. There's this aspect open to exploitation where because it's your dream job, doing something you really love, you should endure all kinds of abuse to do it. Having watched it from the sidelines for the last few years, it seems to have gotten worse. It's just this big furnace that burns people. It's like that thing, where if you enjoy sausages you shouldn't see how they're made. That applies to games." |
At the NYC International Riichi Open, we had a chance to sit down with the President of the Japanese Professional Mahjong League (and one of the strongest Mahjong players on the planet), Shigekazu Moriyama, as he gave those attending some insights on example hands in the closing hours of the event, using the standard “Nani kiru?” (what would you discard?) teaching method. We recorded each one so that we could pass this on to those that couldn’t make it to this awesome event. Read on! (note: if something is not discussed in a hand, such as board state, dora, points, etc. are skipped because for the purposes of that individual example they do not affect the outcome) Example 1 Q: If you were to Reach, what would you discard? the 3m or the 6m? A: . Why? Because there is a less chance of an uradora with the , as you already have 2 in your hand. Example 2 East 1, you are South, with 25000 points (out of a starting 25000). 2nd discard (your first discard was ) Dora: (indicator is ) Q: What would you cut? A: . Why? Your Chitoi with the Reds is a very cheap hand, and is also relatively slow to come together. However, all of your other tanyao tiles can easily grow to also have pinfu, sanshoku, and so on – the “nimbleness” of your hand is great, with all the possible yaku that can still fit in. Even if you need to move quickly, multiple calls to put together tanyao+sanshoku is more valuable and faster. Example 3 East 1, you are South, with 25000 points (out of a starting 25000). during 3rd discard dora: (indicator is ) Q: Do you Reach? A: No! Reach alone is cheap and locks you down. Even if someone deals in and you get an uradora, that’s only 2600 points. In this situation, if you drew your win, you wouldn’t even call a win. There are so many tiles you can draw that turns this into pinfu, tanyao, or both, that waiting for one is a good idea. 2s,4s,2m, 5m, 4p,6p all give you pinfu and almost always tanyao, and tons more give you just tanyao (7p for example). Reach alone is a dangerous choice to make – it is a cheap hand with no bailing ability. Generally, you don’t want to Reach unless you have at least one yaku already in-hand. Example 4 Early in the hand, no dora Q: What do you cut to keep going forward, if you are looking for both fast and good hands? A: . The possibility of drawing a and having a ruins the power of the hand, and you don’t want to give up the chance at chitoi just yet (which is why you keep the for now). If you draw or , you are down to two-sided or pair-inclusive waits, so tanyao+pinfu and tanyao+sanankou are both available, so stepping away from chitoi towards those possibilities is fine. Example 5 Dora: (Indicator is ) Q: what to cut? Think about the end hand you want. tanpin, sanshoku, dora pair perhaps. ( / / ) A: isn’t in any of it, so that is what you discard. Note the . It isn’t a “good” (tile efficiency) tile at this point, but if you draw a , then it becomes an important tile for calling to a quick tenpai. Example 6 East 1, you are West, no dora This hand is cheap if you finish it as is. How can you make it worth more? Again, look at the nimbleness of your hand. Hon itsu, toi toi, san ankou, tan, pin, ii pei kou, san shoku. Any of these are legitimate paths. Think of all possible yaku as a light-up board, showing what your hand still could be. To go for tan+chitoi, tan+pin/iipeikou, keep . Toitoi / san ankou, keep honitsu, keep , be prepared to call. All of those hands can currently be worked toward. What is the one tile that isn’t needed by any of them? A: Lastly, if none of it comes together, and you have to defend, are relatively safe discards against an unknown hand. Hope you enjoyed these as much as we did! |
The Northern Powerhouse was George Osborne’s promise to re-balance the north south divide in the economy. Can the party that proposed “managed decline” for Liverpool in the 1980s really deliver the Northern Powerhouse? While the uncertainties over Brexit negotiations continue, a number of companies with major operations across the north have issued warnings for the future. These include Nissan with a major manufacturing plant in Sunderland and Jaguar Land Rover with a factory in Halewood near Liverpool. Both support significant supply chains across their respective regions. The Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banking Group – we do have banks in the north – are cutting more jobs following the referendum result. The Page Group issued warnings on lower recruitment levels which may mean they need to cut staff. They have a number of offices across the UK, including the northern cities of Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield. All of these companies have identified Brexit as a cause for possible job losses in their companies. Remainers and Leavers may have differing opinions on whether Brexit is the cause but each of these big employers has given indications of significant jobs losses. There are concerns over European Funding, with the government only guaranteeing specific projects signed before the autumn statement and a small number of other funding streams being reviewed. Any unassigned funds may be kept by the Treasury. The funding programme between 2014 and 2020 has £6.9 billion allocated to England, with £2.8 billion notionally allocated to northern Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs). Many people voted to leave the European Union because of frustration at the decline and lack of investment in their areas. This followed the introduction of the austerity policy and the cutting of public services relied upon by so many, with the north being disproportionately affects.. While public services were coming under increased pressure, the Tories allowed the myth perpetuated by UKIP that migrants are to blame when the real cause is cuts to public spending. The Tories do not seem to understand that for the Northern Powerhouse, for our people to be productive, they need to feel that their families and communities needs are addressed and cared for. Despite this key principle being common sense and proven through research, the Tories have begun dismantling the NHS, the welfare state and education provision. As a top 10 world economy, we should have an education and learning system to match. One which supports the development of leadership and team work through giving young people responsibility. One which encourages people to get the best qualifications they can, without prohibitive levels of debt. One which incorporates activities outside of the classroom, such as sports and work in the community. A thriving co-operative sector could provide a valuable complement to a fantastic education: Experience. Young people especially, are turned down for jobs as they “do not have experience”. Co-operatives working in communities across the north can give people a wide range of experience. For budding bankers and accountants, working in community banks. For budding marketers, working on promotional campaigns. For budding chief executives, directors and entrepreneurs, working as part of a co-operative’s leadership team. Some of this could be voluntary, but work should pay. Experience gained in co-operatives could have a number of benefits. Referrals from networks created through working in co-operatives could assist people in finding work. They could also assist businesses in finding employees who already have relevant experience and work ready skills. Those who wish to start their own businesses would benefit from experiencing in co-operatives what it takes to keep an organisation running and the wide range of responsibilities involved. It may not guarantee success, but they may make fewer mistakes, create jobs and hopefully learn that co-operation can bring greater reward than competing. The increase in Labour Party membership provides a fantastic opportunity for the co-operative sector. Labour Party members can spread the word on the importance of being involved in co-operatives in their local communities and the range of needs they could address. With so much variety and ways to get involved, there are opportunities for everyone. Our communities have many needs and four years is a long time to wait for a Labour Government. There are things that can be done now. If we in the Labour Co-operative movement took the Northern Powerhouse idea and applied our principles we could create many more opportunities. Our people have always been our powerhouse. |
Triple Eight Race Engineering technical director Ludo Lacroix is set to depart the Supercars squad at the end of the current season. Lacroix began working for Triple Eight in the United Kingdom in 1999 and was a founding member of the company’s Supercars activities four years later. The Frenchman also returned to race engineering duties this year, teaming with Craig Lowndes following the squad’s expansion to three cars. Triple Eight has confirmed that Lacroix will continue to work alongside fellow engineer John McGregor on Lowndes’ car for the remainder of the 2016 season. Lacroix’s time at Triple Eight also saw him take a key role in the design of the category’s Car of the Future platform ahead of its introduction in 2013. Renowned as an aerodynamics expert, Lacroix also headed up the design of the Ford Falcon BF (2007), FG (2009) and Holden Commodore VF (2013) body kits. His departure comes during the early stages of development for the next-generation Holden Commodore Supercar which will debut in 2018. Triple Eight has meanwhile also announced the appointment of former Williams and McLaren Formula 1 technical chief Sam Michael to a part-time position. Michael returned to Australia at the end of 2014 following 21 seasons in F1 that also included stints with Lotus and Jordan. A Triple Eight statement says that Michael will help develop its engineering group, which is set to be bolstered by further new players ahead of 2017. “Taking a part-time mentoring role with the Team, Michael joins Triple Eight as the team rolls out a number of new engineering appointments over the next three months,” read the statement. “Michael has enjoyed a highly successful, 21-year career in Formula 1 leading engineering teams at both Williams and McLaren, before returning to Australia at the end of 2014. “Triple Eight is thrilled to welcome him into the team and looks forward to further developing the foremost engineering group in the Supercars category with his guidance.” Earlier this year Michael joined a revamped Australian Institute for Motor Sport Safety board. |
Internet LAN cables are pictured in this photo illustration taken in Sydney June 23, 2011. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed legislation placing a permanent ban on states’ taxing Internet access, sending the measure to President Barack Obama for signing into law. By a vote of 75-20, the Senate gave final approval to a bill toughening enforcement of U.S. duties on foreign goods, which contains the permanent extension of the “Internet Tax Freedom Act.” The measure also would ban some taxes on digital goods and services and will put an end to a series of temporary extensions on the tax prohibitions. “Most Americans pay $0 in taxes to connect to the Internet. And thanks to a bill that passed today, you will never have to pay taxes just to get online, or pay more taxes for goods and services just because they’re bought online,” Democratic Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement. The legislation, however, fails to address calls for better enforcement of state sales tax collections related to Internet purchases, something that brick-and-mortar businesses have long sought. Separate legislation on this could be considered by Congress later this year, according to Senate aides. Most U.S. states have imposed sales taxes on online purchases, but the actual collection is spotty. |
The Dutch military intelligence service MIVD is trying to recruit a new generation of internet specialists to improve its weapons against digital threats from Russia and China, Trouw said on Tuesday. The service would ideally bring in 14 and 15-year-olds but this is, of course, impossible, director Onno Eichelsheim told the paper. ‘I am looking for the young generation. They are totally used to dealing with digital resources,’ he said. ‘For example, to gain more insight into new threats, I need people who can build algorithms to filter mass amounts internet data.’ However, too few people are being educated as internet specialists in the Netherlands, he said. And talented youngsters are more likely to pick a well paid job in the corporate sector. ‘We are looking for people with an orange heart,’ he said. ‘And of course, you can do things on internet for us which you are banned from doing as an ordinary citizen.’ The MIVD is beginning an internet recruitment campaign in the spring. |
With a food industry that has recently begun to move away from the use of partially hydrogenated oils in light of the serious hazard they pose to human health, the demand for trans-fat free oils has caused a boom in the palm oil industry--an industry which was already thriving given the many applications for palm oil and its derivatives in the cosmetic, cleaning supply and chemical industries, among others. Many animal lovers and environmentalists are now aware that in response to this growing demand for palm oil, tropical rain forests in Southeast Asia are being decimated in order to make way for palm oil plantations, destroying the habitat of the animals living in these forests. The United Nations Environment Programme identifies palm oil plantations as the leading cause of rainforest destruction in Malaysia and Indonesia. Deforestation for the establishment of palm oil plantations is responsible for habitat loss of the Asian elephant, tiger, Sumatran rhinoceros and the orangutan. But even worse is the fate suffered by those animals who are found eating palm fruit on these plantations, cutting into plantation profits. They are shot, beaten to death and even set on fire. News of the atrocities associated with palm oil production has inspired many vegans and non-vegans alike, as well as companies that produce vegan and vegetarian products, to reject the use of palm oil. The shelf-stable oil they are turning to instead, often to create vegan butters and vegan cheeses, is coconut oil. Coconut oil is also found in many vegan shampoos, vegan shaving lotions and vegan cosmetics. Sales of coconut water are going through the roof--from less than half a million liters to almost 200 million liters just last year, and global consumption is expected to increase another 15 percent by the end of 2015. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, "World coconut oil production has been increasing over the past decade" and coconut production worldwide now stands at 62 million tons a year. But in replacing palm oil with coconut oil, are animal lovers encouraging the use of one ethically problematic tropical oil for another? The answer, tragically, is yes, as much of the coconut industry is built on the backs of monkeys; pig-tailed macaques to be exact. Agile and adept climbers, such monkeys--native to coconut growing regions in Southeast Asia--are capable of harvesting several hundred more coconuts a day than a human can; reports vary widely as to how many coconuts a day one monkey can pick, ranging from 300 to 1,000. Monkeys are chained by the neck and trained to pick only ripe coconuts and are then forced to do so, day in, day out and all day long. They are trained at monkey training facilities one visitor described as follows: "The primitive, primate campus, a simple, open sided shed," contains, "individual, meter high stakes, driven into the dirt floor... Onto each perch is tethered a solitary monkey by collar and chain. There are a dozen such perches, each one just out of reach of its neighbor." During training and beyond, the monkeys are tethered or caged 24/7, sometimes with little to no opportunity for socialization. Where do these monkeys come from? According to one monkey handler, "Sometimes the monkeys are offspring of berok (already trained monkeys); sometimes they are caught [by poachers] on the forest with nets or traps. Often though, nursing mothers are shot and their babies are taken." Harvesting coconuts with this method is prevalent throughout South and Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, nations that together account for much of the world's coconut production. Indonesia is the number one coconut producing nation in the world, producing over 18 million tons of coconuts annually. Some reports also suggest that due to a labor shortage in parts of India where coconut palms are grown, harvesting coconuts with monkeys may have begun occurring there, as well. Unfortunately, much of the reporting you will find on this issue approaches it from a disturbing "entertainment" angle in which the subjugation and forced labor of primates is treated as a curious, amusing oddity rather what it really is: exploitation of highly intelligent individuals. Instead of living fulfilling, autonomous lives in deference to their natural instincts and will--lives that would include social interaction with others of their kind, mating, raising young, moving about freely and resting whenever they choose--these monkeys spend their lives in endless toil and forced obedience to the will of humans. Monkey training facilities are popular destinations for tourists, so much of the information available about the lives of these monkeys is whitewashed for the purpose of encouraging that tourism, glossing over the grueling labor and often dangerous conditions the monkeys are forced to endure, including climbing tall trees over and over again during the course of a day, retrieving fallen coconuts from thick brush, retrieving coconut cutting tools for their handlers that include long, sharp blades, and loading hundreds of coconuts onto trucks which then transport them from picking location to picking location. And though many articles about these monkeys contain quotes from handlers who state that they care about their animals, it is impossible to square such assurances with the long hours, hard labor, constant shackling and lack of autonomy these animals are forced to endure day in and day out for no personal benefit. Indeed, one handler admitted that sometimes "the monkeys are so tired from picking coconuts that they faint." According to the Bangkok Post, On the website of one training centre, monkeys are branded as "efficient industrial agriculture labour" and it states that they are "strong...are not afraid of heights, do not complain, do not call for higher wages ... They do not require social security and accident insurance. Monkeys are therefore considered a 'living machine' that is very valuable for coconut farmers. It is, in a word, slavery. And as human nature and history demonstrate again and again--where there is a profit to be made on the backs of non-humans, those backs are strained and often broken. By all accounts, the increasing popularity of coconuts, coconut oil and its various derivatives means that things are only going to get worse for these animals. In light of the conflict between the humane values motivating so many to embrace a vegan diet and the treatment coconut harvesting macaques are forced to endure, activists have reached out to vegan companies to learn more about the harvesting practices associated with the coconuts they use to create coconut water, oil and other products that contain coconut derivatives. Some companies simply ignored the emails and letters. Some admitted they did not know and left it at that. Others indicated that they sourced their products from companies known to use monkeys. And others were happy to report that their suppliers did not harvest coconuts in this way. Essential Trading company, a U.K.-based company, is an example of the latter. They write, Essential Trading produces a range of organic coconut products all of which is sourced from sustainable coconut farms in Sri Lanka. We have visited the farms personally to ensure that they maintain the high standards we expect and that our customers expect when purchasing products from a company like Essential. The coconuts are harvested by hard working (human) farmers either by climbing the tree themselves or by using a long bamboo rod to pluck the coconuts from the tree tops. No monkeys are involved in the harvesting or production process of any Essential brand products. As a company we are opposed to the exploitation of animals and strongly condemn the use of monkeys on coconut farms. Unfortunately, not all companies feel the same way, including some of the most celebrated vegan brands. And while they proudly boast that their products are free of animal byproducts, and that of course is to be commended, their use of forced monkey labor is not something compassionate people can ignore. As ethical vegans, we cannot ignore the exploitation of primates under the illogic that their years of prolonged toil, the killing of their parents, their social deprivation, and ultimately, their deaths mean little to us unless their body parts make it into the food. Our embrace of a plant-based diet is, first, foremost, and finally, about preventing animal suffering. And the coconut industry--and the vegan products made from them--is rife with it. In addition to Essential Trading, the following companies state that their suppliers do not use monkeys: 3 Buddhas, Aunt Patty's, BetterBody Foods, Carrington Farms, Dr. Bronner's, Earth Circle Organics, Harmless Harvest, Maison Orphee, Naked Coconuts, Nutiva, Ojio, So Delicious, Silk, and Spectrum Organics. It should be noted, however, that if they source their coconuts from Thailand, industry spokesmen there say it is "hard to believe" that primates were not used. In Thailand, monkeys pick 99 percent of the coconuts harvested. |
WASHINGTON, D.C., September 6, 2017 – Today, the Senate Appropriations Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) Subcommittee proposed a $414 million increase for Alzheimer’s research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for fiscal year 2018. This announcement comes following similar action by the House Appropriations Committee in July. The Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to act on the funding bill next week. “The Subcommittee’s proposed increase represents a significant commitment in the fight to end Alzheimer’s,” said Harry Johns, Alzheimer’s Association and Alzheimer’s Impact Movement (AIM) President and CEO. “If signed into law, this additional funding will help ensure the NIH can continue to invest in new research to accelerate advancements toward treatments, prevention and ultimately a cure for Alzheimer’s and other causes of dementia.” The Alzheimer’s Association and AIM commend Senators Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) for their steadfast dedication to again ensure our nation’s most expensive condition receives the funding leading scientists say is needed in order to achieve breakthroughs. Leading experts have said a greater investment is still needed if we are to stay on the path to meet the first goal of the National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease — preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s by 2025. The proposed $414 million increase is consistent with the NIH’s request for additional Alzheimer's and related dementia funding submitted in the second annual Professional Judgement Budget. Since the beginning of the year, the Alzheimer’s Association, AIM and our network of advocates have held thousands of meetings with members and their staff requesting they invest at least an additional $414 million in Alzheimer’s research funding. At an estimated cost of $259 billion annually — including $175 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments — Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in the country. It is also the only leading cause of death in the U.S. that cannot be prevented, cured or even slowed. In 2017, for every $100 the U.S. government spends on Alzheimer’s research, it will spend $12,500 in Medicare and Medicaid costs caring for individuals living with this fatal disease. Alzheimer’s Association® The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer's care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. For more information, visit alz.org. Alzheimer's Impact Movement The Alzheimer's Impact Movement (AIM) is the advocacy arm of the Alzheimer's Association. AIM works to develop and advance policies to overcome Alzheimer's disease through increased investment in research, enhanced care and improved support. For more information, visit alzimpact.org. Contact: Laura Cilmi, 202.638.8673, [email protected] |
Time is running out if the world wants to avoid potentially catastrophic climate change according to the most definitive report to date by the UN body charged with formulating expert advice for governments around the globe. In what amounts to a "final warning" about the dangers of not doing enough to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, the Intergovernmental Panel and Climate Change (IPCC) said that it is technically and economically possible to still keep within the target of no more than a 2C increase in global average temperatures. However, the panel warns in its Synthesis Repot published yesterday that fossil fuels will have to be significantly scaled back in the coming decades, and eliminated entirely by 2100, in order to keep within what is widely considered to be the "safe" limit for global warming. Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month "We have little time before the window of opportunity to stay within the 2C of warming closes," said Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the IPCC who launched the report in Copenhagen following meetings of the report’s authors in the Danish capital. "To keep a good chance of staying below the 2C, and at manageable costs, our emissions should drop by 40 to 70 per cent globally between 2010 and 2050, and falling to zero or below by 2100," Dr Pachauri said. "We have the opportunity, and the choice is in our hands," he added, referring to the need for a global climate deal to limit fossil fuel emissions in time for an international climate meeting of governmental policymakers next December in Paris. The Synthesis Report, which is seen as the final "capstone" of the previous three IPCC reports, re-states the scientific, economic and social case for a new climate deal to turn around the continuing increase in fossil fuel emissions over the past decades – carbon dioxide emissions alone last year reached a record 36 billion tons. The report states that the human influence on the Earth’s climate is clear, that human emissions of greenhouses gases are the highest in history and that recent changes to the climate have already had an impact on human and natural systems. "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen," the report says. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Climate Change Protests Around the World Show all 6 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. In pictures: Climate Change Protests Around the World 1/6 Sydney Enviromental protesters form the words 'Beyond Coal + Gas' during a meeting in a park in Sydney on September 21, 2014, as part of a global protest on climate change. Australians rallied for climate action forming a human chain message as part of an international day of action to fight climate change ahead of a United Nations summit in New York on 23 September AFP/Getty 2/6 London People with giraffe puppets march during The People's Climate March, central London, a march and rally to demand urgent action on climate change PA 3/6 New York Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, centre, walks down 6th Avenue during the People's Climate March. Activists mobilized in cities across the globe for marches against climate change, with one of the biggest planned for New York AFP/Getty 4/6 New York People dance during a rally against climate change in New York Reuters 5/6 London Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel and Emma Thompson show their support at the People's Climate March, London PA 6/6 Berlin Participants of the climate demonstration 'Mal schnell die Welt retten' (roughly translated as 'Save the world in passing') hold signs reading 'Share more, buy less' in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, 21 September 2014 EPA 1/6 Sydney Enviromental protesters form the words 'Beyond Coal + Gas' during a meeting in a park in Sydney on September 21, 2014, as part of a global protest on climate change. Australians rallied for climate action forming a human chain message as part of an international day of action to fight climate change ahead of a United Nations summit in New York on 23 September AFP/Getty 2/6 London People with giraffe puppets march during The People's Climate March, central London, a march and rally to demand urgent action on climate change PA 3/6 New York Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, centre, walks down 6th Avenue during the People's Climate March. Activists mobilized in cities across the globe for marches against climate change, with one of the biggest planned for New York AFP/Getty 4/6 New York People dance during a rally against climate change in New York Reuters 5/6 London Vivienne Westwood, Peter Gabriel and Emma Thompson show their support at the People's Climate March, London PA 6/6 Berlin Participants of the climate demonstration 'Mal schnell die Welt retten' (roughly translated as 'Save the world in passing') hold signs reading 'Share more, buy less' in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, 21 September 2014 EPA The IPCC warns governments that it is not enough to cut fossil fuel emissions, it will also be necessary to adapt to climate change. But the longer they take to come to a binding deal on curbing emissions through mitigation, the greater the eventual costs of adaptation, the IPCC said. "We need both adaptation and mitigation. One or another is not the solution to these problems," Dr Pachauri said. "We have the means to limit climate change. The solutions are many and allow for continued economic and human development. All we need is the will to change," he said. Sir Mark Walport, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, said that the IPCC has now made it clear that climate change is happening and that is poses widespread and serious risks. "We can still avoid the most serious impacts. We need to transform the way we power our lives. This will be very challenging, but the challenges for humanity if we do not are likely to be far greater," Sir Mark said. "The longer global emissions are allowed to continue to increase year on year the more difficult, and expensive, the transition to a low carbon future will become," he added. Lord Stern of Brentford, who chaired the Government’s review of the economics of climate change, said: "This report shows that there is no real intellectual basis for denying the risks of climate change, and governments should be focused on how best to make the transition to low-carbon economic development and growth." Climate Box IPCC found: · Warming of climate is unequivocal with many of the observed changes unprecedented over decades to millennia. · The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, snow and ice has diminished and sea levels have risen. · Human emissions of greenhouse cases are the highest in history and concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are the highest in at least 800,000 years. · The acidity of the oceans has increased by 26 per cent since the beginning of the industrial era due to increases in carbon dioxide. · Arctic sea ice has decreased over the period 1979 to 2013 at a rate of between 3.5 and 4.1 per cent per decade, while it has increased in the Antarctic due to strong geophysical differences between the two polar regions. · It is “extremely likely” that human emissions of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and other sources are the dominant causes of the observed warming since the mid-20Century. |
Virat Kohli is the modern-day Sachin Tendulkar, they say. While that is debatable, jumping on the subject is the man himself. Kohli says he is not in the same class as Tendulkar. In an interview to India Today, Kohli talked about how Tendulkar was his inspiration and how he does see himself as good as him. “Honestly I feel embarrassed. It is unfair and Sachin can’t be compared with anyone. Comparisons are not valid from my end. I have looked up to him but want to be myself and definitely draw inspiration from him. He is two levels above any player. Sachin was born with talent and I had to work for it,” he said. There is as much talk about Kohli’s aggression as there is of his run scoring. The man himself says, “I understand I have crossed lines many times. Crossing the line has also helped me correct myself. I’m more calm now but whenever there will be a need for aggression, I will be up for it.” He also talked about leadership and said, “Captaincy is something that comes naturally to me. Initially, I was not good at handling different players differently but I have been fortunate to have players of my age in the team.” India’s Test captain gave his views on the longest format of the game and said, “I am not worried about Test cricket’s future. It is still very popular. When you perform, it gives real satisfaction… also in terms of job satisfaction. I still feel in Test cricket I have a long way to go. I want Test victories, series wins…want to win Test matches for the team and India. Stats and other things doesn’t matter.” |
When Labour fought the general election in May it had around 200,000 full members. It now has more than 380,000, close to the 400,000 reached in 1997 and an increase of around 90,000 since Jeremy Corbyn became leader. But what is rarely noted is that these are net figures: the number who have joined minus the number who have left. Two months after Corbyn's election, MPs are struck by those exiting as well as those entering. Peep Show actor Robert Webb, who endorsed Yvette Cooper in the Labour leadership election, revealed yesterday that he had left the party - and he is far from the only one. One senior MP estimated that for every 75 members who joined, around 25 left. The majority of those departing are likely, as in Webb's case, to have voted fo non-Corbyn candidates. The net result is that the party has moved leftwards since the Labour leadership election. Were Corbyn to be challenged and defend his position, many believe he would win an even larger victory. As both supporters and opponents of the Labour leader emphasise, the increasing discontent among MPs is not shared by the membership. For this reason, as I write in my column this week, the question of deselection, be it of Corbyn or of recalcitrant MPs, will persist. True unity will not be achieved until the PLP reflects the leader, or the leader reflects the PLP. As Labour's divisions grow, MPs fear that left-wing members will increasingly turn on them. One told me that Corbyn's refusal to grant a free vote on air strikes in Syria was "an attempt to pick a fight, isolate colleagues and pave the way for deselection". The list of the 21 MPs who abstained on George Osborne's fiscal charter, while the leadership voted against, was widely shared by Corbyn supporters. At a recent meeting of Momentum in Nottingham, former shadow chancellor and local MP Chris Leslie was mentioned as a target for deselection. A more left-wing membership will make it easier for Corbyn to win conference policy votes and for his supporters to become parliamentary candidates. As the Labour leader's opponents privately acknowlege, it will also make it far harder for any candidate significantly to his right to win in any future contest. |
A business coordinator at a power company in western Georgia told The Daily Caller Friday afternoon that workers from his electric-utility employer were not permitted to help restore power to New York consumers because they would not join the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). The revelation comes on the heels of similar stories TheDC has reported about power crews from Alabama and Florida who volunteered to fix downed power lines after Hurricane Sandy left millions in the Northeastern United States in the dark this week. “We’re not a large utility, so we were only able to send up two or three crews,” Glenn Cunningham, a business continuity coordinator with Diverse Power in LaGrange, Georgia, said in a phone interview. “They worked in Maryland, and they went up to New York, and when they got up there it was, ‘out come the union papers.'” “And our guys were like, ‘Hey, we’re not joining nothing. We came up to help, but if you don’t want it, that’s fine.’ So they turned around and drove all the way back here to Georgia.” On Thursday evening WAFF-TV in Huntsville, Ala. reported that the devastated coastal town of Seaside Heights, N.J. turned away a crew from Decatur Utilities in Decatur, Ala., saying they couldn’t do any work there because they’re not union employees. (RELATED: New Jersey utility denies turning away nonunion electric crew volunteers from Alabama) Decatur Utilities general manager Ray Hardin said Friday during a Fox Business Network broadcast that “we were presented with documents from IBEW that required our folks to affiliate with the union. And [that’s] something that we could not agree to. And it was our understanding, and still is, that that was a requirement of working in that area.” On Friday TheDC spoke with a veteran electric utility worker from central Florida whose crew was kept idling for two days while his managers dealt with the union’s membership demands. “It turns out there was a 300-page contract that the union controlling LIPA [the Long Island Power Authority] wanted everybody to sign first,” the utility worker, who wanted to remain anonymous, said. “We don’t have time for that. We’ve got guys ready to go. You need lawyers for this.” “We’re not complaining about money,” the Floridian added. “You can pay us less. We don’t care. Just let us go up there.” (RELATED VIDEO: Ala. utility, Florida crewman blame electrical union for interfering with Hurricane Sandy relief) Cunningham added in an email that, “[t]o have to return without assisting, to see the mess that is up there, to hear the reports of how miserable it is for many residents, just sickens me.” “When major storms happen down here in the South, everybody just bails in and starts helping,” Cunningham told TheDC. “There’s 42 electrical cooperatives here in Georgia, and we work alongside Georgia Power, which is all unionized. Most of the co-ops are not. When something happens here, everybody works together. There’s no sending people away.” “We came up to help because we wanted to assist in getting the power back on in an area that could use our skills and expertise, not join the union,” he added via email. Cunningham told TheDC that he is a former IBEW member himself, and that he hailed originally from Massachusetts, where that union is particularly strong. But Diverse Power, he added, is “a non-union shop because our employees have chosen to be so.” “We treat them well, have excellent wages and benefits which result in a nearly zero turnover in employees.” Georgia Electric Membership Corporation president Paul Wood did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Diverse Power is one of that organization’s member utilities. IBEW International President Ed Hill said in a statement Friday that “in times of crisis all help is welcome and we pull together with everyone to meet the needs of the public. We have communicated this to the office of New Jersey Governor Christie as well.” Pressed for a reaction to the revelation that union-membership demands appear to have been made in writing in at least one case, IBEW spokesman Jim Spellane told TheDC in an email, “The only thing I can add is that the IBEW did not send the documents, nor did any of our locals.” The IBEW’s website lists 20 locals in New Jersey, 48 in New York, 10 in Connecticut and 52 in Pennsylvania. It has 273 locals in the three union-definied “districts” that include states where Sandy’s impact was felt, also according to its website. The IBEW didn’t immediately respond to a question about how it could be sure that none of those locals had insisted on union membership as a condition of helping restore power after the superstorm. Follow David on Twitter |
It’s the eleventh hour—the park is making their announcement on Saturday—and we know you all are chomping at the bit, anticipating the unveiling of Busch Gardens’s Project 2017. Though we don’t know everything the park is planning to reveal on the 19th, hopefully we can relieve a little bit of that intense suspense tonight. It’s time to leak BGW’s new Great Coasters International woodie. That’s right, after 41 years, Busch Gardens Williamsburg is finally adding their first wooden roller coaster. In the past we have always tried our best to meticulously analyze site plans, before we release them. Unfortunately, due to extreme time constraints, we won’t be able to provide the detailed assessments we historically have. That said, hopefully the augmented documents below (when combined with the original round of blueprints, which we did evaluate in depth) give you all a fairly good idea of what we can look forward to in 2017. Site Plans Part Deux Below you will find two never before seen Project 2017 site plans. The first is of the station area and the second is of the coaster’s layout. Old vs New Entry Area Site Plans Old vs New Layout Site Plans Possible Names We know these aren’t the highest quality blueprints you’ve seen from BGWFans, but for now, they are what we have to work with.The most notable thing about the plans above is the fact that you can clearly see small circular footers bordering each side of the track’s path. This seems to back up our earlier claim that this is a wooden coaster project from GCI.First, here is a color coded overview of the station area. (Key below)Station buildingMaintenance buildingQueueExit rampNew Project 2017 entry plazaCovered locker areaPhoto boothSecond, in the following image, we have traced out the roller coaster track and colored in the areas that won’t be cleared.Finally, lets do some comparisons with the documents Busch Gardens Williamsburg filed with the James City County Planning Department back in February The station area site plans are significantly different than the ones we saw from the initial round of documents. Nearly everything has been altered in one way or another. Notable changes include the relocation of the lockers and ride photo building, a complete redesign of the queue, large changes to the station and maintenance bay, and more.We have also juxtaposed the old clearing plans (which should have given a good idea of the theoretical layout) with the new coaster layout. The only really major change, as you can see below, is right near the end of the coaster: they have replaced a series of curves with a singe helix. If you were around for our previous project leaks (Verbolten, Tempesto, etc.), you’ll know that Busch Gardens Williamsburg has a long history of giving all of their new attractions code names or working names. In the past we have always leaked those placeholders alongside the plans for the attraction (Elementum for Verbolten, Diavolo for Tempesto, etc). We are not yet able, however, to share a working title for Project 2017. That said, we think we may have something better. I want to caveat this information very explicitly: We believe the source is shaky—I certainly would not bet money on this information—but if one of these options turns out to be the name announced on Saturday, we’d be left hitting ourselves for not revealing what we have heard. So, what are these possible names? SilverStrike and StrikeWinder. Another reason we feel these two possibilities could be legitimate is that both fit the New France theme and, in the case of StrikeWinder, reflect the twisted nature of the coaster. Of these two possibilities, we find ourselves leaning towards SilverStrike. Why? The implied mining theme would work beautifully in the hamlet—especially with the recent refurbishment of the gem panning “flume.” We will be covering Pass Member Preview Day via live blog on BGWFans.com, and sharing all of the park’s announcements there and on Twitter Instagram , and Facebook . Be sure to check back here for more updates on Project 2017 and everything else happening at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. |
By Will Grant BBC News, Caracas President Hugo Chavez has said he intends to run for re-election in 2012 Venezuela's National Assembly has voted to switch control of the country's highways, ports and airports from the state to the federal level. The move gives control of key transport links to President Hugo Chavez. Critics say it is unconstitutional and will further consolidate Mr Chavez's hold on power by weakening governors and mayors in opposition-run states. Mr Chavez recently won a referendum removing limits on how many times he and others can run for re-election. This change to the law on decentralisation puts the control of key transport and maritime links out of the hands of the states and under the control of the executive for what the government calls "strategic reasons". During a lengthy debate in the assembly, which is largely made up of the president's supporters, the head of the United Socialist party, Mario Isea, said they were approving the changes to "defend the right of access" and "guarantee essential public services" to all Venezuelans. Since the government lost a number of key seats, including the mayoralty of Caracas, in local elections last year, there have been regular clashes over jurisdiction between local mayors and the national government. This change to the law comes just weeks after Venezuelans voted for a constitutional amendment granting Mr Chavez and other elected officials the right to stand for election beyond the previous limit of two terms. The socialist leader has indicated on several occasions that he intends to run again for office in 2012 and has talked of remaining in power until 2021. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version |
Glenn Ford has been freed from the notorious Angola prison in Louisiana having lived under the shadow of the death sentence for 30 years. He becomes one of the longest-serving death row inmates in US history to be exonerated. Ford was released on the order of a judge in Shreveport after Louisiana state prosecutors indicated they could no longer stand by his conviction. In late 2013 the state notified Ford’s lawyers that a confidential informant had come forward with new information implicating another man who had been among four co-defendants originally charged in the case. He was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder the previous November of Isadore Rozeman, an older white man who ran a Shreveport jewellery and watch repair shop. The defendant had worked as an odd jobs man for Rozeman. In interviews with police Ford said that he had been asked to pawn a .38 revolver and some jewellery similar to that taken from Rozeman’s shop at the time of the murder by another man who was among the initial suspects. Asked as he walked away from the prison gates about his release, Ford told WAFB-TV, “It feels good; my mind is going in all kind of directions. It feels good.” Ford said he did harbour some resentment at being wrongly jailed: “Yeah, cause I’ve been locked up almot 30 years for something I didn’t do. “I can’t go back and do anything I should have been doing when I was 35, 38, 40 stuff like that.” Dr Phillip Rozeman, nephew of the victim, told the Shreveport Times said that district attorney’s office had alerted the family in advance that new evidence had been obtained that, had it been available 30 years ago, might have had an impact on the verdict or death sentence. “We understand that and actually believe the DA is acting honourably. This is positive reflection on the criminal justice system that does the right thing for people.” Ford’s conviction bears all the hallmarks of the glaring inconsistencies and inadequacies of the US justice system that are repeatedly found in cases of exoneration. The fact that despite serious qualms among top judges about his conviction this innocent man was kept on death row for so long is certain to be seized upon by anti-death penalty campaigners. Among the many all too typical problems with his prosecution was the composition of the jury. An African American, Ford was sentenced to death by a jury that had been carefully selected by prosecutors to be exclusively white. His legal representation at trial was woefully inexperienced. The lead defence counsel was a specialist in the law relating to oil and gas exploration and had never tried a case in front of a jury; the second attorney was two years out of law school and working at the time of the trial on small automobile accident insurance cases. At the trial the state was unable to call any eyewitnesses to the crime, nor was it able to produce a murder weapon. Instead Ford was convicted largely on the testimony of a witness who was not a detached observer – she was the girlfriend of another man initially suspected of the murder. Under cross-examination the witness, Marvella Brown, admitted in front of the jury that she had given false testimony. “I did lie to the court… I lied about it all,” she said. In another classic element frequently found in exoneration cases, cod science provided by “expert” witnesses also helped to put Ford on death row. One such expert testified that the evidence pointed to the defendant because he was left-handed; another expert told the jury that particles of gunshot residue had been found on his hand; and a third talked about fingerprint evidence implicating him. The testimony from all three expert witnesses was later shown to have been at best inconclusive, at worst wrong. Ford continued to profess his innocence throughout the 30 years. In the appeal process that ensued, the Louisiana supreme court, the state’s highest legal panel, acknowledged that the evidence against him was “not overwhelming” and that the prosecution case was open to “serious questions”, yet it decided to keep him on death row. More recently it emerged that state prosecutors had failed to disclose evidence to Ford’s legal team that could have been crucial in his defence. It included evidence from confidential informants pointing the finger at Ford’s co-defendants, who faced initial charges that were then dismissed as the prosecution bore down against the wrong man. In a statement Ford’s current lawyers, Gary Clements and Aaron Novod, said they were pleased by the exoneration. “We are particularly grateful that the prosecution and the court moved ahead so decisively to set Mr Ford free.” Ford becomes the 144th death row inmate to be exonerated over the past four decades, underlining the perils of innocent people being sent to their deaths in America’s capital punishment system. Yet despite such warning, several states such as Alabama, California, Florida and Missouri have taken recent steps to speed up the process of executions and whittle down the recourse to appeals in a way that had such expedition applied in Ford’s case would already have seen him put to death. Richard Dieter, an authority on capital punishment at the Death Penalty Information Center, said that Ford’s case “painfully reveals the fallibility of the death penalty and the risks we take with every death sentence. Some states are trying to speed up executions instead of addressing the underlying problems that have led to such mistakes.” David Love, executive director of Witness to Innocence, an organisation of exonerated death row survivors and their loved ones, said that attempts to speed up the time from conviction to death showed that for some politicians “it’s more important to have finality than to have justice. I believe that’s a misguided approach. As we see more and more innocent people like Glenn Ford released from death row, that’s a wake up call that we have to look at our broken system.” Ford will now go through the long process of trying to rebuild his life on the outside. Under Louisiana law he can apply for compensation of up to $25,000 for each year lost to detention, but only up to a ceiling of $250,000. As for the Isadore Rozeman case, it has now officially reverted to the status of an unsolved homicide. The local district attorney’s office said that an investigation is under way into “certain individuals” suspected of having been involved in the murder. |
The Bobcats will bring a painfully young team to Pullman. But can the Cougars finally break their ignominious streak of five-straight season opening losses under Mike Leach? First glance: No. 24 Washington State Cougars vs. Montana State Bobcats When/Where: Saturday, Sept. 2, 7:30 p.m. at Martin Stadium TV/Radio: Fox Sports 1 Latest line: WSU is a 22-point favorite Last meeting: Sept. 10 in Pullman, WSU won 23-22 Coach: Jeff Choate. Choate was an assistant at WSU in 2012. He coached the Cougars’ linebackers in Mike Leach’s first season, then made stops at UTEP and Florida before returning to the Pacific Northwest to take on the special teams coordinator and defensive line assistant coaching job at UW for two seasons. He was hired at Montana State in Dec. 2015. The Bobcats finished 4-7 in Choate’s first season in 2016. Star players: QB Chris Murray: Murray beat out Tyler Bruggman – yes, that former WSU quarterback – for the starting job midway through the 2016 season. In five games as the starter, Murray went 2-3 and finished as the Big Sky Freshman of the Year, with 1,638 total offensive yards. This season, with Bruggman’s departure for Texas A&M, he’s the unquestioned starter. Murray’s athleticism is his biggest strength. He had 12 rushing touchdowns last season, while managing only six touchdowns though he threw eight interceptions and had a 44.8 completion percentage. WR Mitchell Herbert: The senior receiver is the older brother of Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert. He was the Bobcats’ top receiver in 2016, catching 26 passes for 476 yards and three touchdowns. He was voted a team captain this fall, and will likely be Murray’s top target. RB Troy Andersen: Andersen, a true freshman, is technically listed as the No. 2 running back, but he’ll likely get the nod to start vs. WSU because starting senior Nick LeSane was arrested twice over the summer (DUI and a bar fight) and has been suspended for four games. Andersen was recruited to MSU to play defense, but moved to running back in fall camp. The 6-3, 215-pound Montana native played safety and quarterback in high school and led his team to two-straight state championship games, winning once during his senior year. He’s impressed the MSU coaches all through camp and will be the Bobcats’ biggest running threat. LB Mac Bignell: Bignell, a fifth-year senior, is the Bobcats’ unquestioned defensive leader. The 6-1, 215-pound sam linebacker led MSU with 14.5 tackles for loss last season and is also known for his ability to make opponents cough up the football. Bignell tops MSU’s career list with eight fumbles forced. Bignell’s personal story is equally compelling. He never played 11-on-11 football until college (his high school played eight-man football), and is also highly skilled at lip reading to compensate for the mild hearing impediment he was born with. By the numbers: 7 – number of all-time wins WSU has amassed against Montana State. The Cougars have never lost to the Bobcats. 26 – number of Montana State underclassmen who left the football team this offseason. The Bobcats welcomes 37 new faces in camp this fall. |
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday that the Russian airstrikes in Syria appear to have targeted areas that do not include ISIS fighters, a development which Secretary of State John Kerry said would cause "grave concern" for the United States. Kerry told the United Nations Security Council that the U.S. would not object to Russians hitting ISIS or al-Qaida targets but airstrikes just to strengthen the hand of Syrian President Bashar Assad would be worrisome. "It does appear they were in in areas where there probably were not ISIL forces," Carter said of the Russian airstrikes, using an alternative acronym for ISIS. "The result of this kind of action will inevitably simply be to inflame the civil war in Syria." Carter said he couldn't confirm reports that the Russian strikes may have hit civilians, but said, "if it occurred, it's yet another reason why this kind of Russian action can and will backfire very badly on Russia." Carter's comments triggered a dismissive response from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who told reporters flatly, "Don't listen to the Pentagon about the Russian strikes" and referred them to the Russian defense ministry website. The top national security officials spoke as Russia launched its first airstrikes in Syria targeting what it said were ISIS positions. On Wednesday, some U.S.-backed rebel groups claimed they were hit by Russian airstrikes but those claims could not be confirmed. A key unanswered question, however, is what the U.S. will do if the Russian airstrikes target moderate Syrian rebel groups working with the coalition in the fight against the ISIS. Asked directly if the coalition would protect the U.S.-trained or aligned groups, Carter did not answer. Instead, Carter said the strikes highlight a contradiction in Russia's approach. He said the Russians should not be supporting the Assad government, and their military moves are "doomed to fail." Carter also expressed disappointment that the Russians did not use formal channels to provide the U.S. with advance notice of its airstrikes, but instead sent an official to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad for what he characterized as an unprofessional "drop-in." "By supporting Assad and seemingly taking on everyone who is fighting Assad, you're taking on the whole rest of the country of Syria," Carter said. "That is not our position. At least some parts of the anti-Assad opposition belong in the political transition going forward. That's why the Russian approach is doomed to fail." He added that more formal talks with the Russians should get under way "within days." White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the new action "calls into question their strategy, because when President Putin and President Obama had the opportunity to meet at the U.N. earlier this week much of their discussion was focused on the need for a political transition inside Syria." Kerry said Russian operations must not support Assad or interfere with those of the U.S.-led coalition that is already attacking ISIS targets. He called for an urgent start to military-to-military talks to prevent any kind of conflict between Russia and the coalition, suggesting they begin this week. "If Russia's recent actions and those now ongoing reflect a genuine commitment to defeat (the ISIS) then we are prepared to welcome those efforts and to find a way to de-conflict our operations and thereby multiply military pressure on ISIL and affiliated groups," Kerry said. "But we must not and will not be confused in our fight against ISIL with support for Assad." "Moreover, we have also made clear that we would have grave concerns should Russia strike areas where ISIL and al-Qaida affiliated targets are not operating," he said. "Strikes of that kind would question Russia's real intentions fighting ISIL or protecting the Assad regime." Kerry also said the U.S.-led coalition would "dramatically accelerate" its efforts. Lavrov followed Kerry, saying Russia is ready to "forge standing channels of communication to ensure a maximally effective fight." He listed countries with a key role to play in resolving the chaos in Syria, including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar , the U.S. and China. |
The Early Winter Night Biking Gloves aim at augmenting established movements while riding a bike with a layer for personal security. Raising visibility is a big issue for urban bikers. The Gloves aesthetically and functionally translate this need: Winter nights come early, thus there is more need for extra lighting; at the same time it is cold, so wearing gloves is necessary anyway. Preserving the look and feel of normal gloves, LEDs showing a turn signal light up when the hand is stretched out and a fist is formed are a strong signal for following cars. The Early Winter Night Biking Gloves consist of knitted wool gloves having conductive areas on each fingertip as well as on the palm of the hand. When forming a fist they close an electric circle, causing the LED-arrow at the back of the hand to light up. A 3V coin cell battery needed to power the LEDs is hidden in the cuff of the gloves. In the design process it was important to me to keep gestures to turn the lights on as natural as possible and the technology behind it just as complex as necessary. I experimented with a few interaction scenarios (you can see some examples here). Choosing gloves as the basis allows to have the signal actually at the further most extension of your body, being for following cars not just an indication that you are turning, but also what distance they should keep from you. Also, risks that the signal is covered by a backpack or similar, as possible when directly mounted in a jacket for example, are kept minimal. Additionally to increasing the safety of cyclists, conductive areas on the fingertips also allow to use your smartphone while wearing the gloves. |
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