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When you think of automation, you probably think of the assembly line, a dramatic dance of robot arms with nary a human laborer in sight. But that’s child’s play. The grandest, most disruptive automation revolution has played out in agriculture. First with horses and plows, and eventually with burly combines—technologies that have made farming exponentially cheaper and more productive. Just consider that in 1790, farmers made up 90 percent of the US workforce. In 2012, it was 1.5 percent, yet America still eats. Here in 2017, the automation revolution in agriculture is poised to take on a whole new life—thanks to robots. In a nondescript office park in Silicon Valley, a startup called Iron Ox is taking the first steps toward roboticizing greenhouse farming, which has so far stubbornly resisted automation. In the very near future, then, the salad on your table may come from the hand of a robot. Unlike a lot of indoor farming operations, Iron Ox isn’t joining the booming movement of LED-powered grow houses. It’s still very much interested in harnessing the energy of the sun (free energy!). So it’s invading the greenhouse instead. “The problem up until today is that greenhouse production costs around twice as much to grow a head of lettuce as the outdoor farm,” says Brandon Alexander, CEO of Iron Ox. “And one reason is there's no tractors or anything indoors.” Iron Ox doesn't have a tractor, but it also doesn't need one. Its solution begins with a custom hydroponics tray filled with nutrient-rich water. Over that is a cover with a grid of holes, in which the plants sit in little pods. This is all designed so a custom robot—essentially an intelligent rectangular frame—can come along and slide lifters under the tray, then cart it to a different part of the greenhouse. Why bother with all the shuttling around? Because they can. Out in a field, farmers have no choice but to leave plants where they planted them—and because plants grow, farmers have to space out seeds to accommodate their fully-grown dimensions. But Iron Ox doesn't have to waste that extra space. Here in the greenhouse, they’re using different trays with different spacing of their holes, some farther apart than others. Leafy greens in particular need more horizontal room to expand, so baby plants start off in a more densely packed tray, then graduate to trays with more room as they grow. “This, combined with the fact that we don't have to worry about seasonality—we can always be seeding, always be harvesting—allows us to grow over 30X per acre compared to an outdoor farm,” says Alexander. The problem then becomes transplanting between trays. That’s where the robotic arm comes in. It sees with stereo cameras on its wrist, and grabs the plants with a gripper custom-designed to fit the pods (which the plants never outgrow, by the way). The arm sits between two trays of different densities, eyeballing the plants and moving them from one tray and to another. Because it’s equipped with a camera, it can simultaneously build a 3-D image of each plant. “Is it the size that we expect?" says Jon Binney, CTO of Iron Ox. "Is it the shape that we expect? If it's going to fall one way or the other, that could be a lighting problem. Brown spots on the edges of the leaves could be too much light and not enough air coming through.” So Iron Ox’s system not only automates greenhouse growing, but supercharges it. The company is developing machine learning algorithms that will automatically detect diseased plants and kick them out of the system before the sickness spreads. Underdeveloped plants would also get the boot. What you end up with is a system that does the repetitive tasks of greenhouse farming faster and more precisely than a human, and uses that data to make the process all the more efficient. Whether in the greenhouse or the field, it’s this kind of automation that will be essential to the future of humanity. Our species has to figure out how to feed a rapidly growing population on a planet that refuses to grow bigger. So we’ll have to get smarter about how we use the land we’ve got, or we’re going to have trouble. That and climate change will monkey with water supplies around the world, so the inefficiencies of traditional outdoor farming are going to start looking more and more untenable. (Iron Ox claims its hydroponics system uses 90 percent less water than outdoor farming. Studies of hydroponics in general have found about the same efficiencies.) But automation means humans lose jobs though, right? Not in this industry. “We've talked to dozens of commercial farmers, outdoor and indoor, and the biggest issue by far is labor scarcity,” says Alexander. “So the truth is today, it doesn't matter what country, newer generations are not taking up farming. And so there's a significant labor shortage especially here in California.” (He ain’t lying— between 2002 and 2014, the number of full-time farm workers in the US plummeted by 20 percent.) The solution is to hand the future of our food supply to the machines. There’s simply no other way to go about it. So be careful not to bite the robotic hand that feeds you. |
newz One of our readers has just sent us a picture of Gigabyte’s upcoming custom Radeon RX Vega 64. Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 64 GAMING OC Contrary to previous reports (which by the way were true, but Gigabyte changed their story after they received a new batch of Vega chips) the company is indeed making a custom Radeon RX Vega 64. The rumors were that only RX Vega 56 would be made in GAMING OC variant, but the card you see below is, in fact, RX Vega 64. The card is dual-fan design (probably a new variant of Windorce 2X cooler). The card features non-standard display output configuration: 3x HDMI + 3x DisplayPort (Gigabyte says goodbye to DVI). The board is slightly shorter than the cooler itself, but judging from the pictures this model is using custom PCB. The card may appear small, but in reality, the RX Vega 64 Gaming OC is much bigger than the reference design: More pictures: VCN GIGABYTE RX Vega 64 8GB GAMING OC GPU : Vega 10 XT Base Clock : 1276 MHz (+2.3%) Cores : 4096 Boost Clock : 1560 MHz (+0.9%) TMUs : 256 Memory Clock : 1890 Mbps ROPs : 64 Memory : 8 GB HBM2 2048b Many thanks to John56 for the picture! |
Share. Sega delivers yet another AAA online title with the hardest-hitting console FPS ever. Sega delivers yet another AAA online title with the hardest-hitting console FPS ever. Through a cloud of freshly spewed blood, I see that this guy has obviously moved past making mince meat of the chump who used to be in the process of trying to shake me and my boomstick. Add to that the fact that this punk who rained on my frag-parade sees me coming, and his plasmagun is still churning out pain in a quaint shade of blue. To make matters even worse, after splattering the dearly departed all over the walls of the corridor I'm presently trapped in, there's little in between the blazing muzzle of his gun and my newly exposed chest. I can bet the guy on the other end of this modem line is popping a pretty big grin right now. Funny how there's nothing quite like the rocket that was supposed to hit the guy he just squished tagging him right in the face to wipe said smile right off. That had to hurt. But no one said life in the fast lane of first person shooters was pain-free. Welcome to the Arena, where beat-downs are free and people like me thrive on your misery. Grab your gun, lock the door, and prepare for the mother of all FPS games, because the wait is finally over, and much like resetting a limb that has popped out of its socket, things will only get worse before they get better. Sega's promise of Internet-playable Quake III Arena was realized last week as the game shipped to retailers nationwide, and we had our misgivings about how easily the Dreamcast would translate the whole of the PC experience -- but we decided to give the game as fair a shake as we could possibly offer by carrying out a full examination. As you can probably see from the introduction, one thing Q3A has managed to maintain is one of the game's key elements, its intensity. Quake falls into a genre that is nothing if not visceral, and id has made a name off of its ability to capitalize on this characteristic like only a select group of developers can. The poison you'll pick in Quake is kill or be killed, and humming along at a fairly steady 30 FPS, things in the Arena move extremely fast for a console shooter, but more importantly, fast enough to keep up the frantic, kill or be killed atmosphere that the series has made famous over the past few years. Granted, there is occasional slowdown when the screen is full of characters or when certain weapons are filling up your screen, but on the whole, Quake III Arena is the most authentic FPS experience we've seen to date on a console when it comes to speed and playability. We use the term playability loosely, however. Well, loosely isn't necessarily fair. Let's say "playability" with a nice little asterisk beside it. I won't make you scroll down to the bottom of the review for a clue as to what that little gizmo means, though. Instead, I'll spill it here: This game is not at its best with a standard Dreamcast controller. You need a mouse and keyboard. This is, much like when you were born into this world, a non-negotiable fact of existence in the Quake universe. I don't care how much it pains you to suck it up and get a clue about FPS gaming, but if you want to compete in this or any other title like it, you will want to go ahead and get your hands on the peripherals mentioned above. Raster did an adequate job with the standard console cop-out (read: Turok-style control), but after trying the game out with the DC K&M combo, then going to the controller, all I could do was shed a tear for the ignorant masses who have never embraced goodness contained in Sega's squeaky little friend. Aiming is far too difficult with a controller, and though you can play with one, don't expect to hold your own with any DC gamer who is using a mouse and keyboard. Or for that matter, PC users when Sega finally unleashes them on the masses. It just will not happen. As much as I admired the super-gamers I played earlier today online, I spanked them like a kid who burned the house down. I am not that sharp a Quake player, though, and was not surprised to discover that all my opponents had controllers. After playing a little split-screen with one myself, I was completely amazed that they managed any kills at all. It is just too unwieldy. If you don't mind, and are willing to put in a truck-load of practice, you'll eventually get the hang of life with a controller, but personally, I'd advise against it. Speaking of split screen, I'll get off my mouse-lovin' soapbox and resume with the good news. If you're looking for a smooth split-screen experience, Quake III Arena delivers. We tried out 2, 3 and 4 player splits, all with favorable framerates. The level of detail gets dropped a bit, but considering the size of the screen, you won't miss it much. What you will be missing, however, are the full selection of deathmatch maps. Don't ask us why, but for some reason, Raster cut out a whole slew of the game's maps for split screen play. We're guessing the DC couldn't handle full-on action on all levels with 4 eager gamers, but who knows? This kinda blows, but to be honest, once you get a look at the real juice behind Q3A, you won't be playing split screen, anyways. Now, if you didn't know any better, you could easily assume we were just referring to the single-player tournament mode. This part of the game will take you through the game's deathmatch maps in a ladder style tourney against a series of rather crafty bots (computer-controlled opponents), and despite the lowered player count, it is pretty faithful to the feel of the PC version. But as any SegaNet subscriber who has managed to hop on and check it out will tell you, we're clearly referring to Internet play. We attempted both SegaNet and standard ISP play, and we're happy to report that the game was, much like NFL2K1 before it, amazingly fast and fluid over the 56k modem Most FPS gamers would scoff at the notion of utilizing such a tiny pipe to get their frag on, and Quake III Arena does support the broadband adapter, but due to the fact that this device is still a few months away, this is as good as it gets for the time being via the Dreamcast. We played for a good 5 hours today online, and having experienced both DSL and high-speed LANs connected with T1s and better on a PC, we still can't believe this is a modem. The lag is almost unnoticeable a good 90% of the time, and even if this isn't your first Q3A experience, you'll have a blast playing online. Obviously, this was a big concern when looking at the Dreamcast version, but an equally big question mark came up when we looked at the game's biggest change from the PC version on which it is based, the maps. Several maps got swapped out with smaller arenas that favor the DC's hardware capabilities and the lower player count, and after some extended play, I am actually a bit more partial to the Dreamcast map selection than I am the levels that shipped with the original version. The levels are all well sized, full of multiple entry points to all major areas, and crafted with a visual flair consistent with the rest of the available arenas. Yeah, a few maps we love are missing, but for the most part, it is all good. So just in case you felt like Dreamcast Q3A was going to get the short end of the stick, quit yer belly-aching. The same could be said of the game's visuals. As I mentioned in my preview a while back, the game ended up looking extremely comparable to the PS2 version of Unreal Tournament from a visual standpoint, making up for its comparable lack of visual effects with superior modeling and architecture. If you've never seen this game running on a high-end PC, you will be blown away, and if you have, you'll likely be equally impressed that a machine with a sub-300 MHz Processor is pulling it off this well. That statement is true of almost every aspect of the port, though. Every aspect, that is, except the player counts. If I have one knock on this game, it's that they didn't sacrifice a little detail in the levels or the player models and float some extra opponents down the channel. I mean, it's nice that they included CTF, but honestly, who the hell plays CTF with 4 people? The game is simplified to the point of ridiculousness due to this limitation, whereas 6 people would have made it ideal for the included maps. The same could be said of the standard deathmatch game. It's not that 4 players is bad. It's just that games can get much more hectic and intense with a couple extra people. I know it seems silly, but if you've ever played a game with a whole mess of competitors, you'd understand our beef. It's hard to put into words how limited the Dreamcast player-limit makes the Q3A experience, but it does, and we're a little less impressed than we would have been had it come out with the ability to push six players. The thing is, the game is still awesome, it is just a different experience. I must have spent an hour feeling down about the new player count, and wondering what could have been, but as soon as I started playing, I was swept away in a sea of action, and realized that Quake III Arena is such a solid game, that it is a whole heckuva lot of fun, I don't care if we're talking 20 players, or just 2. When you think about it, having our one major knock outside the need for a keyboard and mouse (subliminal message: go buy them now) be a wish for more of the same, Q3A competes quite nicely. With its faced-paced, violent brand of action, Quake III Arena is the game Senator Lieberman warned your parents about, even if he is too out of touch to know it. If you've been following our coverage of this game at all, you'd know that we were billing this title as the first-person shooter that would change the way console gamers look at the genre. While it will also need to change the way you play the genre, the Dreamcast's first attempt at Quake should easily manage to do just that, and certainly gives the DC version of Unreal Tournament something to live up to. Go grab a copy, and be sure to look out for stray rockets when you see me online! -- Brandon Justice, IGNDC |
When I headed west of Scottsbluff this morning to join other members of the Western Nebraska Bicycling Club for a roadside cleanup, I figured we might come across some roadkill. I sure didn’t expect the small survivor we found in the tall grass along with discarded beer cans and fast food bags. I was scanning the ground and trailing a bag of trash along the south side of the road near Riverside Golf Course when I stopped short, startled by coming upon a freshly killed doe directly in front of me that had been partly obscured by tall greenery. I didn’t look too closely, as her innards had spilled out, and it wasn’t a real pretty sight. A moment later, my attention was diverted as other WNBC members called out: “Here’s her fawn. And it’s still alive!” Ohmygosh! I headed in their direction, about 30 feet away from the dead doe, fearing I’d find a grievously injured animal in need of euthanasia. But the tiny fawn seemed fine, apart from a minor scuff on its ear. It lay in the grass, breathing steadily, obeying instinct to wait quietly for its mother to come. We bike club members obeyed our own instinct to help the helpless creature, resisting the urge to touch it and instead marking the location and calling for professional help. One person called the emergency dispatch center to request a relay message to someone from Nebraska Game & Parks. It being a Saturday on Memorial Day weekend, I wondered if anyone from Game & Parks would be available to respond in time, so I texted my friend Sarah Pinet of Victory Hill Farm, who once worked at Riverside Discovery Center, to ask if she knew a wildlife rehabilitator. She did: Shelley Lonsdale. (Nebraska Game & Parks contacted her as well. She’s the only licensed wildlife rehabilitator in our area.) I called Shelley and left a message explaining what we’d found. She called right back and said she could be onsite in about 40 minutes. She was concerned with making sure the fawn was out of harm’s way, and also that the fawn didn’t wind up in the hands of a well-intentioned but unskilled caretaker before she got there. She explained that the task of rehabilitating an orphaned fawn was much more difficult if the young animal had been weakened by improper care from a Good Samaritan. She also asked us to “look for the twin. Mom probably stashed the other one nearby.” I assured her that the fawn was safe and remained well-hidden, and that I thought that we bicyclists would probably still be cleaning up the roadside until she arrived and could keep an eye out. I told her that we’d scoured the area pretty thoroughly looking for trash and hadn’t found another fawn. About an hour after I called, Shelley and a helper arrived, along with someone from Game & Parks. The Game & Parks person offered to start combing the area in search of another possible orphaned fawn. But Shelley had noticed something. “Where’s the mom?” she asked. I pointed back up the road to where the doe lay. If you’re squeamish, you’ll want to skip the next picture, and probably the following text, too. Scroll down to the next line of asterisks. ******************************** . What Shelley had noticed was that the fawn was still damp from amniotic fluid. When she saw the dead doe, her suspicions were confirmed. Mom hadn’t cleaned the fawn off – because he hadn’t actually been born. Not in the traditional sense, anyway. The impact of the vehicle that hit the doe tore open her abdomen, delivering the apparently near-term fawn by accidental cesarean section. No need to look for a missing twin – it was still encased in its amniotic sac, dead, like its mother. . . ******************************** So the doe and one fawn were dead, but, despite the broken leg, the miraculously living male fawn seemed hale and hearty. He bleated and squirmed and swiveled his ears to catch what was going on around him (short video clip here). Shelley joked about giving the fraught fawn a name like “Freeway.” I suggested that he should have a bicycle-related name, since he’d been found by the bike club. I started naming a few bicycle types and brands. “I like Trek” Shelley said, smiling and looking down at the fawn. “This is Trek.” Safely settled in Shelley’s lap in the car, Trek began sucking on Shelley’s fingers. He was hungry! A good sign. I’m sure pulling for the little guy. And I’m so glad our Adpot-A-Spot cleanup session for Keep Scottsbluff-Gering Beautiful was rescheduled to today from our previously rained-out date of April 30. If we hadn’t happened upon the fawn this morning, he surely would have died. I’ll post updates as I get them from Shelley. First update, via email and Facebook: The break needed a splint, so Goshen [Veterinary Clinic] in Torrington, [Wyoming], helped me out. Trek has his splint and has eaten. it will be a long road to recovery, but I am hopeful he will be ok. If anyone wants to contribute to the cost of Trek’s care, you can send donations to: Goshen Veterinary Clinic 4548 US-85 Torrington, WY 82240 Update, via Facebook 5/30/16 Trek appears to be doing well! Here’s a story from the Star-Herald newspaper about Trek and Shelley. A happy/sad update 6/2/16, from Facebook (happy Trek has a buddy, sad that another fawn was orphaned and injured): Trek got a new friend today. I hope she will recover from her injury as well as he is. Update June 5 It seems that Trek is having some difficulties. Really hope he pulls through! Trek had a rough day and night again yesterday but is doing much better this morning … he had me very worried last night, so it was another night of sleeping on the floor next to him and giving him electrolytes every hour, and this morning about 4 he ate some applesauce and is now acting normal again. Update June 12 I wanted to tell you we had some more complications with trek the last couple days and unfortunately we lost him this morning …. I am very sorry and I did everything I could for him RIP, little dude. We tried. Copyright 2016 by Katie Bradshaw, except photos courtesy of Shelley Lonsdale as credited Advertisements |
Liverpool have been linked with a move for Manchester City outcast Stevan Jovetic this summer. The Metro reports that Jovetic has failed to impress in his two seasons at the Etihad, following a £22 million move from Fiorentina in 2013, and is believed to be surplus to requirements under Manuel Pellegrini this summer. He is now fourth-choice striker at the Etihad following the arrival of Wilfried Bony. As such, Brendan Rodgers is keen to seal a £16 million move for the striker, who would be £15 million cheaper than Aston Villa's Christian Benteke. Benteke, meanwhile, will hold talks with Tim Sherwood on Wednesday and reiterate his desire to quit Villa this summer. Christian Benteke The Belgian is set to meet with Sherwood at the club's training ground and will inform his manager that he is determined to leave Villa Park after three seasons to pursue a new challenge. Villa remain insistent that the Belgium international will only leave if a club triggers the £32.5 million escape clause, but Benteke is ready to make it clear to Sherwood face-to-face that he wants to move on. Liverpool are still interested in signing the 24-year-old forward this summer but the clause has acted as a deterrent, with Villa refusing to entertain any offers lower than the strict valuation. Mario Balotelli was a notable absentee as Liverpool returned to pre-season training on Monday after being given compassionate leave. Mario Balotelli The Italian striker was due back on Merseyside as Rodgers's squad reconvened, but he has been granted extra time off. Balotelli's adoptive father, Francesco, died over the weekend. Balotelli was in the care of foster parents since being three years old. Liverpool midfielder Luis Alberto has completed his move to Deportivo La Coruna on loan, reports The Daily Mail. The 22-year-old striker, who signed for the Anfield club in the summer of 2013 but has never started a Premier League game, scored twice in a loan spell at Malaga last season. Transfer window closes in But the man who once cost Liverpool almost £7 million has not been able to force his way back into Rodgers's plans, and will spend another year in Spain. And finally, Liverpool's want-away winger Raheem Sterling is apparently the most valuable player aged 21 or under in Europe, with three other English stars in the top 20. The Mail claims the England star is rated at almost £35 million, almost £7 million more than any other young player on the continent. Sterling tops a list which includes three other young Englishmen, with Manchester United full-back Luke Shaw, Everton centre-half John Stones and Arsenal's Calum Chambers all featuring. |
Ruth Davidson signalled her opposition to Theresa May’s deal with the DUP in blunt fashion by tweeting a link to the same-sex marriage lecture she gave at Amnesty 's Pride lecture in Belfast last year. The Scottish Tory leader is engaged to Jen Wilson, an Irish Catholic Christian who campaigned during the Republic's same-sex marriage referendum, is a practising Christian herself and has said she would like to get married in her local church. Her views could not be further from those of the DUP, a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage and supporter of the “traditional” definition of marriage. Speaking of the pro-marriage equality movement, party leader Arlene Foster said in 2016: “They are not going to influence me by sending me abuse – in fact, they are going to send me in the opposite direction and people need to reflect on that.” Ian Paisley Jr, son of the party’s founder Ian Paisley, has previously called homosexuality “immoral, offensive and obnoxious”. Ms Davidson made her point by tweeting: “As a Protestant Unionist about to marry an Irish Catholic, here’s the Amnesty Pride lecture I gave in Belfast”. She said in the emotional speech that she believed reform on the issue of gay marriage was inevitable in Northern Ireland, despite objections from unionists. Asked for her views on a coalition with the DUP, she offered a less than ringing endorsement, saying: “What's clear is that we need to ensure that as the parliament reconvenes in Westminster, the Government brings forward a Queen's Speech on the 19th and I support all efforts to do that.” Ruth Davidson at her post-election press conference Credit: Getty Ms Davidson and Ms Wilson, an environmental charity worker from Wexford in Ireland, have moved in the same circles for years but their relationship only began three years ago. They got engaged in Paris last year when the Tory leader proposed and were due to marry in October. However, their nuptials were cancelled after they were faced with a five-figure veterinary bill for their cocker spaniel Wilson – who was with them at the polling booth on Thursday – after it was hit by a car. Ms Davidson has revealed in interviews that the pair plan to start a family. Ms Davidson said she had been assured by Mrs May that gay rights would not be undermined by any arrangement with the DUP. "I was fairly straightforward with her and I told her that there were a number of things that count to me more than party,” she told BBC Reporting Scotland "One of them is country, one of the others is LGBTI (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex) rights.” She said that she had been given a categoric assurance that there would be “absolutely no rescission of LGBTI rights in the rest of the UK”. |
Another former Fox Newser is coming forward with allegations of sexual harassment with Roger Ailes, and it’s another high-profile female host who parted ways with the network this year. Andrea Tantaros has not been on Fox News since April. At the time, Fox said there was a contract issue that led to her being kicked off the air, supposedly on a temporary basis. (This was announced a day after her new book was released.) Well, according to New York Magazine‘s Gabriel Sherman, not only is Tantaros saying she made senior Fox executives aware of Ailes sexually harassing her, but she was allegedly taken off the air after she came forward. Her lawyer Judd Burstein directly told Sherman, “I believe it’s retaliatory.” Here’s what Tantaros is alleging: According to Tantaros’s account, Ailes began harassing her on August 12, 2014. During a meeting in Ailes’s office, Ailes allegedly asked Tantaros to do “the twirl” so he could see her figure. She refused. Then, in mid-December of that year, Ailes made another advance, Burstein says. “Ailes asked her to turn around, and then he said, ‘Come over here so I can give you a hug.’” Tantaros rebuffed the advance, Burstein says. In February 2015, Tantaros was pulled off the 5 p.m. program The Five and demoted to working full-time on the midday show Outnumbered. In February 2015, according to Burstein, Ailes allegedly harassed Tantaros again in his office, asking about her workout routine because her body “looked good” and mentioning that she must “really look good in a bikini.” She claims that after she filed a complaint in April 2015, Fox News executive vice president Bill Shine “allegedly told her, ‘Roger is a very powerful man,’ and that she ‘should not fight this.'” Fox is disputing this and claiming that Tantaros was suspended because she allegedly violated company policy by not letting them vet her book. And considering that so many other women have spoken out already, Tantaros’ lawyer says, “She doesn’t have the same fear of being attacked by the Fox PR machine, and the Murdochs have made it clear they want to clean up the place.” UPDATE – 08/09/16: Through an spokesperson, Fox News Senior EVP of Programming Bill Shine said “Andrea never made any complaints to me about Roger Ailes sexually harassing her.” [image via screengrab] — — Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com |
John Howard, the former politician, author, public speaker and Iraq war criminal, is still being lionised by Australian media, particularly at the ABC. Lawyer and human rights activist Kellie Tranter takes aim. In 2013, Professor Stuart Rees, Founder and Chair of the Sydney Peace Foundation, wrote in an article John Howard’s Iraq War Fantasy that, “The arrogance of western warmongers enables them to behave as though they are not accountable to international law. Not only that, they can also make small fortunes from writing books and giving lectures about their conduct.” After Howard’s inglorious personal demise in the 2007 federal election – only the second prime minister in history to lose his seat while in The Lodge – he followed that path exactly, joining the lucrative speaker’s circuit, writing his autobiography and receiving an honorary doctorate from Sydney University. In 2014, John Howard published his book ‘The Menzies Era’ which was developed into the series Howard on Menzies: Building Modern Australia and which aired on the public broadcaster last year. In response to a Freedom of Information request attempting to ascertain who was responsible for nominating John Howard as the presenter, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) responded as follows: “The Director of Television has confirmed that the idea for series Howard on Menzies: Building Modern Australia was developed internally. He advised that ABC TV had wanted to do a documentary on Menzies for some time, and when John Howard’s book was published, this was identified as useful source material for that documentary. A creative decision was made that John Howard would be a good choice to present the documentary, as the most authentic voice in the circumstances. ABC TV approached production company Smith and Nasht and commissioned them to make the series…” In a further email received in December last year the ABC confirmed that “the Director of Television made this conceptual decision in collaboration with the Head of Production.” Since the Iraq war it is no doubt difficult for many to accept that John Howard is considered an ‘authentic voice’ on any issue. But the reality is that John Howard won’t be held to account by international law, and will continue to be treated as a statesman instead of a war criminal because his crime of aggression occurred at an historical moment where no crime existed. The Chilcot report revealed that one World Health Organisation study, based on a survey of 9,345 households, concluded that there had been 151,000 Iraqi deaths between March 2003 and June 2006. Another survey, by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which has been the subject of some criticism, concluded that there had been 601,027 violent deaths of Iraqis over the same period. The truth is that we’ll never know how many innocent men, women and children were killed in Iraq. Yet evil will not meet retribution in real life and on the whole the perpetrators’ crimes have for them thus “paid”. John Howard may receive the occasional reminder of his immorality when a shoe is thrown, activists protest or when whistleblowers – who operate in a nitty-gritty reality of personal risk – come forward to offer an alternative account to the official word. But realistically Howard will continue to receive standing ovations by many within the academy and the political and media classes who continue to conform with the conservative agenda. Last year human rights barrister, Geoffrey Robertson QC, pointed out that if we are to prevent world leaders from waging wars of aggression without just cause, we must first make sure there’s a law against it; that there was not a defined crime in 2003, and it was not within the power of the ICC to do anything about it. He noted that: “As the crime is now defined, they would have a case to answer. It means the planning or preparation or initiation, ‘by a person in a position effectively to exercise control or to direct political or military action of a state’ of an act of aggression, ‘which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the charter of the UN’. In the debate over Chilcot, Messrs Corbyn and Salmond should insist that the UK ratify the ICC aggression amendment. It will come into force next year, after a 30th ratification (by Palestine) last week. Britain’s refusal to do so has been put down to US pressure, which must be resisted. Moreover, Labour and the Lib Dems should insist that parliament legislate so as to make aggression a crime under our domestic law as well.” Can one assume from the fact that we are yet to ratify the ICC aggression amendment that Australia has also come under US pressure, or that some of our former leaders fear how they will be assessed under the new law? Although there have been reports that we have either ‘expressed interest’ and/or are ‘currently working on ratification of the amendments on the crime of aggression’, what is Australia’s position? What is the Opposition’s position? When do we intend to ratify this amendment? Or are we going to take the US stance of refusing to cede to any international authority the right to determine the criminality of our leaders, and leave any crimes they perpetrate unacknowledged and unpunished? One wonders whether our public broadcaster would have been so keen to pitch John Howard for the role of presenter if the ICC aggression amendment existed back in 2003, and he had been tried. |
The digital audio revolution that began in the 1980s taught the music industry that rapid technological development would quickly overhaul previously known limitations of the analog world. Compact discs opened the door for longer albums, and digital processing allowed producers to pitch shift not only instruments but also vocals, adding an unprecedented sheen to their finished products. The 1990s would prove pivotal for the music industry as analog gave way to digital, affecting all corners of the music world. On the consumer end, cassettes gave way to CDs and eventually MP3 files and CD-Rs burned on personal computers. As common knowledge holds, the highly controversial advent of file sharing and CD bootlegging would shake up the industry’s revenue model for good. Behind the scenes, there was a similarly significant revolution underway, as analog recording faded among a series of developments in digital production that would climax in computer multitracking entering the studio process towards the end of the decade. From the audiophiles and engineers riled up over the debate over analog versus digital to the musician recording at home on no budget, just about everyone involved with music was affected by the changes brought by the 1990s. Home Recording The 1980s saw recording technology becoming more compact and cheaper to mass produce, kicking off a home recording revolution with cassette tape that would continue into the 1990s. Tascam’s popular cassette-based Portastudio became increasing popular in the 1990s. While the Portastudio is now a digital recorder, its 1990s tape incarnation would spawn imitations from countless competitors. The low-quality recordings helped these machines enjoy recognition by way of a "lo-fi" aesthetic popularized by indie rock acts like Pavement, Olivia Tremor Control, and Elliott Smith. By the mid 1990s, these units were going digital, eschewing cassette tape for hard drive and disk-based recording. These digital recorders would only surface towards the tail end of the decade, and it would still be a number of years before computer interfaces and DAWs become ubiquitous in all home studios. The Line6 POD is worth noting due to its ubiquity in the consumer market. The all–in–one amplifier simulator and multi–effects unit seemingly revolutionized the standalone digital studio overnight by offering players a horde of accurate amp tones, both vintage and modern, in a small package at very low cost. The device was enough of a hit that its production continues to the current day, but its legacy arguably lives on in the packs of native effects that come standard with today’s DAWs, including, yes, guitar amp simulations. ADAT, Tape’s Last Stand By the end of the 1980s, digital multitrack tape recording was improving in fidelity and dynamic range. But sound quality was still not as refined as with all–analog tape technology and tape was still tape, vulnerable to damage during handling and storage. Alesis ADAT HD24 ADAT recording was tape's last victory in the 1990s, with pioneering digital music equipment manufacturer Alesis leading the charge. Utilizing a slightly modified version of the VHS videocassette, the S–VHS, ADAT challenged the middling standards and high price point of digital multitrack recording. Same with the video recorded onto VHS tapes, ADAT encoded signal onto S-VHS. The original ADAT recorders were limited to eight track, but up to 16 recorders could be daisy chained to raise that limit. ADAT was rising in popularity just around the same time that computer technology was improving, but its lower cost meant it had staying power until DAWs actually became cheap enough to achieve ubiquity. The albums most famously recorded on ADAT, a medium that practically lived and died in the 1990s, are also albums that wouldn’t make much sense in any other decade: Primus’s 1993 album Pork Soda and Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album Jagged Little Pill. The Rise of Pro Tools Sound Tools, the precursor to Pro Tools, was introduced at NAMM in 1989. Sound Tools was a workstation running the Sound Designer II software and laid the groundwork for contemporary digital audio workstations (or DAWs) with two tracks available for recording. Prior to this, existing software limited recording to a single track. Two years later, in 1991, Sound Tools would evolve into the Pro Tools software platform, the first true DAW. Slowly, Pro Tools would creep into the studio, not as a revolutionary new platform, but as a new tool in the production process. Digidesign Sound Tools Digital Interface Terry Manning, a legendary producer and engineer who has worked with for ZZ Top, Aretha Franklin, Iron Maiden, and Stax Records, remembers how he first integrated computer recording into his process. “I adopted a hybrid approach and utilized the Pro Tools systems as I would a tape machine, recording through analogue preamps and outboard to PT multitrack, and then playing back track-for-track into the analogue console for mixing. So I was recording digitally, but through analogue gear, and mixing back through the desk on to ½" tape." Pro Tools would come into its own in 1995 when producer Butch Vig of the illustrious Smart Studios used the platform extensively while making the debut album for his own band, Garbage. While Pro Tools was used as a tool for innovation on Beck’s 1996 album Odelay and Björk’s 1997 album Homogenic, the first No. 1 single produced in Pro Tools was Ricky Martin’s hungry ear worm, “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” Possibilities Expand with Software Pro Tools' innovated graphical interface that brought the entire recording rig to the computer screen, from the soundboard to the outboard gear to the multitrack unit entirely available on the computer screen. The dream of limitless, flexible computer multitracking was rapidly becoming a reality. Steinberg Cubase 7.5 Terry Manning recalls, “I increased my capabilities to 4 track as soon as that was available, and started syncing the Pro Tools system up to my 24/32 track machines, just to get a few extra tracks! Then the track count increased rapidly. It seemed to happen almost overnight, not 10-20 years in the making as I had assumed!" Even though Pro Tools was the first to bring the studio to the computer, Steinberg perfect DAW graphical interface design with Cubase. That program’s layout would help it become wildly popular, resulting in pervasive usage from professional to amateur studios. Towards the end of the decade, DAWs were being used to host and control hardware, as opposed to just being used as an accessory in an otherwise hardware process. Digital mixing boards allowed for DAWs to automate faders, meaning that engineers were no longer dependent on the band and the studio janitor to push faders during a mixdown. Antares Auto-Tune 8 Digital power would give producers and musicians more opportunities than just mixing to get ambitious with production. DAWs could interface with and eventually host digital instrument and effect plugins that were both simulations of extent hardware and innovative, powerful new tools. One great example of the latter is the Antares Auto–Tune audio processor, which started out in the 1990s as an outboard unit. This is the effect that, while designed to correct slight imperfections in pitch, would achieve ubiquity for its bizarre android vocal manipulation in this millennium as first utilized by Cher on her 1998 hit, “Believe.” Mastering Mastering was the site of one of the most significant revolutions brought by digital audio. With vinyl records, there was an upper limit on a recording’s loudness. If mastered too loud, the record would shake the needle and disrupt playback. Loudness would not affect CD playback, and the medium also had a clear maximum amplitude. Therefore, CDs could be mastered a whole lot louder. Mastering engineers utilized brickwall limiters to anticipate differences in the dynamic range in the recordings by pushing its levels to the ceiling. Compression was applied liberally to remove the volume peaks and boost the lower levels, creating the impression of overall greater loudness. This was the beginning of what some would call "The Loudness War." Producers claimed the big wigs responded best to what the perceived as the loudest mix, so armed with their brickwall limiters and peak analyzers, producers stuffed as much action as they could into a single waveform. Compression would become one of the lasting legacies of the 1990s in terms of audio, and not just through mastering. The MP3 file was notorious for its low–quality compression. As this became ubiquitous in the 2000s, so did low digital fidelity. Today, streamed and downloaded audio enjoy higher fidelity despite similarly heavy digital compression, but some platforms like YouTube offers audio at a similar quality to those early MP3s. Lead photo from The Smart Studios Story |
Declan McCullagh/CNET SEATTLE--A new company that plans to track millions of retail shoppers through a unique ID emitted by their smartphones says it wants to be privacy-friendly. Will Smith, co-founder and chief executive of Euclid Elements, showed up at the PII privacy conference here today to say that identifying repeat visitors by these unique IDs -- the so-called MAC addresses broadcast when Wi-Fi is turned on -- shouldn't be an issue. "We put a sensor in the store," Smith said. "It passively detects smartphones that come near the store." Euclid, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif. and launched last November after raising $5.8 million, charges merchants $200 a month for simple installations and more for complex ones. Instead of asking shoppers to choose to opt-in, the company adopted an opt-out model, which means visiting a page on Euclid's Web site. MAC addresses are stored for 18 months and only aggregate data is made available to the retailer, which is required to post a notice telling shoppers what's happening. But that still means a company, however well-intentioned, will keep detailed logs about the movements of millions of Americans (or at least their mobile phones and perhaps laptops and other gadgets) around cities and shopping malls. "Because it's such a passive process for the user, it's hard to ensure people understand how this data is being used," says Parker Higgins, an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "If it really creates value for the shopper, it should be something they opt into. But in practice, it's going to be happening without their knowledge most of the time." Euclid's database would also allow police armed with a court order to learn about someone's whereabouts as long as they know or can find a suspect's MAC address. (You can typically find your MAC address through your laptop or smartphone's About screens. Wireless access points may also record them.) Smith said that Euclid has not received any requests from law enforcement. "There are a lot better data sets from the carriers, etcetera than from us," he said. After a CNET article in June raised privacy concerns about a related feature that Google employed to track MAC addresses, Google curbed the practice. A month later, in response to a second CNET article, so did Microsoft. (Those databases were a bit different and made more information public; they were designed to help mobile phones speed up location fixes by using nearby Wi-Fi networks to determine their positions.) The kind of aggregate data that Euclid collects, showing what percentage of people enter a store, is useful enough without taking the customized-advertisement approach fictionalized in Minority Report, Smith predicts: "It's really about how frequently are people coming... If you take a certain blend off of your coffee menu, do you lose 15 percent of your regular visitors?" "Once shoppers give up this information, in some cases without realizing it, it's out of their hands," replies EFF's Higgins. "A data breach, a government subpoena, an overreaching retailer -- all these things can mean invasions of personal privacy in ways people have no control over." (Euclid changes each unique Wi-Fi MAC address into another unique MAC address through what computer scientists call a hash function, but the modified address remains a unique identifier.) Bellevue, Wash.-based Point Inside is taking a different approach. Instead of collecting data on shoppers' Wi-Fi devices, this company turns smartphones into smart information location and tracking tools -- but only if shoppers voluntarily install and use its app. "You can order a shopping list and get into and out of the store quicker," said Josh Marti, the company's chief executive and co-founder. (A video shows the app being used to find fruit quickly in a grocery store.) By tracking customers with their permission, Point Inside allows retailers to learn more about them, Marti says: "Do you have a quick pick persona? Do you have a shopping list persona?...We have a pilot going right now that has three- meter accuracy 90 percent of the time." |
"I'm thinking of ways I can fall or what I can do to end this pregnancy," said one woman to an abortion fund counselor. Why? Because she's on Medicaid, and thanks to the Hyde Amendment, her abortion won't be covered. Here's how a new report from The Center For Reproductive Rights describes this woman's situation: Unable to attend a job training session due to a public transportation strike in November, she had lost her enrollment in the welfare program, and therefore her income. While she worked with her caseworker to re-enroll, she was evicted from her apartment for failure to pay rent. She and her preschooler were taken in by a friend with five children. Advertisement Another advocate described a woman who was in the waiting room, "selling everything in the diaper bag—baby formula, diapers, anything she could find, trying to raise money for her co-pay." All this, despite the fact that state Medicaid is supposed to provide "access to medical services comparable to that enjoyed by more affluent persons." Justice William Brennan said that the Hyde Amendment "is nothing less than an attempt by Congress to circumvent the dictates of the Constitution and achieve indirectly what Roe v. Wade said it could not do directly," and Justice Thurgood Marshall wrote that it is "designed to deprive poor and minority women of the constitutional right to choose abortion." That's as true now as it was 34 years ago when it was passed. Here's a short video the Center put together to drive home the point that the government is systematically preventing poor women from exercising their constitutionally-protected right to an abortion: Advertisement Hyde: The Status Quo Is Not OK from Center for Reproductive Rights on Vimeo. Here are some other staggering facts from the report: "In 2008, 69% of women obtaining abortions were either poor or low-income...On average it takes [poor women] two to three weeks longer than other women to obtain one, forcing them to endure more complicated and lengthier later procedures and shoulder significant additional costs." A first trimester abortion cost about $413, on average, in 2006, but at 20 weeks, the cost triples. Women are forced by economic circumstance to abdicate their choices over their bodies: "According to studies looking at the impact of the Hyde Amendment, 18–37 % of women who would have obtained an abortion if Medicaid funding were available continue their pregnancies to term." As usual, the U.S. sucks in comparison with other wealthy nations. "Twenty-one of the twenty-seven members of the European Union, an additional five European nations and Israel provide funding for abortions through public health insurance or in public health facilities. In Canada, all provinces provide abortion coverage at hospitals and many also cover costs at private abortion clinics." "Between 2000 and 2008, the proportion of women obtaining abortions who were poor increased by 60%." And we don't even have hard numbers on the post-2008 world, in which the economic situation is far grimmer. We just know from hearing from local abortion funds and activists that it's getting tougher than ever. Advertisement Whose Choice? How The Hyde Amendment Harms Poor Women [CRR] |
2009 film based on Alice Sebold's 2002 novel The Lovely Bones is a 2009 supernatural drama film directed by Peter Jackson, and starring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Michael Imperioli, and Saoirse Ronan. The screenplay by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Jackson was based on Alice Sebold’s award-winning and bestselling 2002 novel of the same name. It follows a girl who is murdered and watches over her family from the in-between, and is torn between seeking vengeance on her killer and allowing her family to heal. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand,[2] the film was produced by Carolynne Cunningham, Walsh, Jackson, and Aimee Peyronnet, with Steven Spielberg, Tessa Ross, Ken Kamins, and James Wilson as executive producers. Principal photography began in October 2007 in New Zealand and Pennsylvania, United States. The film's score was composed by Brian Eno. The Lovely Bones was first released on December 26, 2009, in New Zealand, and then internationally in January 2010. The film's North American release date was changed multiple times, with a limited release on December 11, 2009, and a wider release on January 15, 2010.[3] It was released to mainly mixed reviews from critics; the story and its message were generally criticized, with praise mainly aimed at the visual effects, Peter Jackson's direction, and the performances of Ronan and Tucci. In the film's opening weekend, in limited release, it grossed $116,616, despite only having been screened in three theaters, placing it at 30th place on the box office chart.[3] The Lovely Bones grossed over $44 million in North America.[4] The film also received numerous accolades, including Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA, and Academy Award nominations. Plot [ edit ] In 1973, 14-year-old high school freshman Susie Salmon dreams about becoming a photographer. One day, Ray, a boy she has a crush on, approaches her at school and asks her out. As Susie walks home through a cornfield, she runs into her neighbor, George Harvey, who coaxes her into his underground den. Inside, Susie becomes uncomfortable and attempts to leave; when he grabs her, the scene fades until she is seen rushing past classmate Ruth Connors, apparently fleeing Harvey's den. The Salmons become worried when Susie fails to return home from school. Her father, Jack, searches for her, while her mother, Abigail, waits for the police. In town, Susie sees Jack, but he does not respond to her when she calls. Susie runs home to find Harvey soaking in a bathtub. After seeing her bracelet hanging on the sink faucet near a bloody shaving razor, Susie realizes she never escaped the den and was murdered by Harvey. Screaming, she is pulled into the "In-Between", that is neither Heaven nor Earth. From there, Susie watches over her loved ones, unable to let go despite the urging of her new afterlife friend, Holly. Investigating Susie's disappearance with Detective Fenerman, Jack thinks Susie was murdered by someone she knew. He researches neighbors and comes to think Harvey is the killer. Fenerman is unable to find any evidence pinpointing Harvey as a suspect, as Harvey cleaned up. Susie's sister, Lindsey, agrees with Jack's suspicions, but their casework takes a toll on Abigail, and Jack invites Abigail's alcoholic mother, Lynn, to move in with them. Feeling alienated from her husband, Abigail leaves for California. Susie, in her afterlife, learns that Harvey, who has now targeted Lindsey as his next victim, has murdered six other girls, including Holly, and that he stuffed Susie's body into a safe in his basement. One night, Jack, carrying a bat, trails Harvey into the cornfield. However, Jack accidentally stumbles across Susie's friend, Clarissa. Her boyfriend, who mistakenly thinks his girlfriend is being assaulted, nearly bludgeons Jack to death as Harvey watches from a hiding spot. As Jack recuperates, Lindsey breaks into Harvey's house looking for evidence that he killed Susie. Upstairs, she finds a notebook containing a sketch of the den, a lock of Susie's hair, and news articles about Susie's disappearance. Harvey returns home and almost catches Lindsey in his house, but she escapes and rushes home to discover that her mother has returned. Not wishing to spoil her parents' reunion, she gives the book to her grandmother, who contacts the police. Harvey has already fled, having seen Lindsey running from his home – he takes the safe containing Susie's remains with him. Susie's afterlife begins expanding into a larger heaven, and she is greeted by Harvey's other victims—now showing nine, including Susie. She resists Holly's urging to enter Heaven along with the others, claiming she has one final thing to do. Meanwhile, Susie's classmates Ruth and Ray are present when Harvey drives up to dispose of the safe at a sinkhole dump site. Susie returns to Earth and enters Ruth's body, causing Ruth to faint. Ray rushes to Ruth's aid only to realize she has become Susie. They kiss, completing Susie's last wish, and she returns to Heaven. Meanwhile Harvey dumps the safe in a sinkhole, leaving it to disappear in the muddy water as he drives away. Sometime later, Harvey meets a young woman outside a diner and offers her a ride, but she rejects him and leaves. A large icicle falls from an overhead branch, hitting Harvey on the shoulder. He loses his balance on the ice and falls backward over a cliff to his death. Time passes, and Susie sees that her family is healing, which Susie refers to as "the lovely bones" that grew around her absence. As the film concludes, Susie finally enters Heaven, telling the audience: "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was 14 years old when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. I was here for a moment and then I was gone. I wish you all a long and happy life." Cast [ edit ] Production [ edit ] In May 2000, Film4 Productions acquired feature film rights to Alice Sebold's novel The Lovely Bones,[25] when it was a half-written manuscript. Producer Aimee Peyronnet had sought to attract studio interest to the manuscript, and an insider informed Film4's deputy head of production, Jim Wilson, of the project.[26] The company attached Luc Besson and Peyronnet's production company Seaside to the project, two years before the novel's release.[25] By February 2001, Lynne Ramsay was hired to direct and write the film adaptation of the novel.[27] In July 2002, Channel 4 shut down Film4, causing Hollywood studios and producers to pursue acquisition of feature film rights to The Lovely Bones, which had spent multiple weeks at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. The film adaptation, which had been estimated at a budget of $15 million, remained with Channel 4 under its newly developed inhouse film unit, with Ramsay still contracted to write and direct. By October 2002, Ramsay was writing the script with fellow screenwriter Liana Dognini, with filming planned for summer 2003.[26] Author Sebold was invited by the producers to provide input on the project.[28] Ramsay, who had read the novel in manuscript prior to publication, said in 2012 that her adaptation departed from it significantly. The scenes with Susie in heaven would have been depicted purely as her father's imagination. He would have become friends with Mr. Harvey, never suspecting him of having killed his daughter. "I really didn't like the My Little Pony, she's-in-heaven, everything's-O.K. aspect", she told The New York Times in 2012.[29] In July 2003, the studio DreamWorks negotiated a first look deal with producer Peyronnet,[30] after DreamWorks co-founder Steven Spielberg expressed interest in the project.[31] DreamWorks did not acquire the rights to the novel, and Ramsay was eventually detached from the project as, she says, FilmFour wanted a version more faithful to the novel.[29] In April 2004, producers Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, and Philippa Boyens entered negotiations to develop the project.[32] Jackson described the book as "a wonderfully emotional and powerful story. Like all the best fantasy, it has a solid grounding in the real world."[33] By January 2005, Jackson and Walsh planned to independently purchase film rights and to seek studio financing after a script had been developed. The producers sought to begin adapting a spec script for The Lovely Bones in January 2006, with the goal of script completion and budget estimation by the following May.[34] Jackson explained he enjoyed the novel because he found it "curiously optimistic" and uplifting because of the narrator's sense of humor, adding there was a difference between its tone and subject matter. He felt very few films dealt with the loss of a loved one.[35] Jackson foresaw the most challenging element in the novel to adapt was the portrayal of Susie, the protagonist, in her heaven, and making it "ethereal and emotional but not hokey."[33] Saoirse Ronan explained Jackson chose to depict the afterlife as depending on Susie's emotions. "Whenever Susie feels happy, Heaven is sunny and there's birds and everything. Whenever it’s not so great, it's raining or she’s in the middle of an ocean."[36] Jackson described the book's description of "heaven" as being an "In-Between" rather than a true heaven and said he was not trying to paint a definitive picture of Heaven itself.[35] "[W]hen Jackson created Susie's heaven, in a 1973 world, he went through the Partridge Family television show archives as a reference."[37] "[I] basically [added] more violence and suffering, [the audience] wanted far more violence [...] They just weren't satisfied [...] We got a lot of people telling us that they were disappointed with this death scene, as they wanted to see [the character] in agony and suffer a lot more, we had to create a whole suffering death scene just to give people the satisfaction they needed." —Jackson to Reuters on re-shooting Harvey's death scene, November 2009[38] A 120-page draft of the script was written by September 2006.[39] In April 2007, the script was completed by Jackson, Walsh and Boyens; Jackson intended to direct. The three producers began seeking a studio partner to finance the film adaptation. Besides the major studios, smaller companies including United Artists were also contacted. New Line Cinema was excluded from negotiations because of Jackson's legal dispute with the studio over royalties from his The Lord of the Rings trilogy.[40] Jackson sought a beginning $65 million budget for The Lovely Bones, also requesting from studios what kind of promotional commitments and suggestions they would make for the film adaptation.[41] By May, four studios remained interested in the project: DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Sony, and Universal.[42] The Lovely Bones was sold to DreamWorks for $70 million.[43] Paramount Pictures received the rights to distribute the film worldwide. Production began in October 2007 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and New Zealand.[5][44] Shooting in parts of Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties, including Hatfield,[45] Ridley Township, Phoenixville, Royersford, Malvern and East Fallowfield,[46] lasted a few weeks, and most of the studio shooting was done in New Zealand.[39] In December 2008, Brian Eno signed on to compose the film's score. Fran Walsh, a big fan of his work, suggested him to Jackson.[47] Jackson had called Eno to request use of two of his early tracks to evoke atmosphere for the 1970s scenes in the film. When Eno asked if he could compose the whole score, Jackson was surprised, since he had heard Eno did not like working on films. For the film's ending, Eno uncovered a demo he had done in 1973 and reunited with the vocalist to create a proper version for the film, commenting: "That song from 1973 was finally finished in 2008!"[48] In November 2009, Jackson stated that he re-shot new footage of Harvey's death scene after test audiences said it was not violent enough and wanted to "see more of Harvey in pain."[13][38] Jackson said it was important to him that the movie receive a PG-13 rating so that the film could appeal to the widest possible audience, despite the necessarily violent nature of some scenes.[13] Release [ edit ] Strategy [ edit ] The Lovely Bones and screened a clip from it. Jackson at 2009 Comic-Con film festival . At the festival Jackson discussedand screened a clip from it. The Lovely Bones was originally scheduled for release on March 13, 2009, but it was delayed to December 11, 2009, as the studio became interested in releasing the film for "awards season," which gave Jackson an opportunity to make some effects shots larger in scope.[49] The film then received a limited theater release on December 11, 2009, in the United States.[50] The film was originally set to have a wider United States theater release on December 25, 2009 (Christmas Day), as part of a campaign to build its momentum into January 2010.[52] In early December it was confirmed that the United States release date had been pushed back by three weeks to January 15, 2010.[53] Paramount and DreamWorks did not give a reason for the change of the release date. The film premiered in New Zealand on December 26, 2009, and was released in the United Kingdom on January 29 and in other countries in January 2010. According to the Los Angeles Times, Paramount invested $70 million in production and an additional $85 million in worldwide marketing and distribution.[53] In December 2009, the Los Angeles Times described the marketing and promotion of The Lovely Bones as having been a "heavy advertising campaign."[52] In late July 2009, as part of the promotion, Jackson talked about the film and screened a 41⁄ 2 minute clip at the San Diego Comic-Con International film festival.[37] As part of marketing for the film, in August 2009, people were allowed to enter a contest to win a trip to Wellington, for the film's New Zealand premiere on December 14, 2009.[54] The offer included, if the winner lived outside of Wellington, one night’s accommodation and a voucher for flight or petrol to Wellington.[54] A teaser trailer was released in August 2009, days before the film's official trailer.[55] The official trailer debuted on the television series Entertainment Tonight and was released online shortly afterwards.[37][56] In August 2009, Jackson offered a "behind-the-scenes look" at the film and discussed elements (mainly violence) in the film's plot line.[57] The Los Angeles Times reported that Paramount had originally expected the film to appeal to a "sophisticated, adult audience," but after poor revenue and average reviews, the studio decided to redirect the film to an audience in another age group.[52] Surveys showed that the film was favored more by females aged 13–20 than by any other demographic. Paramount began to screen the movie "aggressively for high school- and college-age girls" during its three-screen limited release.[52] Box office [ edit ] On December 11, 2009, the film was released on three screens in Los Angeles and New York. As of January 4, 2010, the film had grossed over $389,000 in the US.[3] Claudia Eller and Ben Fritz of the Los Angeles Times felt that it did poorly at the box office in the first few weeks of its release because of average reviews and negative word-of-mouth.[52] During its opening-weekend release on three screens, it earned over $116,616, an average of estimated $38,872 per-theater revenue.[3] The film's revenue placed it at thirtieth place on the box office chart.[3] In the film's second and third weeks of release, the film saw a decrease; in the fourth week, it had a 54.3-percent increase.[58] When put into wide release on January 15, 2010,[18] it grossed $17,005,133 that weekend, ranking number three at the domestic box office. By the end of its run, The Lovely Bones had made $44,114,232 domestically, and $49,507,108 overseas, for a worldwide total of $93,621,340. Home media [ edit ] The film was released in the US on DVD and two-disc Blu-ray April 20, 2010 and in the United Kingdom on June 11, 2010.[59] Reception [ edit ] Critical reception [ edit ] Although Ronan and Tucci were praised for their performances, The Lovely Bones received mixed reviews from critics.[60] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 32%, based on 238 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's stuffed full of Peter Jackson's typically dazzling imagery, but The Lovely Bones suffers from abrupt shifts between horrific violence and cloying sentimentality."[61] Metacritic gave the film a score of 42 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[62] It is Peter Jackson's lowest rated film to date.[citation needed] Ian Freer of Empire gave the film 4/5 stars.[63] Freer emphasized the "bold, daring original filmmaking, with arguably more emotional and intellectual meat to chew on than either the Rings trilogy or Kong."[63] Freer noted that, like The Lord of the Rings, the film "does a fantastic job with revered, complex source material" and that, since it is "as terrific on terra firma as it is audacious in its astral plane", it is "doubtful" that there would be a "more imaginative" and "courageous film" in 2010.[63] Richard Corliss of Time wrote that "through [Peter] Jackson's art" and Ronan's "magic" the "obscenity of child murder has been invested with immense gravity and grace" and "like the story of Susie's life after death, that's a miracle."[64] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone felt that the film was "conveyed" in a "remarkable performance" by Ronan and described Tucci as being "magnificent as a man of uncontrollable impulses" to "help Jackson cut a path to a humanity that supersedes life and death."[65] Travers praised Jackson for building "jolting suspense." Despite praising the film, however, Travers noted that while the book "never flinched," the film does, and while the "business is being transacted" by Jackson with a "Lord of the Rings fantasy" the film "attunes himself to a family tragedy."[65] Claudia Puig of USA Today gave the film 2/4 stars, remarking that while "[Peter] Jackson gets the thriller scenes right", the "conceit of Susie trapped in a DayGlo world between the one she left and her final resting place, imparting lessons on coping with death, feels preachy."[66] Puig also described the film as having "clashing tones" that veer from "lightheartedness to heavy-handedness."[66] Puig also criticized the film's computer-generated imagery, describing it as being "cheesy" and felt that it broke "no ground."[66] Kirt Honeycutt, of the Hollywood Reporter, described the film as telling "a fundamentally different story" which is "one that is not without its tension, humor and compelling details", but that "it's also a simpler, more button-pushing tale that misses the joy and heartbreak of the original."[67] Honeycutt also described Jackson as having transformed Sebold's "startling, unique novel about the aftermath of a terrible murder" into a story that's more "focused on crime and punishment."[67] "[Alice] Sebold's book would've had a tough leap to the multiplex no matter who guided it. But [Peter] Jackson is too enamored with the idea of mixing heaven and the heebie-jeebies, so he's made the skeevy equivalent of a Mitch Albom book with some pulp fiction pressed between its covers." Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News[68] Stephanie Zacharek, of Salon.com, viewed the film as being "an expensive-looking mess that fails to capture the mood, and the poetry, of its source material" because "good actors fighting a poorly conceived script, under the guidance of a director who can no longer make the distinction between imaginativeness and computer-generated effects."[69] Todd McCarthy, of Variety, felt that Jackson had undermined the "solid work from a good cast" with "show-offy celestial evocations" that "severely disrupt the emotional connections with the characters."[70] McCarthy stated that he felt that the film, overall, was a "significant artistic disappointment."[70] Joe Neumaier, of New York Daily News, described Jackson as having "siphoned out all the soulfulness" that made the author's "combination thriller/afterlife fantasy a best-seller" and that the film was "a gumball-colored potboiler that's more squalid than truly mournful."[68] Neumaier also wrote that the film and Jackson "wasted" a "good cast."[68] Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 1.5 stars out of 4, calling it "deplorable", and criticizing the apparent message that Susie's murder eventually made her happier. He was also critical of the film's portrayal of Heaven, which he compared to "a happy gathering of new Facebook friends". However, he praised the acting, stating that "this whole film is Jackson's fault".[71] According to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the rating given to The Lovely Bones received 24 objections, more than any other movie in 2010. The BBFC report states, "Many found the film to be a shocking and upsetting experience. The scene in which young Susie is entrapped by the killer, and the subsequent sequence in which the killer soaks in a bath after the murder, were compared by some complainants to scenes in ‘18’ rated horror films." The BBFC rated the movie a 12A, and many complained that the movie was upsetting for a younger audience. Nevertheless, the BBFC defended its rating: "The Lovely Bones lacked any explicit detail of the murder and any sexual elements were downplayed. The audience’s sympathies remain entirely with the family and the film had many positive messages about life."[72][73][74][75][76] Accolades [ edit ] See also [ edit ] |
Louise Ryan, 41, who lives with her husband and two children in Islington, north London, will see the £438-a-week benefit, which covers the rent, reduced to £340 under the changes to housing benefit introduced this month. "With the cap, we would have to find £98 a week out of our benefits when the changes come in," she said. "I understand that in some places £340 would be ample, but not in most places in London – and it's not like we're living in some kind of luxury apartment." Ryan says that it's the impact on her children and their education she fears most. "If it was just the two of us, then it's not so much of an issue; but when you've got kids, you can't just move to a studio flat. I don't really want to have to move the children from their school either, because they're doing well." The family's uncertainty about the future has been heightened after they found they couldn't move house without giving their landlord two months' notice. Most alternative accommodation they can get is only available at short notice, and the couple can't afford to pay overlapping rents. Ryan said: "If we give the landlord two months' notice then we are putting ourselves in a position of homelessness if nowhere is available at exactly the right time. That's the worst case scenario. Charities such as Family Action have warned that the government's changes, including a cap on the amount a claimant can receive, will leave poor families with a stark choice: to rack up debts, move into temporary accommodation, or become homeless. Karen Browne, 52, has been preparing to move out of her home in Halifax, where she has lived with her disabled husband for six years – because she has too much space. She said: "We're having to downsize at our own expense because of all this. It's going to cost us to move simply because of this. Even though we've spent a lot of money on this house, we're going to have to leave it all behind." At present, benefits cover the £95-a-week rent, but the couple say they are facing a 25% cut to their housing benefit because they have three bedrooms. She said: "If we lived in a one-bedroom property, it would be horrific. We need a spare room for a carer and when my husband's health is bad he needs to be in a room on his own." The issue of having too much space has cost the coalition a key vote in the House of Lords. Peers voted in December to block the government's attempts to classify "over-occupiers" as people who have more than one spare bedroom – and instead made clear this would only apply to those with two extra rooms. However, until the welfare bill passes through the upper house, claimants and councils are unclear about what will happen. The complexity of the benefits system has also meant months of uncertainty ahead for Browne. She says it is still unclear whether her 31-year-old son, who lives on his own and has mental health problems, will have his benefit cuts because he also has a spare room which is used by overnight carers. "[The council] haven't said whether he'll have to downsize or not, they've not given us enough information. We don't know if he'll be exempt because of his disabilities. If they cut his benefits and he doesn't move, he'll end up with loads of debt." Cuts to housing benefits have triggered a race for smaller houses, and those who can't get suitable properties in time could be forced into debt if they can't make up the difference in rent payments after benefit cuts are introduced. Browne said: "There are very few properties available in this area and they're not building any more. Everyone's after them now, because of this – people are queuing up for them. It's a case of bidding and crossing your fingers. What are we meant to do in the meantime until we get a property that's suitable?" She added: "We're stuck in this position. Whoever is making these decisions has obviously never been in the position of being poor." |
When it came to Happy Endings getting axed, we at Obsessed protested until we were blog-hoarse, until after most devoted fans had given up, shuffling home and giving us looks like Dude, come on, it's over. And, yes, it is over, and I miss the show already. Luckily, now that the official mourning period has passed, Happy Endings' sensational six are all lining up stuff so exciting that I'll soon be receiving the other kind of stares I usually get: Dude, come on, it hasn't even happened yet. Calm down. But look how exciting! Damon Wayans Jr. will star opposite Jake Johnson in Let's Be Cops on the big screen—and also on the small screen on New Girl. He's set to reprise his pilot role of Coach in an arc this season. Zach Knighton, meanwhile, will star in the dark comedy__Teddy Bears__, along with Community's Gillian Jacobs. Then there's the Kerkovich sisters. When it comes to newlywed Elisha Cuthbert (she married NHL star Dion Phaneuf in July!), all you want to hear is whether she's returning for the 24: Live Another Day sequel series, right? Nothing official has been announced yet, but I feel like the odds are in your favor, Bauer fans. Meanwhile, Eliza Coupe is exploding with work: she'll recur on CBS's new sitcom The Millers this season (playing Will Arnett's ex-wife) and just inked a deal to recur as a female-Zuckerberg type on Showtime's House of Cards. Love that. Oh, and she'll also star in the ensemble indie comedy The Last Time You Had Fun with Demetri Martin, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, and Kyle Bornheimer. Finally, we've got Penny and Max, whom we miss with that fervent my-camp-BFF-is-the-only-one-who-gets-me year-round pining. Adam Pally is gonna guest on The Mindy Project, which just works perfectly for me. He'll play a doctor who's new to the practice (and one, I hope, who's quick to zing James Franco). Casey Wilson, meanwhile, has the kid-pageant-themed Ass Backwards out this fall. She and her writing partner, June Diane Raphael (the two co-wrote and both star in Backwards), also have a slew of TV projects in the works. Oh, and you can see Casey on Comedy Bang Bang on IFC this Friday. Everybody's gonna be OK, including us. Whom do you miss the most from the show? Photo: ABC |
It might seem like we say this a lot, but believe us when we say Bro Safari is an ElectroJams favorite. Knick, the man behind Bro Safari is a veteran bass peddler who first cut his EDM chops as 1/3 of American drum n’ bass act Evol Intent, has juggled multiple projects including mashup duo Ludachrist and now his solo projct, Bro Safari is taking off to a whole new level. Knick was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to chat with us and give us his thoughts on a couple of different topics. —————- Thank you for taking the time for this, I know our readers will like it. Yeah man, no worries. It’s all good. Firstly, how did you come up with the name Bro Safari? It’s a pretty awesome name. You know, I don’t have a clever answer for that to be honest. Like I don’t remember. I started the project in 2008, 2007, making dubstep and weird glitch stuff and I came up with the name then. It was just on a whim, and I don’t remember the exact thought process. I always tell myself I’m going to come up with a clever answer, just don’t have one. You started back in the day with Evol Intent, and ended up as the premier American drum n’ bass group and now you’re a pioneer of the moombahton movement, for you, can you see a difference in how the people react? The scene? Well I think dance music in general has just changed so much, from when were just starting out with Evol Intent. You know I mean, these days when you go to a show, people are there to dance and have fun. And back in the day, it was a lot of people standing around and chin stroking. People weren’t necessarily there to have fun, but to listen to the music and stand there. To be honest, that wasn’t much fun. It wasn’t always like that but a good portion of the drum n’ bass shows were just kind of pain and experiences. Now, you know crowds in general, whether it’s moombahton, even drum n’ bass, or dubstep, house, or electro or any electronic dance music, seems to go over much better these days. I was on a tour with Feed Me and Kill The Noise earlier this year, and we were playing shows that were starting at 7 or 8PM and ending at midnight, and the crowds were crazy for those; even better than the club shows I played and it was just all kids dancing. I think overall, dance music is in such a better place now. I know you’ve made dubstep and other bass tunes, but you seem to focus on the moombah sound, what is it about the moombah sound that drew you in? It was a little bit different, and for Bro Safari, I don’t want to be considered as focused on one particular genre, especially because I have been doing a lot of other stuff I just haven’t released yet. I definitely enjoy writing at the tempo, that’s what pulled me in. Depending on how you program the drums, you can create all these different vibes out of it. 110 beats per minute (BPM) can be manipulated to sound like a faster version of drum n’ bass depending on how you program the drums or a really slowed down version of dubstep. What I am saying is, depending on how you flip the arrangements very easily at that tempo range and it sounds close to hip-hop, and it’s a really nice, common middle ground. You can make it “four-to-the-floor” and make it very house-y, so I just like the freedom. You can have straight beat or you can have breaks, or re-sampled drums. So it’s really fun, and I really enjoy the tempo. And other people making moombahton too inspire me, and different people putting their spin on it, and that’s what draws me in. You’ve played some big gigs this year, you’ve been on a massive nationwide tour, Bros Gone Wild, what has been your favorite moment in the last year seeing Bro Safari explode? Thanks man, almost a year ago, or exactly a year ago, I decided to give it my all. I was feeling pretty disenchanted with dance music, and not just dance music, but my own place in dance music. I felt I hadn’t put enough effort into doing what I love, and for a short period of time, I had taken it for granted that I was making money, making a living off of making music. I think I lost sight of that for a little while, so I decided to give it to my all and put everything I had into it. So the most exciting thing in the last year has been seeing it pay off. There’s not one gig, or tour in particular that was most exciting, just all of it together. It’s cliché, but if you put your mind to it and pay your dues, something good is coming from it. If your looking for something specific, the tour with Feed Me and Kill The Noise was a highlight, and obviously supporting those acts was great but also, it was great to hang out with those guys. We’re all old friends, so it was great to just hang out with them and just travel around with them for a couple weeks. What’s happening with Evol Intent right now? Well we’re still a group; we’re still making music. In 2011, we put out quite a few releases; we had a release every month for the last 6 months. We’re still making music just when you’re not sure what we want to make and what people want us to make, it’s tough. We want to please our fans, but not live by our fans. There were times where we did what we wanted to do and then our fans would attack us. For instance, we wanted to make a dubstep song and we posted it on our Facebook page, but then people (and I hate to use the word ‘hate’) would just hate on us, and that’s a pretty shitty feeling. It sucks to put effort into anything and then have the people who have supported you, tell you that ‘you’re not good’, because that’s basically what a lot of people told us; or that we’re not as good as we used to be. And I beg to differ; I think the music we made last year was a lot better in terms of quality and dance-ability. So right now, we’re recording a new album, and we’re doing what we want, which is experimental, more forward thinking. We’re not doing drum n’ bass jams; we’re not doing dubstep jams. We’re pulling out our guitars, we’re making glitch-y beats; we’re working with vocalists. We’re not rushing ourselves, so hopefully in six months, we’ll have a solid update and an album soon. Sweet, I’ll be looking forward to that. Dubstep and big room house have really caught on and are the driving forces in the EDM explosion, and then moombahton is huge in its own right with devoted fans, Why do you think drum n’ bass hasn’t had the same success? Well I think dubstep has a direct correlation to drum n’ bass, and there’s no denying that. I think, and this is just my opinion, a big part of the problem was the term drumstep. People started to call half-time drum n’ bass, drumstep, which pretty much got rid of drum n’ bass. Everybody is into drumstep, but they’re not realizing it’s drum n’ bass. Kids who weren’t previously exposed to drum n’ bass, -‘wow what is this, I like this; this is fast dubstep, this is drumstep’- And I think that was a big mistake for whoever coined and championed that term, because it kind of just left drum n’ bass out in the cold. Skrillex just put out a drum n’ bass tune, well it’s floating around online, and it’s sick! It’s just straight up drum n’ bass. It’s just a 2-step drum n’ bass tune and it’s awesome, but I don’t think people understand what drum n’ bass means half the time. And by people, I mean the younger generation. So I think just dubstep getting popular, and how it’s been so popular, I’m not exactly sure why or how drum n’ bass got left out. And the worst part of it all, and this is a bold statement, but I honestly believe without drum n’ bass, dance music would not be where it is today. I think the production sensibilities of people like Skrillex come directly from drum n’ bass. And this is an even bolder statement, I can trace it back and that dance music would not be where it is without Pendulum. Pendulum came along and released the song “Vault” and that song changed everything about drum n’ bass and production sensibilities. Everybody wanted to have their snare drum pound like Pendulum’s snare drum or their kick and their midrange bass; everything about it and that changed the way everyone made drum n’ bass. It started to change the way other people programmed and engineered in other genres. So listen to old Pendulum tracks and then a Skrillex tune, or even Zedd or someone like that, and you’ll hear the same characteristics in the mixdown. Like I said, it directly stems from that period of drum n’ bass. That track, “Vault” was really the tune that put them on the map. You’re a southern guy, and right now the trap sound is catching on and I’m curious how you feel about that, with it’s southern roots and now seemingly wide appeal? What’s the difference between that and say a Lex Lugar beat that Gucci Mane would flow over? Well first of all, I love this modern take on trap movement. I spent a lot of time living in Atlanta, and that was my first exposure to it in 2006, 2007ish. All the hip-hop in Atlanta was trap. So I don’t think there is much of a difference between what was happening then and what’s happening now, but the people like Flosstradamus have spiced it up. The newer Flosstradamus stuff uses the backbone of traditional trap music, and they put a different twist on it. Then guys like Baauer from New York and UZ –who just released on Mad Decent—it’s starting to get a little weird. Maybe that’s the word I’m looking, it’s a little weird. It’s getting a little weird, and it should. It’s 808 drums and the same things from a Gucci beat, but it’s strange and little differences, like drum arrangements. Overall, it’s so new and people are trying to figure out how to make it their own, and the best guys are the ones I just named (Flosstradamus, Baauer, and UZ), and HeroesNVillans from Atlanta. So I’ve been really interested by it and I’ve actually made some tunes like that haven’t been released yet, but it’s awesome man. Thank you again for your time! I’ll be waiting for those new tunes! No problem man, no worries. Stay in touch. Born and raised in NYC, a full-time student in the Towson/Baltimore, I’ve had a wealth of experience in electronic music. I’ve DJ’d parties and on the radio, and am an aficionado all things Electronic Music with a passion for art in general. If you have any questions, concerns, comments, you can email me with inquiries and demos at 808sJake@gmail.com And you can follow me on twitter! @808sJake Follow my music taste on last.fm too! http://www.last.fm/user/Jake0617 http://doandroidsdance.com |
NFL Week 16 Power Rankings If Week 16 brought football fans nothing else, it brought debate that will carry into the offseason about how the rules are set up in the league. Some will call me a salty Pittsburgh fan, and that’s not totally inaccurate, but the catch rule is just a mess. It shouldn’t be this hard for everyone involved. There are also quite a few folks who believe that fumbling out of the end zone should not result in the loss of possession. The playoff picture is starting to get really interesting, especially from a seeding standpoint. My NFL Power rankings will likely cause some ruffled feathers again this week. I try to roll track record, expected performance and the past week equally. Head to head victories is not always the most important thing. The Giants beat the Chiefs earlier and are nowhere near them in the ranks, and they shouldn’t be. With that in mind, let’s get to work! Minnesota Vikings Power Ranking: 1 Record: 11-3 Previous Rank: 5 Week 15 result: Win versus Cincinnati Bengals, 34-7 Week 16: at Green Bay Packers They may not have played the stiffest competition, but the Vikings got right back on track after their loss last week in Carolina. The defense swarmed the Bengals all day long, and the offense was effective. It got to the point where fans got to see Teddy Bridgewater back on the football field in what had to be the best moment of the day. The Vikings continue to fly somewhat under the radar but their defense is nasty, and the offense is well-balanced. Anyone of their playmakers can kill you on any given week and quarterback Case Keenum is doing a nice job of just distributing the ball and taking what’s available. The Vikings have won the NFC North and still could capture the number one seed in the NFC. Los Angeles Rams Power Ranking: 2 Record: 10-4 Previous Rank: 6 Week 15 result: Win versus Seattle Seahawks, 42-7 Week 16: at Tennessee Titans This game certainly didn’t play out the way most thought. It’s not that the Rams can’t beat any team in the NFL, it was that they walked into Seattle and utterly destroyed everything in sight. Jared Goff deserves all the praise he’s gotten for his turnaround, but running back Todd Gurley should be in the MVP conversation. He’s an absolute stud and has buried any questions about how talented he is. For whatever reason, the Rams defense always seems to give Russell Wilson issues. That probably has something to do with defensive tackle Aaron Donald being dominant, but it’s quirky nonetheless. The Rams are in full control of the NFC West and will be a tough team to knock off in the postseason. Philadelphia Eagles Power Ranking: 3 Record: 12-2 Previous Rank: 2 Week 15 result: Win versus New York Giants, 34-29 Week 16: versus Oakland Raiders At least for one week, quarterback Nick Foles eased some concerns about losing Carson Wentz to a torn ACL. Foles utilized the plethora of weapons at his disposal and threw for four touchdowns. It seems like running back Jay Ajayi is slowly staking his claim to the lead back role. He had the most carries and chipped in through the passing game as well. Philly got behind early, and it would be interesting to see him get 20-25 carries in this offense. Usually, teams don’t move down off a victory, but the defense has been a little leaky these past couple of weeks. That’s a troubling trend when a team is on their backup quarterback. This should mostly be brushed off as the Giants were looking to spoil their rivals season. Philly takes on the Raiders this week. Jacksonville Jaguars Power Ranking: 4 Record: 10-4 Previous Rank: 4 Week 15 result: Win versus Houston Texans, 45-7 Week 16: at San Francisco 49ers He may not be doing it against excellent defenses, but quarterback Blake Bortles is officially red-hot. Its impressive considering receiver Allen Robinson hasn’t played at all, and they lost Marqise Lee early in this contest. Rookie running back Leonard Fournette was out again but Jacksonville didn’t miss him. The defense continues to play well. They have a desire to be perfect as evidenced by cornerback Jalen Ramsey being distraught on the sideline after giving up a touchdown. This came at a point when the Jags had the game comfortably in hand. Jacksonville has a real shot to finish at 12-4 and maybe even get a bye in the AFC playoffs. I’ll actually get bold here and say the Jaguars could beat New England in the playoffs. Their defense is the exact style that can make life tough on Brady. They can rush four or five and still cover on the back end. New England Patriots Power Ranking: 5 Record: 11-3 Previous Rank: 8 Week 15 result: Win versus Pittsburgh Steelers, 27-24 Week 16: versus Buffalo Bills New England pulls ahead of the Steelers just barely because they are both flawed teams. The Patriots have some issues, but quarterback Tom Brady negates quite a few of them. He and tight end Rob Gronkowski were unstoppable on Sunday. Maybe one day the Steelers will figure out they can’t single cover him, but until they do, Gronk will always smash against Pittsburgh. Brady was a surgeon on what turned out to be the game-winning drive. The defense still has plenty to work on and it will be interesting to see this team in the postseason. They do not have the aura of invincibility they normally do at this stage of the season. It’s not unfair to suggest they easily could have lost this game. Pittsburgh Steelers Power Ranking: 6 Record: 11-3 Previous Rank: 1 Week 15 result: Loss versus New England Patriots, 27-24 Week 16: at Houston Texans The most controversial call of the night came at the end of the Steelers game when it appeared that tight end Jesse James scored a touchdown in the waning seconds to win the game. It was overruled, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a game-ending interception two plays later. The Steelers also lost receiver Antonio Brown to a partially torn calf to wrap up a pretty rough day. One of the key differences turned out to be the Patriots being ready for a fire drill style play that the Steelers seemed to be confused. That’s on coaching every single time and is why Bill Belichick is the best in football. Regardless, the NFL has to clarify what a catch is. It’s not fair to fans and it’s not fair to the players and coaches to have fates decided the way it was on Sunday. It ruined what a fantastic game that featured some of the best players in the world playing at a high level. Carolina Panthers Power Ranking: 7 Record: 10-4 Previous Rank: 7 Week 15 result: Win versus Green Bay Packers, 31-24 Week 16: versus Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Panthers didn’t move up in the ranks because it sure would have been interesting to see what happened had the Packers not fumbled on their final drive. The biggest takeaway for Carolina is that tight end Greg Olsen looked all the way back from his foot injury. The trio of Olsen, receiver Devin Funchess and running back Christian McCaffrey are dangerous, especially when Cam Newton is playing well. They might be the quietest 10-4 team in the league but would be a tough out in the postseason. They also got a little lucky this week that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers wasn’t at his best. New Orleans Power Ranking: 8 Record: 10-4 Previous Rank: 10 Week 15 result: Win versus New York Jets, 31-19 Week 16: versus Atlanta Falcons Many thought this game was going to be a blowout, but the Saints just couldn’t put the Jets away until very late in the game. The Saints offense was hampered by two Brandon Coleman fumbles and still put up 31 points. Granted, that’s a bit skewed by a long Mark Ingram at the end. It just shows how hard it is to keep this offense under wraps for 60 minutes. Up next is a rematch against the Atlanta Falcons and the Saints need to keep winning. They hold the tiebreaker over the Panthers and that could be the difference between a division title and the fifth seed in the conference. Atlanta Falcons Power Ranking: 9 Record:9-5 Previous Rank: 11 Week 15 result: Win versus Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 24-21 Week 16: versus New Orleans Saints The Falcons control their own destiny at this point. If they win their next two games, they’ll take the NFC South Crown. Even with that in front of them, they just don’t feel like they’re playing all that well. Sure, running back Devonta Freeman destroyed the Buccaneers for almost 200 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. Quarterback Matt Ryan looks just a hair off right now. His stats look fine if unspectacular but he missed quite a few throws he wasn’t missing last year. Receiver Julio Jones is so boom or bust anymore, it’s impossible to predict when he will be a big part of the gameplan. The Falcons ran quite a few plays with both Jones and Mohamed Sanu on the sideline which is odd. A huge rematch with the Saints is up this week. Dallas Cowboys Power Ranking: 10 Record: 8-6 Previous Rank: 12 Week 15 result: Win versus Oakland Raiders, 20-17 Week 16: versus Seattle Seahawks Dallas ground out a pretty ugly victory in Oakland but a win is a win. They benefitted from another stupid NFL rule when Derek Carr fumbled through the end zone, giving Dallas the ball to run out the clock. It was a tough road, but they survived the Ezekiel Eliott suspension with playoff hopes intact. That was probably the best case scenario for the Dallas team and this weeks game against the Seahawks has massive playoff implications. Zeke has to be licking his chops after seeing Rams running back Todd Gurley eviscerate the Seattle defense. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand why the Dallas staff doesn’t gameplan easy targets to Dez Bryant. It just makes no sense given how few options they have in the passing game. Buffalo Bills Power Ranking: 11 Record: 8-6 Previous Rank: 14 Week 15 result: Win versus Miami Dolphins, 24-16 Week 16: at New England Patriots The Bills are still alive for a Wild Card berth after making Jay Cutler look like….well, Jay Cutler. The offense is certainly imperfect but quarterback Tyrod Taylor and running back LeSean McCoy are making it work. They really could use a third option, be it tight end Charles Clay or receiver Kelvin Benjamin. This team seems like it’s playing pretty far above its head and it’s hard to see how they can go into New England to pull off an upset. Taylor would likely need to have one of the best games he’s ever had. Baltimore Ravens Power Ranking: 12 Record: 8-6 Previous Rank: 13 Week 15: Win versus Cleveland Browns, 27-10 Week 16: versus Indianapolis Colts Baltimore took care of business on the road in Cleveland to the surprise of nobody. Their defense suffocated the Browns offense and caused some big turnovers. They didn’t miss cornerback Jimmy Smith but that likely won’t be the case when they face a competent offense. Baltimore has to be happy they still went over 25 points even though running back Alex Collins was totally shut down.Their receiving corps is going to be awfully thin if Jeremy Maclin misses time. They’ll continue their road to the playoffs against the Colts on Saturday. Los Angeles Chargers Power Ranking: 13 Record: 7-7 Previous Rank: 3 Week 15 result: Loss versus Kansas City Chiefs, 30-13 Week 16: at New York Jets In one of the biggest letdowns of the week, the Chargers went into Arrowhead and got smacked right in the mouth. They had a chance to take the lead in the AFC West and fell incredibly flat. They had come a long way from their 0-4 start but it appears that it will be too much to overcome. This team has a lot of potential and plenty of star power to make a run in the AFC in 2018. One thing that has to be on the docket has to be to draft a quarterback to groom behind Philip Rivers. Los Angeles travels to the Jets this week and they will have their hands full with the feisty New York team. Detroit Lions Power Ranking: 14 Record: 8-6 Previous Rank: 16 Week 15 result: Win versus Chicago Bears, 20-10 Week 16: at Cincinnati Bengals Detroit kept their postseason hopes afloat by taking care of the Bears this past week. The Lions offense has gotten tight end Eric Ebron heavily involved the past two weeks and that could bring a new dimension for Matthew Stafford to take advantage of. The defense played well against the limited Bears offense but they’ll have a harder time against a good offense. Detroit could make the playoffs but would be a heavy underdog if they make it in. They should be able to get their ninth win of the season against the Bengals this week as they haven’t shown up these past couple weeks. Seattle Seahawks Power Ranking: 15 Record: 8-6 Previous Rank: 11 Week 15 result: Loss versus Los Angeles Rams, 42-7 Week 16: at Dallas Cowboys Seattle may have seen their season come crashing down this past week when the Rams came into their stadium and laid waste to the Seahawks. Not only did they get embarrassed on the field, their defense had a war of words after the game as well. Linebacker Bobby Wagner and Earl Thomas went after each other in the media and on Twitter. That’s less than ideal when this team is facing a must-win spot this week in Dallas. Quarterback Russell Wilson saw his MVP candidacy take a huge hit this week and he always seems to struggle against the Rams. Their postseason hopes are on very thin ice. Kansas City Chiefs Power Ranking: 16 Record: 8-6 Previous Rank: 21 Week 15 result: Win versus Los Angeles Chargers, 30-13 Week 16: versus Miami Dolphins Kansas City staked their claim to the division with a beatdown of the Chargers this week. It’s baffling why the Chiefs didn’t use running back Kareem Hunt more consistently this season. He’s been great when he’s been a focal point in the offense. The defense shut down quarterback Philip Rivers and receiver Keenan Allen, who had been one of the best combos in the NFL coming into the week. Kansas City has turned into a very difficult team to get a hold of on any given week. They’re Dr. Jekkyl and Mr. Hyde because you never know which team will show up. They do get a sweetheart matchup with the Dolphins this week. San Francisco 49ers Power Ranking: 17 Record: 4-10 Previous Rank: 24 Week 15 result: Win versus Tennessee Titans, 25-23 Week 16: versus Jacksonville Jaguars Maybe this is a little high for a team with only four wins but the way they have played since quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has taken the reins has been impressive. He and coach Kyle Shanahan have formed an excellent combo and they don’t even have a lot of weapons yet. Garoppolo has been accurate and has dramatically improved their third down conversion rate. That’s helping keep the defense off the field and keeping the score close. The rebuild is on track right now and 49er fans have to be excited that it seems they have a quarterback to rely on moving forward. Kyle Shanahan versus Sean McVay is going to be a lot of fun in the NFC West. Tennessee Titans Power Ranking: 18 Record: 8-6 Previous Rank: 15 Week 15 result: Loss versus San Francisco 49ers, 25-23 Week 16: versus Los Angeles Rams The flip side of this game featured a team that just hasn’t found their identity this season. The fact they opened this game as the underdog says a lot about how they are viewed around the league. Marcus Mariota played a little better in the second half of this game but it wasn’t enough to get the win. Without an effective running game, this offense won’t run very smoothly. They still have a shot at the postseason but might be the weakest team in the field if they make it. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them finish at 8-8 with games still left against the Rams and Jaguars. Green Bay Packers Power Ranking: 19 Record: 7-7 Previous Rank: 18 Week 15 result: Loss versus Carolina Panthers, 31-24 Week 16: versus Minnesota Vikings Aaron Rodgers played well for the most part but had 3 critical interceptions that ended up kneecapping Green Bay. Granted, the final fumble by receiver Geronimo Allison was the dagger but many teams can’t hang in games when they turn the ball over four times. Sitting at 7-7, Green Bay might now opt to sit Rodgers for the remaining two games. They have virtually no shot at the playoffs now and may not want to risk further injury to the franchise quarterback. Hopefully, Davante Adams makes a quick recovery after taking a horrible hit from linebacker Thomas Davis. It’s the second time this season that Adams has been on the wrong end of a brutal headshot. Washington Redskins Power Ranking: 20 Record: 6-8 Previous Rank: 22 Week 15 result: Win versus Arizona Cardinals, 20-15 Week 16: versus Denver Broncos This win is a case of too little, too late for the Redskins. Washington is in an interesting spot headed into these last two games. They need to use this time to assess what they have headed for next year as they are likely closer than the record indicates. One area they need to address is receiver. Terrelle Pryor almost surely won’t be back and Josh Doctson has potential but has yet to live up to his promise. Jamison Crowder can’t be a number one option in an offense. The defense could use a hot in the arm but they have a solid core. If Washington decides to not bring back quarterback Kirk Cousins, they’ll need to find a solution quickly. Arizona Cardinals Power Ranking: 21 Record: 6-8 Previous Rank: 19 Week 15 result: Loss versus Washington Redskins, 20-15 Week 16: versus New York Giants So much for the Blaine Gabbert resurrection. Many folks(myself included) took notice when he was playing well out in the desert and thought he could spin this into another chance as a starter. He then imploded in Washington, making one mistake after another and has now been benched for Drew Stanton. That’s going to be tough to come back from. The end of the 2017 season can’t come soon enough for the Cardinals. They could be in for a quick turnaround with some healthy bodies next year. New York Jets Power Ranking: 22 Record: 5-9 Previous Rank: 20 Week 15 result: Loss versus New Orleans Saints, 31-19 Week 16: versus Los Angeles Chargers New York continues to be pesky and they fight every time out. Even without quarterback Josh McCown, they kept the came close against the powerhouse Saints until the very end. There’s still a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball to make a playoff team. One thing on their list has to be to rid themselves of defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson. How many times does this guy have to disrespect the entire team before they just say enough? It wouldn’t be a surprise to see them hang with Chargers if not beat them outright. Chicago Bears Power Ranking: 23 Record: 4-10 Previous Rank: 21 Week 15 result: Loss versus Detroit Lions, 20-10 Week 16: versus Cleveland Browns Mitchell Trubisky probably wishes he could hit the fast-forward button to 2018 so he could have a real coach and at least one receiver to throw the ball to. John Fox is the new Jeff Fisher and while the turnaround in Chicago almost surely won’t be as quick as it was in Los Angeles, a difference in personnel and coaching could go a long way. Trubisky has shown flashes, but Kendall Wright and Benny Cunningham being on the field aren’t helping. The defense isn’t that bad but the team is dead in the water until they can actually have a threatening offense. Cincinnati Bengals Power Ranking: 24 Record: 5-9 Previous Rank: 23 Week 15 result: Loss versus Minnesota Vikings, 34-7 Week 16: versus Detroit Lions It was announced that Marvin Lewis would not return in 2018 and the Bengals took that news to mean they didn’t have to show up to work either. Granted, they didn’t show up last week and have now been outscored 67-14 their last two games. The defense is beyond injured but the effort from the whole team just isn’t there. One could argue that the Bengals should play A.J. McCarron at quarterback the rest of the way. This will be one of the more attractive jobs open this offseason as there is plenty of talent on the roster. Oakland Raiders Power Ranking: 25 Record: 6-8 Previous Rank: 22 Week 15 result: Loss versus Dallas Cowboys, 20-17 Week 16: at Philadelphia Eagles Oakland hasn’t been able to buy a break all season and that continued when Derek Carr fumbled out of the end zone to end the game Sunday night. They are one of the biggest disappointments of the season and one of the main factors has been the poor play from Carr himself. The passing game has been very bland and predictable all season. The defense was never expected to be very good and they might be the only unit to “live up” to what everyone thought. A big part of the 2018 season is how receiver Amari Cooper bounces back from his disaster of a season. He’s been ineffective and injured all year and the Raiders need him in a major way next year. Denver Broncos Power Ranking: 26 Record: 5-9 Previous Rank: 28 Week 15 result: Win versus Indianapolis Colts, 25-13 Week 16: at Washington Redskins I don’t know how it happened, but quarterback Brock Osweiler looked like a real-life NFL quarterback in a relief appearance. He led the offense competently and one thing that helped was C.J. Anderson rushing for over 150 yards. Denver likely should have been giving him a few more carries considering their options at quarterback but it’s far too late for that now. It’s been a long season for the Broncos and they are no closer to solving their dilemma at the QB spot. They have a lot of pieces in place and a few smart additions could have this team right back in the playoff picture. Indianapolis Colts Power Ranking: 27 Record: 3-11 Previous Rank: 26 Week 15 result: Loss versus Denver Broncos, 25-13 Week 16: at Baltimore Ravens Ths loss to Denver took a backseat to all sorts of off the field news this week. First, it’s expected that Coach Chuck Pagano will not be brought back in 2018. That easily could have been done at least two seasons ago and it’s one of the least surprising outcomes of the year. Secondly, there are even more rumors about the health of quarterback Andrew Luck. He could be facing more surgery and possibly went against medical advice at some points this past season. It has to be exhausting as a Colts fan to not know what’s going on with the most important player in the franchise. Miami Dolphins Power Ranking: 28 Record: 6-8 Previous Rank: 27 Week 15 result: Loss versus Buffalo Bills, 24-16 Week 16: at Kansas City Chiefs One week after the Dolphins took down the Patriots, quarterback Jay Cutler regressed and threw three picks in Buffalo. The Miami offense was stuck in neutral for most of the day and even running back Kenyan Drake couldn’t get much going. Miami is going to face some tough choices this offseason. They really aren’t close enough to compete but also have more talent than a traditional rebuild. The likeliest outcome is they make a couple tweaks and give it another shot in 2018. Houston Texans Power Ranking: 29 Record: 4-10 Previous Rank: 27 Week 15 result: Loss versus Jacksonville Jaguars, 45-7 Week 16: versus Pittsburgh Steelers Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins may have taken the mantle as the second best receiver behind Antonio Brown. He has managed to produce even in the most difficult matchups with very below average quarterback play. Just as a football fan, I can’t wait to see Hopkins team up with quarterback Deshaun Watson again next season. Side note to Jadeveon Clowney- it’s not a great look to call an opposing quarterback “Trash” after he helps hang 45 points and over 300 yards on you and your defense. Yes, they are banged up. Clowney should just keep his thoughts to himself. New York Giants Power Ranking: 30 Record: 2-12 Previous Rank: 31 Week 15 result: Loss versus Philadelphia Eagles, 34-29 Week 16: at Arizona Cardinals New York tried their best to spoil the end of the season for the Eagles, but it wasn’t meant to be this time around. The offense came to play and almost scored a touchdown at the very end of the game to snatch away a win. The nightmare of the season is almost over for the Giants and next week’s matchup in Arizona is only noteworthy for fantasy football. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Power Ranking: 31 Record: 4-10 Previous Rank: 29 Week 15 result: Loss versus Atlanta Falcons, 24-21 Week 16: at Carolina Panthers Full credit to quarterback Jameis Winston in this game. He played lights out and when he’s going good, he’s a top-flight player. He just doesn’t do it consistently enough and that’s why he takes his share of criticism. He threw for three touchdowns against the Falcons and that was in the face of losing DeSean Jackson and O.J. Howard during the game. The Tampa defense actually limited the Falcons offense and Winston drove the Bucs to tey a long field goal to tie, but it didn’t happen on Monday. The Bucs will be on yet another new head coach once the season is over and whoever it is does have some exciting toys to play with on the offense. Cleveland Browns Power Ranking: 32 Record: 0-14 Previous Rank: 32 Week 15 result: Loss versus Baltimore Ravens, 27-10 Week 16: at Chicago Bears Hue Jackson is 1-29 now as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. There are rumors that the Cincinnati Bengals could entertain thoughts about trying to trade for him this offseason. That’s a pretty fair summation of both of these franchises. Thanks for reading |
You may be wondering, when is the new update for Minecraft coming out? Now! Having played Minecraft from Alpha I knew the main reason for its huge success was the awesome potential of building adventure maps. With the newest update, Minecraft 1.6 resource packs, the doors have opened for anyone and everyone to make amazing adventure maps with an emphasis on immersion. I find the above video of Jeoffrey's Chamber, brought to us by Noxcrew, to be the best example of where this could go. His first few minutes of the gameplay reminds me of Portal. They built what you see above in one day. Just think of the possibilities that are now available. The reason there is so much more opportunity for making adventure maps comes from resource packs. You are now able to add your own sounds and narration files to the game so you can create your own story. This is something I might even start playing Minecraft for. I haven't played in quite a long time because I had built two amazing maps that were so much fun to hang out in... But then I was being dumb and deleted the files. I just gave up and moved on. This gives me so much more reason to play. I can't wait to continue finding more adventure maps that use the Minecraft 1.6 Resource Pack update! |
Human beings shape their lives by making choices. We choose to get out of bed every day, instead of sleeping in. We may choose to drink coffee instead of tea, eat an apple instead of an orange and so on. In all of the choices we make, we implicitly believe that we could have chosen otherwise. We believe that we make our choices freely, or in other words, we make choices out of “our own free will.” We live our lives based upon the assumption of free will, our ability to freely choose our futures based on the choices in front of us. We believe we have free will because we experience it every day. I stand up, go outside and look at the stars, because I want to. I eat an apple instead of an orange, because I want to. We do not feel forced into the decisions, or see any inevitability in our choosing this or that. While we believe that our decisions are made freely, we are also aware that some of our actions are influenced by our instincts, desires, impulses, reflexes, habits, behaviors and predispositions. In fact, if we were to categorize them, we would find that we do not have to exert our conscious free will for the vast majority of our actions, we do them pretty automatically. We duck under low hanging tree branches, without consciously debating whether we should or not. We drive from one place to another, all without even being consciously aware of many of the decisions we made in the process. The fact that we make many of our decisions instinctively is rather useful, as we often have to respond quickly to many situations, where we may not have the time to deliberate and make conscious choices. Free will is hence the process of curbing or choosing from our natural instinctive desires when there is a need to choose, which is rarely necessary. While the majority of our actions are instinctive in nature, sometimes we have to reign in those instincts using our free will. Even though we are hungry we may not eat the food in front of us, because it is someone else’s food, we are controlling our diet or fasting. We use our free will to sanitize our instinctive desires through filters based on morality, societal rules and obligations or perhaps based on a prediction of some long-term benefit. Free will is hence the process of curbing or choosing from our natural instinctive desires when there is a need to choose, which is rarely necessary. Most of the time our instincts and desires take over and we do what comes naturally. In our every day life we may experience free will as self-control, decision making and planning. Our society draws a direct line from free will to moral responsibility. We believe that free will is a necessary precondition for moral responsibility. A person who ran over a pedestrian intentionally, is held to a different standard than someone who did it accidentally. We hold the person who intentionally killed the pedestrian, morally and legally responsible, because we believe that he should have, and implicitly that he could have, chosen not to do so. In order to hold someone morally responsible, we also believe that besides free will, the person also needs to be consciously aware of their actions and choices. We would not normally hold an insane person or a person whose consciousness was otherwise compromised, morally responsible. Since moral responsibility is closely tied to free will, generally when we talk about “free will” we actually mean “conscious free will.” Our definition of what we consider to be freely willed actions and choices, does not include decisions made by someone whose consciousness is impaired, say for example, someone who is under hypnosis or sleep-walking. The problem of free will This everyday experience and understanding of free will might seem quite straight-forward, but it has as much of a bearing on the scientific and philosophical understanding of free will, as the everyday concept of gravity before Isaac Newton. From a scientific, philosophical and theological perspective, free will remains one of the biggest mysteries known to man. French philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes, categorized our world into two kinds of stuff, the mind stuff and the material stuff. This was in keeping with a long tradition of a dualistic viewpoint, which proposes that an immaterial mind is different from, and can act upon, a material brain. But as the properties of matter started becoming clearer, a mystery arose about how an immaterial mind could act upon a material brain. This mystery, which remains unanswered to this day, is usually referred to as the mind-body problem. In determinism all events in the universe could be thought of as dominos. A domino falls because of the previous one and in turn becomes a cause for the next one to fall. Sir Isaac Newton gave us the laws of motion and universal gravitation, which led to the broader acceptance of the mechanistic world view as the foundation of physics. The principle was so successful, that the mechanistic model gained even wider acceptance for all natural systems, including human decisions and actions, giving rise to determinism, the idea that every event (effect) is necessitated by antecedent (material) events and conditions (causes). The causes themselves are made necessary by even prior causes and so on. The proposal was that deterministic material causes explained not just the motion of rocks, planets and stars, but all natural phenomenon, including the workings of the human mind. Every event and substance in the universe is causally complete, with all causes being material causes. Cartesian dualism thus started to lose traction, in favor of mechanistic and materialistic determinism. There are many variants of determinism. For the purposes of this article, I will use the term, ‘materialistic determinism,’ to represent physical, causal and mechanistic determinism. “Once you start with the premise that classical mechanics is right, you are forced to the conclusion that there is no free will.” — Henry Stapp, Quantum Physicist If the universe is causally complete, that does not seem to leave much room for anything like conscious free will. If the brain is a deterministic physical system, all changes and events in the brain, which are of necessity neurobiological in nature, must occur due to prior neurobiological causes and conditions of the brain. There was no reason to presume that these causes, and subsequently the human cognitive properties of sensory perception, memory, attention, awareness, sense of agency, free will, and even consciousness, could not be understood in their entirety by exploring the physical conditions of the brain in light of principles of biology, chemistry and physics. This did not seem to leave any room for an immaterial mind, even if it existed, to have much of an influence. Quantum Physicist Henry Stapp summarized it thus, “Once you start with the premise that classical mechanics is right, you are forced to the conclusion that there is no free will.” What this meant was that based on the deterministic point of view, what we think of as our free choices, e.g., eating an apple instead of an orange, are not really free. If you chose to eat an apple, you could have only chosen to eat the apple. There was no possibility whatsoever that you would have chosen to eat the orange. Even if we were to, somehow, rewind the universe and allow you to make the same decision a million times, you would choose the apple every single time. This because the material conditions, or the physical state, within your brain and beyond would be exactly the same and would always lead you to the same decision. An apple or an orange? No really, feel free to choose! Notwithstanding the growing acceptance of determinism, our incontrovertible experience of ourselves, our decisions and choices, as uncaused causes, led many philosophers and scientists to persist with an alternate view on the free will debate. Some like David Hume and recently Daniel Dennett, proposed that while determinism was true, we still have free will, in that we get to make a choice, even though the choice we actually make may have been determined. This approach to free will, termed as compatibilism (since it asserts that free will is compatible with determinism), is based on a very lenient, almost a legalistic definition of free will. “Was there a gun to your head? No. Well then it was your free will.” Compatibilists have no problem with the fact that determinism dictated and necessitated your exact choice. Conversely, many others took the position that compatibilism was not enough, that if our choices were determined they cannot be called free. That for true free will, you need to have an open situation where the options are truly available for our conscious free will to choose from. Which means that with same exact material conditions within your brain and beyond, you could have chosen to eat an orange instead. This is known as the Libertarian (not to be confused with the political libertarianism) free will and it essentially requires that determinism is false, or at least false in so far as it applies to conscious free will in human beings. In early to mid twentieth century, as the deterministic foundation of classical physics started getting challenged by quantum mechanics, the libertarian view started to gather support. Quantum mechanics gave rise to a new probabilistic and indeterministic foundation to physics, which for many opened the door for libertarian free will. But there were no libertarian celebrations yet, as concerns were raised about what free will was like if it arose from quantum probability and indeterminism. i.e. if probabilistic and indeterministic processes at the subatomic level amplified to the point where we experienced them as our conscious decisions, does that really qualify as being free? If you chose the apple, because of some random sub-atomic events, is that really enough to meet our definition of conscious free will? Columbian neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás summarized the argument of determinism against free will: “Free Will is an illusion we have. It is our ability to follow the tyranny of our own neurons. We don’t have a choice, we do what the neurons tell us to do. There are different tyrannies at different levels, some could be of social laws, which you have accepted and adopted. There is conflict and an internal negotiation between these different tyrannies and that could be perceived as free will by us.” Free will is intimately tied up with consciousness, that quality you lose when you go to sleep and which flickers back when you wake up. Consciousness is your awareness of being aware, the subjective experience of the world that is your own and cannot be shared or recreated precisely. While it is a very large topic in of itself, here it will suffice to say that consciousness plays a critical role in the free will debate. From a libertarian perspective consciousness is essential because you need to consciously generate reasonable options, apple or orange. You also need to be consciously aware of, not just the fact that an apple and an orange are reasonable options, but everything about what an apple or orange is, in relationship to yourself and everything else you are aware of. You then need to consciously evaluate the options based on reasons and then make a conscious decision. From a deterministic point of view consciousness, like free will, is epiphenomenal, an incidental and unnecessary by-product, like heat from a computer processor. Determinists propose that, just like the software algorithm based decision making in computers does not need consciousness, it is not needed in humans either. “We do what we do because of the way we are. To be truly responsible for the way we act, we need to be truly responsible for the way we are. But we cannot be responsible for the way we are, hence we cannot be free.” — British philosopher, Galen Strawson British philosopher, Galen Strawson, succinctly encapsulates a key philosophical argument against free will, “We do what we do, because of the way we are. To be truly responsible for the way we act, we need to be truly responsible for the way we are. But we cannot be responsible for the way we are, hence we cannot be free.” The Libet experiment and the case against Free Will As Electroencephalography (EEG) and sophisticated neuroimaging became possible, some of the aspects being debated could be brought into the laboratory and put through the rigors of neuropsychological and cognitive experiments. In early 1980s, in a now famous experiment, neurologist Benjamin Libet, while monitoring his subjects brain activity with an EEG, asked them to flex their finger at a time of their own choosing. The subjects were asked to look at a specialized clock and report the exact time (W), when they themselves were first aware of their decision to flex. Libet also captured the actual time of the movement of the finger(T) using an electromyogram (recording actual muscle movement) and the test was conducted several times. When the averaged data for W and T was correlated with the data from the EEG, Libet found that the electrical activity (aka Readiness Potential) in the motor cortex, the part of the brain controlling voluntary motion, began on average around 350 milliseconds before the W, the time subjects reported the conscious awareness of the urge to flex their finger. And the W came only around 200 ms, on average, before the actual movement of the finger at time T. Libet experiment results showing onset of the readiness potential forming well before the moment of the subjects awareness of the decision. What this meant was that the brain had already started preparing for the motion of the finger, long (relatively speaking) before the subjects were consciously aware of “their decision” to move. This was a profound result which seemed to go against the libertarian view of free will. The experiment has since been repeated and confirmed by many other scientists. More recent versions of the experiment have been conducted using fMRI brain imaging, which have recorded the formation of readiness potential, as early as, 2 whole seconds before W, the conscious awareness of the decision reported by the subject. These findings were not only troubling if you believed in the libertarian free will but also challenged the entire premise of cartesian dualism. What we would have expected from a libertarian perspective, is to find conscious decision(W) followed by readiness potential in the motor cortex, culminating in muscle movement causing the flexing of the finger. But the order was completely backwards for free will causation to hold. The brain had already started preparing for the motion of the finger, long before the subjects were consciously aware of “their decision” to move. Since the Libet experiment, neuroscientists have conducted many other experiments including ones in which the researchers could predict in realtime (500 ms in advance), with around 70% accuracy, the hand that the subject was about to raise in a game similar to rock-paper-scissors. What was emerging hence with these experiments, was the potential experimental confirmation of the long-held position of the determinists, that human decision making process, just like other natural processes, is a deterministic process, with the causes being material causes, completely describable within the domains of neurobiology, chemistry and eventually physics. Neuroscientist and the Deputy Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, Patrick Haggard, puts it thus: “If the experience of volition is completely retrospective, then that really is quite a challenge, because it suggests that conscious experience of our action can never have anything to do with controlling the action in any circumstances.” What then of our perception of free will and decision making? In light of these experiments it seemed to be some retroactive stitch-up, like a story we tell ourselves to explain our own actions which otherwise would be completely surprising or even shocking. “My brain activity prepares my action and once action takes place, my arm goes up. Retrospectively I make up the story, don’t be frightened by that, I planned to move the arm,” explains Haggard. Neuroscientist Sam Harris in his book, “Free Will” concluded, “Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making. Thoughts and intentions emerge from background causes of which we are not aware and over which we exert no conscious control. We do not have the freedom, we think we have.” “Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making. Thoughts and intentions emerge from background causes of which we are not aware and over which we exert no conscious control. We do not have the freedom we think we have.” — Neuroscientist Sam Harris Based on these interpretations, the mind-body problem was seemingly solved, in that an immaterial mind does not exist, nor does free will. Both subjective conscious experience and perception of free will are epiphenomenal, by-products of the natural processes. Human beings thus are deterministic biological machines, which can be understood entirely using reductive reasoning and materialistic determinism. Problems with the Libet Experiment In recent years, the preceding interpretation of the Libet experiment has had many, primarily determinists and compatibilists, takers. Many others however have pointed to flaws in the experiment and in the interpretations thereof. The first problem many scientists and philosophers cite with the Libet experiment is with the type of decision the subjects are asked to make, namely flexing a finger or wrist, lifting an arm, etc. The problem is that these decisions were never really our paradigm of what we consider to be freely willed decisions, but were rather in category of those instinctive actions. Even without the experiment, if someone proposed that the conscious awareness of the decision, will come after readiness potential build up in the motor cortex of a subject ducking under a low hanging tree branch or catching a ball which was thrown to her suddenly, no one really would have thought that to be shocking. The problem, they said, was with the generalization from these instinctive actions to reason responsive decisions. “Free will is more closely associated with our conscious weighing of pros and cons in order to make a good decision about a complicated issue, than with consciously detecting the exact moment when we made a particular trivial decision.” — Alfred Mele, Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University The generalization, it was proposed, does not apply to any decisions that needs conscious analysis, deliberation and planning. They do not touch upon important decisions like, which college you should attend, or even something simple but with meaningful implications for the subject. For example, a contestant pressing one of two buttons on a quiz show, with monetary gains at stake. Alfred Mele, Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University, explains, “Free will is more closely associated with our conscious weighing of pros and cons in order to make a good decision about a complicated issue, than with consciously detecting the exact moment when we made a particular trivial decision.” For reason responsive decisions, we must use conscious processing to freely generate alternate possibilities, evaluate them based on reason and finally make a decision. Patrick Haggard is quick to acknowledge the limitations of these experiments, “One criticism of these experiments is that, they do not really capture what we mean by our free will and our free decisions. I agree with that, what we study in the laboratory situation is a very simplified and a very reduced version of human action.” He goes on, “In philosophy we think of free will as decisions based on reasons, reason responsive decisions. I might choose left button for a particular reason, because it is better, I make more money, etc. In the work that we are doing, I would be the first one to say, that we are actually removing the reason, the person is making an arbitrary decision. It does not matter whether they go left or right, nothing rides on it.” “Picking (inconsequential) from similar options is different from choosing (consequential).” — Neuroscientist Patrick Haggard Haggard goes on to distinguish between the two types of decisions, “Picking (inconsequential) from similar options is different from choosing (consequential).” In other words, picking the time of an arbitrary inconsequential action like flexing a finger, is not the same as choosing from options that have consequences, say for example, which college you should attend. Peter Tse, Professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, goes further: “Libet paradigm, while useful, is a very weak basis for talking about free will. Especially since free will, seems to be not so much occurring in the domain of semi-automatic actions that don’t require any deliberation.” Another problem with the interpretation of the Libet experiment is that they do not account for motor anticipation, motor cortex activity that happens in anticipation of a decision to act. Many of our actions are preceded by our self-prediction that we are going to act. And in preparation for any probable action we use the same motor cortex that would perform the action to simulate how we would do it. Michael Graziano, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, explains, “Suppose your self model includes the self prediction that you might reach out and pick up a cup of juice. To enrich that model through simulation, the machinery that constructs the model contacts and uses your motor machinery to simulate the action, thereby priming the action and making you more likely to actually do it.” So if the subjects of the experiment are thinking, “I am going to flex my finger, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, now.” They would report the time of conscious awareness of their decision (W) as the time of “now,” but there would be neuronal activity in the motor cortex, simulating the flexing of the finger all through the “waits”, which would show up as the rising deflection on the EEG or fMRI, we call readiness potential. Yet another problem with the interpretations of the Libet experiment is from the findings of experiments that test simple go-signal reaction times. In these experiments the researchers were trying to ascertain how long it takes subjects to respond to a signal with a predesignated action, say an audible beep upon which the subject immediately has to click a mouse button. The mean time between the audible beep and muscle movement was found to be 231 ms. Which matches almost exactly (when you allow approximately 30ms for the processing of the go signal), the time from conscious intention (W) to muscle movement, in the main Libet experiment. This means that in the Libet experiment, the decision to flex could not have been made 550 ms before muscle movement because it takes much shorter time from a decision to action. Alfred Mele, in his recent book, Free: Why science hasn’t disproved free will, concludes: “When the rise starts about half a second before the muscle burst in the main experiment, the beginning of the EEG reading or the first half of it, is correlated with something that precedes an intention, rather with an intention itself.” One more flaw cited in the main Libet experiment has to do with the data collection methodology. The problem was that the EEG data was only saved for seconds preceding actual muscle movement. Which meant that, if there was a rise in the readiness potential, that did not result in muscle movement, it was completely ignored. Hence missing an opportunity to disprove a causal connection between the rise of the readiness potential and the decision to act. These concern started to challenge the central premise that readiness potential is correlated with willing or formation of an intention. The concerns and additional experiments lead Peter Tse to confirm, “We are finding the readiness potential probably has little to do with willing at all, it is just leading up to some action. Willing just does not seem to be causally related to readiness potential, it is not related.” If the readiness potential is not correlated with willing, then what does it signify? I would theorize, that it is strongly correlated with the motor anticipation, the simulation of the predicted action in the motor cortex, initiated by a prediction of an impending decision (not the decision itself but the prediction of a decision). Another problem cited with the Libet experiment is one of introspection. The subjects are asked to “report the time they were aware of their own decision to flex their finger.” This introduces a variable into the experiment which cannot be ignored. Adina Roskies, Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College, explains, “Seems like Libet was asking subjects to introspect their own cognitive states and indicate when you are aware of being aware, which is not the same thing as when you are aware. And in reporting you own awareness you are in a meta-cognitive state, which is not the state which we are usually in when we act. It is a second order of awareness. Which of-course will be a later time.” “Conscious intention and consciousness of intentions are two different things.” — Adina Roskies, Professor of philosophy at Dartmouth College Uri Maoz, Adjunct Professor at the Department of Psychology at UCLA, who is researching computational neuroscience, decision making and free will, recently conducted experiments based on more meaningful reason based decisions. He found evidence supporting that meaningful decisions are made at the time when the subject was aware of the decision. Uri’s most reliable predictions happen at a certain point, which coincides with the subjects awareness of the decision. He confirms: “So these kinds of arguments that say that you have made up your mind unconsciously and then only much later does consciousness get involved, we do not so far see that in these more meaningful reasoning based decisions.” Interestingly, unlike many people like Sam Harris, who have jumped on the “Libet experiment debunks free will” bandwagon, Benjamin Libet himself went on to do follow-up work to establish the existence of the non-deterministic conscious free will as a veto mechanism often termed as “free won’t.” His later work focused on a very interesting aspect of these experiments, that of backwards time referral, leading to his theory of consciousness called Conscious Mental Fields. Some of these concerns and more led Peter Tse to conclude: “We think the field took a wrong turn with Libet [experiment and the interpretations thereof], and it is time to stop and reassess.” Underlying problems with Materialistic Determinism What we are learning is that many neuroscientists and philosophers may have jumped the gun on the Libet experiment and are misinterpreting a narrow experiment too broadly. So perhaps the debate is still not resolved. Be that as it may, even if we do not have experimental proof yet, couldn’t it be just round the corner? Isn’t materialistic determinism a foundational aspect of science? While we cannot limit what rapidly improving technology allows us to probe, nevertheless there are some fundamental problems with materialistic determinism which can no longer be ignored. Materialistic determinism suggests that every single event in the universe, including our thoughts, our choices, formation of stars, etc., was predetermined going back all the way to the moment preceding the big bang, when the universe, according to the most widely accepted cosmological model, came into existence. This is because there is an unbroken chain of causes and effects, going back all the way to the beginning of everything. This means that everything you did today, everything else that has ever happened in the past and everything that will ever happen in the future, was all somehow fixed at the moment of the beginning of the universe! Determinism requires that our lives and all events that occur in the universe are like a prerecorded movie, the frames of which are being played out by us and everything around us. Down to every falling of a leaf, every beating of a heart and every order for a grande nonfat vanilla latte, this movie has but one and only one, invariable and unrelenting plot line. A plot line in which we, the deterministic biological machines, are slavishly playing out our part, by following the biddings of our neurons. Helplessly watching the movie of our lives unfold and yet, thanks to the grand illusion of free will, oblivious to our own helplessness. Materialistic determinism necessitates that all the acts and endeavors of human beings, including all achievements of greats scientists, mathematicians, poets, etc., are also completely predetermined. However if all human actions and achievements are predetermined, they are by necessity, completely meaningless and devoid of any truths. If neurobiological, chemical and physical processes within Isaac Newton’s brain caused him to propose the laws of motion and similar processes within the brains of other scientists and laymen since caused them to accept these findings, then there is no “truth” to these or any human discoveries. If deterministic principles were the cause of Einstein’s theory of relativity, then we cannot happily assume that his work is proof of the pinnacle of rational human thought, freely choosing between multiple possible theories. If determinism is true then everything we have labelled as rational human thought and creativity would need to be considered as a mundane biochemical output no different from a burp. American theologian, Gregory Boyd puts it thus: “If determinism is true, then the statement, ‘determinism is true,’ cannot possibly be true. That is because if determinism is true, then everything I am saying right now is a chemical reaction and chemical reactions cannot be true or false. What I am saying would be the equivalent of a burp.” Materialistic determinism is eating its own self by the tail. This is not a problem that can really be solved within the confines of the paradigm. It is surprising thus, that many scientists and philosophers have been ignoring this massive elephant in the room. It is as if the determinists were saying, “All human thoughts, ideas and decisions are predetermined biochemical reactions, except for what I am saying.” The dogmatic persistence with materialistic determinism seems rather strange, almost a century after the British physicist and astronomer Sir Arthur Stanley Edington declared, ”It is a consequence of the advent of the quantum theory that physics is no longer pledged to a scheme of deterministic law,” More recently Robert Kane, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, questioned why this archaic principle is still being tossed around in this day and age: “One may legitimately wonder why worries about determinism persists at all in the twenty-first century when the physical sciences, once the stronghold of determinist thinking, seem to have turned away from determinism.” Consequences The implications of the deterministic viewpoint are not confined to negation of all human achievements, but would also absolve everyone responsible for human suffering. If determinism is true, what choice did Hitler really have? What choice did serial killers like Ted Bundy have? If materialistic determinism is forced into the society, how soon before we start having legal implications from this. Should a murderer be punished if he could never have done otherwise than kill his victim? Continued insistence on a deterministic foundation to reality and dismissal of conscious free will, could lead the society back towards fatalism which has a long history in both everyday human society as well as, in traditions of theology. At a rudimentary level, if you set aside the differences in the two narratives, scientific materialistic determinism and theological determinism, the problem of free will is essentially the same. That is, whether the universe was created by an all powerful God or arose out of nothingness, the question of whether human beings are free to make real choices and change the future remains essentially the same. There is a vast tradition of debate in theology about the ability of humans to choose, human free will, within the context of God’s foreknowledge and determination of the future. However unlike scientific determinism, the theological determinists have generally allowed humans the freedom of intention, which eventually they said that God judges people on, and was the basis for morality in humans. This meant that even when the determinists had an upper hand in theology, the worst possible impact was to produce closed fatalistic societies which saw no big reason to push the boundaries of science, medicine and knowledge in general. The moral underpinnings of human behavior however was not impacted since theological determinists linked morality to human intention, which according to them, was free but inert from a causal perspective. Que sera sera! The new fatalism to which materialistic determinism, with its insistence that human beings are biological machines, is leading us has no such element which could form the basis of morality in the society. This new fatalism could lead us to a nihilistic existence, which will almost certainly lead to a breakdown of the society at large. Many studies have shown that when subjects just read, not necessarily agree with, an article which states something like “Scientific experiment finds conscious free will is an illusion,” they were more prone to cheat and steal. Free Will is essential to moral responsibility, and the ability to act morally is a necessary ingredient for a functional society. Even the determinists seem to think that while free will is an illusion, it is not a good idea to share that finding with the public at large! In his book, Free Will, Sam Harris admits, “If I was teaching a self defense class for women, I would consider it quite counter productive to emphasize that all human behavior, including a woman’s response to a physical attack is determined by the prior state of the universe. That all rapist are, at bottom unlucky, being themselves victims of prior causes they did not create.” But why should telling people the “truth” be counter productive? Is the ‘decision’ to withhold the “truth”, by Sam Harris, a free reason based rational choice or predetermined output no different from occasional bubbling of gases in a swamp. And what about the potential rapist or a murderer, does determinism not entail that if they are able to rape or kill, then that was the only thing that could have happened? Why would a determinist tell someone not to kill? Does the killer have a choice? Any proposals, consistent with determinism, that attempt to present a basis for morality are doomed to languish in incoherence. This because the moral principles of “good” and “bad” are not meaningful from a deterministic perspective. From the perspective of determinism, saying that one human act is “bad” as opposed to another, is analogous to saying that one way a rock rolls down the hill is “bad” as opposed to another. Therefore, if and when, determinists address the issue of morality, the proposals are usually fraught with confusion and incoherence. The lack of confidence in their assertions may be exemplified by the fact, that even the staunchest defender of determinism, is very unlikely to tell their young kids or grandkids something like, “Do whatever you feel like, don’t get out of bed, don’t go to school, take a stroll on the freeway, steal, kill someone, because if you can do it, that is the only thing that could have happened.” Conclusion So where do we go from here? We have to give up on the idea that matter is the bedrock of reality upon which the ‘epiphenomenal’ rivers of consciousness and free will flow. We have to start looking for something more fundamental, out of which both may arise. The fact that we have to do this, has been getting increasingly obvious for the past 100 years since the development of quantum physics. The mechanistic clockwork model for the universe has brought us a long way, but it cannot take us any further. Our dogmatic attachment to this paradigm is just an ode to an enduring, albeit now anachronistic, fascination with the workings of the traditional clock. The mechanistic clockwork model for the universe has brought us a long way, but it cannot take us any further. Our dogmatic attachment to this paradigm is just an ode to an enduring, albeit now anachronistic, fascination with the workings of the traditional clock. We also have to give up on the idea that causality works only in a mechanistic clockwork like manner. We also have to give up on the idea that the methodology of reductionism is going to be sufficient as we bring in more aspects of reality, like consciousness and free will, into the domain of science. Complex systems may be better understood using both, the methodology of reductionism as well as emergence. The thinking that parts can completely determine the behavior of the whole has to go. In many fields we are finding that in complex systems the whole has reciprocal influence on its parts, leading to the fields of systems chemistry, systems biology, etc. Not all human behavior can be reduced to neurobiology, not all biology can be reduced to chemistry and not all chemistry can be reduced to physics. In the search for a more fundamental bedrock of reality, we need to let go of the baggage of materialistic determinism and finally accept the implications of quantum physics. The emerging theories about an informational basis of the universe, seem to be promising candidates which could build upon the findings of quantum physics. These new theories have their roots in the computer, the prominent technological device du jour and they could provide a way forward, possibly allowing for the definition of a lower level of existence that unifies not only matter, physical forces, space and time, but also the immaterial aspects of our existence like our minds, consciousness and free will. © 2015 Aamir Moghal, All Rights Reserved You can contact the author via email at aamir.moghal@gmail.com |
Trauma surgeons at Calgary's Foothills Medical Centre say cyclists should consider wearing chest protection to reduce the risk of serious injury in an accident. The surgeons have been researching hundreds of injuries picked up by regular street cyclists and mountain bikers. They say in a serious crash, both groups could benefit from more protection. Trauma to the head is the most common injury to cyclists. That underscores the importance of wearing a good-quality, properly-fitted helmet, according to Dr. Chad Ball, lead author of the research paper. "At the same time, almost half the injuries we noted were either to the chest or abdomen," says Dr. Ball, "suggesting that greater physical protection in those areas could also help reduce or prevent serious injury." Lead author of the study, Dr. Derek Roberts, says there's not much research around chest pads, but it is something for cyclists to think about. "Although we don't know exactly how effective they are, I think that they are something we can give to bicyclists that they can consider to use." Researchers looked at the most severely injured cyclists between 1995 and 2005. During that period, 209 road cyclists suffered serious injuries, compared to 49 mountain bikers. The average age of injured mountain cyclists was 28, while the average age of road cyclists involved in serious accidents was 43. The study was published in Canadian Journal of Surgery. |
On November 17, 1734, newspaper printer John Peter Zenger was arrested on charges of seditious libel. He would spend eight months in jail, and the ensuing trial would result in a symbolic victory for a free press and lay the foundation for the American Revolution and the First Amendment. Zenger was the publisher of the Weekly Journal in New York. His newspaper covered the corrupt actions of Royal Governor William S. Cosby. The newspaper accused Cosby and his administration of rigging elections, and accused the governor of numerous crimes. The Weekly Journal was not published the day after Zenger’s arrest. It would be the only issue missed in its publishing history. The next week, with Zenger’s wife, Anna, at the helm, the Journal resumed publication. In the first issue following Zenger’s arrest, Anna Zenger printed her husband’s statement: x “As you last week were disappointed of my Journal, I think it incumbent on me to publish my apology, which is this. On the Lord’s Day, the seventeenth, I was arrested, taken and imprisoned in the common jail of this City by virtue of a warrant from the Governor, the honorable Francis Harison, and others in the Council (of which, God willing, you will have a copy); whereupon I was put under such restraint that I had not the liberty of pen, ink or paper, or to see or speak with people, until my complaint to the honorable Chief Justice at my appearing before him upon my habeas corpus on the Wednesday following. He discountenanced that proceeding, and therefore I have had since that time the liberty of speaking thro’ the hole of the door to my wife and servants.” His high bail kept the printer in jail until the trial, so Anna Zenger continued publishing her husband’s letters in the newspaper, which created enormous public sympathy for his case. After the first selection of a jury stacked with people on the governor’s payroll, Anna Zenger’s reporting led to the seating of a new and impartial jury. Colonial Law at the time defined seditious libel as simply the act of printing information critical of the government. The truth or falsity of the information was irrelevant. As the trial was getting underway, the attorney general laid the case before the jurors by arguing that Zenger was a “seditious person and a frequent printer and publisher of false news and seditious libels.” In the government’s eyes, the case should be a simple one. All it had to prove was that Zenger had printed the material in question for the jury to find guilt in what was known as seditious libel. Under British rule, the colonists could not criticize the government. The court had disbarred Zenger’s initial two defense attorneys. His new attorney was one of the most famous lawyers in the colonies, Andrew Hamilton. Hamilton admitted that Zenger printed the charges but demanded the prosecution prove them false. In a stirring appeal to the jury, Hamilton pleaded for Zenger’s release: “It is not the cause of one poor printer, but the cause of liberty.” The jury returned in less than ten minutes with a verdict of not guilty, stunning prosecutors and the court by ignoring the law and employing an action known as jury nullification. The case did not set precedent but it was a symbolic victory for the press. Fearing more jury nullifications, the government sought few seditious prosecutions over the coming years. Newspapers took advantage of this new “freedom” and intensified their scrutiny of British rule in the colonies, fueling the cries for independence from England. This criticism of British rule led to the American Revolution. The ability of the press to criticize the government was central to the creation of the First Amendment in 1791. Gouverneur Morris, American statesman, founding father and representative of Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, said 50 years after the Zenger trial that: “The trial of Zenger in 1735 was the germ of American freedom, the morning star of that liberty which subsequently revolutionized America.” |
Texas Soccer opens the 2017 campaign with two matches this weekend at Mike A. Myers Stadium. Fans are encouraged to join the Longhorns with special discounts on tickets for the first two matches of the year. General admission tickets are just $1 for students and $3 for adults. The Longhorns host in-state foe Rice Friday at 7 p.m. The first 300 fans in the gate receive a free clear bag courtesy of Texas Athletics. Gates open at 6 p.m. On Sunday, Texas takes on Western Kentucky at 2 p.m. The first 250 fans receive a free pair of UT sunglasses. Following the match, youth in 8th grade and under are welcome to join the Longhorns on the field for a free clinic. YOUTH CLINIC Texas Athletics invites all boys and girls in 8th grade and under to a FREE youth clinic on Sunday. The youth clinic takes place following the Soccer vs. Western Kentucky match. All participants should bring a water bottle and soccer ball with their name marked on it. Come ready to play and have fun! (Please dress in appropriate soccer attire.) Please RSVP by emailing Matt Hay at matthew.hay@athletics.utexas.edu. ULTIMATE FLEX PLANS The Texas Soccer Ultimate Flex Plan is the best option for fans who want to experience the biggest games throughout the season, but need flexibility in their schedule. Purchase a flex plan with up to 18 tickets and use all of them at once, or spread them out over multiple games. It's your choice! Order online at TexasSports.com or call 512-471-3333. Advance sale only. GROUP TICKETS Groups of 10 or more may purchase tickets for just $3 each. Organize your youth team, club or organization today and call 512-471-3333 to set up your next group outing! PARKING Advance parking is available online through Click and Park. Parking permits must be purchased by 10 p.m. the day prior to the match. Online parking is cash, credit card or debit card. |
Josh Duggar had it all: money, celebrity, family, and power. Yet at every step he chose hypocrisy. Why? A former Family Research Council analyst and Exodus leader pulls the curtain back and looks at conservative Christian hypocrisy. The mounting revelations of Josh Duggar's sexual transgressions, from molesting little girls when he was a teenager, to paying for two accounts on the adultery web site Ashley Madison, to fostering a porn addiction, to allegedly engaging in rough sex with a porn star, raise serious questions: Why did he do it? Why did Josh watch porn and seek extra-marital affairs while working for the notoriously anti-LGBT Family Research Council, and flouting the values he claims to represent? As an ex-member of the religious right and former policy analyst for Family Research Council, I was not surprised that Josh Duggar was involved in this sort of duplicity. There are plenty of examples of this type of hypocritical behavior. Back in 2010 one of the founders of Family Research Council, George Rekers, was caught with a young gay escort he met through Rentboy.com. I personally know of several "ex-gay" spokespeople who declared their freedom from same-sex attractions while secretly liaising with gay lovers. All while fighting against gay rights and telling gay Christians they could change, too. When you are in a position of authority in the evangelical Christian world, appearances are key. I know pastors who cheated on their wives and stole money from their churches, while telling their congregants to be sexually pure and to shun greed. People love these pastors because they preach charismatic messages from the pulpit, and say the right things. It's all about image. When a friend of mine in campus ministry suffered a broken engagement, the pastor said, "It looks like your best dog just died. You need to wipe that look off your face and show others you have faith!" There is no room for weakness among the Christian right. To glorify God, you need to buck up and feign perfection. In the church I attended, young men wore rubber bands on their wrists and snapped them whenever they had "impure" thoughts or looked at an attractive woman for too long. Girls and boys were taught impossible standards of purity and expected to sublimate every urge. Any attraction was met with the same response, "Lay it down," meaning, pretend it isn't there. Josh, like the rest of us, was likely taught to hide whatever "evil stirrings" he had. To do things in secret was how he learned to handle his urges. Feelings of shame and inadequacy arise in response to sexual sublimation and being told constantly that sexual feelings are dirty and of the devil. At the same time, to feel inferior isn't manly. To show weakness isn't a "good witness" for the Lord. The mixture of inadequacy and the pressure to appear superior is a potent concoction that often leads to acting out. People in positions of Christian leadership also tend to feel privileged. Where there's privilege, entitlement isn't far behind. If God didn't wink and nod at their illicit behavior, why would he give them positions of authority, they believe. Josh, without a college education, or any known skills that are marketable in the real world outside of conservative politics - he was literally a used car salesman - was offered a leadership position at Family Research Council. Like most non-profits, FRC is always looking for ways to raise money. To hire a young man in his mid-twenties with no education does not make sense for a high-profile organization that deals with matters of morality. That is, unless the young man is a reality TV star with a huge following of fans willing to send your organization money. How could Josh pass up the opportunity to be the star of the show, and cast aside his role as the elder son and side-kick? God was surely blessing him and uninterested in his sexual indiscretions. Josh Duggar isn't the first conservative Christian who has lived a hypocritical double life, and given the toxic mix of Christian shame, sexual denial, image and privilege, he certainly won't be the last. Images via Josh Duggar/Instagram See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected] |
Over the years many people have asked me the same question: I’m starting this new project, what technology do you think I should use? Often these people fit in one of two categories: Technologists who’ve already made up their mind Non-technologist entrepreneurs who need to be reassured At the end of the day, I doubt that many of these people actually cared about my answers. They probably just wanted to know if we were on the same page or wanted to be reassured. To be honest, as an engineer, I believe a great idea can be built with almost any technology. They all have their pros/cons. No matter what stack you choose, you’ll pay a certain price for whatever advantages it offers. But really, the success or failure of your project has more to do with vision, leadership, execution, and market than technological choices. Now that I’m an entrepreneur, I make technical decisions daily. When I choose a specific technology, I need to be able to justify the decision to myself, my partners/employees and potential investors. I make technical choices based on the project and company’s vision. For a project to be successful you must have a strong vision. If you can convert your vision into a set of values to benchmark every decision, your path will be clear and it’ll be easier to find the right people to join you. Besides the vision, a lot of startups focus on culture. It is commonly said that the culture is defined by the founders, the first few employees, and the product itself. However, what isn’t often mentioned is that the technical decisions will have a direct effect on the company culture. Whether your new startup is based on J2EE/Oracle, Perl, PHP, Rails, Node.js or .NET, the team’s engineers will have different expectations, different values, and different concerns. None of these technologies are intrinsically bad. Great things have been built with each. But they do come with a culture. A couple years ago, I met an entrepreneur who chose to build his application in Node.js. Curious, I asked why he chose Node. The response was simple: * smart engineers are excited about it so I can more easily recruit * people are willing to contribute for free because it builds their experience This decision clearly set the engineering culture and defined the team of people who could work or be interested in working on the project. Asking a Different Question So maybe instead of asking what technology I should use, we should ask ourselves: Does this technology fit my company’s core values? That’s a much harder question because you need to actually understand your core values. That understanding is key to building a successful product. You can’t blindly copy a tech stack in the same way you can’t copy a business plan. It’s a part of your company’s identity. Your core values, your objectives, your team and your expectations are different. The whole “it worked for X” argument is rarely valid. Look, Facebook uses PHP, it “worked for them”. Does that mean we should all use PHP? Technology-Culture Alignment Characterizing communities is difficult, but I’ll share with you the impressions and perspectives that I have on various options. Feel free to use the comments to share your own perspective and cover other communities. Old School Here are some of the “classics”: languages that have been used for a while and have proven their values. They’re widespread, but don’t inspire much passion anymore. Note: I omitted Perl because I personally don’t know any new startups building their core technology in Perl (6?). PHP Philosophy: Get stuff done, that’s what matters It’s like Basic for the Web As long as there is a way to do it, it ain’t broken It works and it’s fast, anything else is pointless Don’t be too academic, our language is accessible and anyone can be started in no time. Try to do the same thing with Java! Object orientation as an afterthought Common use case: (as of mid-2013) Your first web app Extending Wordpress/Drupal Personal opinion: PHP had its days of glory. It really made web development easy and accessible. However, probably due to the really large amount of new programmers who started with PHP and a not so opinionated community, very few people can write good PHP. Good idiomatic code examples are hard to find and I’m not even sure there is such as as idiomatic PHP. The result is a community known for poor code quality, lack of tests, security nightmares and an after taste of the early 2000s. Strong PHP teams with well established conventions, processes and guidelines can accomplish great things, but such teams are rare. Java Philosophy: Portability The power & performance of C/C++ but with automatic memory management Cares a lot about object-orientation IDE required Memory is cheap so we consume it ALL Threading is the way to go! Don’t mention Java applets Look at my pretty JVM! Open source (but owned by Oracle) Slower but safer development cycles Personal Opinion: Java is quite interesting. A few years ago a lot of developers got tired of Java and explored other lands. They often switched to interpreted languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby or more esoteric languages like Erlang. However, Google via Android was able to show that Java in itself isn’t as terrible as we remembered (as long as you don’t have to use J2EE or Swing). There is also a “hipsterish” trend that seems to indicate that Java is actually cool again. A lot of that has to do with two things: the JVM the incredible quantity of high quality libraries That said, for a lot of us, writing Java all day long doesn’t sound appealing. If you are going to rely on the Java stack, there is long list of other JVM languages which are mature and play well with Java libs (i.e: Scala, Groovy, JRuby, Clojure). You can always to mix and match. Hiring Java developers isn’t too hard since most students coming out of school learned Java, but finding great early-stage startup engineers who want to write Java is quite challenging. Side note: If you are targeting Android, keep it simple, stay with the official stack even if you might fancy another JVM language better. There are still many reasons to use Java’s technology for your new startup, but you might also consider using a more “rapid/flexible” solution in parallel (Ruby, Python, Node…). A multilingual environment brings a lot of value to both the company and the engineers, which is something the Java community seems to be slowly but surely discovering. Java mainly attracts more classically trained engineers looking for comfortable, repetitive, well known patterns. They will be used to the language, its tools and its natural rhythm. They might not be the most curious developers but they are reliable (if you pick the right ones obviously). C#/.NET Philosophy: A better Java Originally designed for desktop and embedded apps We have a better IDE than the Java guys We are enterprise serious but we can offer you most of Rails’ cool features We have a conflicted vision of Open Source Slower but safer development cycles Personal Opinion: I went back and looked at C# when C# 5 was released and I have to say that I was really impressed by some of the new language features. From a purely language design perspective, C# is quite a bit ahead of Java. I was also surprised by how pleasant it was to write Javascript in Visual Studio (I really didn’t expect that since my experience with VS was mainly around C++). Another thing that really impressed me: the quality level of the available documentation is outstanding! But the fact that C# isn’t open source, that Visual Studio + MSDN is so expensive and the whole environment reeks of licenses and costs, is bit of a turn off. Microsoft is slowly opening up to open source and more open solutions like Azure. But as a community, .NET is still quite Microsoft-centered. As a startup entrepreneur, you should consider how you feel about open source vs enterprise backed cultures. C# mainly attracts a variant of the Java crowd: engineers seeking stability and a support contract over open source. And they can tolerate IIS! Established Alternatives Over the years, two dynamic languages became cherished by startups: Python and Ruby. The two languages are actually quite similar. Nowadays Python is quite popular for backend apps (NLP, biotech, APIs, SOA elements) while Ruby is more popular for consumer-facing apps. Both of these languages suffer from the same limitations (mainly performance and concurrency) but their core values and communities have different focuses. Python Philosophy: Only one obvious way to do things Code has to be beautiful, simple and explicit Documentation is critical Strong language design leadership Personal Opinion: As someone who chose Ruby over Python, I often envy the quality of the documentation you find in Python projects. I also have a love/hate relationship with the fact that Python is designed to give you just one right way. This is often great for teams, but it can also be frustrating. In some areas, Python has some of the best libraries out there, and depending on the problems you are tackling, Python might be the right choice. Python developers know how to communicate about their code. They document what they do and are process oriented while being pragmatic about their approaches. But Python was created way before the internet became popular and if concurrency and high throughput is a concern for you, a dynamic, interpreted language with poor concurrency might not be the right choice. Python mainly attracts more pragmatic, experienced, full-stack developers wanting a modern but well-proven language. Ruby/Ruby on Rails Philosphy: Designed for humans, not machines Extreme flexibility: if you mess up, it’s on you Everything has to be easy, elegant and fun DSL on top of DSLs on top of DSLs Testing is critical Things move quickly, learn to keep up Passionate and vibrant community Personal opinion: As far as I’m concerned, Ruby has been my go-to language for years. You will find an incredible, sometimes overwhelming amount of Ruby open source code. Rails is really an amazing web framework making most web projects easy to implement if you know how to use the tool. But the flexibility and rapid development cycle also have downsides. Be ready to invest a large chunk of your time keeping your code base up to date and migrating away from abandoned libraries. If you can’t rely on caching, the throughput of a successful app will often be limited by the lack of good concurrency support. Ruby developers are mainly Rails developers and a great majority might have a hard time being able to identify core language features versus framework features. They are often curious, opportunistic (in a good way), somewhat pragmatic and care about code quality/structure and test coverage. Rails developers are typically early adopters due to the fact that the framework itself uses some new technologies by default (coffeescript, turbolinks, CSS pre-processors…). Ruby and Rails mainly attract developers wanting to get things done quickly but elegantly. These developers are often product-oriented and care more about the purpose and customer value than the lower-level computational details. New Players These are the languages/technologies that get people excited. They represent the new wave of programming languages designed to run in “the cloud”. Node.js (Javascript) Node.js isn’t a programming language but it’s the most popular way to run JS server side. The same way most of my comments about Ruby were about Rails, I’ll focus on Node more than JS itself. Philosophy: Designed for real-time driven apps with high throughput, low latency DIY Small core, the rest is up to the community Coupling is a sin Learned lessons from Ruby/Python Personal Opinion: I find Node.js interesting. Technically there isn’t much new with Node. Python has Tornado/Twisted, Ruby has EventMachine, and C had libevent. Event-driven frameworks have been used for a while but Node has two major advantages: * most JS libs are non-blocking * most web developers have to write some JS anyway The idea of using the same programming language both in the front end and the back end appeals to many, but the value is still unproven. Node offers great throughput (as long as you stick to IO operations), is easy to get started, and is fun to write. Due to the nature of event-based programming, debugging and testing is challenging. Dealing with callbacks can be maintenance hell. I hope that Node will adopt an official future/promise solution. And documentation is typically spotty making jumping on an existing project difficult. Node developers are definitely early adopters and comfortable creating a custom structure/pattern rather than following convention.It attracts developers wanting to use a known language (JS) to handle high levels of concurrency. Node as a framework is lower level than the classical MVCs which is a plus for hackers. Node developers also really like the idea of using the same programming language on both server and client. Clojure Philosophy: A pragmatic and modern Lisp Everything is data Concurrency, concurrency, concurrency States are evil Great Java interoperability A bit on the academic side, but still being pragmatic Personal Opinion: What I like the most about Clojure is the lisp spirit. Once you get past the parenthesis and the operator/argument order, Clojure challenges you to entirely rethink the way you architect your code. It’s really good and efficient at processing data and pushes you to keep your code short. My problem with Clojure is that I’m not smart enough to write a lot of it. My brain quickly stack overflows trying to follow the data. Exceptions are often meaningless and trying to debug someone else’s code is challenging since the language itself is complex and it can be extended by macros. Finally, the Clojure community isn’t really web-oriented, most of the work done in Clojure seems to be data-centric. Clojure mainly attracts more fringe, language-curious, data-oriented programmers. If you are looking for data scientists with a programming language fetish, Clojure is a good way to attract them. Scala Philosophy: Have the best of both object oriented and functional programming worlds Let the compiler do some of the work for you Concurrency matters Less ceremony than Java, but aiming for same or better performance Live in harmony with the Java ecosystem Personal Opinion: Scala is currently my language of choice when targeting the JVM. The learning curve is steep. Knowing when to use FP vs OOP can be tricky and so is dealing with the language syntax itself. That said, getting the benefits of using FP, while still keeping OOP when needed, is very useful. Once you “get” the language idioms, writing Scala is actually pleasant and the community is quite nice. The Play framework is really good and offers a good alternative to Rails, especially for API development. Twitter’s engineering team offers a lot of resources and open source code. Using Scala is a pretty safe bet at this point. Java developers feel confortable and get to try a more “modern” language. Dynamic language developers don’t feel too far from home but get the Java ecosystem, the performance boost, concurrency and immutability. The tooling and convetions make using Scala on a growing team quite nice, if the compilation time doesn’t get you down. Like Ruby, though, the Scala community isn’t big on documentation. I really hope the API doc will be rewritten to be more intuitive and overall more useful. But to be fair there are a lot of great resources out there such as Twitter’s Scala school and Coursera’s FP in Scala class given by Martin Odersky (Scala’s creator). Scala mainly attracts curious Java developers wanting something more modern as well as Ruby/Python developers wanting a more scalable version of their language. Scala is a good way to attract great developers who want to push the boundaries of their existing dev environment as well as developers being able to leverage the duality of the language. Go A better C Memory management is handled for you, but don’t be wreckless Explicit is better than implicit Rich built-in functionality Fast.. everything (from compilation to execution) Concurrency built-in and made easy Documentation is critical Personal Opinion: I really like Go (aka Golang). After playing with it for years, I chose to use it to develop the APIs of my own startup. Go might sound boring to some, but its simplicity and efficiency just work. Go forces you to think a bit more about how you structure your data/behavior because you can’t just stick to the usual OO patterns. I’ve found that my code ends up being easier to follow and simpler in structure, yet sometimes a bit more repetitive (ex: error handling). Concurrency can’t get much easier than Go. While it is compiled, your code compiles and boots in less time than a Rails server starts up. Go supports some form of duck typing making the transition from Ruby (for instance) quite easy. The production performance is quite amazing when coming from a scripting language and the memory footprint stays small. Go is designed so a single user or a big team can work on the same codebase and the tooling around the language is really great. However, it’s not a perfect language. 3rd party dependency management can be tricky at times. The code can feel too low-level when you’re used to high-level programming languages. And some of the language design decisions can cause confusion at times (ex: interacting with interfaces vs structs). Go seems to become quite popular within the startup scene when performance and concurrency matters. I’ve seen a good number of startups migrating from Node to Go and others simply extending their stack by adding small Go apps. The Go community seems to be a mix of old school hackers coming from C/C++ and a younger crowd enjoying a lower-level language. The language and the community leaders are opinionated which makes understanding their vision and approach easy. It also allows you to quickly evaluate how comfortable you are with their philosophy and see if it matches your expectations. Go mainly attracts performance/architecture oriented developers. They want easy concurrency, the execution speed of C with the development speed of Python/Ruby. They don’t look for a new fun language, they look for a solid compromise. Technology Drives Culture Technical decisions have cultural impact. Think clearly and carefully about how your technologies align with your company’s core values. Make the right choices and you’ll spend less time fighting about technical details and more time building a great business. And if you miss those arguments, there’s always hackernews. Update: Speaking of HN, here is the thread for this post |
CHARMING 7 February 2018 Tess and I recently watched this program on Netflix and really enjoyed it. Tess is a lifelong Anglophile and a staunch royalist (and I've lived and worked in England several times and love the country too) and has watched MANY documentaries on the royals but she loved this because she said that it finally showed the world that the Windsors have always been a "normal", loving family who have gone through good times and bad, and survived with dignity and that Diana Spencer did not "humanize" them because they were already human and deserving of respect. (My little pitbull defends others too). Princes William and Harry and other family members and friends clearly enjoyed watching the home movies as much as we did and we both agree that Prince Charles will (someday) be a very good King. |
A Magazine story on Sunday explored the curious fact that countries where chocolate-consumption is high tend to produce more Nobel Prize winners. Readers supplied possible explanations for the link - here is a selection. Michael Johnson, Manchester As an inventor myself, I find my most creative ideas come out when I have some time to myself, either relaxing or pacing up an down pondering about something. As chocolate is not a necessity product but rather more of a luxury product you might eat for enjoyment. It may be that people who have more time to relax and ponder, rather than worry about work or necessity of life... are most creative. Liz Pearce, Cardiff I had my IQ measured by Mensa a few years ago and it came out at 159 which is apparently in the top 1% of the population. I am also well known for my chocolate addiction and once ate 23 Cadbury Creme Eggs at one sitting. (I felt a bit sick afterwards though.) Does chocolate make you clever? It might not surprise you that Switzerland came top of the chocolate-fuelled league of intelligence, having both the highest chocolate consumption per head and also the highest number of Nobel laureates. Sweden, however, was an anomaly. It had a very high number of Nobel laureates but its people consumed much less chocolate on average. Read the original article Apostolos Papoutsis, Athens, Greece Eating chocolate when hungry is definitely a sign of superior intelligence. To start with, it saves hours in preparation and washing up, not to mention the time it takes to consume the food. The quality and taste of the former is always guaranteed, while the latter entails a great degree of luck. As well, as far as we know, Earth is the only planet blessed with both chocolate and intelligence beings. How is this for correlation? Ken Yoshikawa, Portland, Oregon What if people who eat more chocolate have more leisure time, and leisure time is the variable that must be focused upon? Ayub Ayub, Amman, Jordan Chocolate is full of minerals, is a stimulant, and is expensive. People who eat it, especially from an early age, will develop better brains, be more alert/sharp minded, and because they come from richer countries will have better education, a richer environment and more stable/easy life (they can ponder more), and will have more resources hence making them better achievers. George Chilton, Salisbury, UK Chocolate is consumed in greater quantities in colder climates as it's a comfort food, and doesn't melt quite as much. Looking at the countries in the chart, we can see that they are highly affluent, and Northern. The combination of cold weather and money means people sit and work, rather than sit on the beach. Who wants to use their brain when it's 35 degrees [C] outside? I currently live in Spain. There aren't many Nobel prizes being won here, it's mostly because we're all at the beach, not because we're not eating enough chocolate. Andrea Valdes Veracruz, Mexico You must consider that the Mayas, who probably domesticated cacao, used to drink a lot of chocolate and they were capable of amazing discoveries in astronomy. Was chocolate the reason for their intelligence? I don't care if this is true or not - I will use it as an excuse anyway Marta Sandberg, Bridgetown, Australia James Winters, Edinburgh Me and my co-author, Sean Roberts, actually submitted a response to this paper that showed a correlation between the number of serial and rampage killers. In short, you can make the argument that there are positive and negative benefits to higher consumption of chocolate. Or, more seriously, the central point is that you shouldn't take these cross-cultural correlations too seriously. Johanna, California, USA Chocolate (for the most part, pure dark) makes me feel good. When I have an exam to study for, or ideas to come up with for a creative project, or the need to feel relaxed in an upcoming challenge, chocolate ALWAYS helps. Chocolate differs from other foods eaten at these times, because I don't feel slowed down by digestion and I don't feel tired or sleepy; rather I feel invigorated and, most importantly, inspired. This doesn't prove that chocolate is responsible for my successes, or others' successes. But it might mean that certain people - those who have a predilection and a taste for it - may ''need'' what chocolate offers biochemically (for improved emotional, physical and/or mental state) and consequently function better with it. I know I do. Marta Sandberg, Bridgetown, Australia I don't care if this is true or not - I will use it as an excuse anyway. William, Halifax, Canada If you look closely at the flags on the graph you will see that it makes the outline of Cornwall, UK. This Cornish connection ought to be pursued - and can I have a Nobel Prize now?! Brian Makin, Bassersdorf, Switzerland The explanation is obvious. The Swiss make the best chocolate! |
Last week, the Dallas Cowboys defeated a division rival to capture their first win of the season. Will they make it two in a row when they square off against Alshon Jeffery and the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football? After coming out on the losing end of a 29-14 game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 2, Chicago looks to rebound and capture their first win of the season. It’s the Bears and Cowboys on Sunday Night Football! WHAT TIME DOES THE DALLAS COWBOYS VS. CHICAGO BEARS GAME START? The Bears and Cowboys will kick off at 8:30 P.M. Eastern. HOW DO I LIVE STREAM THE CHICAGO BEARS VS. DALLAS COWBOYS GAME? The Cowboys/Bears game is being broadcast on NBC. If you have a cable subscription, you’re all set: you can live stream Cowboys vs. Bears free via the NBC Sports app, available on iTunes, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Android, and more. Cordcutters can live stream via Sling TV, whose Blue package carries NBC (more on Sling below). And there’s also PlayStation Vue. Subscribers to their ‘Access’ basic cable streaming service have access to NBC. CAN I STREAM VIA DIRECTV SUNDAY TICKET? You can, but only if you live at an address at which DirecTV does NOT offer service (and only out-of-market games). Check your eligibility here. WHAT ABOUT NFL GAME PASS? NFL Game Pass shows games that have already concluded. If you’re fine with on demand NON-live games, sign up for $99/year. WHAT ABOUT TWITTER? I HEARD THEY WERE STREAMING THE NFL THIS YEAR. Twitter is indeed streaming a number of Thursday night games, but not all of them, and not tonight’s Sunday Night Football matchup. HOW CAN I GET SLING TV? This is a terrific time to check out Sling TV. The service’s Blue package, which includes major networks like CNN, Fox and NBC, normally costs $25 a month, but are currently offering subscribers a free one-week trial of the service. Then, from there, you can either download the Sling desktop app (if you’re watching on a desktop or laptop computer), or download the Sling app for iOS/Apple devices, Android, Roku, Microsoft, Nexus player, ZTE or XBox One. |
TORONTO — Set your phasers to “welcome.” Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are landing in Vancouver this summer to make the third chapter in the rebooted Star Trek movie franchise. Cameras are scheduled to roll at Vancouver Film Studios and at various locations in B.C. from June 1 to the end of September. Justin Lin (Fast and Furious 6) is directing the still-untitled film, which also has Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin and John Cho reprising their roles. The movie is scheduled to be released in July 2016, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek TV series starring Montreal native William Shatner. The decision to make Star Trek 3 in Vancouver was revealed last October. Producer J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot has made TV shows like Almost Human, Fringe and Alcatraz in Vancouver. It recently wrapped production of Showtime pilot Roadies in the city and will shoot Dead People, a pilot for The CW, there from mid-March to early April. Parts of 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol were also filmed in B.C. Abrams directed 2009’s Star Trek and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness, which earned a combined $853 million at the box office worldwide. A favourable exchange rate, combined with federal tax credits of 16 per cent and provincial tax credits of up to 33 per cent, have made the province a popular location for Hollywood productions. Production of the new Star Trek movie will pump millions in the B.C. economy and provide work for hundreds of locals. |
[1] The Roordahuizum drinking horn, made in the mid 16th century by silversmith Albert Jacobs Canter, kept in the Frisian Museum at Leeuwarden A drinking horn is the horn of a bovid used as a drinking vessel. Drinking horns are known from Classical Antiquity especially the Balkans, and remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period in some parts of Europe, notably in Germanic Europe, and in the Caucasus. Drinking horns remain an important accessory in the culture of ritual toasting in Georgia in particular, where they are known as kantsi.[2] Drinking vessels made from glass, wood, ceramics or metal styled in the shape of drinking horns are also known from antiquity. The ancient Greek term for a drinking horn was simply keras (plural kerata, "horn").[3] To be distinguished from the drinking-horn proper is the rhyton (plural rhyta), a drinking-vessel made in the shape of a horn with an outlet at the pointed end. Antiquity [ edit ] [4] Many of them depict warriors holding a drinking horn in their right hand. Collection of drawings of Scythian stelae of the 6th to 5th centuries BC.Many of them depict warriors holding a drinking horn in their right hand. The Hochdorf drinking horn (iron with sheet gold ornaments, capacity 5.5 litres) Both in the Greek and the Scythian sphere, vessels of clay or metal shaped like horns were used alongside actual horns from an early time. A Late Archaic (ca. 480 BC) Attic red-figure vase shows Dionysus and a satyr each holding a drinking horn.[5] During Classical Antiquity, the Thracians and Scythians in particular were known for their custom of drinking from horns (archaeologically, the Iron Age "Thraco-Cimmerian" horizon). Xenophon's account of his dealings with the Thracian leader Seuthes suggests that drinking horns were integral part of the drinking kata ton Thrakion nomon ("after the Thracian fashion"). Diodorus gives an account of a feast prepared by the Getic chief Dromichaites for Lysimachus and selected captives, and the Getians' use of drinking vessels made from horn and wood is explicitly stated. The Scythian elite also used horn-shaped rhyta made entirely from precious metal. A notable example is the 5th century BC gold-and-silver rhython in the shape of a Pegasus which was found in 1982 in Ulyap, Adygea, now at the Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow.[6] M.I. Maksimova (1956) in an archaeological survey of Scythian drinking horns distinguished two basic types (excluding vessels of clearly foreign origin), a strongly curved type, and a slender type with only slight curvature; the latter type was identified as based on aurochs horns by Maksimova (1956:221). This typology became standard in Soviet-era archaeology.[7] There are a few artistic representation of Scythans actually drinking from horns from the rim (rather than from the horn's point as with rhyta).[8] The oldest remains of drinking horns or rhyta known from Scythan burials are dated to the 7th century BC, reflecting Scythian contact with oriental culture during their raids of the Assyrian Empire at that time. After these early specimens, there is a gap with only sparse evidence of Scythian drinking horns during the 6th century. Drinking horns re-appear in the context of Pontic burials in the 5th century BC: these are the specimens classified as Scythian drinking horns by Maksimova (1956). The 5th-century BC practice of depositing drinking horns with precious metal fittings as grave goods for deceased warriors appears to originate in the Kuban region.[9] In the 4th century BC, the practice spreads throughout the Pontic Steppe. Rhyta, mostly of Achaemenid or Thracian import, continue to be found in Scythian burials, but they are now clearly outnumbered by Scythian drinking horns proper. Around the midpoint of the 4th century BC, a new type of solid silver drinking horn with strong curvature appears. While the slightly curving horn type is found throughout the Pontic Steppe, specimens of the new type have not been found in the Kuban area. The custom of depositing drinking horns as grave goods begins to subside towards the end of the 4th century BC.[10] The depiction of drinking horns on kurgan stelae appears to follow a slightly different chronology, with the earliest examples dated to the 6th century BC, and a steep increase in frequency during the 5th, but becoming rare by the 4th century (when actual deposits of drinking horns become most frequent). In the Crimean peninsula, such depictions appear somewhat later, from the 5th century BC, but then more frequently than elsewhere.[11] Scythian drinking horns have been found almost exclusively in warrior burials. This has been taken as strongly suggesting an association of the drinking horn with the Scythian cult of kingship and warrior ethos. In the influential interpretation due to M. I. Rostovtzeff (1913), the Scythian ruler received the drinking horn from a deity as a symbol of his investiture. This interpretation is based on a number of depictions of a Scythian warrior drinking from a horn standing or kneeling next to a seated woman.[12] Rolle (1980) interpreted the woman not as a goddess but as a high-ranking Scythian woman performing a ritual office.[13] Krausse (1996) interpreted the same scenes as depicting a marriage ceremony, with the man drinking from the horn as part of an oath ritual comparable to the scenes of Scythian warriors jointly drinking from a horn in an oath of blood brotherhood.[14] The Scythian drinking horns are clearly associated with the consumption of wine.[15] The drinking horn reached Central Europe with the Iron Age, in the wider context of "Thraco-Cimmerian" cultural transmission. A number of early Celtic (Hallstatt culture) specimens are known, notably the remains of a huge gold-banded horn found at the Hochdorf burial. Krauße (1996) examines the spread of the "fashion" of drinking horns (Trinkhornmode) in prehistoric Europe, assuming it reached the eastern Balkans from Scythia around 500 BC. It is more difficult to assess the role of plain animal horns as everyday drinking vessels, because these decay without a trace, while the metal fittings of the ceremonial drinking horns of the elite are preserved archaeologically.[16] Julius Caesar has a description of Gaulish use of aurochs drinking horns (cornu urii) in De bello gallico 6.28: „Amplitudo cornuum et figura et species multum a nostrorum boum cornibus differt. Haec studiose conquisita ab labris argento circumcludunt atque in amplissimis epulis pro poculis utuntur.“ "The [Gaulish] horns in size, shape, and kind are very different from those of our cattle. They are much sought-after, their rim fitted with silver, and they are used at great feasts as drinking vessels." Migration period [ edit ] The Germanic peoples of the Migration period imitated glass drinking horns from Roman models. One fine 5th century Merovingian example found at Bingerbrück, Rhineland-Palatinate made from olive green glass is kept at the British Museum.[17] Some of the skills of the Roman glass-makers survived in Lombardic Italy, exemplified by a blue glass drinking-horn from Sutri, also in the British Museum. The two Gallehus Horns (early 5th century), made from some 3 kg of gold and electrum each, are usually interpreted as drinking horns, although some scholars point out that it cannot be ruled out that they may have been intended as blowing horns. After the discovery of the first of these horns in 1639, Christian IV of Denmark by 1641 did refurbish it into a usable drinking horn, adding a rim, extending its narrow end and closing it up with a screw-on pommel. These horns are the most spectacular known specimens of Germanic Iron Age drinking horns, but they were lost in 1802 and are now only known from 17th to 18th century drawings. Some notable examples of drinking horns of Dark Ages Europe were made of the horns of the Aurochs, the wild ancestor of domestic cattle which became extinct in the 17th century. These horns were carefully dressed up and their edges lipped all round with silver. The remains of a notable example were recovered from the Sutton Hoo burial.[18] The British Museum also has a fine pair of 6th century Anglo-Saxon drinking horns, made from Aurochs horns with silver-gilt mounts, recovered from the princely burial at Taplow, Buckinghamshire.[19] Numerous pieces of elaborate drinking equipment have been found in female graves in all pagan Germanic societies, beginning in the Germanic Roman Iron Age and spanning a full millennium, into the Viking Age.[20] Viking Age [ edit ] Drinking horns are attested from Viking Age Scandinavia. In the Prose Edda, Thor drank from a horn that unbeknown to him contained all the seas, and in the process he scared Útgarða-Loki and his kin by managing to drink a conspicuous part of its content. They also feature in Beowulf, and fittings for drinking horns were also found at the Sutton Hoo burial site. Carved horns are mentioned in Guðrúnarkviða II, a poem composed about 1000 AD and preserved in the Poetic Edda: Váru í horni hvers kyns stafir ristnir ok roðnir, - ráða ek né máttak, - lyngfiskr langr, lands Haddingja ax óskorit, innleið dyra.[22] On the horn’s face were there All the kin of letters Cut aright and reddened, How should I rede them rightly? The ling-fish long Of the land of Hadding, Wheat-ears unshorn, And wild things inwards.[23] Beowulf (493ff.) describes the serving of mead in carved horns. Horn fragments of Viking Age drinking horns are only rarely preserved, showing that both cattle and goat horns were in use, but the number of decorative metal horn terminals and horn mounts recovered archaeologically show that the drinking horn was much more widespread than the small number of preserved horns would otherwise indicate. Most Viking Age drinking horns were probably from domestic cattle, holding rather less than half a litre. The significantly larger aurochs horns of the Sutton Hoo burial would have been the exception.[24] Medieval to Early Modern period [ edit ] Drinking horns were the ceremonial drinking vessel for those of high status all through the medieval period[25] References to drinking horns in medieval literature include the Arthurian tale of Caradoc and the Middle English romance of King Horn. The Bayeux Tapestry (1070s) shows a scene of feasting before Harold Godwinson embarks for Normandy. Five figures are depicted as sitting at a table in the upper story of a building, three of them holding drinking horns. Most Norwegian drinking horns preserved from the Middle Ages have ornamented metal mountings, while the horns themselves are smooth and unornamented. Carvings in the horns themselves are also known, but these appear relatively late, and are of a comparative simplicity that classifies them as folk art.[26] Corpus Christi College of Cambridge University has a large aurochs drinking horn, allegedly predating the College's foundation in the 14th century, which is still drunk from at College feasts.[27] Drinking horn of Sigismund of Luxemburg, before 1408 The "Oldenburg horn" was made in 1474/75 by German artisans for Christian I of Denmark when he visited Cologne to reconcile Charles the Bold of Burgundy. It is made of silver and gilt, richly ornamented with the coats of arms of Burgundy and Denmark. The horn has its name from being kept in the Oldenburg family castle for two centuries before being moved to its present location in Copenhagen. It became associated in legend with count Otto I of Oldenburg, who was supposed to have received it from a fairy woman in 980. Drinking horns remained in use for ceremonial purposes throughout the Early Modern period. A magnificent drinking horn was made for the showpiece of the Amsterdam Guild of Arquebusiers by Amsterdam jeweller Arent Coster in 1547, now kept in the Rijksmuseum. In 17th to 18th century Scotland, a distinct type of drinking horn develops. One aurochs drinking horn still preserved in Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It was only produced before guests, and the drinker in using it, twisted his arms round its spines, and turning his mouth towards the right shoulder, was expected to drain it off.[28] German Renaissance and Baroque horns often were lavishly decorated with silverwork. One such example is depicted in a 1653 painting by Willem Kalf, known as Still Life with Drinking Horn. Modern period [ edit ] Lavishly decorated drinking horns in the Baroque style, some imitating cornucopias, some made from ivory, including gold, silver and enamel decorations continued to be produced as luxury items in 19th to early 20th century imperial Austria and Germany.[29] Also in the 19th century, drinking horns inspired by the Romantic Viking revival were made for German student corps for ritual drinking. In the context of Romanticism, a ceremonial drinking horn with decorations depicting the story of the Mead of Poetry was given to Swedish poet Erik Gustaf Geijer by his students in 1817, now in the Private Collection of Johan Paues, Stockholm.[30] Ram or goat drinking horns, known as kantsi, remain an important accessory in the culture of ritual toasting in Georgia. During a formal dinner (supra) Georgians propose a toast, led by a toastmaster (tamada) who sets the topic of each round of toasting. Toasts are made with either wine or brandy, toasting with beer is considered an insult.[2] In Swiss culture, a large drinking horn together with a wreath of oak leaves is the traditional prize for the winning team of a Hornussen tournament. Modern-day Asatru adherents use drinking horns for Blóts and sumbels. See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] References [ edit ] |
Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment Will Have More Of An Action Feel To Match The Anime By Sato . November 8, 2013 . 1:02am Namco Bandai’s new Sword Art Online game for PlayStation Vita will be made to have more action to match the feel of the actual series, compared to their earlier PSP game. Today, the publisher provided a look at the game’s battle system and its special “Burst” gauge and attack features. Unlike the PSP title, Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment, where the battles revolved around auto-attacks, Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment introduces a new “Burst Gauge” system to pull off special attacks. The new action-based system with attacks that are done by pressing buttons to do “Burst Attacks” which use up the meter. As long as the meter keeps filling up, you’ll get to keep using Burst Attacks; however, while the damage will continue increasing, there’s some sort of “Risk” involved, which is indicated with its own meter to the right of the Burst Gauge. The “step” feature also uses the Burst Gauge, which is used to do short-dashes towards different directions. The step feature will have its offensive and defensive uses, as it can be used to evade enemy attacks or quickly dash behind them for a positional advantage. As long as your Burst Gauge isn’t empty, you’ll get to keep using Burst Attacks and steps, but knowing how to use them and making sure it doesn’t run out will be the key of winning fights. If things start looking dicey in the middle of your Burst Attack, you can always use a step to cancel the attack for an evasion, then step again towards the enemy to continue doing more damage. The steps will also work for canceling out auto-attacks. Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment will be released for PlayStation Vita next year. |
A man camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota died Sunday night when a tree fell on him as he sought shelter from a powerful storm that rolled through the area, the Cook County Sheriff's Office said. Craig Anthony Walz, 43, of Rochester was with his son and another man and his son near Duncan Lake, about 30 miles north of Grand Marais, when the storms with high winds and heavy rain toppled a mature white pine, which hit Walz. Rescuers responded to the call, which came in at 10:27 p.m., said Sheriff Pat Eliasen. Walz is the brother of U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn. Sara Severs, a spokeswoman for the congressman, said the family "wants to express their profound gratitude to law enforcement, first responders and fellow campers who responded immediately to help. "The family is also grateful for the messages of support and prayers they have received," her statement continued. "They are devastated by the loss and ask for privacy at this time." Walz's son, Jacob, also was hit by the tree. He suffered severe injuries and was taken by helicopter to Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth. The hospital said Monday night that it was not releasing any information about his condition. Craig Walz was a math and science teacher at St. Charles High School in southeastern Minnesota, according to a statement from Ken Martin, Minnesota DFL Party chairman. Walz "is remembered by his family, students and community as an amazing husband and father, and outstanding teacher, a passionate mentor and loving friend," the statement said. In a Facebook post, Shellie Henry, a former student of Walz' at St. Charles High, praised him for all he did for her and other students. "Thank you for always greeting everyone with a smile. You were one of the best. You will be missed, Mr. Walz. Rest in peace." A second call for help came Sunday night from a man who was hit by a falling tree near Clove Lake on the U.S.-Canadian border. He suffered injuries to his upper body and was hospitalized. Also on Sunday night, St. Louis County authorities said two adults and six young people in an Outward Bound group were injured in an indirect lightning strike in Sunday Bay at Crooked Lake when lightning hit the trees near where they were standing. They were taken to Ely Bloomenson Community Hospital; the injuries did not appear to be life-threatening, officials said. |
The Android team at Trello is happy to announce our first open source Android library, Victor! It's a Gradle plugin that lets you use SVGs as resources in your Android apps. Victor started as a request from our designers. They were regularly creating vector icons that they would later convert to PNG for Android. Could we cut out the middleman and use the SVGs directly, they asked? Our answer: Victor. Try out Victor and let us know what you think! There were quite a few lessons we learned from working on our first Gradle plugin that we’d like to share. Getting Started Before we could write any improvements for our build files we had to learn to speak their language, Groovy. And Gradle. And the Android plugin on top of that. If that sounds like a lot, it is. Here are some resources that helped: Evaluating Extensions Victor comes with a victor {} closure which lets you configure the plugin. This is known as an extension. While it makes end-user configuration easy, it proved tricky to use due to the order of execution. Roughly, these are the steps for adding Victor to a project: Use project.apply() to add the Victor plugin. The plugin adds a configurable extension, victor {} . The plugin configures its tasks with variables from the extension. End-users can now create their own victor {} configuration. This flow creates a catch-22 because we have to apply the plugin all at once. Users can't create the victor {} block until the plugin is applied, but then that means the plugin can't use that information until after the plugin is done with configuration. The solution to this problem is project.afterEvaluate . The code inside the closure is executed after the inital evaluation of the project, so you can use variables from the extension. Here's a rough sketch of how it looks in action: class VictorPlugin implements Plugin<Project> { void apply(Project project) { // Create our extension that users can configure project.extensions.create('victor', VictorPluginExtension) project.afterEvaluate { // Access extension variables here, now that they are set } } } Relative Paths Build processes naturally involve lots of files; Victor especially so, because it generates PNG resources based on the SVGs provided. Where do you put all those files? At first, all our file paths were relative to the working directory. This was bad news; the working directory can change depending on a variety of factors which meant our plugin was very brittle. We eventually learned of the existence of three project variables that make things so much easier: buildDir , projectDir and rootDir . Use these if you want to write consistent Gradle code that accesses files . Adding Resources Victor adds new resources to the project - but how? Our initial attempt was to create a task that put generated files into the build directory that the Android plugin uses. This solution had two big problems: How do we ensure this task is run at the right time in the build process? How do we ensure the output files are actually used by the Android plugin? To solve these problems, you have to know about application variants. The Android plugin creates one variant per combination of build type and product flavor. (By default, your project has two variants: debug and release.) You can access the list of these variants in android.applicationVariants . These application variants received a new method in recent versions of the Android plugin: registerResGeneratingTask() . This tells the Android plugin that we want to add new resources when compiling that variant. It ensures that the resource generating task is run at the correct time in the Android build process. It also tells the Android plugin where those generated resources will be located. In the end, our code looked something like this: project.android.applicationVariants.all { variant -> File outputDir = project.file("$project.buildDir/some/path") Task victorTask = /* ...Setup the task here... */ variant.registerResGeneratingTask(victorTask, outputDir) } Avoiding Extra Work Gradle tasks should only execute when necessary to avoid inflating your build time. Unfortunately, custom tasks are always executed since Gradle doesn't know whether they are up-to-date or not. Luckily, you can tell the task your inputs/outputs and Gradle can automatically detect if any of them have changed since the last build. Here's how Victor's task looks with its inputs and outputs annotated: class RasterizeTask extends DefaultTask { @InputFiles FileCollection sources @OutputDirectory File outputDir @Input List<Density> includeDensities @Input int baseDpi } If any of these inputs/outputs change (either their values or the content of their files), then the task is run again. But if nothing is different, we'll skip the work! We took it one step further with Victor and made it an incremental task. That means that we only need to do work for the subset of files that have changed each build, further improving build times when you only modify a couple files. Testable Code Testing the plugin was a key concern, not only because it helps ensure correct output, but also because it is a faster way of developing new code. Unfortunately, we found testing Gradle plugins to be a huge pain. It is quite difficult to test the plugin's task configuration outside of an actual project. To get around this problem we split our code into two parts: Gradle-specific code (plugin and tasks). Everything else. While the first part is still difficult to test, the second half is now free to be tested in any way you please. In Victor, the actual rasterization code takes place separately and could be run as an independent library. The Gradle tasks themselves simply call into that code. No Project is an Island There's no need to go it alone when taking on a new project! We benefited greatly from the wisdom of others when working on this library and wanted to thank them for their help with writing this plugin: Xavier Ducrohet, for many things, especially pointing me towards registerResGeneratingTask() . . Jake Ouellette and Jake Wharton, for helping fill in the gaps in my Gradle knowledge. Thanks! This article was originally posted on the Trello engineering blog and has been reproduced here for posterity. |
An Alberta woman whose bizarre reaction during a traffic stop was caught on a dashcam video will not go to jail despite convictions for assaulting a peace officer and resisting arrest. Simona Tibu, 42, received a one-year suspended sentence Wednesday and was ordered to obey a list of conditions including having no contact with the arresting officer Sgt. Robert Behiels and his family, or go within a 10-block radius of his home. Sgt. Robert Behiels said the case has weighed heavily on him and his family. (CBC) Should she follow the conditions, she would be not be sentenced on the offences. Judge Gordon Yake called Tibu's accusations that Behiels tried to sexually assault her "despicable" and "untrue." He noted she has never apologized for her "bizarre behaviour," and for endangering Behiels' life. "This offender has been the subject of significant publicity, some of it generated by herself. This is the factor that causes me the most concern," he said. "I find it requires the offender has a public record of conviction," he said, rejecting the defence's request for a conditional discharge. Following the hearing, Behiels said the case has weighed heavily on him and his family for almost two years. "I think it was a just decision," he said. "What Ms. Tibu did, she brought on herself." Tried biting officer; grabbed at his groin In August 2013 Tibu was stopped for speeding on Highway 21 near Camrose. For more than eight minutes, she tried persistently to escape from the sheriff by biting him and grabbing his groin, Camrose provincial court heard Wednesday. Yake noted Tibu had no prior criminal record and appeared to be a good person prior to the incident. Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor said the lack of respect shown law enforcement officers "should be alarming to anyone." (CBC) Tibu has been licensed to practice as a dentist in Canada in 2006. She has a history of psychological and emotional difficulties starting as early as 2010, the court was told. While she is not diagnosed with any mental health disorder, a forensic psychologist reported her medical files reveal problems with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The report puts her at a low risk for future violence, provided she continues to address her issues with "continued psychological intervention." Crown prosecutor Doug Taylor called the case the "least appropriate ... ever for a discharge," noting Tibu has shown no remorse nor has she apologized to Behiels and is even appealing the speeding ticket. "This case is a sad representation of a very protracted lack of respect for law enforcement," he said following the sentencing hearing. "We're seeing this more and more," he said as he pointed to two recent murders of law enforcement officers in the Edmonton area, RCMP Const. David Wynn and EPS Const. Daniel Woodall. "This should be alarming to anyone." Nonetheless Taylor praised the judge's decision. "I think the judge gave a very fit, proper and above fair sentence in this case." |
OTTAWA - Canada's failure to arrest former U.S. president George W. Bush during a visit to B.C. is cited by Amnesty International in its annual report on human rights atrocities around the globe. The report also takes issue with Canada's treatment of aboriginal people, refugees and terrorism suspects and its refusal to hold a public inquiry into the arrests of more than 1,000 protesters during the 2010 G8 summit in Toronto. Canada's record of alleged human rights violations pales in comparison to the litany of torture, mass executions, and violent suppression of protests cited against countries like Syria and Uganda. But Amnesty Canada spokesperson John Tackaberry says the organization makes no attempt to rate the magnitude or seriousness of human rights abuses among the 155 nations listed in the 2012 report. Rather, it includes any country in which there's a "constellation" of violations that cause concern. In Canada's case, Tackaberry says Amnesty has "serious concerns" that the country is failing "in a number of cases" to meet its international obligations to protect human rights. Among the cases mentioned is Canada's failure last fall to arrest Bush when he visited British Columbia, "despite clear evidence that he was responsible for crimes under international law, including torture." Amnesty had campaigned for Canada to arrest and prosecute the former president. The demand for Bush's arrest "was certainly not a frivolous action on our part," Tackaberry said in an interview Wednesday. "We knew that there was little likelihood of this actually taking place but the important principle is that George (W) Bush has been implicated in serious human rights violations and Canada has a responsibility to ensure that people within their jurisdiction who are alleged to have been involved in serious human rights violations ... that they be brought to justice. "It's imperative that when there are serious human rights violations that individuals be held to account," he added. At the time of Bush's visit last October, Amnesty maintained the former president authorized the use of torture against detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, in Afghanistan and Iraq as the U.S. pursued its war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. It cited the use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" and cruel, degrading treatment, such as forcing detainees to remain in painful position, without sleep, for hours. As a signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture, Tackaberry said Canada has an obligation to take action against alleged violators, including Bush. The report, which documents alleged violations during 2011, also chides Canada for its treatment of aboriginal people on a number of fronts, including its failure to adopt a national action plan to address high levels of violence facing native women. It notes that a federal audit last summer found a majority of drinking water and waste water systems in First Nations communities constitute a health risk. It further criticizes Canada for refusing to apologize or compensate three men who were detained and tortured abroad because Canadian authorities falsely linked them to terrorist activities. And it says a proposed crackdown on refugee claimants who arrive en masse, employing the services of human smugglers, violate "international norms" for the treatment of asylum seekers. Also on HuffPost |
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police say a 12-year-old boy who died from a gunshot wound at a Boy Scout camp in San Diego brought the handgun with him from his hometown of Las Vegas. San… SAN DIEGO (AP) — Police say a 12-year-old boy who died from a gunshot wound at a Boy Scout camp in San Diego brought the handgun with him from his hometown of Las Vegas. San Diego County coroner’s investigators performed an autopsy Tuesday, but neither they nor police would say whether the shooting was self-inflicted or accidental. Police Lt. Mike Hastings tells the Los Angeles Times the gun wasn’t registered. Initial reports said he was shot in the head, but police now say it was the upper torso. U-T San Diego reports that the group of 20 Scouts whose chaperones included the boy’s father had arrived from Las Vegas on Sunday and had intended to stay until Saturday. The program allows Scouts to camp, sail, kayak and do other activities at San Diego’s Mission Bay. Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
Most people inside and outside of the US believe that this country’s gun ownership rate is unique, but that’s not exactly true. Though America has the most privately owned guns per capita, there are other countries that aren’t too far behind us, such as Serbia, Yemen, Cyprus, and many Western nations like Finland and Switzerland. In most cases, these countries don’t have access to the same kind of firearms that we do, but nonetheless there are a ton of guns floating around in these places. What really separates the US from every other country in the world, is that we have the right to bear arms preserved in our constitution. Technically, Honduras and Mexico have the same right in their constitutions, but in both cases it comes with a lot of restrictions. Their right to bear arms doesn’t have any teeth. The Swiss are known for letting many of their citizens own guns, but gun ownership for most Swiss citizens is more of a duty than a right. America stands alone in this regard. We’re the only country with a constitution that gives civilians a clear and explicit right to own and carry firearms. In every other nation, civilians don’t own firearms unless their governments let them. That however, is about to change. While most EU governments are eyeing more restrictive gun laws, the Czech Republic is about to add the right to bear arms to its constitution. Czech Lawmakers have passed legislation in the lower parliament that would see the right to bear firearms enshrined in the country’s constitution in a move directed against tighter regulations from the European Union. The legislation was passed with 139 deputies agreeing to the amendment to the constitution with only nine deputies voting against. The amendment will now be considered by the Czech Senate where it will require a supermajority of three-fifths of the members in order to pass into law, Die Presse reports. Similar to the U.S. second amendment to the Constitution, which gives Americans the right to keep and bear arms, the Czech legislation reads: “Citizens of the Czech Republic have the right to acquire, retain and bear arms and ammunition.” The amendment also notes that the right is there to ensure the safety of the country, similar to the provision of a “well-regulated militia” in the American amendment. After the bill passes through the senate, it’s expected to be signed into law by President Milos Zeman, who changed his mind on privately owned guns last year. “Earlier I spoke often about limiting the ability to have large quantities of weapons. But after the terrorist attacks, I have changed the idea.” Though the Czech Republic has always had loose gun laws compared to its neighbors, this law represents a major shift in the European public’s stance on firearm ownership. If anything, it could be just the tip of the iceberg. All across the continent, as migrants grow more violent and as terror attacks become more frequent, we’re seeing Europeans buy more firearms. In some cases, firearm sales have spiked by 350%. If there’s any silver lining to the massive influx of migrants into Europe over the past few years, it’s that it has taught ordinary Europeans how important it is to let civilians own firearms. |
The 10 most in-demand clinician specialties Family medicine physicians are still the most sought-after specialty — for the eighth year in a row, healthcare staffing firm Merritt Hawkins found family medicine physicians to be the most in-demand clinician specialty based on staffing requests the firm receives. General internists nabbed the second spot on the list, a position they have held for eight years in a row also. This highlights "the continued nationwide demand for primary care physicians," according to Merritt Hawkins' 2014 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives report. One major change is the increasing demand for advanced practitioners like physician assistants and nurse practitioners. The number of search assignments for PAs and NPs conducted by Merritt Hawkins has increased 320 percent over the last three years. The following are Merritt Hawkins' top 10 most-requested physician searches by medical specialty. 1. Family medicine 2. Internal medicine 3. Hospitalist 4. Psychiatry 5. Nurse practitioner 6. Pediatrician 7. Emergency medicine 8. Obstetrics/gynecology 9. Physician assistant 10. Neurology The report is based on the 3,158 physician and advanced practitioner search assignments conducted by Merritt Hawkins and AMN Healthcare's staffing companies between April 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014. More articles on physician recruitment: US ranks 25th in international physician count 15 things to know about the physician shortage 8 cardiologists cut ties with Mercy to reenter private practice © Copyright ASC COMMUNICATIONS 2019. Interested in LINKING to or REPRINTING this content? View our policies by clicking here. |
FA Interactive - Library Sales - Nature Film archive offered by production company. On-line research tool. Fabulous Footage - Rare archival documentary footage, with material from 1895 to 1940. On-line search and streaming video. Fast Footage - Stock footage source for various subjects including people, business, technology, nature, transportation, aerials, archival, cites, and international locations. Feedback Video - Animated backgrounds for professional video. Browse, preview, purchase and download as royalty free stock video. FIFA Archive - The archive of FIFA containing footage from the soccer World Cup tournaments, 1930 - 2002. Film & Video Stock Shots, Inc - Stock footage library offering broadcast quality videotape original shots, plus HD-24p, HDTV, 16mm and 35mm film sources. Subjects range from nature to extreme sports, from archival slapstick to historical, lifestyle and location footage. FILM Archives Inc. - Stock footage source offering a comprehensive collection of contemporary and vintage images. Specializes in contemporary 35mm film images. Site includes on-line search facility. Film Australia - The Film Australia Library manages a collection of film, video and sound recordings in which the Commonwealth of Australia holds copyright. It's one of the largest and most historically significant sources of archival, documentary and stock footage in the country. There are more than 5000 completed productions in the archive along with thousands of reels and tapes of out-take material and stills. Film Images (Paris) - Collection of 16mm and 35mm French current and historic footage, also offering access to various collections from other countries. Includes on-line catalog search facility. The Film Vault - Film based stock footage library specializing in Americana and amusement parks. Film World - Stock footage distributor for the Asia Pacific region. Exclusive agents for Corbis Motion. Contemporary and archival footage covering all subjects. Online previews available. FilmDisc.com - Royalty free stock footage provider offering 35mm footage. Clips available for online viewing. Material includes lifestyles, nature, aerials, sports, seniors, transportation, business. Finley-Holiday Stock Footage - Producer of nature and space related videos offering video library footage for stock use Fire Line Video Productions - Library of fire ground footage for licensing. Specializes in video of the New York City fire department (FDNY), and includes World Trade Center material. Fish Films Footage World - Full service stock footage library resource. Flatboy Productions - 3D Animated Backgrounds for Sale. HD, NTSC, PAL formats available. Flying Lion Productions - Video library of motion video and still image photography of breaking news events in Los Angeles County (East San Gabriel Valley). FOCAL International - Trade association for the commercial film and video library and archive industry. Includes Footage Finder e-facility. Members include libraries, researchers and consultants Footage Bakery - Stock footage company offering digital and film footage, described as "from the ordinary to the unusual", royalty free. Footage Farm - An archival film/video collection, with 12,000 data entries, of public domain material spanning over one hundred years. Footage sold by the reel with unrestricted use. Footage Hollywood - Licensing library offering movie and tv footage, from trailers to features, from documentaries to classic newsreels. Site includes on-line search facility. Footage Now Productions - 35mm motion picture images, tropical, landscapes, children, deserts, cities and custom camera work performed. The Footage Shack - Buy and sell stock video footage for multimedia project through this community exchange site The Footage Store - 35mm, 16mm, and Betacam SP stock footage. Subjects include wildlife, underwater, historical, sports and the bizarre. FootageBankHD - Footage house specializing in HD stock footage. Viewable clips online include aerials, time-lapse, worldwide locations, nature, technology, lifestyles, underwater, and sports. Footagedirect.com - Programme making company supplying archive film and stock footage for licensing, or royalty free. Footagehouse - Royalty free stock footage from broadcast quality video. Footage.info - The footage industry's talking shop through an on-line Forum, industry news service and gateway to over 200 footage web sites through its listings. Industry news alerts and newsletters from international consultancy. Footage.net - Stock, archival, news and sports footage network. Host of many footage trade on-line databases and includes on-line multi-catalog search facility. Researchers can submit instant ZAP requests to libraries. FootageSource.com - Film and video archive specializing in popular culture, Americana, Hollywood, and industrial footage from 1900 to the late 1970's. Footagestore.net Vintage and modern offering with a mix of Royalty Free and Rights Managed footage, all said to be fully cleared. Based Kiev, Ukraine FootageWorks.com - Royalty free and rights managed reality base and breaking news video clips and stock footage. Fotoseach - Royalty free photography and stock footage site with more than fifty photo and footage vendors. Search facility. Four Palms, Inc. - Royalty free stock footage available on various digital and analog formats. On-line search facility with still frames and browse movies. Frame FX - Royalty free stock footage and animations in PAL & NTSC Framepool - Online stock footage library licensing video and film clips using search engine with immediate preview of shots. Delivery worldwide on tape, data carrier or via download. Site in English, German and French languages. Framerate.net - Royalty free stock footage, media elements and production resources. 24 Frames - Royalty-free stock footage shot on 16mm film. Freestockfootage.com - Stock footage available for immediate download in Quicktime and MPEG resolutions. Previews are free. Freewheelin' Films - Sports stock footage including NASCAR and other motor sports, horseracing, soccer, golf. Lifestyle and domestic and international travel. Friends of Nature - Selection of royalty free digital stock footage and photos of nature and wildlife. Gaumont Pathé Archives - Archives holds 14,000 hours of newsreels from 1896 to the present covering political, economic, cultural and sports events in France and worldwide. Search, view, order on line. Includes English language database. Getty Images - Film and video collections range from historical to shot-for-stock. Offering includes footage from the BBC, NHK and many of the former Corbis representations. On-line search, view and download. Giant Cyborg - Offers a three volume collection of royalty-free motion backgrounds and stock footage buy-out collections. Global Cuts Stock Footage - Royalty free film, video and photographs delivered as QuickTime files. Global Focus - Royalty free stock footage in QuickTime format. Includes locations, earth views and space Global Image Works - Contemporary and historic footage across a range of genre, plus research and clearances Gmanvideo - Video backgrounds and loops for download. GMTV - Clip sales for UK breakfast television channel Goliath Media - Archival and modern royalty free motion imagery originated on both 35mm film and digital video, plus custom animations and stills GotFootage Stock Footage and Video - "Real World" Stock Footage from around the world. Fully searchable database and previews. FTP download service available for broadcast quality clips. GotHiDef.com - High definition stock footage in 720p and 1080i formats. Royalty free with signed releases for all talent. Greg Hensley Productions - 16mm and 35mm stock footage including wildlife, avalanches, weather, and cities. HD-timelapse.com - Royalty free HD time lapse footage Historic Films Inc. - Comprehensive source for the licensing of historic film and musical performance film clips. Over 50,000 hours of stock footage 1895-1995 available for all productions. Site includes on-line catalog search facility. Hoffmann Films Stock Footage - Production company specializing in Action Sports and Adventure Travel offers footage from a library of 16mm film and video. Hot Under the Collar Productions Ltd - HUTC for short. Supplies a selection of timeless short stories from the UK, plus clips and footage, covering sports and a range of British and unusual subjects. Howard Hall-High Definition Video Library - High Definition Video Library stock footage of underwater locations, southern California, Fiji and others Huntley Film Archives - Independent library with more than 80,000 titles, claiming to be one of the largest film libraries in Europe. Site includes on-line catalog research facility. I Was A Teenage Nerd Productions - Royalty free stock footage of Sydney, Australia. Digital video collection includes over 240 different shots of Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, city skylines, street scenes, and Bondi Beach. Images of Borneo - Stock images, footage and 3D maps on the country of Borneo, including time lapse of natural element and hard to find wildlife . In the Wild Productions - Production company offering stock video footage of whales, dolphin, basking sharks and other marine life. On-line streaming sample footage. INA - The Institut national de l'audiovisuel, or INA, founded in 1974, preserves French radio and television archives, produces original programmes, carries out research and professional training and markets stock shots from its massive collection. Index Stock Shots - Specifically shot 35mm film available in High Definition and SD. Site includes catalog search facility. Infront Sports & Media - Sports rights and media management company marketing clip footage rights for a number of sports federations. |
CLOSE A Georgia investment company has paid $28.3 million for 15 structures in some of the most prominent locations of downtown Asheville. Wochit Restaurants in a piece of downtown bordering Patton and Biltmore avenues was part of a recent $28.3 million sale of downtown buildings and land. (Photo: Joel Burgess/jburgess@citizen-times.com) ASHEVILLE - A Georgia investment company has bought a large swath of downtown, paying $28.3 million for 15 structures south of Pack Square including the historic Jackson Building. Pack Square Property, a limited liability company registered in Delaware, was the official buyer, but the organization behind it is Wicker Park Capital Management, a Savannah, Georgia-based investment company. The deal was completed Friday, according to Buncombe County records. An email and call to Wicker Park co-founder Blake Berg were not returned Wednesday. The sellers, a collection of seven investors including former fast-food executive Steve McManus, cleared $13.3 million after buying the properties for $15 million in 2004, according to county register of deeds records. Most of the investors were part of Pack Square Investors LLC. "We got a good return on the investment, and we were very fortunate over the period of time we had the property," said McManus of Charleston, South Carolina. The property is split into seven "tracts" that occupy some of downtown's most prominent spaces to the southeast, south and southwest of the city's central Pack Square. Many buildings are from the early 20th century and helped establish the look of the modern downtown. The properties are: Five buildings across from Pack Square to the south and southwest. The most famous is the Jackson Building — the region's first skyscraper built in 1924 with a spirelike appearance and adornments of gargoyles. Other structures include the building once hosting Blue Ridge Savings Bank owned by former congressman Charles Taylor and the Legal Building, which houses the French Broad Chocolate Lounge. Two buildings on the east side of Biltmore Avenue, including current homes of Marble Slab Creamery and White Duck Taco. A breezeway between the two eateries leads to Diana Wortham Theatre. A six-building block on the southwest corner of Patton and Biltmore avenues. Tenants include Posana Restaurant, The Noodle Shop, Bomba and Salsas. A long-term lease for the parking garage bordering Biltmore as well as Eagle and South Market streets. This includes several retail spots along Eagle in part of downtown historically occupied by African-American businesses. A 0.08-acre empty lot at the northwest corner of Eagle and South Market. The two remaining tracts cover the Jackson Building annex and other easements. McManus, an investor in the failed pre-recession Biltmore Avenue hotel project, The Ellington, said the partners sold the tracts because the investors were aging and the timing seemed right with the market. The seven sellers include four from the Charleston area, one from Asheville, one from Greensboro and one from Montana, he said. More: Answer Man: Top property owners in Buncombe More: $3M downtown condo poised to break sales record "We had numerous offers. We liked the group we picked because we thought that they could take the property and spend some additional capital on the it and keep it historical." Posana owner Peter Pollay learned Wednesday from the Citizen-Times about the price of the sale. "That is unbelievable. That is a big amount of money. And very important buildings for downtown," said Pollay, who left real estate to open the gluten-free farm-to-table restaurant in 2009. Pollay said McManus had been "wonderful as a landlord." He said a property management group brought in by the new owners told him things would stay largely the same. "They told me they are going to keep everything as is ... and be really supportive of all the businesses." Pollay said he was concerned in general that as the buyers of downtown property continue to pay higher prices, they will look to raise rents to cover their loans, possibly forcing out tenants. "It's outrageous what is happening in the real estate market here," he said. The purchasing company bears the name of the Chicago neighborhood where in 2012 it bought six condominiums from a bankrupt development for $265,000 a unit, selling them for $425,000 a unit two years later, according to Crain's Chicago Business. Based in Savannah, Wicker Park also has offices in Coral Gables, Florida, its website says. "The principals of WPCM have been involved with over $6.7 billion of real estate transactions," the website says. "These investments span the continental United States and vary by product type and risk profile. While WPCM seeks to invest opportunistically in all property types, the company's primary focus is multifamily and retail assets." The Asheville purchase seems in line with other recent company transactions. In 2014, Wicker Park bought a mixed-use apartment and commercial development in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, for $38 million, according to the Birmingham Business Journal. In June 2016, the company paid $22.6 million for an apartment complex in Madison, Alabama, according to AL.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2017/05/31/asheville-downtown/358498001/ |
WarbirdsNews has been following the developments concerning Columbine II, the Lockheed C-121A Constellation used by President Eisenhower. We are sure many of our readers are just as interested. As we reported HERE in mid-February, Karl Stoltzfus, and his company Dynamic Aviation of Bridgewater, Virginia are evaluating the aircraft with a view to purchasing it, and returning it to flying condition. On March 8th, Stoltzfus and a team of fifteen engineers from Dynamic Aviation and Scott Glover’s Mid America Flight Museum arrived in Marana, Arizona to begin a comprehensive inspection of Columbine II. Yesterday we received a message from Karl’s twin brother, Ken Stoltzfus, and he relayed to us the following… “The comprehensive pre-purchase inspection of Columbine II, and preparations for the proposed ferry flight to Bridgewater, VA, are proceeding well with Dynamic Aviation and Mid America Flight Museum teams. The results so far are encouraging and a final decision on the purchase will be made by April 28, after which a proposed ferry flight time-frame will be announced.” Ken Stoltzfus went on to say, “Karl and Dynamic Aviation are making a lot of progress and Scott Glover’s help is a big part of that. I wouldn’t say Karl has made the final decision to purchase Columbine II, but he’s getting closer and closer. The airframe is in excellent condition and he’s very pleased with that. Getting the engines running, and checked them out at high power, etc., is crucial. I’m not sure what the plan would be if they didn’t perform in a way that appeared safe for the ferry flight. He’s taking one step at a time and being very deliberate, which is why he wanted the 90-day due-diligence period before taking the final plunge. It is obvious that Karl is deeply committed to the project, but in general he tends to do, and then talk. In the case of Columbine II we publicized the project in order to try to find parts, and help, but now he will proceed ….and probably won’t make any statements about ferry flight … until he’s more sure. There is only a remote possibility that it could be this spring, otherwise next fall. We can still hope, though!” This is complex exercise, and the team are going through the aircraft in a meticulous manner which indicates the seriousness of their intent. This is no typical inspection though, as they are going through the systems with a fine tooth comb, especially the engines and propellers. This has included replacing all of the flexible fluid lines and many of the spark plugs, cleaning and/or repairing the fuel injectors, scrubbing the oil tanks of all the settled ooze, inspecting the chip detectors for metal shavings, x-raying the propellers, removing the tail cone for inspection, worked on the flaps and flap mechanisms amongst many other things. They are also bringing the aircraft up to fulfill any outstanding Airworthiness Directives. So it’s a massive undertaking for all concerned. But short of any terminal problems, it seems very likely that Columbine II will be moving to a new home in Virginia before too long. We at WarbirdsNews wish to thank Ken Stoltzfus for his updates, and to wish he and Dynamic Aviation all the very best in their efforts to resurrect Columbine II. As always, WarbirdsNews will be bringing you further updates as soon as they are available. Undoubtedly, Dynamic Aviation are still in need of some of the Constellation items mentioned in our previous article HERE, so please do contact them if you can help out. |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video There's a report out of the southern tier of New York that some people there want to secede from the Empire State and become part of Pennsylvania. The researching is being conducted by a group called the Upstate New York Towns Association, which found 15 towns that would consider being a part of the Keystone State. One key reason: the Marcellus Shale Industry. You know the saying the grass isn't always greener on the other side? Well, to some people living in New York State, they feel it is. According to research done by an organization called the Upstate New York Towns Association, there are 15 towns in four counties sitting along Pennsylvania line that would consider seceding to Keystone State. One key reason is the Marcellus Shale industry. New York State recently put a ban on fracking, the process of injecting water and chemicals into Marcellus Shale in order to extract natural gas. Doug McLinko, the Republican majority commissioner in Bradford County said he understands the frustration on those folks, who are sitting on untappable Marcellus Shale. “Broome County, Tioga, they`re heartbroken, they look across the border and they see our farms prospering, standing intact, they`re not being subdivided, they see our county cut taxes, eliminated debt,” said McLinko. Here in Towanda many of the people say the natural gas industry has been good to them. “It`s been a benefit to a lot of people in our area so I feel they are missing out,” said Jack Coates. Joe Gerwitz lives in Buffalo, New York but is here to work in the energy industry. “We`re actually building a power plant here locally so yes, it`s benefit of the fracking that`s being done,” said Gerwitz. “I mean it`s just a no-brain if it`s there use it.” Others still says with the pro`s, come the con`s. “We`re making money now but what`s it going to do to the ground water a hundred years from now,” said Jay Cory. “I`m glad in one sense that we do but in another sense it raised all the prices of rent and everything else on all the land,” said Aaron Vandervool. But if people in those areas in New York State want to become Pennsylvanians, people we spoke with say come on in. “Absolutely they want to join us here it`d be great I think for everybody,” said Coates. “Welcome to Pennsylvania, we frack left and right here,” said Cory. As far as the possibility of a secession, the group doing the research believes it would have to be approved by lawmakers in both states, as well as the federal government. |
CTU members walk a picket line in 2012. (John Gress/Reuters) The Supreme Court’s petition denial in Friedrichs leaves teachers at the mercy of their union. Joseph Ocol is a math teacher and chess coach at Englewood Elementary School in Chicago. After whistleblowing and testifying on government corruption in the Philippines, he was forced to flee to the United States. Now, as a devoted teacher, he frequently works after hours, on his own time, to help tutor his students and prepare them for chess competitions. This summer, they have a chance to compete at the White House — and Ocol knows every minute of practice counts. Advertisement Advertisement On April 1, as on most other school days, Ocol went to work, taught his students, and stayed after class to help practice for the chess competition. However, April 1 also happened to be the day the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) went on strike. Because Ocol decided to spend time with his students rather than picket, the CTU demanded he pay a fine or be expelled from union membership. On June 6 — also a school day — the union held a meeting to consider Ocol’s fate. He declined to attend in favor of doing his job. On June 21, the CTU handed down its decision: Ocol has been expelled from the union. Controversies like those between Mr. Ocol and his union highlight the ongoing First Amendment problems that will be allowed to persist now that the Supreme Court has failed to resolve Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association. After Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, the Court split 4–4 on the case, but the plaintiffs filed a petition to have their case reheard after a new justice could be appointed. The Supreme Court denied that request on the last day of the 2016 term. Advertisement The teacher plaintiffs in Friedrichs contend that mandatory union dues violate their First Amendment rights. That claim and the Supreme Court’s refusal to act matters for teachers like Mr. Ocol, because even though he’s been expelled from the union, Ocol will still be required by state law to pay 80 percent of the annual union dues to support the costs of CTU’s collective bargaining, which includes costs associated with organizing strikes — the very thing he wanted no part of in the first place. Advertisement From the start, the April strike proved controversial within CTU’s ranks. After all, a Chicago teacher may decide that the city can’t afford higher taxes to support a teacher pay raise right now, or may simply feel that a strike isn’t the best example to set for students. Ocol says he believed that on the particular day in question, loyalty to his students trumped loyalty to his union. Indeed, as several teachers confessed anonymously to a local paper, they believe “it sends the wrong message to the kids. We’re there to teach and set a good example. This sets a horrible example. I think we are being used as pawns . . . ” The teachers spoke anonymously for fear of reprisal from their union; the CTU has a strict policy regarding strikebreakers, as Mr. Ocol found out the hard way. Advertisement Ocol says he believed that on the particular day in question, loyalty to his students trumped loyalty to his union. As he explained, “I do not wish to be absent because I have always promised the kids that I shall always try to be with them after school even if I do not get paid.” Advertisement Teachers may reach different conclusions about the validity of their union’s activities and collective-bargaining objectives, but the government should not put their thumb on the scale of one side or the other. The current arrangement punishes teachers like Mr. Ocol and discourages them from following their conscience by forcing them to fund speech they disagree with. Indeed, teachers like Mr. Ocol highlight the clear First Amendment problems that were raised in Friedrichs. As a private organization, the union has a right to put conditions on its membership. But teachers who object also have a First Amendment right to not support the activities of an organization to which they do not want to belong. By not ending the practice, the Supreme Court has let stand a legal regime in which organizations may rapaciously punish dissenters like Mr. Ocol and know they will continue to receive his coerced financial support. The First Amendment rights of thousands of teachers will be even more aggressively violated by these organizations because they know the law even allows them to expel members and still collect their coerced dues year after year. Other cases will raise this question in the future, when the court has its full complement of justices. Until then, teachers and their First Amendment rights will bear the cost. |
Politics What’s going on inside the McCain campaign? Maybe I’ve read too much Conan Doyle and Le Carre. Maybe too much of my young professional life was spent in the company of people who built satellites to detect faint electronic signals in enemy lands. Nevertheless, there are too many faint signals coming out of McCain’s inner circle to ignore. And they do not bode well for the candidate. McCain’s June 3 speech — designed to rob Obama of some media attention — might have been a good idea and it might not. But it was poorly-written, badly staged and obviously a text McCain wasn’t comfortable with. McCain’s themes were good, but the speech made him sound petty, almost as if he were a challenger competing against an incumbent Obama. So some in McCain’s camp convinced him to grasp for media attention on Obama’s night, and then pushed him to make a speech that wasn’t right for him. And then? These supposed “advisers” and “strategists” immediately leaked to the McCain-hostile press that the only problem was McCain, not the speech or how it was managed as a media event. All you need to know about these problem “insiders” is in the Politico piece by Jonathan Martin entitled, “McCain Bumbles Delivery.” Martin refers to people among McCain’s “inner circle” who believe that the, “…the visual and stylistic contrast with Obama on Tuesday night was both plain to see and painful in the extreme.” He quotes one McCain adviser saying the contrast between McCain’s speaking skills and Obama’s was, “Not good,” and “It’s never going to be his strong suit, and it will always be Obama’s.” So McCain’s “inner circle” believes that a guy who’s spent decades in politics doesn’t know how to make a decent speech? If that’s not bad enough Martin writes, “What most everybody inside and out of McCain’s campaign agreed upon was that the address was well-written,” and goes on to quote another (?) McCain aide saying, “It just wasn’t delivered the best…He has to get sharper on delivery.” How much do you want to bet that the guys who wrote the speech or convinced McCain to give it (or both) are the same ones badmouthing him to Politico? It’s depressingly familiar. This is the same sort of problem that hurt Fred Thompson’s campaign badly, when purported “aides” and “advisers” were — on the day of the Iowa caucus — leaking the falsehood that Thompson would drop out and endorse McCain if Thompson didn’t win Iowa. It might even be the same guy. At this point, the best addition to McCain’s team might be a cloned version of CIA mole-hunter James Jesus Angleton. So June 3 was an opportunity missed. And there are only 148 days until the election. But in that time, if Sen. McCain sees the need and acts decisively on it, he can revitalize his strategy and realign the debate. Sen. McCain still has problems with some conservatives. We have no desire to be among them. In time of war, America cannot afford an on-the-job-training presidency that would be Barack Obama’s. Here are a few suggestions for Sen. McCain. It’s not an exhaustive list, but let’s just get a few ideas out there to start the conversation. First, who wrote the June 3 speech for Sen. McCain? Who convinced him that this speech was the right one to give on the occasion of launching the final stage of the campaign? Whoever they are, Sen. McCain should get rid of them. And make sure that the media knows who is — and isn’t — a McCain “insider.” As President Reagan often said, personnel is policy. In this campaign, there’s still time — as business author Jim Collins wrote — to get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off. Sen. McCain would benefit from having a wider “inner circle” once the problem people are banished to political Siberia. Second, Sen. McCain should take his team on a two-day retreat to dissect, debate and re-form their strategy as needs be. Does he want to change how he is positioned as the elder statesman? Does McCain want to do as French President Sarkozy did, to run against his own party’s outgoing president? To some degree, McCain has to because President Bush is enormously unpopular. But in doing so, he risks much. Instead of just pointing out Bush’s failures, McCain needs to stress the fact that there has been no terrorist attack in the United States since 9-11. And the reason for that is President Bush’s decision to fight the enemy on his home ground. Third, Sen. McCain could benefit by moving aggressively to unify the conservative base of the party with his campaign. As a sitting senator, he can introduce legislation to put stakes in the ground around which conservatives can rally. The economy, even more than the war, will top voters’ agenda this year. Obama wants to raise the capital gains tax for “fairness” despite the fact that every credible economist says raising that tax will result in less government revenue and stifle investment. Why not lead off with a Capitol Hill event to announce a McCain-Coburn bill to further reduce capital gains, outlaw earmarks and make the Bush tax cuts permanent? It wouldn’t be new to propose a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman, but would be another stake in the ground. Mr. McCain has said he has learned the lesson of the 2007 immigration debate. He should introduce a bill that proves it, partnering with those who want the borders secured before anything else is done. Instead of McCain-Kennedy, why not a McCain-Cornyn bill? To assuage conservatives’ fears about economy-killing global warming bills, why not craft something that brings down the cost of energy instead of raising it? How about a McCain-Inhofe bill to replace Warner-Lieberman? Sen. McCain might think about how radically secularist his opponents are. All those Reagan Democrats and blue-collar Republicans often wonder why the Republicans don’t stand up for prayer and the flag. Sen. McCain could ignite some voter enthusiasm by speaking out against liberals’ efforts to take the phrase, “One nation under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance. Barack Obama and the rest of the Democrat-ACLU Party would be backpedaling for months after. In his speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in February — at the moment he clinched the nomination — Sen. McCain promised to listen to conservatives. To begin making good on that promise, he could invite conservative leaders to participate in the campaign strategy retreat I propose — especially people with whom he’s been very uncomfortable at times — to talk about the way forward in his campaign. He should include some of those in the Senate and House with whom he has disagreed strongly, experts from conservative think tanks, and even some conservative journalists. There’s no one who doesn’t benefit from speaking with Charles Krauthammer, George Will and Mark Steyn. Lawyers always say that free advice is worth what you pay for it, and that’s sometimes true. But the most costly advice is paid for not only in dollars but in votes: it comes from people whose goals are not the same as yours. |
That the Tampa Bay Lightning are one of two teams still competing for the Stanley Cup is a testament to the efforts of many people. Head coach Jon Cooper and his roster have achieved amazing things, both in the regular season and in the playoffs. Team owner Jeff Vinik perhaps the most credit; not only does he finance the organization but he ushered in an era of competence after the debacle that was the joint ownership of Len Barrie and Oren Koules. One of Vinik’s most important moves was also one of his earliest: the installation of then-Detroit Red Wings vice-president Steve Yzerman as general manager. Under Yzerman’s watch, the Lightning have evolved into one of the NHL’s best franchises, with the team imitating many of the practices that made the Red Wings so successful, but also taking their own unique approaches to the game. Yzerman also rebuilt the team’s roster. Initially, he found a measure of success — using mostly holdovers from the previous regime. The 2010-11 Lightning made it all the way to the third round before losing to Boston in seven games and it wouldn’t have taken much for that series to have gone the other way. That team crashed and burned and Yzerman decided to go the route of a full-fledged rebuild. STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS: | Broadcast Schedule Rogers NHL GameCentre LIVE | Stanley Cup Playoffs Fantasy Hockey New Sportsnet app: iTunes | Google Play He didn’t mess around. In a span of just four years, Yzerman dismantled the team. Thirteen of 14 forwards who appeared in the post-season were sent away with only a then-21-year-old Steven Stamkos spared. A similar fate was visited upon the back end with 7-of-8 defencemen and both goalies were axed with 20-year-old Victor Hedman the sole survivor. Hedman and Stamkos is an awfully nice starting point. A lot of teams would consider themselves lucky to be starting out of the gates with a franchise centre and a franchise defenceman, plus the rest of the talent that Yzerman had as trade bait. Yzerman continued to look for ways to improve going through an aggressive search for talent. Al Murray, a scouting director with the Los Angeles Kings, was brought in to run Tampa Bay’s draft efforts in August 2010. In his first draft, the Lightning had just two picks in the top-100 and six picks overall, but Murray found four players on the team today, including Vladislav Namestnikov (first round), wingers Nikita Kucherov (second round) and Ondrej Palat (seventh round) and defenceman Nikita Nesterov (fifth round). Six players in all on the 2015 Lightning are Murray picks, including Cedric Paquette (fourth round). The Bolts have also been famously good at getting value from undrafted players. First line centre Tyler Johnson is the obvious choice, but J.T. Brown and Andrej Sustr were also both amateur free agent adds. Another free agent signing out of junior was Cory Conacher, who made the NHL with the Lightning before being dealt to Ottawa. Put it all together and the Lightning’s amateur procurement department and development system managed to acquire and develop the team’s first line — all without spending a first-round draft pick. The scouting staff deserves significant credit, but so does the development side of the organization. We can flag Cooper, formerly their AHL head coach, and assistant GM Julien BriseBois (another Yzerman hire) as particularly worthy of credit on that front. Yzerman’s Lightning have also used unrestricted free agency intelligently. Frowned upon as the time in the summer when general managers spend like drunken sailors, the NHL’s annual UFA period does offer value to teams that know how to look, and on the whole Tampa Bay has done well. One half of the team’s top pairing (Anton Stralman) as well as the club’s No. 2 centre (Valtteri Filppula) were added for the relatively modest annual cost of $9.5 million. Not all of the teams deals were such clear wins, but Brian Boyle ($2 million) and Matt Carle ($5.5 million) aren’t ridiculously priced for their value to the team and fourth-line winger Brenden Morrow only got a one-year deal. Tampa Bay has at times been aggressive in the trade market. Starting goalie Ben Bishop came over from the Senators in exchange for undrafted free agent Conacher and a fourth-round pick. The Lightning sold high on Conacher, who quickly found his way out of the NHL. Another shrewd decision was made at last year’s draft, where Yzerman was able to land Jason Garrison and a seventh-round selection from Vancouver in exchange for a second-round pick. Yzerman has had some significant advantages in Tampa Bay. He’s had stable ownership and he inherited both a top-end centre and a top-end defenceman. But from that starting point he’s done marvelous things. The Lightning simply do everything well. They draft and sign young players and then develop them, they make smart decisions in free agency and they have a habit of acquiring useful players in trade. It’s been a remarkable turnaround, and one that should give hope to fans of the NHL’s most poorly run teams. Just over five years ago the Lightning were a basket case, run by feuding owners who installed a television personality as the club’s head coach. Just over two years ago, the Lightning had been forced to fire Guy Boucher after two consecutive disastrous seasons and rumours of locker room discontent. Today they are a model NHL team, a club competing in the Stanley Cup Final and with the obvious potential to do so for most of the next decade. As the Lightning show, with solid ownership and solid management anything can happen and it can happen awfully fast. |
...And thanks; and ever thanks; and oft good turns!" Dear Santa, I can't thank you enough for these incredible (and amazing smelling) "make your own mead" kits. I am beyond excited to brew my own mead - and I love that this gift also introduced me to a small family business: The Bee Folks! According to the instructions: if I can boil water - I can make this mead lol. And each packet makes approximately 4 BOTTLES OF MEAD! Whaaaaat?! I will, of course, be brewing and serving this mead at my Shakespearean "Midsummer Night's" birthday - and the partying will be such sweet sorrow ;) It means so much to me that my first reddit gift exchange is a) completely wonderful and b) will be something I can share with my closest friends and family!! Dear Santa, Unfortunately a part of your personal message to me was cut off (I think it must have gone over the character limit) but I think we would be great friends IRL too :) Please feel free to stay in touch if you like! Thank you again! Cheers!! |
Most solar panels convert less than 20 percent of the energy in the sunlight that falls on them into electricity. A new $2.4 million project funded by the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy aims to greatly increase the amount of sunlight that becomes electricity. Its goal is a conversion efficiency of more than 50 percent, which would more than double the amount of power generated by a solar panel of a given size. This would cut the number of solar panels needed in half and potentially make solar power more competitive with fossil fuels. In the new research effort, Harry Atwater, a professor of applied physics and materials science at Caltech, plans to use precisely structured materials to sort sunlight into eight to 10 different colors and direct those to solar cells with semiconductors that are matched perfectly to each color. As a result, more of the solar spectrum will be absorbed, and the energy contained in each slice of the spectrum will be converted mostly to electricity, rather than heat. The general idea of sorting sunlight by color isn’t new. One approach involves growing multiple semiconductor materials in a stack—light moves through the stack until it’s absorbed by a semiconductor that can convert it efficiently. This approach has yielded commercial solar cells with efficiencies of over 43 percent. But the process for making such solar cells is expensive, and the power output of the device is limited by the worst-performing layer. Others have tried sorting light into various colors using conventional lenses, mirrors, and filters, but the prototypes have been bulky and haven’t reached very high efficiencies, in part because of the imprecision of the optics—it’s proved difficult to direct exactly the right wavelengths of light to each solar cell. It’s also been difficult to split the light up into more than a couple of different colors in one device. In the last several years, however, scientists have gotten better at manipulating light at a very small scale, sorting it by color, trapping it, and guiding it from one spot to another using thin layers of material that incorporate tiny features that are often smaller than the wavelength of light. Atwater plans to draw on these advances to manipulate light precisely and in a compact flat package that might not look that much different than a conventional solar panel. One layer would split light up, sort it by color, and then deliver it to a second layer that contains an array of solar cells matched to each color. The challenge with this approach is that no one makes these precisely structured materials over the large areas and in the large volumes needed in the solar industry. But Atwater compares the device to a flat screen TV, which is itself a sophisticated device for manipulating light, with its millions of transistors for switching on and off different colored pixels. “The first ones that came out were many thousands of dollars and had defects. Now you can get one for less than a hundred dollars that’s essentially perfect, and the costs are going down all the time,” he says. “Flat displays are an example of something that’s at the scale of a solar panel, but are incredibly complex optoelectronic circuits. What we’re proposing is primitive by that standard.” Atwater says the manufacturing tools needed to make his nanostructured materials are starting to come on the market. They’ll remain expensive, however, as long as production volumes are low. Researchers are also closing in on the ability to make thin wafers of various semiconductors and transfer them to a device like the one he’s envisioning. |
In a middle-class tomb just east of the Nile River in what was Upper Nubia, a woman offers a glimpse of how two met civilizations met, mingled and a new pharaonic dynasty arose. Her tomb was Egyptian, but she was buried in the Nubian style — placed in a flexed position on her side and resting on a bed. Around her neck she wore amulets of the Egyptian god Bes, the protector of households. The Nubian woman is, according to Stuart Tyson Smith, a professor of archaeology and chair of the Department of Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara, a prime example of “cultural entanglement,” the process by which colonizing powers and indigenous people influence one another and change over time. In a paper published in American Anthropologist, Michele Buzon of Purdue University and Smith explore cultural identity and transformation in the ancient village of Tombos in what is now northern Sudan. “Entanglement and the Formation of Ancient Nubian Napatan State” details the findings from Smith and Buzon’s excavations of cemeteries in Tombos, which became an important colonial hub after the Egyptians conquered Nubia around 1500 BCE. “You get this really interesting entangled culture blending different elements in really different ways, but also there seems to be a lot of individual choice involved,” Smith explained. “It’s not just a matter of the two cultures mash up and then you get this new hybrid thing that’s consistent. There seems to be a lot of individual choice — whether or not you want a Nubian bed and/or an Egyptian coffin and/or to be wrapped like a mummy or whether or not you want an Egyptian-style amulet and/or Nubian ivory jewelry.” Smith and Buzon, an associate professor of anthropology whose focus is bioarchaeology, are in their second year of excavations at Tombos as part of a three-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant. Earlier fieldwork at the site was funded by a previous NSF grant and grants from the National Geographic Society, the Schiff-Giorgini Foundation, the Brennan Foundation and private donations. Their excavations are centered in graves from the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 BCE) and the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070-615 BCE). By measuring craniofacial features, Buzon is able to establish biological relationships and mixing between Nubians and Egyptians at Tombos. By analyzing skeletons, burial practices and contents of the graves, Smith and Buzon have been able to piece together a period of shifting cultural identities that led to the Nubian conquest of Egypt and the 25th Dynasty of Egypt (Napatan Period c. 750-650). Indeed, the shift was so complete the Nubians presented themselves as more culturally authentic Egyptian than the rulers they overthrew. “We’re looking at the social dynamic from which those Nubian pharaohs emerged,” Smith explained, “and how that blended culture might have contributed to the cultural dynamic that allowed the pharaohs to come in, not just as conquerors, but as the legitimate restorers of the proper order of things in a decadent time. That’s exactly how they presented it.” Smith and Buzon’s work also upends much conventional thinking about the dynamics of conquest. The graves of Tombos show that rather than the Egyptians simply imposing their will on the Nubians, which Smith calls “the old model,” cultural entanglement was a much more potent force shaping both cultures. Intermarriage and cultural pluralism in colonial Nubia gave rise to a new identity and the development of the Nubian pharaohs. “What we’re looking at is a more nuanced model of Egyptian and Nubian culture entangling, and how individual choices drive this kind of ethnic and cultural change, and ultimately enable these Nubian pharaohs to take over,” Smith said. “The local people, and the colonists coming from Egypt who become locals over time, are driving the trajectory of the civilization as much as larger policies of colonial Egypt or, later on, these emerging pharaohs. That goes over very well with the local population. They like that idea. It’s not just Egypt imprinting their culture on Nubia; the local people are really influencing things and making it possible for the Nubians to eventually rule Egypt.” UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SANTA BARBARA |
Marijuana activists Marc and Jodie Emery have been charged with multiple trafficking-related counts, following raids Thursday on their pot shops in Vancouver, Toronto and Hamilton, Ont. Vancouver police raided the couple's Cannabis Culture store at 307 East Hastings Street after the couple was arrested in Toronto on Wednesday night. About a dozen police officers were visible inside and around the shop on East Hastings Street at 8 a.m. PT Thursday. The pair are facing multiple charges including drug trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence. Sgt. Randy Fincham said that the raid was done at the request of Toronto police. In total, 11 search warrants were executed in Toronto, Vancouver and the Hamilton, Ont. area, according to a Toronto police statement. It was not clear how many of those warrants pertained to property owned by the Emerys. The couple have a bail hearing scheduled for Friday. Vancouver police officers guard the store entry. (Christer Waara/CBC) Lawyer Kirk Tousaw spoke to the couple after they were taken into custody at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. "Marc was in good spirits, as was Jodie. Obviously both were disappointed at being in custody," he said. Tousaw has represented Marc in past legal cases and remains close to the couple, although he is not their lawyer on this case. History as pot advocate Marc Emery has been a marijuana advocate for more than 30 years. In the '90s, he had another pot shop in Vancouver called Hemp B.C. It was raided multiple times before its business licence was revoked by the city in 1998. Every time the store was raided, Emery was fined thousands of dollars. In 2005, Emery was arrested at his Vancouver store — following an investigation by Canadian and U.S. police — for allegedly selling marijuana seeds over the internet from Vancouver to residents of the U.S. After fighting extradition for several years, he was extradited to the U.S. and sentenced to five years in prison in 2010. He was released on Aug. 12, 2014 after serving four years. Jodie Emery has said that opening the illegal Cannabis Culture locations in B.C., Ontario and Quebec was necessary as Canada looks to legalize recreational marijuana. She's also called for a federal task force to study legalization. |
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been suggested as an adjuvant tool to promote recovery of function after stroke, but the mechanisms of its action to date remain poorly understood. Moreover, studies aimed at unraveling those mechanisms have essentially been limited to the rat, where tDCS activates resident microglia as well as endogenous neural stem cells. Here we studied the effects of tDCS on microglia activation and neurogenesis in the mouse brain. Male wild-type mice were subjected to multisession tDCS of either anodal or cathodal polarity; sham-stimulated mice served as control. Activated microglia in the cerebral cortex and neuroblasts generated in the subventricular zone as the major neural stem cell niche were assessed immunohistochemically. Multisession tDCS at a sublesional charge density led to a polarity-dependent downregulation of the constitutive expression of Iba1 by microglia in the mouse cortex. In contrast, both anodal and, to an even greater extent, cathodal tDCS induced neurogenesis from the subventricular zone. Data suggest that tDCS elicits its action through multifacetted mechanisms, including immunomodulation and neurogenesis, and thus support the idea of using tDCS to induce regeneration and to promote recovery of function. Furthermore, data suggest that the effects of tDCS may be animal- and polarity-specific. |
What's wrong (and right) with "The Phantom Menace" A science-fiction author scours the new "Star Wars" film for signs of intelligent life. First off, let me say that I think the film looks gorgeous. George Lucas was able to hire the best. He took advantage of advances in computer graphics to portray many old sci-fi favorites in vivid ways. The costumes are just spiffy, the sword fight scenes zesty. Great aliens, too (except for Yoda, who's still a rubber oven mitt with two facial expressions: patronizing and condescending). I actually quite enjoyed the first part of the film -- Jedis running around on the Trade Federation mother ship, jumping and slashing, leaping and blasting. My hopes started to rise. But then -- well, let me list just a few items: Advertisement: Clichis Underwater cities? A city that covers a whole planet? Where've we seen those before? Well, they may be clichis, but Lucas stole them fair and square, and served them back with loads of panache, so he's forgiven. On the other hand, there are other clichis that make you moan aloud. For example: "Hey, you guys, don't you mess with me because my mom is the Virgin Mary! (At least that's what she told her folks when she came home pregnant one day.) I guess you know what that makes ME, so everybody drop down and give me 20!" because mom is the Virgin Mary! (At least that's what she told her folks when she came home pregnant one day.) I guess you know what that makes ME, so everybody drop down and give me 20!" "I think maybe he is the CHOSEN ONE ..." Oh, really? As in "Dune"? Or in "The Matrix"? Or in "Lord of the Rings"? Or "A New Hope" (the original 1977 "Star Wars" movie)? Or ... make your own list. It will stretch for light years. "Dune"? Or in "The Matrix"? Or in "Lord of the Rings"? Or "A New Hope" (the original 1977 "Star Wars" movie)? Or ... make your own list. It will stretch for light years. "He is too old to train to be a Jedi." -- Uh, Yoda? You say 6 is too old, but Luke Skywalker will be a doable fixer-upper at 20? When do you recruit novices -- ripping them from the breast, like the Psi Corps in "Babylon 5"? Does the Jedi Way require complete denial of normal childhood? An odd message for a kid flick! to train to be a Jedi." -- Uh, Yoda? You say is too old, but Luke Skywalker will be a doable fixer-upper at 20? When do you recruit novices -- ripping them from the breast, like the Psi Corps in "Babylon 5"? Does the Jedi Way require complete denial of normal childhood? An odd message for a kid flick! "Oh no! There's an unstoppable robot army! Of course all we have to do is pull a master switch and they'll all shut off!" This recalls blowing up the shield projector in "Return of the Jedi" (which is achieved entirely thanks to the wookie -- neither Luke nor Leia makes any real difference in achieving the Rebel victory. Think about it!). Or a computer virus shutting down all alien shields in "Independence Day." Or Obi-Wan dialing down the tractor beam. Or the hero in "Logan's Run" shooting one computer console and blowing up a city. And so on. Yeesh! Are villain equipment-designers really that bad in every off-Earth empire? In fairness, this clichi is endemic. Ever notice how, in "Star Trek," Kirk talked five different super-computers into self-destructing? If the universe really is like this, we Earthlings are gonna kick butt when we get out there! have to do is pull a master switch and they'll all shut off!" A good machine is one that has to be hammered into turning on for you (e.g. Anakin's speed-pod, his space fighter, the Millennium Falcon, C-3PO and so on). If it starts right up, it must be evil. for you (e.g. Anakin's speed-pod, his space fighter, the Millennium Falcon, C-3PO and so on). If it starts right up, it must be evil. Some might view the pod race as a rip-off copy of the speeder bike scene in "Return of the Jedi." Actually, I found the charioteer imagery charming. Hey, a swooping chase scene past scary obstacles is always a good thing to throw into a whiz-bang sci-fi flick! Nevertheless, having a 6-year-old slave toss together a better pod than all the galaxy's technicians can create? (Those Tatooine slave schools must have a great curriculum!) Couldn't he have had help from an old but great engineer who retired to Tatooine for his health? That clichi would have lent plausibility. bike scene in "Return of the Jedi." Actually, I found the charioteer imagery charming. Hey, a swooping chase scene past scary obstacles is always a good thing to throw into a whiz-bang sci-fi flick! Nevertheless, having a 6-year-old slave toss together a better pod than all the galaxy's technicians can create? (Those Tatooine slave schools must have a great curriculum!) Couldn't he have had help from an old but great engineer who retired to Tatooine for his health? That clichi would have lent plausibility. Big animals try to eat whole spaceships, yum. Where've we seen that before? seen that before? An apprentice Jedi -- watching helplessly as his beloved master is slain in a sword fight by a Sith Lord -- screams, "No!" Where've we seen that before? (Incidentally, the angry apprentice succeeds where his calm master failed -- just as Luke Skywalker does better angry than when he was composed, in "Return of the Jedi." So much for Yoda's sage advice!) But enough wallowing in small stuff. Let's get down to the Grand Champion clichi of all: "Gee whillikers, R2, the folks out there sure are in a pickle. What's that, girl? Solve the whole plot by diving my tiny ship into the center of a big bad-ass one, and set off a chain reaction to blow it up from the inside while we run away real fast? What an idea! Gee, I'll bet THAT'S never been done before!" Note that the only "Star Wars" movie without this dreadfully clichid trick is "The Empire Strikes Back," again showing how that movie towers over the others. Actually, I guess "Phantom Menace" is logically the first time the stunt gets used, since it's the "earliest" of the movies, so let's be forgiving. But then, if Anakin did this as a boy, don't you figure he'd remember the nasty little design flaw, 40 years later, when he helps Tarkin and the Emperor build the Death Star? (This may be Clue No. 1 to a great underlying plot secret, one potentially capable of transforming the whole series! A fantastic surprise that'd actually make sense of the whole saga! Care to guess?) Originalities I confess there was one really original thing in "The Phantom Menace," something I have truly never seen before. I could not believe my eyes when I read the yellow prologue letters flowing across the screen at the very beginning of the film: A sci-fi action movie whose premise is based on taxation of trade routes and negotiations over tariff treaties? Now that ... (yawn) ... is something ... I've ... never ... (snore) ... Advertisement: Self-indulgences It happens time and again. You create a beloved universe -- then spend most of the sequels wallowing in emotional reunions, or worse, spend most of the prequel introducing characters to each other, dwelling on each moment for long stretches laden with emotional music. R2, meet Threepio! (For the very first time!) Obi-Wan, meet Anakin! Anakin grew up with Greedo! Naturally, there are cameos by Tuskan Raiders and Jabba the Hut and every other old friend, for nostalgia's sake. Anyone notice the delegation of Spielberg's "ET" aliens in the Senate chamber, uncharacteristically willing to associate with humans for a change? And there's more! Anyone notice the names of the other candidates for Chancellor? Minister Antilles of Alderan? Maybe the dad of Captain Antilles, the first dude Vader crushes to death in the first movie? Cousin of Luke's wingman, Wedge Antilles? Could it be a coincidence? Destiny? (Or maybe Clue No. 2?) Again, to be fair, the nostalgia thing has been done even worse by others. Remember "Star Trek, The Motion Picture"? Wasted half an hour worshipping the Enterprise from the outside before we even got aboard. Get on with it! Advertisement: Illogicalities "We won't train young Skywalker 'cause he might turn dangerous." So instead of assigning the most experienced teachers to keep an eye on him, and train him to be a good guy, you'd just toss him and his mega-force talent out on the street? Or else, under duress, you'll finally agree to let a recent novice (Obi-Wan) deal naively with the menace on his own? Great idea! Of course this terrible decision leads to catastrophe, so it's all Yoda's fault from the very beginning. (Or is it another clue ?) According to Stefan Jones, "In the first film, the Force was a kind of martial art/Zen archery kind of thing. Rather egalitarian: Obi-Wan even offers to teach scoffer Han Solo the ropes. Goofy comic-book mysticism, but kind of charming and innocent in a Hong Kong kung-fu movie sort of way." But as the \bermensch effect took over, the Force grew elitist. You had to be born with it! In a progressive universe, Yoda & Co. would set up Jedi-arts studios in every mini-mall on Coruscant -- the way karate has saturated suburban America -- giving millions of kids exposure to a little discipline and fun, plus a chance to better themselves through hard work, and maybe outperform what cynical grownups expected of them. But Yoda thinks he can diagnose at age 6 who's got it, who hasn't, and who is pre-destined to fail before they try. Only demigods need apply ... and only those demigods Yoda likes. (Maybe this really is Clue No. 3?) dangerous." So instead of assigning the most experienced teachers to keep an eye on him, and train him to be a good guy, you'd just toss him and his mega-force talent out on the street? Or else, under duress, you'll finally agree to let a recent novice (Obi-Wan) deal naively with the menace on his own? Great idea! Of course this terrible decision leads to catastrophe, so it's all Yoda's fault from the very beginning. (Or is it another ?) Too bad we had to leave the Virgin Mary -- I mean Mom -- on Tatooine (presumably to give birth to Uncle Owen). But once the queen and Obi-Wan get away to Coruscant, can't they access their Galactic Express accounts and buy mom's freedom out of petty cash? I guess they forgot. Some heroes. Tatooine (presumably to give birth to Uncle Owen). But once the queen and Obi-Wan get away to Coruscant, can't they access their Galactic Express accounts and buy mom's freedom out of petty cash? I guess they forgot. Some heroes. We Jedi protect the innocent! So let's take a 6-year-old along on a raid into the enemy's heavily defended HQ! (Then tell him to hide in a fighter cockpit "for safety.") on a raid into the enemy's heavily defended HQ! (Then tell him to hide in a fighter cockpit "for safety.") Vader grew up on Tatooine, yet he finds the place unremarkable 40 years later in "A New Hope." In the same film he senses nothing unusual about C-3PO, his beloved first-born droid. (Or his own daughter, for that matter!) In any event, this coincidence makes Tatooine the last place anyone would hide Vader's newborn son -- Luke -- 20 years hence! Naturally, this hustling of babies will wind up being the major subplot of Episode III -- which ought to be a real bummer of a movie: Coruscant and a zillion other planets are gonna have to fry as the emperor takes over, since that would only happen over the dead bodies of every decent citizen with any spirit. What a lovely way to finish the saga! But we'll still cheer as Obi-Wan manages to grab the twins, Luke and Leia, saving them from Dad's evil clutches as billions perish behind them. Hurrah! Cheats and unexplained plot drivers Advertisement: Hey, I put up with all those underwater fishes chasing a blaster-equipped ship because I thought we were gonna get a trip "through the planet's core!" Why mention it, if you're not gonna show it? blaster-equipped ship because I thought we were gonna get a trip "through the planet's core!" Why mention it, if you're not gonna show it? Uh ... will anyone please explain why the Sith Lord and Trade Federation risk everything to capture a teeny periphery planet? Can we have a clue why Naboo was important -- any hint at all? Hello? Federation risk everything to capture a teeny periphery planet? Can we have a clue why Naboo was important -- any hint at all? Hello? If the queen can drum up so much Senate support that she's able to fire the good chancellor, wouldn't someone lend her a few fast ships with cameras, to broadcast atrocities going on back on Naboo? able to fire the good chancellor, wouldn't lend her a few fast ships with cameras, to broadcast atrocities going on back on Naboo? The Republic has no police force? No news media to verify the queen's story? No big planets who are sick of the Trade Federation and hankering to pounce on the federation's big mistake? No commercial competitors of the Trade Federation, eager to do likewise in hopes of getting the franchise? No past victims of the Federation Robot-Army, eager for revenge? Everybody's a wimp except for two Jedis and some funky amphibian rastafarians? queen's story? No big planets who are sick of the Trade Federation and hankering to pounce on the federation's big mistake? No commercial competitors of the Trade Federation, eager to do likewise in hopes of getting the franchise? No past victims of the Federation Robot-Army, eager for revenge? Everybody's a wimp except for two Jedis and some funky amphibian rastafarians? Democratic institutions are always foolish or useless in "Star Wars." Even the Jedi High Council is blamed by Yoda for voting to allow Anakin to be admitted for training, over Yoda's "wise" objections. Only impulsive commands by anointed leaders have any validity in the Lucasian Universe. Wars." Even the Jedi High Council is blamed by Yoda for voting to allow Anakin to be admitted for training, over Yoda's "wise" objections. Only impulsive commands by anointed leaders have any validity in the Lucasian Universe. Worst of all, Lucas forgets one of the chief lessons of filmmaking -- give your villains great lines! Remember "Die Hard"? "Blade Runner"? "The Empire Strikes Back"? Hell, even the lamentable "Return of the Jedi" featured a marvelously awful emperor sneering at the hero seductively (if illogically). So what do we see in this movie? Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn) gets separated from his nemesis, Darth Maul, by a force field. The adversaries pause and glare at each other before resuming the fight. What a great time for Maul to give his side of the story -- his seething need for revenge against the Jedi! Maybe some riveting mumbledy-jumble about the Jedi having crushed and suppressed one whole side of the Force for a thousand years, thus creating awful imbalance in the universe! (Maybe Neeson even half agrees! After all, he's the one wanting to restore "balance," which presumably means bringing back enough of the Dark Side to make sort of a Zen-twilight gray ... or maybe a dramatic layered, two-tone effect. Anyway, a hint about Liam's temptation could explain a lot.) Hey, Maul's harangue wouldn't even have to make sense, so long as it told us something about the cause that little Anakin will later adopt as his own. Less than a minute of villainous rant could have packed a lot of juice into their vendetta. But no. Pseudoscience gimmicks Here's an idea. Let's take the energy symbiote mitochondria inside our cells and mystify them into "midichlorians" (apparently swarms of some sort of symbiotic magical fairies inside of each of us) to give a pseudo-techno gloss to Lucas' new religion. To be fair, "Star Trek" does the same damn thing all the time. Nevertheless it brings us back to the different ways the two traditions -- "sci-fi" and science fiction -- would treat Superman. If these symbionts empart great powers to people, can't we find a way to give common folk more of them? A blithe contentment with genetic determinism is one thread this "Star Wars" universe shares with most ancient tales -- and with the Nazis. Advertisement: Still, even from this Campbellian \bermensch-hero premise -- that only a genetic elite get to share in the Force -- there is a big logical problem in "The Phantom Menace." Consider: Young Anakin acts with godlike poise and heroism at every turn, yet Yoda accuses this brave kid (packed fulla midichlorians) of being too afraid to be a Jedi? Do I sense a jealous under-plot here? Like maybe old Yoda fears competition? Could he be the hidden hand? Maybe this is the true reason he'll lie to Luke, 40 years later, about his father! Certainly no other explanation for the lie is ever given. None. Not one. Ever. (Now here's a thought. How come we never see Yoda take on an enemy with a light saber? Come on master, fire it up and battle a Sith Lord! That's a battle I'd pay to see! His secret advantage? A long time ago, oven mitts were made of asbestos!) Could this be Clue No. 4? Maybe Anakin's conversion into Darth has a reason darker than any hinted at, so far. It sure makes more sense than Yoda being so flaming incompetent. (He can foresee the future, but can't sense something as big as "this kid's gonna someday fry planets and kill every Jedi"? How convenient.) Forgivable stuff -- and the rest Advertisement: Perhaps the biggest torrent of Internet complaining over "Episode I" concerns something that I'm inclined to overlook: the comic relief character, Jar Jar Binks. It may surprise you to learn that I'm not going to waste any time disparaging poor Jar Jar, or dwelling on hints at "Yes, Bwana" racism. I can take at face value Lucas' assurances that he meant well. Likewise, I found the Ewoks in "Return of the Jedi" to be a bit rankling, but bearable, perhaps even plausible! Hey, what's the harm? I can dial down my mental age in order to enjoy a good Flash Gordon-style sci-fi romp. Cute-dumb sidekicks ain't the real problem here, folks. Even simpleminded heroes can be excused. For all the faults of every other lying Jedi, Luke Skywalker is a true hero throughout episodes IV-VI -- a good dude who remembers his friends and keeps his common touch. A demigod who never lies or forgets a promise. He's not very bright -- and can't act -- but he's a genuine good guy, all the way. And he gets a lot done, whenever he forgets Yoda's advice and lets himself get a little mad. Despite all the clichis, plot inconsistencies and other criticisms I've levelled in this article, I am not suggesting that movie "sci-fi" tales need the same level of logic and character and intricacy you find in first rate science fiction. That would be asking way too much. Anyway, there's a place in this world for eye candy. Even the tsunami of schlock "Star Wars" merchandise flooding every store and mall doesn't raise my ire. Go for it, George! If those were my sole complaints, I would not have taken the time to write all this down. Advertisement: It's when a director relentlessly tries fiddling with our cultural moral compass that we should sit up and take notice. I'll trust Steven Spielberg with such power, because he's earned it. He's proved again and again that he loves this civilization -- an open society of rambunctious citizens -- that gave him so much. He's one of us, only more so. George Lucas, on the other hand, should stick to producing simple action-adventure films -- good clean fun -- and lay off preaching. It's simply not where his gifts lie. |
Cousin Skeeter is an American children's sitcom, which ran on Nickelodeon from 1998 to 2001. It starred Robert Ri'chard as Bobby, a young boy whose life changed when his strange cousin Skeeter came to live with his family. With Skeeter's help, Bobby learns life lessons and tackles the ups and downs of growing up. The show also included Meagan Good as Bobby's friend Nina, Rondell Sheridan as Bobby's father Andre, and Angela Means as Bobby's mother Vanessa. Skeeter is portrayed by a hand puppet with Bill Bellamy providing his voice, and Drew Massey performing the puppetry, assisted by Alice Dinnean.[citation needed] Within the show, Skeeter is treated like a regular human and no mention of him being a puppet is made. Although the series was shot in a single-camera format, the show used a laugh track. The show's theme song is an alternate version of 702's 1996 hit "Steelo", written by Missy Elliott. Characters [ edit ] Skeeter (performed by Drew Massey, voiced by Bill Bellamy) - Skeeter is a puppet whose life changed when he moved from Atlanta, Georgia to New York City to live with his cousin Bobby. He is a loudmouthed, impulsive, and reckless ladies' man, who spends each episode getting Bobby into trouble. Skeeter is also friends with several notable celebrities, including Michael Jordan, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte (whose life he apparently saved), and Dennis Rodman. He does not anger easily, unless someone remarks on his extreme shortness, which causes him to fly into a rage. The fact that he is a puppet is never acknowledged on the show. (performed by Drew Massey, voiced by Bill Bellamy) - Skeeter is a puppet whose life changed when he moved from Atlanta, Georgia to New York City to live with his cousin Bobby. He is a loudmouthed, impulsive, and reckless ladies' man, who spends each episode getting Bobby into trouble. Skeeter is also friends with several notable celebrities, including Michael Jordan, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte (whose life he apparently saved), and Dennis Rodman. He does not anger easily, unless someone remarks on his extreme shortness, which causes him to fly into a rage. The fact that he is a puppet is never acknowledged on the show. Bobby Walker (portrayed by Robert Ri'chard) - Originally from Inglewood, California, Bobby is smart and well-behaved. Often the victim of his cousin's mischief, Bobby often gets mad at Skeeter, but Bobby likes him nonetheless. (portrayed by Robert Ri'chard) - Originally from Inglewood, California, Bobby is smart and well-behaved. Often the victim of his cousin's mischief, Bobby often gets mad at Skeeter, but Bobby likes him nonetheless. André Walker (portrayed by Rondell Sheridan) - Bobby's dad who is a record producer. (portrayed by Rondell Sheridan) - Bobby's dad who is a record producer. Nina Jones (portrayed by Meagan Good) - Nina is Bobby's best friend. She and Bobby seem to have a crush on each other. She is a fast talker and Nicole's best friend. (portrayed by Meagan Good) - Nina is Bobby's best friend. She and Bobby seem to have a crush on each other. She is a fast talker and Nicole's best friend. Vanessa Walker (portrayed by Angela Means) - Bobby's mom, a lawyer, is often annoyed by Skeeter just like Bobby is. She and Andre can't wait for the boys to go to college, and the couple will do anything to get Skeeter and Bobby out of their hair. Additional characters [ edit ] Nicole (voiced by Tisha Campbell-Martin) - A female puppet character, Nicole has more class and manners than Skeeter. She first appeared as a new student in the second season's television movie, "New Kids on the Planet". Nicole quickly became friends with Nina and they are like sisters. She is depicted as tough, once wanting to join the high school football team, and threatening to hurt the school bully if he hurt Skeeter. (voiced by Tisha Campbell-Martin) - A female puppet character, Nicole has more class and manners than Skeeter. She first appeared as a new student in the second season's television movie, "New Kids on the Planet". Nicole quickly became friends with Nina and they are like sisters. She is depicted as tough, once wanting to join the high school football team, and threatening to hurt the school bully if he hurt Skeeter. Duke - Bobby's pal Duke appeared in the first and second seasons of the series. - Bobby's pal Duke appeared in the first and second seasons of the series. Geoff - One of Bobby's friends from school, Geoff always seems to be a bad role model for the boys. - One of Bobby's friends from school, Geoff always seems to be a bad role model for the boys. Brenda (voiced by Lisa Lopes) Episode list [ edit ] Season Episodes Originally aired First aired Last aired 1 20 September 1, 1998 ( ) April 1, 1999 ( 1999-04-01 ) 2 23 August 17, 1999 ( ) July 8, 2000 ( 2000-07-08 ) 3 9 January 14, 2001 ( ) May 19, 2001 ( 2001-05-19 ) Award nominations [ edit ] |
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