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James Martin/CNET Google's bid to dismiss a class action suit alleging its Street View program violated wiretap laws is headed, once again, to a federal appeals court. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday agreed to rehear the issue, but refused Google's request to grant for an "en banc" review. The court also issued an amended opinion (PDF) that reaffirmed its ruling in September that Google violated the US Wiretap Act when it collected data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks while capturing Street View images. "We're pleased that the Court granted our request for a rehearing and revised its opinion," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. "But we are disappointed that the order was not completely reversed and are considering our next steps." Between 2007 and 2010, Street View cars equipped with Wi-Fi antennas collected and stored data including "personal e-mails, usernames, passwords, videos, and documents" that were sent and received over unencrypted Wi-Fi connections. Google collected around 600 gigabytes of data transferred over Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, according to court documents. In May 2010, the company apologized for the inadvertent Wi-Fi spying but was soon hit with several class action lawsuits that were eventually consolidated into a single complaint that accused Google of violating federal and state wiretap laws. Google argues that its actions were not illegal because data transmitted over a Wi-Fi network is an electronic radio communication that is "readily accessible to the general public" and therefore exempt under the Wiretap Act. |
But as New Orleans showed, convenience comes with a cost. * * * Drywall was invented in 1916. The United States Gypsum Corporation, a company that vertically integrated 30 different gypsum and plaster manufacturing companies 14 years prior, created it to protect homes from urban fires, and marketed it as the poor man’s answer to plaster walls. A 1921 USG ad billed drywall as a fireproof wall that went up with “no time [lost] in preparing materials, changing types of labor, or waiting for the building to dry.” Drywall didn’t catch on right away, but in the 1940s, sales grew rapidly thanks to the baby boom. Between 1946 and 1960, more than 21 million new homes were built nationwide for the tens of millions of additional babies. “People wanted white bread and confectioner’s sugar,” says Mouzon. “They wanted a neat, tidy little white-boxed world in the 1950s after the war. It made perfect sense then.” Today, USG is by far the largest of the eight gypsum manufacturers in North America. It holds around a quarter of the wallboard industry’s market share and does $4 billion in sales a year. (Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet's conglomerate, owns 27 percent of the company.) It gets its gypsum from mines or as a synthetically engineered byproduct of coal-fired power plants. If current production rate stays constant, USG believes there’s at least 350 years worth of gypsum available on Earth. * * * Though ideal for construction, gypsum is not known for its environmental friendliness. Workers in gypsum mines—either above-ground quarries or pasty-white caverns—inhale a lot of gypsum dust, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends must be limited to 15 milligrams per cubic meter during a typical workday. And areas with disused mines are prone to ground collapse when surface developments disturb the cavities below. (The upside? Gypsum mines bring jobs to communities in states that produce the most gypsum, like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Nevada, and California.) After gypsum is mined and manufactured into drywall, it’s shipped out to contractors and retailers to be used for new construction. According to the EPA, once that construction is finished, most scraps are sent directly to landfills. There, gypsum becomes wet, mixes with other organic materials, and turns into hydrogen sulfide, a rotten, egg-smelling gas lethal to humans in high doses. The compound can contaminate water and raise its acidity—a risk to marine and freshwater animals. “When site workers put drywall scraps into a dumpster, they consider themselves at the tail end of a waste cycle,” says Amanda Kaminsky, founder of Building Products Ecosystems in Brooklyn. “We're trying change workers' mindsets to realize they’re at the beginning of the manufacturing process.” To do so, Kaminsky’s company is coming up with ways to educate construction teams on safely sorting waste materials and delivering scraps to gypsum-specific recycling facilities. These facilities, like USA Gypsum (USG), in Pennsylvania, can recycle most of the waste and turn scraps into agricultural products. USA Gypsum makes a gypsum soil additive that helps some crops, such as tomatoes, become tastier, for instance. |
In our quest to completely clothe you in Liquid gear (we know some of you who exclusively wear our shirts), we're back with new store items that you didn't know you were missing!As winter approaches, we're all going to need to bundle up and get cozy, so make sure to stock up on our new Liquid socks to keep those digits warm. In both dark blue and white, our 2-Pack of Socks will fit in just about any outfit while flashing that Liquid logo loud and proud.Some people get nippy up top too, and we've got you covered. Literally; with our Liquid Scarf! Wrap it around your neck or drape it over your head, you can use this handy thing any way you want. You can even wave it up high while you cheer for us at events. Match that with our logo Beanie for maximum head protection.If you're in the market for new apparel, then our Pull Over Hoodie and new Long Sleeve Shirt should tick all those cold weather boxes. You know the deal here: a soft hand and warm fabric ensure the only chills you'll be feeling are the nerd kind.We're not leaving out accessories in this batch of releases, either. Our redesigned Lanyard matches our current jersey, and looks pretty sweet to boot. And just in case you're not wearing anything Liquid, our Enamel Pin is easy to attach and adds a little bit of Liquid to any ensemble.Oh hey, did you notice our new model? Now all we need is Liquid undies. |
Image copyright AFP Image caption Taiwan's Indigenous Defence Fighters (pictured in a file image here) were scrambled in response Two Chinese military aircraft violated Taiwan's airspace on Monday, officials said, causing Taiwan to scramble jets. Taiwan said Chinese Y-8 maritime patrol planes entered the island's ADIZ (air defence identification zone) in both the morning and the afternoon. Taiwan scrambled planes which "followed them closely to make sure they left", an air force spokesman said. The alleged incident came days after the US accused a Chinese plane of dangerous manoeuvres near its aircraft. Washington said the Chinese aircraft came within 10 metres of a US Navy patrol plane over international waters off Hainan Island on 19 August. China described the claims as "groundless", saying the pilot's conduct was "professional". Image copyright AP Image caption The US has released photographs of the Chinese Su-27 aircraft which it says was responsible for carrying out the dangerous manoeuvres In the latest incident, Taiwan said the two Chinese planes violated its airspace twice each as they flew towards the South China Sea and back. Mirage 2000-5s and Indigenous Defence Fighters were scrambled in response, officials said. In a statement to Reuters news agency, China's defence ministry said its planes had carried out a "routine flight" in "relevant airspace". There was no "abnormality", the statement said. Beijing considers Taiwan part of China but the two have been governed separately since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Economic ties have improved significantly in recent years but on a political level the two remain far apart. China, meanwhile, has in recent years been taking a more assertive stance over its territorial claims in both the East China and South China seas, sparking a rise in regional tensions. |
React TransitionGroupPlus A drop-in replacement for the original react-addons-transition-group that allows interruptible transitions and specifying transition order. Note that this is not API-compatible with react-transition-group v2 Installation npm install --save react-transition-group-plus Demo See a comparative demo between ReactTransitionGroup and TransitionGroupPlus Aside from being able to specify transition order, notice how a component's enter transition is aborted and the leave transition runs as soon as a component should no longer be active. ReactTransitionGroup has a few shortcomings Animation order can't be specified. Different components' componentWillEnter and componentWillLeave always occur simultaneously. It's difficult to wait for the outgoing component's componentWillLeave to finish before running the incoming component's componentWillEnter . The same component's transitions can't be interrupted. Once a component's componentWillEnter is called, calls to the same component's componentWillLeave will be delayed until the enter animation finishes This problem becomes apparent for page transitions and carousels, when something that's entering might need to immediately exit. TransitionGroupPlus builds upon ReactTransitionGroup's existing code to solve these problems. Usage Usage of TransitionGroupPlus is nearly identical to ReactTransitionGroup. (See the guide on react's website on how to use ReactTransitionGroup) Additional props: transitionMode (optional) can have the following values: simultaneous (default) componentWillEnter and componentWillLeave will be run at the same time. The transitionMode prop can be omitted if simultaneous transitions are desired as this is the default value. out-in Wait for the outgoing component's componentWillLeave to finish before calling the incoming component's componentWillEnter . Note: If an incoming component needs to leave while it's still waiting for its componentWillEnter to be called, its componentWillEnter will be skipped and only its componentWillLeave will be called. in-out Wait for the incoming component's componentWillEnter to finish before calling the outgoing component's componentWillLeave . (optional) can have the following values: deferLeavingComponentRemoval (optional, boolean, defaults to false ) When true , children that leave will not be removed immediately after their componentWillLeave is called, but will wait for the next component's componentWillEnter to finish. Only affects the transition modes "simultaneous" and "out-in". Has no effect on "in-out". < TransitionGroupPlus transitionMode = " in-out " > ... < / TransitionGroupPlus > Browser Support This component relies on Promises, which exists natively in most browsers, but a polyfill would be required for IE11 and below. Other than that, this should run on all browsers where React runs. License Since this code was forked from React's ReactTransitionGroup, significant lines of codes still fall under React's original BSD license. New code is licensed under MIT Inspired by Vue's transitions |
Predicting Supreme Court Outcomes Using AI ? Is it possible to predict the outcomes of legal cases – such as Supreme Court decisions – using Artificial Intelligence (AI)? I recently had the opportunity to consider this point at a talk that I gave entitled “Machine Learning Within Law” at Stanford. Quantitative Legal Prediction At that talk, I discussed a very interesting new paper entitled “ Predicting the Behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States” by Prof. Dan Katz (Mich. State Law), Data Scientist Michael Bommarito , and Prof. Josh Blackman (South Texas Law). Katz, Bommarito, and Blackman used machine-learning AI techniques to build a computer model capable of predicting the outcomes of arbitrary Supreme Court cases with an accuracy of about 70% – a strong result. This post will discuss their approach and why it was an improvement over prior research in this area. The general idea behind such approaches is to use computer-based analysis of existing data (e.g. data on past Supreme Court cases) in order to predict the outcome of future legal events (e.g. pending cases). The approach to using data to inform legal predictions (as opposed to pure lawyerly analysis) has been largely championed by Prof. Katz – something that he has dubbed “Quantitative Legal Prediction” in recent work. Predictive Analytics: Finding Useful Patterns in Data Legal prediction is an important function that attorneys perform for clients. Attorneys predict all sorts of things, ranging from the likely outcome of pending cases, risk of liability, and estimates about damages, to the importance of various laws and facts to legal decision-makers. Attorneys use a mix of legal training, problem-solving, analysis, experience, analogical reasoning, common sense, intuition and other higher order cognitive skills to engage in sophisticated, informed assessments of likely outcomes.By contrast, the quantitative approach takes a different tack: using analysis of data employing advanced algorithms to result in data-driven predictions of legal outcomes (instead of, or in addition to traditional legal analysis). These data-driven predictions can provide additional information to support attorney analysis. Outside of law, predictive analytics has widely applied to produce automated, predictions in multiple contexts. Real world examples of predictive analytics include: the automated product recommendations made by Amazon.com, movie recommendations made by Netflix, and the search terms automatically suggested by Google. Scanning Data for Patterns that Are Predictive of Future Outcomes In general, predictive analytics approaches use advanced computer algorithms to scan large amounts of data to detect patterns. These patterns can be often used to make intelligent, useful predictions about never-before-seen future data. Many of these approaches employ “Machine Learning” techniques to engage in prediction. I have written about some of the ways that machine-learning based analytical approaches are starting to be used within law and the legal system. Prior Work in Analytical Supreme Court Prediction Broadly speaking, machine-learning refers to a research area studying computer systems that are able improve their performance on some task over time with experience. Such algorithms are specifically designed to detect patterns in data that can be highlight non-obvious relationships or that can be predictive of future outcomes (such as detecting Netflix users who like movie X, tend also to like movie Y and concluding you like movie X, so you’re likely to like movie Y.)Importantly these algorithms are designed to “learn” – in the sense that they can change their own behavior to get better at some task – like predicting movie preferences – over time by detecting new, useful patterns within additional data. Thus, the general idea behind predictive legal analytics is to examine data concerning past legal cases and use machine learning algorithms to detect and learn patterns that could be predictive of future case outcomes.In such a machine learning approach — called supervised learning – we “train” the algorithm by providing it with examples of past data that is has been definitively classified. For example, there may be a body of existing data about Supreme Court cases along with confirmed data indicating whether the outcome was affirm or reverse, along with other potentially predictive data, such as lower circuit, and subject matter at issue. Such an algorithm examines this training data to detect patterns and statistical correlations between variables and outcomes (e.g. 9th Circuit cases more likely to be reversed) and build a computer model that will be predictive of future outcomes.It is helpful to briefly review some earlier research in using data analytics to engage prediction of Supreme Court outcomes to understand the contribution of Katz, Bommarito, and Blackman’s paper. Pioneering work in the area of quantitative legal prediction began in 2004 with a seminal project by Prof. Ted Ruger (U Penn), Andrew D. Martin (now dean at U Michigan) and other collaborators, employing statistical methods to predict Supreme Court outcomes. That project pitted experts in legal prediction – law professors and attorneys – against a statistical model that had analyzed data about hundreds of past Supreme Court cases. Improvements by Katz, Bommarito, and Blackman (2014) Somewhat surprisingly the computer model significantly outperformed the experts in predictive ability. The computer model correctly forecastedof Supreme Court outcomes, while the experts only had asuccess rate in predicting Supreme Court affirm or reversal decisions. (The computer and the experts performed roughly the same in predicting the votes of individual justices – as opposed to the ultimate outcome – with the computer getting 66.7 % correct predictions vs. the experts 67.9%). The work by Ruger, Martin et. al – while pioneering – left some room for improvement. One aspect was that their predictive model – while highly predictive of the relatively short time frame examined (the October 2002 term) – was thought not to be broadly generalizable to predicting arbitrary Supreme Court cases across any timespan. A primary reason was that the period of Supreme Court cases that they examined to build their models – roughly 1994 – 2000 – involved an unusually stable court. Notably, this period exhibited no change in personnel (i.e. justices leaving the court and new justices being appointed). Katz, Bommarito, and Blackman: Machine Learning And Random Forests A model that was “trained” on data from an unusually stable period of the Supreme Court, and tested on a short case-load of relatively non-fluctuation might not perform as accurately when applied to a broader or less homogenous examination period, or might not handle changes in court composition in a robust manner.Ideally, we would any such computer predictive model to be flexible enough, and generalizable enough to handle significant changes in personnel and still be able to produce accurate predictions. Additionally, such a model should be general enough to predict case outcomes with a relatively consistent level of accuracy regardless of the term or period of years examined. While building upon Ruger et al’s pioneering work. Katz, Bommarito, and Blackman improve upon it by employing a relatively new machine learning approach known as “Random Forests.” Without getting into the details, it is important to note that Random Forest approaches have been shown to be quite robust and generalizable as compared to other modeling approaches in contexts such as this. The authors applied this algorithmic approach to examine data about past Supreme Court cases found in the Supreme Court Database. In addition to outcome (e.g. affirmed, reverse), this database contains hundreds of variables about nearly every Supreme Court decision of the past 60 years. Conclusion: Prediction in Law Going Forward Recall that machine learning approaches often working by providing an algorithm with existing data (such as data concerning past Supreme Court case outcomes and potentially predictive variables such as lower-circuit) in order to “train” it. The algorithms looks for patterns and builds an internal computer model that can hopefully be used to provide prediction is future, never-before-seen data – such as pending Supreme Court case.Katz, Bommarito, and Blackman did this and produced a new robust machine-learning based computer model that correctly forecasted ~of Supreme Court affirm / reverse decisions.This was actually a significant improvement over prior work. Although Ruger’s et. al’s model had a aprediction rate on the period it was analyzed against, Katz et. al’s model was a much more robust, generalizable model.The new model is able to withstand changes in Supreme Court composition and still produce accurate results even when applied across widely variable supreme court terms, with varying levels of case predictability. In other words, it is unlikely that the Ruger model – focused only on one term 2002 – would produce a 75% rate across a 50 year range of Supreme Court jurisprudence. By contrast, the computer model produced by Katz et. model consistently delivered a 70% prediction rate across nearly 8,000 cases across 50+ years. Katz, Bommarito, and Blackman’s paper is an important contribution. In the not too distant future, such data-driven approaches to engaging in legal prediction are likely to become more common within law. Outside of law, data analytics and machine-learning have been transforming industries ranging from medicine to finance, and it is unlikely that law will remain as comparatively untouched by such sweeping changes as it remains today. Harry Surden Harry Surden is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Colorado Law School. His scholarship centers upon intellectual property law with a substantive focus on patents and copyright, information privacy law, legal informatics and legal automation, and the application of computer technology within the legal system. His Twitter is : @Harry Surden More Posts In future posts I will discuss machine learning within law more generally, and principles for understanding what such AI techniques ca, and cannot do within law given the state of current technology, and some implications of these technological changes. |
This is the first article of a series of interviews with the Tindie sellers’ community, sharing inspiring stories on how they got started and what it takes to create a fun and successful business in the open hardware world. Since the launch of Tindie mid-2012 (I covered the early beginnings on MakingSociety), I’ve always wanted to know who the pro makers are, how they manufacture and how they find clients. For a few weeks, I’ll conduct interviews with makers living from their creations and using Tindie to sell their products. I expect to find interesting patterns and advice that could be use by all of us creating open hardware projects. For the launch of the series, I also interviewed Emile Petrone, CEO and founder of Tindie, in a 30 min podcast where he shares plenty of advice on how to get started and be more successful online. Listen to the episode here. Today, in this very first interview, meet Jason Hotchkiss. He is an electronics hobbyist based in Brighton in the United Kingdom. Jason’s store, Hotchk155, is all about noiseboxes and games. He currently sells 11 products in his online store including a gamer kit, a motor driver and 8 MIDI-related products. He creates MIDI and analog noiseboxes and make them available for other lovers of microcontrollers and sounds. Mathilde: Tell us more about your store and how you started it. Jason: I started working with electronics about 4 years ago when I decided to make a simple synthesiser from a design I found online (Ray Wilson’s excellent “Weird Sound Generator”). Quickly after that I discovered the Arduino and made a whole bunch of projects for my own fun, which started to pick up quite a following on YouTube. I love finding interesting ways to generate patterns that can be turned into sound and played around with MIDI Lava Lamps, robotic glockenspiels, Tesla coils etc. Occasionally I’d get people emailing me to buy projects from me, but I really was not set up for it. It was only late last year when I discovered how cheap and easy it is to get Printed Circuit Boards made up by online companies and started to make kits out of a couple of my previous projects. Initially I tried selling them on eBay and Etsy without much luck before. A few months back I found Tindie, which is a superb place for selling DIY electronics kits, and during the last few months things have really picked up. MakingSociety: Do you live from your store or do you also have other activities? Jason Hotchkiss: I wish…! At the moment I work full time as a software developer. I would really love to be able to spend all my time tinkering and working on new products and kits but the current income from that would not pay the mortgage… MakingSociety: How do you find your clients? How do they hear about you? Jason Hotchkiss: So far I have really done no marketing and apart from my Tindie store and YouTube page its all word of mouth. Sometimes I see little bursts of sales of a single product from a specific places and I really do get intrigued what’s going on. Luckily a Google search can help out there… I’ve noticed a lot of people seem to find products (especially my MIDI stuff) through specialist message boards, forums and blog sites. In the age of the internet “word of mouth” has a whole new awesome power! MakingSociety: What are your biggest challenges at the moment? Marketing? Manufacturing? Logistics? Jason Hotchkiss: My biggest challenge is without doubt Time. Since I work in small batches, available time is a constraint that gets me a long time before I run out of money. I guess the next logical step is to ramp things up a bit, work in bigger batches, perhaps engage in some proper marketing and look for new retail channels, offload more of the manufacturing, kit packing, shipping etc. to specialist companies. My basic problem is that I am really not a businessman… it’s the research and product development process that interests me, as well as talking to users and getting their feedback and ideas. The thought of spending all the time keeping a supply chain running scares me a bit… I really don’t think I am organised enough! However that next step is the next big challenge and is something I probably need to partner up with someone for… maybe I could even give up the day job then! Find out more about Jason Hotchkiss’s work in his Tindie store Hotchk155 and his YouTube channel See you soon for a new story, |
Remember when President Obama was lambasted for saying "you didn't build that"? Turns out he was right, at least when it comes to lots of stuff built by the world’s wealthiest corporations. That’s the takeaway from this week’s new study of 25,000 major taxpayer subsidy deals over the last two decades. Titled “Subsidizing the Corporate One Percent,” the report from the taxpayer watchdog group Good Jobs First shows that the world’s largest companies aren’t models of self-sufficiency and unbridled capitalism. To the contrary, they’re propped up by billions of dollars in welfare payments from state and local governments. Advertisement: Such subsidies might be a bit more defensible if they were being doled out in a way that promoted upstart entrepreneurialism. But as the study also shows, a full “three-quarters of all the economic development dollars awarded and disclosed by state and local governments have gone to just 965 large corporations” — not to the small businesses and start-ups that politicians so often pretend to care about. In dollar figures, that’s a whopping $110 billion going to big companies. Fortune 500 firms alone receive more than 16,000 subsidies at a total cost of $63 billion. These kinds of handouts, of course, are the definition of government intervention in the market. Nonetheless, those who receive the subsidies are still portrayed as free-market paragons. Consider Charles and David Koch. Their company, Koch Industries, has relied on $88 million worth of government handouts. Yet, as the major financiers of the anti-government right, the Kochs are still billed as libertarian free-market activists. Similarly, behold the big tech firms. They are often portrayed as self-made success stories. Yet, as Good Jobs First shows, they are among the biggest recipients of the subsidies. Intel leads the tech pack with 58 subsidies worth $3.8 billion. Next up is IBM, which has received more than $1 billion in subsidies. Most of that is from New York – a state proudly promoting its corporate handouts in a new ad campaign. Advertisement: Then there’s Google’s $632 million and Yahoo’s $260 million -- both sets of subsidies primarily from data center deals. And not to be forgotten is 38 Studios, the now bankrupt software firm that received $75 million in Rhode Island taxpayer cash. The company received the handout at the very moment Rhode Island was pleading “poverty” to justify cuts to public workers’ retirement benefits. Along with propping up companies that are supposedly free-market icons, the subsidies are also flowing to financial firms that have become synonymous with never-ending bailouts. Indeed, companies like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup – each of which was given massive taxpayer subsidies during the financial crisis —are the recipients of tens of millions of dollars in additional subsidies. All of these handouts, of course, would be derided if they were going to poor people. But because they are going to extremely wealthy politically connected conglomerates, they are typically promoted with cheery euphemisms like “incentives” or “economic development.” Those euphemisms persist even though many subsidies do not end up actually creating jobs. In light of that, the Good Jobs First report is a reality check on all the political rhetoric about dependency. Most of that rhetoric is punitively aimed at the poor. That’s because, unlike the huge corporations receiving all those subsidies, the poor don’t have armies of lobbyists and truckloads of campaign contributions that make sure programs like food stamps are shrouded in the anodyne argot of “incentives” and “development.” Advertisement: But as the report proves, if we are going to have an honest conversation about dependency and free markets, then the billions of dollars flowing to politically connected companies need to be part of the discussion. |
The Hive has come into possession of what purports to be a memo outlining the first 16 hours of original programming for Donald Trump’s rumored news network. Our research team, lawyers, and journalistic ethics compel us to disclose that this document may have been hacked, leaked, or entirely fabricated. Monday, November 7, 2016 To: Donald J. Trump, Chairman and President, The Trump Organization From: Jared C. Kushner, Executive Producer, Trump TV * * * C O N F I D E N T I A L * * * Below please find a draft of the line-up we discussed for our first 16 hours of original programming. Omarosa is in for the 3 P.M. hour, pending final negotiation of her contract, and Alex Jones just confirmed today. Newt is still haggling with us over toy royalties for his morning show, but I think we can satisfy him with a “creative consultant” credit. Best, Jared 6 A.M.: Wake Up, Sheeple! With Alex Jones: A morning talk show, with the latest in news, weather, and which radioactive zones to avoid after the Illuminati enact their final solutions. 7 A.M.: Saturday Morning with Tiffany and Eric: The pity show given to the two most-ignored Trump children. 8 A.M.: Newt’s Law: A children’s educational program. For 22 minutes every afternoon, Newt Gingrich will teach kids about history, science, and technology. At the end of every show, Newt will somehow bring everything back to the subject of immorality in America. 9 A.M.: Ivanka: A daytime talk show hosted by Ivanka Trump, focusing on the issues facing mothers and women in the workforce, as well as lifestyle tips and current events. The only show that normal people will watch before switching channels. 10 A.M.: Conway Or Another: A quirky sitcom about a career woman trying to have it all while balancing her family and her boss’s multiple personalities. Every week, her children will learn a new lesson about how something awful that happened is actually a good thing. 11 A.M.: Access Hollywood with Billy Bush: Because only one network would ever hire Billy Bush. 12 P.M.: Mexican Immigrant Warrior: Undocumented immigrants run an obstacle course across the US-Mexico border. Obstacles include “Drone Dodge,” “Minuteman Alley,” and “The Warped Wall.” Whoever successfully completes the course wins the title of "Baddest Hombre", and is immediately sent back to Mexico. Hosted by Joe Arpaio. 1 P.M.: Dynasty: Secrets! Lies! Affairs! Intrigue! Money! Ambition! A soap opera about the evil Clinton family. 2 P.M.: Project Runaway: A TV competition where supermodels must run away from Donald Trump. 3 P.M.: Orange is the New Black: A reality show following Donald Trump’s adventures with his close African-American friends, such as Herman Cain, Dr. Ben Carson, and Omarosa. Like all good reality shows, it is scripted. 4 P.M.: Trump Jeopardy!: A quiz show. Answers must be in the form of an accusation against Hillary Clinton. 5 P.M.: The Trainee: Clearly not a second-rate knockoff of The Apprentice (TM Mark Burnett Productions). 6 P.M.: Breaking Bridge: A prestige drama. Facing the loss of his career, a struggling New Jersey governor makes the life-changing decision to become an underground Trump supporter to provide for his family. 7 P.M.: Talking Bridge: A post-Breaking Bridge talk show where Donald Trump talks about how bad Chris Christie is. 8 P.M.: Curb Your Supremacism: David Duke gets into awkward situations when his everyday annoyances about Jews and African-Americans cause PC-obsessed liberals to get mad at him for some reason. 9 P.M.: Hannity: The exact same thing as the Fox show. Donald Trump FOLLOW Ivanka Trump FOLLOW Follow to get the latest news and analysis about the players in your inbox. See All Players |
eNews is a bi-monthly newsletter with fun information about SentryOne, tips to help improve your productivity, and much more. The SQLPerformance.com bi-weekly newsletter keeps you up to speed on the most recent blog posts and forum discussions in the SQL Server community. T-SQL Tuesday #78 is being hosted by Wendy Pastrick, and the challenge this month is simply to "learn something new and blog about it." Her blurb leans toward new features in SQL Server 2016, but since I've blogged and presented about many of those, I thought I would explore something else first-hand that I've always been genuinely curious about. I've seen multiple people state that a heap can be better than a clustered index for certain scenarios. I cannot disagree with that. One of the interesting reasons I've seen stated, though, is that a RID Lookup is faster than a Key Lookup. I'm a big fan of clustered indexes and not a huge fan of heaps, so I felt this needed some testing. So, let's test it! I thought it would be good to create a database with two tables, identical except that one had a clustered primary key, and the other had a non-clustered primary key. I would time loading some rows into the table, updating a bunch of rows in a loop, and selecting from an index (forcing either a Key or RID Lookup). System Specs This question often comes up, so to clarify the important details about this system, I'm on an 8-core VM with 32 GB of RAM, backed by PCIe storage. SQL Server version is 2014 SP1 CU6, with no special configuration changes or trace flags running: Microsoft SQL Server 2014 (SP1-CU6) (KB3144524) – 12.0.4449.0 (X64) Apr 13 2016 12:41:07 Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation Developer Edition (64-bit) on Windows NT 6.3 <X64> (Build 10586: ) (Hypervisor) The Database I created a database with plenty of free space in both the data and log file in order to prevent any autogrow events from interfering with the tests. I also set the database to simple recovery to minimize the impact on the transaction log. CREATE DATABASE HeapVsCIX ON ( name = N'HeapVsCIX_data' , filename = N'C:\...\HeapCIX.mdf' , size = 100MB , filegrowth = 10MB ) LOG ON ( name = N'HeapVsCIX_log' , filename = 'C:\...\HeapCIX.ldf' , size = 100MB , filegrowth = 10MB ) ; GO ALTER DATABASE HeapVsCIX SET RECOVERY SIMPLE ; The Tables As I said, two tables, with the only difference being whether the primary key is clustered. CREATE TABLE dbo . ObjectHeap ( ObjectID int PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED , Name sysname , SchemaID int , ModuleDefinition nvarchar ( max ) ) ; CREATE INDEX oh_name ON dbo . ObjectHeap ( Name ) INCLUDE ( SchemaID ) ; CREATE TABLE dbo . ObjectCIX ( ObjectID INT PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED , Name sysname , SchemaID int , ModuleDefinition nvarchar ( max ) ) ; CREATE INDEX oc_name ON dbo . ObjectCIX ( Name ) INCLUDE ( SchemaID ) ; A Table For Capturing Runtime I could monitor CPU and all of that, but really the curiosity is almost always around runtime. So I created a logging table to capture the runtime of each test: CREATE TABLE dbo . Timings ( Test varchar ( 32 ) NOT NULL , StartTime datetime2 NOT NULL DEFAULT SYSUTCDATETIME ( ) , EndTime datetime2 ) ; The Insert Test So, how long does it take to insert 2,000 rows, 100 times? I'm grabbing some pretty basic data from sys.all_objects , and pulling the definition along for any procedures, functions, etc.: INSERT dbo . Timings ( Test ) VALUES ( 'Inserting Heap' ) ; GO TRUNCATE TABLE dbo . ObjectHeap ; INSERT dbo . ObjectHeap ( ObjectID , Name , SchemaID , ModuleDefinition ) SELECT TOP ( 2000 ) [ object_id ] , name , [ schema_id ] , OBJECT_DEFINITION ( [ object_id ] ) FROM sys . all_objects ORDER BY [ object_id ] ; GO 100 UPDATE dbo . Timings SET EndTime = SYSUTCDATETIME ( ) WHERE EndTime IS NULL ; GO -- CIX: INSERT dbo . Timings ( Test ) VALUES ( 'Inserting CIX' ) ; GO TRUNCATE TABLE dbo . ObjectCIX ; INSERT dbo . ObjectCIX ( ObjectID , Name , SchemaID , ModuleDefinition ) SELECT TOP ( 2000 ) [ object_id ] , name , [ schema_id ] , OBJECT_DEFINITION ( [ object_id ] ) FROM sys . all_objects ORDER BY [ object_id ] ; GO 100 UPDATE dbo . Timings SET EndTime = SYSUTCDATETIME ( ) WHERE EndTime IS NULL ; The Update Test For the update test, I just wanted to test the speed of writing to a clustered index vs. a heap in a very row-by-row fashion. So I dumped 200 random rows into a #temp table, then built a cursor around it (the #temp table merely ensures that the same 200 rows are updated in both versions of the table, which is probably overkill). CREATE TABLE #IdsToUpdate ( ObjectID int PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED ) ; INSERT #IdsToUpdate ( ObjectID ) SELECT TOP ( 200 ) ObjectID FROM dbo . ObjectCIX ORDER BY NEWID ( ) ; GO INSERT dbo . Timings ( Test ) VALUES ( 'Updating Heap' ) ; GO -- update speed - update 200 rows 1,000 times DECLARE @id int ; DECLARE c CURSOR LOCAL FORWARD_ONLY FOR SELECT ObjectID FROM #IdsToUpdate ; OPEN c ; FETCH c INTO @id ; WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS <> - 1 BEGIN UPDATE dbo . ObjectHeap SET Name = REPLACE ( Name , 's' , 'u' ) WHERE ObjectID = @id ; FETCH c INTO @id ; END CLOSE c ; DEALLOCATE c ; GO 1000 UPDATE dbo . Timings SET EndTime = SYSUTCDATETIME ( ) WHERE EndTime IS NULL ; GO INSERT dbo . Timings ( Test ) VALUES ( 'Updating CIX' ) ; GO DECLARE @id int ; DECLARE c CURSOR LOCAL FORWARD_ONLY FOR SELECT ObjectID FROM #IdsToUpdate ; OPEN c ; FETCH c INTO @id ; WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS <> - 1 BEGIN UPDATE dbo . ObjectCIX SET Name = REPLACE ( Name , 's' , 'u' ) WHERE ObjectID = @id ; FETCH c INTO @id ; END CLOSE c ; DEALLOCATE c ; GO 1000 UPDATE dbo . Timings SET EndTime = SYSUTCDATETIME ( ) WHERE EndTime IS NULL ; The Select Test So, above you saw that I created an index with Name as the key column in each table; in order to evaluate the cost of performing lookups for a significant amount of rows, I wrote a query that assigns the output to a variable (eliminating network I/O and client rendering time), but forces the use of the index: INSERT dbo . Timings ( Test ) VALUES ( 'Forcing RID Lookup' ) ; GO DECLARE @x nvarchar ( max ) ; SELECT @x = ModuleDefinition FROM dbo . ObjectHeap WITH ( INDEX ( oh_name ) ) WHERE Name LIKE N'S%' ; GO 10000 UPDATE dbo . Timings SET EndTime = SYSUTCDATETIME ( ) WHERE EndTime IS NULL ; GO INSERT dbo . Timings ( Test ) VALUES ( 'Forcing Key Lookup' ) ; GO DECLARE @x nvarchar ( max ) ; SELECT @x = ModuleDefinition FROM dbo . ObjectCIX WITH ( INDEX ( oc_name ) ) WHERE Name LIKE N'S%' ; GO 10000 UPDATE dbo . Timings SET EndTime = SYSUTCDATETIME ( ) WHERE EndTime IS NULL ; For this one I wanted to show some interesting aspects of the plans before collating the test results. Running them individually head-to-head provides these comparative metrics: Duration is inconsequential for a single statement, but look at those reads. If you're on slow storage, that's a big difference you won't see in a smaller scale and/or on your local development SSD. And then the plans showing the two different lookups, using SQL Sentry Plan Explorer: The plans look almost identical, and you might not notice the difference in reads in SSMS unless you were capturing Statistics I/O. Even the estimated I/O costs for the two lookups were similar – 1.69 for the Key Lookup, and 1.59 for the RID lookup. (The warning icon in both plans is for a missing covering index.) It is interesting to note that if we don't force a lookup and allow SQL Server to decide what to do, it chooses a standard scan in both cases – no missing index warning, and look at how much closer the reads are: The optimizer knows that a scan will be much cheaper than seek + lookups in this case. I chose a LOB column for variable assignment merely for effect, but the results were similar using a non-LOB column as well. The Test Results With the Timings table in place, I was able to easily run the tests multiple times (I ran a dozen tests) and then come with averages for the tests with the following query: SELECT Test , Avg_Duration = AVG ( 1.0 * DATEDIFF ( MILLISECOND , StartTime , EndTime ) ) FROM dbo . Timings GROUP BY Test ; A simple bar chart shows how they compare: Conclusion So, the rumors are true: in this case at least, a RID Lookup is significantly faster than a Key Lookup. Going directly to file:page:slot is obviously more efficient in terms of I/O than following the b-tree (and if you aren't on modern storage, the delta could be much more noticeable). Whether you want to take advantage of that, and bring along all of the other heap aspects, will depend on your workload – the heap is slightly more expensive for write operations. But this is not definitive – this could vary greatly depending on table structure, indexes, and access patterns. I tested very simple things here, and if you're on the fence about this, I highly recommend testing your actual workload on your own hardware and comparing for yourself (and don't forget to test the same workload where covering indexes are present; you will probably get much better overall performance if you can simply eliminate lookups altogether). Be sure to measure all of the metrics that are important to you; just because I focus on duration doesn't mean it's the one you need to care about most. :-) |
Helicodiceros muscivorus, the dead horse arum lily,[2][3] is an ornamental plant native to Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands. It is the only species in the genus Helicodiceros.[1][4][5] Within the Araceae family the plant is part of the Aroideae subfamily. The flowers of H. muscivorus smell like rotting meat, attracting carrion-seeking blow flies which act as pollinators. One of a rare group of thermogenic plants, the dead horse arum can raise its temperature by thermogenesis. This helps to lure flies into the plant to contact its pollen.[6][7] The plant still is being studied for the way it is able to produce its own heat without being necessarily dependent of ambient temperature.[8] Description [ edit ] The inflorescence of the arum lilies is a three-part spadix which resembles the anal area of a dead mammal. In between is a hairy spathe such as a ‘tail’ running down into the chamber of the flower which bonds with the fertile male and female florets. The appendix and the male florets are thermogenic, but have different temporal patterns. The exits of the female florets are hindered by spines and filaments which serve to trap the blow flies once inside.[9] The male florets exhibit independence from the ambient temperatures as heat production depends on the time of the day rather than ambient temperatures. Also, uncoupling protein was found in both the thermionic male florets and the appendix. The protein is 1178 nucleotide in length in the dead horse arum mRNA excluding the poly-A tail and it is believed to have a protein of 304 amino acids. It also possesses three mitochondrial carrier signature domains, six membrane-spanning domains, and one nucleotide-binding domain. Potato and rice have been compared to the plant at times due to its typical features of the uncoupling protein. Uncoupling protein plays a role in the production of energy to become heat.[10] Thermogeny [ edit ] The dead horse arum manipulates the heat to release an odor that lures the flies to the structure of the appendix of the flower to begin pollination. This odor is a strong, putrid smell, its composition has a similarity to a real carcass, which flies are not able to distinguish from a real carcass. Blow flies find the horrific smell and the flesh-colored hairy inflorescence of the plant irresistible, such that large numbers of flies are attracted into the plant. The thermogeny has a direct effect on the pollinators, by altering their behavior. Although male florets of the dead horse arum exhibit some independence from ambient temperature the pattern has shown that heat production depends on time of the day. Pollination occurs in to two days.[8] The highest temperature of the plant was found to peak at noon on day 1. The appendix temperature was 12.4 °C higher than ambient temperature. During day 1, eight flowering plants received a total of 881 fly visits.[9] Thermogeny has been linked to be produced by the uncoupling protein; it does not complete the process to ATP synthesis, instead it allows electrons to flow into the mitochondria without creating ATP. The result is the creation of more energy which then dissipates into heat.[10] Pollination [ edit ] The dead horse arum has a two-day process for pollination. The individual flower is able to receive pollen for one day only, and usually that day its male parts are not mature. Although the male part is able to produce pollen the next day, the female part shrivels up and cannot receive it. Both these mechanisms favor pollination from another plant and discourage self-pollination. [7] When ready to pollinate, the plant produces its own heat and generates a smell like rotting flesh. This smell attracts the blow flies into the chamber of the plant for pollination. Once the flies are inside, they are trapped in the chamber by spines that block the exit path.[9] The flies, which are carrying pollen from previous visits to other flowers, cover the female floret with that pollen, as they try to find a place to lay their eggs. The flies remain trapped overnight, and the spines remain erect until the male florets at the entrance of the chamber start producing pollen, by which time the female florets are no longer receptive. At this point, the spines wilt and the flies are able to leave. Just as the flies leave, they have to pass through the male florets and are coated with pollen that they will transport to another plant.[11] Gallery [ edit ] Helicodiceros muscivorus in bloom Inflorescence close-up |
WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration and members of Congress are pressing India to curb its generic medication industry. The move comes at the behest of U.S. pharmaceutical companies, which have drowned out warnings from public health experts that inexpensive drugs from India are essential to providing life-saving treatments around the world. Low-cost generics from India have dramatically lowered medical costs in developing countries and proved critical to global AIDS relief programs; about 98 percent of the drugs purchased by President George W. Bush's landmark PEPFAR AIDS relief program are generics from India. Before Indian companies rolled out generic versions priced at $1 a day, AIDS medication cost about $10,000 per person per year. But India's generic industry has also cut into profits for Pfizer and other U.S. and European drug companies. In response, these companies have sought to impose aggressive patenting and intellectual property standards in India, measures that would grant the firms monopoly pricing power over new drugs and lock out generics producers. On Thursday, a House subcommittee held a hearing on international trade disputes with India that included testimony from American manufacturing and solar energy groups. Most of the event, however, was devoted to U.S. drug company Pfizer's complaints about Indian policies that have fostered the country's billion-dollar generics industry. The hearing followed Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to India earlier this week for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, a major diplomatic mission. Last week, a bipartisan group of 170 House lawmakers sent a letter to Kerry and President Barack Obama raising objections to India's patent system. But at Thursday's hearing, few seemed well-versed on intellectual property or public health issues. "I first learned of this issue just a few short weeks ago from Pfizer, my largest employer in my district," said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), before asking Pfizer Chief Intellectual Property Officer Roy Waldron if his company had talked to the Obama administration about its concerns. "We have been speaking with [the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative] and the administration and we're very hopeful that this issue has been raised during Secretary Kerry's visit to India," Waldron replied. A State Department spokesperson told HuffPost that during his trip, Kerry "discussed a number of economic and trade issues with Indian officials, including ongoing issues in the pharmaceutical sector." Kerry's involvement represents an escalation in the Obama administration's opposition to India's generic drug policies. Following two recent landmark court decisions, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative have been pressuring the Indian government on its patent standards. In January, India's Supreme Court rejected a patent on a Novartis leukemia drug called Gleevec (or Glivec), clearing the way for cheaper generic production. The active ingredient in Gleevec has been available for years, but Novartis filed for a patent on an updated version available in pill form. India's highest court turned down the application on the grounds that the delivery format did not constitute a legitimate innovation. Gleevec is protected by multiple U.S. patents, and costs upwards of $75,000 a year domestically. In India, where annual per capita income is about $1,400, Novartis was charging about $31,000 a year for the medication. The generic version legalized by the court's decision costs around $2,100. Last year, India also permitted a generic manufacturer to produce a cheaper version of another cancer drug patented by Bayer AG. Bayer was charging $5,000 a month for the drug, while only servicing about 2 percent of the population that needed it. The generic version was priced at $157 a month. By securing secondary patents, as Novartis tried to do with Gleevec, drug companies can effectively extend monopolies on their medicines beyond the standard 20-year window required by World Trade Organization treaties. The practice is known as "evergreening," and is frowned upon by the World Health Organization. At Thursday's hearing, Rep. Jerry McNerny (D-Calif.) appeared more concerned than other lawmakers about the public health consequences of altering India's existing patent system. He asked Rohit Malpani of the international medical aid group Doctors Without Borders to elaborate on problems that arise from evergreening. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) also extolled the importance of access to inexpensive medications for PEPFAR, which has seen its budget cut in recent years. Otherwise, lawmakers appeared receptive to Waldron's contention that U.S.-style intellectual property policies in India will help develop a more robust and innovative medical system there. Waldron also said such practices would lead to the creation of more American jobs, pointing to a study from the U.S. Department of Commerce that was also cited in last week's letter from lawmakers. That study has been widely ridiculed for overstating the impact of intellectual property protections on jobs, claiming that "IP-intensive" industries are responsible for nearly 20 percent of all American jobs. Yet the pharmaceutical industry, which is largely comprised of firms dependent on government copyright and patent protections, accounts for a little less than 300,000 jobs, according to the report. |
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Bing, Microsoft's two-year old search engine, is losing nearly a $1 billion a quarter, with no sign of letting up. Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) has lost $5.5 billion on Bing since the search service launched in June 2009, but the company's search losses actually pre-date that. In fact, the software giant has never made money in its online services division. Since Microsoft began breaking out that unit's finances in 2007, the company has lost a total of $9 billion. Even the good news with Bing isn't so great. Microsoft proudly proclaims that it has gained search market share against Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) in each of the past 27 months. While that's true, it is not gaining search share from Google. Bing currently maintains a 14.7% share of the search market, up from 8.4% when Bing launched, according to online data tracker comScore (SCOR). Google currently commands 64.8% of the market -- down just two-tenths of a percentage point from the 65% it held when Bing debuted. More than half the share that Bing has gained has actually come from third-place Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500). The rest has come from search cellar-dwellers Ask.com and AOL (AOL). There's usually no such thing as "bad" market share growth, but Yahoo's search is powered by Bing. That means more than half of Microsoft's share growth has come from cannibalizing its search partner. Can Bing escape its stagnation and actually make money? Microsoft says it has a solution. At the company's financial analyst meeting in Anaheim, Calif., last week, Microsoft President of Online Services Qi Lu gave an impassioned speech about how Bing would improve search by "reorganizing the Web." To do that, Microsoft plans to leverage its network of products and partnerships to gain a better understanding of what the user is after when they enter a query into a Bing search box. Ultimately, Microsoft believes its technical secret sauce will let Bing both expand what is "searchable" and deliver more robust search results than any of its competitors. Lu said Microsoft could not and would not try to "out-Google" Google. Instead, it must "change the game fundamentally." Bing has already begun to show some of that capability. For instance, though partnerships with various ticketing agencies, a search for "Mariners tickets" will display links to upcoming games and a map of Seattle's Safeco Field showing fans where tickets are available. A search for flight information will tell you when the best day is to purchase a plane ticket. Searching for "digital camera" will display images of cameras that can be filtered, sorted and compared. It's a step forward from a laundry list of blue links. Through its search partnership with Facebook, its mobile partnership with Nokia (NOK) and its marriage with various Microsoft products, Bing will gradually gain a semantic understanding of the Web, Lu said. That will transform search from today's noun-based keyword entry -- a system Lu dismissed as "caveman speak" -- to eventually give Bing the ability to field questions phrased in natural human language. It sounds great. But how is this thing going to make money? Stefan Weitz, Microsoft's director of Bing, believes that if Bing can change the way people think about search, sooner or later users will switch over from Google. "Our challenge is that no one wakes up in the morning and says, 'I really wish there was a better search engine,'" Weitz said. "That's why, for us, it's always been about figuring out how to accomplish more than we thought was possible with a search engine. Eventually, people will expect to do more with search, and if they can't, they'll be disappointed." Luring users away from Google is a daunting task. Microsoft is competing against a verb -- "I'll go Google that" -- and an entrenched consumer habit. Even if Microsoft can steal market share from Google, it faces a long journey toward profitability. Market share is key in search: With it, advertisers flock to you, and you can charge high rates for ads. But without it, search is a very expensive business. To capture the attention of a critical mass of advertisers -- enough to turn a profit -- multiple analysts said that Bing will need at least 25% to 30% of the market. That's double its current share. Meanwhile, Google is also scrambling to -- as Microsoft put it -- "do more with search." Google recently launched a new social network, integrated advanced flight data into its search results, and tweaked its algorithm to favor original content. Weitz calls the Bing-vs-Google rivalry a "big geek slap fight," and says Microsoft has one key advantage over its rival: It has nothing to lose by experimenting. On the flip side, slight tweaks to Google's search algorithm send shivers down the spines of companies that rely on high rankings. "We are able to try things with much more flexibility," said Weitz. "If we make a mistake, it's not going to take down the company." Most analysts are bullish on Bing's technology, but they're mixed on whether Internet users will really change their behavior. "Bing will likely be better than Google over time, but even if it is, users and advertisers still need to go to them," said Sid Parakh, analyst at McAdams Wright Ragen. "To be clear, this will take a long, long time to play out. This is something Microsoft will continue to lose money on." Several analysts, including Parakh, predict that Bing will continue to incrementally improve and gain share, becoming profitable in another three to four years. Looking at Google's dominance, it may seem impossible today for a rival to get a significant foothold. But the tech world is funny like that: No one could have imagined 13 years ago that a small search engine out of Stanford University would ever unseat the mighty Yahoo. "When you're talking about something like consumer behavior and advertising, having the advantage of being the first place people go is hard for another company to counteract," said Sue Feldman, search engine analyst at IDC. "Can it change? Sure. As with everything in technology, in a period of tremendous ferment and innovation, something could happen to overturn a market leader." |
Only 58% of Dubliners are willing to work with someone with a mental health difficulty DUBLIN PEOPLE ARE the least willing to work with someone who has a mental health difficulty, according to new research released by See Change. The report was released in time for the 5th annual Green Ribbon campaign run by See Change throughout the month of May, which encourages people to speak out about their mental health. The organisation found that people in Dublin are least willing to work with someone with a mental health difficulty in the future, with just 58% respondents saying they would be willing to. This figure is 8% lower than the average for the rest of Ireland, which came in at 66%. In Leinster, excluding Dublin, just over two thirds (68%) said they would be willing to work with someone experiencing mental health difficulties. Elsewhere, 70% of people in Ulster and Connacht gave the same response. Munster saw 69% of respondents say they would be willing to work alongside those with mental health issues. A total of 977 people responded to the survey conducted by Kantar Millward Brown on behalf of See Change funded by HSE NOSP. Meanwhile, the report also found that almost half of people in Ireland under the age of 35 would hide their mental health difficulties from friends and family, with 46% of respondents in that age group saying they wouldn’t conceal that they had difficulties. Overall, 38% of the 977 people surveyed said that they would conceal a mental health issue. Since the Green Ribbon campaign launch, 500,000 free green ribbons have been distributed nationwide. John Saunders, CEO of See Change, said: “People spend a large portion of their days at their workplace and in many ways what happens at work influences other parts of our lives. See Change has identified the workplace as a key setting for social change around attitudes to mental health problems to take place for this reason. Saunders said that they established their “See Change in the Workplace” six step pledge programme to help challenge mental health stigma. “Without open discussion of mental health problems in the workplace, valuable time is wasted hiding something that can often be easily supported within an organisation.” “Creating an environment where people can be open and positive about their own and others’ mental health is vital in reducing the stigma towards mental health,” he said. More information about events taking place across the country this month for the Green Ribbon campaign can be found here. If you need to talk, contact: Pieta House 1800 247 247 or email mary@pieta.ie (suicide, self-harm) Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org Aware 1800 80 48 48 (depression, anxiety) Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19) Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s) You can find out more about See Change at www.seechange.ie. |
Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. With their repeal effort all but destined to fail next week, congressional Republicans have another trick up their sleeve to bring down “Obamacare.” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is pushing a proposal that would require every bill that comes before the House appropriations committee to exclude any funding for implementing or enforcing the federal health care law. King first floated the idea back in December, but Mother Jones has learned that the radical move now has the support of the new chairman of the appropriations committee, Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.). “Absolutely,” Rogers replied Thursday, when asked whether he supported King’s proposal. The appropriations chairman agreed that such a move would help dismantle health reform piece by piece. But when asked to elaborate on the Republican attack strategy after the repeal vote, Rogers simply said, “I have no further comment.” Rogers appears to be the first prominent Republican in a leadership position to back King’s proposal, and his unequivocal support could give the idea legs and encourage the House GOP leadership to come aboard as well. But while Rogers may now be onboard with defunding health reform, it didn’t stop the lawmaker famously known as “the Pork King” from requesting funds from the very same law earlier this year. Back in August, the Kentucky lawmaker personally requested a $1.5 million nursing health-clinic grant under a program created by the health reform law, as Think Progress originally reported. With repeal unlikely to pass the Senate and certain to face a veto by President Obama, House Republicans will be under even more pressure to devise other attacks on health reform. “Somebody’s going to blink…It’ll be President Obama or it’ll be House Republicans,” King told CNS News this week. “If House Republicans refuse to blink, we will succeed.” But while Republicans have been talking for months about defunding parts of the law, King’s proposal to preempt any inclusion of health reform funds is far more drastic, raising major questions about its legal and political viability. “I think this will be done not in a shotgun approach—I think it would be more a rifle attack,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.). Republicans already ran into a defunding roadblock in the last Congress, when a proposal to eliminate the law’s requirement that businesses report more than $600 in health care expenses to the IRS—despite receiving support from both parties—failed, because no one could agree on a way to make up for the lost savings. Taking away health reform funds from every appropriations bill could run into similar problems, as any money saved as a result of the provisions would also need to be compensated for. Even the most adamant opponents of health reform are reluctant to wholeheartedly back King’s across-the-board defunding proposal. “I wouldn’t say that every single appropriation for the 2400-page bill would be withheld,” Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) said in an interview Thursday. “I think this will be done not in a shotgun approach—I think it would be more a rifle attack,” Gingrey added, suggesting that Republicans would try to defund individual programs. If King’s proposal does gain momentum both on and off Capitol Hill, it could create a divide on the right between those who want to choke of all health reform funds that come through appropriations and those who are willing to admit that such a move is neither feasible nor desirable. Republicans would probably achieve the most success in undermining the law by narrowing their targets to a handful of provisions that could actually be undone or defunded. But by demanding that funds be withheld across the board, King has opened the way for the conservative right to harangue Republicans for allowing any money backing health reform to slip through the cracks. |
US President Donald Trump's approval rating will continue to drop but there's little Republicans in Congress can do. OPINION: US President Donald Trump has been widely and appropriately condemned for reacting to the horror in Charlottesville, Virginia, with remarks about "both sides," and for comparing Confederate generals to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and for reacting to white supremacist terrorism by saying "there is another side." Sure, I've been critical of the left's "antifa" tactics to counter fascism. (Among other things, they enabled the white nationalists to cry victimhood in Charlottesville.) But the time to critique the left fringe is not after someone with vile racist views has just murdered a protester. That moment is the appropriate time to condemn white supremacist ideology, denounce the murderer, and express the hope that the nation can learn to live together better as we mourn our dead. SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS A confederate flag is seen on a light pole with the name of US president Donald Trump in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This should go without saying, but apparently it doesn't, so there, I said it. READ MORE: * Donald Trump's crazy summer of controversies * Bannon's exit won't end chaos in White House * Bannon admits Trump's campaign was a fraud And a lot of Republicans expressed that appropriate sentiment. House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, for example, tweeted: "We must be clear. White supremacy is repulsive. This bigotry is counter to all this country stands for. There can be no moral ambiguity." And there you have it: The leader of the House has taken a stand against Trump. A lot of liberals want to know how Ryan was going to stop Trump from saying things like this. Republicans have learned that they can't. The party has, after all, tried to stop Trump from Trumping. It has tried surrounding him with party stalwarts who could advise him not to say things like this. It has tried condemning his most offensive and un-American utterances. It has tried making fun of his hands. None of it seems to have made much impression on Trump. Our system of government leaves Congress with few levers to pull once sweet reason and appeals to the presidential self-interest have failed. If Trump wants to see how much lower he can push his approval ratings, there is little his party can do to stop him. They can impeach him, of course. But what would you put in the articles of impeachment? "In a press conference on August the 15th, President Donald J Trump said the wrong thing"? His response was hideous, but I have a tough time making it fit any reasonable definition of "high crimes and misdemeanours." While the framers had a pretty good idea of what constituted such an offence, they don't seem to have given anyone besides Congress the power to decide exactly what circumstances constituted a high crime and misdemeanour. As far as I can tell, the Congress of the United States can impeach a president because they don't like the way he combs his hair, and all the rest of us could do is write indignant letters to our local representative. But in practice, Congress is limited by both political expediency and a due respect for the delicacy of our political institutions. If Republicans impeach Trump over a press conference, indignant voters will turn the nation blue at the next election. But even if the GOP were willing to make that sacrifice for America, it's not clear that America would benefit, even if you think Trump is the worst president in the history of our nation. Washington elites stepping in to remove Trump because they don't like what he says would validate exactly the complaints that led to his election in the first place. Voters knew that he said things like this and voted for him anyway. Removing him for such a reason would call the democratic legitimacy of the government into question. The damage to our institutions might well be even deeper than the damage that Trump is doing with his incompetent administration and polarising rhetoric. Especially if this becomes a precedent for future presidencies under perpetual threat that a restive Congress will decide to give the vice president a try. At the point when, say, two-thirds of the country wants him removed, then Congress has the ability, and probably the duty, to do so. And given that the public is now about equally split on the question, we may get there. But at the moment, Paul Ryan, like the rest of us, can do very little except watch in horror, and try to stand up for the good when our president won't. - Megan McArdle is a Bloomberg View columnist. She wrote for the Daily Beast, Newsweek, the Atlantic and the Economist and founded the blog Asymmetrical Information. She is the author of The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success. |
Sometimes writers feel that the terms of a debate are unhelpful, though not many then take the step of cheerily announcing that they are just going to unilaterally redefine a burdensome word. But that is what the cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker has tried to do. In an essay for the New Republic entitled "Science Is Not the Enemy of the Humanities", Pinker's target for forcible linguistic re‑education is the term "scientism". "Scientism" describes the practice of making wildly inflated claims for what modern science is able to explain, while denigrating other modes of understanding. For instance, popularisers of neuroscience who claim that it can solve the mystery of who we really are have no scientific basis for such claims. They are overreaching and indulging in false advertising. That is what I and others have called "neuroscientism", a discipline-specific subset of scientism in general. Pinker affects to not quite understand this usage. "The term 'scientism' is anything but clear," he complains, "more of a boo-word than a label for any coherent doctrine … The definitional vacuum allows me to replicate gay activists' flaunting of 'queer' and appropriate the pejorative for a position I am prepared to defend." Let us pass over in a kind silence Pinker's reference to "flaunting" by "gay activists". What does he want "scientism" to mean instead? Two ideas: that "the world is intelligible", and that "the acquisition of knowledge is hard". That's one in the eye for all those critics of scientism who believe, somehow simultaneously, both that we can never understand anything about the world, and that acquiring knowledge is easy. Pinker's claim that the word "scientism" currently floats melancholically in a "definitional vacuum" will come as a surprise to lexicographers. Dictionaries have quite substantial entries on it. The earliest citation in the OED is from the preface to George Bernard Shaw's play Back to Methuselah. Instructively, the word is here deployed by a man who is defending science and attacking religion. "Let the churches ask themselves why there is no revolt against the dogmas of mathematics though there is one against the dogmas of religion," Shaw writes. "It is not that science is free from legends, witchcraft, miracles, biographic boostings of quacks as heroes and saints, and of barren scoundrels as explorers and discoverers. On the contrary, the iconography and hagiology of scientism are as copious as they are mostly squalid." Here, Shaw uses "scientism" to indicate a kind of cultish puffery quite familiar from our modern promoters of the "iconography" of brain scans. Later, "scientism" also denoted an overweening science envy in other disciplines. The philosopher of science Karl Popper explained this usage in his 1970 essay "On the Theory of the Objective Mind". There he says (presumably unaware of Shaw's earlier use) that the word "originally" meant "the slavish imitation of the method and language of 'natural science', especially by social scientists; it was introduced in this sense by Hayek in his 'Scientism and the Study of Society'". (Popper himself defines it rather as "the aping of what is widely mistaken for the method of science". The mistake – widespread, he laments, among historians – is to copy the "alleged but non-existent method" of "collecting observations and then 'drawing conclusions' from them". This is impossible because what counts as evidence is theory-driven: "you can neither collect observations nor documentary evidence if you do not first have a problem".) Perhaps this earlier meaning of "scientism" helps us to understand Pinker's complaint better. After all, his essay begins by suggesting that a little "21st-century freshman science" would have helped correct the blunderings of titanic Enlightenment philosophers such as Kant, and it ends by promising present-day humanities scholars that they have a bright future ahead if only they will use "behavioral genetics" to interpret "biography and memoir", or apply "data science" to "musical scores". In other words, as you might say, they should slavishly imitate the methods of the natural sciences. Pinker's essay poses as a gesture of reconciliation between the two cultures, but is really a thinly veiled demand for total surrender by non-scientists. It thus perpetuates the idea that science and the humanities are hermetically distinct entities. Popper had already lost patience with this notion long ago. "Science, after all, is a branch of literature; and working on science is a human activity like building a cathedral," he wrote. "Labouring the difference between science and the humanities has long been a fashion, and has become a bore." It's entirely possible that Pinker would not have held his interest for too long either. So perhaps "scientism" is not such a useless word after all. Indeed, in both its modern sense, when Pinker claims that science could have solved Kant's and Spinoza's philosophical difficulties, and in its older Hayek and Popper sense, when he calls for the humanities to become more science-based, Pinker's essay is itself a textbook exercise in scientism. No doubt he, as a linguist, is entirely aware of this pleasing irony. |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video UNION GROVE -- Three people were shot at the Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove Sunday, August 13th, and all three are dead, the Kenosha County sheriff told FOX6 News. Two people died at the scene, and a third died en route to the hospital. There are no suspects in custody. It happened around 7:00 p.m. at the dragaway, located on Highway KR. All three of the victims are from Illinois, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said. Sheriff Beth said the victims are all males -- two of them from Aurora, Illinois. They were standing near a food vendor when a suspect approached and shot them -- "sounds like point blank range," Beth said. The suspect was described in an initial description as a black man in his 20s, wearing cut-off blue jean shorts and a black hoodie, with hair on the top of his head and shaved sides. It's unclear whether he left the scene on foot, by vehicle, or whether he was still out there Sunday night. "We don't know if he's still here," Beth said at 9:30 p.m. Sheriff Beth said the victims are in their 20s, and friends that were with them are "distraught," and have no idea what would have caused this to happen. In a news release issued around 9:00 p.m., sheriff's officials called the situation "fluid." The type of weapon used in this incident is unknown, as is what might have precipitated this action. It was estimated that over 5,000 people were at "Larry's Fun Fest" at the time, an event that has, in the past, attracted persons from Milwaukee, Chicago and other surrounding areas. "This is not indicative of this crowd. This is isolated and this is somebody who had a grudge with somebody and they came here and they really ruined a family event for people," Brian Mitchell, Great Lakes Dragaway volunteer said. Highway KR is closed at this time from the Interstate 94 to the scene. Sheriff's officials ask that this area be avoided so the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department can continue their investigation. PHOTO GALLERY The facility was evacuated amid a heavy police presence. An investigation is ongoing. |
Garcia resigned from Fifa in protest over the handling of his report into bidding for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups As the sun set over the Atlas Mountains, and the sound of the evening call to prayer drifted across the city, all seemed calm. At Marrakech's finest hotel, La Mamounia, famous for being Winston Churchill's favourite bolt hole, Fifa's top executives - the select few who run world football - were checking in ahead of their final meeting of the year. Uefa president Michel Platini, looking relaxed in a garish grey and yellow tracksuit, chatted quietly to an associate as they sat in loungers on the terrace. Jordanian Prince Ali and his wife walked quietly through the manicured gardens. US football chief Sunil Gulati politely deflected questions from journalists who hung around the lobby in the vain hope of a quick word with president Sepp Blatter. And then it happened. From far away across the Atlantic, another senior Fifa figure was checking out. And here, amid the overwhelming chaos of the Marrakech souks, world football's governing body would once again be thrown into turmoil. The resignation of New York-based Michael Garcia - the former US attorney who led Fifa's investigation into allegations of corruption around the bidding for the next two World Cups, is another humiliation for the organisation. Garcia did not just quit - he called into question the entire integrity, leadership and culture of Fifa. He was the organisation's lead investigator. Its ethics committee chairman. The man hired to clean up a toxic, discredited body after years of scandal. Qatar promised spectacular stadia following its winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup four years ago Instead, he reached the end of his tether and walked away in disgust. Garcia, we learnt, had even been reported to Fifa's disciplinary committee for publicly suggesting that the 430-page report of his findings be published. What does this now say about Fifa's ability and willingness to police itself? About its commitment to transparency? Its determination to root out corruption? Its suitability to run the world game? Its leadership under Blatter? In La Mamounia's resplendent lobby, the likes of Platini and Ali spoke of their shock, talking in hushed tones to advisers about how best to respond to requests for interviews from reporters. Blatter, meanwhile, issued a statement expressing his surprise. But in truth of course, it would have been more of a surprise if Garcia had stayed. This week, as Fifa began its end-of-year desk clearing, the American lawyer's appeal against a 42-page summary of his investigation was predictably and unceremoniously dismissed. It left his position untenable. "My job is to punish people who do bad things" Appointed by President Bush, married to an FBI agent and barred from entering Russia - BBC News profiles American lawyer Michael Garcia, the man behind the Fifa corruption report. Read the full profile But Garcia had, in effect, all but resigned weeks ago, when he first demanded more transparency from Fifa, and then accused German judge Hans-Joachim Eckert, his fellow-ethics committee chairman, of misrepresenting his findings in that summary. Eckert cleared Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts, and Fifa declared "closure" - but Garcia then broke ranks, and now there is anything but. Now he has gone, expect Blatter, when he holds a news conference here on Friday, to question Garcia's motives. The US lawyer, we may be reminded, was aware of the Fifa rules that prevent full disclosure of such investigations. He and his company were happy to accept millions of dollars' worth of fees. Only when he needed to distance himself from Fifa for his own sake, it may be suggested, did Garcia protest. This was self-preservation, not principle, we'll be told. Others however, will see it very differently. And wonder whether Fifa is now broken beyond repair and ask how convenient it is that the man currently investigating three Fifa executives has departed. Meanwhile, the Club World Cup continues here in Morocco, football's annual search to find the best club team in the world. The Galacticos of Real Madrid are in town. So too thousands of fans of South American champions San Lorenzo. But instead of the focus being on them, and the sport, it remains on the game's so-called leaders. Garcia's resignation should do decisive damage to Fifa's reputation. It should encourage those who want the Serious Fraud Office to act, those who want the sponsors to walk away, and those who want Blatter to go. But there comes a point in this saga when Fifa's image cannot sink any lower. When observers and critics become numb to it all. And Fifa of course has become an expert in riding out such crises in the past - in blaming such turbulence on a British media with an axe to grind, and on wearing the critics down with process and rules that become harder and harder to follow. Fifa has come under increasing scrutiny since Garcia's objection to the summarising of his investigation Garcia's resignation could make Friday's vote on whether to publish a redacted version of his report a closer contest than previously thought. And the full 430-page dossier could end up being leaked of course. But, even then, nothing is likely to happen. Garcia's investigatory powers, let's remember, were limited. He could not speak to everyone he wanted to. Some bids co-operated more than others. We still don't know what exactly was in Garcia's report. Some day we will. But don't necessarily expect it to contain the smoking gun that would have forced a revote. The process that decided the hosts of the next two World Cups cannot be any more discredited than it currently is. If the World Cup was going to be taken away from Russia or Qatar it would surely have already happened by now. Yes, Fifa remains in crisis. Yes, the World Cup has been tainted. But this is Fifa. And the more things seem to change, the more things really stay the same. I don't blame you all for having a serious bout of "Fifa fatigue" this Christmas. But that, perhaps, is what Blatter wants. As he heads - despite everything - towards another re-election in May. |
Andrew Marr hit out at the EU negotiators for their complete disrespect and disdain towards Britain during the Brexit talks. Marr made the shock comments just before he spoke to Brexit Secretary David Davis on the return of the BBC politics show. This comes after a fractious end to the latest round of Brexit talks, where Mr Davis' EU counterpart Michel Barnier criticised the lack of progress on the divorce bill. BBC Marr lashed out at the Brussels team for refusing to appear on his show Marr said that the BBC show that tried to reach out to the team in Brussels for an interview, so they could provide their side of things, but this had been blatantly denied. The BBC anchor told viewers: "Very sadly for us, the EU negotiators are so far very camera-shy, so we can't ask them why they are so worried and so disdainful towards the British." The surprise attack sparked a wave of support on social media, with most praising Marr for speaking out against the power in Brussels. GETTY Mr Davis' EU counterpart Michel Barnier criticised the lack of progress on the divorce bill GETTY Marr later spoke to Brexit Secretary David Davis We can’t ask them why they are so worried and disdainful towards the British Andrew Marr |
In the middle of the summer, just surfed the web and found an interesting startup company. “Neuromarketing” was the word which grabbed my attention. Just for fun, I applied for the Data-Scientist job (because why not?). After 3 interviews (and tests) I worked my first month with them. 🙂 Before this job, I worked with Machine-Learning and Computer Vision for a little bit more than 1,5 year for a startup company. But there I only learned from the internet because I was the only one who knew these things. It had the good and the bad side too. The interviews begin… On one of the interviews where I spoke with the R&D Lead, I got to know how much I don’t know about these things and I just scratched the surface of data-science. But I was really passionate, and I wanted to learn more and more… After the interview I thought that I won’t get the job because I failed on some questions. I didn’t know the answers because I only knew how to use ML and DL for various problems, I just didn’t know the whole background of it, just a little piece. Now, I’ll skip to the interesting part, enough about the background story. 😉 When I walked to the place at my first day, I imagined to create all the neural nets I dreamed about and I will train the sh*t out of the nets. This was a sweet dream but I started to realize this is not what I signed up for. 😀 One thing I knew for sure: I want to learn everything and even more than that! On the first&second week I talked with almost everyone in the company and I started to get to know our data. A lot of data (but as we know data is power)… I never saw this many rows and columns in my previous experience. :O After that first shock I learned about data pipelines and I got a small project: merging data files to create usable data and after that cleaning the data. I didn’t know that it will be so hard because when I thought the data is cleaned the senior members show me 10 other cleaning possibilities. I made some rookie mistakes, like not checking the data type because in pandas DataFrame it looked the same while in one table it was a string and in the other table it was an int. At first I worked with jupyter-notebooks and after the merging worked there, I had to create pipeline tasks (Luigi framework) so we could save the intermediate files which were needed. After this “session” I started to realize what itvreally means to be a data scientist. I have to say that it is really interesting because you need a lot of knowledge to create usable data from raw data. And the other important thing I learned in my first 2 weeks: cleaning the data is a lot harder than it sounds and it is a lot of work. After this time I continued to write the merging tasks and I started to figure out correlation between data (Those who are under 20 are more likely to … etc…). Fortunately I am the full member of the R&D team and they listen to my ideas (so I am not that guy who does the boring monotone work). So far I really enjoy to work with these problems and I think in the future I will just like it more and more as I will know more and more 🙂 If you have ny questions about the interviews/experience/etc. just write a comment! 😉 Advertisements |
Some sex fantasies should remain fantasies, especially those involving Pop Rocks candy. One couple found out the hard way when the woman insisted on inserting some of the exploding candy rocks into her sex organs in hopes of increasing the sensation. She did, but not in a good way, according to David G. Meyers, an emergency room physician in Newport Beach, California. He treated the unnamed woman with her husband and discusses their not-so-sweet sexual experience on "Sex Sent Me To The E.R.," airing Saturday on TLC. When the married couple came to the good doctor complaining about rocks, he was surprised. "She said, 'The rocks are supposed to have added to our sexual pleasure and I made my husband use them,'" Meyers explained. "So she said she bought these candy rocks which are supposed to explode and tingle and sensation to their sex." |
Oklahoma City Thunder equipment manager Wilson Taylor got some help from Thunder players to propose marriage to girlfriend Felicia Hudak. [Via MerlinFTP Drop] (Photo11: Wilson Taylor) OKLAHOMA CITY – Wilson Taylor was just a kid with an NBA dream when his part in this whole Oklahoma City Thunder story began. And it all started some 2,000 miles away in Seattle during the summer of 2007. Before Russell Westbrook had even been drafted, or general manager Sam Presti had been hired, or the team had moved to the middle of the country a year later and become such a beloved addition to this small town community, Taylor was the 23-year-old from McAlester, Okla. who wanted so badly to put down roots. He was halfway through the master’s program at Oklahoma State when he landed the internship of his dreams, a foot-in-the-door job that would later lead to full-time work doing everything from scouting to video production to equipment duties. Nine years later, through all those Kevin Durant years and the brutal injuries and the roller coaster ride with such glorious highs and painful lows, the equipment manager whose best friends just happen to be the Thunder’s superstars knows more than anyone how badly they want to shock the basketball world on Monday night. Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals against the defending champion Golden State Warriors is standing in between the Thunder and their storybook ending. “More than anything. I just feel like this is kind of like destiny,” Taylor, whose title is manager of team operations, told USA TODAY Sports. “We’ve gone through a lot, and everything has built up to this … For KD, and for Russ, and for Nick (Collison), I want it more for them. I know how much it would mean to them. I know how hard they work, so I’d almost be happier for them than for myself.” This Thunder tale has been equal parts triumph and tragedy. The rise was sudden and startling, Durant and Westbrook leading a furious charge to the 2012 Finals only to fall to LeBron James’ Miami Heat once they got there. It seemed like they’d be charging for the mountaintop every June, but then came the relentless rash of injuries that changed everything. The Westbrook meniscus tear in the first round of the playoffs in 2013. The Serge Ibaka calf injury a year later that kept him out of the first two games of a Western Conference Finals loss against the San Antonio Spurs. The Kevin Durant foot injury that kept the Thunder out of last year’s playoffs. And more – so much more. Taylor, whose bearded, boyish face can so often be seen during game telecasts as he high-fives Thunder players during timeouts, recalls every obstacle that he wishes he could forget. For four years now, he has handled every home game and traveled to every road game – a front row seat to one of the league’s most compelling shows. “The (Westbrook broken) hand (in Oct. 2014), the (Westbrook face fracture and) jaw (in March 2015),” Taylor says, adding a few more examples of Thunder hardship. “Everything we’ve been through, how close we are, how close we’ve come in the past … Each time, it’d be rock bottom. But then I was confident in these guys’ work ethic and the organization so I knew we’d be back. I knew we’d be back. We’ll be fine.” When it comes to the relationship between an equipment manager and a team’s players, it’s not uncommon for friendship to be part of the formula. The very nature of the job is to act as a support system for players, providing everything they need to be comfortable and successful while doing so in the kind of organized fashion that makes it all reliable and routine. But this is different, in large part because of the timing. Taylor and Durant arrived, in essence, at the same time. The skinny kid from the University of Texas was the Seattle SuperSonics’ post-Ray Allen star of the future, but that 20-62 record in his rookie season made it clear he couldn’t do it alone. Oklahoma City Thunder equipment manager Wilson Taylor, right, got some help from Thunder players to propose marriage to girlfriend Felicia Hudak. Here with Kevin Durant. [Via MerlinFTP Drop] (Photo11: Wilson Taylor) Collison was the resident greeter, a fourth-year forward at the time who would eventually take on the role of elder statesman of this Thunder core. Westbrook, the hard-driving point guard from UCLA who would take their program to the next level, arrived in June of 2008 by way of the fourth overall pick. Over time, Taylor would grow close with them all. Yet of all the memories they’ve made together, the moments on and off the court that have created such a cool dynamic, there’s one that stands above the rest in Taylor’s mind: March 14 of this year, the day his Thunder pals gave him away to his longtime love, Felicia Hudak. She knew a proposal was likely coming, so Taylor needed to up the ante when it came to creativity. So as they sat in a Milwaukee steakhouse on the night of March 5, Taylor and the Thunder players reconnecting their former teammate and current Bucks guard Steve Novak, the ideas started to flow. “Six or seven guys went to this steakhouse, and (Novak) had a private room for us, and KD and I were kind of off to the side,” Taylor remembers. “He was like, ‘I know this (proposal) is coming up. What are you thinking? Have you talked to Russ and Nick?’ So I told him I’d been thinking about this whole scavenger hunt thing.” Durant approved. “He’s like, ‘Let’s do this,’” Taylor said. “And Nick and Russ were the same way. Right from the jump, they were like, ‘Let’s do this together.’” The eventual plan was as elaborate as a Thunder road trip manifest: Six stops, each with its own special meaning and Thunder players at almost every one. Felicia was no stranger to the Thunder players, most notably from all those times late at night at the team’s practice facility when the young couple would shoot around just for fun. Yet still, it wasn’t every day that she ran into them like this. A mid-day massage with her friend, Stacy, in which she received a letter explaining the day’s journey. The limo driver who provided the first clue, then took her to an afternoon nail appointment with her mother. The second clue from Mom, then the ride to the restaurant where they first met, Saturn Grill, and a third clue. The trip to the Thunder’s practice facility, where a challenge, and Westbrook, awaited: make two free throws, and receive the fourth clue. Sounds easy enough, sure, but the inside joke is that even DeAndre Jordan could beat Felicia at a shooting contest. Then it was off to the Empire Slice House, where they first kissed at Collison’s Halloween party and where, fittingly, Collison would play the next part. “I was sitting at the bar by myself waiting for her, and (Taylor) texted me that she was going way faster than he thought so I had to stall for like 30 minutes,” Collison remembers. “So I just sat there and talked to her. We had a couple beers. I know her pretty well, but she was kind of like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I was like, ‘No, let’s just keep talking.’” The grand finale was at the Gaylord Pickens Oklahoma Hall of Fame museum, where Durant waited on the side of the building for the pivotal last handoff. “Positioning is key because I do not want her to see all of the cars in the back lot,” Taylor wrote on the two-page itinerary. In the end, with Durant providing the final assist while wearing a backwards baseball cap and sunglasses and 12 Thunder players there to celebrate, their execution was flawless. And the answer, thankfully, was ‘yes.’ “She was completely blown away – like completely blown away,” Taylor said. If the Thunder fall Monday, nothing changes about these relationships. But Taylor, who will be there to play his part as always amid the Oracle Arena madness, wants this like he wanted that chance at an NBA life so many years ago. Better yet, he wants it more for them than himself. “It’s the way they carry themselves,” Taylor said. “I don’t know other superstars, but these guys are first in the gym every day, and they’re just top notch guys. I consider them my best friends, and I want the best for my best friends, not just for myself. That’s how I look at it. Those three guys (Durant, Westbrook, and Collison) are some of my best friends, and with what they put into it, I just feel like they deserve to be champions.” |
Getting information from the federal government can be difficult at the best of times, but since the election began earlier this month, some departments have taken a new approach — not talking to the media at all. Last week, the Department of National Defence confirmed that they could not speak publicly about their annual training exercise, Operation Nanook. "It is paramount that Public Service Employees and Canadian Armed Forces members do not act in a way that could influence or be perceived as influencing the outcome of the federal process," military spokesperson Anna Muselius said. Operation Nanook is one of the largest military exercises in Canada's North. This year, it's taking place in Inuvik, Uluhaktok, Tuktoyaktuk, and Sachs Harbour, N.W.T. The government issued a news release, but would not speak further. The operation is usually well publicized and extensively covered by the media. This year, according to Bruce Valpy, the managing editor for Northern News Services in Yellowknife, their reporter was also denied interviews because of the election. The policy is not confined to the North, or one department. CBC journalists in Calgary and Winnipeg have run into similar issues with employees of Parks Canada and Environment Canada. Parks Canada did not respond to a request for clarification of their policy. 'Lame Excuse' Experts are divided on how common this sort of communications policy is during an election. Neil Nevitte, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, says it's standard practice. "Those employees receive directives on this point, sometimes repeatedly," he wrote in an email. "I suspect governments like to control what messages are going out about government activities during campaigns. These are sensitive interludes for governments in office." Regardless, another University of Toronto political science professor says that there's no formal requirement for government employees to cease communication during an election campaign. "Civil servants are expected to respond so long as the responses are not perceived to being partisan in any way," says Nelson Wiseman. Wiseman added that he was not surprised by the communications lockdown. "This government has been very tight, very centralizing about any and all information that is communicated," he said. "It's not as if they've been very liberal with their communications over the last nine years." Tom Henheffer, the executive director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, said departments are being too broad in their interpretation of communications policy. "It's a completely lame excuse," Henfeffer said. "It's a convenient way for the government to exercise messaging control and prevent and potentially negative message from getting out. It's ridiculous and it's just another way that they're politicizing everything in the civil service." |
6 / 10 Design The Microsoft Band is an aggressively ugly piece of personal technology. It would be so in any era. If a digital watch with this design had been released in 1977 it would have been laughed straight out of the roller disco. As a medical-grade research device in the mid-1990s it would have been scorned as a little rough around the edges. As a smart watch and fitness tracker in 2015, in an era with devices like the Apple Watch adorning more fashionable wrists, it's a disgrace. It's not just outwardly dull -- though with a straight black design, a tiny colour touchscreen and a rubberised matte finish like a dusty squash ball it certainly is. No, it's actually physically awkward. It comes in three sizes, though none seemed to fit us exactly. In any case the screen side of the band is extremely rigid and thick, and it makes itself uncomfortably conspicuous in whichever orientation you choose to wear it. The band sits on your wrist rather than around it, to the extent that wearing it outside of the gym just seems a little bizarre, as if you're taking part in a medical experiment more than a normal, data-rich life. It's like wearing a manacle more than a piece of jewellery. The good news is that heart-rate tracking (built into the clasp side of the Band) works in both orientations. It also has simple hardware buttons -- one to turn it on, the other to start an action or for Windows Phone uses to call up the voice assistant Cortana. Advertisement The clunky design is also fairly rugged, and while Microsoft says the Band is only just "splash proof" we (accidentally) wore it in the shower quite often, and the Band didn't seem to notice. The 1.4-inch 320 x 106 pixels screen is surrounded by a thick bezel, and the touch response is not tremendous, but it's bright in most light conditions, and displays colours ably. Finally, we should mention that the band charges with a magnetic proprietary cable which works well, but which you could easily lose if you don't pay attention. Read next Microsoft's HoloLens 2 is finally here. But who (or what) is it for? Microsoft's HoloLens 2 is finally here. But who (or what) is it for? Microsoft Fitness If you don't actually look at the Microsoft Band, it has a lot going for it in terms of tech. Packed with 10 sensors including the aforementioned heart-rate sensor, a three axis gyrometer, GPS, a skin temperature sensor, a capacitive sensor, a microphone, a galvanic skin response sensor and an ambient light sensor, the potential is there for this to be a very comprehensive medical device. To help process this the band has 64MB of internal storage and an ARM Cortex M4 MCU processor. Advertisement The upshot of this is that in its out-of-the-box form, the Band is a very comprehensive fitness tracker. It can do all the basics -- running, cycling, gym workouts and day-to-day steps, 24-hour heart rate monitoring and more, perhaps not the same data-rich extent as a dedicated pro-level Triathlon watch, but not far off (except for swimming, of course...) As a run partner it will keep itself to itself, showcasing key stats in a customisable array on demand but not barraging you with information you don't need. In other exercise modes it's pleasant to have around, though perhaps less useful depending on whether your chosen exercise is covered by the offered settings (and whether you remember to switch between modes mid-gym session). Microsoft The Band can sync with Strava and Runkeeper, and also provides a series of 'guided workouts' which combine with videos on your phone from various partners like Nuffield Health. It will also track your sleep in the vaguely ambiguous movement-based style of other mainstream wearables, plus the more-useful heart rate monitor, and has a built-in alarm, though oddly turning off the alarm doesn't "end" sleep, you have to do that manually. Read next Microsoft Surface Headphones review: superb, but not stylish Microsoft Surface Headphones review: superb, but not stylish To access all of this information you have to use the Microsoft Health app (iOS, Android and Windows Phone) and sync the band via Bluetooth. The Health app itself is a little basic, but it's (pleasingly cross-platform) with a good web equivalent (strangely there is no Windows 8.1 app) and helps you keep track of most of your key stats. Advertisement We tested the band in a variety of settings, including shorter runs, gym trips and mixed-use exercise sessions. In a stiffer test WIRED wore it to run the entire London Marathon. Unfortunately the extended burst of effort needed proved too much for the device, and while we regularly got two days use out of it the Band gave up in this instance after three hours of hard graft around London's streets. Was this a one-off? Probably, but it was a let down. The resultant GPS map was also pretty straggly and did not align closely to the route except in a broad impressionistic sense. Microsoft Notifications Notifications and voice control for your Android, iOS or Windows Phone device represents the other big feature set for the Microsoft band. As you may have guessed, it is the least essential and ultimately least successful. The interface is based on the same tile concept as Windows Phone. Here your apps are all square tiles arranged in a long horizontal line up to 13 tiles long. You can customise which ones appear and where, but all are coloured to match the same accent shade you select to match your wallpaper. Once set up properly the band will show your incoming messages and calls, emails and calendar notifications. You can reply to these with presets or even, adorably, via an absolutely nano-scale keyboard which broadly speaking... works. You'll never use it, but you may appreciate the effort in a pinch. Facebook, weather, finance and Twitter updates can also be integrated into the device, while Notification Centre handles everything else that pops up for your attention on your phone. The difficulty with this area of the Band's usefulness, however, is that in practice it's too fiddly, and the display too awkward, to make sense. WIRED found it hard to navigate and keep track of notifications on busy work days, and responding to them was an exercise in frustration. There are management options to help -- you can set up a VIP list to restrict notifications to certain people for instance -- but we never found the sweet spot where notifications became helpful and useful rather than just an annoyance we eventually switched off. Advertisement Conclusion The problem with wearable devices of all kinds is that while they come in all shapes, colours and forms, and lie across a broad quality spectrum, they are all -- ultimately -- judged on a pass-fail basis: do you actually want to wear it every day? And for this reviewer, in the case of the Microsoft Band, the answer is no. This device is just too ugly, uncomfortable and difficult to love as anything other than a basic running companion to consider as a permanent addition to my life. Despite this, there are some things to recommend about the Band. Compared to the Apple Watch, it's cheap. Compared to basic fitness trackers, it packs more technology into a more fully-featured package. And as a sign that Microsoft genuinely has ambitions in health, rather than just wearables as a (sigh) "space", it's an intriguing little gadget. Just not one we would recommend spending actual money on in 2015. It feels instinctively like something Microsoft will try once and kill. Then again, as the resurgent company has shown with the Surface, with a couple more iterations it might just have something here. |
When it comes to remembering where a tasty titbit was left, female great tit birds are miles ahead of their male counterparts. This ability might have evolved because the females come second when there’s food to be shared, argue Anders Brodin and Utku Urhan of Lund University in Sweden. In Springer’s journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, they present one of only a handful of cases in nature in which the female of a bird species has better spatial and learning abilities than the male. Great tits (Parus major) are highly intelligent and quick learners. These common European songbirds have interesting and ever-changing ways in which they find food, and even use tools such as conifer needles during foraging. Unlike most other members of the tit family, great tits are not food hoarders. Brodin and Urhan have previously demonstrated that they are able to observe where their hoarding relatives have made a stash, only to retrieve it up to 24 hours later. To test if there are any gender differences in this ability, Brodin and Urhan first allowed caged great tits to observe marsh tits (Poecile palustris) store away food in an indoor aviary. One hour later, great tits of both sexes were released to search for the cached food. The females performed consistently better than males in this memorization task. Male great tits were able to remember where other birds stored food only in 15 percent of the cases. In contrast, the females remembered positions of cached food in 40 percent of the cases. For Brodin and Urhan, this is a remarkable achievement, as the success rate of the females equals the performance of marsh tits and other birds that retrieve their own caches. This suggests that female great tits recover caches they have watched others make as successfully as the hoarders retrieve their own stash. The researchers argue that female great tits are more skilled cache pilferers because they find themselves in a male-dominated society in which they are often pushed away from available food sources. “Whereas the males therefore have a more even and reliable food supply, lower-ranking females have to supplement their food by pilfering the stock piles of others,” argues Brodin. “Therefore a good memory of where caches are to be found could go a long way to still their hunger.” “Such ability could also be helpful to the female birds in a broader sense,” elaborates Urhan. “Females could choose to ignore pieces of food they find when a male is nearby. If she returns later when the male is not close, she decreases the risk of getting the food item stolen by the male.” |
The Islamist ‘terrorist’ groups that have taken over control of northern Mali are not only the creations of Algeria’s secret police, the Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS), but they are being supplied, supported and orchestrated by the DRS. What began ostensibly in January 2012 as just another rebellion by the Sahara desert’s Tuareg tribesmen had evolved within 3-4 months into what media commentators were calling “Africa’s Afghanistan”. The Tuareg are Berbers, not Arabs, and are the indigenous population of much of the Central Sahara and Sahel. Their population is estimated at 2-3 millions. Their largest numbers, some 800,000, live in Mali, followed by Niger, with smaller concentrations in Algeria, Burkina Faso and Libya. In addition, a diaspora extends to Europe, North America, other parts of North and West Africa, the Sahel and beyond. Since Independence in 1960, the Tuareg of Mali and Niger have rebelled against their central governments on several occasions. In 1962-4, a rebellion by Mali’s Tuareg was crushed ruthlessly. Major rebellions in both countries in the 1990s were forcibly repressed, with government forces specifically targeting civilians. Since then, Niger experienced a small rebellion in 2004 and a much greater one from 2007 to 2009. In Mali, a brief rebellion in May 2006 was followed by a two-year uprising from 2007 until 2009 when it dissipated into an inconclusive and transient peace. While the Niger and Mali governments have both been guilty of provoking Tuareg into taking up arms, all Tuareg rebellions have been driven by a sense of political marginalisation. However, the rebellion that began in Mali in January 2012 was different. The Tuareg had more and better equipped fighters than in previous rebellions. This was because many had returned from Libya after Gaddafi’s overthrow, bringing with them extensive supplies of modern and even heavy armaments. For the first time in the long history of Tuareg rebellions, there was a real likelihood that the Tuareg might drive Malian government forces out of northern Mali, or Azawad, as it is known to Tuareg. In October 2011, the Malian Tuareg who had returned from Libya joined up with fighters belonging to Ibrahim ag Bahanga’s rebel Mouvement Touareg du Nord Mali (MTNM) to form the Mouvement National de Libération de l'Azawad (MNLA). Even though Bahanga had died under mysterious circumstances in August, his men were still intent on continuing their fight against the central government. They were also joined by several hundred Tuareg who had deserted from the Malian army. The first shots in the new rebellion were fired on January 17 when the MNLA attacked the town of Ménaka. The following week, the MNLA attacked both Tessalit and Aguelhok. Tessalit was besieged for several weeks before falling to the MNLA in March. At Aguelhok, some 82 Malian troops, who had run out of ammunition, were massacred in cold blood on January 24. This ‘war crime’ has been referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Such a humiliating demise of Mali’s poorly equipped forces led to an army mutiny on March 22 and a junta of low-ranking officers taking power in Bamako. Within a week, the three provincial capitals of Azawad - Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu - all fell to the rebels without resistance, leaving the whole of Azawad in rebel hands. On April 5 the MNLA declared Azawad an independent state. The declaration of Azawad’s independence received no international support, nor was it ever likely to do so. One reason for this was because of the alliance between the MNLA and the Islamist group called Ansar al-Din, a jihadist movement led by a local Tuareg notable, Iyad ag Ghaly. Ansar al-Din was in alliance with another jihadist group, Jamat Tawhid Wal Jihad Fi Garbi Afriqqiya (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa - MUJAO), with both being supported by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). At the start of the rebellion in January, the MNLA claimed to number several thousand, while Ansar al-Din numbered scarcely a hundred. However, by April, and for reasons that have remained a mystery to the media, it was the Islamists rather than the MNLA who were calling the shots in Azawad. Indeed, on June 25, fighting between the Islamists and MNLA led to the latter being displaced from Gao, leaving Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu being ruled respectively by Ansar al-Din, MUJAO and AQIM. With the MNLA marginalized, the Islamists quickly began imposing shari’a law in Azawad. In Gao, a young man died after having his hand amputated for alleged theft; in Aguelhok, a couple were stoned to death for alleged adultery; in Timbuktu, ancient Sufi tombs, UNESCO world heritage sites, were destroyed. Throughout the region, music, smoking, alcohol, TV, football, traditional forms of dress and lifestyle were all banned as Islamists dished out beatings, amputations and executions with a vengeance. By August, nearly half a million people had fled or been displaced. In spite of concern being expressed at the apparent emergence of ‘Africa’s Afghanistan’ in the heart of the Sahara, no one has been prepared to address the key issue behind what is really going on in northern Mali. This is that the Islamist ‘terrorist’ groups that have taken over control of the region are not only the creations of Algeria’s secret police, the Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS), but they are being supplied, supported and orchestrated by the DRS. In my two volumes on terrorism and the global war on terror (GWOT) in the Sahara-Sahel, The Dark Sahara (Pluto, 2009) and The Dying Sahara (Pluto 2012, in press), I describe and give detailed evidence of how Algeria’s DRS has colluded with western military intelligence in fabricating ‘false-flag’ terrorism to justify the West’s GWOT in Africa. The two volumes detail how AQIM was created by the DRS; how the DRS has been behind almost all of the more than 60 kidnaps of western hostages in the region since 2003 and how it has worked with the US, UK and French intelligence services in promoting the GWOT, state terrorism and co-called counter-terrorism policies. What we have seen unfold in Mali during 2012 is merely the latest manifestation of the way in which the DRS has used the ‘terrorists’ that it has created to further the interests of Algeria’s ‘mafiosi’ state. Corroboration of my long-standing analysis of the Algerian regime’s use of terrorism (‘state terrorism’) in helping to further and justify the west’s GWOT in North Africa and beyond was provided by John Schindler on July 10 (2012). In an article in The National Interest entitled ‘The Ugly truth about Algeria’, Schindler, a former high-ranking US intelligence officer and long-standing member of the US National Security Council (NSC) and currently Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, ‘blew the whistle’ on Algeria when he described how: “the GIA (Armed Islamic Group) [of the 1990s] was the creation of the DRS; using proven Soviet methods of penetration and provocation, the agency assembled it to discredit the extremists. Much of GIA’s leadership consisted of DRS agents, who drove the group into the dead end of mass murder, a ruthless tactic that thoroughly discredited GIA Islamists among nearly all Algerians. Most of its major operations were the handiwork of the DRS, including the 1995 wave of bombings in France. Some of the most notorious massacres of civilians were perpetrated by military special units masquerading as mujahidin, or by GIA squads under DRS control.” The DRS’s ‘state terrorism’ of the 1990s has changed little during this millennium. In the same way as Schindler describes how the DRS assembled the GIA in the 1990s, so, in this century, the DRS, in collusion with US, British, French and other NATO intelligence agencies, as well as the EU Commission (as documented in my two volumes: The Dark Sahara and The Dying Sahara), has created AQIM, or what I have referred to as ‘Al Qaeda in the West for the West’. This diabolical strategy, straight from the tradecraft manual of the KGB (who, incidentally trained Mohamed Mediène, the current DRS boss, and other top DRS Generals), was reactivated in 2003, when a DRS agent, Saifi Lamari (known as El Para), supported by DRS agent Abdelhamid Abou Zaïd, at the head of some 60 genuine members of the Groupe Salafiste pour le Predication et le Combat (GSPC), the successor to the GIA, in collusion with U.S. military intelligence, took 32 European tourists hostage in the Algerian Sahara. This operation, which received world headlines and was the subject of my book The Dark Sahara, was used by the US and other western countries to justify the launch of a new or ‘second front’ in the GWOT into the Sahara and Africa. In September 2006, the nondescript GSPC, with the help of the DRS and US intelligence agencies, internationalised itself by adopting the Al Qaeda brand and renaming itself as AQIM. AQIM’s three emirs (leaders) in the Sahara, Abdelhamid Abou Zaïd, Yahia Djouadi and Mokhtar ben Mokhtar (they have many aliases), were and still are DRS agents. They have now been responsible for the kidnapping of over 60 western hostages (two have been killed and two have died) and most of the other acts of terrorism perpetrated in the Sahara-Sahel region over the last few years. This is known to most western intelligence agencies. The creation of the MNLA in October 2011 was not only a potentially serious threat to Algeria, but one which appears to have taken the Algerian regime by surprise. Algeria has always been a little fearful of the Tuareg, both in Algeria and in the neighbouring Sahel States. The distinct possibility of a militarily successful Tuareg nationalist movement in northern Mali, which Algeria has always regarded as its own backyard (the Kidal region is sometimes referred to as Algeria’s 49th wilaya), could not be countenanced. The DRS’s strategy to remove this threat was to use its control of AQIM to weaken and then destroy the credibility and political effectiveness of the MNLA. Although denied by the Algerian government, it sent some 200 Special Forces into Azawad on December 20, stationing them at Tessalit, Aguelhok and Kidal (and possibly elsewhere). Their purpose appears to have been to: (1) protect AQIM which had moved from its training base(s) in southern Algeria into the Tigharghar mountains of northern Mali around 2008. Most of AQIM’s subsequent terrorism, especially hostage-taking, had been conducted from bases in northern Mali. The MNLA, however, was threatening to attack AQIM and drive its estimated 300 members out of the country; (2) assess the strengths and intentions of the MNLA; (3) help establish two ‘new’ salafist-jihadist terrorist groups Ansar al-Din and MUJAO, alleged ‘offshoots’ of AQIM, in the region. Ansar al-Din and MUJAO, which had not been heard of before, first appeared on local websites on December 10 and 15 respectively. The leaders of both groups were closely associated with the DRS. Iyad ag Ghaly first became acquainted with the DRS when he worked for an Algerian enterprise in Tamanrasset (Algeria) in the 1980s. He had subsequently been used and paid by the DRS to help manage their resolution of EL Para’s 2003 hostage-taking. He had been used again by the Algerians and the US in 2006 to engineer the short-lived May 23 Kidal rebellion and to then undertake two fabricated terrorist actions in northern Mali in September and October 2006. These were used to draw attention to seemingly renewed ‘terrorism’ in the Sahara and to advertise the name change of the GSPC to AQIM. After 2008, he became heavily involved, with his cousin Hamada ag Hama (alias Taleb Abdoulkrim), in AQIM’s hostage-taking operations. MUJAO’s leadership is less clear. Its initial leaders are believed to have included both Mohamed Ould Lamine Ould Kheirou, a Mauritanian, and Sultan Ould Badi (alias Abu Ali). Ould Badi is a Malian, said to be half Tuareg and half Arab, from north of Gao with good connections with the Polisario movement of the Western Sahara. It seems to have been through this later connection that he established himself as a major drugs (cocaine) trafficker in the region, working under the direct protection of General Rachid Laalali, head of the DRS’s external security branch. One reason for the DRS’s interest in northern Mali is that the region is the focal point on the cocaine trafficking route from South America to Europe. The UN estimates that some 60% of Europe’s cocaine, with a street value of some $11 billion, crosses through this region. It is a trade which, until the MNLA threatened to take over the region, has been controlled in large part by elements within Algeria’s DRS. These two Islamist groups, Ansar al-Din and MUJAO, although starting out as few in number, were immediately supported with manpower from AQIM in the form of seasoned, well-trained killers, and by the DRS with fuel, cash and other logistical necessities. This explains why the Islamists were able to expand so quickly and dominate the MNLA both politically and militarily. The DRS’s strategy has been brilliantly effective, at least so far, in achieving its object of completely discrediting the MNLA (and Tuareg nationalism) and minimising its threat as both a political and military force. The DRS’s strategy has, however, been extremely dangerous. Apart from turning the region into a human catastrophe, there has been, and still is, a major risk of military intervention and the possibility of a conflagration that could embrace much of the wider region. From the outset, various parties, notably the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), backed in varying degree by the African Union, France and other parties, has threatened to intervene militarily. There are also a considerable number of internal Malian forces, including a range of largely ethnic-based militia, straining on the leash to revenge themselves against both the MNLA and more especially the Islamists. A potential bloodbath has not yet been averted. However, having said that, the likelihood of such military intervention is progressively diminishing. One reason for this is because neither the African Union (whose Peace and Security Commission is headed by an Algerian) or the UN Security Council (UNSC) have given the green light for such intervention. The reason for the UNSC’s position is, I believe, quite simply because all five of its permanent members – the US, UK, France, Russia and China – are aware of Algeria’s strategy and therefore do not see the situation as being ‘Africa’s Afghanistan’, as described in the media and by those self-proclaimed ‘security analysts’ who are unaware of the true nature of Al Qaeda in this part of the world. This is not to imply that Algeria will be able to call off its dogs easily. However, signs are that Algeria and other powers in the region are trying to move towards a negotiated solution. But that will not be easy. With so many armed militias in the wings and so much anger, suffering and desire for revenge in the air, the likelihood of individual agency coming to the fore is very high. While the DRS leadership of the Islamist groups is obviously managed easily, the question of the genuine Islamists, the footsoldiers, may not be resolved so easily. Already, there are signs that Algeria is pushing towards a solution centering around the creation of some sort of shari’a based political party, amongst others, in the region. Such a party is unlikely to be endorsed wholeheartedly by the bulk of the population, and if introduced coercively is more than likely to lead to further conflict. Whatever sort of dispensation is found for the region, it will almost certainly be tied to Algeria’s hegemonic designs on the region and drugs trafficking, both of which are recipes for future regional instability. Finally, there is the matter of the ICC’s investigation. If the ICC does progress from its current preliminary investigation to a full-blown investigation of war crimes and associated atrocities in the region, it could conceivably pave the way for justice and a more stable future. However, I believe that there will be huge pressure on the ICC from western powers not to proceed with the investigation. A full ICC investigation is likely to expose the involvement of US, British and French intelligence services in their support for the DRS and therefore, it could be argued, their complicity in the atrocities that have been committed. |
An ugly story may be getting uglier. Martin, who was black, was walking back to his father's house after a trip to the convenience store in Sanford, Fla. on February 26. George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch member who was identified by his father as Hispanic, called 911 and told the dispatchers that the teen "looked suspicious." Despite being told by the dispatchers not to engage the teen, Zimmerman left his car and approached Martin. Neighbors called into 911 to report a scuffle, some cries for help, and gunshots. When police arrived, Zimmerman admitted to shooting Martin, who was unarmed, but claimed that he acted in self-defense. Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged, and the incident has attracted national attention. “I can’t for the life of me understand how they can justify not making an arrest!” Sharpton said on a recent episode of his MSNBC show, "Politics Nation." But Mytheos Holt, an associate editor at the Blaze, chided Sharpton "for being too willing to exploit racial controversy" and for dismissing claim of self-defense Zimmerman. Holt went further and criticized Trayvon Martin by insinuating that the slain teen was a troublemaker. We’re also learning more about Trayvon Martin. According to reporters he had been suspended from school. The International Business Times says Martin’s suspension was due to last for 10 days. But what exactly was he suspended for in the first place? Sources sympathetic to Martin say he was suspended for “excessive tardiness.” However, a quick review of both the local policies for Martin’s school, the Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School, and of the Miami-Dade school district’s district-wide policies, raise some doubts. Holt went on to enumerate the many infractions which can lead to a student being suspended in that school district — including theft, sexual harassment, vandalism or sex offenses. No reports have suggested that Martin was suspended for anything other than lateness. Holt did not explain in his post why he assumed that these hypothetical infractions were likely. The sentiment that Martin was up to no good was echoed in the comments of the post, but they were less extreme than those found on the website of Fox News. "GOOD SHOT ZIMMY. lol" wrote one commenter. "i’m just glad Zimmerman didnt miss and hit an innocent bystander," said another. This is pure B.S I want to see the kids police record even if something is expounged also why was he removed from facebook it says account terminated.Why because his parents are trying to cover his tracks just like if you hit a bus they see Dollar signs.People have dragged data about Zimmerman out where is the kids past.Don’t say he was a good boy prove it.Ask yourself what is more likely to happen any 17 year old kid when you ask a question.A smartass reply I have never and I mean never seen a teenager run unless he did something wrong.I guess no crinimal has ever cased a place when they went to a store.It takes me aback the way all these facts are quoted by people who read one story on a issue. The above comments were flagged by the blog LittleGreenFootballs. |
The leader of the Five Star Movement, Beppe Grillo, delivers a speech on Dec. 2 in Turin, Italy. (Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images) Italy’s anti-elite parties vowed Monday to join forces with other insurgents around Europe as Prime Minister Matteo Renzi prepared to resign, but it was unclear whether an unlikely alliance of disaffected voters could propel the populists to office. Italy plunged into political uncertainty Monday after the decisive defeat of Renzi’s signature constitutional revision plan, which was meant to strengthen his hand and defuse the establishment-bashing movement. The rejection by voters had the opposite outcome. Now, anti-immigrant, anti-euro populists on the left and right who have steadily built power as an alternative to Italy’s old-guard political leadership are seeking to transform their success into a chance at their nation’s highest office. The eclectic Five Star movement is polling at 30 percent, neck and neck with Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party. “A lesson for everyone: You can’t always lie to the people without suffering the consequences,” said Beppe Grillo, the caustic comedian who founded the Five Star movement. [Italian prime minister resigns in populist revolt] Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced he would resign after the results of a referendum showed voters rejected constitutional reforms meant to streamline the lawmaking process. (Reuters) But markets and leaders elsewhere in Europe reacted with caution Monday to the Italian shifts, reflecting the steep barriers that remain before insurgents could capture Italy’s top job. The youthful, Coca-Cola- guzzling Renzi had portrayed himself as a lone warrior against the Euroskepticism that fueled Britain’s vote in June to break with the European Union and gave tail winds to right-wing political leaders in France and elsewhere. “This is something that is going on all over Europe, if you look at the momentum,” said Manlio Di Stefano, a Five Star lawmaker in the lower house of Parliament. “People are really tired of the same kind of politics. Every term is the same, every government is the same, so people are reacting.” But Renzi also alienated Italian voters over 2½ years in office by failing to jump-start growth in Europe’s fourth-biggest economy. The referendum results — 59 percent of voters opposed the revisions — may have reflected enmity toward Renzi as much as a wave of populism washing over the Italian electorate. Much like the coalition of working-class voters and the right-wing establishment that drove Donald Trump to victory in the United States, the forces that united to defeat Renzi came from across Italy’s political spectrum. The diverse views may make collaboration difficult. [After Renzi’s defeat, this Trump fan could throw Europe into crisis] The decision about Renzi’s successor as prime minister falls to Italian President Sergio Mattarella, an establishment stalwart who is unlikely to clear an easy path for Five Star backers. A likely scenario could be a caretaker government headed by a different leader from Renzi’s center-left Democratic Party who would hold office until new elections in early 2018. Mattarella asked Renzi on Monday to hold off on his resignation until the government passes next year’s budget, a potential delay of a few days or a week that will buy some time for succession planning but does not significantly alter the political situation. Once Renzi’s successor is announced, the process of forming a new government will take weeks. Italy is no stranger to political chaos, and the next government will be the 64th in 70 years. But many Italians are growing weary of a long stretch of unelected prime ministers, going back to 2011. “The people do not recognize their vote in the government. Because it’s what in the E.U. context is called a deficit of democracy,” said Stefano Stefanini, a former senior Italian diplomat who is now a political consultant in Brussels. Mainstream parties also plan an overhaul of an electoral law that would make it far harder for the Five Star movement to govern without a coalition, yet another barrier to its quest to capture office. The Five Star movement has a patchwork collection of policies that are more Bernie Sanders than Donald Trump. Grillo, the founder, has praised Trump and agitated against migrants, but many of the movement’s rank and file have softer edges. The party has promised to hold a referendum on Italy’s membership in the euro zone if it captures office, criticizing the currency as a project of the elite that has harmed ordinary Italian workers. The movement also agitates against corruption and for the environment. And it forms many of its policies through an online platform for its members that it brags is a cutting-edge tool for direct democracy. [Is the referendum Italy’s Brexit moment?] But when Five Star members have captured power, they have sometimes had difficulty governing, most notably in Rome, where a Five Star mayor has struggled to deliver public services since she took office in the spring. The mayor of Turin has done better. But she trained at one of Italy’s top universities, is from a prominent business family and has governed as a moderate. “The Italians are essentially unhappy with the establishment, with the establishment parties. They are looking at the Five Star movement, but they are still looking for credible faces,” said Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo Intelligence, a political risk consulting firm. Even if the insurgent populists never come to office, they are guiding the national political discussion by sending mainstream politicians scrambling to appeal to their anti-system voters. “By simply being there, they shape the political agenda, and they force the system to react to them,” Piccoli said. If the Five Star movement does succeed in calling a referendum on the euro, the move could pressure Italy’s shaky banking sector and rekindle the euro crisis. Shares in Italian bank stocks were broadly down Monday; the nation’s most troubled bank, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, lost 3.9 percent in late-afternoon trading. But reflecting the overall short-term calm, Italy’s main stock exchange in Milan was slightly down in late-day trading. Many other European markets, including London’s FTSE and Germany’s DAX, were up. European leaders said Monday that they were confident Italian politicians would overcome the turbulence without setting off a broader crisis on the troubled continent, which has struggled in the face of Greece’s fiscal collapse and an unprecedented surge of migrants and refugees. “This is a strong country with strong government, and I have every confidence in Italy to deal with the situation,” Pierre Moscovici, the senior E.U. official in charge of economics, told France 2 television. Yet the Five Star movement is surging against its competitors. In head-to-head polling against the ruling Democratic Party, it is the clear favorite, with an advantage of 53 percent to 47 percent, according to a survey from the EMG polling group released Sunday. Measured against all the parties in Italy, Five Star and the Democratic Party are in a dead heat. Renzi allies said Monday that the rejection of the constitutional changes has dealt Italy a significant blow. “The risk of disintegration began with Brexit, when a very important member was lost,” said Sandro Gozi, a top Renzi ally who is Italy’s undersecretary of state for European affairs. “The European Union needs to depart from the status quo, because it makes the future much harder.” Birnbaum reported from Brussels. Read more In Italy, a comedian getting the last laugh Is Trump a Berlusconi? Let a Berlusconi expert explain. Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news |
She said Officer Smith's visit months ago had a big impact on Cody. "It's like he glued to him and he just wanted to be Mr. Smith, and now it's Uncle Smith instead of Mr. Smith," Smelley explained. And Cody has an impact on Smith, as well. "He always has a smile on his face. You'd never know he's sick," Smith said. "For him to have that will to keep going, I mean, the problems that I have, it makes them seem small," he added. That's why it made sense for the department's newest officer to help promote Smith to sergeant. "I had no idea that was going to happen. I'm happy the way it happened because I was there for him, and it turned out he was there for me," Smith explained. At the meeting, Cody also received gifts from the Gladewater High School cheer, drill, and football teams. |
An Israeli man who tried to fight off the terrorists at the Sarona Market complex in Tel Aviv two weeks ago was released from hospital this week, with a bullet fragment still lodged in his body. Hagai Klein was shot twice during the shooting attack at the Max Brenner cafe at the plaza on June 8, once in the chest — a near-fatal wound, and once in the thigh. Four Israelis were killed in the terror attack, perpetrated by two Palestinian cousins from the West Bank village of Yatta. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Klein was seen in surveillance footage running at one of the shooters with a chair in hand before being shot and fleeing the other way. He can be seen in a blue shirt in the footage from the attack below. Warning: Graphic content. “I knew there was a chance I would pay with my life. I remember that half a second before [charging] when you [say to yourself] ‘you understand what this means,’ [but] you know what the right thing is to do, the question is if you have the courage to do it,” Klein told Channel 2 from his hospital bed at Ichilov Hospital this week. Klein grew up in an ultra-Orthodox home in Petah Tikva, before leaving that world 15 years ago, signing up for the army and working as a private security guard in Jerusalem. In recent years, he left Jerusalem for Tel Aviv, where he works in the advertising field. On the night of the attack, Klein was at the Max Brenner cafe reading a book and awaiting his order when the first shot rang out. “I see people running, I see a man in a suit, I recognize [his weapon as] a Carl Gustav, and it looked to me like he was loading a magazine,” Klein recalled, later noting that the shooter wasn’t in fact loading, he was dealing with a weapons jam. “At that moment, I think it’s a crazy person, it doesn’t cross my mind that he’s a terrorist,” he said, “but it’s clear I had to make contact to stop the incident.” Klein said he made up his mind to try to charge a potential attacker should he be in such a situation months ago, after he saw how another unarmed Israeli charged two terrorists in an attack at a supermarket in the West Bank. Staff Sgt. Tuvia Yanai Weissman had been shopping with his family in Shaar Binyamin on February 18, when two Palestinian terrorists began attacking customers. The 21-year-old off-duty soldier and another man were seriously wounded in the attack; doctors at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center pronounced Weissman dead a few hours later. Weissman was off-duty at the time, without a service weapon, and fought the attackers barehanded. Klein said he vowed to himself that he would aim to react like Weissman. He told Channel 2 that he did not immediately realize there were two attackers and he does not know what he would have done if he had known. Klein was told by doctors that he was very lucky the bullet wound he sustained in the attack missed vital organs — even as there was some damage to his liver. Doctors said the bullet fragment now lodged in his stomach area would find its way out of his body and instructed him to come back should he feel it bulging out. Forty-two-year-old Ido Ben Ari from Ramat Gan, 39-year-old Ilana Naveh from Tel Aviv, 58-year-old Michael Feige from Ramat Gan and 32-year-old Mila Mishayev from Rishon Lezion were killed the attack at Sarona. Sixteen others were injured. Since October, 33 Israelis and four others have been killed and hundreds more injured in the spate of attacks, though the violence had dramatically waned of late. Some 200 Palestinians have also been killed, some two-thirds of them while carrying out attacks and the rest in clashes with troops, Israeli officials say. |
Female Bricklayer Defied Doubters To Build Baltimore Landmarks Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Olivia Fite Courtesy of Olivia Fite When Barbara Moore started working as a bricklayer in 1973, the 21-year-old was the only woman in Baltimore doing the job. It wasn't the first job she'd tried, but a desk job, she says, just wasn't the right fit. "Right out of high school I worked in a[n] office, but a couple hours behind a desk and I was falling asleep," Moore tells her daughter, Olivia Fite, on a visit to StoryCorps in Baltimore. "So I became a bricklayer." "It was kind of rough at first 'cause, you know, a lot of the older guys didn't think I should be there and I was taking a job from a man," Moore says. "But I believed that I could do that job." Enlarge this image toggle caption StoryCorps StoryCorps And she was right. Moore, 62, recently retired, but during more than 40 years on the job she laid the masonry for many Baltimore landmarks — including Camden Yards, where the Orioles play, and M&T Bank Stadium, home to the Ravens. Moore recalls working with one man, a World War II veteran. "He was, you know, really an old-school guy, but he was willing to work with me when a lot of other people did not want me as their partner," she says. "And when he passed away, his daughter called me and said that he wanted to leave me his tools. ... If you're getting tools from the bricklayers that have gone before you, that would be a sign of respect." Fite says that she remembers massaging her mother's calloused hands as a child, and, later, painting her fingernails — "not that a manicure lasted very long," Moore replies. "I noticed that throughout my life, people always come up to me on the street and say, 'Are you Barbara Moore's daughter?' There's a lot of people in this town that have a great respect for you, and you've earned that," Fite tells her mother. "How would you like to be remembered? "The only thing that's important to me, my dear, is that you remember me," Moore says. "But you've had your hands in so many things that will last for so much longer than either one of us," Fite says. "I know; I don't care about that," Moore says. "Whatever I did ... was always something that I wanted to do for you." Audio produced for Morning Edition by Liyna Anwar. |
Most probably know Himanshu Suri, a.k.a. Heems, from his work with the irreverent joke-rap group Das Racist. The group was known for its dizzying lyrics and snide social critiques, while rising to prominence with songs about Taco Bell. It was never clear whether they were casting playing a joke on the audience or themselves - or both. Das Racist disbanded in 2012, and anyone who expected Heems to continue his role as madcap jokester was looking for the wrong Heems. When we called, he was deeply thoughtful and in a lazy calm. Perhaps this is because it was a warm Friday afternoon in New York City, and he was in the middle of watching Fast & Furious 6. But perhaps it's also because this is the more deftly realized version of Heems — someone who's ready to start getting serious. Heems left for Bombay to record his debut album Eat Pray Thug, and though the album title parodies Elizabeth Gilbert’s spiritual self-discovery memoir Eat Pray Love, he's wise enough to not let himself off the hook. He knows that he’s also that American looking abroad for some kind of understanding. Instead, he’s smart enough to shining a light on his own contradictions. He's the class and the clown. The same and the other. Continue Reading Eat Pray Thug is savagely shrewd and and proves that Heems doesn’t need jokes to hide his laser sharp commentary. He pivots between discussing discrimination against South Asians to meditating on a breakup. It’s the disorienting experience of a man in his late 20s, trying to navigate a world that’s always changing on him. Even at its heaviest, however, Heems doesn’t let you get complacent. On “Al Q8a,” he presents his rapper’s ego, then rapidly deconstructs it by pointing out the audience’s assumptions of his spirituality. He sandwiches guns from Al Qaeda amidst a pun on Kentucky hunting traps, a mispronunciation of “Osama,” and a joke about his liberal arts education, all supported by blips that sound straight out of a video game. He’s not presenting a mirror to himself or the audience. Instead, he’s holding out a prism and showing where the light splinters. Before Heems' July 28 show at Crescent Ballroom, New Times talked to him about going solo, working day jobs, and being involved in, well, just about everything. [Note: this interview has been edited for length.] New Times: Part of your album is about a breakup and the other is about post 9/11 America. Did you ever consider splitting it into different albums? Heems: I mean, no. I wanted to make an album that was representative of me in the most honest way possible, after having made music that was a lot more tongue-in-cheek. That skirted around actual feeling and emotion, and instead chose to use humor in other ways to not have to face or deal with them. After the band broke up and after also I’d broken up with an ex of mine, a lot of things in my life had changed. I had a period of self-reflection, and this album kind of comes out of that... There’s not a lot of features, and it’s really personal. It’s difficult when you’re coming out of a group that was liked by a lot of people. I had pop tendencies and indie and instrumental influences in Das Racist’s music, but in my music I could take that to the next level. It could be more about me, and not just post-9/11 New York, but about the things I struggle about in life, and why some of those things may be. It was definitely a therapeutic album to make, whereas a lot of my other stuff was super playful and fun. [Well, the album] was frustrating while making it, but now I can put it behind me. But it was really frustrating in that one year-long period where I was just waiting for it to be released. But now that I’m performing these songs on the road every night.. you know, it’s a bunch of songs from my album that I like, and I thoroughly enjoy performing them. And I also do stuff from my mixtapes and a couple Das Racist songs, and a couple from my side projects. You mentioned that you have pop tendencies. Do you listen to a lot of pop music? I’m a big fan of the radio because I don’t really use computers, so I don’t download music or have a Spotify. I mostly listen to music on the radio, or the same classic ten albums I’ve liked since I was like fifteen. Now I’m on the road, so I’m trying to keep up. As far as pop music goes, I like a lot of pop, like I guess the most “pop” could say is Taylor Swift. I did a Katy Perry cover as a solo artist like four years ago. I can’t imagine you listening to Taylor Swift in your room alone. No, I mean, I don’t go out of my way to listen to it, but when it’s on the radio, I totally enjoy it on the radio. I don’t really like Taylor Swift, I just chose her as like, the most “pop.” Got it. Well back to the album – one of my favorite songs is "Patriot Act," where you’re talking about how minority groups, especially South Asians, have to keep their mouths shut and heads down to survive. But with this album, you’re kind of doing the exact opposite of that. You’re from Phoenix, right? Well, yeah. Arizona was where the first Sikh was the victim of a post-9/11 hate crime. Balbir Singh Sodhi. It’s something that was extremely personal to me, but its repercussions were felt as far as even Arizona, where like immediately after 9/11 an innocent man was murdered because someone thought he was Muslim and called him Osama. My parents didn’t want me to go out. If you read stories about me in high school, you’ll read that I wanted to go out and volunteer, but it wasn’t really a safe time. It was something that was a long time ago, and it was hard to make it an album and put it out on a record label in 2015, a record that dealt with something that happened in 2001. But it was something I was extremely passionate about, telling these stories. And there aren’t a lot of voices from my community in pop culture, and let alone ways that money would be spent to make art like that spread. Now that you’re in a public position to be talking about race and identity, have people started expecting you to talk about it? Are you becoming a representative to talk about this stuff? I guess I put that on myself, and I have no problem talking about it because it’s personal. When I speak about it, I speak from the heart. And a lot of what I’m talking about isn’t just about post-9/11. It’s about America as a whole, and how America treats its people of color. Whether it’s police on the ground and how they treat African Americans or Latinos, or whether it’s the American government overseas and how they bomb Arabs and Middle Easterners. The thing that most of them have in common is the same general lack of care on America’s part for bodies and people of color. Is it frustrating to make this music and not see people’s attitudes moving? Or, I don’t want to put words in your mouth – do you even see people’s attitudes really changing? I don’t know if people’s attitudes are changing, but I know that after the record came out, I got to speak about it on Hot 97, New York’s rap radio station, and I got to speak about it on NPR. And so even it was just two weeks in these days when everything moves so quickly on the Internet, I’m extremely fortunate that I was even able to be a person who got to have that kind of platform to tell these stories and to speak. So I’m happy that I’m able to put this record out, and to be doing a 30-date tour. I read somewhere you’ve got a day job in advertising too. Are you still doing that? Yeah, while the label wasn’t putting the album out, I started doing some work in that space of advertising and technology. It was more analytics and stuff. I have a curious mind and like to stay busy, and the record label I was signed to wasn’t supporting the album. Even now, I want to shoot more music videos, but I guess there’s no budget. I’m already started to focus on working on my next record. And I’ve acted in a couple of different films, they’re all indie. Some of them have started showing at festivals, some started shot as early as last month. So I’m trying to stay active in that space too. But I think for me, I’ve told a lot of stories in rap. And I’m definitely interested in other media, but rap is what is easy to me. Even two nights ago, I was in the studio and it just comes to me. If I have a platform for it, I might as well try to put out records. It’s a tough game, because even the best guys who don’t need to drop records every week drop like, five takes a year. You’ve got to keep doing it and love it. And I do, I love making music and telling stories. You’re doing so much stuff, how do you have time to sleep? Nah, I’ve got time. I’ve got mad time. The things I do, some of the times it’ll be shooting a film for a week, and playing two shows, and doing a lecture. And that’s in an off-season. Right now I’m definitely busy because I’m playing... like four or Five shows a week. But I get off-time a lot too. I like staying busy. It’s the healthiest thing for me. ... I’m someone who wants to do it all. Okay, I want to finish off with a couple of stupid questions. What did you have for breakfast this morning? I didn't eat breakfast. What's your favorite record to play at like, 2 in the morning? I really like playing Unknown Mortal Orchestra's new album [Multi-Love]. If you can be on any sports team, which would you be on and what position would you play? Huh. I don't know, because if I was playing, I would be taking the spot of my favorite player. I wouldn't want to alter history by taking out my favorite player and replacing him. But... I'd want to be a fucking famous cricket player in India. What book would you recommend to an old college roommate? Probably The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. If you were forced to drink some kind of solid food in liquified form, like a burger that had been put in a blender or something, what would you... I don't fully understand the question. But I think the answer is pizza. |
He’s Batman? Not exactly. David Mazouz has been cast as the preteen Bruce Wayne in Fox’s Batman prequel series Gotham. The 13-year-old actor will depict Wayne after his wealthy parents are killed, but before he dons the cape and cowl (which won’t happen until the show’s final episode). Mazouz previously co-starred with Kiefer Sutherland on Fox’s Touch. Mazouz has been cast along with newcomer Camren Bicondova (photo below), who will play a teenage Selina Kyle (aka not-yet-Catwoman). Her character is described as a “teenage orphan who is suspicious and wholly unpredictable; a street thief and skilled pickpocket, she’s dangerous when cornered.” Gotham centers around Detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and his efforts to fight crime in city of ambitious and creative criminals. Bruno Heller (The Mentalist) wrote the pilot script and will serve as executive producer. Danny Cannon (Nikita) will direct and executive produce the pilot. Series regulars include Donal Logue (Detective Harvey Bullock), Zabryna Guevara (Captain Essen), Erin Richards (Barbara Kean), Sean Pertwee (Alfred Pennyworth), Robin Lord Taylor (Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin), David Mazouz (Bruce Wayne), Camren Bicondova (Selina Kyle) and Jada Pinkett Smith (Fish Mooney). |
No. 12 deserves the NFL's Most Valuable Player award this season. But it's not who you think. Contrary to popular belief, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is not this year's MVP. That distinction, for the second straight year, should go to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Now, before you roll your eyes, open your mind and hear me out. Brady won the award last year during New England's 14-2 run, and he deserves to be just the second back-to-back MVP since 1998. This is not to discredit Rodgers, who is having a tremendous season. But sometimes numbers and hype get in the way of what the Most Valuable Player award, by definition, actually means. The award is meant for the player who is the most important to their team. Let that sink in, because this is a key element to this debate. Rodgers has been lights out and putting up great numbers for undefeated Green Bay (12-0). But what happens if you take Rodgers off the Packers? They won't be 16-0, but the defending Super Bowl champs would still keep the ball rolling with highly touted backup Matt Flynn and make it to the playoffs. Green Bay has enough stars on offense (Greg Jennings, Jermichael Finley, Donald Driver, Jordy Nelson) and big-time playmakers on defense (Clay Matthews, Charles Woodson, B.J. Raji) to win plenty of games without Rodgers. I think Green Bay could even win the NFC North this year without Rodgers, considering the Chicago Bears (7-5) lost quarterback Jay Cutler, the Detroit Lions (7-5) are inconsistent and the Minnesota Vikings (2-10) stink. In contrast, consider this: Where would the Patriots be without Brady? With the NFL's worst-rated defense and no true superstars on the roster minus Brady, some believe New England would be similar to the Indianapolis Colts (0-12) this year without Peyton Manning. I'm not ready to go that far. But New England certainly would have a losing record. Little-known backup Brian Hoyer or rookie quarterback Ryan Mallett have virtually no chance of getting this Patriots team to the playoffs. New England is too weak in other areas and couldn't afford poor play at quarterback. And please do not point to what happened in 2008. That Patriots team had a top-10 defense and was much more balanced. Quarterback Matt Cassel is a former Pro Bowler who led the Patriots to 11 wins. Cassel was way more advanced and developed than Hoyer and Mallett. The "Brady factor" in New England is clearly stronger than the "Rodgers factor" in Green Bay. Without Brady, the Patriots would be challenging the Buffalo Bills (5-7) and Miami Dolphins (4-8) for third or fourth place in the AFC East this season. I'm sure New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan would be happy about that. For those who want to focus only on the numbers, Brady's statistics are right on Rodgers' heels. In fact, Brady (3,916) has thrown for more yards than Rodgers (3,844) and is on a faster pace to eclipse Dan Marino's single-season passing record of 5,084 yards. Also, Brady has thrown for 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions in the past month. Brady hasn't thrown a pick since Nov. 6. Rodgers has two interceptions the past three weeks. The coach of the year award often doesn't go to the coach with the most victories. The award usually goes to the coach who overcomes the most hardship and does more with less. That is why San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh will most likely get the nod this year over Green Bay counterpart Mike McCarthy. Just like McCarthy probably will not win the coach of the year, Rodgers should not be the MVP this season. The cupboards are very full in Green Bay, and neither faced much hardship in their quest for an undefeated season and another Super Bowl title. Brady is doing more with far less talent around him and is much more valuable to New England's success. So forget that other guy wearing No. 12. Brady is this year's MVP. |
Robert Mueller. Alex Wong/Getty Images President Donald Trump may consider firing Robert Mueller, the special counsel overseeing the Russia investigation. "He's weighing that option," said Chris Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax and a friend of Trump's, on "PBS NewsHour" on Monday evening. "I personally think it would be a very significant mistake — even though I don't think there's a justification ... for a special counsel in this case." Ruddy was seen leaving the West Wing on Monday, but it was not immediately clear whether the subject of Mueller came up during his visit. In the interview with PBS, Ruddy called out what he described as "conflicts" surrounding Mueller's law firm, WilmerHale, which has represented Trump's former campaign manager and members of the Trump family. Ruddy also said Trump had interviewed Mueller for the role of FBI director before Mueller was named special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation. Mueller previously served as FBI director from 2001 to 2013. The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said in an email to Business Insider on Monday night: "Mr. Ruddy never spoke to the President regarding this issue. With respect to this subject, only the President or his attorneys are authorized to comment." President Donald Trump at the White House on May 2. Mark Wilson/Getty Images In the past 36 hours, people in Trump's orbit have floated conflicting narratives on the matter. A lawyer for Trump said on ABC News on Sunday that he was "not going to speculate" about whether Trump may fire Mueller. But Trump's conservative allies have begun to turn on the special counsel, despite initially praising his appointment. Trump's allies now say the Mueller-led investigation into whether Trump's campaign colluded with Russian officials to meddle in the 2016 election will be tainted and biased, Business Insider's Allan Smith reported earlier Monday, in part because of former FBI Director James Comey's Senate testimony last week. Trump with James Comey. Getty Images At his hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, Comey said he gave a friend, a Columbia law professor, permission to share with news outlets the content of memos Comey wrote documenting private meetings he had with Trump. Comey testified that he thought the revelations in his memos — including his concerns that Trump sought to influence the FBI's Russia investigation — would prompt the appointment of a special counsel. While Trump as president would be within his right to order the Justice Department to fire Mueller, that move would surely be viewed as problematic for a president already plagued by suggestions he overstepped his boundaries in his interactions with Comey. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, attempted to knock down any suggestion of Trump firing Mueller. "If President fired Bob Mueller, Congress would immediately re-establish independent counsel and appoint Bob Mueller," Schiff said. "Don't waste our time." It is unclear, however, exactly how the Republican-led Congress would react to Mueller's firing. Richard Painter, who served as top White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, offered an unvarnished take on the rumblings Monday night. "Rumors going around that POTUS wants to fire Mueller," he said. "That had better be fake news or this presidency will be over very soon." |
Have you seen the four godswords that were given out as various competition prizes last year? Fancy getting your hands on something similar? Well, as part of our 15th Birthday Celebrations, every month in 2016 we’ll be giving away a life-sized RuneScape item from in-game, and you can win them! For January, the almighty Darklight is being crafted and is preparing for its next owner. The artwork below is just an idea of the sword you will receive! To be in with a chance of taking home the legendary Darklight, all we want from you is to help us celebrate our birthday with your party selfies! Whether you use your in-game character or your actual self, send us a picture of you in your party attire. Use the following instructions to enter: If you’re entering on Twitter or Instagram, use the hashtags #RuneScapeAt15 and #RSPartySelfie to submit and share your entries. Alternatively, you can send them to competitions@jagex.com with the subject ‘15th birthday selfie competition’. The competition closes next Friday, the 29th of January, so don’t tarry - get your party boots on now! Check out our terms and conditions . Good luck! Invention Forum Q&A | Thursday 21st January Don’t miss out on the Invention Forum Q&A on Thursday, where the Mods behind the new Elite Skill will be answering your questions. Head over to the new Invention forum from 3pm game time on Thursday 21st January to join in! The RuneScape Team |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P and Dow both posted their best day since March on Friday, with the market buoyed by news that Russia was ending military drills near the Ukrainian border, while investors overlooked U.S. air strikes in Iraq. A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in New York August 4, 2014. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri The gains helped major averages erase the week’s losses as buying intensified as the day came to a close. The CBOE market volatility index .VIX fell 5.7 percent to 15.71 in a sign of reduced investor uncertainty. Stocks have been under pressure of late as investors, worried about high valuations and uncertainty around the world, pulled back from riskier assets. Before Friday’s rally, the S&P 500 had given up more than 4 percent while the small-cap Russell was down 7 percent over the past four weeks. Markets rallied after Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday it had finished military exercises in southern Russia, which the United States had criticized as a provocative step amid the Ukraine crisis. “The market hates uncertainty, and when it doesn’t have enough information about how badly an event could impact the economy, it tends to take the worst-case scenario and people sell off,” said Malcolm Polley, president and chief investment officer of Stewart Capital Advisors in Indiana, Pennsylvania. “With the news of the de-escalating in Russia, and also with the administration saying exactly what they are doing in Iraq, it’s helped clear up some uncertainty in the market.” Earlier on Friday, the United States carried out air strikes targeting Islamic State fighters marching on Iraq’s Kurdish capital. The strikes were the first authorized on Iraq since President Barack Obama pulled American troops out in 2011. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 182.52 points, or 1.12 percent, to 16,550.79. The S&P 500 .SPX ended up 21.84 points, or 1.14 percent, to 1,931.41. The Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added 36.02 points, or 0.83 percent, to 4,370.99. For the week, the Dow rose 0.4 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.3 percent, and the Nasdaq rose 0.4 percent. Utilities were the day’s biggest gainer among S&P sectors, rising 2 percent, followed by a 1.7 percent increase in energy shares. Shares of defense companies also performed well, with Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) ending the day up 1.8 percent to $165.80, Raytheon Co (RTN.N) up 2.4 percent to $91.61 and Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N) up 2.1 percent to $122.86. U.S.-traded shares of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp TKMR.O surged 45.1 percent to $20.70 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared the company’s experimental Ebola treatment for potential use in humans. More than 28.4 million shares changed hands, the busiest day of trading in company history. About 5.5 billion shares traded on all U.S. platforms, according to BATS exchange data, compared with the five-day average of 6.5 billion. |
He is Houston's president of the United States - our guy, who made it all the way to the highest office in the land. And made us proud. George H.W. Bush came to Houston in the late 1950s because this is where the money was; he makes no bones about that. He was a young man in the oil business. He ran the Zapata Offshore Co., an offshore drilling operation. Bush, born in New England and a Yale graduate, threw himself into wild west Houston politics. He became chairman of the Republican Party in Harris County, then a congressman from the 7th District of Texas. He was the first-ever Republican congressman from Houston. Bush was named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, then chairman of the Republican National Committee. He served as envoy to China and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was President Ronald Reagan's vice president from 1981 to 1989. In 1989, George Herbert Walker Bush took the oath of office as the 41st president of the United States. Now a personal note and some background. I got to meet President Bush and first lady Barbara Bush about 20 years ago. Chuck Norris, the TV star, was hosting a charity tennis event, and the organizer asked if I would play. President Bush, Mrs. Bush, even Ranger their dog would be there. Also, Chris Evert, as well as a few other tennis pros and entertainment celebrities. I said sure, absolutely. That afternoon, I got to play a doubles match. My partner, after a brief conversation with the Secret Service, was President Bush. I met Mrs. Bush. Ranger, too. Pretty cool. I remember hitting a good shot and the president high-fivin' me. I played tennis a few more times with the president. He invited me to his office. We talked about the Berlin Wall coming down. Bush was president on that day. I was lucky enough to be in Berlin when it happened. Bush showed me around his office on Memorial Drive. I met his staff. He signed a bunch of photos for me. On one of us playing tennis, he wrote, "Thanks for carrying a heavy load." On a photo of him sitting with my 3-year-old son, he wrote, "Have a very happy life, big guy, love, George Bush." Wow, right? I'm not going to get into politics here. He has his admirers, detractors. But I'll paraphrase a passage from a recent Bush biography by Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham: "Bush embodies virtues that seem jarringly out of place today … restraint, modesty, willingness to compromise, reluctance to blame others or claim credit for oneself." They don't make 'em like that anymore. In the book, "Destiny and Power," Bush is quoted asking, "Well, what's wrong with trying to help people, what's wrong with trying to bring peace, what's wrong with trying to make the world a little better?" A statesman, indeed. In his post-presidency, Bush has become a bringer of help to parts of the world that need aid and hope for the future. He is a dignified, wonderful man whom I admire. It still amazes me that I got to meet - and know a little - a president. What makes it extra amazing … it's this president. OK, today. In each issue of Luxe Life, we ask a Houstonian what our city means to them. A lot of famous people live in Houston. Because of my job, I do know a few of them. But, let's take a shot and try something special. President George H.W. Bush is 92 years old. You may have noticed that he doesn't "do" interviews anymore. For many reasons. For one, it's a presidential election year, and he was staying above and far away from it. But I reached out. "I'd like to ask President Bush about Houston. Tell him that I was his tennis partner that time we beat his son Neil and Chris Evert. Hopefully he'll remember me." President Bush remembered me. I know, wow again, right? Here you go: a rare interview with "41." Q: How did it happen that you came to Houston? A: I had started in the offshore oil business, and needed to be closer to my rigs. We moved here in 1959 and lived over off Chimney Rock. Q: What were your first impressions of Houston? A: The open and friendly people. Houstonians have big hearts. We felt welcomed right away. Q: What do you think are Houston's strengths? A: The aggressive, can-do spirit of the people. Nothing is too big for Houstonians. I love that. Q: You could have lived anywhere. What kept you in Houston? A: Money, if I am being honest - the opportunity I had to make a decent living. I loved the challenge and the action of the oil business." Q: What are some of your favorite things to do in Houston? A: Going to Texans and Astros games. The rodeo. I used to love running in Memorial Park. Q: Favorite restaurants? A: Too many to name, but we love Morton's and The Palm. I also love Tex-Mex, including Molina's and Ninfa's. DaMarco's for liver. Of course, I loved Otto's BBQ when it was still here. Q: How long did it take a Northern guy to adjust to living in Houston? A: No adjustment needed. By the time we moved to Houston, we had lived in Texas a decade. Q: What are your hopes for Houston in the future? Challenges? A: I couldn't be prouder of the strong, constructive ties between the various communities in Houston. There is a level of trust and goodwill among Houstonians that other big cities do not have. I hope that never changes. Q: When was the first time you realized that "I'm from Houston?" A: Not sure, but by the time I ran for Harris County Republican Party chairman in 1962, I knew Houston was home … even if being a lonely Republican here back in those days was considered by some locals to be a "hangin' offense." Q: Do you consider yourself a Houstonian now? A: I don't want to be less than kind and gentle, Ken, but that's a dumb question. |
Elections are regularly held in countries facing ongoing civil wars, among them Iraq, India, Nigeria, Afghanistan, the Philippines and Colombia. Occasionally, electoral choices amidst conflict are stark: Candidates propose two different visions for their country’s future, and their campaigns are defined by positions on the civil war itself. Such was the case May 25 when Colombia voted to elect its next president. How did legacies of violence affect vote choice in the Colombian election? This post provides evidence that President Juan Manuel Santos — who opened negotiations 19 months ago with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s oldest and strongest guerrilla group — performed poorly at polls in areas where armed groups have historically committed high levels of violence. The anti-negotiation candidate, Óscar Iván Zuluaga, in contrast, performed far better in communities that have traditionally been hard-hit by violence. Below I offer background on the electoral campaign, statistical evidence illustrating the relationship between vote shares and violence, and conclude with some thoughts on what might account for the connection. Contrasting perspectives on whether to negotiate with the FARC quickly became the most important issue of the presidential election campaign. Santos has bet his campaign on a “peace agenda”: slow but steady progress at the negotiating table (agreement has been reached on three of six agenda items), providing historic reparations to victims of the armed conflict, and initiating a land restitution process for those forcibly displaced from their homes. The latter addresses core grievances articulated by the FARC. Óscar Iván Zuluaga has opposed these initiatives, stating that he would suspend negotiations with the FARC until the group met certain key demands, including a unilateral ceasefire (the candidate has recently altered his stance slightly). Zuluaga is supported by ex-president Álvaro Uribe, figurehead of Zuluaga’s party and the person who gave him the nod to contend for executive office. Uribe uses his Twitter account to personally insult Santos, to batter him from the right, and to spread rumors about how Santos will break up the armed forces and sell out the country to the FARC if he is reelected. And so, with the conflict front and center in the electoral campaign, Colombians went to the ballot box May 25. Because no candidate received 50 percent of the vote — Santos received 25.69 percent and Zuluaga 29.25 percent — the two will compete in a run-off June 15. Candidates from smaller parties garnered anywhere from 8 percent to 16 percent of the vote. A few days after the votes from the first round were counted, a respected Colombian journalism outfit published an article that suggested a positive correlation between electoral support for Santos and FARC areas of strength over the past 10 years. What happens when we test that relationship more rigorously? I statistically examine how the average number of FARC and paramilitary attacks per year in each Colombian municipality between 1988 and 2010 affected the percent of votes cast for Santos and Zuluaga in those municipalities on election day in May. I use import.io to scrape first-round electoral returns at the municipality level, data from both governmental and non-governmental sources to measure levels of violence, and regression analysis to control for factors that might influence both armed group attacks and electoral support. Factors I control for include population size, area, elevation, distance from Bogotá, whether a municipality includes an international border, poverty levels, the percent of a municipality’s area under coca cultivation and the presence of sites for mining gemstones. The outcome we seek to explain is the percent of votes for a particular candidate, either Santos or Zuluaga, in a given municipality. The findings (see figures below) are striking and counter those from the Colombian journalism outlet referenced above. Where the FARC committed high levels of attacks between 1988 and 2010, Santos performed poorly in the 2014 elections. For instance, in towns where the FARC committed an average of four attacks per year, Santos is estimated to have received 31 percent of the vote, yet where the FARC committed an average of 28 attacks per year, he is estimated to have received only 21 percent of the vote. A similar picture emerges for paramilitary attacks: At higher levels of paramilitary attacks, Santos received lower levels of electoral support. The results for Zuluaga — displayed below — demonstrate the opposite tendency. In municipalities where the FARC attacked most in the past, Zuluaga tended to perform better on election day. For example, where the FARC committed an average of four attacks per year, Zuluaga is estimated to have received nearly 37 percent of the vote, yet in municipalities where the FARC committed an average of 28 attacks per year he received nearly 46 percent of the vote. A similar pattern holds for paramilitary attacks: Zuluaga performed far better in areas where paramilitaries were particularly violent, when compared to those where they were not. (An interesting additional finding is that municipalities on an international border are far less likely to vote for Zuluaga, possibly fearing that his aggressive rhetoric toward Ecuador and Venezuela could prompt renewed hostilities.) Although I have controlled for some alternative explanations, these results cannot establish a causal relationship, nor can we pinpoint precisely why Santos seems to be punished for legacies of violence while Zuluaga seems to benefit. I venture a number of plausible explanations. First, those most affected by violence may not want to grant to the FARC the terms they anticipate Santos will offer. That negotiations have been conducted in Cuba, shrouded in secrecy, has created a void of information surrounding the possible terms of the agreement. This has allowed the right to speculate loudly, for instance, that a peace deal would ensure impunity for atrocities, and that the government is granting far more concessions to the FARC than it should. Second, although a 2008 survey of victims in Colombia, conducted by Angelika Rettberg of the Universidad de los Andes, suggests a preference for material compensation and truth-telling, victimized communities are also interested in punitive or retributive justice for harms done. If victimized communities believe prosecutions and punishment of perpetrators will be less likely under a Santos administration, this may be limiting his support in such areas. Third, despite 50 years of proof to the contrary, there still exists a belief that the FARC can be defeated militarily. Direct exposure to violence may sharpen those beliefs, pushing individuals and communities to favor a continued military path forward. Finally, citizens may simply blame incumbents for grievances for which they are not responsible, whether in the recent or distant past. To some, Zuluaga represents a break from that past (despite the fact that he was finance minister under ex-President Uribe), and certainly from the current administration. The promise of change may resonate particularly with those who continue to live with the painful memory of violence. In summary, historical legacies of violence appear to have significantly shaped vote choices in the Colombian election. This is likely pronounced in the Colombian context because of the salience of the conflict to this particular campaign. Further work needs to be done — in Colombia, following the run-off June 15, and in other countries — to establish the precise mechanisms that lead past victimization to drive citizens’ decisions many years later at the ballot box. Michael Weintraub is a predoctoral fellow at Yale University’s Program on Order, Conflict and Violence and, beginning in fall 2014, will be an assistant professor of political science at Binghamton University (SUNY). |
The cosmic impact that ended the age of dinosaurs killed many living creatures on land and in the sea, but scientists have found, puzzlingly, that life in freshwater largely escaped this fate. Now new research, detailed online July 11 in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, suggests freshwater life survived extinction because they were better adapted to withstand rapid changes in their surroundings, which helped them outlast the crises in the wake of the catastrophe. The mass extinction event the scientists studied (also the most recent and most familiar) is known as the K-T event or, more recently, the K-Pg event. The disaster, which killed off at least 75 percent of all species on Earth, including all dinosaurs except for birds, was apparently triggered by a cosmic impact that occurred in what is now Mexico about 65 million years ago. Past research suggested that while marine life was devastated by this mass extinction, freshwater organisms underwent relatively low extinction rates. Now investigators suggest the secret of their survival may have been all the variability experienced by freshwater life. Gimme shelter Water would have helped shelter life in rivers and lakes, as well as the seas and oceans, from the initial blast of heat from the cosmic impact. However, the giant extraterrestrial collision set fire to Earth's surface, darkening the sky with dust and ash that cooled the planet. The resulting "impact winter" and its lack of sunlight would have crippled both freshwater and marine food chains by killing off microscopic photosynthetic organisms known as phytoplankton that are at the base of the marine and freshwater food chains. Intriguingly, while marine communities were devastated by the mass extinction, losing 50 percent of their species, geophysicist Douglas Robertson at the University of Colorado at Boulder and his colleagues looked at a database of western North America fossils and discovered freshwater ones there survived relatively unscathed, losing only about 10 percent of their species. The researchers note that freshwater organisms, unlike marine life, are used to annual freezes that ice over inland waters, severely limiting their oxygen supplies. As such, freshwater communities might have better endured the low oxygen levels in the wake of the death of photosynthetic life following an impact winter. (Photosynthetic life generates virtually all the oxygen in the atmosphere, and needs light to live, and the impact winter would have significantly reduced the amount of sunlight reaching Earth.) Impact winter Inland waters could also benefit from influxes of nutrients from water seeping in from nearby soils laden with organic matter. Moreover, such groundwater could also be warm, pumping a welcome amount of heat into impact-winter-cooled freshwater. In contrast, while marine coasts might also experience some benefit from warm groundwater, the vast majority of the ocean would not. In addition, many freshwater organisms can go dormant, including eggs or adults buried in the mud. This would have enabled them to await the return of friendlier conditions, the researchers said. All these adaptations may have helped freshwater life hold on for the six months to two years it would have taken until the sky cleared from the impact winter. Although the impact event likely killed off many freshwater organisms as well, "for a species to survive, you need only a small number of surviving individuals, an absolute minimum of two individuals at the extreme limit," Robertson told LiveScience. "Look at what a couple of rabbits were able to do in Australia in a few decades." Rabbits, first brought to Australia as food in the 18th century, swarmed uncontrollably across the continent, once teeming in the billions. Editor's note: This story was updated to note where the new research was published. Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
Archangel Michael channelled by Jahn J Kassl on August 12, 2013 http://www.lichtweltverlag. com/de/blog/index.html first published in English on August 13, 2013 in www.stankovuniversallaw.com Translated by Georgi Stankov Dream: I have been excluded completely unexpected from the English Institute, which I visit for months. I think that it is not possible to do this. However, I am vehemently made aware of the fact that they know who I am and that they do not want to do anything with me any more (I wake up). Report: Today I had a lesson at the English Institute. When I left it a man spoke to me unmotivated on the street and told me that he knew me. I were a man from the advertising industry, working for a major Austrian media company. When I denied several times and referred to the publishing house “world of light”, this completely unknown man stuck to his version, he would know me from the media world. As I start the scooter in the early evening to drive into the city, again an absolutely unknown man approaches me and greets me with the familiar “hey buddy”, as if we’d known each other forever. Finally, on the way to my favourite place, where I intend to write this message, I am made aware, as in all previous days, all the time of the number “7“. Today while driving this perception is even more persistent than ever. When I look at the number plate of the van in front of me, I see the number7777 (End of report) Loved ones, I am Archangel Michael. Exciting times have the property to build up at first very much in secretiveness and in seemingly endless cycles before they unload all of a sudden. Now to the facts that explain this dream and observation of Jahn: 1) Jahn is “recognized” and banished from the English Institute .This means: the English Institute represents a world, in which there is a confusion of tongues, as the people are not yet able to communicate telepathically and use their crystalline structure, which leads any language ad absurdum, or with the help of which any language becomes a natural part to a being. English stands for the universal language of the New World Order that is already established at the lower levels of the 4D, and to a certain degree now also touches upon the upper levels. The exaggerated banishment of Jahn means that this level of being eliminates the light after it is recognized as such. This also means further that this world banishes, as did the 3D and lower 4D levels, all the masters of light from their related fields. 2) The second mirror image, where Jahn is recognized by two men who are completely foreign to him, means that on this plane of existence, the Masters, before they are banished, will be recognized by all people. And this is now also confirmed by Jahn’s dream. 3) Four times the number “7” means that this occurs in the seventh hologram of the fourth dimension of Being. “The Event” has reached the upper 4D earths and has fully unfolded on the seventh level. Consequently, all those that will ascend are now leaving this level, they are the new masters of these worlds. What has already happened to the lower levels, is now spreading to the 7th level of the 4D – in a mitigated form, but still very much transforming this world. These events currently reach the higher levels (9th. to 12th, comment George), again very much mitigated and yet transforming everything. The decisions for all those, who remain on the seventh 4D Earth have been made and they are final. The 4D hologram with the number “7” is sealed and this world is left to itself for a certain period of spatial experience. Before the Masters return to this level, they will be banned from there. This is how it has been happening and how it happens now that the decision is irrevocable. Now, the change expands on the upper realms and you, who will remain basically untouched by these events, will now come closer to them. It is the time of great upheaval. With divine precision the new division lines now run between the worlds, until all events of the lower worlds penetrate – moderated in intensity – the upper worlds. Do not be afraid! For indeed, you are exempt from this drama, you who are aware that you have completed all for what you have descended. I am ARCHANGEL MICHAEL |
How to Pair Android Wear Watches to New Phones without Factory Resetting Android Wear as a smartwatch operating system is not without its faults, but sadly while the more tech enthusiastic are likely to use it, the same people are also likely to install custom ROMs on their phones. This in most cases means having to wipe your smartwatch every time you switch to another flavor of Android on your device. There is, however, a simple way to bypass setting up your smartwatch from scratch when you buy a new smartphone or flash a new custom ROM on your device. This method does not require root on either the phone or watch, but it does require a few Android Debugging Bridge (ADB) commands. This has been tested on the Huawei Watch on Android Wear 1.5 and Android Wear 2.0, however it should also work to pair Android Wear watches with any new smartphone. If for some reason your watch is already rooted, you can ignore this tutorial and simply use the Reset Wear Client to pair Android Wear without factory resetting directly from your smartwatch. Pair Android Wear to New/Same Phone Without Wiping First, you will need to download the ADB tools. I personally use the “Minimal ADB and Fastboot Kit” found right here on XDA, but you are welcome to use the official binaries from Google if you wish. Next, you will need to enable ADB debugging on your smartwatch (both wired or over WiFi debugging are fine, though I find WiFi more convenient). This is enabled through Developer options on your smartwatch, which you will also need to enable. To do this, simply go to Settings → system → about on your watch and tap the field labeled “Build number” until you see a toast message stating “you are now a developer”. Once you have followed these steps, you’re ready to begin! Enabling ADB debugging Open Developer options and enable “ADB debugging” or “Debug over wifi” if you wish to do it wirelessly. The process to sync Android Wear to your smartphone will work fine both ways, but they require slightly different commands. Initial setup to sync Android Wear will require a different command whether you are doing it over WiFi or not. Please open adb tools, either by searching adb in your Windows search bar or navigating to the folder containing adb, holding shift then right clicking and selecting “open command window here”. Then enter the below commands. Over WiFi In my case, I would type: adb connect 192.168.1.100:5555 To connect to my Android Wear watch. The IP address you need to enter is located under “Debug over WiFi”, as shown in the screenshot above. Accept the prompt on the watch allowing the computer to debug. If successful, it will simply go back to the command prompt where you can type. There is now text output. Wired Substantially easier in commands, simply connect your device to your computer and type: adb devices If your device shows up, you’re fine. Make sure you accepted the prompt on your watch to allow it to debug. Sending the Commands To continue on, first disable Bluetooth on your phone and then on your computer type: adb shell “pm clear com.google.android.gms && reboot” Your watch will reboot, but no Android Wear factory reset will occur. When it boots back up it should no longer show a crossed out cloud icon indicating that it can’t connect to your phone. You will now want to install the Android Wear app on your phone (if you don’t already have it), but don’t enable Bluetooth yet. Next, connect to the smartwatch via ADB again with the exact same steps as before. This time however, the command you want to run is: adb shell “am start -a android.bluetooth.adapter.action.REQUEST_DISCOVERABLE” And then on your watch allow it to be discoverable to other devices so you can sync Android Wear with the smartphone. You may now connect to Android Wear from your smartphone by opening the Wear app, enable Bluetooth, and search for devices. Your Android Watch should show up and your phone will sync with it. If the app hangs on “Checking for updates”, simply restart the app and it should begin to connect to Android Wear. Explanation The simple explanation as to why this works is that all smartphone-smartwatch pairing data is contained in Google Play Services. This data is phone-specific as the keys are stored in the Play Services data located on the smartwatch. This is the reason why you can’t simply Titanium Backup the Android Wear application from your smartphone, because the keys you need are stored on the smartwatch. When you try to pair a new phone (or have installed a new custom ROM and the watch thinks it’s a new phone), the keys are normally wiped through an Android Wear factory reset. The only way to get around this is to instead wipe the key data which allows you to pair Android Wear with a new device without factory resetting as the keys that pair it to your phone are also cleared. We then request the smartwatch’s Bluetooth to be made discoverable via an intent sent through adb, which creates the prompt you see that needs to be accepted. This means your phone can now find your watch and then create new pairing keys with the device. |
It’s a long-running talking point spouted by Trump administration members and the president himself: Undocumented immigrants are taking jobs away from black and Hispanic Americans. Hours after President Trump dismantled an Obama-era program that had granted 800,000 young undocumented immigrants permission to live and work in the United States, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders again made the claim. “It's a known fact that there are over 4 million unemployed Americans in the same age group as those that are DACA recipients; that over 950,000 of those are African Americans in the same age group; over 870,000 unemployed Hispanics in the same age group,” Sanders said during Tuesday’s press briefing. “Those are large groups of people that are unemployed that could possibly have those jobs.” ['Go home and get in line': Fact-checking Kris Kobach on DACA] Here’s the problem: immigrant and native-born workers are imperfect substitutes. There is no evidence that the unemployed Americans, be they black, white or Hispanic, have the skills necessary to hold the same jobs occupied by the young beneficiaries of the five-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. “It is one thing to say that there are hundreds of thousands of minorities the same age that are unemployed, and a very different thing for them to have the same education, skills and experience as the employed DACA workers,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former chief economic policy adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) presidential campaign. “And if they do,” he added, “it begs the question as to why they don’t have those jobs in the first place.” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders arrives at the podium to give the daily briefing on Sept. 5 in Washington. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Contrary to Sanders’s assertion, he said, DACA improves the economic outlook for low-skilled, American-born workers. Without work permits, undocumented immigrants are more likely to take any job they can, even work that falls far below their skill or education level. DACA, on the other hand, allows those workers to move to jobs that better match their background, freeing up low-skilled positions. There is just no compelling proof that immigration -- legal or illegal -- “squeezes out native-born workers in any systematic way,” Holtz-Eakin said. “We’ve experienced waves of immigration and still, on average, reached full employment.” The number of jobs in the United States is not fixed. An influx of immigrant workers generates economic growth and employment opportunities by increasing productivity, said Jackie Varas, director of immigration and trade policy at American Action Forum. “Many DACA recipients are also more skilled than other immigrants because they possess a college education, so they don’t compete with low-skilled Americans,” Varas said. Furthermore, said Darrick Hamilton, an economics and urban policy professor at The New School, blacks and Latinos want access to quality jobs, not just jobs at the bottom of the labor market. ['Dreamers' can 'rest easy,' Ryan says, promising congressional action] “Why do we reserve and presume the bottom of the labor market for blacks and Latinos?” Hamilton said. “Many DACA recipients are full-time students not engaged in taking away jobs.” Of the DACA-eligible immigrants over 21 years old, 12 percent have bachelor’s degrees, 3 percent have advanced degrees, 84 percent have completed high school and some college, and 2 percent did not graduate from high school, according to an analysis by New American Economy. A Moody’s Analytics analysis of Trump's proposed economic policies last year showed that removing all undocumented immigrants from the labor force would trigger an economic recession within one year. Another American Action Forum study found that if all undocumented immigrants were deported, there would not be enough American workers to fill all of the jobs that would be left open. And even if all available native workers filled the open slots, the country would still be short 4 million workers. Trump and his supporters have often pitted minority groups against one another. But there is no broad economic justification to do so. “Cannibalizing stigmatized and marginalized groups against each other serves the wealthy interests that benefit from such divisive colonial and labor segmenting tactics,” Hamilton said. |
Four minutes from the end of Manchester City's remarkably comfortable win over QPR on Sunday, the entire Etihad stadium rose to its feet to applaud an oncoming player. Yun Suk-Young was replaced by former City star Shaun Wright-Phillips and there was a show of respect for the winger, as there had been earlier in the game for Richard Dunne, to mark just how much the fans remember his efforts while playing at Eastlands. That team also included Joey Barton, although he's since become something of a pantomime villain. That's likely to do with the number of indiscretions to his name at City, including his acrimonious departure after an incident with Ousmane Dabo, and then his attempts to "take some of them with [him]" as he went berserk in that game in 2012. The thing is, those City fans that applauded Wright-Phillips onto the turf on Sunday were pleased to see him back. He epitomised everything supporters love to see, back when he was one of the club's only shining lights. Throughout the end of the Kevin Keegan era and the start of the Stuart Pearce reign, there wasn't a lot for those in the stands to cheer. FA Cup exits, relegation battles, European near-misses; all of these came and went and the pitch was filled with mediocrity. Except on the right flank, where an academy product could beat three or four players and smash an effort into the top corner from range. In one moment, he could inject some energy into a dour performance and give the dwindling atmosphere a buzz. He was going to be an England regular, too. As was the way for City back then, they were a selling club, although they have since benefited from the flip side of that coin. If there was a player performing well who was "too good" for them, then a decent bid from a top side would no doubt result in a transfer. That's exactly what happened. Pearce's side was desperate for investment, but the club had no money whatsoever and was actually close to going under. So when Chelsea bid £21 million for the England prospect in 2005, the manager's hands were tied and the offer was accepted. Even now, the money the club received for the winger is their highest, although it will soon be surpassed when the sale of Alvaro Negredo to Valencia is triggered at the end of the season. The fans were devastated to see Wright-Phillips leave, and it only later emerged in an interview with the Blue Moon Podcast that he was just as upset to be on his way. "I didn't actually have a choice," he said. "Everybody seemed to think it was something that I wanted to do, but I was happy playing for City. I didn't want to leave, but [staying] wasn't an option I had. City were in a bad situation and the money they were offered was hard for them to refuse. "In the car on the way down I was crying because I didn't want to go." Shaun Wright-Phillips applauds the Manchester City crowd as he receives an ovation while warming up at the Etihad. That puts Wright-Phillips' remarks that re-signing for Mark Hughes' Manchester City was like "coming home" into more context, even if throughout his second spell it always felt for the fans like things were never quite the same. The time away had left him unable to be the influence he once was. That's not to say he was poor when he came back, just that he never hit his previous heights. It was almost as if his move back to the north was what he needed to inject some life back into his career, much the same way he used to do to City's performances in 2003. He scored four times in three seasons at Chelsea, a tally he'd equalled in his sixth game after his return. As much as Wright-Phillips was a crowd hero, he never really got to experience the good times he probably deserved with City. He played a bit part in the 2011 FA Cup-winning side, but had moved on by the time the title came to the Etihad the next season. By a bizarre quirk of fate, though, he was on the pitch when Roberto Mancini's side snatched the championship, playing for QPR that afternoon. The applause reserved for those players who were loyal to the club and did their best to brighten up another gloomy day in Manchester will always remain strong. Although for Wright-Phillips, you can't help wondering whether things might have been different if he'd never been shown the door a decade ago. David Mooney is ESPN FC's Manchester City blogger. Twitter: @DavidMooney |
Dougie Hamilton never pictured himself in the fiery red of the Calgary Flames — but he’s sure happy to be wearing the jersey today. The young defenceman was all smiles as he and free agent acquisition Michael Frolik were introduced to the media during Friday’s Flames press conference. “It’s for me, a dream come true to play for a Canadian team and a great organization like this,” Hamilton said. “It’s really exciting.” It just wasn’t exactly part of his original plan. “Going through it, I think I always thought I was going to be a Bruin for life,” he said. “I kind of had that vision that I would only wear one jersey in the NHL.” Of course, that all changed with a glance at the crest on his left shoulder. “Right now with the Canadian flag on my shoulder … I’m really excited,” said the Toronto, ON native. “I’m excited to be back in Canada and I’m excited to be a Flame.” Though joining the Flames isn’t a homecoming for Michael Frolik, the Czech forward shared a similar sentiment about joining the Flames. He spoke about his versatility as a player, his decision to choose no. 67 — it’s one number below Jagr, he said — and his eagerness to prove himself in the lineup. “I’m ready for it.” |
The NFL's Pro Bowl all-star game could be bound for Orlando as early as next year. Florida Citrus Sports officials confirmed Tuesday that they have submitted a proposal that would bring the game to Central Florida not just in 2017 but for the next three years. "We've been very aggressively trying to showcase Orlando," said Steve Hogan, Florida Citrus Sports CEO. "We believe it is the best city to host the Pro Bowl, and the NFL has given us the opportunity to pitch our city. We hope when all is said and done, we're going to be hosting the game." Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs said she was very supportive of the proposal, predicated on freeing up Tourist Development Tax dollars to help secure the bid, which would include hosting fees. Any assistance in the form of tourist taxes would require an amendment to the spending plan for money raised by the 6 percent levy added to hotel rooms. Jacobs told the Orlando Sentinel on Tuesday that she is willing to hold a special meeting of the Tourist Development Council to consider tweaking the TDT spending plan. Jacobs serves as the head of the public board, whose members also include Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Maitland Mayor Dale McDonald, Walt Disney Company executive Claire Bilby and five other business leaders. Steve Hogan, CEO of Florida Citrus Sports, guarantees that NFL football is coming to the Citrus Bowl. Steve Hogan, CEO of Florida Citrus Sports, guarantees that NFL football is coming to the Citrus Bowl. SEE MORE VIDEOS "We've been in discussions with leaders from Citrus Sports about the possibility of hosting the NFL Pro Bowl at the Citrus Bowl," Jacobs said in a statement. "Currently we're refining the process for evaluating the use of TDT funds for such events. I am confident that once that effort is concluded, we will be able to compete to bring this marquee event to our community." For the 2017 game, the NFL is reportedly seeking $2.5 million from Florida Citrus Sports' bid, which would be paid using various local funds. The numbers would be negotiable the second and third years of the game. League spokesman Brian McCarthy told the Associated Press in an email that multiple cities are interested in hosting the Pro Bowl. They include Houston; Sydney, Australia; and Honolulu, Hawaii, which has been the traditional site for the game. The Honolulu Star Advertiser reported earlier this month that Hawaii has a deal in place to host the 2017 game, but either the NFL or the city can opt out of that deal before May 31. Hogan said there is no timetable for a decision by the NFL, although in an email he sent to local business leaders, Hogan indicates that a decision could come within a week or two. "That is outside our control," Hogan said. "We continue to be very communicative. All we've attempted to do is continue to sell and showcase and provide information for Orlando to host." The Citrus Bowl went through a $207 million makeover that began in January 2014. It has provided strong results, from Major League Soccer home games for the Orlando City Lions, a sold-out Rolling Stones concert last year, to securing the bid to host WrestleMania 33 in 2017. "Yes there are conversations about relocating the Pro Bowl to Orlando and we are extremely supportive of that," Dyer said. "That is exactly why we felt it was important to rebuild the Citrus Bowl, and why we think we are one of the best sporting destinations in the country." The game – a laid-back affair featuring all-stars from the NFL's American and National conferences – has been staged in Honolulu for most of the last 36 years. Although many recognizable players are in the mix, the timing of the Pro Bowl is always challenging. This year, it was played a week before the Super Bowl, taking out representatives from the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers. In addition, a number of players opt out because they are over the grind of a long season. Still, it's a fun, high-scoring affair. Team Irvin, coached by former Dallas Cowboys star Michael Irvin, beat Team Rice, coached by former San Francisco 49ers star Jerry Rice, 49-27, this season. "We hope the timing lines up," Hogan said. "Sure the NFL can go to any number of cities. But we will continue to push Orlando as the right answer." Stephen Hudak and Jeff Weiner of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. gdiaz@tribune.com Read George Diaz's blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/enfuego |
Antti Raanta is unlikely to remain a Ranger if he's exposed in the expansion draft, so could New York look to move the netminder before the Golden Knights come calling? As the expansion draft approaches, the New York Rangers find themselves in a bind. Unlike others, it’s not that the Blueshirts have too many quality forwards or so much depth on the blueline that a skater has to be moved or lost for nothing. Rather, after a season in which Henrik Lundqvist had arguably the worst showing of his career, New York heads towards expansion facing the prospect of losing an important piece between the pipes in Antti Raanta. The prospect of losing Raanta makes the Rangers one of few teams who are facing some serious concerns about expansion from a goaltending perspective. Matter of fact, it’d be fair to say that no other club is quite as worried about goaltending heading into expansion as New York. While the Washington Capitals could lose Philipp Grubauer, Braden Holtby is in the prime of his career and has been a top Vezina Trophy contender in each of the past three seasons. The Edmonton Oilers, meanwhile, are facing the possibility of losing Laurent Brossoit, but the loss would be mitigated by Cam Talbot’s play over the past campaign. In New York, though, losing Raanta would put the onus on Lundqvist to find his game in a hurry. That may be easier said than done, too. This past season wasn’t just below the standard Lundqvist, a Vezina winner and one of the game’s best over the past decade, has set for himself, it was below the standard most would set for an average NHL goaltender. This past season, the league average was a .913 save percentage and 2.59 goals-against average. Lundqvist posted .910 and 2.74 marks, respectively. His SP was the worst Lundqvist has posted since his third season, back in 2007-08, while his GAA was more inflated than ever. And that’s why Raanta was so important. As Lundqvist went through his uncharacteristic struggles, Raanta an effective last line of defense for the Rangers. In 30 games, the 27-year-old turned in a .922 SP and 2.26 GAA, not to mention the sixth-best 5-on-5 SP of any goaltender to play at least 1,000 minutes. But Raanta’s play is also exactly why New York is in this position, why the Rangers could be set to lose the netminder who was as important to their success as any other player. Obviously, given the upcoming expansion draft, the obvious scenario is Raanta remains on the Rangers heading into the Golden Knights’ draft period, Vegas takes the netminder and he ends up playing for the expansion franchise. It’s a move that would make sense for the Golden Knights, too. Raanta comes cheap — he has one year at $1 million left on his deal — and his performance is a sign he could be ready for a heavier workload. Plus, if Raanta stumbles, it’s not as if landing the netminder was a big gamble for Vegas, especially on a short-term commitment. Raanta could make the most out of a chance in Vegas, as well. The one-year term on his current deal allows for him to prove he’s worthy of an extension and ink it with a Golden Knights club that will have a lot of money to spend. But Raanta ending up in Vegas isn’t a fait accompli. As with other teams facing a potential loss with no gain — like, say, the Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild — the option exists for a pre-expansion trade. And there are reportedly some suitors who have called the Rangers about Raanta. Over the weekend, the New York Post’s Larry Brooks reported that two teams in particular, the Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames, have called New York GM Jeff Gorton to inquire about Raanta. Goaltending became a major talking point in Winnipeg this past season as the Jets were often left hoping, begging and praying for saves each night. The only teams that received worse goaltending were the Dallas Stars and near-historically bad Colorado Avalanche, and despite the fact the Jets scored the seventh-most goals of any team during the regular season, Winnipeg finished with a minus-nine goal differential. The Stars, Avalanche and Arizona Coyotes were the only teams to allow more goals against than Winnipeg’s 255. That’s where Raanta would come in. There’s little doubt that Connor Hellebuyck is sticking with the Jets through expansion, but that is to say nothing of Michael Hutchinson, who has one year left on his current contract and is almost a lock for expansion exposure. And if Hutchinson is exposed and goes, the Jets will need someone to crack the lineup as their backup or potential split-time starter with Hellebuyck. Raanta would fit the bill. Truthfully, he’d remain an option even if Hutchinson were to go unselected in the expansion draft. There’s no way the Jets don’t at least attempt to improve their goaltending situation in time for 2017-18, and few would suggest that Raanta isn’t an improvement over Hutchinson, who has turned in a mere .905 SP over the past two seasons. The move that makes less sense, however, is for the Flames to chase after and give up anything significant to land Raanta, at least not if Calgary is doing so with a starting gig in mind. Again, with how well he played in 2016-17, it’s understandable where the interest comes from — possibly even more so given the Flames need only look down the road to see another former Rangers backup starring in goal. But what Calgary needs is a guaranteed starter. Raanta, with his 94 career games in four seasons, isn’t that, no matter how well he played this past season. And one year removed from yet another shaky performance between the pipes, it’s hard to imagine the Flames would go with another unestablished No. 1. That’s not to say a Raanta acquisition should absolutely be off the table for the Flames, but it’s the kind of move Calgary should only be looking to make if there’s another, sure-thing starter on the way. Adding Raanta to a crease that also includes Marc-Andre Fleury, for instance, would at least give Calgary two options in goal, which is something the team would love to have after years of disappointing performances from their netminders. Over the past four seasons, only the Oilers and Stars have had worse goaltending, so Calgary needs to find stability in goal. Wagering that Raanta can provide that by himself is risky. But be it the Golden Knights, Jets, Flames or otherwise, Raanta’s play throughout the past campaign has clearly generated enough interest in the netminder that it seems certain he’ll be headed elsewhere this summer. The big question is where he finds himself and what role he’s asked to fill. Want more in-depth features and expert analysis on the game you love? Subscribe to The Hockey News magazine. |
Image copyright BARCROFT PRODUCTIONS/BBC Image caption Artwork: The impact hit with the energy equivalent to 10 billion Hiroshima bombs Scientists who drilled into the impact crater associated with the demise of the dinosaurs summarise their findings so far in a BBC Two documentary on Monday. The researchers recovered rocks from under the Gulf of Mexico that were hit by an asteroid 66 million years ago. The nature of this material records the details of the event. It is becoming clear that the 15km-wide asteroid could not have hit a worse place on Earth. Image copyright BARCROFT PRODUCTIONS/BBC Image caption The drill rig was on station in the Gulf in April and May last year The shallow sea covering the target site meant colossal volumes of sulphur (from the mineral gypsum) were injected into the atmosphere, extending the "global winter" period that followed the immediate firestorm. Had the asteroid struck a different location, the outcome might have been very different. "This is where we get to the great irony of the story – because in the end it wasn’t the size of the asteroid, the scale of blast, or even its global reach that made dinosaurs extinct – it was where the impact happened," said Ben Garrod, who presents The Day The Dinosaurs Died with Alice Roberts. Image copyright BARCROFT PRODUCTIONS/BBC Image caption The fractured rocks were subjected to immense pressures "Had the asteroid struck a few moments earlier or later, rather than hitting shallow coastal waters it might have hit deep ocean. "An impact in the nearby Atlantic or Pacific oceans would have meant much less vaporised rock – including the deadly gypsum. The cloud would have been less dense and sunlight could still have reached the planet’s surface, meaning what happened next might have been avoided. "In this cold, dark world food ran out of the oceans within a week and shortly after on land. With nothing to eat anywhere on the planet, the mighty dinosaurs stood little chance of survival." Ben Garrod spent time on the drill rig that was stationed 30km off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in April/May last year, to better understand the aims of the project; Alice Roberts visited widely separated fossil beds in the Americas, to get a sense of how life was upended by the impact. Rock cores from up to 1,300m beneath the Gulf were recovered. The lowest sections of this material come from a feature within the crater called the peak ring. This is made from rock that has been heavily fractured and altered by immense pressures. By analysing its properties, the drill project team - led by Profs Jo Morgan and Sean Gulick - hope to reconstruct how the impact proceeded and the environmental changes it brought about. Image copyright Max Alexander/B612/Asteroid Day Image caption Co-lead scientists Jo Morgan (Imperial College London) and Sean Gulick (University of Texas) Chicxulub Crater - The impact that changed life on Earth Image copyright NASA Image caption The outer rim (white arc) of the crater lies under the Yucatan Peninsula itself, but the inner peak ring is best accessed offshore A 15km-wide object dug a hole in Earth's crust 100km across and 30km deep This bowl then collapsed, leaving a crater 200km across and a few km deep The crater's centre rebounded and collapsed again, producing an inner ring Today, much of the crater is buried offshore, under 600m of sediments On land, it is covered by limestone, but its rim is traced by an arc of sinkholes Image copyright Max Alexander/B612/Asteroid Day Image caption Mexico's famous sinkholes (cenotes) have formed in weakened limestone overlying the crater They know now the energy that went into making the crater when the asteroid struck - equivalent to 10 billion Hiroshima A-bombs. And they also understand how the depression assumed the structure we observe today. The team is also gaining insights into the return of life to the impact site in the years after the event. One of the many fascinating sequences in the BBC Two programme sees Alice Roberts visit a quarry in New Jersey, US, where 25,000 fossil fragments have been recovered - evidence of a mass die-off of creatures that may have been among the casualties on the day of the impact itself. "All these fossils occur in a layer no more than 10cm thick," palaeontologist Ken Lacovara tells Alice. "They died suddenly and were buried quickly. It tells us this is a moment in geological time. That's days, weeks, maybe months. But this is not thousands of years; it's not hundreds of thousands of years. This is essentially an instantaneous event." The Day The Dinosaurs Died is on BBC Two at 21:00, after which it will be available on the BBC iPlayer. Image copyright BARCROFT PRODUCTIONS/BBC Image caption Alice visited a New Jersey quarry with palaeontologist Ken Lacovara |
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