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Does a nearly $1 trillion economic stimulus bill in the wake of $700 billion package that seems to have had little effect sound excessive to you? If so, you're not alone: Two U.S. senators are negotiating to cut $88 billion out of the version of the bill that passed the House of Representatives on January 28. Sounds reasonable. Until you take a closer look at the proposed cuts, that is. Among the biggest losers are science, energy and education. Huh? We may be biased over here at Wired Science, but in our view, science, energy and education should be at the top of the list of stimulus priorities rather than the first to go. In September, Energy Secretary Steven Chu (when he was director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory before his cabinet appointment) told me, "We have an option to be a leader in energy technologies, but we are not because our support system for that is on again off again. The future wealth of the United States will come from our ability to invent new technologies." We wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Money toward science and technology, particularly alternative energy, would undoubtedly have a positive impact on the economy in the long-term and arguably in the short term as well. Democratic Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Republican Susan Collins of Maine clearly do not agree. Below is a list of some of the cuts they have asked for. National Science Foundation : $1.4 billion (100% cut) Department of Energy, Efficiency and Renewable Energy: $1 billion (38% cut) NASA exploration: $750 million (50% cut) National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: $427 million (35% cut) Department of Defense, Alternative Vehicle Tech, Procurement: $100 million (100% cut) Department of Energy Office of Science: $100 million (100%) And taking an even bigger hit is education with a proposed cut of $15 billion, the bulk of the funding in the House bill. And the ability of the states to make up for the short fall will be hamstrung by a proposed $40 billion reduction in funding for the State Stabilization Fund. I don't get it. It's not as if the scientists and teachers are going to spend the money on junkets to Las Vegas and million-dollar bonuses. They'd be spending it directly on the country's future. The senators' recommendations are especially disappointing after President Barack Obama got our hopes up with so much talk about science and energy. Let's hope the proposed cuts aren't a sign of things to come. See Also:- Science Born Again in the White House, and Not a Moment Too Soon Image: FLickr/Steve Rhodes |
When former Mets general manager Frank Cashen passed away earlier this week, there were reflections not only on the team that he built and maintained from 1981 to 1990, but what came immediately after: a bloated roster that featured an ill-matched, expensive congeries of veterans like Vince Coleman, Bobby Bonilla, Eddie Murray, and Bret Saberhagen. That team's misadventures culminated in a 59-103 disaster season in 1993, ironic given that its 72-90 season the year before had already earned the memorable book title The Worst Team Money Could Buy. Not so fast. That Mets team cost a more-or-less league-leading $44.6 million dollars, but even accounting for inflation, that team isn't a patch on this season's roughly $200 million Yankees, a team that fell to .500 with Tuesday's loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees aren't the most expensive team in baseball this year; at that price, they're bargain-basement compared to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they're an easy No. 2, and that's the problem: the Dodgers are good. The Yankees are not. Given their -34 run differential, the Yankees have been lucky to break even. Take away Masahiro Tanaka's best-in-league performance and you wouldn't even know they existed. It's wonderful. It's one of the best developments in baseball so far this year. It can be taken for granted that this is a sentiment that Yankees fans will not find themselves in sympathy with; fans of all the ballclubs have a tendency to say, "My team, right or wrong," a sentiment that brings to mind G.K. Chesterton's quite sensible rejoinder that saying "My country, right or wrong" was tantamount to saying, "My mother, drunk or sober." That's another thought that probably won't find much love among the hardcore, and yet -- and I realize this is an unusual term to apply to a baseball team -- on an aesthetic basis the 2014 Yankees are appalling. With the exception of Derek Jeter, there is an almost total discontinuity with what came before, a baseball version of J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot with the soon-to-be retired shortstop playing the role of a legitimacy-conferring Leonard Nimoy. Derek Jeter, walkin' away. (Getty) If that pop-culture analogy doesn't work for you, then imagine the experience of being a Yankees camp follower and going to sleep with one family and waking up with another. Like David Byrne, you find yourself singing, "This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife." Or maybe you don't. Maybe your loyalties are flexible. You adjust quickly, take instructions. Told to root for Brian McCann, you root for Brian McCann. Or Jacoby Ellsbury. Brian Roberts. Yangervis freakin' Solarte. The end of the reserve clause and the advent of free agency has long meant the possibility of radical change from season to season, and the Yankees have been the most eager practitioners of off-the-shelf team-building for almost 40 years. In its original form it was born of impatience. In this instance, it was born of incompetence. A similar approach worked in 2009 and led to a World Series victory. Given the absence of a dominant team in the AL East, it might work again, but the odds are it won't, as it didn't in so many other seasons. This is reassuring. The universe is egalitarian in its withholding; money can't always buy happiness. It can't even buy entertainment, necessarily, which, with the exceptions of Tanaka, David Robertson, and Dellin Betances, this year's roster largely is not. Yes, it's a hell of a lot more entertaining than last year's Vernon Wells show, but that's setting a low bar. "Give me inexpensive homegrown players or give me... a very large sandwich!" (Getty Images) In this plutocratic age of ours, the uncertainty surrounding the Yankees' postseason aspirations is reassuring. Researching the origin of the Theodore Roosevelt impersonator that showed up at the USA team games at the World Cup for a story on the ex-president's near-fatal journey through Brazil, I repeatedly came across the rich man's thoughts on his fellow rich men that seemed to apply here. "There is absolutely nothing to be said for government by plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the ‘money touch,'" he wrote in a 1913 letter," but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers." More famously, he said in a 1910 speech that would have gotten him drummed out of the GOP today as surely as it did the GOP then, "Our country... means nothing unless it means the triumph... of an economic system under which each man shall be guaranteed the opportunity to show the best that there is in him." The Yankees don't show the best that is in them, they just spend. There is nothing wrong with that, of course. Spending is part of building a good baseball team. But a team that only spends lacks artistry, and it tries to patch over with green paper its failings in other areas, particularly player development. The Yankees have Jacoby Ellsbury stripped of his Fenway Park powers, Carlos Beltran in his dotage, Brian McCann, born, educated, and brought to the majors in Georgia, trying to justify his big-city contract, Alfonso Soriano looking like he needs reading glasses not because they necessarily wanted them, but because in June they reached for Andrew Brackman, Keremy Bleich, Slade Heathcott, Cito Culver, Dante Bichette, Jr., and so on. Arguably, scouting director Damon Oppenheimer, in place since 2005, is the Yankees version of Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd. Tenure has triumphed over results. Given their failures in June, the Yankees have one of the oldest teams in baseball history, one that will be comprised almost entirely of mercenaries once Jeter is gone. The exception, a beautiful one, is a good bullpen endgame, mostly homemade, and comparatively inexpensive. On the position-player side, there's Brett Gardner (already 30) waving a lonely hand to represent the post-Jeter farm system, and that's all. Perhaps last year's well-regarded draft class, which has third baseman Eric Jagielo and outfielder Aaron Judge (the latter in particular) doing very solid work at High-A Tampa, will eventually change that, but that won't happen this year and probably not the next. That's if they're still in pinstripes -- the Yankees would likely have to consider moving one or both in any trade for a much-needed starting pitcher. The starting rotation currently ranks ninth in the AL with a 4.01 ERA and includes such pray-for-rain names as Vidal Nuno and Chase Whitley. Hiroki Kuroda seems like a ghost of himself, and no one knows what CC Sabathia will have left in the tank when he returns from rehabbing his knee, and anyone waiting at a bus stop for Michael Pineda had better hope that sucker is heated because they might still be there in December. Flags fly forever (my flag, right or wrong?) and the division is close enough that all things being equal it would make sense for Brian Cashman to take his begging bowl to Chicago and camp out at Theo Epstein's door, hoping to get a pity Samardzija or a helping Hammel. Unfortunately, all things are not equal. First there is the ghost of Steve Trout, not just because he was a Cub, but because neither Samardzija nor Hammel have records of ace-like consistency, second because trading off what little youth the Yankees have would simply serve to perpetuate their reliance on greybeards who have already given their best to rival organizations. On the scale of classic baseball errors of thought, there's being Ruben Amaro, Jr. because that's who you were born to be, and then there's being Ruben Amaro, Jr. by choice. A just theology would have the latter earning residence in a much lower circle of baseball Hell. No, the 2014 Yankees aren't the worst team money could buy, but they may be the most tedious. Tanaka can only pitch every five days, after all. The great excitement of the second half will be seeing if they can somehow continue playing over their .450-.460 statistics, if their light hitting and weak rotation will finally drag them down to that level, or if someone in the 30-and-up brigade can find a second wind. At least one of them probably will, and it may even be enough given Toronto's 88-win pace and the two wild cards. Still, that's not as exciting as what the Brewers are doing with $92 million or the A's with $75 million. Again, most Yankees partisans won't find anything to agree with in that statement, but then this team of imported old-timers is one only the most fanatical diehard could love. |
Masturbation Will Make You Blind And Crippled, As Well As Causing Other Bodily Changes And Health Problems, By Tightening And Contracting The Body Which Causes: (1) – Crippling by changing the natural spatial relationships of the body. For instance. Changing of the natural spatial relationship between the arm and the body by moving a shoulder lower or higher than it should be, would "cripple" the attached arm by preventing it's natural movement. (2) – Blindness, Health Problems, and Physical Deformities, by changing the natural shape, volume, and pressure distribution of the body. For instance. Shrinkage of the volume of the head can change it's shape so drastically that it can create a physical deformity like "Gumby Head", which is the name given to a head whose top slants from high on one side to low on the other side. (3) – Mental, Personality, and Emotional Problems by changing the natural shape, volume, pressure distribution, and spatial relationship changes of the body. For instance. Shrinking the volume of the chest cavity changes the pressure distribution on and around the heart. The heart reacts to those pressure changes by causing mental and emotional anxiety. |
Applicant Eligibility The purpose of the AAPM funding is to provide 50% support of a resident's salary for two imaging physics residents. The awardee institution(s) will provide the other 50% support. After the period of the award is over, the intent is that the awardee institution(s) will continue to fully support this new imaging physics residency position. Demonstration of this intent should be included in the application materials. Five page description of research project (including figures and tables), separated as follows:Note that sections (e), (f), (g) and (h) do not count towards the five-page limit.Click to apply below. Click below to complete the online application. Combine all files intoPDF and upload.As the competition for the seed grant is high, eligible applicants are encouraged to also submit their applications for other awards, e.g. http://www.cancer.gov/researchandfunding/training/ 50% Scientific merit of proposal (significance, innovation, environment, and soundness of approach)25% Potential for project to develop into a major project fundable by NIH, DOE, DOD, etc.25% Background of investigator ( All supporting documents are due by the application deadline.) You must log onto the AAPM website to view the apply button . Recipients notified by: June 29, 2019 Eligibility Criteria:Any questions regarding conference eligibility should be directed to exhg@aapm.org Application materials to be submitted:Additional Requirements:Review Criteria: The AAPM Board of Directors has approved the expenditure of $70,000 (25% support) over the next 2 years to fund 2 new nuclear medicine residency programs in collaboration with SNMMI. ERF-SNMMI has agreed to provide $70,000 (25% support) in funding. Each funded institution will provide $140,000 (50% support). This could be a 2+1 program. The goal is to provide matching grant support for residency training programs that will be CAMPEP-accredited in nuclear medicine by the time the resident completes his/her training. The following scenarios are acceptable: (All supporting documents are due by the application deadline. Documents may be combined and submitted as one PDF.) Recipients notified by: May 1, 2019 Meet NIH Institute and Center directors and staff Meet Capitol Hill representatives and staff Present your research ideas on radiology or biomedical imaging Learn how science and health-care policies are developed Meet patient advocacy leaders who help drive research priorities Meet other future leaders in radiology, imaging science, and the AAPM This is an exceptional opportunity for early-career researchers to: The Science Council of the AAPM has established a travel award to support the attendance of 1 to 2 early-career, research-oriented AAPM members to participate in the 10th Annual Coalition for Imaging and Bioengineering Research (CIBR) Medical Imaging Technology Showcase, which is sponsored by the Academy of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research (the Academy). The Academy hosts the annual Medical Imaging Technology Showcase, an event in a senate or house office building on Capitol Hill, to educate members of Congress and their staff about the impact of imaging technology. Funding will be provided for the awardee(s) to travel to Washington, DC (Sunday, April 28 arrival/Wednesday, May 1st departure) to participate in the Academy/CIBR activities at NIH and to communicate the value of biomedical imaging to Capitol Hill representatives and staff. Awardees become part of the Academy's Council of Early Career Investigators in Imaging (CECI2), who collaborates with the Academy to advocate for federal investments in imaging research. CECI2 also serves as a networking and educational resource for its members. Event Schedule: Sunday, April 28: Informal dinner and Capitol Hill Day training session Monday, April 29: Meetings with NIH Institute and Center directors and staff (~ 9 am – 3 pm) and evening reception with academic chairs, industry partners, patient advocacy leaders, and other event attendees (~ 6 pm – 8 pm). Tuesday, April 30: Sit in on the Academy’s Research Roundtable discussion including leading academic researchers, industry and government agencies (7:30-12noon) In the afternoon you will meet with congressional office staff and members of Congress (12-4pm) and participate in the Medical Imaging Technology Showcase (5-7pm) by displaying your area of imaging-related research. Your presentation may include an interactive hand-held technology, an iPad demonstration, or a simple and easy to understand educational poster (a template will be provided). Simplicity in your presentation is vital, so that your research can be easily explained to and understood by a general non-scientific audience, including members of Congress, congressional staff, and the general public. Academy staff and CECI leadership will contact you and guide you through the requirements of your materials and the presentation process. |
Could Google’s Interests as an OEM Spell Trouble for Android? Android is something special to me: My original Droid was one of the very first big new purchases I had ever made. It was the first time I signed onto a mobile carrier contract leaving the prepaid system and moved on from running Windows Mobile devices that got me visiting XDA almost 9 years ago. Even more memorable for me is that it was one of the first major milestones with my future wife, having her join my phone plan and go under contract — serious business right there. Android was there when my first child was born too, as corny as that might sound. The day we went to find out his gender I stood in line at 8am at my local Verizon Wireless store waiting for the Galaxy Nexus release. There are likely a few of us who remember the horrible delays for shipping of the original Nexus 7… well, my shipping notification came within an hour of my son being born — my wife still doesn’t let me live that down. Since Android has been so woven into my life I tend to be very opinionated when seeing its faults and flaws, but also its very positive elements. If you were to ask me 12 months ago what Google and Android needed I would have said in a heartbeat that Google needed to bring its Pixel mentality to Android by showing them, the OEM’s, how it is done, I even wrote about this long before rumors of a Pixel phone were a concrete thing. Nexus was not working, while the software was there the hardware always had some critical flaws that prevented it from standing out to the mainstream public. The Nexus 5 took months to have a decent camera, and the battery life was still horrible. The Nexus 6 was too large, the 5X was overpriced and bootlooped. The 6P was likely the closest to perfection, but bendgate 2.0 (as overplayed as that was) and the horribleness that was the Snapdragon 810 severely dampened its larger appeal, and the way it was sold even in Western markets hindered its adoption. Pixel was and is the way forward, right? Well, there are criticisms to this approach (Google taking on the role of OEM) that have well founded arguments. If Google had a piece of the pie, then of what benefit is it for them to assist other OEMs like LG, Samsung, Motorola, Huawei and others to not only make the very best, but support the latest and greatest in software? In all actually, it is now competition. Needless to say it was easy to brush off this argument since Google has had the Pixel Chromebook lineup for 2 generations but yet they still deliver exceptional support to other Chromebooks via advertising and so-on. But in the time since the Pixel phone release, Google has made some decisions that while independently don’t amount to much, they are a little worrying when put together. Now at this point in the article it is critical to understand that this is mere speculation based on things that can be seen from a consumer standpoint, take it for what it is: a devoted fan that is getting concerned. We are going to take a look at two things in recent times that have made me scratch my head, wondering what has changed. The first is the launch of Android 7.1.x and the second is Wear 2.0. Let’s start with Android 7.1. It came as a surprise to many of us that when the Pixel phones were announced, it was launched on the then-unreleased 7.1 OS version. The reason this comes as a surprise is two-fold. The first is that aside from minor leaks leading up to the release there was no 7.1 announcement which is especially telling considering the second part of the surprise, Android 7.0 was just launched, like within a month. Now it is not uncommon for a new flagship release to launch with a new version of whatever OS is coming. GraceUI launched with the Galaxy S7 and was backported to older devices overtime and other OEMs do the same thing with their flavors of Android. However, Android 7.0 was in beta testing for over 6 months prior to the launch of the Pixel phones and now with the launch of 7.1, the newest build would not come to Nexus phones for another 2 months. OEMs were also affected by this. It is not often that a Q3 flagship launch has the latest version of Android, but LG managed to accomplish that with the V20… for all of about a month. Similarly other OEMs seemed to have been caught off guard with the 7.1 announcement since months of work had been completed based off the Android 7.0 changes and in some cases it was too late to make the port to 7.1. So Google worked on a new version of its OS to launch with the Pixel to exemplify its strengths, what of it? Well this is actually a pretty big deal since this action that benefited them adversely affects OEMs. While Google was quick to say there was a wall between Pixel and Android teams the indications are otherwise; from the outside it is apparent that Google held back the release of Android 7.1 for other OEMs and even its Nexus teams to help differentiate the Pixel phone from the competition, similarly to how they handled Google Assistant. Now that’s a strong allegation to throw, and again I refer you back to my speculation statement earlier and yes, it is a stretch to see this from this example. But take the following into consideration and a larger picture begins to unfold. Android Wear 2.0 was rumored to have launched around the time of the Pixel phones, but appears to have been delayed not long before that time came. Wear 2.0 betas for the LG Urbane and Huawei Watch had been around for a while and continued to stick around for quite some time through the delays and into 2017. There were also Nexus-like watches that were slated for release alongside Wear 2.0 but were, like the OS, delayed. This adversely affected OEM partners, ASUS being an example. The ASUS ZenWatch 3 was slated to be the first Wear 2.0 device but since Google pulled the rug out at the last moments before launch, ASUS was forced to launch the device on the older Wear 1.x version and no doubt stymied the launch of that watch creating quite the awkward launch. But in early February, Google did finally launch Wear 2.0 alongside two flagship devices the LG Watch Style and Sport — the rumored “Nexus Watches” from 2016. What about the ASUS ZenWatch 3, a device was presumably was ready for Wear 2.0 months ago? Not coming till the next quarter. A month out, the two devices running the preview, up-to and including the final preview with the finalized API’s, still do not have Wear 2.0 and it does not even appear on the horizon with many Wear OEMs saying it is still a ways out. Add to this that things like the rotating crown and Android Pay support appear to have been added very late in the development cycle and devices that were in planning prior lose out by not supporting all the features of the new OS, like the ASUS ZenWatch 3 and the rumors about the Huawei Watch 2 being planned for late 2016 instead of early 2017 indicate. However, the two LG watches just released have all these features despite being in production around the time of the ZenWatch. Just to throw another element to the pile, all Android Wear smartwatches aside from the two LG devices which were “Designed with our friends at Google” have been removed. Again all of these elements on their own mean nothing, and even combined could be nothing, yet there is a trend that emerges from it. It cannot be overlooked that as Google has taken more of a hands-on approach, and now has “skin in the game” as the saying goes, their devices and devices they closely partner with appear to the consumer to be at a seemingly unfair advantage to the rest of the field — earlier OS upgrades, newer or exclusive features, and so on. Time will only go to tell how things continue to trend, but as someone who has loved being an Android user for years, it no longer feels that Google has Android’s best interest at heart, but instead has pivoted to profiting off its own hardware, even to the degree of disadvantaging their partners and those who, quite honestly, are the reason Android is what it is today. “It’s not personal, it’s just business” applies here — Google, now a subsidiary of Alphabet, can no longer go around losing money at every turn while partners like Samsung rake in the cash off their operating system, which is understandable. But “You Either Die A Hero, Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain” is also a fitting quote. Competition is a great thing, and Google getting involved should help move OEMs to make better more compelling devices, but placing itself with the appearance of an unfair advantage is worrisome. It could be a sign of future things to come, or it could just be Google horribly mismanaging things, something we have seen before. In case you missed it, Google has a new motto replacing its old “Don’t Be Evil”. The new motto is “Do the right thing”. What isn’t clear though, is who the “right thing” if for, though with Google’s latest movements it appears to be the shareholders. What do you think about Google’s tighter grip on its software and its new role as a hardware provider? Sound off in the comments! |
The mosquito is the deadliest animal in the world. Now, in addition to malaria, dengue, and other ills, mosquitoes are probably responsible for spreading a new disease. Recently, in malaria-heavy regions, there has been an increase in the number of people suffering from a ”fever of unknown origin.” According to new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mosquitoes are probably the cause behind this mysterious fever. Researchers previously found that the fever was caused by a bacteria called Rickettsia felis. This bacteria, related to the other types of rickettsiae bacteria that cause various spotted fevers and typhus, is known to be carried by ticks and fleas. But now an experimental study shows that R. felis can also be carried and transmitted by the same mosquitoes that transmit malaria. This would explain the disease’s geographic overlap with malaria. R. felis infections are poorly understood, says Philippe Parola, one of the study’s co-authors, especially compared to malaria. According to previous research, the list of symptoms, which includes fever, headache, myalgia, and rash, is not yet well-defined; only laboratory diagnosis can confirm the presence of R. felis bacteria. Since the symptoms are so easily confused with those of other diseases, it’s likely under-diagnosed in humans. This study only showed the transmission of R. felis between mosquitoes and mice. Simply knowing that the bacteria can be spread by a certain type of mosquito—Anopheles gambiae—is a significant breakthrough, however. More research will be necessary before epidemiologists can say with certainty that mosquitoes are responsible for growing instances of R. felis in malaria-prone areas around the world. However, according to Parola, early implications are that “physicians treating returned travelers as well as those working in malaria-endemic areas need to screen their patients for rickettsial infections.” |
DENVER -- The worst season of Todd Helton's career is over. The Colorado Rockies said their first baseman and clubhouse leader will undergo arthroscopic surgery Friday to repair a torn labrum in his right hip. "I think the world of this man," manager Jim Tracy said Monday before the start of a three-game series in Los Angeles. "I've been privileged over the course of 11 years to have managed some very special people. This guy is arguably as good a competitor as I've ever been around." The Rockies placed Helton on the 15-day disabled list and reinstated infielder Chris Nelson from the 15-day DL. Nelson, who missed 17 games because of an irregular heartbeat, was in the starting line at second base and batting seventh. "It's sad, man," Nelson said. "The guy brings a lot of experience, with the batting titles and the Gold Gloves. If you have any kind of questions, you just stop over at his locker and ask him, and he'll give you his honest opinion. That's one of the great things about him. "I didn't know he was having surgery until yesterday. He's hurting pretty bad, so I'm glad he's having the surgery so that he can get back with us next year. When I asked him about it, he said: 'Things happen, and you've just got to deal with it.' The whole team's down about it, but we've got to keep trying to win games," he said. A career .320 hitter, Helton batted just .238 this season, by far the lowest average of his 15-year career in the majors. He had seven homers and 37 RBIs. Helton has been bothered by a sore hip since early June, which has affected his mechanics. He struggled moving to his right on ground balls and lifting his right leg at the plate, messing up his timing. But his teammates have seen firsthand how much he wants to be in the lineup, and those leadership qualities only echo what Tracy has been saying about him during the four seasons they've been together. "I'll take it a step further," Tracy said. "How about the impact he's had on the game? Todd's leadership comes in a little different vein. It comes by example. Todd's leadership is a bunch of young players looking at him over the course of 15 years and saying: "There he is again. He's out there today, and he's a little bit sore. But he wants in there.' That's who he is. That's why you gain the respect for a player like this." Helton, who turns 39 on Aug. 20, missed a dozen games in July because of his injured hip. He told The Denver Post he plans on playing next season, the final year of his contract. And his manager isn't betting against it. "I think Todd has every intention of playing next year," Tracy said. "He had a bad year in 2010 when he was dealing with a back issue, and there were a lot of questions about how much gas Todd Helton had left in his tank. And I can tell you, it wasn't greatly appreciated. So Todd showed up on a mission in 2011 and hit over .300. "So questioning Todd Helton's bounce-back ability is not something that I spend a whole lot of time doing, because the preparation and commitment to do so will be there. I've seen it with my own eyes. And if that is his intent, I guarantee you he'll follow through with it." |
The New Jersey Devils won the No. 1 pick despite having an 8.5 percent chance of winning the lottery. The Philadelphia Flyers vaulted 11 spots to No. 2, and the Dallas Stars moved eight spots up to No. 3. Brandon center Nolan Patrick, No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters, said he was as shocked as everyone else to see the big winners unveiled at the NHL Draft Lottery on Saturday. "I think it's pretty exciting to see who's picking where now and it should be fun come draft day," Patrick told Sirius XM Hockey Radio on Monday. [RELATED: Complete 2017 NHL Draft coverage | NHL.com Experts Mock Drafts] The 2017 NHL Draft will be held at United Center in Chicago on June 23-24. Patrick (6-foot-2, 198 pounds) was asked if he envisions himself wearing the jersey of any of the top two teams on the board. "I thought about it a bit and I've got buddies who play for the Devils and Flyers in [New Jersey forward] John Quenneville and [Philadelphia defenseman] Ivan Provorov," Patrick said. "I've exchanged text messages with them and we all agree it would be fun to get back together. "Honestly, I'd be honored to go anywhere." Patrick played two seasons with Quenneville and Provorov in Brandon of the Western Hockey League. The three played a big part in helping the Wheat Kings win the WHL championship last season. Quenneville and Patrick each served as alternate captains during the championship season. Patrick also answered questions regarding his health. Patrick's availability for the start of this season was in question after he had surgery in mid-July to repair a sports hernia. He played five games and sustained an upper-body injury that kept him out until Jan. 13. He finished the season with 46 points (20 goals, 26 assists) and a 1.39 points-per-game average in 33 games. He missed all four WHL playoff games because of a lower-body injury. He has 205 points (92 goals, 113 assists) in 163 career WHL games. "I'm 100 percent healthy," Patrick said. "I think for me, not many people know what happened with my injuries so it was kind of staying positive and getting through it. I'm confident I can play a full season without getting injured; I'm confident in my abilities." Video: Ray Shero on Devils getting top pick in draft lottery Patrick was fifth in the WHL with 102 points (41 goals, 61 assists) in 72 regular-season games last season. He tied for the WHL scoring lead with 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) in 21 WHL playoff games and was named the most valuable player of the playoffs while helping Brandon win the championship. He played in 107 total games in 2015-16, counting WHL regular season and playoffs and international competition for Canada. He is the son of former NHL forward Steve Patrick and nephew of former NHL defenseman James Patrick. Each has played a big role in his development. Patrick believes that just because his father and uncle were chosen in the first round of the NHL Draft doesn't mean he will get the nod as the No. 1 choice. "They've helped me but I think at the end of the day the NHL team is going to take who they like more and who will fit with their organization the best," he said. "My name helps me a bit but I don't know if that will help me too much on draft day." Steve was selected with the No. 20 pick by the Buffalo Sabres in 1980, and James went No. 9 to the New York Rangers in 1981. "I've been thinking about the draft and know it will be an exciting day for my family and friends," Patrick said. "It's the day you dream about as a kid. But right now I'm concentrating on getting stronger and preparing for the NHL Scouting Combine (May 29-June 5)." |
INITIAL NOTE: If you have not had the opportunity to view a model-data comparison of global surface temperature anomalies, where the models and data are compared during the two warming periods and two cooling (or warming-slowdown) periods since 1880, please take the time to run through this post. It presents model-data comparisons of global sea surface temperature anomalies using time-series and zonal-mean graphs, and trend maps. It is a long post—about 3300 words with 20 illustrations—but the models perform so poorly you’ll wonder how the IPCC has gotten away with claiming climate models can be used to attribute global warming to manmade greenhouse gases. (This initial note does not appear in the pdf version of the post, which is linked at the end.) PREFACE The IPCC saved the most misleading graph in their approved final version of the AR5 Summary for Policymakers for last. It’s their Figure SPM.10, included here as my Figure 1. It presents global surface temperature anomalies as a function of cumulative manmade carbon dioxide emissions. Figure 1 The accompanying text begins: Global mean surface temperature increase as a function of cumulative total global CO2 emissions from various lines of evidence. Multi-model results from a hierarchy of climate-carbon cycle models… That’s as far as anyone needs to read. The illustration is based on climate models. Climate models are so far removed from reality that they cannot be used to attribute global warming to natural processes or to human-induced factors and cannot be used for predictions of future climate based on projections of manmade greenhouse gases. Climate scientists/modelers have only proven they are capable of creating complex numerical models and that they are able to tune those models to roughly approximate the rate of warming during the last warming period that started in the mid-1970s and ended about the turn of the century, but only during that period. Further, even the rates of numerical warming created within the models during that last warming period are flawed. NOTE: Much of this post is background information. It shows how poorly the climate models simulated global sea surface temperatures since 1880. If you’re not interested in how, where and why climate models are not capable of simulating the surface temperatures for about 70% of the planet, then please scroll forward to the heading of CLIMATE MODELS DO NOT SUPPORT THE HYPOTHESIS OF HUMAN-INDUCED GLOBAL WARMING after Figure 15. INTRODUCTION We compared data and climate model outputs of global surface temperatures (land and ocean) since 1880 in the post Model-Data Comparison with Trend Maps: CMIP5 (IPCC AR5) Models vs New GISS Land-Ocean Temperature Index. For my book Climate Models Fail, I revised the breakpoints in the comparisons to 1914, 1945 and 1975 (instead of 1917, 1944 and 1976). The breakpoints of 1914 and 1945 were determined by Dr. Leif Svalgaard. See his April 20, 2013 at 2:20 pm and April 20, 2013 at 4:21 pm comments on the WattsUpWithThat cross post. And for 1975, I referred to statistician Tamino. Using those breakpoints will hopefully avoid the claims of cherry-picking. In this post, we’ll be looking at global sea surface temperature anomalies starting in 1880 and ending in year-to-date (YTD) 2013. The dataset is ERSST.v3b—which is used by GISS in their Land-Ocean Temperature Index—for consistency with the previous post and with Climate Models Fail. The models are the multi-model ensemble mean of the simulations of sea surface temperatures for the CMIP5 (IPCC AR5) models, using the historic and RCP6.0 scenarios. (See the post On the Use of the Multi-Model Mean.) We’ll break the data and models down into the two warming periods and two cooling/reduced warming periods using the same breakpoints of 1914, 1945 and 1975. Because global land-plus-sea surface temperature data and sea surface temperature data don’t have the same breakpoints, 1914, 1945 and 1975 will look at little odd. Refer to Figure 2. Figure 2 Yes, the models perform that poorly. It’s pretty remarkable that climate modelers have been trying for a couple of decades to reproduce the global surface temperature record and babbling on and on about CO2 driving global surface temperature warming—when, bottom line, climate models cannot simulate surface temperatures for 70% of the surface of the globe since 1880. The only reason the modelers even come close during the recent warm period is because the modelers tune the models to that period. (See Mauritsen, et al. “Tuning the Climate of a Global Model” [paywalled]. (Preprint edition is here.)) The linear trends are as calculated by EXCEL. For the discussion of each period, the models are compared to observations-based data using: time-series graphs, trend maps that show warming and cooling rates in deg C/year, and trends on a zonal-mean (latitude average) basis. (For those new to the zonal-mean graphs, I provide an overview in the first discussion.) Let’s start with the period when models performed best, and then work out way back in time. RECENT WARMING PERIOD (1975 to YTD 2013) Global (land+sea) surface temperatures stopped warming in 2001. (See the post here.) Even so, the models show the warming continuing to present times. So we’ll use (year-to-date) 2013 as the end year for the recent warming period. As shown in Figure 3, the modeled warming rate of global sea surface temperatures is about 40% higher than the observed trend during the period of 1975 to (YTD) 2013. Keep in mind the models had been tuned to the observed surface temperatures during much of this period. Figure 3 Not only do the models overestimate the overall warming during this period, they fail to capture where sea surface temperatures warmed (and cooled) and the extent of that warming (or cooling). (See Figure 4.) Figure 4 The patterns in time and the spatial patterns of sea surface temperature warming (or cooling) contribute to when and where land surface temperatures vary. Therefore, based on the models’ failures to simulate sea surface temperatures properly, it is unlikely that they can properly simulate land surface air temperature anomalies. The climate models used by the IPCC in their 5th Assessment Report failed to capture: Note: For further information about the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, see NOAA’s AOML (Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory) Frequently Asked Questions webpage here, and my blog post here and my introduction to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation here. In Figure 5, the warming and cooling rates are shown on a zonal mean basis. The variable for the zonal mean graphs in this post are the trends in deg C/decade and it is shown in the (vertical) y-axis. The (horizontal) x-axis is latitude, so the South Pole is (at -90) on the left, the North Pole is (at 90) on the right, and the equator is at zero deg latitude. Basically, the zonal mean graphs in this post present the warming (and cooling) rates of sea surface temperatures at the different latitudes. Figure 5 As shown in Figure 5, for the period of 1975 to (YTD) 2013, the models: overestimated the warming of tropical sea surface temperatures by about 50%, underestimated the warming in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, and show no similarity to the warming and cooling rates in the surface temperatures of the Southern Hemisphere oceans south of about 35S. That poor performance makes one wonder how the modelers could ever hope to attempt to simulate land surface air temperatures. Figures 3, 4 and 5 showed how poorly the latest generation of climate models (CMIP5) simulated the warming (and cooling) of global sea surface temperatures during the recent warming period of 1975 to (YTD) 2013 — a period to which they are “tuned”. The models are not going to show improvement as we look at the earlier periods. MID-20th CENTURY REDUCED-WARMING PERIOD (1945 to 1975) According to the ERSST.v3b data, Figure 6, sea surface temperatures warmed at a reduced rate from 1945 to 1975. (Also see the discussion of HADSST3 data following Figure 8.) The models estimated cooling during this period, basically a response to the eruption of Mount Agung in 1963-64. Figure 6 The differences are even more obvious when we look at the maps of warming and cooling trends during this period. (See Figure 7.) Figure 7 For the period of 1945 to 1975, the climate models used by the IPCC for their 5th Assessment Report failed to simulate: the cooling of sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic associated with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, and the warming of sea surface temperatures in the entire Southern Hemisphere. This is further illustrated by the warming and cooling rates when the data and model outputs are presented on a zonal mean basis, Figure 8. Figure 8 NOTE: The UKMO (UK Met Office) revised their sea surface temperature dataset in response to the findings of Thompson et al (2009) Identifying signatures of natural climate variability in time series of global-mean surface temperature: Methodology and Insights. (See Kennedy et al. (2013) Part 1 and Part 2.) The greatest changes to the HADSST data occurred from the 1940s to the 1960s. The adjusted UKMO HADSST3 sea surface temperature data now shows cooling during the period of 1945 to 1975 — a cooling that is magically in line with the models. (See Figure 9.) Figure 9 EARLY 20th CENTURY WARMING PERIOD (1914 to 1945) The most obvious model failing occurs during the early 20th Century warming period of 1914-1945. It stood out like a sore thumb in Figure 2, and it looks no better in Figure 10. Global sea surface temperature anomalies warmed at a rate of 0.125 deg C/decade, but the models indicated that they should only have warmed at a rate of 0.036 deg C/decade IF sea surfaces were warmed by manmade greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide. The observed warming was about 3.5 times greater than the modeled warming. That additional observed warming, therefore, has to result from natural variability — it can’t be explained by the assumed impacts of anthropogenic warming shown by the models. And that’s a gigantic problem for hypothesis of human-induced global warming, which we’ll discuss later in this post. Figure 10 Looking at the trend maps, Figure 11, there’s no reason to go into any great detail about where the models failed. They failed to capture the warming just about everywhere. How pathetic is that! Figure 11 And as shown in Figure 12, the failings are further confirmed by the trends on zonal mean (latitude average) basis. Figure 12 EARLY COOLING PERIOD (1880 to 1914) The models used by the IPCC for their 5th Assessment Report indicate global sea surface temperatures should have warmed at a rate of about 0.03 deg C per decade from 1880 to 1914, Figure 13, but according to NOAA’s ERSST.v3b data (used by GISS for their Land-Ocean Temperature Index) sea surface temperatures cooled at a strong rate of more than -0.1 deg C/decade. The models missed their mark by about 0.13 deg C/decade during this early cooling period. Figure 13 The trend maps in Figure 14 and the modeled and observed trends on a zonal mean basis, Figure 15, show how poorly the models simulated sea surface temperatures during this period. Figure 14 ### Figure 15 CLIMATE MODELS DO NOT SUPPORT THE HYPOTHESIS OF HUMAN-INDUCED GLOBAL WARMING Much of the post to this point was background information for this portion. Recall that in Figure 1, the IPCC presented their climate model-based assumptions that (1) global surface temperatures warmed in response to accumulated manmade carbon dioxide emissions from 1850 to present and (2) that global surface temperatures would continue to warm into the future based on climate model projections. The virtual sea surface temperatures in climate models are forced to warm primarily by the assumed impacts of well-mixed anthropogenic greenhouse gases, with carbon dioxide the dominant manmade greenhouse gas. (See Figure 16) For example, according to the forcings used by GISS in their climate models, the climate forcings associated with well-mixed greenhouse gases increased at a rate that was about 3.8 times faster during the later warming period of 1975 to 2011 than during the early warming period of 1914 to 1945. Figure 16 Climate modelers then suppress the hypothetical warming in the climate models with other manufactured climate forcing datasets. (See Figure 17) Using the GISS forcings again, however, we can see that the Net Forcings still show the higher rate of increase during the later warming period, and that it’s still about 3.8 times faster during the later warming period of 1975-2011 than during the early warming period. Figure 17 Then, based on all the gazillions of programming assumptions made by the climate modelers, the climate models run through their programmed routines and regurgitate virtual number-crunched sea surface temperatures. (See Figure 18) By no strange coincidence, the modeled sea surface temperatures warmed at a rate during the later warming period that was about 3.9 times faster than during the early warming period of 1914 to 1945. (Note that there are 2 more years of model outputs for the later warming period in Figure 18 than for the forcing graphs in Figures 16 and 17. GISS has not updated their forcings through 2013.) Figure 18 Bottom line for the models: according the forcings used as inputs and according to the multi-model ensemble member mean output of the latest and greatest (CMIP5) generation of climate models, global sea surface temperatures during the later warming period (1975 to YTD 2013) should have warmed almost 4 times faster than they did during the early warming period (1914 to 1945). Figure 19 But, unfortunately for the models, Figure 19, the actual observed warming rate during the later warming period was less than during the early warming period. That is, the sea surface temperatures warmed about 25% faster during the early warming period than during the late warming period. Granted, during the last 12 years of the late warming period, global sea surface temperatures have not warmed. We could eliminate the data for the current hiatus period (2002 to 2013 for example) and show the warming during the abridged late warming period (1975 to 2001) was comparable to the trend during the early period. But, that still doesn’t help the models. Note: The following is the Summary of Chapter 4.4 from Climate Models Fail. Though Chapter 4.4 presented the combined global (land+ocean) surface temperatures, the conclusion of that chapter also applies to this post. The fact that the models simulated the warming better during the more recent warming period does not mean that manmade greenhouse gases caused that warming — it simply reveals that the modelers managed to tune their models to perform better for the more recent warming period. The climate models cannot simulate the observed rate of warming during the early warming period (1914-1945), which warmed at about the same rate as the recent warming period (1975-2012). This illustrates that global surface temperatures can warm without being forced — unlike climate models which must be driven by the natural and anthropogenic forcings used as inputs. And the similarities between the observed warming rates during the early and late warming periods indicate that the much higher anthropogenic forcings during the late warming period had little impact on the rate at which observed temperatures warmed. In other words, the climate models and data do not support the hypothesis of anthropogenic forcing-driven global warming; they contradict it. The world portrayed by all those number-crunching climate models is a fantasy world — with little or no relationship to the real world. LET’S ADD INSULT TO INJURY For more than 4 years, I have presented how, once ocean heat content data and satellite-era sea surface temperature data are broken down into logical subsets, they no longer support the hypothesis of human-induced global warming. That is, the NODC’s ocean heat content data for the depths of 0-700 meters and NOAA’s satellite-enhanced (Reynolds OI.v2) sea surface temperature data indicate that the oceans warmed in response to naturally occurring, sunlight-fueled, coupled ocean-atmosphere processes—not via manmade greenhouse gases. If this subject is new to you, refer to my illustrated essay “The Global Warming Challenge” (42MB pdf). The natural warming of the global oceans was also the subject of two YouTube videos — for those who would like to listen and watch me explain how that happens. I prepared those well-illustrated videos for the WUWT-TV special last year. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here. I referred to my latest book Climate Models Fail a number of times in this post. Climate models Fail is a collection of model-data comparisons, and it includes a chapter about research papers that are very critical of climate model performance. In addition, I also present the natural warming of the oceans in Section 9. See the Table of Contents in the Free Preview to Climate Models Fail. About 60 pages of the 350-page pdf edition, including 40 illustrations, pertain to this topic. (Climate Models Fail is also available in Kindle format, through Amazon.) While the subject matter (natural warming of the global oceans) is the same as past presentations, in Climate Models Fail, I presented the discussion in a different order, which will hopefully make it easier to understand. Climate Models Fail was also edited by someone without a technical background so it is definitely easier to read. And of course there is much more detail in my book Who Turned on the Heat? — The Unsuspected Global Warming Culprit: El Niño-Southern Oscillation. MODEL-DATA DIFFERENCE Figure 20 illustrates the observed annual global sea surface temperature anomalies from 1880 to (YTD) 2013. Also shown is the difference between the modeled and observed global sea surface temperature anomalies, with the data subtracted from the mean of the model outputs. I’ve changed the base years for anomalies to the full period of the data (1880 to 2012) so that the base years did not influence the difference. Figure 20 Somehow, the climate science community, under the direction of the IPCC, would like the public and policymakers to believe that their climate models are realistic representations of climate. CLOSING Global sea surface temperatures warmed faster during the early 20th Century warming period of 1914 to 1945 than during the recent warming period of 1975 to (YTD) 2013. On the other hand, the climate models used by the IPCC for their 5th Assessment Report indicate something else entirely. The models indicate sea surface temperatures should have warmed almost 4 times faster from 1975 to present than they did from 1914 to 1945. Clearly, the climate models used by the IPCC cannot be employed to attribute global warming to manmade greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, and they definitely cannot be used to forecast climate over any time period based on projections of future manmade greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, the climate scientists who prepared the 5th Assessment Report for the IPCC create illustrations like their SPM.10 (my Figure 1), which amusingly use climate models as “proof” that past global warming was caused by carbon dioxide emissions and that global temperatures will continue to warm in response to future CO2 emissions. The climate scientists’ unwavering belief that carbon dioxide drives global warming, despite the climate models clearly showing otherwise, is evidence of their delusions about CO2 or their need to misrepresent their models (for any number of reasons). Personally, I think it’s a combination of the two. SOURCE The model outputs and data, including the trend maps, are available through the KNMI Climate Explorer. SUPPLEMENT TO CLIMATE MODELS FAIL This post is available here in pdf format for those readers who would like to file it as a supplement to Climate Models Fail. |
The Story (you can skip this part) Back in April I went to the excellent ACCU 2013 conference. I had been playing with the idea for an online C++ quiz for a while, but decided I didn’t have the time to do it. Then, after a few glasses of wine at the conference dinner and a few more Bath Ales in the bar, I went to my room to get some sleep. But it couldn’t hurt to do a little bit of coding, could it? Add to that the train to London next day, and the plane to Oslo, and the first version of CppQuiz.org was born. I spent a few more days on it this summer, and since then it has been functionality complete (enough) and stable, so today I removed the “beta” header. I also realised I had forgotten to blog about it, which is kind of silly. How to market a quiz about C++? What about on your own C++ blog? What is it CppQuiz.org is (as you might have guessed by now) an online C++ quiz. Each question is a full C++ program, and you are to figure out what its output is. I stole this format from Olve Maudal‘s pub quizzes, but with one major difference: While his quizzes are about what happens on his computer (which is very interesting for a more interactive format), CppQuiz.org asks about what the standard mandates the output to be. If the example code doesn’t compile, or has unspecified/undefined behaviour, you answer that. The site will just keep throwing questions at you (training mode), optionally giving you a hint and finally give you a full explanation of the answer, with references to the C++11 standard. If you want, you can however start a new quiz (quiz mode), and get a fixed number of questions. At the end you get a score, and a link to give your friends to see if they can beat you. Neither mode requires you to register or log in. How you can help If you like the quiz and want to help, there are many ways to do so: Thanks guys! Finally I wish to thank a few people. Olve Maudal gives the world’s best C++ pub quizzes, and was my biggest inspiration for creating the site. He also has a fascinating, deep understanding of C and C++, and is an all-around great guy. He even sent me all his C++ quiz material to use for inspiration. See, I told you he is a great guy. Several people have also contributed their own questions. KrzaQ2 did several, Lars Storjord and others also did. Mikael Kilpeläinen and Fernando Cacciola sent me some of their material. Jon Jagger, Peter Sommerlad, Björn Fahller and several other ACCU members provided good feedback. (I do hope you’re an ACCU member?) Oh, and Webfaction is a highly recommended hosting company. They don’t sponsor me or anything, but their customer service is the best. Now go take the quiz! If you enjoyed this post, you can subscribe to my blog, or follow me (@knatten) or @CppQuiz on Twitter. |
Picture it: Justin Bieber speeding down a Calabasas, Calif. street in a Ferrari only to be chased down by a former NFL star in a Prius. That's exactly what happened Sunday night, according to CBS Sports. Former NFL star Keyshawn Johnson chased down the teen sensation after he flew past him. Johnson was leaving a party when he spotted Bieber driving at "breakneck speeds," TMZ said. He dropped off a child who was in his car and continued to chase Bieber. He followed the singer to his home and blocked him in for a confrontation, but Bieber reportedly refused to talk and ran in his house. Johnson wasn't the only one perturbed with Bieber's speed demon antics, according to Entertainment Weekly. Several people in the neighborhood complained to authorities about the incident. Officers responded, but Bieber declined to speak to them. Others at the scene say that it wasn’t Bieber driving, it was actually Odd Future rapper Tyler, the Creator. The investigation is ongoing, according to the L.A. County Sheriff’s office. |
I know: Republican opposition to the law hardly qualifies as news and neither does the effort to undermine it. But the language of the letters reveals a great deal about GOP values. When did publicizing insurance options become “dirty work”? How is helping people to access public services “politically charged”? And if it sounds naïve to expect more cooperation from an opposition party, contrast this Republican behavior with the way Democrats responded to the Medicare drug benefiit as the Bush Administration prepared for its launch eight years ago. Like today's Repubicans, Democrats had strong and genuine objections about the substance of what became known as Part D. Democrats had wanted the government to run the drug program directly, just like it administers doctor and hospital insurance. Instead, Bush and his allies had crafted a program that relied exclusively on private insurers to deliver the benefits, while preventing the government from using its purchasing power to reduce prices. Part D was also pure deficit spending: Neither the Bush Administration nor its congressional allies made even a pretense of trying to pay for it with revenue or offsetting cuts. Note the contrast with the Affordable Care Act—which, according to the Congressional Budget Office, is actually reducing the deficit. As for legislative tactics, Republicans today are angry that Democrats used the budget reconciliation process. But there's nothing illegitimate about using the reconciliation process for a bill that reduces the deficit, particularly if it's necessary to stop a determined minority from blocking a majority vote. You can't offer similar justifications for what the architects of Part D did in 2003, as they were trying to craft and pass their bill. At one point, a senior Bush Administration official actually threatened to fire a government actuary, because the actuary had delivered an unfavorable cost estimate. An inspector general later concluded the Bush official could have been subject to disciplinary action, if only that official hadn't already left office to become a lobbyist. The final vote on Part D was equally notorious for its shenanigans. House Republican leaders, struggling to build a majority, had to extend voting by an unprecedented three hours. It wasn't pretty and Tom Delay, who was House Majority Leader at the time, eventually received a “public admonishment” from the House Ethics Committee for his actions during those waning hours. (The Committee found that DeLay had offered political favors so that then-Rep. Nick Smith of Michigan would change his vote. Many close observers, including my former colleague Timothy Noah, think the evidence suggests DeLay offered an actual bribe, in the form of $100,000 in campaign contributions for Smith's son, who was then running for Congress. DeLay denied this.) In short, Democrats had plenty of good reasons to be angry about Part D. Democrats never tried to undermine the law’s implementation—a point Norm Ornstein, the political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, made via e-mail: |
A combination of sparkling and sweet, pink champagne can add the perfect amount of sass to your baked goods! I first heard of pink champagne as a cake flavor when I was choosing a wedding cake several years ago. Out of curiosity, I had to try it. The tiny bubbles made the cake moist and fluffy with a light champagne flavor. The best part of this recipe is that you don’t have to advanced in baking to make it. It is as simple as baking a regular box cake mix and substituting the water for an equal amount of pink champagne! These cupcakes are a fabulous treat to serve at bridal showers, bachelorette parties, or birthday celebrations. I hope that you enjoy this recipe as much as we do! Pink Champagne Cupcakes Ingredients: Cake: 1 Box White Cake Mix 1 ¼ C Pink Champagne 3 Egg Whites 1/3 C Oil 3 Drops of Red Food Coloring Frosting: Container White Frosting Tablespoons Pink Champagne Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with standard size cupcake liners. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry cake mix, pink champagne, egg whites and oil. Add 3 drops of red food coloring to give the cupcakes a nice pink color. Using a mixer, mix the ingredients on high for approximately 3 minutes and then on medium until all ingredients are combined thoroughly. Fill the cupcake liners approximately ? of the way full of the mixture. Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until you can stick a toothpick in the center and it comes out completely clean. Frosting: In a medium mixing bowl, combine a container of white frosting (I used the whipped frosting) and add about 2 Tablespoons of pink champagne. If you use the whipped frosting, be careful to not add a lot of the champagne because it will make your frosting runny. Using a whisk, beat the mixture until stiff. For the cupcakes in the photo, I used a size 12 Wilton tip to frost the cupcakes and Wilton Pearlized Sprinkled in Pink. Recipe yields approximately 16 – 18 cupcakes, depending on how generous you are when filling them. If you are only making one batch you will also have ? of the bottle of pink champagne left. I usually enjoy a glass while I’m waiting for the cupcakes to bake and another few glasses after I have finished decorating them. Inviting a friend over during the baking process is highly recommended for these cupcakes! Cheers! Amanda is the owner of Midwestern Moms, a blog featuring delicious recipes, fun craft tutorials, product reviews and occasional giveaways. She currently resides in Nebraska with her husband and 2-year old daughter. |
Lawrence Livermore Laboratory announced Wednesday that its first experiment at the National Ignition Facility using a frozen pellet of fusion fuels yielded excellent results. The facility is on a quest to achieve the long-sought goal of fusion ignition, in which two or more atoms are fused together under extreme temperatures and pressures, and release far more energy than was required to drive the reaction and ignite fusion reactions in adjacent fuel. The latest experiment, on Sept. 29, had the facility’s 192 powerful lasers focused on a pencil-eraser-sized gold cylinder that contained a peppercorn-sized plastic fuel capsule. The tiny frozen capsule — chilled to minus 425 Fahrenheit — contained two hydrogen variants, deuterium and tritium, as well as plain hydrogen. When the lasers fired 1 million megajoules of energy on the capsule, it yielded approximately 1,000 times more neutrons than earlier experiments at NIF with gaseous forms of deuterium and tritium. Neutrons are the energy source that will drive fusion ignition reactions. “This was the first time that we had (used) that frozen ice layer, which is just like what it will look like when we do ignition experiments,” said Ed Moses, director of the National Ignition Facility. “That’s a very tricky game to get that ice layer in. And it worked great. It was just terrific.” A megajoule is the amount of energy consumed in a second by 10,000 100-watt light bulbs, and the facility’s lasers deliver the most powerful laser shots of any fusion research facility in the world. NIF is designed to help maintain the reliability and safety of the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile through fusion experiments. Hopes are also high that if fusion is achieved at NIF, it would open the door to new sources of unlimited energy, since deuterium is abundant in seawater, and tritium can be processed from lithium, which is also found in seawater. Scientists at NIF have experimented with gaseous forms of deuterium and tritium, but using a frozen fuel pellet in fusion ignition experiments is essential. The fuel pellet ultimately needs to be 100 times more dense than lead for fusion ignition, Moses explained. “So if you start with the frozen form, it gets you 10 times the way there,” Moses said. Since the fuel mixture included hydrogen, scientists didn’t expect the experiment to yield a fusion reaction, because hydrogen “sort of keeps it cool,” Moses said. “And keeping it cool prevents it from going to burn.” NIF scientists wanted to hold off on attempting fusion “burn,” or ignition, with the Sept. 29 experiment. Future experiments will use only deuterium and tritium in attempts to achieve actual fusion, but the deuterium-hydrogen-tritium combination allows scientists to calibrate the system, as well as test 26 new diagnostic instruments that measure the results. Scientists at NIF hope to achieve fusion by 2012, Moses said. Suzanne Bohan covers science. Contact her at 510-262-2789. Follow her at Twitter.com/suzbohan. |
In a competitive situation, Manhunt, a half-hour series project from Happy Endings creator David Caspe, Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon, Black List writer Jordan Cahan (My Best Friend’s Girl) and Life In Pieces executive producer Aaron Kaplan, has landed at Showtime for development. I hear the pitch, from Sony TV where Caspe and Gordon are under overall deals, has received a production commitment. Written by Caspe and Cahan — who are lifelong friends, having grown up together in the Midwest — and to be directed by Gordon, Manhunt is an action comedy two-hander. Caspe, who will serve as showrunner, executive produces with Cahan, Gordon and Kaplan. The project was based on an idea by Kaplan. He pitched it to Gordon who, in turn, reached out to Caspe and Cahan. Gordon, Caspe and Cahan worked together on the NBC comedy series Marry Me, which Caspe created and executive produced. Gordon directed the pilot and several other episodes, while Cahan was a supervising producer in his first TV writing gig. Caspe, who is producing through Shark vs. Bear, his company with Ian Durney, currently is developing feature Ladies Night with Skydance. Gordon is directing the feature Baywatch starring Dwayne Johnson. In TV, he executive produces ABC’s The Goldbergs and directed the drama pilot Sneaky Pete at Amazon. Through his production company Exhibit A with Mary Rohlich, he is currently executive producing the ABC/Sony TV comedy pilot Hail Mary. Caspe and Gordon are repped by WME. Gordon is managed by Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Cahan is repped by UTA, Christie Smith at Rise Management, and attorney Stephen Clark. |
Three Bus Rapid Transit routes, costing up to €650 million, have been proposed for Dublin by the National Transport Authority. The system, which will be called Swiftway, would operate in a similar way to the Luas, and could cut bus journey times from outlying suburbs to the city by almost 40 per cent, the authority said. Each route could be put in place at about a third of the cost of a light rail line, and less than one tenth of the estimated cost of Metro North. The lines would run from Swords and Dublin Airport to the city centre, Blanchardstown to UCD, and Clongriffin to Tallaght. The airport line, which would run largely along the same route as Metro North, would have the “highest overall demand levels” and has been identified as the scheme most likely to proceed first. Airport line The authority plans to make an application to An Bord Pleanála for the airport line this year and could, it said, have approval to proceed in the first half of next year. While costs are only indicative at this stage, the airport line could be developed at a cost of €150 million to €200 million, compared to the €3 billion-plus estimated price tag for the shelved metro project. A similar cost estimate has been put on the Blanchardstown to UCD route, with the Clongriffin to Tallaght line coming in at €200 million to €250 million. As with the Luas , passengers would not engage with the driver but would buy tickets from vending machines at stops, or use the Leap card. Vehicles would have multiple doors at platform level to increase boarding speed, and the stops would be similar in frequency to a Luas service. |
P2P apps are popular around the globe, even in regions where Internet access speeds are low. New research from German deep packet inspection gear maker ipoque shows that in places like Eastern Europe, P2P apps can account for an astonishing 95 percent of all nighttime traffic. The survey also found that one particular peer-to-peer app, Skype, is also single-handedly responsible for 95 percent of all Internet telephony. Ipoque gathered its data with the permission of ISPs and universities in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia between August and September of this year (we covered the preliminary numbers back in September). In all, the three petabytes of information collected show that P2P sucks up anywhere between 49 and 83 percent of all Internet traffic during the day, and can spike much higher at night. But everyone knows that P2P use is high. One of the study's most interesting findings didn't concern the volume of traffic, but the fact the 20 percent of it is now encrypted as the "arms race" between P2P users and ISPs, content owners, and law enforcement heats up. Increased network filtering—such as that being proposed in the US by AT&T and supported by content owners—would no doubt lead to the deployment of far more potent encryption. Such a move could leave ISPs with a choice of blocking certain P2P protocols altogether, risking the wrath of those who use them legitimately, or abandoning the attempt at filtering out specific files. P2P use spikes at night in Europe (Chart courtesy ipoque) (Chart courtesy ipoque) As far as what's being traded, ipoque used a variety of techniques (such as looking at file extensions or parts of filenames like "XXX") to identify the sort of content being swapped on P2P networks, and it shows some fascinating regional variations. In Southern Europe, for instance, game downloads account for 25.5 percent of P2P traffic. Movies make up 38.8 percent, while pornography is a mere 1.8 percent. In the Middle East, by contrast, games are downloaded far less (6.3 percent), but movies much more (48 percent). Porn also makes up 5 percent of the traffic. BitTorrent is, not surprisingly, the number one protocol, but eDonkey continues to hold its own. And the number one tracker in the world? The Pirate Bay, of course. |
Trump supporter Sarah Palin went on CNN and completely undercut his attempt to use Bill Clinton’s infidelity against Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Video: Transcript via CNN’s State Of The Union: TAPPER: This weekend, Donald Trump really went after Hillary Clinton for her husband, Bill Clinton’s infidelities. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Bill Clinton was the worst in history, and I have to listen to her talking about it? And just remember this. She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful. (END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: What do you think of that line of attack? PALIN: Well, you know, I think a lot of people may be obsessed with a public figure’s personal life, and they’re going to get all entangled in, you know, past indiscretions or whatever. But I think, for the most part, Americans are concerned about things like who will be able to appoint the next Supreme Court justices, which will affect an entire generation coming up. I think that’s what people are concerned about, much more so than Bill Clinton’s obvious indiscretions, and Donald Trump having been divorced a couple of times, but owning up to it. Things like that, at least for people like me, eh, I just think that’s like the least of our worries right now. |
UNITED STATES LAWS REGARDING SEX This edition of the alt.sex FAQs was written in the early part of 1994 by the last Alt.sex FAQ Committee. They reflect the best wisdom and knowledge of all the participants on the committee at that time. UNITED STATES SODOMY LAWS, STATE BY STATE In the first column, an M indicates misdemeanor, F is felony. ALABAMA M 13A-6-65, Sexual Misconduct, 1 year/$2000 Does not apply to married couples. ALASKA Repealed effective 1980 ARIZONA M 13-1411, Crime Against Nature (anal intercourse), 30 days/$500 M 13-1412, Lewd and Lascivious Acts, 30 days/$500 ARKANSAS M 5-14-111, Sodomy, 1 year/$1000, same sex only Bill passed unanimously "aimed at weirdos and queers who live in a fairyland world and are trying to wreck family life." Signed into law by governor in 1977. CALIFORNIA Repealed effective 1976 COLORADO Repealed effective 1972 CONNECTICUT Repealed effective 1971 DELAWARE Repealed effective 1973 FLORIDA M 800.02, Unnatural and Lascivious Act, 60 days/$500 GEORGIA F 16-6-2, Sodomy, 1 to 20 years Upheld as to homosexuals on the grounds that there is no fundamental federal constitutional right to "engage in sodomy." Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986). M 16-6-15, Solicitation of Sodomy, 1 year/$1000 HAWAII Repealed effective 1973 IDAHO F 18-6605, Crime Against Nature, 5 years to life ILLINOIS Repealed effective 1962 First state to repeal sodomy laws, in 1961. INDIANA Repealed effective 1977 Earlier effort to repeal said legalization might "give us an opportunity to study it more openly, and to see what causes it, in the hope that we can eventually eliminate it." IOWA Repealed effective 1978 KANSAS M 21-3505, Sodomy, 6 months/$1000, same sex only KENTUCKY Held unconstitutional by state Supreme Court 1992. Commonwealth v. Wasson LOUISIANNA F 14.89, Crime Against Nature, 5 years/$2000. Held unconstitutional by Orleans Parish Court, appeal pending. MAINE Repealed effective 1976 MARYLAND F 27-553, Sodomy, 10 years F 27-554, Unnatural or Perverted Sexual Practices, 10 years/$1000 Found not to apply to noncommercial, hetrosexual activity in private. Schochet v. State, 1990. MASSACHUSETTS F 272-34, Crime Against Nature, 20 years F 272-35, Unnatural and Lascivious Acts, 5 years/$100-$1000 Crime Against Nature applies only to anal intercourse. Unnatural and Lascivious Acts has been held not apply to private consensual adult behavior. Commonwealth v. Balthazar, Supreme Judicial Court 1974. It has been suggested that such a ruling would apply to Crime Against Nature. MICHIGAN F 750.158, Crime Against Nature, 15 years Held unconstitutional as applied to private, consensual adult behavior. Michigan Organization for Human Rights v. Kelly (Wayne County Circ. Ct. 1990), no appeal taken, only applies to Wayne County. Held consitutional by Michigan Court of Apeals (People v. Brashier) 1992, effective outside of Wayne County. Decision is needed from the Michigan Supreme Court. MINNESOTA M 609.293, Sodomy, 1 year/$3000 Minnesota's law also prohibits sex between humans and birds. MISSISSIPPI F 97-29-59, Unnatural Intercourse, 10 years MISSOURI M 566.090, Sexual Misconduct, 1 year/$1000, same sex only MONTANA F 45-5-505, Deviate Sexual Conduct, 10 years/$50,000, same sex only NEBRASKA Repealed effective 1978 NEVADA Repealed effective 1993 NEW HAMPSHIRE Repealed effective 1975 NEW JERSEY Repealed effective 1979 NEW MEXICO Repealed effective 1975 NEW YORK Held unconstitutional by state Supreme Court 1980, People v. Onofre NORTH CAROLINA F 14-177, Crime Against Nature, 10 years / discretionary fine NORTH DAKOTA Repealed effective 1975 OHIO Repealed effective 1974 OKLAHOMA F 21-886, Crime Against Nature, 10 years A 1977 effort to repeal sodomy laws was met with a vote-delaying "chorus of giggles." OREGON Repealed effective 1972 PENNSYLVANIA Held unconstitutional by state Supreme Court 1980. Commonwealth v. Bonadio RHODE ISLAND F 11-10-1, Crime Against Nature, 7-20 years. Includes "ordinary extramarital intercourse." SOUTH CAROLINA F 16-15-120, Buggery, 5 years/$500 The law actually legislates the "abominable crime of buggery." No further statutory explaination given. SOUTH DAKOTA Repealed effective 1977 TENNESSEE M 39-13-510, Homosexual Acts, 30 days/$50, same sex only TEXAS Found unconstitutional by state Court of Appeals, England v. Dallas, no appeal taken. Effective 1994 with the dismissal of Morales v. State. UTAH M 76-5-403, Sodomy, 6 months/$1000 In 1982, the Republican State Convention added a plank to its platform stating that homosexuals should be denied the civil, political, social, and economic rights guaranteed to others. VERMONT Repealed effective 1977 VIRGINIA F 18.2-361, Crime Against Nature, 5-20 years WASHINGTON Repealed effective 1976 WEST VIRGINIA Repealed effective 1976 WISCONSIN Repealed effective 1983 WYOMING Repealed effective 1977 U.S. Possesions D.C. Repealed effective 1993 AMERICAN SAMOA Repealed effective ? GUAM Repealed effective ? N. MARIANA IS. Repealed effective ? VIRGIN ISLANDS Repealed effective ? PUERTO RICO Criminal, penalties unknown. Compiled by Bob Summersgill <xe605C@GWUVM.GWU.EDU> DC Sodomy-Law reform coalition. AGE OF CONSENT IN THE UNITED STATES, BY STATE As of August 6, 1994 Alabama 16 Alaska 16 Arizona 18 Arkansas 16 California 18 Colorado 16 Connecticut 16 D.C. 16 Delaware 16 Florida 18 Georgia 16 Hawaii 16[3] Idaho 18 Illinois 16 Indiana 16 Iowa 14 Kansas 16 Kentucky 14[1] Louisiana 17 Maine 14 Maryland 16 Massachusetts 18 Michigan 16 Minnesota 16 Mississippi 18[2] Missouri 16 Montana 16 Nebraska 16 Nevada 16 New Hampshire 16 New Jersey 16 New Mexico 13 New York 17 North Carolina 16 North Dakota 18 Ohio 16 Oklahoma 18 Oregon 18 Pennsylvania 14 Rhode Island 16 South Carolina 16 South Dakota 16 Tennessee 18 Texas 17 Utah 14 Vermont 15 Virginia 16 Washington 18 West Virginia 16 Wisconsin 18 Wyoming 18 |
JAISALMER: Around 1,200-year-old Tanot Mateshwari temple at Tanot village on Indo-Pak border, famous by the name of Bammowali Devi, is bustling with a huge crowd of devotees this year. Seeing this, 135 BSF has made special arrangements for aarti darshan for the crowd.Huge TVs have been set up outside the temple for devotees who are unable to enter the temple at the time of aarti. Daily thousands of people have food in the 'bhandara' organized by BSF.Due to the miracles of Mata at the time of 1965-71 Indo-Pak war, the goddess is also known as Jawanon ki Devi. Hundreds of devotees come on foot to the temple.During Navratras, there is a huge crowd of devotees. The priest of this temple is jawan of 135 BN BSF. The jawans from 135 BSF not only take care of the temple, but also take care of thousands of pilgrims by providing food and extending other facilities. With Ghat Sthapana at Shaktipeeth Mateshwari Tanot, the nine-day fair has started and large number of devotees have started coming to the temple to take part in special one-hour aarti that takes place in the evening.The temple has been decorated and lit up. There is a kerchief room in the temple premises where devotees tie kerchiefs praying goddess to fulfill their wish. Many temporary shops have been set up for selling sweets and other 'prasad' items. Looking to the increasing crowd of devotees, strict security arrangements have been made at Tanot. BSF jawans of 135 BN BSF and police personnel have been deployed here.Tanot temple priest constable Manish telling about the history of the temple said that Mateshwari Tanotraitemple at Tanot check post at the Indo Pak border has many miracles during 1965 and 1971 war and army and BSf jawans and officers are quite proud of the miracles. This temple along with jawans and officers is centre of faith for many devotees. The importance of temple increased after 1965 war and even the jawans and commanders of Paksitan were quite surprised by the miracles of temple. During the Indo-Pak war, around 3000 bombs were shot from Pakistan out of which 459 bombs fell into the premises of temple and maximum bombs did not explode and a few bombs are kept even today as miracle. The bombs falling into the temple did not explode due to which there was no damage to temple and nearby areas. In 1965 war, India defeated Pakistan and then Brigadier Khan quite impressed with the miracle of Tanot Mata presented a silver umbrella, which is kept even today.Apart from these miracles, during 1971 war, Pakistan tried to encroach Longewala on Decembr 16 and with the blessings of Tanot Mata, Indian army destroyed hundreds of enemy's tanks and vehicles and the enemy was forced to run back to their country. December 16 is celebrated even today as Vijay Diwas. As a memory, Rajasthan govt has built a Vijay Stambh at Tanot mata temple entrance. He said |
In this article I am going to give a point-by-point rebuttal to the economic illiteracy expressed in this video. Firstly, I would like to thank Benji Shulman for posting it on the Renegade Report discussion group and for bringing it to my attention. Below are summaries of the four main points presented in the video: There is a demand for South African tourism that tourist operators are unable to meet unless the government provides a “public good”, which in this case is the South African Airways (SAA). SAA pays more in taxes than what the government spends on bailing it out, so the government does not make any actual losses by giving these bailouts. The benefits from point 2 above only work if the government owns SAA since it is only the government that can profit from tax revenue. SAA brings in tourists who cumulatively spend more money in the country than the cost of bringing the tourists to the country.This point is related to the first point but more on that later. My rebuttals to the above are as follows: 1. This is a classic case of the seen versus the unseen. There is undoubtedly a demand for South African tourism, but why is it not valuable for operators in the tourism industry to collaborate with the aim of bringing in tourists by investing the capital themselves? Even if their cumulative resources are not sufficient to do this, if there is such a strong business case, surely the banks would be salivating at the chance of funding such a no-brainer? The answer is simply that it is more valuable for tourist operators to invest their money elsewhere. They will take the tourists if we are stupid enough to impose costs on ourselves to bring them here, which brings me to the second point on this. Government is subsidising the tourism industry (the seen) by taking money that would have been invested elsewhere by us (the unseen). The worst of it is that most of this money would have been invested in the future because, without raising taxes, government has to borrow to fund SAA bailouts. 2. This is just stupid. He is essentially saying government should prop up every company (not just SOEs) that is on the brink of failure as long as the taxes it has received and will receive from this company outweigh the cost of the bailout itself. Following this logic would mean that SAA would still be eligible for a bailout depsite being a private sector entity. Government could just continue to subsidise SAA on the basis that it pays taxes. What he fails to realise is that money spent propping up an inefficient company is money lost in a productive part of the economy, as I have said in the second part of (1) above. This is a recipe for a stagnant economy, with higher prices and disincentives for investment and innovation. 3. This third point simply does not hold. As I have said in (2) above, they could just as easily direct money into private companies as long as the overall amount of the subsidy is less than the total taxes paid by the company. This argument is really an argument for lowering taxes. Why should the state waste time taking away money only to subsidise you later in order to get taxes. For simplifiction’s sake, just lower taxes for everyone and then there will be no need for a subsidy at all. This is far better for the economy because intelligent investment decisions can be made by the market, and not by central planners. 4. I have addressed this in (1). If the cost of bringing in a tourist is outweighed by the money they spend, people who benefit from this could just as well bear this cost themselves. This would clearly be more efficient because everyone who does not benefit from tourism gets to keep their money and invest it where it will work for them. There is also a reason why the international airline industry is dominated by governments. Governments have over time raised the costs of running these companies to the point where they have to be run at a loss and only governments can do that, which in turn has made international travel more expensive than it would otherwise be. A major contributing factor to the problem is the political pressure governments have come to feel due the irrationality of human psychology. Just to take two examples: terrorism and plane crashes. No matter how rare fatal incidents are or how low the average number of lives lost is relative to other modes of transport, because the airline industry relies on scale to operate profitably, each deadly incident has more psychological impact on the voting public than say a thousand deadly incidents related to private automobiles over the same timespan. So we clamour for the government to impose itself on the airline industry so that we don’t have to endure the horror of hearing that hundreds of people died simultaneously even though a greater number of people die on the road over the same period. A better way to ensure airline safety is simply not to fly on airlines with bad track records. Government does not have the omniscience to predict all possible incidents anyway, so it is in no way a reliable regulator of the industry. There is a huge difference between money that is handed over voluntarily and money that is taken by force from people.We also need to learn that the market is always better at solving problems than any government ever will be.We must rely on the mechanisms of competition to put forth the solutions. Lastly, here’s more about why giving SAA our money is such a bad idea. |
Sportsnet’s four NHL analytics writers, Steve Burtch, Jonathan Willis, Andrew Berkshire and Dimitri Filipovic, each fill out their Stanley Cup Playoffs brackets and share reasons behind their picks. How do their brackets compare to yours? Sportsnet's Fantasy Playoffs Pool Play the Sportsnet Fantasy Playoffs Pool for your chance to win $5,000 cash if you are crowned the champ! It's FREE and easy to play. STEVE BURTCH Why Edmonton is my dark horse pick: It’s pretty difficult to count out any team featuring Connor McDavid. The Art Ross Trophy winner was the only skater in the NHL to hit 100 points this season, and his impact on Scoring Chance differential is video game-like whenever he is on the ice for the Oilers – his +4.34 per 60 at 5v5 was tops amongst skaters with 500 minutes played this season. The Sharks will struggle to contain McDavid’s insane level of speed and it showed this season when he posted a goal and an assist in four of the five games Edmonton played against them, going 3-1-1 in the process. Factor in some top end goaltending from Cam Talbot and the improved depth on the Oilers’ blue line — they could be in for a deep playoff run. Why Ottawa will get upset in the first round: This series is actually my only projected upset in the opening round of the playoffs. Ottawa is the only team to qualify for the 2016-17 NHL post-season with a negative goal differential, ranking 19th in the NHL with a minus-4 on the season. They are particularly poor offensively for a playoff team, ranking 22nd in goal scoring, which is the lowest of any playoff side. They also have amongst the worst special teams of any playoff team this season – ranking 23rd on the PP (only San Jose is lower in 25th), and 22nd on the PK (only Chicago is lower in 24th). All of which is to say they don’t match up particularly well with Boston who happened to be the top team in the NHL in terms of Expected Goals percentage all season long (55.09 5v5 xGF% via Corsica.hockey). The Bruins have the seventh-ranked power play in the league and the top-ranked penalty kill in the NHL this season. They have only been surrendering 13 scoring chances per 60 minutes while short handed over the last 30-plus games or so, which is insane when you consider the average playoff team allows over 20. Add in that Tuukka Rask seems to be getting hot at the right time, posting a .971 save percentage with two shutouts in his final six games of the regular season and there is no reason to think the Senators are likely to overcome the sleepy bears from Boston, who have come out of hibernation just in time for the playoffs. Where my bracket could get busted: The Chicago Blackhawks are one of those teams that just seems to keep finding ways to win with an ever-rotating cast of characters around that elite core of Kane-Toews-Hossa-Keith-Hjalmarsson-Crawford et al. Despite struggling early on this season, particularly on the PK, they have rounded into form in the final months of the year and captured another Central Division title when the Minnesota Wild faltered down the stretch. A second round showdown between those two excellent clubs could ruin my prediction of Stanley Cup glory for the land of 10,000 lakes. Team I wanted to pick but couldn’t: The St. Louis Blues have been done in by abysmal luck in the playoffs before they even begin – yet again. They got knocked out in the first round in 2013 by the eventual Stanley Cup winners in Los Anegels, in the first round of 2014 by the eventual winners in Chicago, the first round in 2015 by these same Wild, and last season finally went on a lengthy run before bowing out to San Jose. Now – despite being the fourth-strongest team in my playoff bracket over the final 25 games of the season, they get the worst matchup by facing Minnesota (the second-ranked team) as the away side here in the opening round. Since March 5, the Blues have rattled off an impressive 15-2-2 record, and yet it looks like they are in tough against this year’s projected champion Minnesota Wild. Why Minnesota will win the Stanley Cup: Despite a string of poor play from Devan Dubnyk during the closing stretches of the season, and the ever-present cloud that seems to follow Bruce Boudreau into the playoffs, I feel like the Wild have all the pieces to put themselves over the top this year. When we score adjust 5v5 statistics, Minnesota actually pushes slightly ahead of Boston for the top Expected Goal percentage in the NHL this season (55.27% vs 55.19%). In the closing 25 games of the year, the Wild’s numbers actually improved, making them the only team over 60 per cent for that stretch of play. Most of this can be chalked up to elite defensive play from a very strong and deep side that can roll four lines and wear other teams down. Dubnyk backstops an elite defensive group that features the underrated top pair of Ryan Suter and Jared Spurgeon who played more 5v5 mins this year than any other duo in the NHL. This is the year the State of Hockey brings home the Cup. ANDREW BERKSHIRE Why Nashville is my dark horse pick: They’ve been less than the sum of their parts all season, but despite that, most of their weaknesses are surface level. They were horrible in the shootout and at three-on-three overtime, neither of which exist in the playoffs, and they struggled with their net empty when trailing. When it came to actually playing hockey, they were one of the best teams in the West, and their even strength play down the stretch was extremely strong. The West is wide open, all they need is Pekka Rinne to be league average. Why the Chicago Blackhawks will get upset in the first round: I’m not buying what the Hawks are selling anymore. There’s a chance they turn it on in the playoffs and burn through the West again, but they don’t inspire confidence. They’ve still got the top-end skill, but Hossa and Seabrook aren’t the contributors they once were, and their depth is questionable. Crawford might be their most important player in the playoffs, and that’s not a recipe for success. Where my bracket could get busted: I’ve got the Predators going the whole way, which is tough for an eighth place team, and they have to make their way through the stronger division out West. I’ve also got the Oilers going to the Western Conference final, and that first round series between them and the Sharks is basically a coin flip for me, so my entire Western half of the bracket could be destroyed in an instant. The team I wanted to pick but couldn’t: I really, really wanted to pick the Toronto Maple Leafs to advance a bit further. They’re the most fun team to watch in the league because they’re so chaotic, and that chaos likely would have beat the Senators or maybe even the Bruins with their injuries on defence, but not the Capitals. That’s a team on a mission. Why the Washington Capitals will win the Stanley Cup: Besides being the best they’ve ever been, and having no glaring weakness to speak of, they have no choice. This is the last great shot the Caps have at winning with this core, since there are a bunch of unrestricted free agents they can’t afford to bring back come July. Alex Ovechkin is 31 years old and starting see his scoring dip a little. They need it to work this season or this entire era of the best teams in the history of the Capitals will be a giant waste. DIMITRI FILIPOVIC Why the Bruins are my dark horse pick: The news that Torey Krug and Brandon Carlo will most likely miss the start of their opening round series against the Senators is certainly alarming, but assuming they’re able to eventually return and be themselves I really like both the team the Bruins have and their path through the Atlantic portion of the bracket. One of the main reasons why they’re such a trendy pick right now is because they were just the 20th team since 2007 to finish the year controlling north of 55 per cent of 5-on-5 shot attempts. Ten of those previous 19 made it to at least the Conference Final, seven of them made the Stanley Cup final, and five of them won it all. The ones that didn’t typically either flamed out because their goaltending imploded or because they happened to run into a buzzsaw early on, and the Bruins look like they could avoid both of those land mines. Why the Sharks will get upset in Round 1: This technically wouldn’t be an upset based on the seeding (and the betting line for the series), but I still view the Sharks getting bounced in the opening round as an upset. They were the best team in the West last year, and for much of this season I was convinced that was the case again. Unfortunately, they’ve stumbled into this first round matchup against an Oilers team that’s playing really well, and the questions about whether Joe Thornton and Logan Couture will be ready to go are enough to scare me off of them. Where my bracket could get busted: The Penguins have an awful range of outcomes in them. I picked them to narrowly squeeze past the Blue Jackets in Round 1, mostly out of respect to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and what they’re capable of when they’re firing on all cylinders, but there’s a lot of red flags with that team. Even beyond losing Kris Letang (who was admirably eating up 29 minutes a game during their Cup run), Pittsburgh’s level of play has been in a downward spiral for a while now and they hardly resemble that great team from last Spring. The team I wanted to pick but couldn’t: I eventually wound up picking the Blackhawks to go over the Predators in a tight seven-gamer, but I agonized over it more than any other series. I’ve noticed there are some people who are callously going with the Blackhawks without giving it much thought or attention, presumably because of their name value and the number of wins they accumulated in the regular season. I think it’s a mistake to just count out the Predators like that. Despite a very uneven showing for them this year, the Preds have an incredible amount of high-end talent and upside and pose a very real threat if everything comes together at the right time. Why the Capitals will win the Stanley Cup: Because they’ve been the best team from start to finish and the optimist in me would like to believe that there will eventually be a happy ending here. There’s an argument to be made that this is the best incarnation of the Caps that we’ve ever seen during this sustained era of greatness, purely because there really isn’t a single area you could point to as a weakness that’ll ultimately be their undoing. The playoffs can be cruel and unpredictable, and certainly anything can happen, but based on all of the information we have the Capitals are the best bet to be the last team standing. JONATHAN WILLIS Why the Boston Bruins are my dark horse pick: In late March I dug into the kinds of teams that have playoff success despite regular-season shortcomings, and found three clubs in this year’s playoff mix that had some of the signs: Calgary, Nashville and Boston. With respect to the Flames and Predators, the Bruins are the most frightening of that trio. Not only is Boston the NHL’s best shot-clock team, but Rask has a career .930 playoff save percentage. Why the Anaheim Ducks will get upset in Round 1: There are two answers to this question: Health and the Calgary Flames. The Flames have a quality roster, decent shot metrics (especially of late) and a red-hot Brian Elliott. Meanwhile, the Ducks just got Hampus Lindholm back only to lose Cam Fowler for weeks, meaning their top two defencemen are either banged-up or out of things entirely. Where my bracket could get busted: All over. I’m much more excited to watch these playoffs than I am to predict them. I could see the Rangers winning the Atlantic, not in the least because they finished just one point back of Montreal and have a better goal differential. There isn’t a standout club in the Pacific, but there are three in the Metropolitan, making both difficult to forecast. The team I wanted to pick but couldn’t: The San Jose Sharks are a really good hockey team. Unfortunately, Thornton has missed three games with a knee injury and nobody seems to know when Couture is going to return. They’re also in an ugly funk. But if they can get healthy, that’s a scary team to meet in the playoffs. Why the Washington Capitals will win the Stanley Cup: This is a better version of the team that almost beat Pittsburgh last season. Washington’s management went out and got real depth players, and the result is that the team now has four effective forward units. At the deadline, they added the Kevin Shattenkirk, who makes their power play silly and gives them three high-end defencemen. |
As the metaphorical canary in the global warming coalmine goes, the planet’s coral reefs are hard to beat. Swathes of corals in all tropical basins have been hit by the longest mass bleaching event yet recorded that kicked off in 2014 and ended, at least officially, in June. Fossil fuel burning is firmly linked to rising ocean temperatures that push the corals into a stress reaction – they expel the special algae that give them their colour and most of their nutrients. It’s not certain death, but it can take five to 10 years for even the fastest growing coral species to fully recover. Bureau of Meteorology attacks pushed by 'fever swamp' of climate denial | Graham Readfearn Read more On Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, one research group found the abnormally hot conditions that caused corals to bleach in 2016 were 175 times more likely under today’s climate than one that hadn’t been loaded with extra carbon dioxide. In 2016 about 30% of all corals on the reef died. In 2017 James Cook University’s Prof Terry Hughes estimates another 19% died. And all this as global warming reaches just 1C. What happens to coral reefs at 1.5C of warming – the target set by the United Nations Paris climate agreement? Or higher? It’s under this stark reality that a group of 18 mainly Australian scientists and reef managers, including those in government agencies, have waded in with a controversial proposal in an article in the science journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Existing conservation approaches, such as improving water quality around reefs and imposing restrictions or bans on fishing, are not working, the article says. Instead, the scientists argue: “New and potentially riskier interventions must be implemented alongside conventional management efforts and strong action to curb global warming.” Those interventions include “assisted evolution” – a suite of techniques that have been commonly used in commercial settings (think of selective breeding in plants and livestock as one example) but are now being considered as a way to develop coral species that have better tolerance of the heat extremes that reefs are increasingly facing. Another idea is known as “assisted gene flow” – and involves essentially moving coral larvae or corals that can cope with higher temperatures into areas where current coral species are dying. Much further down the track, the authors also suggest developments in synthetic biology where beneficial genes are either created or selected from the same species. Across all these methods, the authors write there are multiple issues, some ethical and some practical, that need to be much better understood. But the time to start is now. For example, physically moving coral species could see dangerous pathogens hitching a ride. Or, once in place, transplanted coral could simply die because of a lack of adaptation to local conditions. How do you select which species to “save” and which ones to discard? With those decisions, also come knock-on effects of the multiple marine species that rely on those coral habitats. How would the public react to an “artificial reef” or the inevitable claims that scientists are playing God? It could all get very messy and very costly. Several leading scientists I’ve spoken to say a key danger in advocating technological fixes is that it could be an excuse to ignore what everyone agrees is the main game – cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possibly. The lead author of the new article is Dr Ken Anthony, a principal research scientist at the Australian government’s Australian Institute of Marine Science. Anthony accepted that some in the science community could see the pursuit of unconventional methods as a tacit admission of defeat on the emissions front. “But we need a philosophy where we don’t just give up,” he told me. “We do need two balls in play. We need to fix climate change and the more we can mitigate carbon, the better the chances that these things will work. It is not an either, or, situation. “But we agree it’s controversial to talk about this … We have to start looking at the reef in an objective way. How can we protect habitats that protect species?” We need to find solutions, but I don’t think growing corals is part of that Terry Hughes James Cook University’s Prof Terry Hughes, a director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and also the convenor of the national coral bleaching taskforce, is deeply skeptical about the viability of many of the proposed techniques. In particular, whether corals are developed in laboratories or are physically transferred from one location to another, the physical placement of corals on reef structures is “extremely expensive”. He said: “I actually see this problem we are now facing – with back-to-back bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef killing about half the corals – that this is more a governance problem. What’s broken is not so much the corals – they don’t need fixing – but the legal frameworks, the politics and the institutions. “We need to find solutions, but I don’t think growing corals is part of that. I think it’s about changing people’s attitudes and behaviours and getting carbon dioxide emissions down by transitioning away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Without that, nothing else really works.” People are now operating under the terms that everything should be on the table Ove Hoegh-Guldberg On this point, AIMS’s Anthony is in agreement. “The better outcome we get in terms of carbon mitigation, the better chance we stand with conventional and these new interventions,” he says. “I can’t imagine having success where you don’t have both. As I said, you have to have two balls in play and if you drop either of them, then it could be game over.” Dr Mark Eakin, coordinator of Coral Reef Watch at the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, thought it was “responsible and necessary” to have open discussions about alternative strategies. “Corals and coral reefs are now at a critical juncture,” he told me by email. “Conventional conservation measures alone are no longer enough. We need to be looking at all of the tools in our toolboxes.” But critically, Eakin added: “The biggest danger of moving in this direction is the potential that some will see this as being a way to engineer our way out of the problem — using it as an excuse to not act on the rising CO2 that is the ultimate cause of the problem.” Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a leading marine biologist and director of the University of Queensland’s global change institute, is a pioneer in coral bleaching research. He told me there was a “movement sweeping the coral research community” in response to the massive and unprecedented bleaching at reefs around the world. “The pace of environmental change is outstripping the natural ability of corals to keep up, and people are now operating under the terms that everything should be on the table. That’s reasonable.” But he said each time the media reported on new technological fixes, there was a ripple effect among politicians looking for a way out. “A solution might look good on paper and yes, you can grow heat-resistant corals in a lab, but nobody wants to talk about the economics. Once you scale these things up, they can become very expensive.” One study looking at marine restoration projects found coral reefs were the most expensive to restore, with costs as high as $1.8m per hectare (the entire Great Barrier Reef covers about 35m hectares). Hoegh-Guldberg offered up a “back of the envelope” calculation on costs. The idea that climate scientists are in it for the cash has deep ideological roots Read more The Great Barrier Reef is 40,000 sq km. If you were to grow a coral in a lab and transplant it every five metres at $5 each time, then this gives a cost of about $40bn, “and that’s just for one single species,” he says. Scale this up globally, and he says you easily get to costs in the trillions of dollars. “We are in a desperate situation and we need to try all sorts of things because you don’t know what might work,” he says. “But on the other hand, you can get distracted from the main game. The only economic way to deal with this issue is to reduce emissions and take up renewable energies at a furious rate,” he says. “Clearly we have to think outside the box, but let’s not pretend the core issue is not reducing emissions. For coral reefs, it’s really the Paris agreement and 1.5C … or bust.” |
By: Roshawn Watson The traditional path of going to school, getting good grades, and obtaining a nice secure job is all too familiar. It is hard to be at odds with a path that has lifted millions out of poverty and provided sustenance for their needs. Moreover, not everyone is best suited to become full-time entrepreneurs. The challenge is not to demonize traditional employment but rather to have an honest discussion of the perils of focusing on job security instead of financial freedom. Here are three reasons why we seek job security instead of freedom. We Seek Job Security Instead of Freedom Because We Lack Role Models The most important single influence in the life of a person is another person who is worthy of emulation- Paul D. Shafer The examples set before us serve as powerful influences of our behavior. All many of us know is how to make linear income with traditional jobs because that’s all that we have seen modeled. With linear income, you work and get paid once. Many can get by with this strategy, but the challenge arises when you can’t work (such as with a job layoff or sickness) or want to expand your income. I suspect when faced with this scenario, the proteges of successful businesspeople respond differently from most people. Incidentally, that was the case for actress and producer Tori Spelling. After getting a relative pittance from her late father’s estate, she decided she was going to create for her family the lifestyle she had become accustom to. For example, she wanted to purchase their dream home, but it was out of their budget. Her husband said they needed to find a more affordable home, but Tori’s response was certainly a product of watching her late father create wealth. She said, “I’ll start a business….I’ll start several if I have to, but I want this house.” Did you catch that? She didn’t say “let me call my contacts so that I can find a job,” borrow more money, or shrink her vision to accommodate their budget. Her response to financial lack was to create systems that siphoned wealth into their hands. We Seek Job Security Instead of Freedom Because Of Fear Fear is pain arising from the anticipation of evil. – Aristotle Fear is another reason why we seek job security rather than freedom. Fear is believing in the ability of something to harm you. That’s important because often our fears are much worst than reality. We sometimes give up on dreams because of the fear of falling flat on our faces. I remember about 13 years ago, I told an authority figure what my plans were, and he laughed. However, after a few short years, he was no longer laughing. His inability to see me excelling in that area and his fear of my failure were immaterial. What was important was that I was willing to stretch myself into unfamiliar territory and dared to achieve my dream anyway. Likewise, I encourage you to strategically step out of your comfort zones and prove the naysayers wrong. Sure, this will require faith and courage, but faith and courage are necessary to fulfill great dreams, high goals, and strong passions anyway . Often, our worst concerns are never even realized, and if they are, we will survive and emerge stronger. By eliminating (or at least controlling) our fears, there will be more opportunities to obtain freedom because we have already dealt with one of the biggest thieves of success: fear. A coward dies a thousand deaths. A soldier dies but once We Seek Job Security Instead of Freedom Because We Feel Trapped Man is the only kind of varmint (that) sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it. John Steinbeck Another big stumbling block in pursuing freedom is being trapped (or at least our perception of being trapped). Here are some startling examples of how we become financially trapped: We have a culture of debt. The government even gives you tax breaks for being in mortgage debt. Currently, the average US household debt to income ratio is about 1:1, meaning we collectively borrow just about as much as we take in. Many people must have jobs to service their debts in addition to meeting their daily needs. Moreover, since student indebtedness exceeds credit card balances, these loans represent additional financial burdens plaguing even some of the most highly educated and productive professionals. Of course, there are also tax concerns as well. We’re taxed when we earn, save, spend, and invest. Many of the tax laws do not work in favor of traditional employees, and taxes typically represent our largest household expenditure. Being ignorant of the tax laws could mean that you are ignoring more tax-advantaged sources of income and other tax benefits that could help you escape the rat race more quickly. Lifestyle inflation is another culprit. The McMansion may be nice, but freedom is much better. Be mindful that conspicuous consumption and significant wealth building are often diametrically opposed, particularly in the beginning. You should fulfill your dreams, but just don’t go broke trying to do so. The point is there are many factors that can cause us to feel trapped seeking job security. Often, our own choices are substantially, and perhaps unknowingly, impacting our plights. Merely attempting to change our circumstances, such as obtaining new jobs, while ignoring the underlying contributions our own decisions have on our bondage is futile because we’ll inevitably end up in similar predicaments. For freedom, an expansion of our thinking is typically needful. For example, you don’t have to leave your job to become a skillful investor; many people can successful analyze investments, deals and transactions in their spare time. You can likewise be an accomplished business owner without leaving your job. Leverage your education, skill sets, and network to serve additional people. For example, consider creating and/or selling a product, becoming a speaker in your chosen area of interest, or freelancing. The biggest resource for most business owners during the start-up phase is typically personal capital anyway. Entrepreneur Daniel Lapin argues that employees need not be wage slaves. What a powerful revelation! Closing Thoughts In summation, there is nothing wrong with using a job as a means to fulfill your life’s vocation and to provide for your family. However, focusing on job security is dangerous because in these tumultuous business and economic climates, your only security is your ability to produce. Strategically adding other sources of cash flow to your household income can decrease your risks, allow you to explore untapped gifts and passions, and accelerate your financial goals. Don’t settle for the tenuous promise of job security. Seek your freedom today. Lastly, if you like this article, please subscribe to my FREE email updates or RSS feed (reader ), Retweet it, Like It on Facebook, Tipd it, Fark it, Stumble it, and tag it on Delicious. Also, click here to receive my eBook for FREE . Related Posts Do You Have The Courage To Be Wealthy? Goals Are NEVER Enough: 3 Reasons You MUST Cultivate Your Desires 4 Reasons You Should Set Unrealistically High Goals My Big, Fat Trashy Home: The Fall of the McMansion Tori Spelling – Unsung Financial Hero? |
This is how Tuesday's appearance went for Cincinnati Reds reliever Steve Delabar after he entered in the fifth with runners on first and third after another abysmal outing from starter Alfredo Simon: walk to load the bases, strike out, walk, walk, walk, walk. Yes, that's four walks in a row with the bases loaded, the first time that's happened since May 9, 2004, when three Dodgers pitchers walked four Pirates. Delabar also became the first pitcher to walk five batters in a six-batter stretch since Pat Combs in 1991. Reds reliever Steve Delabar walked five of six batters on Tuesday, including four in a row with the bases loaded. Leon Halip/Getty Image The amazing thing about Delabar's outing is that all four of those walks came on 3-2 pitches. He walked Mike Napoli on a splitter, Jose Ramirez on a fastball, Yan Gomes on a fastball and Lonnie Chisenhall on a fastball. Here's what it looked like: Steve Delabar's 36-pitch inning. Six batters faced, five walks, including a four in a row with the bases loaded. pic.twitter.com/OQgRELMt2E — David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield) May 18, 2016 You have to feel bad for the guy. He was one of the best stories in recent years when he made the 2013 All-Star Game while with the Blue Jays. Delabar had pitched in the minor leagues with the Padres from 2004 through 2008, never climbing above Class A, before getting released and then breaking his elbow. He not only underwent Tommy John surgery but had a metal plate and screws installed in his right arm. He was out of baseball for two years and making $75 a day working as a substitute teacher. He was also working as a pitching instructor at an indoor baseball facility and suddenly started throwing 95 mph, harder than he threw before his injury. The Mariners signed him and he was in the majors a few months. Two years after that, he was an All-Star, and I don't think anybody was more appreciative of being at Citi Field that year. He even struck out the one batter he faced. Delabar has battled injuries the past two seasons, and the Reds are giving him a chance. Heck, the Reds might be willing to give any reliever with a heartbeat a chance. Their bullpen now has a 6.46 ERA in an era when building bullpens is supposed to be easier than ever. That would easily be the highest ERA ever for a modern bullpen; the 2007 Devil Rays had a 6.16 ERA and promptly changed their name to the Rays. The Indians beat the Reds 13-1 on Tuesday. Simon allowed 10 runs on 14 hits, pushing his ERA to 10.34, and you wonder when the Reds will pull the plug on him. The Indians beat the Reds 15-6 the night before. Cleveland will try to make it three in a row when the home-and-home series shifts to Cincinnati on Wednesday and Thursday. Anybody want to take the over on the runs? |
LOS ANGELES—Calling it one of the most challenging aspects of creating the beloved family comedy, producers of 1998’s The Parent Trap recalled Wednesday the harrowing experience of euthanizing their Lindsay Lohan clone after the completion of filming. “We decided to just get it over with as quickly as possible, so as soon as shooting wrapped, we told her there was a pizza party for her behind the set on the soundstage,” said producer Charles Shyer, acknowledging that crew members instead seized the Lohan clone, strapped her to a chair, and used an IV to deliver a cocktail of lethal drugs into her bloodstream. “It was kind of heartbreaking hearing the Lohan clone talk about how excited she was for the movie to come out and how she wanted to grow up to be a famous actress, but at least we used a better poison than the one they used on the Hayley Mills clone after the original 1961 Parent Trap, which apparently took hours to finally work.” Shyer admitted that the already disturbing experience became even more traumatic when the actual Lindsay Lohan stumbled upon her clone being cremated in the back lot. Advertisement |
Rajesh Nambiar used a blade to remove the metal button from her daughter's pair of jeans. Highlights Dress code to check cheating turned into harrassment for NEET aspirants Parents had a harrowing time scrounging for clothes that were 'allowed' Rules also included no brooch/badge, high-heeled shoes and flowers The father had to buy a new dress for her from a shop 3km away from the exam centre. The father had to buy a new dress for her from a shop 3km away from the exam centre. An 18-year-old in Kerala alleges she was forced to remove her bra and another student says she had to change out of her jeans at an exam centre for the NEET or National Eligibility and Entrance Test for medical colleges on Sunday. They were told it was for "security", to prevent cheating.When the metal detector beeped, a teen at a women-only exam centre in Kannur was allegedly ordered to take off her bra. With just minutes to the exam, she had no choice."My daughter went inside the centre only to return a few minutes later to hand over her bra," said her mother, a teacher. She added that she had to travel 2.5 km at 8.30 am to buy clothes because "dark-coloured lowers weren't allowed". Many others went through the ordeal, she alleged.Lakhs of students across India took the NEET test for undergraduate medical courses. According to an official website, women candidates were to wear "light clothes with half sleeves not having big buttons or brooch/badge or flowers, with salwar/ trouser and slippers or sandals with low heels, not shoes."Complaints have surfaced from one centre in Kannur at the TISK English Medium School. Its principal, Jalaluddin K, said, "We have clear instructions that if the metal detector beeps, no one can be allowed inside. Whenever it beeped, we told students to remove what they have." He expressed surprise at the allegation that a teen was asked to remove her underwear. "I don't know where this is coming from," he replied, adding that he had called a meeting of those involved in frisking at the school.A student who came in jeans at the centre was allegedly told its metal buttons are a problem. Her father Rajesh Nambiar, who works with the postal department, said, "She came back from security. I used a blade to remove the buttons and sent her back. Then I went to a shop about three km from the exam centre and bought a new dress for her after getting the shop opened," he told NDTV. |
All Gen Con, All the Time! Monday Meeting Yes, that’s a shot of the ol’ White Wolf crew at Gen Con back in ’94 or ’95. I’m directly behind the head of the lady in the red shirt. Not the guys on either side- they were bad eggs, and you’d best steer clear of them. This might have been the year we did the original Pentex Board Meeting live performance, and/or the year Kathy and Aileen paid to have me arrested by the Klingons. Good times. As you might guess by the way I’ve mentioned it a few times these last months, Gen Con is a big deal for us this year. Not only because this is the first year we are running and managing our own booth (previously we shared with DTRPG and the amazing Monte Cook), but because of the cultural connection to the twenty-some years I and our other contributors went as WW guys. My first Gen Con was the year I presented Stew Wieck with the cover I’d painted for White Wolf Magazine #8 (a full white wolf face snarling) that I had finished up painting in the delivery room while waiting for my first daughter to be born. Don’t worry, I put down the brush before my wife’s labor pains became unbearable (I would have lost an arm if I hadn’t). That was in 1987. So what I’m saying is that there is a long and emotionally significant history there. For us, this year, the feeling is we want to acknowledge and learn from that history, and also build on it in ways that make sense for how we exist as a company creating tabletop RPGs in the year 2014. Onyx Path is extending and revitalizing the WW properties, and we are giving new life to Scion, the Trinity Continuum, and Scarred Lands. All projects familiar in their WW incarnations to the folks at the show. So in a lot of ways, we’re hoping that folks coming to the booth or to panels will be talking to us like we’re really continuing a conversation that started whenever it was that they picked up their favorite WW book. What I’m saying is that we will have books and other things to sell (I mean, the booth’s not a lounge or anything like that), but that’s not the primary purpose of having the booth. We’ll have some handouts, the 2014-2015 Onyx Path Brochure, and some other sneak-peaks, but none of those are the primary purpose of the booth (although we think you’ll like them). This is a chance to have face to face time with everybody attending from our community, and that’s the primary benefit of having this booth; this destination or hub, even. So come on by! You can talk to me about Onyx‘s plans and the olden days, you whippersnapper. Eddy Webb, Rose Bailey, Ian Watson, and Mirthful Mike Chaney will be actively running the booth, as well as volunteers from our online community. Matt McElroy will be just around the corner at DTRPG‘s booth, and fellow developers Matt McFarland, David Brookshaw, John Snead, and Colin Suleiman, have promised to stop by. We expect a whole bunch of writers and artists as well, and we’ll be setting up signing times that will be announced at the booth. As in previous years, there will be panels that will take the info from the brochure and expand on it in ways we just don’t have room for in the booklet. This year though, we’re not trying to force Eddy, our developers and writers, and myself, to rush through a year’s worth of releases in an hour- we’ve got three panels on Saturday: 10am: SEM1459337: What’s Up With the New World of Darkness and Q&A @ Crowne Plaza Indianapolis – Downtown Union Station. You’ll want to hit this if you’re into nWoD, particularly since we have at least one major bit of news we’ll be revealing here that happened after the brochure went to press. 3pm: SEM1459343: What’s Up With the Trinity Continuum, Exalted, Scion, Scarred Lands & More! @ Crowne Plaza Indianapolis – Downtown Union Station. Anything not WoD related will be fair game to talk about here, including possibly some new non-WW games. Maybe. 4pm: SEM1459339: What’s Up With the Classic World of Darkness and Q&A @Crowne Plaza Indianapolis – Downtown Union Station. Not only where we’ll be going into much further detail on our plans to develop the lines that started it all, but where we hope you come to tell us what you want to see next. Also, the 2014-2015 Onyx Path Brochure will be available at the booth on Thursday (if shipping works as planned), and on-line, so please feel free to load up with your questions for the panels. Get questions and comments from friends who can’t make it, too. We’ll be there to answer them all. There are three additional panels that I’ll be on as an Industry Guest of Honor again this year that I’d love to see you at if the topics sound interesting to you. I’m not sure I’ll be able to carve out time again to do this next year, but these panels give us a chance to spread the word about Onyx Path to folks who usually don’t get involved with our stuff, and I also get a chance to talk with industry folks I normally miss in the craziness. So they’re a lot of fun to do, but cut hours out of my time spent at the booth. Thursday at noon: SEM1465771 Art Matters: Why do hobby games have so much art in them? Novels don’t. Why do games need art to sell, and do they need art to be good games? ICC 210. Thursday 3pm: SEM1465796 Return to the Castle of Gender Representation: Last year Industry Guests spoke about gender representation in gaming art. The seminar was packed and wonderful discussion ensued. What has changed in a year? ICC 211. Friday 2pm: SEM1465789 How to Run a Successful Tabletop RPG Kickstarter: Kickstarter is one of the best ways to get your RPG created. We’ll look at the pitfalls to avoid along the way and the methods to create a fun, engaging, and ultimately successful KS. ICC 210. If you are going, and want to attend some gaming sessions of our game lines, there are over 100 Onyx Path/White Wolf games being run this year, both tabletop and LARP. Over 40 by our good buddies from The Wrecking Crew and The Dead Gamer’s Society, and a lot more at all hours of all the days the con is running. We’ve got a list I’ll be linking to here in a day or so: XXXPutting Link HereXXX Which pretty much covers the skeleton of our Gen Con plans, and expresses what we hope will happen there. In the midst of getting many things printed, ordering those foam floor tiles (black, of course), and deciphering the byzantine paperwork needs of the convention companies’ bureaucracy, I’m going to squeeze in some family time in the next couple of weeks. So our old friend, co-creator of this blog, and one-time sole writer of it, Eddy Webb, will fill in here for the next two weeks. Don’t be too cruel to him. Regardless of Gen Con, These Projects are Worked On: – Book of the Deceived (MtC): In Editing. Full page art is coming in. – Sothis Ascends (MtC): Some text was re-distributed and needs further writing, otherwise in redlines. Waiting for one writer to hand in his section. – Cursed Necropolis: Rio (MtC): First drafts heading into redlines. – Exalted 3rd Edition: From Holden: “This week has focused on art notes to arrive this week and editing. Evocations are finished and moving to editing. Antagonists are receiving finishing touches”. Art notes = the descriptions of what needs to be illustrated created by the devs as guidance and inspiration for the artists. I should note that Exalted’s art notes require more detailed descriptions than a typical WoD description where you can say “like an alley in NY” and the artist will understand what is needed for the scene. Both EX3 novels are being worked on, and notes went back on Matt Forbeck’s synopsis. The EX3 Music Suites are at a standstill right now until our composer gets through his full time job commitments. Intending to talk to all of these creators at Gen Con. The EX3 Fiction Anthology is being written, with the bulk of the stories currently under Dev review. – V20 Anarchs Unbound: It is live on DTRPG in PDF, ePub, PoD and PDF/PoD combos. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/127247/Anarchs-Unbound New printer quote requests based on conversations with them and Mirthful Mike for Deluxe version were sent in and are being discussed. – V20 Rites of the Blood: Advance PDF on sale at DTRPG. (Advance PDF designates a full PDF release, but one where we will take purchasers’ comments and fixes and tweak the files before the PDF and PoD are on sale together. Advance PDF purchasers get a discount link for purchasing the PoD version based on the cost of the PDF/PoD combo price.) We are assembling errata based on your input on this thread, and are looking to close it out this week: http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-classic-world-of-darkness/vampire-the-masquerade/192908-errata-rites-of-the-blood – V20 Dark Ages: In post-writing Development. David Hill has delivered some art notes. Full page art notes out to artist, artist for Clan Spreads working on them. Many blog posts here on his progress: http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/darkages/ – V20: Ghouls: In post writing development. – V20 Red List: In final draft stage. – The Making of the Art of Children of the Revolution: Creating PoD files to go with PDF for sale on DTRPG. – V20 Lore of the Clans: Was Blood Diaries. Post first draft redlines. Open Development starting up with this blog: http://theonyxpath.com/lore-of-the-clans-open-development-coming-soon/ – Deluxe Werewolf 20th Anniversary Edition: Sent a final list to the European shipper of those backers still without their rewards and he is going through them one by one. Mike Lee has delivered several new chapters this week of the W20 “Houses of the Moon” novel for Bill to review. The White Howlers Tribe Book has art coming in, and the comic art from John Bridges is in progress. – W20 Changing Breeds: Deluxes and Screens are finishing shipping. – W20 Book of the Wyrm- A Pentex Board Member nominee list was sent to backers, and the Surveys with ballots were sent out to backers last week. Work has begun on the new content for the book besides the Board Members, and then we’ll need to begin on the Pentex Employee Indoctrination Manual Stretch Goal project. – W20: The Umbra: Ready for Editing. – Mage the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition- Satyr Phil has handed all the text off to Bill. Bill is continuing his “second set of eyes” developer’s pass. The Book of Secrets and the “How Do You DO That?” book are being written. The M20 Quick Start PDF/PoD is now on sale (the PDF is free) here: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/131409/Mage-20th-Anniversary-Edition-Quickstart – Trinity Continuum: System Doc being assembled by Joltin’ Joe Carriker- I am reading new drafts of it right now, at least the combat section. He says system development is really hard and apologizes for the delay. The first new piece of art in YEARS has been commissioned. We’re doing some Gen Con things with that. Jumpin’ John Snead had to replace a writer for the Aeon core book, but says things are still coming together nicely. – Scion: Sketch for Scion: Origins came in and WOW! Expect to see it and the new character’s art at Gen Con. – Demon: the Descent Prestige Edition: Talking with shipper, hope to get packaging tied down and the book shipping in the next few weeks. – Demon: The Descent: Demon Seed Collection is in editing and art notes. DtD Seattle is in layout and being art directed. Heirs to Hell backers’ PDF went out to KS backers last week- we’ll be assembling the errata and getting the PDF and PoD versions ready to go on sale. Demon Translation Guide is being written. The Demon Fiction Anthology + Interfaces is in editing. – DtD Players Guide: Flowers Of Hell: PDF is available now: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/131419/Flowers-of-Hell-The-Demon-Players-Guide. We’ll be assembling the errata this week to prepare the PDF and PoD on sale versions. – DtD Storytellers’ Guide: Outline done, getting writers. – nWoD: Dark Eras: The VtR section is benefiting from a focused dev pass, while the rest of the Eras are in editing. – WtF: The Idigam Chronicle: In 2nd drafts. Stew Wilson is doing a remarkably regular Friday blog that focuses on specific topics for the book- lots of good discussion happening right now: http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/werewolftheforsaken/ – WtF: The Idigam Fiction Antholgy: Being written. – nMtA: The Fallen World Chronicle: Dave Brookshaw has started his blog about the next of the updated game lines. http://theonyxpath.com/category/projects/magetheawakening/ Writing has started. – nMtA: The Fallen World Fiction Antholgy: Being written. – GtSE: Geist Ready Made Characters: In redlines. – T-Shirts: W20 Tribe Symbol shirts are up, and V20 Clan Symbol shirts are on sale now, too! Reason to Drink: GenCon forms. Part the deuce. |
Police say an Ohio man was drunk when he had his 9-year-old neighbor drive him to a gas station to buy barbecue sauce for their chicken dinner. A Tiffin police spokesman tells The Advertiser-Tribune that the boy drove the man to the gas station Saturday evening, but clerks wouldn't let the child drive home and reported the situation. Police say the 27-year-old man tried to drive home and was pulled over by officers. Police say the man's blood-alcohol content was several times the legal limit. They say he faces several charges, including child endangering, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, refusing a chemical breath test and driving under suspension. Police say the man had the child over for dinner, and the boy's parents didn't know the neighbor was drunk. |
SPIEGEL: Mr. Assange, 10 years after the founding of WikiLeaks, the whistleblower platform is again being criticized. WikiLeaks is said to have put millions of Turkish voters in danger. What is your response? Assange: A few days after the publication of internal emails from the Democratic National Committee, an entirely false story was put out that we had published the names, addresses and phone numbers of all female voters in Turkey. It is completely false. And it was and is simple to check. Power factions fight back with lies. That's not surprising. SPIEGEL: Quite a few German journalists have long sympathized with WikiLeaks and also with Edward Snowden. But they aren't impressed with the publishing of the DNC emails. Are you campaigning on behalf of Donald Trump? Assange: Our publication of the DNC leaks has showed that the Democratic National Committee had effectively rigged the primaries in the United States on behalf of Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders. That led to the resignation of leading members of the DNC, including its president Debbie Wasserman Schultz. SPIEGEL: People within the Clinton campaign have suggested that the DNC emails were given to you by the Russian secret service. Assange: There have been many attempts to distract from the power of our publications. Hillary Clinton is the favorite to win. As always, most media aligns with the presumptive winner even though their claimed societal virtue is to investigate those in power. SPIEGEL: The fact is, WikiLeaks is damaging Clinton and bolstering Trump. Assange: We're not going to start censoring our publications because there is a US election. Our role is to publish. Clinton has been in government so we have much more to publish on Clinton. There is a lot of naivety. The US presidency will continue to represent the major power groups of the United States -- big business and the military -- regardless of who the talking head is. SPIEGEL: If someone submitted internal documents from the Trump campaign or the Republican Party, you would publish that as well? Assange: Yes, of course. That's what we do. SPIEGEL: The German newsmagazine Focus has even has accused WikiLeaks of publishing NSA documents and other documents that have been forged by the Russian secret service. What's your comment on that? Assange: The claims are not credible. Even the US government had to come out and say that they have no evidence of a link to WikiLeaks. I exposed the same German magazine back in 2008 as having been extensively penetrated by the BND (Eds. note: Bundesnachrichtendienst, the German foreign intelligence agency). We listed the times and dates of 58 contacts that a Focus journalist had with the BND. SPIEGEL: Isn't WikiLeaks vulnerable because it isn't possible for you to check and verify every single document submitted and to find possibly forged documents? Assange: We have a perfect record in detecting forgeries and, unlike the traditional press, we publish every document so everyone else can check too. WikiLeaks is literally the worst place in the world to try and plant a false story. SPIEGEL: Would WikiLeaks publish material about corruption in the Russian leadership? Assange: Yes. In fact we have already published more than 650,000 documents on Russia and President Vladimir Putin, most of which was critical. A number of highly critical books were written using this material, like "The Mafia State" by the Guardian journalist Luke Harding. The documents have also gone on to be used in a number of significant litigations, including the Yukos case. SPIEGEL: How can you prevent WikiLeaks from being taken advantage of in the global war of information? Assange: Our editorial criteria are public and they have been the same for about eight years. If a source gives us material that is of political, diplomatic, ethical or historical significance that has not been published before and is comprised of official documents or recordings, then we will publish it. Is the majority of our material in English? Yes. But that is a resource constraint. Most of our submissions are in English because most of our readers speak English. SPIEGEL: On Oct. 4, 2006, you registered the domain name www.wikileaks.org. What have you accomplished since then? Assange: WikiLeaks has published over 10 million documents in 10 years. Most have been published over the last six years, during which time I have been illegally detained, without charge, in the United Kingdom. SPIEGEL: You have received political asylum from the government of Ecuador, but have been stuck in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the last four years. British authorities would like to arrest you and extradite you for interrogation to Sweden. Hasn't this situation handicapped WikiLeaks? Assange: While many of the established media make losses or go bankrupt, WikiLeaks has survived a major conflict with a superpower, including an unlawful economic blockade by its banks and credit card companies and the detention of its editor. We have no debts. We have not had to fire staff. We have never lost a court case related to our publishing. We have never been forced to censor. Adversity has hardened us. We're 10 now. Just wait until we're teenagers. SPIEGEL: What has been WikiLeaks' most important publication? Assange: The most important publication of WikiLeaks is that it has published more than 10 million documents. The most important single collection of material we have published is the US diplomatic cable series. We started with 251,000 in 2011, but are up to 3 million now and have more coming. SPIEGEL: What have been the shortcomings of WikiLeaks? What would you like to improve? Assange: Resources. Has WikiLeaks been forced to do one thing rather than another in response to resource constraints? Yes. Constantly. SPIEGEL: For example? Assange: For example, resource constraints forced us to deal with politically compromised publications like the New York Times in order to harness their distribution networks. SPIEGEL: Do you regret the fact that you no longer have a cooperation with established papers like the New York Times or the Guardian -- and that WikiLeaks is even criticized by liberal papers? Assange: We have subsequently worked with journalists from both papers. Liberal papers are not necessarily liberal. We have excellent relations and contracts with more than 110 media organizations from all over the world. We aggressively enforce our agreements. SPIEGEL: Your source Chelsea Manning, a US soldier, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Edward Snowden is stuck in Moscow. And you are stuck here in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. How can whistleblowers come to terms with such setbacks? Assange: Let us not compare Edward Snowden's situation with that of Chelsea Manning or Jeremy Hammond, who is also imprisoned in the United States. As a result of WikiLeaks' hard work, Edward Snowden has political asylum, has travel documents, lives with his girlfriend, goes to the ballet and earns substantial speaking fees. Edward Snowden is essentially free and happy. That is no coincidence. It was my strategy to undo the chilling effect of the 35 year Manning sentence and it has worked. SPIEGEL: Given all the pressure that you and those you work with are facing, how do you keep going? Assange: We believe in what we are doing. It's very satisfying. It's extremely interesting intellectually. Sometimes great moments of justice come out of it. In one case, a man falsely accused left prison thanks to a publication of ours. A lot of people who work for WikiLeaks have the same instinct as me: If you are pushed you push back. |
330 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit A survey of game developers attending the annual GDC conference suggests major growth in the number of developers building games for AR and VR headsets. The 2017 GDC State of the Game Industry report, which gathered data from 4,500 attendees of the annual GDC conference, has been published. Among the insights from the report is that a healthy 39% of respondents are developing titles for AR and VR headsets. Present AR/VR Focus With 2016 being the year that major headsets have finally hit store shelves, there’s been major growth in the number of developers focusing on immersive platforms. According to the report, the HTC Vive (25% of respondents) and the Oculus Rift (24%) are leading the pack by a significant margin in terms of which headsets developers are currently developing for, followed by PlayStation VR (13%), right on par with Samsung’s Gear VR (13%). Future AR/VR Focus As for the future, development interest in the HTC Vive seems to be growing the most compared to other platforms. 40% of respondents said they expected their next VR/AR project (after the current project) to target the Vive while 37% said the Rift and 26% said PlayStation VR, according to the report. Exclusivity Among 11% of respondents who said they were working on an AR/VR game that would be exclusive to a single platform, the gap between Vive (33%) and Rift (24%) widened, with PlayStation VR coming in at 15%. Developer Interest in AR/VR Platforms Actual present or future projects aside, the survey also asked developers what VR/AR headsets interested them most; here the Vive took an even stronger lead, with 45% of developers interested in the Vive, 30% in the Rift, and 29% in PlayStation VR. Interestingly, in terms of interest, Google’s Daydream at 17% of interested respondents, beat out Gear VR at 13%. Great Majority of Developers See AR/VR as a Sustaining Long-term Business When it comes to AR/VR as a sustainable business, confidence is high among game developers, with 75% believing that it will be a long-term success as a gaming platform, the figure as last year’s GDC State of the Industry report. You can download a copy of the full 2017 GDC State of the Game Industry report here, which includes additional AR/VR insights alongside broader games industry. |
In Southern California, generations of immigrants are creating an evolving definition of "American." Multi-American is your source for news, conversation and insight on this emerging regional and national identity. As a retiree without a car, Grace Yin walks the streets of Chinatown every day, and never lets her guard down. Everywhere, she said, there are careless drivers. A relative was hit crossing Broadway and Cesar Chavez Avenue several years ago. "You have to look to the east, look to the west," Yin said in Mandarin. "You have to be very careful." Los Angeles isn’t known as the friendliest place for pedestrians and bicyclists. But a new analysis by the Asian & Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance shows that they face an elevated risk of injury from reckless driving in Chinatown. (The APIOPA used the UC Berkeley's Traffic Injury Mapping Systems, which relies on data from the California Highway Patrol). Drivers were at fault in 76 percent of collisions with pedestrians in Chinatown, compared to 66 percent for Los Angeles County, according to the alliance's analysis. This worries the alliance’s Jeffrey Kho, given that elderly residents make up about a quarter of Chinatown's population. "If you’re a young person, you see a car coming at you, you can run, you can jump," Kho said. "If you’re an elderly person with a walker, or even limping across, it’s a lot harder to get out of the way." Chinatown gets a lot of traffic because it’s triangulated by freeways — the 110, the 5, and the 101. "There are so many off-ramps that people enter the streets of Chinatown at freeway speeds," said Eric Bruins, planning and policy director of the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition. "Because the streets are wide enough to accommodate the commute hour when there’s not the volume of traffic, people can move quickly throughout Chinatown, so you have the worst of both worlds," Bruins said. Policymakers are planning improvements. Metro wants to make it easier for pedestrians and bicyclists to get between Union Station and neighboring communities such as Chinatown. As the Connect US project moves forward, advocates for the Chinatown pedestrians are hopeful planners will make the effort to seek input from the residents, many of whom can't speak English. "We want to see conversations be not just about, say, bicycles, but also about the very heavy pedestrian presence in Chinatown," Kho said. "Be sensitive to the people already in the community when you think about ways you can modernize and develop." The alliance's staff and interns have been going to Chinatown to survey residents about what improvements they would like to see. What they’re hearing from older residents: less traffic, wider sidewalks, and shady places where they can rest their tired feet. They also want safer intersections. The obesity prevention alliance found that most of the 168 vehicle-pedestrian collisions that took place between 2003 and 2001 occurred at intersections. It's not just elderly residents with concerns. Tommy Lo, an 18-year-old Chinatown resident and avid bicyclist, would like to see more bike lanes. Lo said he's had several near-misses with cars. He bikes to nearby Lincoln Heights because he prefers it to the buses taken by older residents. He knows of few people in Chinatown who are cyclists. "Other people are too afraid of cars and the traffic," Lo said. |
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: President-elect Donald Trump raised the prospect of a new global arms race on Thursday, after he suggested on Twitter that he would increase the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Trump’s tweet read, quote, “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Trump’s tweet came on the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country needed to, quote, “strengthen the military potential of strategic nuclear forces.” According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, about 93 percent of all nuclear warheads are already owned by Russia and the United States, which together have about 14,000 warheads stockpiled. AMY GOODMAN: This morning, MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski said she spoke briefly to the president-elect on the phone during a commercial break and asked him about his nuclear weapons comments. Brzezinski recounted Trump’s response during a conversation with her co-host, Joe Scarborough. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Mika asked the president-elect, while we had the opportunity, what his position was on—trying to clarify the tweet yesterday regarding the nuclear arsenal. And the president-elect told you what? MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass. JOE SCARBOROUGH: And outlast them all. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: And outlast them all. AMY GOODMAN: And, yes, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were sitting in their pajamas in front of a fire as they spoke. They had just spoken with Sean Spicer, Trump’s spokesperson. And when Trump called him on the phone at break, that’s when he spoke to Mika Brzezinski on the phone. And she relayed that conversation after. Joining us now is Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA. A new nuclear arms race, Annie? Can you talk about the significance of this? ANNIE LEONARD: You know, Amy, it is absolutely frightening. Every day, Trump says something that makes us worried, but this may be the most terrifying yet. A nuclear arms race is the last thing that the world needs. I think about climate change. I think about economic inequality. I think about all of these major threats that we’re facing as a country and as a world. Why would we add on top of that a totally manufactured, unnecessary threat? We already have so many nuclear weapons. We have over 7,000 nuclear weapons in the United States. We’re the biggest military spender in the world. A new nuclear arms race is the last thing the world needs. It’s the last thing our country needs. And it also demonstrates to me both a complete irresponsibility on Trump’s part and that he seems to be forgetting his campaign promises. During his campaign, he talked about bringing back jobs. He talked about economic security. The way that you bring back jobs and promote economic security is investing the trillions and trillions of dollars now being wasted on nuclear energy into a clean energy economy. That is how you get real security, not by wasting trillions of dollars on more nuclear weapons, that is just going to increase insecurity and fear in our country and globally. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Annie Leonard, this situation, where both the president-elect of the United States and the president of Russia, on the same—basically, within the same 24-hour period, are remarking about their nuclear arsenals? ANNIE LEONARD: You know, it is absolutely terrifying. I mean, this is not a reality game show. This is really a life-or-death situation. When Trump talks about making things great again or he wants to bring back the old-fashioned days, I think about when I was a kid in high school, and I would lie in bed at night absolutely terrified about the nuclear arms race. It was just something that we were all—it was drilled into our heads, this imminent threat. And I look at my high school kid. She lies in bed at night scared about climate change, scared about the state of the economy. Am I going to rewind things and then add the nuclear arms race onto the young people’s list of concerns today? I mean, it’s so frightening, it’s just surreal. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go back to something we played in the headlines, which is the issue of the continuum from President Obama to President Trump. Despite Obama’s call for an end to nuclear weapons, his administration has been quietly upgrading the nuclear arsenal as part of a massive effort that will cost up to one, I believe, trillion dollars over three decades. And this is something that Kellyanne Conway raised on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday, the former campaign manager who has just been named as part of the communications team [sic] of President Trump. Let’s go to that comment of Kellyanne Conway pointing to President Obama’s nuclear plans. KELLYANNE CONWAY: I don’t think the tweet was groundbreaking in this regard. It seems that President Obama himself has invested––has called for an upgrade in our capabilities. I’ve read in one or two articles, up to $1 trillion is the price tag. So, we all—you know, President Obama, President-elect Trump—everyone shares the same, I think, core value, and their first duty is to try to keep us all safe. And we know it’s a dangerous world, and that includes nuclear weapons. AMY GOODMAN: So, there you have Kellyanne Conway defending Trump, saying he’s not changing things that much. We have done many shows on Obama’s trillion-dollar nuclear plan. What about this, Annie Leonard? ANNIE LEONARD: Well, just because one president made a mistake certainly doesn’t give license to another president to make this mistake. Greenpeace and many of our allies, we fought against President Obama’s military spending, and we will fight against President Trump’s military spending. AMY GOODMAN: And I just want to correct: Kellyanne Conway has been named counselor to the president. |
YouTubers are starting to report that some of their Sims 4 videos are getting copyright claims from a user named “Jarrh3jmi”, which forces them to give their revenue to this user. YouTuber Fritosaurio talked about this on Twitter, saying that his video got demonetized and received a copyright claim by this user even though he followed all the rules. After further investigation, he found out that the reason why he got a copyright claim was because he used the following song “made” by Jarrh3jmi: Sounds familiar? That’s because it is – it’s a stolen soundtrack from Illan Eshkeri who composed this music for The Sims 4 Vampires Game Pack! However, this situation doesn’t stop just here – this person also put “his work” for pre-order on iTunes which should be out next month. We’re 99% sure that the rest of this EP is stolen work from The Sims 4. I wouldn’t be paying so much attention to this if YouTubers weren’t affected by this. So far 2 simmers have reported that their content received a copyright claim because of this stolen song which rightfully belongs to Electronic Arts. Hi @SimGuruGraham I just wanted to let u know that someone stole Ilan Eshkeri’s Vampires GP Music and they’re selling the song as their own: pic.twitter.com/s7SfJkiAbf — Calabazaurio 🎃 (@Fritosaurio) October 14, 2017 I had a copyright claim against one of my YouTube videos because of this today! 😤 — ☠️💀SkeletalSam 💀☠️ (@hey_harrie) October 14, 2017 Got a copyright claim by someone who steals music from @TheSims !!! Also other simtubers have the same problem. pic.twitter.com/z9fk3fktFt — Frightful Fry👻 (@Simproved) October 14, 2017 We contacted EA about this issue and will make sure to update this post as new info surface about this situation. |
A Northwestern University sophomore and women’s basketball player was found dead in her room on campus Monday, according to university officials. Chris Hush reports. (Published Monday, Jan. 9, 2017) A Northwestern University sophomore and women’s basketball player was found dead in her room on campus Monday, according to university officials. Jordan Hankins, 20, of Indianapolis, was found dead in her dorm room in the Foster Walker complex on Northwester’s campus in suburban Evanston, Carsten Parmenter, a university spokesman said. There is no indication of foul play or any danger to students or staff, the university said in a news release. Wednesday's game at Minnesota has been canceled, the university said, adding it will work with the Big Ten and the University of Minnesota for a makeup game. “We were deeply saddened to learn of the sudden passing of Northwestern student Jordan Hankins," Big Ten Commissioner James E. Delany said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, teammates and the entire Northwestern community during this incredibly difficult time.” Evanston police were investigating and the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office was expected to determine a cause of death after an autopsy, the university said. Evanston police Cmdr. Joe Dugan confirmed the department was investigating the death. He said the police were notified of Hankins' death about 3:06 p.m. University staff expressed their grief in the official announcement. "Jordan was a remarkably dynamic young woman. This is a devastating loss for our basketball family,” said head women’s coach Joe McKeown in a statement. “She brought an unwavering intensity and commitment to everything in her life. We will miss her enormously.” The university’s vice president for athletics and recreation, Jim Phillips, also lamented the death of the college athlete. “We are heartbroken and deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Jordan Hankins,” Philips said. “Our love and thoughts are with her family, teammates and friends. Jordan made a dramatic impact on our Wildcats community. Our department is solely focused on supporting those who adored her.” Hankins was an All-Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference First Team honoree as a high school junior, according to Northwestern’s website. She was also a National Honor Society member and was on her high school’s Distinguished Honor Roll since 2011 and wanted to study biological sciences at Northwestern, the website says. |
Iran’s supreme leader, for the first time, is telling his nation that it must prepare for war and “the end of times” as it continues to develop nuclear weapons. State-owned media outlets, in a coordinated effort, all ran a similar story Friday highlighting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s message on the coming of the last Islamic messiah. Until now, the Iranian media would mostly quote clerics from seminaries on the issue of the last Islamic messiah to avoid the regime being labeled messianic. However, the wide publication of Khamenei’s statements on a need to prepare for the end of times as it confronts the West over its illicit nuclear program is alarming to Western leaders. “The issue of Imam Mahdi is of utmost importance, and his reappearance has been clearly stated in our holy religion of Islam,” Khamenei said. We must study and remind ourselves of the end of times and Imam Mahdi’s era. … We must prepare the environment for the coming so that the great leader will come.” Shiite theology holds that great wars must engulf the Earth, during which one-third of the world’s population will die in the fighting and another third from hunger, lawlessness and havoc. Israel is to be destroyed, and only then will the 12th imam, Mahdi, reappear and kill all the infidels, raising the flag of Islam in all corners of the world. Under the guidance of Khamenei, several centers have been established in Iran on research and information on the coming of Mahdi, and a conference is held annually on Mahdiism. “Today we have a duty to prepare for the coming. … If we are the soldiers of the 12th imam, then we must be ready to fight,” Khamenei said. “With the guidance of Allah and His invisible help, we shall make the Islamic civilization proud on the world stage. … This is our destiny. … The youth, the faithful must prepare themselves for this great move.” Referring to the Quran, Khamenei said the coming has been promised by Allah. “There will come a time when all the oppressive powers of the world will be destroyed and humanity will be enlightened in the era of Imam Mahdi.” As reported recently, the regime has distributed the booklet “The Last Six Months” among its military forces in preparation for the coming and its confrontation with the West. The material admonishes the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij paramilitary forces that they must be prepared to do their duties during the expected war. The Revolutionary Guards’ media outlet, Mashregh, on Sunday warned Israel and America that they will have to guess as to what type of warhead the Iranian missiles will be carrying when targeting them. In its lengthy piece, Mashregh discussed Iranian missile capability and the devastation it can wreak on potential enemies. Referring to U.S. military bases in the region, it said that in recent war games, ballistic missiles with cluster warheads destroyed targets similar to air bases and fighter craft hiding under hangers. The piece boasts that the two-stage solid-fuel Sejil missile can pierce through Israel’s missile defense system and has had “the Zionists losing sleep.” After a decade of negotiation with Iran, the West has yet to make any inroads in stopping the regime’s illicit nuclear program. The latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency indicated Iran continues to enrich uranium at both the Natanz and Fordow facilities and now has enough nuclear material for at least five nuclear weapons. The regime has denied an IAEA request for inspection of a military facility where it is believed Iran conducted secret experiments of an implosion-type nuclear weapon. While a majority of Iranians oppose the mullahs’ brutal regime, Western sanctions have not curtailed its pursuit of nuclear weapons, which not only could lead to the collapse of the global economy but the killing of tens of millions of innocent civilians, including those in Iran. Reza Kahlili translated this Iranian video about Islamic prophecies of a coming messiah and the destruction of Israel: Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award-winning book, “A Time to Betray.” He is a senior Fellow with EMPact America, a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA). |
Ten years ago, the U.S. Navy set about building a new class of small, cheap, numerous Littoral Combat Ships meant to dominate dangerous coastal waters. But after a decade of politics and design-by-committee, the LCS has turned out to be anything but small, cheap and numerous. LCS is the "wrong ship at the wrong time," retired Navy Cmdr. John Patch wrote. On the other side of the Pacific, the Navy's biggest maritime rival, faced with the same requirement for small, cheap, numerous ships, quickly produced exactly that. The result is the People's Liberation Army Navy's triple-hull Type 022 missile boat, a "thoroughbred ship-killer," according to Patch. To some observers, the PLAN missile boat – or, more to the point, packs of these boats – poses yet another major Chinese threat to U.S. power in the Pacific. Eighty-three Type 022s firing more than 640 anti-ship missiles in quick salvos represent a "serious cause for concern," according to retired Navy Cmdr. George Root. To others, the diminutive Type 022s look like mere juicy targets for American helicopters and submarines. They cite the extremely poor combat record of small-missiles boats doing battle with larger vessels and aircraft. One thing is indisputable. The Type 022 is "a potential success story on how to field small combatants," Patch wrote. Its merits in combat remain to be seen, but at least the ship exists to perform a combat role. The same cannot be said of the huge fleet of LCSs the U.S. Navy thought it would have by now. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————- Seven-Year Sprint —————– In just seven years, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy has built 83 of the 400-ton Type 022s at an estimated cost of $40 million per ship. And production continues at a high rate in several shipyards. The U.S. Navy, by comparison, has finished just two LCS in the same span of time, each at a cost of more than $600 million. The Chinese ships sport eight anti-ship missiles apiece plus defensive guns and surface-to-air missiles. The American vessels, lightly armed in their own right, are designed to accommodate "plug-and-play" weapons kits, none of which are complete. To some critics, even 83 Type 022s are so much fodder for submarines and air power. Small missile-armed boats have fared very poorly in major naval battles – so poorly that the late naval historian Antony Preston said they were "among the world's worst warship designs since 1860," according to Navy Undersecretary Bob Work. Work, back when he was a mere analyst at the Washington, D.C., Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, summarized the experiences of Iranian and Iraqi "Fast Attack Craft" in combat with U.S. and allied forces in 1988 and 1991. "U.S./coalition forces: 40 FACs destroyed, 2 disabled; enemy: 0 U.S. or friendly forces hit, much less sunk." "This data suggests the weakness in focusing in on a simple fleet-on-fleet salvo model in modern naval combat," Work wrote, "primarily because the preferred method of engaging enemy surface targets is now through asymmetric attacks (e.g., aircraft and submarine attacks against surface vessels)." In other words, it doesn't matter how many missile boats you build, if your opponent can bring submarines and missile-armed aircraft to bear against them. Double-Edged Sword —————— For China, that reality cuts both ways. Considering China's limited anti-submarine skills and equipment, "U.S. submarines can currently operate freely in Chinese coastal waters," according to MIT analyst Owen Cote, Jr. But with more and more advanced jet fighters and surface-to-air missiles entering Chinese service, the United States cannot take for granted that its own aircraft can operate safely near the Chinese coast. Nor could the LCS take on the Type 022 in direct combat and count on winning. The LCS lacks major air defenses and cannot, on its own, defend against large numbers of incoming missiles. Similarly, the U.S. vessel does not carry long-range anti-ship missiles for use against craft like the Type 022. But a head-to-head comparison of LCSs and Type 022 as warships is not really useful, as neither is specifically intended to fight the other. In wartime, the Type 022s would likely prowl China's coastal zone as far afield as the Philippine Sea, unleashing missile barrages against American aircraft carriers and their escorting destroyers. LCS, meanwhile, would be trawling for enemy mines and submarines under the defensive umbrella of nearby destroyers and carriers – maybe. Truth is, no one has quite figured out what LCS is really for. In any event, what really matters is that Beijing set out to build a large number of small warships, quickly and at low cost – and succeeded. Washington tried the same thing, and failed, big-time. The dictatorial Chinese government and its command economy are ideally suited to building simple weapons in bulk, albeit at the risk of poor quality control. But that's not the only explanation for China's small-ship-building success. The biggest reason is that China started with a requirement for a small ship, and stuck to it. The U.S. Navy allowed its undisciplined design committees to gradually corrupt and complicate the original concept for the LCS, undermining any hope of building ships cheap or fast. That would probably come as no surprise to Dan Ward, an Air Force officer and advocate of building smaller weapons, faster. "I think the real culprit is our fascination with complexity, viewing it as a sign of sophistication," said Ward. China apparently does not share the same fascination. That's the *real *reason Beijing has the coastal warship fleet America only wishes it had. *Photos: PLAN, U.S. Navy * See Also: |
Forensic technicians search for human remains in a mass grave on the banks of the Lerma river in La Barca. REUTERS/Alejandro Acosta DOS AGUAS, Mexico - The hole is at least 50 feet wide, with rocky edges that veer straight down. The bottom is so deep, it's shrouded in complete darkness. Locals in this tiny village, tucked between the mountains in the central Mexican state of Michoacán, call it the Barranco del Manguito, the Gorge of the Mango. According to Rubén, the 34-year-old man who drove me here, the pit harbors a dark secret. He says it's a narcofosa, a makeshift grave where drug traffickers dump the bodies of their victims. "Several years ago, members of a local drug gang dumped an entire family here," says Rubén, who asked that we not use his real name. "They were five or six people. They killed them over a drug deal gone wrong. They put their bodies in a pickup truck and pushed the whole thing down the hole. There could be other bodies, too. They always use places like this. It's perfect, because no one even thinks of looking for bodies here." Though the hole is too deep, and its sides to steep for us to personally verify Rubén's story, he does know the area and the local underworld. Before a wave of violence scared him into retirement, he worked as a driver and marijuana farmer for La Familia Michoacana, a now-defunct drug cartel that terrorized the region between 2006 and 2010. As Mexico's violent drug war rages on, the country has become marked with narco-graves. While more of them surface each month, critics say the government isn't doing nearly enough to locate the dead. Some even accuse law enforcement officials of working with the cartels, allowing them not only to bury large numbers of victims with impunity, but also ensuring that the graves are never found. Last Friday, authorities in Michoacán unearthed several clandestine graves in the vicinity of Lázaro Cárdenas, a Pacific port city some 60 miles to the east. Police dug up 10 bodies in five graves. It still isn't known who the victims were, who killed them or when they were buried, but few doubt that the dead were casualties of the brutal gangland battles that have plagued Michoacán for the last seven years. Since 2006, Mexican authorities have uncovered at least 174 narcofosas in 19 different states, containing more than 1,000 bodies. Most of the graves are small, like the ones found in Lázaro Cárdenas. Others resemble the gruesome killing fields of Cambodia and Bosnia. Between last November and February, authorities discovered three mass graves in Jalisco state, just across the border with Michoacán, recovering more than 100 bodies over the course of four months. The bodies showed signs of torture, decapitation, and were riddled with bullet wounds. The Barranco del Manguito, or the Gorge of the Mango. The pit allegedly serves as a makeshift grave for casualties of Mexico's drug war. Vocativ/Jan-Albert Hootsen Most notorious were the narcofosas in San Fernando, a town in the northern state of Tamaulipas, which borders Texas. In 2010, the bodies of 72 massacred migrants were found in a warehouse. Less than a year later, a mass grave was discovered with the remains of 193 people. All of the victims were reportedly killed by Los Zetas, one of Mexico's most violent drug cartels. "There are so many mass graves in Mexico, the country is starting to resemble a Swiss cheese," says Jorge Reveles, a veteran crime reporter who has investigated narcofosas and written numerous books about the drug war. "The number of graves that hasn't been found is infinitely larger than the number that has been discovered." Statistics support his theory. Last week, the Mexican government admitted that more than 22,000 people have gone missing since the drug war began in 2006, when then president Felipe Calderón deployed the military to combat the country's drug cartels. That number is significantly higher than the 9,000 reported missing last year. And last Tuesday, the National Citizen Observatory, a crime watchdog, released a report indicating that Mexico now has more kidnappings than any other country in the world, with 0.8 kidnappings per 100,000 people. But not only is the number of disappeared alarmingly high, critics also say that criminals can dump bodies wherever they want, in some cases even with the assistance of corrupt law enforcement officials. How else, they argue, would it be possible for anyone to bury dozens, sometimes hundreds of people without anyone noticing? "It seems that a blind eye has been turned to organized crime, allowing them to disappear, kill and bury with ease," wrote Ruben Martín, a columnist for the El Economista newspaper, after the graves in Jalisco state were found earlier this year. "It is a very serious issue that must be clarified." Moreover, many also criticize the way the fosas are being investigated. "Take the example of San Fernando, where the biggest graves were found," says José Reveles. "There was no prosecutor in town to properly lead an investigation. Some of the bodies were damaged when they were taken out of the grave and the identification process took far too much time. It is an awful development for families of the disappeared, who often need to travel the whole country just to find out if their loved ones happened to have been found in a newly discovered mass grave." Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto has promised to ramp up the fight against organized crime. Part of his strategy is the formation of the Gendarmería, a new elite police unit working under the auspices of the Federal Police. This week saw the first deployment of 350 Gendarmería agents in Valle de Bravo, an affluent town near Mexico City, which has recently reported a wave of kidnappings. But many doubt whether the current government is willing or able to solve the gruesome mysteries of Mexico's disappeared and mass graves. "If you ask me, it's all for show," says the former pot farmer Rubén. "In Michoacán alone, there are graves everywhere, hundreds of people have disappeared. The authorities could easily find most of the fosas, but I feel that it just doesn't interest them." |
New research shows that stripes are hard for our brains to process – and looking at some everyday objects could trigger a migraine Name: Stripes. Age: Younger than us. Appearance: Really? Younger than us? I’m pretty sure things have been striped since the 1950s, at least. My mum had a skirt. And there are rainbows. And zebras. And sabre-toothed tigers. They’re ancient. Sabre-toothed tigers are usually thought to have been plain or spotted, but I take your point. Thank you. I am talking about very regular, crisply rendered stripes, which are a relatively modern phenomenon and one we evolved without. And why are you suddenly talking about modern, crisply rendered stripes? Scientists think they may be the trigger for some migraines and epileptic fits. Really? Yes. Research from the Netherlands and the US just published in the journal Current Biology suggests that looking at intensely stripy things causes an increase in gamma oscillations in the brain, which are associated with headaches and seizures. What does this mean? It means that you shouldn’t eat a Wall’s Viennetta while wearing a pinstripe suit in a room full of venetian blinds. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zebras have irregular patterns of stripes, which are easier for our brains to process. Photograph: Riccardo Gangale/AP I see. It seems that our brains are not designed to cope with such extreme regularity, as it doesn’t occur in nature. The researchers found that once they distorted the lines slightly or blurred their edges, the oscillations died down. I do always feel a bit weird when I look at escalators and stuff. My eyes go funny. That is because your brain is going funny. Because these kind of stripes aren’t supposed to be happening? Exactly. Your brain has a sort of zebra-comfort zone. Anything that could be used as camouflage as you roam the savanna is processable. Anything that requires a geometry set or computer to design – not so much. I’d better cancel that seven-layer cake I ordered for my birthday. I don’t want to set anyone off. Actually, horizontal stripes aren’t as bad as vertical. Why? No one knows. Maybe our brains are just clever enough to make an exception that allows for pudding. You could have that Viennetta too. NOW it’s a party. Happy birthday to you. Do say: “Another reason to ban venetian blinds – hurrah!” Don’t say: “Can I still watch the 1981 military buddy comedy movie Stripes, starring Bill Murray?” |
Image caption Rescuers used ropes to reach the people stuck in the rollercoaster Nine people were rescued from a rollercoaster after being trapped for up to eight hours on the ride in Strathclyde Park. Emergency services were called to M&Ds, near Hamilton in Lanarkshire, after the Tsunami ride suffered a "mechanical failure" at about 1630 BST on Sunday. The group, aged between nine and 49, were stranded about 60ft (18.2m) above the ground. The last person was eventually pulled free from the ride at about 0045 BST. BBC news online Scotland spoke to a 30-year-old man who was stranded on the rollercoaster with his 36-year-old wife. 'Real nightmare' The man, who did not want to be named, described their ordeal as "a real nightmare". "We left our 15-month-old child with a friend's wife to go on the ride and were separated from the baby for nine hours," he said. "We thought we would be on the rollercoaster for five minutes, so, didn't have extra clothing or formula milk. "Thankfully, my friend's wife took good care of our child but it was very stressful for me and my wife." The man said when the rollercoaster stopped, they thought it would be restarted within minutes, but were shocked as the wait "went on and on". He said his wife could not get to a toilet for eight hours and "suffered" while waiting to be taken off. He also said those stranded on the ride were not given any information by park operators and did not receive an apology when they were finally taken off. Mechanical failure "The only thing we got was a free taxi home as the bus services had all stopped by then," he said. "The rescue guys were fantastic, though, and we cannot thank them enough." A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: "At around 4.30pm one of the rollercoaster rides at M&D's theme park suffered what appeared to be a mechanical failure. "Nine people of various ages were on the ride. "Strathclyde Police and other emergency services were sent to the scene. "Everybody is now safe and well. No-one needed to be taken to hospital." M&D's website states it is Scotland's "only theme park" with five rollercoasters including The Tsunami, Tornado, Express, The Runaway Mine Train and The Big Apple. In June 2009, six people were stranded on the Tornado ride after high winds caused safety systems to activate. Were you among those stuck on the rollercoaster, or do you know anyone who was? You can get in touch with us at newsonlinescotland@bbc.co.uk - and you can also send any pictures, either still or moving, to the same e-mail address. If you submit an image, you do so in accordance with the BBC's Terms and Conditions. |
Eiler has been the only resident in Monowi since her husband passed away in 2004. Now, she runs the local bar, Monowi Tavern, and spends time with friends and family who visit from neighboring towns. "[Eiler] lives in a part of the country that does not have a huge population base," Schukar tells Refinery29 by phone. As farms become more automated, the jobs are disappearing. Monowi has dwindled from a population of about 300 residents to just Elsie. But despite what some might see as a lonesome lifestyle, Eiler has an active social life with caring peers. "You realize that it’s actually an incredible community that they have there," Schukar said. "I would say that Elsie is better connected to people than my neighbors here in Chicago. She has more genuine conversations; they make more of a point to sit down with each other and talk about how their lives are." Schukar says that Eiler has considered moving away. "Her son is closer to Omaha, and her daughter is out in Tucson. And she's talked about retiring to Tucson, to the warmer climate, and also to be closer to family." But she's too tough to give up on being the last woman in Monowi. "I think she feels in some ways that if she left, that would be the end for her, because this gives her so much meaning, being the center of this community." "I think Monowi is who she is," Schukar adds. |
Friends, Disruptive Innovation 2. By this time, I am sure, you all have heard any number of times through these two days what a disruptive innovation is. Let me make you hear that one more time that it is an innovation that helps create a new market and value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network over a few years, displacing an earlier technology. 3. The theory of disruptive innovation was invented by Clayton Christensen, of Harvard Business School, in his book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”. Mr Christensen used the term to describe innovations that create new markets by discovering new categories of customers. Inclusive Growth & Disruptive Innovation 4. The main theme of this FIBAC 2015 is “Inclusive Growth with Disruptive innovations”. I am sure that you all had very good discussion on such innovations in the banking arena, both of international and domestic. Let me share with you my own thoughts on the subject. 5. To start with, I find a natural coherence and congruence between disruptive innovation and inclusive growth. Both the concepts, by definition, aim at impacting people at the bottom of the pyramid. Disruptive innovations usually find their first customers at the bottom of the market: as unproved, often unpolished, products, they cannot command a high price. Likewise, inclusive growth targets the hitherto excluded segments of the population. It allows a whole new population at the bottom, access to a product or service that was historically only accessible to a few with a lot of money or a lot of skill. Financial Inclusion and Disruptive Innovation 6. A key element of the inclusive growth is financial inclusion. Here is where we have been observing the power of disruptive innovations. This is partly by harnessing new technologies, primarily the information and communication technology, more specifically the mobile technology; and also by developing new business models like the Business Correspondent (BC) model and exploiting old technologies and procedures like lending in new ways like the micro finance. 7. The new business model also included new type of accounts, called the Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBD), besides the issuance of RuPay Cards. The results are encouraging. As at the end of March 2015, the Banking Outlets in Villages in Branchless mode, which is primarily through BCs were 5,04,139 and the urban BCs were 96,847. The BSBD accounts were 398 million and the balance in them was ₹ 438.3 billion. The Prime minister’s Jan Dhan Yojana has given a special fillip to these. 8. A parallel development relates to the issuance of Aadhaar cards and ceding the cards to bank accounts. It is reported that more than 817.8 million Aadhaar numbers have been issued by April 2015 and the number is still increasing. Of course, it is another matter that the recent Supreme Court interim judgment has put the scheme in a tight corner and we hope that it will soon be resolved. 9. Next element is the use of mobile technology. The great expanse of mobile coverage, the number of people having the handsets, the mobile banking products and services are all at a critical point for high leveraging to usher in financial inclusion and inclusive growth. Financial Inclusion and Disruptive Innovations in Regulation 10. Now, let me present before you some of the disruptive innovations through regulation with the ultimate goal of furthering inclusive growth. These innovative initiatives, under the caption of differentiated banks, are primarily to further financial inclusion, which is an integral part of inclusive growth strategies. Differentiated Banks 11. The concept of differentiated banks was first discussed in 2007; but it was felt that the time was not yet opportune for such banks. Thereafter, the concept was once again discussed in a Paper “Banking Structure in India - The Way Forward”, brought out by the Reserve Bank in August 2013. The Paper looked into various aspects of the banking structure, licensing of banks, banking models and suggested a transition path for some banks. 12. In that Paper, we had noted that despite significant progress, one aspect of banking in India that required deeper analysis was the still inadequate coverage of the banking and financial sectors. We observed that even with the then 157 domestic banks operating in the country [comprising 26 Public Sector Banks, 7 New Private Sector Banks, 13 Old Private Sector Banks, 43 Foreign Banks, 4 Local Area Banks (LABs), and 64 RRBs], just about 40 per cent of the adults had formal bank accounts. Deepening the engagement of formal banking for low income households and providing access to the unbanked would require increasingly innovative approaches (including channels, products, interface, etc.). 13. Part of the improved engagement was to ensure enhanced access to credit for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which were expected to be the major contributors to future growth and employment creation. Credit to SMEs would require an innovative combination of banks, private equity. 14. We said that with the broadening and deepening of financial sector, some banks may choose to operate in niche areas so as to reap certain obvious advantages in terms of managing business and risk management. Some countries, as we noted, have differentiated bank licensing regimes where differentiated licenses are issued, specifically outlining the activities that the licensed entity can undertake. With the broadening and deepening of financial sector in India, we saw a need that banks move from the situation where all banks provide all the services, to a situation where banks find their specific realm and mainly provide services in their chosen areas. 15. In September 2013, we set up a Committee headed by Shri Nachiket Mor, on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Households to look into the issues relating to financial inclusion. The committee came up with two broad designs for the banking system in the country - the Horizontally Differentiated Banking System (HDBS) and the Vertically Differentiated Banking System (VDBS) based on the functional building blocks of payments, deposits and credit. 16. In a HDBS design, the basic design element remains a full-service bank that combines all three building blocks of payments, deposits, and credit but is differentiated primarily on the dimension of size or geography or sectoral focus. In a VDBS design, the full-service bank is replaced by banks that specialise in one or more of the building blocks of payments, deposits, and credit. Among others, the Committee suggested licensing of Payments Bank and wholesale banks as differentiated banks. 17. The Nachiket Mor committee opined that in the Indian context it would be important to have the regulatory flexibility to approach payments, savings, and credit independently (the Vertically Differentiated Banking Design) and to bring them together when the efficiency gains are high and the other costs are low. 18. Taking into account all these recommendations and the feedback to the Discussion paper, we concluded that differentiated licensing would be a desirable step and accordingly in November 2014 we announced our intention to grant licenses to two types of differentiated banks viz., the Payment Banks and the Small Finance Banks. Payment Banks 19. Payment system has been proving to be the arena where new ideas, products and services have been successfully introduced. Starting from the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system, the Pre and Post Paid Instruments, the card present and absent transactions, the different types of e-wallets and to the mobile banking products, we have been experiencing a payment revolution in our country. 20. The next biggest contributor to this is going to be the payment banks. Just the other day, we, the Reserve Bank, have granted in principle approval to eleven entities to form payment banks. Payment Banks are a part of the disruptively innovative regulatory initiatives of the Reserve Bank for financial inclusion, which will lead to inclusive growth. These banks have been structured with the specific mandate to further financial inclusion. As we said clearly in the Guidelines for Licensing of Payment Banks, the objective of setting up of payments banks will be to further financial inclusion; the strategies will be by providing (i) small savings accounts and (ii) payments / remittance services to migrant labour workforce, low income households, small businesses, other unorganised sector entities and other users. The scope of the activities permitted for the Payment Banks included: Acceptance of demand deposits. Payments bank will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of ₹ 100,000 per individual customer Issuance of ATM / debit cards Payments and remittance services through various channels BC of another bank and Distribution of non-risk sharing simple financial products like mutual fund units and insurance products, etc. 21. As you can see, the scope has been carefully crafted to sub-serve the primary objective of furthering financial inclusion. We have also insisted that the Payment Bank should be a fully networked and technology driven institution. You will appreciate the relevance of this, if you will recall that when we had announced the policy guidelines for licensing new banks way back in 1993, one of the requirements was that they should be ab-initio technologically driven banks and the resultant new era of information technology based banking that the country could enjoy in these twenty odd years. In the same way, we are confident that the Payment Banks will further revolutionise the payment arena. 22. The other day, someone compared emergence of payment banks to the emergence of telecom towers. He said in the telecom industry, every telco initially created its own tower system and it made it a high cost venture and the growth was limited to the affluent segment. Then came the trend of separating the tower infrastructure from the telco, and the tower became a market infrastructure where all telcos could ride on. What followed is the amazing and exponential expansion of mobile services, covering almost the entire population and at low and affordable cost, all the while continuously improving the quality and latest offerings as well. Similarly, we may be seeing with the advent of payment banks, the universal banks may shed of costly payment infrastructure which includes high cost physical locations and assets and ride on the common, technology based, low-cost payment infrastructure that will be ushered by the payment banks, and this can bring forth exponential growth in banking services to the hitherto excluded population. The result will be financial inclusion and inclusive growth. Small Finance Banks 23. A parallel major disruptive innovative change for inclusive growth will be the advent of Small Finance Banks. As we observed in our 2013 Discussion paper on Banking Structure mentioned earlier, country‐level studies show that small banks may perform very differently from large banks. Greater access to local information, greater commitment to local prosperity, differences in costs and risk management, and competition policy could explain the specific influence of such type of banks on local economic development. In developing countries where economic development is hampered by insufficient and inadequate access to financial services in rural areas, small banks could improve financing opportunities to small and medium size enterprises and encourage entrepreneurship. 24. Consequently, we announced in November 2014 that we would grant licenses to Small Finance Banks, a new set of differentiated bank. The objective of setting up of small finance banks, like the payment banks, is also to further financial inclusion; however, it is sought to be achieved through a different set of strategies viz., (i) provision of savings vehicles primarily to unserved and underserved sections of the population, and (ii) supply of credit to small business units; small and marginal farmers; micro and small industries; and other unorganised sector entities, through high technology-low cost operations. 25. One may say that the Small Finance Banks, or the Payment Banks are not the first set of differentiated banks; the country had tried and tested, with differing degrees of success, the concept of differentiated banks and in particular the small banks, though they were not called so then, in the form of Regional Rural Banks, way back in 1974 and the Local Area Banks in 1996. However, while these small banks had the potential for financial inclusion, performance of the RRBS and LABs had been unsatisfactory. There were fundamental weaknesses inherent in the business model of such small banks, like the narrow capital base, restrictive geographical jurisdiction, lack of diversification in source of funds and the concentration risk. 26. Therefore, as you will see that we have carefully crafted the scope of Small Finance Banks to sub-serve the primary objective of furthering financial inclusion, thereby inclusive growth. The small finance bank, in furtherance of the objectives for which it will be set up, shall primarily undertake basic banking activities of acceptance of deposits and lending to unserved and underserved sections including small business units, small and marginal farmers, micro and small industries and unorganised sector entities. It can also undertake other non-risk sharing simple financial services activities, not requiring any commitment of own fund, such as distribution of mutual fund units, insurance products, pension products, etc. with the prior approval of the Reserve Bank and after complying with the requirements of the sectoral regulator for such products. The small finance bank can also become a Category II Authorised Dealer in foreign exchange business for its clients’ requirements. There will not be any restriction in the area of operations of small finance banks. It is expected that the small finance bank should primarily be responsive to local needs. 27. It will be required to extend 75 per cent of its Adjusted Net Bank Credit (ANBC) to the sectors eligible for classification as priority sector lending (PSL). While 40 per cent of its ANBC should be allocated to different sub-sectors under PSL as per the extant PSL prescriptions, the bank can allocate the balance 35 per cent to any one or more sub-sectors under the PSL where it has competitive advantage. 28. The maximum loan size and investment limit exposure to a single and group obligor would be restricted to 10 per cent and 15 per cent of its capital funds, respectively. Further, in order to ensure that the bank extends loans primarily to small borrowers, at least 50 per cent of its loan portfolio should constitute loans and advances of upto ₹ 2.5 million. 29. How are these Small Finance Banks going to be game changers? Let me explain our thought process. First, whom are we targeting to form the Small Finance Banks? The Guidelines for Licensing Small Finance Banks indicated that resident individuals / professionals with 10 years of experience in banking and finance and Companies and Societies owned and controlled by residents will be eligible as promoters to set up Small Finance Banks. The Guidelines also said that existing Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs), Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), and LABs that are owned and controlled by residents can also opt for conversion into small finance banks. We received 72 applications and as you would have noted, 41 among them are existing NBFCs, MFIs and LABs and 12 are individuals / professionals. The MFI-NBFCs registered with us are 65 and their resources are limited to their own equity, borrowing from banks and market borrowings. They are not permitted to access low cost or why, even any deposit. Despite such constraints, they have serviced 25.5 million accounts / customers and had a credit portfolio of ₹ 277.34 billion as at end March 2015. Likewise, the NBFCs also typically depend on their own equity, bank funding and market borrowings for their resources. Out of the 11,842 registered NBFCs as at end March 2015, as many as 11,622 cannot accept deposits. The credit portfolio of these NBFCs stood at ₹ 11,169.24 billion as at the end of March 2015. The LABS, as of now, cannot expand their services beyond the few districts permitted for them. Their credit portfolio amounted to ₹ 13.18 billion as at the end of March 2015. These entities are in the financial inclusion arena – MFIs by definition and the NBFCs and LABs by serving the unserved or underserved segments of population and economy. If these MFIs, NBFCs and LABs could achieve this level of penetration with such constraints as they operate today, if such established entities would become Small Finance Banks, with access to low cost deposits, all-India operations and the discipline of banks can cater to much wider unserved, underserved and excluded segments. With their USP of service at door step, flexible times, cash-flow based credit assessment, minimum documentation, continuous monitoring, hand-held manual ATMs, these Small Finance Banks can totally alter the face and definition of banking. Post their success, I am sure, text books will redefine the concept of banking, reflecting these entities functioning, than the brick and mortar universal banks. Undesirable and Questionable Disruptive Innovations 30. While so far we have discussed certain disruptive innovations which we support, we also need to discuss certain other innovative developments which have the potential to be disruptive of course, but not of so desirable, or of questionable, relevance, or at least we need to be carefully monitoring and be vigilant. In particular, I want to discuss two developments – digital money or crypto currency and crowd funding. 31. What is crypto currency? Crypto currency is a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank. 32. What is crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of alternative finance, which has emerged outside of the traditional financial system. 33. Are these disruptive innovations for inclusive growth? Both these developments are based on leveraging technology in unusual way, so they are innovative; both have the great potential to be disturbing the standard ways in which currency and credit systems are operated, and so are disruptive. Do these developments have potential implications for financial inclusion? Yes, of course; they both can assist financial inclusion and therefore inclusive growth. Crypto currency can support activities which do find difficulties in settling such transactions in the normal ways. The crowdfunding can help some funds needy person or entity, in searching and locating those who have the particular aptitude and willingness to help that person or entity, as only such people / entities respond to the crowdfunding call. This way both can support financial inclusion. 34. Then, why do I say that they may not be desirable? Why do I say that they may be questionable? For one thing, they both hope to operate in a regulator free environment. In matters financial, it is a quintessential received wisdom of several centuries that unregulated financial system has immense scope for depriving ordinary public of their hard earned money and therefore highly risky to be permitted to grow. It doesn’t stop there; there will be no enforcer as well. This is extremely risky, especially when such a system operates internationally. It is true that in crowdfunding there will be a platform which does have the role of an enforcer. However, its effectiveness is questionable and mostly one-sided. Secondly, both have the potential to support criminal, anti-social activities like money laundering, terrorist funding and tax evasion. While we do not have any reported instances of crowdfunding in this respect, crypto currencies have been widely suspected to finance criminal activities. We have to be carefully and critically watching these developments. That is why I said these innovative developments which have the potential to be disruptive, may not be of so desirable, or may be of questionable, relevance and merit. Conclusion 35. To conclude, we find that several disruptive innovations in the financial sector have immense demonstrated potential to further inclusive growth through financial inclusion. Country is getting fruits of such labour. Financial regulations also are supportive of disruptive innovation and they also employ the same. However, we need to be cautious about certain other disruptive innovations which have potential to be highly risky and can be destabilising. 36. Thank you all for patient listening! |
(CNN) — Editor's note: This article was first published in April 2015. It was last updated in November 2016. Anthony Bourdain went to some of the world's most fascinating places. They're not all go-to destinations for the average traveler, and his magic was in unlocking those places through their people and food. He was very proud of the shows he produced for " Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown ." These are some of Bourdain's favorite episodes: Season 1: Myanmar CNN's Anthony Bourdain happens upon a Ferris wheel powered by people. "Parts Unknown" is on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. The series premiere episode offered an inside look at the fabled beauty and local cuisine of a country that had been, up until recently, off-limits to outsiders. Season 1: Libya Anthony Bourdain discovers an American-style fast-food restaurant that opened in Libya after the revolution. Bourdain looks at the post-Gaddafi uncertainty of Libya through the lens of food and ex-freedom fighters. The host ends the episode on this sentiment: "Everybody seems to be saying, you know, 'in five, see us' -- look at us in five years. That is a pretty reasonable attitude," he said. "This is a place that's filled with a lot of extraordinary people who have done an extraordinary thing on very short notice, under very difficult circumstances, and at a very difficult time -- who are continuing to do the best they can, and I wish them well." Season 1: Congo Anthony Bourdain gets to fulfill his dream of traveling the Congo River. Bourdain visits the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the setting of one of his favorite books, Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," which itself was the basis for one of his favorite movies, the classic "Apocalypse Now." "It is the most relentlessly f***ed-over nation in the world, yet it has long been my dream to see Congo. And for my sins, I got my wish," he wrote. Season 2: Jerusalem Jerusalem's old city is divided into 4 independently functioning quarters: Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Armenian. Bourdain and crew make their first trip to Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. While the political situation is often tense between the people living in these areas, Bourdain concentrates on their rich history, food and culture, and spends time with local chefs, home cooks and writers. Season 2: Copenhagen At Noma, where Rene Redzepi changed gastronomy, Bourdain tried a dish consisting of coconut and a bouquet of flowers. This episode explores the food and natural beauty of Copenhagen , the economic and cultural center of Denmark. The city is home to famed chef Rene Redzepi and his brainchild, Noma, regarded by critics as one of the world's best restaurants Bourdain delves into the city's cuisine and the new Nordic creativity that infuses Redzepi's work at his restaurant. Season 2: Tokyo Bourdain says seeing Tokyo changes the way you see the world; and after dark, things get wild - especially with jet lag. Japan is a paradox. The low birthrate, the dedication, the conformity and the life of a salary man are well-known. It also has a competitive and rigid culture that gives way to some unique subcultures. Bourdain has traveled to Tokyo countless times, but on this trip he's in search of the city's dark, extreme and bizarrely fetishistic underside. Season 3: Punjab See how Tony's mood improves. Bourdain dives into the ever-changing state of Punjab with a trip to Amritsar, sampling cuisine at the dhabas (roadside restaurants), a gurpurb festival (Sikh celebration) and a free community vegetarian restaurant. Along the way, he meets with local residents who give their perspectives on life in this sometimes contentious region of India that borders Pakistan. Season 3: Lyon Tony visits Daniel Boulud's family farm as a traditional winter Lyonnais dish is prepared. Watch Sunday at 9pm ET/PT. In this food-centric episode, Bourdain accompanies world-renowned chef/restaurateur Daniel Boulud as they explore the culinary hub of Lyon, France, for a "once-in-a-lifetime" pilgrimage to the restaurant and home of nouvelle cuisine innovator Paul Bocuse. Season 4: Shanghai Anthony Bourdain discovers the new Shanghai. Tune in to "Parts Unknown," Sunday 9pm EST. In spite of its nominally communist system, Shanghai is possibly the most go-go, unfettered, money and status-mad, materialistic place on Earth. Its skyline alone is confirmation that money talks loudest. Season 4: Iran Tony says Iran is "neither East nor West, but always somewhere in the middle." The country far exceeded his expectations Bourdain and his crew take their long-awaited inaugural trip to Iran , exploring Tehran and Isfahan. |
In Kenya, the $53 million Yes Youth Can program empowers nearly one million Kenyan youth to use their voices for advocacy in national and local policy-making, while also creating economic opportunities. In advance of Kenya's March 2013 general elections, Yes Youth Can's "My ID My Life" campaign helped 500,000 youth obtain National identification cards, a prerequisite to voter registration, and carried out a successful nationwide campaign with Kenyan civic organizations to elicit peace pledges from all presidential aspirants. Could anything be more hypocritical, when "progressives" are stonewalling and vilifying the states' attempts at simply implementing voter ID, let alone a National ID? And, what of "creating economic opportunities," "strengthening government accountability," "responsible natural resource utilization," "human rights," and "economic development" right here, at home!?... Progressives' apparent motto: "Better thee than me."... M. L. Pershern is a retired architect and, in accordance with the Pew Research Center's "Political Typology" quiz , a "staunch conservative," although he describes himself as an independent constitutional conservative, with a 7.6 rating on Prof. Tim Groseclose's Politcal Quotient survey . The United States will soon launch a program in West Africa to build the capacity of civil society organizations to responsibly advocate on land tenure issues, including land rights, working closely with governments and the private sector to improve responsible natural resource utilization and the protection and advancement of human rights and economic development. And a third, for which the monetary outlay is, as yet, unspecified: In Tanzania, the United States has dedicated $14 million to strengthening government accountability institutions and linking them with Tanzanian civil society watchdog groups and civic activists in a constructive partnership to further government transparency. The program focuses on improving access to information for Tanzanian citizens in four key development sectors: health, education, natural resource management, and food security. In light of the recent presidential pander-cation to Africa, it was timely to find the following link, from a simpatico, in my e-mail inbox: White House Pays $53 Million for Voter ID in Kenya While Opposing Same in US At first, given the source link, I was suspicious that the article might be a hoax because the prime source for the article was not included. With some targeted searching, I traced the prime source for the Minuteman News article to a Whitehouse Fact Sheet, which confirmed the essence of the Minuteman News article. From FACT SHEET: U.S. Support for Strengthening Democratic Institutions, Rule of Law, and Human Rights in Sub-Saharan Africa: In Kenya, the $53 million Yes Youth Can program empowers nearly one million Kenyan youth to use their voices for advocacy in national and local policy-making, while also creating economic opportunities. In advance of Kenya's March 2013 general elections, Yes Youth Can's "My ID My Life" campaign helped 500,000 youth obtain National identification cards, a prerequisite to voter registration, and carried out a successful nationwide campaign with Kenyan civic organizations to elicit peace pledges from all presidential aspirants. The Fact Sheet includes a second disbursement: In Tanzania, the United States has dedicated $14 million to strengthening government accountability institutions and linking them with Tanzanian civil society watchdog groups and civic activists in a constructive partnership to further government transparency. The program focuses on improving access to information for Tanzanian citizens in four key development sectors: health, education, natural resource management, and food security. And a third, for which the monetary outlay is, as yet, unspecified: The United States will soon launch a program in West Africa to build the capacity of civil society organizations to responsibly advocate on land tenure issues, including land rights, working closely with governments and the private sector to improve responsible natural resource utilization and the protection and advancement of human rights and economic development. Could anything be more hypocritical, when "progressives" are stonewalling and vilifying the states' attempts at simply implementing voter ID, let alone a National ID? And, what of "creating economic opportunities," "strengthening government accountability," "responsible natural resource utilization," "human rights," and "economic development" right here, at home!?... Progressives' apparent motto: "Better thee than me."... M. L. Pershern is a retired architect and, in accordance with the Pew Research Center's "Political Typology" quiz, a "staunch conservative," although he describes himself as an independent constitutional conservative, with a 7.6 rating on Prof. Tim Groseclose's Politcal Quotient survey. |
Chiaroscuro lighting technique is the undeniable king when it comes to crafting memorable images, let's break down how you can use it. We work in a 2-dimensional medium, but we still want to create the three-dimensional look. Well "look" no further than this time-tested method for accomplishing that goal. Chiaroscuro lighting. Chiaroscuro Definition Chiaroscuro is the use of contrast in light and shading across an entire image composition. It is a technique that creates a three-dimensional quality in images on a two-dimensional plane. Chiaroscuro lighting was developed by Leonardo Davinci, Caravaggio, Vermeer, and Rembrandt. It is a signature quality in the works of their Renaissance art movement but is also well known today for its role in defining the film noir sub-genre of movies(among others) through low-key photography. Chiaroscuro Lighting in Film: A More Recent History Lesson Long after Rembrandt and co. defined it. But still, before it was used to create the pools of darkness that slowly enveloped Michael Corleone and his soul in the Godfather films, Chiaroscuro lighting was pioneered in film during a movement called German Expressionism. The sparse, harsh technique created a sense of literal darkness and would soon work it's way into American movies in prominent fashion with Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. Film noir was born shortly after that and the style became ingrained in our national psyche. Chiaroscuro Lighting Technique and How It Works There are lots of ways you can add depth to your shot -- you can place objects in the foreground and background, use a shallow depth of field, or employ the parallax effect. But chiaroscuro is one method you should know and use every time your shoot involves lighting. This video by Jordy Vandeput explains the details of this lighting technique (it's more of a tenet really): how it works, how to light it, and how artists such as the great Vermeer used it in his own paintings. In essence, this lighting technique seems simple enough -- use dimmer and brighter lights in opposing succession to create contrast (light/dark), however you'll soon find out, when handling such unwieldy things as lights, that it's true what they say: cinematography is basically painting with light -- and painting ain't no easy task. Again, let's look back, since we're on the topic of painting, at the chiaroscuro lighting technique as employed during the Baroque period (1600s) in which Vermeer, as well as my boy Caravaggio, were busy churning out the famed tronie Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Taking of Christ respectively. The Taking of Christ (Caravaggio, c. 1602)) The reason I really enjoyed this video is because I'm a huge history nerd -- if you mix film techniques with any amount of art history, I'll go cuckoo bananas. (All Jordy had to do was mention Vermeer's name.) Yes, it's great to learn how to light a scene to create depth, but it's also interesting to learn where the technique came from and how it was used (and how it evolved) throughout history. There are many different ways to approach recreating the Chiaroscuro look. The classic method is to light half of someone's face, and let the other half fall off into darkness. But there are varying degrees beyond that. Do you want to set up a strong backlight, creating a sort of a low-key lighting halo effect? Obscuring the figures face in the process? We referred to chiaroscuro as painting with light, but it's also a kind of writing with light. The image and frame itself become the story. What part of the story do you wish to reveal with light in this moment of your story? How do you create depth in your compositions? What's your favorite Vermeer/Caravaggio painting? Let us know in the comments below. |
The thing about paddling into 10ft Teahupoo is that lying in wait not too far beneath the surface is a reef sharper than a Gillette razor blade, and if you’re not careful it’ll slice your nipples clean off. Or break three bones in your hand and one in your back, shred your epidermis like a classified document and leave you out of the water for six weeks. Such was the unfortunate fate of Michel Bourez, who was unceremoniously driven into the Tahitian reef the Sunday before last, landing first on his hand, then his back, neck and head. He isn’t competing at Rio this week and will likely miss the Fiji Pro too. You probably knew all that already, but were you aware of how stunningly beautiful Teahupoo was looking that morning? See above. That evening Michel underwent reconstructive surgery on his hand, into which doctors inserted various metal parts; he also sustained a broken vertebrae. We wish him the speediest of recoveries. Read about the wipeout in Michel’s own words here. |
A boy cycles past a mural in Ramallah of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, on the 10th anniversary of Arafats death. Israel needs tear down its walls of shame that keep people apart in this troubled region, writes Barney Pityana. Israel, at the best of times, is a scary place. One begins to have this sense of fear from the moment one walks into the immigration halls at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. It is this sense of being watched, being followed, and becoming aware of security personnel all around – some in uniform and others in civilian clothes. The questions one has to answer repeatedly are enough to send a chill down one’s spine. That was the welcome that awaited a group of civil society activists from South Africa on a fact-finding mission to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories recently. One often assumes that one can handle situations like this after many years of social justice activism around the world. However, nothing could have prepared us for what we experienced in Israel and the occupied territories during a week’s visit last month. First, I must pay tribute to that army of civil society and justice activists, both Jewish and Palestinian, who at great risk to themselves are campaigning for a new and peaceful future for both Jew and Palestinian. They are to be found in the opposition benches in the Knesset, among academics both at the Palestinian and Jewish universities, and from civil society activists, as well as among journalists who continue to uphold freedom of expression in that troubled region. The visit to the official Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem was shocking in presentation, in its graphic and gruesome detail of the experiences of Jewish people under Nazism. Two thoughts came to my mind. Firstly, that this was a story of a people whom the world had turned its back on, to our eternal shame. In a sense, nothing that could have been done subsequently could wipe away that neglect. Although I had visited a number of other such monuments around the world, the juxtaposition of location and context that struck one with amazing immediacy drove home the horror of it all. Secondly, I became concerned about the monumentalisation of victimhood, and the meta-narrative that accompanied it all, of history as myth. This is not to suggest that it is fiction, but that history may serve the function of preserving the prevailing ideologies and power interests. Myth so understood becomes intolerant of criticism, and becomes blind to its darker side. Instead it is built upon hegemonic ideas of the moment, or reinforces beliefs and ideas or values of a society in a manner that justifies it and any actions, however selectively. I sometimes wonder whether the Jewish people would not benefit if they were to set aside their victim mentality, and enter the brave new world in the community of nations, to transform it for the better. The fact-finding mission was organised by Open Shehuda Street, an international NGO campaigning on Palestinian issues and the Cape Town-based German foundation, the Heinrich Böll Stiftung, at the end of last month. Shortly afterwards, the team issued a statement on its visit, entitled We Owe It To Ourselves. What I found hardest to understand, though, was the determination by the state of Israel to expand settlements, and to be held to ransom by fanatical Jewish elements from the diaspora, who are descending on Palestinian territories to evict, occupy and threaten the lives and livelihood of Palestinians, rendering them homeless and stateless. It is easy to believe what one hears from the Palestinian sources that the purpose of Israel is definitely to “forcibly remove” Palestinians from the land of their forefathers, and then to claim it as a Jewish homeland. Until one sees this at work in the land-grab at Shehouda Street in Hebron, or in Silwan in East Jerusalem, one better come to terms with how serious it all is. This is made even more poignant when one has regard to the fact that the basis for this land-grab is at best threadbare and spurious. How can one use biblical evidence to establish a right in a land far away from where they are citizens? Most of the “settlers” are citizens of other countries. There is a “law of return” for the Jews that claims to be founded on biblical evidence. Nothing could be more nonsensical. This is made even more absurd when that same policy is denied to Palestinians who have a more recent and direct and legally-sound claim to the land, going back within living memory of the events of 1948, when the modern Israeli state was founded. Palestinian citizens remain in refugee camps in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan without any rights to their own homeland. This is a travesty of justice. During our visit we saw rather irascible and trigger-happy recent Jewish immigrants, under the protection of the security forces, occupying, evicting local residents, establishing no-go areas enforced by the security forces. My final observation is about the workings of the legal system, such as it is. The Palestinian people are subjected to military administrative law that is as good as a permanent state of emergency. Their movements are regulated by a perverse system of permits or, in apartheid language, of pass laws. There are also roads reserved only for the Jews, where no Palestinian may be found. This is enforced by checkpoints, armed soldiers and frequent raids on Palestinians at their homes. A ghastly wall snakes its way through Palestinian villages across East Jerusalem, separating Palestinian from Palestinian, dividing families and isolating communities. I last saw something like that in Berlin as a mark of the Cold War. That Wall went down with the yearning for freedom by Berliners. The same will happen to the Wall of Jerusalem. In effect, there is no rule of law in Israel, but rule by fear prevails. The operation of law is arbitrary and Palestinian victims have no recourse to procedural or administrative justice. Army raids on Palestinian homes are a regular feature of life under Jewish occupation in Palestine. The raids often lead to various forms of detention, torture and assault of prisoners, indeterminate detention without trial. Protests, however peaceful, are illegal and those who participate face arrest or death. Children are never immune from the strong arm of Israeli law in the hands of the army of occupation. The delegation had a sense of this everyday experience of Palestinians when one of us was held back and interrogated for three hours upon arrival at the Ben Gurion Airport, or when we were stopped at the Alarot checkpoint and subjected to searches, and at the airport upon departure when Israeli security sought to subject us to yet another search. To think that this is the daily experience of Palestinians means that one is not surprised at the occasional revolts from Palestinian communities. In the light of this ongoing and intensified repression, one wonders whether there are any solutions to the problem of Palestine. The first thing that needs to be said, and it must be said loud and clear, is that Israel is a rogue state. It is in defiance of international law, honours none of the agreements it is signatory to, and is illegally occupying territory belonging to the people of Palestine. It has substituted its own laws for those that rightly belong to the Palestinian Authority, with whom they are supposed to be in a partnership for peace. Israel sponsors illegal activities of the settlers and is engaged in activities that would render the people of Palestine not only homeless and stateless, but also without any means of an economic livelihood. The activity of sealing and boarding up the homes of Palestinians while they are in occupation of their homes, preventing access to their homes and livelihood, is truly mind-boggling. Israel does not obey any of the provisions of international law pertaining to human rights and the administration of justice. The second point that must be made definitively is that the Oslo Agreements are dead. No one believes the two-state solution is a viable proposition any longer. Israel is clearly not interested in abiding by them, and the Palestinian Authority is in a bind because there is nothing else in its place. The two-state solution is being dismantled by the persistent policy of ever-expanding settlements and the ruthless occupation of Palestinian territory, rendering the Palestinian Authority, as someone told us, like the Vichy puppet regime in Nazi-occupied France. It seems clear to me there could be no justification for the establishment, under international protection, of a religious state. To entertain the idea of a Jewish state is as good as saying that Boko Haram and the Islamic State are entitled to establish their theocratic caliphates, undertake ethnic cleansing to give effect to it and repress anyone within their borders who does not abide by their version of sharia law. That is surely preposterous. The state of Israel is legitimate in international law, but not as a religio-ethnic monstrosity. Finally, efforts to find a lasting solution must continue. What was clear to us, and it should also be clear to the government and people of Israel, is that any state that maintains its hold on power over others by means of a security machinery and the apparatus of a police state is never sustainable in the long run. The futility of this was illustrated to us during our visit when the Israeli Minister of Defence, Moshe Ya’alon, issued a directive that bans Palestinian workers from travelling on Israeli-run public transport in the West Bank. Under pressure from leaders of the settler movement, the reasoning from one of the leaders of the settlers movement is revealing: “Riding these buses is unreasonable. They are full of Arabs.” The maintenance of a patchwork of Palestinian territories watched over by Jewish army personnel as well as the maintenance of administrative courts in order to keep a check on dissent is oppressive. The international community should not keep silent in the face of so much human repression and privation. Not today, not even in the time of the Holocaust. One Holocaust does not justify another. Impunity must be brought to an end. As we were departing from Ben Gurion airport, one of the security personnel sought to engage us (yes, the only one who appeared to have some humanity left in him). The security officer put forward the idea of an Israeli-Palestinian federation of states. At least there is somebody in the region who is thinking out of the box in the region. * Pityana is Rector of the College of the Transfiguration, Grahamstown, and Honorary Visiting Professor at the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics, Department of Philosophy, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. ** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media. Sunday Independent |
OTTAWA — The federal budget watchdog says the government’s multibillion-dollar effort to replace the navy’s warship fleet is now on track to cost taxpayers 2.4 times more than first expected. The parliamentary budget officer estimates it will cost Ottawa nearly $62 billion to replace 15 ships — more than twice the original 2008 budget of about $26 billion. Jean-Denis Frechette’s analysis says the per-ship price tag has grown to $4.1 billion — up from the $1.7-billion estimate in 2008. The report estimates the government would only be able to afford six ships if it tries to keep the program on budget. Ottawa launched a competition last fall asking some of the world’s largest defence and shipbuilding companies to design a potential replacement for the navy’s 12 frigates and three destroyers. The chosen designs will be constructed by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, and the new vessels are expected to arrive in the mid-2020s. |
DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co (F.N) plans to slash $14 billion (10.57 billion pounds) in costs over the next five years, Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett told investors on Tuesday, adding that the No. 2 U.S. automaker would shift capital investment away from sedans and internal combustion engines to develop more trucks and electric and hybrid cars. FILE PHOTO - The Ford logo is pictured at the Ford Motor Co plant in Genk,Belgium December 17, 2014. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir/File Photo Most of those savings will not show up on Ford’s bottom line until 2019 and 2020, Hackett and other Ford executives said, reflecting the industry’s long product engineering lead times. Ford will be open to more partnerships to spread the costs and risks of simultaneously developing new technology and services while churning out profit from selling trucks and sport utility vehicles in North America, Hackett said during a nearly two-hour presentation. He cited a partnership with ride services company Lyft to deploy future Ford self-driving cars, an alliance with Indian automaker Mahindra (MAHM.NS) and a potential alliance with Chinese electric vehicle maker Zotye. The automaker reaffirmed a goal of achieving 8 percent automotive operating margins and generating returns that exceed the cost of capital. Ford will provide a financial forecast for 2018 in January. Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said it could take until 2020 or later to achieve the 8 percent margin goal. Other automakers have warned that shifting to all-electric vehicles could undercut profit margins. “I don’t think we should walk off a ledge where we destroy the earnings power of the company,” Hackett said, saying Ford is planning for a third of vehicles to still have internal combustion engines by 2030 - the year some European governments have proposed banning petroleum fueled cars. Hackett, former CEO of office furniture maker Steelcase Inc (SCS.N), took the top post at Ford in May after his predecessor Mark Fields was pushed out. At the time, Hackett promised to tell investors after 100 days how he would improve the “fitness” of Ford to compete as the auto industry becomes more digital, more electric and less wedded to selling one vehicle at a time to individuals. Ford shares were little changed after hours as Hackett and other executives presented their outlook. Ford shares had risen 2.1 percent on Tuesday, up with other automotive stocks as the industry reported the highest sales pace in a dozen years. However, the company’s share price is down 30 percent since July 2014. Hackett has signed off on a series of moves, including a plan to shift production of Ford Focus compact cars from Michigan to China. He also hired a company outsider, Jason Luo, to lead Ford’s business in China, the world’s largest car market, where Ford is revamping operations and looking to expand partnerships in electric vehicles. Ford is playing catch up in some areas. By 2019, Ford plans to equip all U.S. models with built-in modems and to install mobile internet connections in 90 percent of global vehicles by 2020, Hackett said. Rival General Motors Co(GM.N) has been installing built-in mobile broadband connections in its U.S. vehicles since 2015 and now has about 7 million 4G LTE connected vehicles on the road globally, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Of Ford’s $14 billion in promised cost reductions over five years, $10 billion will come from material costs and $4 billion from reduced engineering costs, Hackett said. “We have too much cost across our business,” Hackett said. By 2022, Ford plans to cut spending on future internal combustion engines by a third, or about $500 million, putting that money instead into expanded electric and hybrid vehicle development, on top of $4.5 billion previously announced. Ford had already promised 13 new electric or hybrid vehicles within the next five years. Ford is “looking to build sustainably profitable BEV (battery electric vehicle) business” in segments where “we have a strong revenue presence,” Jim Farley, head of global markets, told investors. Farley also said Ford is looking “carefully” at marginally profitable or unprofitable operations in Europe and Latin America, and could look to partnerships in those markets. Electric vehicles will mean auto factories can have a final assembly area that is half the size, requires half the capital investment and 30 percent fewer labor hours per car, said Joe Hinrichs, president of global operations. GM on Monday said it planned to launch 20 new all-electric vehicles by 2023. One way to cut costs will be to offer fewer variations of Ford’s models, Hackett said. The slow-selling Ford Fusion midsize sedan can now be ordered in 35,000 combinations of features, colors and powertrain options. The future model will come in just 96 combinations, meaning fewer parts to design, produce and store in inventory, Ford showed in a presentation. He said Ford also will cut the time it takes to engineer a new car by 20 percent, and invest in “factories of the future” that will occupy less space and use more robots. |
But Trump’s people never reached out to the Democrats, who had reasonable reservations about the original plan, which made some very iffy presumptions about using tax credits to get private investment in the roads and bridges. Under the very best of circumstances, it would mean a lot of tolls. It would also require a lot of smart government oversight, and we are talking here about a White House that has yet to figure out how to nominate an ambassador to Great Britain. Plus, the president’s budget actually cut $206 billion the government had already committed to infrastructure projects. So on Wednesday, when Trump was in Cincinnati standing by the mighty Ohio and extolling the glories of river transport, cynics gloomily recalled that he wants to slice a billion dollars from the Army Corps of Engineers, which fixes the dams and locks. Did he brag about winning the election? He always does that in his speeches. Yeah, there was a little mention of how Ohio “was supposed to be close. It wasn’t.” He spent much more time praising himself for approving the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which required him to courageously stand up to environmental groups that had not supported him in the election. (“Nobody thought any politician would have the guts to approve that final leg. I just closed my eyes and I said: ‘Do it.’”) What’s wrong with investing government money on roads? President Eisenhower did the biggest highway construction program ever, and he was a Republican. If you’re going to try to imagine Donald Trump and Dwight Eisenhower in the same party, we can’t continue talking. But Trump did bring up Eisenhower’s grand achievement in Cincinnati. “The Interstate Highway System — we don’t do that anymore. We don’t even fix them,” he complained. There was no explanation of how the fixing was going to be accomplished through private investors, who want new tolls, not less potholes. He didn’t say anything at all about how his infrastructure plan would work, possibly because it doesn’t appear to exist at this point in time. The Democrats do have one, but Trump certainly hasn’t read it. |
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