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makomk Offline Activity: 686 Merit: 500 Hero MemberActivity: 686Merit: 500 Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! July 01, 2011, 03:56:07 PM Last edit: July 06, 2012, 05:02:59 PM by makomk #1 Edit: Updated to create a new wallet.dat with the recovered keys. Edit 2: New v0.2 release, new instructions. Note that this still can't recover encrypted wallets! Edit 3: v0.3 release to support the compressed public keys created by recent Bitcoin versions. Still can't recover encrypted wallets. For some reason, people keep reformatting their drive or deleting their wallet.dat without taking proper backups. As casascius To that end, I've written and importing those keys back into a new wallet is left as an exercise for the user to figure out for now , but it might be useful to some people. Instructions: Stop using your computer until you've recovered your data, in case something overwrites it. Shut down the PC as soon as possible. Shut down the PC as soon as possible. Obtain a suitable 32-bit Linux LiveCD, like the System Rescue CD, and boot your computer from it. You'll need working internet access (or some other way to download http://makomk.com/~aidan/wallet-recover and transfer it over) Open a terminal. Run these commands to download the utility and unpack it (2MB download - it contains largish crypto and database libraries): Code: wget http://www.makomk.com/~aidan/wallet-recover-0.3-linux.tar.gz tar xzf wallet-recover-0.3-linux.tar.gz Run the program on your drive: Code: sudo ./wallet-recover-0.3-linux/bin/32/wallet-recover <insert device name here> recovered-wallet.dat For 99% of users, this will be: Code: sudo ./wallet-recover-0.3-linux/bin/32/wallet-recover /dev/sda recovered-wallet.dat Hopefully it should find and print out a bunch of public keys and corresponding private keys, at least 100 of them, together with a file recovered-wallet.dat. Copy the recovered-wallet.dat to a USB drive and load it up in the Bitcoin client as usual (not forgetting to start it with -rescan) - with a bit of luck you should have access to your money again. I suggest not doing anything with the computer you lost the bitcoins on until you're 100% sure the recovery was successful - load up recovered-wallet.data on a different PC if at all possible. WARNING: The recovered wallet does not contain a pool of spare keys to send change to (the old ones should get recovered but aren't marked as such). It also doesn't include any names for addresses, so the address you can copy-and-paste in the client is a NEW address created when you first started bitcoin using your recovered wallet, and any change from transactions also goes to a NEW address - none of these addresses are in the original recovered wallet. After first running Bitcoin with the recovered wallet, you MUST exit it and take backup copies of the wallet.dat in your .bitcoin directory to several locations BEFORE making or receiving any transactions - then be sure to use this version and NOT THE ORIGINAL recovered-wallet.dat from this point on. If you're using bitcoind rather than the GUI, you must also call "bitcoind getnewaddress" before shutting down and copying the wallet.dat. Also, be extremely careful about backing up your wallet on a regular basis after using this tool - Bitcoin's handling of the keypool is quirky and this may trigger bugs in it. (Added 9th July, amended 19th Sept.) Disclaimer: This code comes with no warranty, not even an implied warranty of fitness for its intended purpose. I don't guarantee that it won't make things worse, or that the recovered keys are correct, and obviously I can't guarantee that it'll manage to recover the keys you need. Oh, and it may not be able to recover older wallets at all. Updated to create a new wallet.dat with the recovered keys.New v0.2 release, new instructions. Note that this still can't recover encrypted wallets!v0.3 release to support the compressed public keys created by recent Bitcoin versions. Still can't recover encrypted wallets.For some reason, people keep reformatting their drive or deleting their wallet.dat without taking proper backups. As casascius helpfully points out - and this is something I'd already suspected - it may be possible to recover the crucial wallet.dat private keys and the bitcoins secured with them by scanning the disk for certain markers, so long as you're lucky and the data you need isn't too fragmented and hasn't already been overwritten.To that end, I've written a little experimental utility that tries to search for and validate those keys. It's not even close to being able to recover all keys that are recoverable - though it should work in a decent proportion of cases -, but it might be useful to some people.Instructions:Run the program on your drive:For 99% of users, this will be:Hopefully it should find and print out a bunch of public keys and corresponding private keys, at least 100 of them, together with a file recovered-wallet.dat. Copy the recovered-wallet.dat to a USB drive and load it up in the Bitcoin client as usual (not forgetting to start it with -rescan) - with a bit of luck you should have access to your money again.The recovered wallet does not contain a pool of spare keys to send change to (the old ones should get recovered but aren't marked as such). It also doesn't include any names for addresses, so the address you can copy-and-paste in the client is a NEW address created when you first started bitcoin using your recovered wallet, and any change from transactions also goes to a NEW address - none of these addresses are in the original recovered wallet.If you're using bitcoind rather than the GUI, you must also call "bitcoind getnewaddress" before shutting down and copying the wallet.dat. Also, beabout backing up your wallet on a regular basis after using this tool - Bitcoin's handling of the keypool is quirky and this may trigger bugs in it. (Added 9th July, amended 19th Sept.)This code comes with no warranty, not even an implied warranty of fitness for its intended purpose. I don't guarantee that it won't make things worse, or that the recovered keys are correct, and obviously I can't guarantee that it'll manage to recover the keys you need. Oh, and it may not be able to recover older wallets SIGS ABOUT BUTTERFLY LABS ARE PAID ADS Quad XC6SLX150 Board: 860 MHash/s or so. Your Bitcoin transactions The Ultimate Bitcoin mixer made truly anonymous. with an advanced technology. Mix coins Advertised sites are not endorsed by the Bitcoin Forum. They may be unsafe, untrustworthy, or illegal in your jurisdiction. Advertise here. cypherdoc Offline Activity: 1764 Merit: 1002 LegendaryActivity: 1764Merit: 1002 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! July 01, 2011, 04:35:05 PM #2 http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=11331.0 how does your tool differ from above? i created a new wallet using Live CD Ubuntu, tx'd some btc to it, but then didn't save it properly. would there be any traces left on my computer? how does your tool differ from above?i created a new wallet using Live CD Ubuntu, tx'd some btc to it, but then didn't save it properly. would there be any traces left on my computer? makomk Offline Activity: 686 Merit: 500 Hero MemberActivity: 686Merit: 500 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! July 01, 2011, 04:45:15 PM #3 Quote from: cypherdoc on July 01, 2011, 04:35:05 PM http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=11331.0 how does your tool differ from above? how does your tool differ from above? Quote i created a new wallet using Live CD Ubuntu, tx'd some btc to it, but then didn't save it properly. would there be any traces left on my computer? Not a chance, sorry. Live CDs deliberately don't save anything to your computer unless you specifically tell them to - it's why I suggest using one for this, because that way you don't risk overwriting any more of the data you're trying to recover - so there's just nothing there to be recovered. That tool's a lot easier to use, but relies on you having a filesystem and enough of wallet.dat left intact for BerkleyDB to be able to open it.Not a chance, sorry. Live CDs deliberately don't save anything to your computer unless you specifically tell them to - it's why I suggest using one for this, because that way you don't risk overwriting any more of the data you're trying to recover - so there's just nothing there to be recovered. SIGS ABOUT BUTTERFLY LABS ARE PAID ADS Quad XC6SLX150 Board: 860 MHash/s or so. cypherdoc Offline Activity: 1764 Merit: 1002 LegendaryActivity: 1764Merit: 1002 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! July 01, 2011, 04:51:25 PM #4 sorry to bug you with an off topic question but when i transfer a wallet.dat from a usb stick to a cdrom or to another usb stick on same computer, are there any traces of it left on hard drive? bitplane Offline Activity: 321 Merit: 250 Firstbits: 1gyzhw Sr. MemberActivity: 321Merit: 250Firstbits: 1gyzhw Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! July 01, 2011, 05:53:29 PM #5 Quote from: cypherdoc on July 01, 2011, 04:51:25 PM sorry to bug you with an off topic question but when i transfer a wallet.dat from a usb stick to a cdrom or to another usb stick on same computer, are there any traces of it left on hard drive? Unless you know how the system works, you should assume that the answer is yes. Windows caches files on the disk before burning it to CD. When copying from USB -> USB you'd expect nothing to be written to the hard drive, but it goes through RAM and anything in there could potentially end up in your paging file and therefore written to disk. The ideal solution would be USB -> USB using a Linux live CD, with either no hard drive plugged in, or by running "swapoff" to make sure no virtual memory is in use at the time of the copy. Unless you know how the system works, you should assume that the answer is yes. Windows caches files on the disk before burning it to CD. When copying from USB -> USB you'd expect nothing to be written to the hard drive, but it goes through RAM and anything in there could potentially end up in your paging file and therefore written to disk.The ideal solution would be USB -> USB using a Linux live CD, with either no hard drive plugged in, or by running "swapoff" to make sure no virtual memory is in use at the time of the copy. MoonShadow Offline Activity: 1708 Merit: 1000 LegendaryActivity: 1708Merit: 1000 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! October 12, 2011, 12:59:31 AM #13 Any possibility that this recovery tool can be used to scan an Android phone for the keys of an android client that no longer will properly update? "The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world." - Carroll Quigley, CFR member, mentor to Bill Clinton, from 'Tragedy And Hope' makomk Offline Activity: 686 Merit: 500 Hero MemberActivity: 686Merit: 500 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! October 12, 2011, 09:39:25 AM #14 Quote from: MoonShadow on October 12, 2011, 12:59:31 AM Any possibility that this recovery tool can be used to scan an Android phone for the keys of an android client that no longer will properly update? Not currently, no. It is/was on my TODO list to add this feature to it, but I haven't got around to it yet. (A lot of users of the Android client have been running into difficulties.) The Android client - and bitcoinj-based clients in general - store private keys in a more compact format than the official Bitcoin client does. Not currently, no. It is/was on my TODO list to add this feature to it, but I haven't got around to it yet. (A lot of users of the Android client have been running into difficulties.) The Android client - and bitcoinj-based clients in general - store private keys in a more compact format than the official Bitcoin client does. SIGS ABOUT BUTTERFLY LABS ARE PAID ADS Quad XC6SLX150 Board: 860 MHash/s or so. MoonShadow Offline Activity: 1708 Merit: 1000 LegendaryActivity: 1708Merit: 1000 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! October 12, 2011, 01:34:53 PM #15 Quote from: makomk on October 12, 2011, 09:39:25 AM Quote from: MoonShadow on October 12, 2011, 12:59:31 AM Any possibility that this recovery tool can be used to scan an Android phone for the keys of an android client that no longer will properly update? Not currently, no. It is/was on my TODO list to add this feature to it, but I haven't got around to it yet. (A lot of users of the Android client have been running into difficulties.) The Android client - and bitcoinj-based clients in general - store private keys in a more compact format than the official Bitcoin client does. Not currently, no. It is/was on my TODO list to add this feature to it, but I haven't got around to it yet. (A lot of users of the Android client have been running into difficulties.) The Android client - and bitcoinj-based clients in general - store private keys in a more compact format than the official Bitcoin client does. Would a bounty help to encourage your efforts? Would a bounty help to encourage your efforts? "The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world." - Carroll Quigley, CFR member, mentor to Bill Clinton, from 'Tragedy And Hope' makomk Offline Activity: 686 Merit: 500 Hero MemberActivity: 686Merit: 500 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! October 13, 2011, 03:21:43 PM #16 Quote from: MoonShadow on October 12, 2011, 01:34:53 PM Would a bounty help to encourage your efforts? Dunno. The main obstacle is that Java is involved. In particular, the wallet file uses Java's own serialization support which seems to be both poorly-documented and a pain to deal with. If you've got or can obtain a (non-corrupt) copy of the .wallet file from the phone in question, then it looks like bitcoinj already has a tool for opening it and printing the private keys, and that's probably the easiest option: Code: java -classpath bitcoinj-0.2.jar:bitcoinj-0.2-sources.jar:../lib/* com.google.bitcoin.examples.DumpWallet pingservice-prodnet.wallet Wallet containing 0.00 BTC in: 0 unspent transactions 0 spent transactions 0 pending transactions 0 inactive transactions 0 dead transactions Keys: addr:1H6s7S2GS6DHDvZgQN5ufxMYj76bMMpHxh pub:044bec72bf6c0be93ffefb154ffce6622317527c8d0f78cd3c5b47f5c15af7f5750b2e1ccde5a827c83e89ef67ca1262bfa5427b732332c41104cc7483e756a0d6 priv:00fd6e40862973730e97be5b6ab08ef8ca02a3575f8c95858dcec51d88058a0839 Dunno. The main obstacle is that Java is involved. In particular, the wallet file uses Java's own serialization support which seems to be both poorly-documented and a pain to deal with.If you've got or can obtain a (non-corrupt) copy of the .wallet file from the phone in question, then it looks like bitcoinj already has a tool for opening it and printing the private keys, and that's probably the easiest option: SIGS ABOUT BUTTERFLY LABS ARE PAID ADS Quad XC6SLX150 Board: 860 MHash/s or so. MoonShadow Offline Activity: 1708 Merit: 1000 LegendaryActivity: 1708Merit: 1000 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! October 13, 2011, 04:33:40 PM #17 I don't know how to even get a copy of the wallet.dat off of the phone, I've left it untouched for two months taking up phone space. "The powers of financial capitalism had another far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank...sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world." - Carroll Quigley, CFR member, mentor to Bill Clinton, from 'Tragedy And Hope' makomk Offline Activity: 686 Merit: 500 Hero MemberActivity: 686Merit: 500 Re: Bitcoin private key/wallet.dat data recovery tool! October 20, 2011, 11:38:21 AM #19 The binaries are now compiled with gitian-builder, which means it now comes with both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries How the binary release is packaged has changed; it now comes as a tarball rather than a bare archive. The instructions have been updated to match. Internal changes to make the code more portable and hopefully increase the chances of successful recovery slightly. No Windows release yet though. May be able to recover wallet private keys from some versions of BitcoinJ, though it's rather hacky and they've changed their wallet format at least once Finally got around to rolling a new v0.2 release of this: SIGS ABOUT BUTTERFLY LABS ARE PAID ADS Quad XC6SLX150 Board: 860 MHash/s or so. |
We have books, movies, theme parks, plays, and more, and we still can never get enough ways to keep experiencing the magic of the Wizarding World. But now there's a whole new way to live out your Harry Potter dreams. Google just announced that the Wizarding World will come to life in its new smartphone and virtual reality headset, called Daydream. Mashable reports that the news came to light in a live stream for Made By Google announcing the technology. The game will specifically be about the upcoming film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and it will allow use of the VR remote as a wand to perform virtual magic, like causing papers to spontaneously fly into the air or taking a tour of Newt Scamander's famed suitcase. No word yet on whether this experience will ever be expanded to past Harry Potter films and the hallowed halls of Hogwarts, but for now, we'll settle for galavanting around the U.S. magical world. Daydream is set to launch in November and will cost users $79 for the controller and headset, reports The Verge. There is a catch, though: The VR technology will only work on compatible Android phones, including Google's new Pixel phones. Sorry, iPhone users. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hits theaters Nov. 18. Related: Check this out: |
In this Sept. 1, 2000 file photo, former Yugoslav army chief of staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic, left, and General Vladimir Lazarevic, right, attend military exercise, near the eastern Serbian town of Pirot, Serbia. Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin told Serbia's state TV on Thursday Oct. 19, 2017 that Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, a former general convicted for war crimes and other Serb commanders who took part in a bloody crackdown against Kosovo's Albanians in the 1990s, will be invited to teach at the Balkan country's military academy. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File) BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A former Serb general convicted of war crimes and two other commanders who took part in a bloody crackdown against Kosovo’s Albanians in the 1990s will be invited to teach at the Balkan country’s military academy, Serbia’s defense minister said Thursday. Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin has praised former Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic, who was sentenced to 14 years in prison by a U.N. war crimes tribunal for atrocities committed by Serb troops in Kosovo during the 1998-99 violence that left over 10,000 people killed and nearly 1 million chased from homes. The bloodshed stopped only after a 78-day NATO bombardment. Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s independence declared in 2008. Vulin told Serbia’s state TV on Thursday that Lazarevic, current army chief-of-staff Gen. Ljubisa Dikovic and former Gen. Bozidar Delic are “exceptional people” who would be sought by “any military academy in the world.” Lazarevic, who commanded Serb troops in Kosovo during the crackdown, was released from prison in 2015 after serving two-thirds of his sentence. Both Dikovic and Delic, who also fought in the former Serbian province, have been accused by human rights groups of war crimes, but they were never tried or convicted. Vulin said that they are to “relay their war experiences” to the military academy cadets. “I’m certain that the professors will be exceptional and that any army would desire to get their experience,” Vulin said. Lazarevic told Vecernje Novosti newspaper on Thursday that he’s honored by Vulin’s invitation and that he is ready to continue to serve his country. “I have never hidden during the NATO aggression and I will not hide now,” Lazarevic was quoted as saying. Although Serbia formally seeks European Union membership, its conservative leadership has been gradually restoring nationalist policies of the 1990s where warmongering policies of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic triggered the worst bloodshed in Europe since WWII. Rights activist Sonja Biserko said that rehabilitating Lazarevic and the others “shows that Serbia is not sincerely on the EU path because one of EU’s priorities is facing the past. It’s a wider strategy of negating all that has happened during the wars and restoring the policies of (former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic.” The Youth Initiative for Human Rights, a Serbian rights group, has demanded that Vulin be removed from his post for “rehabilitating” Lazarevic. “We expect the Prime Minister (Ana) Brnabic to urgently propose the replacement of minister Vulin which would present clear distancing by the government from the criminal policies in the 1990s so that a clear break is made in promoting war criminals,” the group said. Brnabic said Thursday that it’s up to the military academy whether Lazarevic will be its teacher, and added: “I would like to know whether the people who have served their sentence are free people or not?” |
Do you like internal combustion engines? Thank a few white men. (Jean Lenoir, Nikolaus Otto, Karl Benz, Rudolf Diesel, Gottlieb Daimler, Emil Jellinek, Henry Ford among others.) Are you a fan of flush toilets and indoor plumbing? Thank white males Alexander Cumming, Thomas Twyford, and Isaiah Rogers Toilet paper? Thank Joseph Gayetty, W.M. How about washing machines and dryers? Thank white males Alva Fisher and J. Ross Moore. “When you’ve got your health, you’ve got just about everything” ran the tag-line in a famous Geritol commercial from the 1970s, and the guys we most have reason to be grateful for are undoubtedly those who’ve developed the medical practices and the drugs and devices that have transformed our lives over the past hundred fifty years. Before the turkey gets carved, it’s worth taking a moment to remember a few of these brilliant, persistent, and lucky men, and recall their accomplishments. Even when they’ve won Nobel Prizes in Medicine, their names are virtually unknown. They’re not mentioned in the Core Curriculum or celebrated by Google on their birthdays. Pain If you ever had surgery, did you opt for anesthesia? If so, thank a few more white males, beginning with William Clarke in New York and Crawford Long in Georgia who both used chloroform in minor surgeries in 1842. A paper published four years later by William Morton, after his own work in Boston, spread the word. Ether replaced chloroform during the next decade. There are now scores of general and regional anesthetics and sedatives and muscle relaxants, administered in tandem. The first local anesthetic has also been superseded. It was cocaine, pioneered by a Viennese ophthalmologist, Carl Koller, in 1884. Ever take an analgesic? Next time you pop an aspirin, remember Felix Hoffmann of Bayer. In 1897, he converted salicylic acid to acetylsalicylic acid, much easier on the stomach. Aspirin remains the most popular and arguably the most effective drug on the market. In 1948 two New York biochemists, Bernard Brodie and Julius Axelrod, documented the effect that acetaminophen (Tylenol), synthesized by Harmon Morse in 1878, had on pain and fever. Gastroenterologist James Roth persuaded McNeil Labs to market the analgesic in 1953. Infectious Diseases Most Americans today die of heart disease or cancer, but before the twentieth century, it was infectious diseases that struck people down, and children were the primary victims. In pre-industrial England, still with the most developed economy in the world in the late 17th century, 50% of all children didn’t survive the age of 15. With the phenomenal growth of cities during the 19th century, cholera, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis became the leading killers. In 1854, a London medical inspector, John Snow, proved that a cholera epidemic in Soho was caused by infected sewage seeping into the water supply. Until then it was thought the disease spread through the air. The sanitary disposal of sewage and the provision of clean water, possible thanks to mostly anonymous metallurgists and engineers–an exception is the famous Thomas Crapper, who pioneered the u-shaped trap and improved, though he didn’t invent, the flush toilet–has saved more lives than any drug or surgical innovation. Dramatic improvements in food supply have also had an incalculable effect on health. Agricultural innovations, beginning with those introduced in England in the 18th century, were disseminated globally by the end of the 20th century–the “Green Revolution.” Famines struck Europe as recently as the late 1860s. (The man-made famines of the 20th century are another story.) A transportation revolution made possible the provision of more than sufficient protein, calories, and nutrients worldwide. Needless to say, it was white males who designed and built the roads, canals, railroads, and ports and airports, and the ships, trains, planes, and trucks that used them, and the mines, and then wells, pipelines, and tankers that supplied the fuel they ran on. Whatever the merits of taking vitamins and supplements today, no one has to take vitamin C to prevent scurvy, or vitamin B to prevent pellagra, or vitamin D and calcium to prevent rickets. And, for the time being, we all live in a post-Malthusian world. The global population was about 800 million to 1 billion when the gloomy parson wrote his famous book in 1798. It’s now over 7 billion. *** Dr. Snow had no idea what was actually causing cholera. It was Louis Pasteur who gave the world the germ theory of disease, as every schoolchild once knew. Studying the fermentation of wine, he concluded that this was caused by the metabolic activity of microorganisms, as was the souring of milk. The critters were responsible for disease, too, he recognized, and identified three killer bacteria: staphylococcus, streptococcus, and pneumococcus. Nasty microorganisms could be killed or rendered harmless by heat and oxygenation, Pasteur discovered, and would then prevent the disease in those who were inoculated. He went on to develop vaccines for chicken cholera, anthrax, and rabies. Edward Jenner had demonstrated in in the late 1790s that the dreaded smallpox could be prevented by injecting patients with material from the pustules of cowpox victims, a much milder disease. (The word vaccine comes from vaca, one of the Latin words for cow.) Pasteur, however, was the first to immunize patients by modifying bacteria rather than through cross-vaccination. A parade of vaccines followed. People in their mid-60s and older can remember two of the most famous: the Salk and Sabin vaccines against poliomyelitis, a paralyzing disease that had panicked American parents in the late ‘40s and early ‘50s. Children preferred Albert Sabin’s 1962 version: the attenuated virus was administered on a sugar cube. Jonas Salk’s inactivated vaccine, available in 1955, was injected. In 1847, more than a decade before Pasteur disclosed his germ theory, the Viennese obstetrician Ignaz Semmelweis documented the effectiveness of hand washing with chlorinated water before entering a maternity ward. He brought mortality rates from puerperal fever down from 8% to 1.3%. Two decades later, having read a paper by Pasteur, Joseph Lister demonstrated the effectiveness of carbolic acid to sterilize wounds and surgical instruments. Mortality rates fell from around 50% to about 15%. The efforts of both men, especially Semmelweis, were met with ridicule and disdain. Pasteur’s German rivals Robert Koch and Paul Ehrlich made monumental contributions to biochemistry, bacteriology, and hematology, but left the world no “magic bullet” (Ehrlich’s term). Koch identified the organism causing tuberculosis, the leading killer of the 19th century, but his attempts at finding a vaccine failed. His purified protein derivative from the bacteria, tuberculin, could be used to diagnose the disease, however. It was two French researchers, Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin, who developed a successful vaccine, first administered in 1921, though it was not widely used until after World War II. Ehrlich joined the search for antibacterial drugs that were not denatured bacteria or viruses. He synthesized neoarsphenamine (Neo-Salvarsan), effective against syphilis, a scourge since the late15th century, but which had toxic side effects. It was not until the 1930s that first generation of antibiotics appeared. These were the sulfa drugs, derived from dyes with sulfa-nitrogen chains. The first was a red dye synthesized by Joseph Klarer and Fritz Mietzsch. In 1935, Gerhard Domagk at I. G. Farben demonstrated its effectiveness in cases of blood poisoning. The anti-bacterial properties of Penicillium had already been discovered at this point by Alexander Fleming. The Scottish bacteriologist had famously left a window open in his lab when he went on vacation in 1928, and returned to find that a mold had destroyed the staphylococcus colony in one of his petri dishes. But it’s one thing to make a fortuitous discovery and another thing to cultivate and purify a promising organic compound and conduct persuasive trials. This was not done until 1941. Thank Oxford biochemists Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. A Pfizer chemist, Joseph Kane, figured out how to mass-produce penicillin and by 1943 it was available to American troops. The wonder drug of the 20th century, penicillin killed the Gram-positive bacteria that caused meningitis, diphtheria, rheumatic fever, tonsillitis, syphilis, and gonorrhea. New generations of antibiotics followed, as bacteria rapidly developed resistance: among them, streptomycin in 1943 (thank Selman Waksman), tetracycline in 1955 (thank Lloyd Conover), and, the most widely prescribed today, amoxicillin. Diagnostic technologies Microscope: While the Delft draper Antonie van Leeuwenhoek didn’t invent the compound microscope, he improved it, beginning in the 1660s, increasing the curvature of the lenses, and so became the first person to see and describe blood corpuscles, bacteria, protozoa, and sperm. Electron microscope: Physicist Ernst Ruska and electrical engineer Max Kroll constructed the prototype in Berlin in 1933, using a lens by Hans Busch. Eventually, electron microscopes would be designed with two-million power magnification. Leeuwenhoek’s had about two hundred. Stethoscope: Thank the French physician René Laennec, who introduced what he called a microphone in 1816. British nephrologist Golding Bird substituted a flexible tube for Laennec’s wooden cylinder in 1840, and the Irish physician Arthur Leared added a second earpiece in 1851. Notable improvements were made by Americans Howard Sprague, a cardiologist, and electrical engineer Maurice Rappaport in the 1960s (a double-sided head), and Harvard cardiologist David Littmann in the same decade (enhancing the acoustics). The device undoubtedly transformed medicine, and with good reason became the symbol of the health care professional. Sphygmograph: The first machine to measure blood pressure was created by a German physiologist, Karl von Vierordt in 1854. X-rays: Discovered by Karl Wilhelm Röntgen, at Wurzberg in 1895, this was probably the single most important diagnostic breakthrough in medical history. Before Röntgen noticed that cathode rays, electrons emitted from a cathode tube, traveled through objects and created images on a fluorescent screen, physicians could only listen, palpitate, examine stools, and drink urine. PET scans: James Robertson designed the first machine in 1961, based on the work of number of American men at Penn, Wash U., and Mass General, designed the first machine. The scanner provides an image from the positron emissions coming from a radioactive isotope injected into the patient, and is particularly useful for mapping activity in the brain. CAT scans: The first model was developed by electrical engineer Godfrey Hounsfield, in London, 1972, drawing on the work of South African physicist Alan Cormack in the mid-1960s. It generates three-dimensional and cross-sectional images using computers and gamma rays. MRI: Raymond Damadian, a SUNY professor of medicine with a degree in math, performed the first full-body scan 1977. His design was anticipated by theoretical work by Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell in the 1930s, and, later, Paul Lauterbur. MRIs map the radio waves given off by hydrogen atoms exposed to energy from magnets, and are particularly useful in imaging tissue–and without exposing the patient to ionizing radiation. Ultrasound: Ian Donald, a Glasgow obstetrician, in the mid-1950s adopted a device already used in industry that generated inaudible, high frequency sound waves. The machine quickly and cheaply displays images of soft tissue, and now provides most American parents with the first photo of their baby. Endoscopes: Georg Wolf produced the first flexible gastroscope in Berlin in 1911, and this was improved by Karl Storz in the late ‘40s. The first fiber optic endoscope was introduced in 1957 by Basil Hirschowitz, a South African gastroenterologist, drawing on the work of British physicist Harold Hopkins. The scope is indispensible in diagnosing GI abnormalities. Angiogram: Werner Forssmann performed the first cardiac catherisation–on himself–in Eberswald in 1929. He inserted a catheter into his lower left arm, walked downstairs to a fluoroscope, threaded the catheter to his right atrium and injected a radioptic dye. The technique was further developed by Dickson Richards and André Courmand at Columbia in the ‘40s, and then extended to coronary arteries, initially accidentally, by Frank Sones at the Cleveland Clinic in 1958. X-rays and scopes were quickly used in treatment as well diagnosis. Roentgen himself used his machines to burn off warts. Similarly, in 1964, Charles Dotter and Marvin Judkins used a catheter to open a blocked artery, improving the technique in 1967. Andreas Gruentzig then introduced balloon angioplasty in 1975, an inflated balloon opening the narrowed or blocked artery. In 1986, Jacques Puel implanted the first coronary stent at U. of Toulouse, and soon afterwards a Swiss cardiologist, Ulrich Sigwart, developed the first drug-eluding stent. *** The men who developed five of the most dramatically effective and widely used drugs in internal medicine deserve mention. In the late ‘30s, two Mayo Clinic biochemists hoping to cure rheumatoid arthritis, Philip Hench and Edward Kendall, isolated four steroids extracted from the cortex of the adrenal gland atop the kidneys. The fourth, “E,” was very difficult to synthesize, but Merck chemist Lewis Sarrett succeeded, and in 1948, the hormone was injected into fourteen patients crippled by arthritis. Cortisone relieved the symptoms. Mass produced, with much difficulty, by Upjohn chemists in 1952, it was refined by their rivals at Schering three years later into a compound five times as strong, prednisone. In addition to arthritis, corticosteroids are used in the treatment of other inflammatory diseases, like colitis and Crohn’s, and in dermatitis, asthma, hepatitis, and lupus. Anyone over fifty can remember peptic ulcers, extremely painful lesions on the stomach wall or duodenum. They were thought to be brought on by stress. “You’re giving me an ulcer!” was a common expression. Women were especially affected, and a bland diet was the only treatment, other than surgery. The lesions were caused by gastric acid, and two British pharmacologists and a biochemist, George Paget, James Black, and William Duncan, investigated compounds that would block the stomach’s histamine receptors, reducing the secretion of acid. There were endless difficulties. Over 200 compounds were synthesized, and the most promising, metiamide, proved toxic. Tweaking the molecule, replacing a sulfur atom with two nitrogen atoms, yielded cimetidine in 1976. As Tagamet, it revolutionized gastroenterology. It was also the first drug to generate over $1 billion in annual sales. Its successors, the proton pump inhibitors Prilosec and its near-twin Nexium, more than doubling the acid reduction, have also been blockbuster drugs. Cimetidine was the culmination of one line of research that began in 1910, when a London physiologist, Henry Dale, isolated a uterine stimulant he called “histamine.” Unfortunately, when it was given to patients, it caused something like anaphylactic shock. The search began for an “antagonist” that would block its production, even before it was recognized as the culprit in hay fever (allergic rhinitis). The most successful antagonist was one was developed in 1943 by a young chemist in Cincinnati, Geroge Rieveschl, diphenhydramine, marketed as Benadryl. Ten to thirty percent of the world’s population suffers from seasonal allergies, so this was hailed as miracle drug. In the early ‘80s a second generation of antihistamines appeared that didn’t cross the brain-blood barrier and thus didn’t sedate the user. Loratadine (Claritin), the first, was generating over $2 billion in annual sales before it went generic. Diabetes, resulting in high blood glucose levels (heperglycemia), has been known for two millennia. It was a deadly disease, type 1 rapidly fatal, type 2, adult onset, debilitating and eventually lethal. By the end of the 19th century, the Islets of Langerhans in the pancreas had been identified as the source of a substance that prevented it, insulin, but this turned out to be a fragile peptide hormone, broken down by an enzyme in the pancreas during attempts to extract it. In 1921, Canadian surgeon Frederick Banting and medical student Charles Best determined a way to disable the production of the enzyme, trypsin. Injected in a teenager with type 1 diabetes, insulin was immediately effective. There is still no cure for diabetes, but today the 380 million sufferers globally can live normal lives thanks to Banting and Best. Finally, millions of men and their wives and girlfriends owe a big debt to British chemists Peter Dunn and Albert Wood, and Americans Andrew Bell, David Brown, and Nicholas Terrett. They developed sildenafil, intended to treat angina. It works by suppressing an enzyme that degrades a molecule that relaxes smooth muscle tissue, increasing blood flow. Ian Osterloh, running the clinical trials for Pfizer, observed that the drug induced erections, and it was marketed for ED. Viagra made the cover of Time Magazine after it was approved in March 1998. The blue pill still generates about $2 billion annually in sales, despite competition, and is prescribed for 11 million men. *** Two incredible machines build in the mid-20th century revolutionized the practice of medicine. Both remove blood from the body. During World War II, the Dutch physician Willem Kolff constructed a machine to cleanse the blood of patients suffering from renal failure by filtering out urea and creatine. Over 400,000 Americans are on dialysis today. In 1953, after 18 years of work, John Gibbon, a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, produced a machine that oxygenated blood and pumped it around the body, permitting operations on the heart, like those performed a decade later by Michael DeBakey in Houston and René Favaloro in Cleveland. The two surgeons pioneered coronary bypass grafts, using a blood vessel in the leg or chest to re-route blood around a blocked artery. About 200,000 operations are performed each year, down from about 400,000 at the turn of the century, thanks to stents. Gibbon’s machine enabled the most widely covered operation in history, the heart transplant, first performed by South African surgeon Christian Barnard in 1967, based on research by Norman Shumway and others. Over 2,000 Americans receive heart transplants each year. The cardiac device Americans are most likely to encounter is the defibrillator, now in airports, stadiums, supermarkets, and other public places. Thank two Swiss professors, Louis Prévost and Frédéric Batelli, who, in 1899, induced ventricle fibrillation, abnormal heartbeat, in dogs with a small electrical shock, and restored normal rhythm with a larger one. It was not until the 1940s that a defibrillator was used in heart surgery, by Claude Beck in Cleveland. A Russian researcher during World War II, Naum Gurvich, discovered that biphasic waves, a large positive jolt followed by a small negative pulse, was more effective, and a machine was constructed on this basis by an American cardiologist, Bernard Lown. Improvements by electrical engineers William Kouwenhoven and Guy Knickerbocker, and cardiologist James Jude at Hopkins in 1957, and subsequently by Karl and Mark Kroll, and Byron Gilman in the ‘90s made the device much smaller and portable. Over three million people worldwide don’t have to worry about defibrillators or face open-heart surgery. These are the recipients of pacemakers, and can thank a Canadian electrical engineer, John Hopps. Predecessors were deterred by negative publicity about their experiments, which were believed to be machines to revive the dead. Gurvich had faced this as well. Hopps’ 1950 device used a vacuum tube. With the invention of the transistor, a wearable pacemaker became possible, and Earl Bakken designed one in 1958. Not long afterward, two Swedish engineers, Rune Elmquist and Åke Senning created an implantable pacemaker. The first recipient eventually received 26 and lived to age 86. Lithium batteries, introduced in 1976, enabled the creation of devices with a much longer life. Cardiac Drugs Cardiac stimulants have been around since the late 18th century. Thank William Withering, who published his experiments with the folk-remedy digitalis (from foxglove) in 1785. Anti-anginal drugs were introduced a century later, also in Britain: amyl nitrite in the mid-1860s and nitroglycerin a decade later. Both compounds had been synthesized by French chemists. Thank Thomas Bruton and William Murrell. The first diuretics, to reduce edema (swelling) and lower blood pressure, were alkaloids derived from coffee and tea. These were not very effective, but better than leeches. Mercury compounds were pioneered by the Viennese physician Arthur Vogel in 1919. These worked, but were tough on the kidneys and liver. The first modern diuretics, carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, were developed in the 1940s, with the American Karl Beyer playing a leading role. The first anti-coagulants date from the ‘20s. A Johns Hopkins physiologist, William Howell, extracted a phospholipid from dog livers that he called heparin and that appeared to prevent blood clots. The first modern anti-coagulant, and still the most widely prescribed, was warfarin (Coumadin), developed as a rat-poison by Karl Link in Wisconsin in 1948. Its effectiveness, and lack of toxicity, was revealed when an army recruit took it in a suicide attempt. Anti-arrhythmic drugs, to stabilize the heartbeat, were introduced in the opening decade of the 20th century. The first was derived from quinine. The big breakthrough occurred in 1962. Thank, once again, the Scotsman James Black, who synthesized propranolol in that year, the first beta-blocker. What they block are the receptors of epinephrine and norepinephrine. These two chemicals (catecholamines) increase the heart rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels, useful for many purposes, but not a good thing in patients with cardiac arrhythmia, irregular heartbeats. Beta-blockers are also prescribed to lower blood pressure. ACE inhibitors lower the levels of an enzyme secreted by the kidneys and lungs that constricts blood vessels. The unpromising source for the first inhibitor was the venom of the Brazilian pit-viper. It was extracted, purified, and tested by three Squibb scientists in 1975, David Cushman, Miguel Ondetti, and Bernard Rubin. It’s still widely prescribed, though many other ACE inhibitors have since been designed. They are used for patients with congestive heart failure or who have had a heart attack, as well as those with hypertension. Finally, mention must be made of the statins, which, though over-hyped and over-prescribed, lower serum cholesterol and reduce the risks of a second heart attack. A Japanese microbiologist, Akira Endo, derived, from a species of Penicillium, a substance that inhibited the synthesis of cholesterol, but it was too toxic to use on humans. In 1978, a team at Merck under Alfred Alberts had better luck with another fungus, and called the compound lovastatin. Statins work by inhibiting the activity of an enzyme called HMGR. Cancer Drugs In the forty-three years since Richard Nixon’s “war on cancer” was launched, the disease has received the lion’s share of government, foundation, and pharmaceutical industry funding, though heart disease kills more people–596,577 Americans last year to 576,691 for cancer, according to the most recent data. This makes it particularly difficult, and invidious, to single out individual researchers. There is still, of course, nothing close to a magic bullet, though cancer deaths have dropped about 20% since their peak in 1991. Around 27% of cancer deaths this year will be from lung cancer, so the rate will continue to fall as more people stop smoking. The originators of a few therapies with good five-year survival rates ought to be singled out and thanked. Seattle oncologist Donnall Thomas performed the first successful bone marrow transplant in 1956. The donor was an identical twin of the leukemia patient. With the development of drugs to suppress the immune system’s response to foreign marrow, Thomas was able to perform a successful transplant from a non-twin relative in 1969. About 18,000 are now performed each year. One of the more notable successes of chemotherapy has been in the treatment of the childhood cancer acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Sidney Farber in the late ‘40s carried out clinical trials with the antifolate aminopterin, synthesized at Lederle by the Indian biochemist Yellapragada Subbarow. This proved the first effective compound in treating the disease. It was superseded by methotrexate, and now, as in all chemo treatments, a combination of agents is used. The five-year survival rate for ALL has jumped from near zero to 85%. Early detection is the key to successful treatment in all cancers, and survivors of breast cancer can thank at least four men who pioneered and popularized mammography over a fifty-year period beginning in 1913: Albert Salman, Stafford Warren, Raul Leborgne, and Jacob Gershon-Cohen. A second key to the comparatively high survival rates for women with breast cancer is tamoxifen. First produced in the late ‘50s by British endocrinologist Arthur Walpole, it was intended as a “morning-after” birth control pill because it blocked the effects of estrogen. However, it failed to terminate pregnancy. Researchers had meanwhile discovered that some, though not all, women with breast cancer recovered when their ovaries were removed. Walpole thought tamoxifen might block breast cancer estrogen receptor cells, inhibiting their reproduction, and persuaded a professor of pharmacology, Craig Jordan, to conduct experiments. These demonstrated the drug’s efficacy, and after clinical trials it was approved and marketed in 1973. Think of Arthur W. the next time you see one of those ubiquitous pink ribbons. Most chemo agents are cytotoxic metal-based compounds that do not distinguish between abnormal cells and healthy cells that also divide rapidly. The nasty side effects range from hair-loss and nausea to decreased production of red blood cells, nerve and organ damage, osteoporosis and bone fusion, and loss of memory and cognition. More selective drugs, monoclonal antibodies, have been used for some time. These were first produced by Georges Köhler and César Millstein in 1975 and “humanized” by Greg Winter in 1988, that is, made more effective by using recombinant DNA from mammals. Over 30 “mab” drugs have been approved, about half for cancer. Research has also been underway for years into delivery systems using “nano-particles” that will target tumors exclusively. Another approach, pioneered by Jonah Folkman, has been to find drugs that will attack the blood supply of tumors, angiogenesis inhibitors. This turned out not to be the magic bullet Folkman hoped for, but more than fifty of these drugs are in clinical trials, and a number are effective owing to other mechanisms, and are currently used. Psychiatric medicine Drugs have revolutionized the practice of psychiatry since the 1950s, and brought relief to millions suffering from depression, anxiety, and psychoses. For obvious reasons, these are some of the most highly addictive and widely abused drugs. A few men to thank: Adolph von Baeyer, Emil Fischer, Joseph von Mering: barbiturates, synthesized in 1865, but not marketed until 1903. The most commonly prescribed today are phenobarbital sodium (Nembutal) and mephobarbital (Membaral). Bernard Ludwig and Frank Berger: meprobamate, the tranquilizer Miltown. By the end of the ‘50s, a third of all prescriptions in America were for this drug Leo Steinberg: the anxiolytic (anti-anxiety) benzodiazepines, first synthesized in 1955. The most successful initially was diazepam, Valium, marketed in 1963. The most widely prescribed benzodiazepine today is alprazolam, Xanax. It’s also the most widely prescribed psychiatric drug, with nearly 50 million prescriptions. It increases concentrations of dopamine and suppresses stress-inducing activity of the hypothalamus. Leandro Panizzon: methylphenidate (Ritalin). The Swiss chemist developed it in 1944 as a stimulant, and named it after his wife, whose tennis game it helped improve. Until the early ‘60s amphetamines were used, counter-intuitively, to treat hyperactive children. Thirty years after its patent expired, the controversial dopamine reuptake inhibitor is still the most widely prescribed medication for the 11% of children who’ve been diagnosed with ADHD. Klaus Schmiegel and Bryan Malloy: the anti-depressant fluoxetine, the first SSRI, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, increasing serotonin levels. Marketed as Prozac in 1988, it made the cover of Newsweek and is still prescribed for over 25 million patients. Paul Janssen: risperdone (Risperdal), the mostly widely prescribed antipsychotic drug worldwide. The Belgian researcher developed many other drugs as well, including loperamide HCL (Imodium). When commenters on web articles advise trolls to take their meds, they might want to specify risperdone. Seiji Sato, Yasuo Oshiro, and Nobuyuki Kurahashi: aripiprazole (Abilify) which blocks dopamine receptors, and was the top selling drug at the end of 2013, grossing $1.6 billion in Q4. *** A few observations. Japanese and Indian researchers will make important contributions to future drugs, as the trio responsible for Abilify reminds us. And, naturally, some women have played roles in the advances that have been summarized. Mary Gibbon, a technician, assisted her husband on the heart-lung machine. Lina Stern did important research on the blood-brain barrier, and it was in her lab that Guravich improved the defibrillator. Jane Wright conducted early trials of methotrexate that helped demonstrate its efficacy. Lucy Wills did pioneering work on anemia in India. Roslyn Yalow helped develop radioimmunoassay, which measures concentrations of antigens in the blood. Anne-Marie Staub did interesting work on antihistamines, though her compounds proved toxic. They are exceptions. Our benefactors have not only been overwhelmingly European males, but are mostly from England and Scotland, Germany, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, as well as Americans and Canadians whose families emigrated from those countries. And, of course, Jews, who’ve won 28% of the Nobel Prizes in Medicine. Some of the beneficiaries in particular might want to think about this. Muslims boast that their faith has over 2 billion followers throughout the world. If this number is accurate it has far less to do with the appeal of Islam or with Arab or Turkish conquests, and everything to do with the work of some Northern Europeans and Jews, along with the “imperialists” who built roads, canals, and ports and the vehicles that use them, as well as schools and hospitals–like the traveling eye clinics in Egypt funded by the Jewish banker Ernest Cassel, which nearly eliminated blinding trachoma, then endemic. The fact that we in the U.S. idolize our entertainers as no society has before is not going to cut off the supply of outstanding medical researchers. Very bright and inquisitive people usually don’t pay much attention to popular culture. But it diminishes us. It’s the ingratitude, though, not the indifference, that’s more troubling. Biting the hand that feeds is a core principle of Leftists. For 150 years, they’ve sought to concentrate power in their own hands by exploiting the resentment of ignorant people against a system that has finally enabled mankind to spring the Malthusian trap. Multiculturalism, with its simple-minded relativism, has broadened the scope of the party line. Not only shadowy “capitalists” are vilified, but whites and males. Ignorant people can now think well of themselves by opposing “racism” and “the patriarchy”–and by voting for an unqualified and deceptive poseur because, though a male, he is not white. The first step parents can take to help spare America from being “fundamentally transformed” is to insist that history be properly taught. This means, among other things, recognizing the accomplishments of a few men who’ve found cures for or relieved the symptoms of diseases that have killed and tortured humans for millennia. Original Article Share This |
South African legend Jacques Kallis has signed on with Sydney Thunder for the next two seasons of the KFC T20 Big Bash League. A genuine rival with Sir Garfield Sobers as the game’s greatest-ever allrounder, Kallis’ signature represents a huge boost to the western Sydney-based franchise ahead of BBL|04. Kallis, 38, retired from Test cricket at the end of 2013, though he plans on adding to his 325 ODIs with the Proteas at the 2015 ICC World Cup. “Signing a player of Jacques’ quality and experience is phenomenal news for Thunder fans,” said Thunder General Manager Nick Cummins. “He is one of the greatest cricketers to have ever played the game and apart from his experience and leadership, he is still a brilliant allrounder who will give the side a quality top-order batsman and versatile bowling option. “Just having a player of his stature around the group will be great for our young players and he will bring big match temperament and a winning attitude to our squad.” Kallis joins the Thunder after playing a limited role in Kolkata Knight Riders’ title success in IPL7. |
A DRIVER ploughed into a family’s two beloved dogs before speeding off – leaving the animals dying in their owners’ arms. Alison and Alfie Skinner cradled their cherished labrador and border terrier as they drew their last breaths. Seconds earlier they had watched in horror as a black BMW convertible rammed in to Bullitt and Rocky on Admiralty Way in Marchwood, Southampton. Distraught Alison, 48, sobbed uncontrollably as she described the collision. The mum-of-two wept: “I knew when I picked up Rocky that he was going to be dead in minutes. My labrador was crying out – it was just dreadful. “My little border terrier died in my arms and the labrador died in the arms of my husband. The car just carried on. It was the worst thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. “They were everything to us – they came everywhere we went and were such a big part of our lives. My husband and I are broken hearted. I cannot believe anyone could be so callous.” Alison said that as their dog walking route is usually quiet they let Rocky and Bullitt off their leads as they approach their home – also on Admiralty Way. But on this occasion a sports car “came out of nowhere” before smashing in to the dogs and pulling them along the road without stopping. Residents rushed to help the pair and police were called in to investigate the hit-and-run, which happened at 6.30pm on Sunday. Alison added: “I was looking at my dogs and so I did not see a number plate. Apparently the car had been seen speeding around the estate beforehand. “My mother has been ill in hospital and the dogs were very comforting for my father. “I am devastated – the dogs were just like children to us. I cannot believe anyone would do this – the car was speeding so fast the dogs did not stand a chance. “Seeing them die in this way is something we are going to have to live with for the rest of our lives.” Police say the vehicle would have sustained damage to its front and are appealing for witnesses. Anyone with information is asked to call 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111. |
by Steven E. Koonin My Wall Street Journal article of 9/20/14, Climate Science is Not Settled , contains the paragraph Even though human influences could have serious consequences for the climate, they are physically small in relation to the climate system as a whole. For example, human additions to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by the middle of the 21st century are expected to directly shift the atmosphere’s natural greenhouse effect by only 1% to 2%. Since the climate system is highly variable on its own, that smallness sets a very high bar for confidently projecting the consequences of human influences. Unfortunately, the necessary brevity and non-technical nature of a newspaper article has created some confusion about what I meant and how I arrived at the 1-2% figure. I write here to explain something that’s quite simple, but has profound implications. AR5 WG1 Figure 2.11 shows the global radiative balance, with the total downward flux on the Earth’s surface estimated as 503 ± 7 W/m2 (161 W/m2 solar + 342 W/m2 thermal aka “Greenhouse effect”). AR5 Figure SPM.4 shows the total anthropogenic direct perturbation (i.e., absent feedbacks) of this balance (the “forcing”)to be some 2.3 ± 1 W/m2, less than 1% of the downward thermal flux or less than 0.5% of the total downward flux. If the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 were to rise to 550 ppm with all other anthropogenic effects unchanged, this perturbation would rise to be 3.9 W/m2. However one quantifies it, we have a percentish exogenous perturbation, which will result in percentish shifts of the energy flows, even after feedbacks (which are thought to roughly double the response). An alternative way of seeing the physical smallness of anthropogenic influences is to look at how the long-wave absorptivity of the clear sky increases with CO 2 concentration – this is the physical input to GCMs that varies directly. Figure 4 from Harde shows that a doubling from the pre-industrial 280 ppm to 560 ppm increases the absorptivity by about 1% on a base of 82%, or, again a percentish shift. An even simpler indication of the percentish influence is to note that a 3 C mean global surface temperature increase on a base of 288 K is also about a 1% effect. The physical smallness of anthropogenic influences, which comes as a surprise to many non-climate-expert scientists, has profound implications for climate understanding and modeling. First, it means precision observations are required to see the climate response. Second, it means that natural variations can easily overwhelm human influences, at least on multidecadal scales (witness the current stasis in global mean surface temperature). And finally, because life at the 1% level is rich, the models have to get many small phenomena right to confidently isolate and project the response to anthropogenic effects. Indeed, if the anthropogenic perturbation weren’t small, the detection/attribution discussion would be much more convincing than it is (see, for example, the APS Workshop transcript). Of course, since CO 2 is an enduring perturbation to the climate system, at least on the scale of centuries, its effects may eventually grow large enough to clarify the situation. The annotated version of my WSJ article contains supporting material for some of other points I made. Virtually all of the references are from IPCC AR5 WGI, so they are surely settled science. JC note: This post arose from my email discussions with Steve Koonin, and issues raised in discussion on the previous thread about Koonin’s WSJ op-ed. As with all guest posts, keep your comments relevant and civil. |
Using images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, researchers closely tracked the shape of multiple “hot spots” over a period of time on Jupiter’s surface, finding evidence that these hot spots are created by a Rossby wave, a pattern also seen in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. NASA postdoctoral fellow David Choi discusses his study of dark features in Jupiter’s atmosphere called “hot spots,” and their connection to large-scale atmospheric waves. In the swirling canopy of Jupiter’s atmosphere, cloudless patches are so exceptional that the big ones get the special name “hot spots.” Exactly how these clearings form and why they’re only found near the planet’s equator have long been mysteries. Now, using images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have found new evidence that hot spots in Jupiter’s atmosphere are created by a Rossby wave, a pattern also seen in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. The team found the wave responsible for the hot spots glides up and down through layers of the atmosphere like a carousel horse on a merry-go-round. “This is the first time anybody has closely tracked the shape of multiple hot spots over a period of time, which is the best way to appreciate the dynamic nature of these features,” said the study’s lead author, David Choi, a NASA Postdoctoral Fellow working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The paper is published online in the April issue of the journal Icarus. Choi and his colleagues made time-lapse movies from hundreds of observations taken by Cassini during its flyby of Jupiter in late 2000, when the spacecraft made its closest approach to the planet. The movies zoom in on a line of hot spots between one of Jupiter’s dark belts and bright white zones, roughly 7 degrees north of the equator. Covering about two months (in Earth time), the study examines the daily and weekly changes in the sizes and shapes of the hot spots, each of which covers more area than North America, on average. Much of what scientists know about hot spots came from NASA’s Galileo mission, which released an atmospheric probe that descended into a hot spot in 1995. This was the first, and so far only, in-situ investigation of Jupiter’s atmosphere. “Galileo’s probe data and a handful of orbiter images hinted at the complex winds swirling around and through these hot spots, and raised questions about whether they fundamentally were waves, cyclones or something in between,” said Ashwin Vasavada, a paper co-author who is based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and who was a member of the Cassini imaging team during the Jupiter flyby. “Cassini’s fantastic movies now show the entire life cycle and evolution of hot spots in great detail.” Because hot spots are breaks in the clouds, they provide windows into a normally unseen layer of Jupiter’s atmosphere, possibly all the way down to the level where water clouds can form. In pictures, hot spots appear shadowy, but because the deeper layers are warmer, hot spots are very bright at the infrared wavelengths where heat is sensed; in fact, this is how they got their name. One hypothesis is that hot spots occur when big drafts of air sink in the atmosphere and get heated or dried out in the process. But the surprising regularity of hot spots has led some researchers to suspect there is an atmospheric wave involved. Typically, eight to 10 hot spots line up, roughly evenly spaced, with dense white plumes of cloud in between. This pattern could be explained by a wave that pushes cold air down, breaking up any clouds, and then carries warm air up, causing the heavy cloud cover seen in the plumes. Computer modeling has strengthened this line of reasoning. From the Cassini movies, the researchers mapped the winds in and around each hot spot and plume, and examined interactions with vortices that pass by, in addition to wind gyres, or spiraling vortices, that merge with the hot spots. To separate these motions from the jet stream in which the hot spots reside, the scientists also tracked the movements of small “scooter” clouds, similar to cirrus clouds on Earth. This provided what may be the first direct measurement of the true wind speed of the jet stream, which was clocked at about 300 to 450 mph (500 to 720 kilometers per hour) — much faster than anyone previously thought. The hot spots amble at the more leisurely pace of about 225 mph (362 kilometers per hour). By teasing out these individual movements, the researchers saw that the motions of the hot spots fit the pattern of a Rossby wave in the atmosphere. On Earth, Rossby waves play a major role in weather. For example, when a blast of frigid Arctic air suddenly dips down and freezes Florida’s crops, a Rossby wave is interacting with the polar jet stream and sending it off its typical course. The wave travels around our planet but periodically wanders north and south as it goes. The wave responsible for the hot spots also circles the planet west to east, but instead of wandering north and south, it glides up and down in the atmosphere. The researchers estimate this wave may rise and fall 15 to 30 miles (24 to 50 kilometers) in altitude. The new findings should help researchers understand how well the observations returned by the Galileo probe extend to the rest of Jupiter’s atmosphere. “And that is another step in answering more of the questions that still surround hot spots on Jupiter,” said Choi. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Publication: David S. Choi, et al., “Meteorology of Jupiter’s equatorial hot spots and plumes from Cassini,” Icarus, Volume 223, Issue 2, April 2013, Pages 832-843; DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2013.02.001 PDF Copy of the Paper from Arxiv.org Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/GSFC |
RFU Championship Richards marks return to rugby with win ESPN Staff Newcastle Falcons boss Dean Richards marked his return to rugby with a commanding 37-20 win over Bristol on Sunday. Richards took charge of his first competitive game for three years at the Memorial Stadium and watched his side run in a four-try bonus point win in their Championship opener. Tries from Tane Tu'ipulotu a double from Luke Fielden and another from Ally Hogg was enough to give the them the win. The Falcons will hope to bounce back to the Aviva Premiership at the first time of asking and Richards, while pleased with the win, expects his side to push on from their opening victory. "There were some good things but also some bad things that we need to work on and the players know that, but the most important thing was to get the win," Richards said. "The players are frustrated with certain aspects of the game but I'm quite happy with the performance and there is a lot more to come from us." © ESPN Sports Media Ltd. |
DREAMER, SABU, RAVEN, CABANA, BALLS, RHINO AND TONS MORE SET FOR JUGGALO CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING DEBUT AT FORMER ECW ARENA Juggalo Championship Wrestling will present their first ever Internet PPV from the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia, PA on Friday 12/30 featuring a slew of names: Scheduled for the Internet PPV - *JCW champ Cpl. Robinson *The Insane Clown Posse *Tommy Dreamer *Raven *Officer Colt Cabana *Perry Saturn *Sabu *Rhino *Blue Meanie *Justin Credible *Balls Mahoney *2 Tuff Tony *“Pitbull†Gary Wolf *Steve Corino *Axl Rotten *Bob Backlund *US Marshall Adam Pearce *The Weedman *Kongo Kong *Rob "The Submissionary" Conway *“Richie Boy†Bryer Wellington *Butler Geeves *Amber O'Neal *“Emo Warrior†Jimmy Jacobs *Madman Pondo *Necro Butcher *Bull Pain *Isabella Smothers *The Headbangers *Shockwave The Robot There are also several surprises booked for the event. The Internet PPV will just be $5 and can be ordered via www.psychopathiclive.com. If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more, right now for THREE DAYS free by clicking here! |
Mainstream “geek culture” media have been frothing at the mouth this month because Supanova, an Australian convention for sci-fi, comic, anime and gaming fans, has refused to rescind actor Adam Baldwin’s invitation to appear, after a petition claimed that, as a supporter of GamerGate, his attendance will make women “feel unsafe”. Internet petitions demanding speakers’ invitations be withdrawn have become more and more common, and realising that by simply being upfront about their motives for wanting to disallow their target a platform will unmask them for the intolerant, authoritarian drones they are, campaigners have learned to up the stakes, claiming that the presence of speakers they don’t like “threatens the safety of attendees”, when the true reason is that they are banning any speakers with right-wing or even libertarian sympathies. Baldwin wasn’t even going to be talking about anything pertaining to GamerGate or women. As the expo was celebrating the ten-year anniversary of television show Serenity, Baldwin would be appearing in his capacity as a cast member. Albert Santos, the petition’s architect, who since the announcement Baldwin would still be appearing at Supanova has announced his commitment to “fight to the end”, quite clearly articulated that Baldwin’s political stance was the problem. “Some have argued that a person’s political views need to be separate to their professional duties, and I understand that train of thought. I’m not going after Kevin Sorbo or Dean Cain or Michael Rooker, for example, despite not agreeing with their views, because for the most part they keep it to themselves and are professionals about their work… But Baldwin chose, and continues to choose to be active in his bigotry and hatred. It’s this proactive nature that sets off alarm bells, for me.” Translation? If you’re not left-wing, keep your mouth shut. What’s becoming clear is that under the false premise of making spaces “safe” for minorities, the only people whose safety is really becoming at risk is right-wingers and basically anyone who doesn’t wholly subscribe to the doctrine of political correctness. I stopped reading gaming websites long before GamerGate, because I was confused as to why they were so heavily pushing a hard-left world view in all their articles. I wasn’t interested in high school-level sociology essays about the representation of women and ethnic minorities, and didn’t think politics belonged in video game reviews. Feminist Frequency, fronted by Anita Sarkeesian and purportedly an enterprise to “make gaming more inclusive” has its scripts written by Jonathan McIntosh, a far-left lunatic who wouldn’t condemn the death of Osama bin Laden, but had time to tweet his delight at the death of Christopher Hitchens. One doesn’t have to look too hard on his Twitter to find that the “inclusivity” claims mask a far more sinister desire to push his extreme views on video games. He has tweeted: “It’s never ‘just a video game'”, then approvingly retweeted a user calling themselves “social justice mage” replying to him, writing: “It’s never “just” anything, really. Stories matter.” Well, yes. Stories do matter and this is why it’s of so much concern that radical leftists want control of this medium. McIntosh tweeted that: “There are a very limited number of stories that involve killing stuff for 20 hours in a row. We need different mechanics.” If one were to make a pie chart of games for which the “story” was killing stuff for 20 hours in a row, it would show that these games are actually in a minority. Just looking at the “new release” page of a major videogame store in the UK we can see how diverse the range of titles is. In the last month I’ve been playing Hatoful Boyfriend, LA Noire and One Way Heroics, none of which could be described as “non-stop killing.” So what is it McIntosh wants? Games being pushed by games journalists and the likes of McIntosh tend to be ones given awards by the Games for Change festival, which “shines a spotlight on video games and developers pushing the medium not just as quality entertainment or educational tools but as venues for social justice.” As Joystiq notes of Papers Please, it “highlights the dangers faced by migrants crossing the US-Mexico border.” Playing as a border guard who has the power to turn away or let in would-be migrants with harrowing personal stories about why they should be let in, you must balance your sympathy against the fact if you make too many mistakes, you won’t have enough money to feed your family. Doing this creates the impression that the “bad guy” is your employer, and that everyone would be happy if only your character were allowed to let everyone into the country. It’s a simplistic narrative of “poor asylum seekers” that ignores the fact that granting asylum from third-world countries is a fool’s errand that does absolutely nothing to alleviate poverty and in fact causes problems not just for the country receiving the immigrants but also for developing countries themselves. What’s worrying is that the mainstream media’s blind reporting of GamerGate as a “misogynist” movement shows how successful the left has been in branding any opposition to its terrifying grab for dominance of the cultural hegemony as “bigotry”. The people McCarthyism was attempting to stop are using McCarthy’s own tactics in their bid to wrest creative control over the video game industry and silence opposition, shouting “bigot” or “hate speech”, instead of “Red” and “Communism”. Sadly, this tactic is replicated in universities up and down the country, under the facade of ensuring students aren’t made to feel “unsafe”. This means censorship, as Brendan O’Neill put it, of any views which lie outside the ever-expanding liberal left orthodoxy. So abortion debates are banned, universities are banning UKIP members from campus all so that students “feel safe”. Underneath such petitions there are often comments calling for anyone at all who has “hateful views” to be banned from campus. Who is it that is more likely to actually feel “unsafe”? Is it students who enjoy full cultural backing of their views by the union establishment, who might have to hear a couple of viewpoints they don’t like, or is it right wing students who, if they opened their mouths, would likely be run off campus by vile left-wing mobs? Unless petitions demanding right-wingers are No Platformed, and those who brand groups like GamerGate that seek to challenge the poisonous censoriousness of the left as “hate groups” and “misogynist” are recognised as the vile, McCarthyist tactic-wielding authoritarians that they are, the left will gain total control over the limits of debate, and diversity of opinion will be lost forever. Some of the mainstream media who have parroted the crude slander of GamerGate as a hate group really should really know better. To present it that way, rather than doing research into what it’s really about, just furthers untruthful, extremist propaganda. |
An emotional Jason Kenney said he was moved after receiving a powerful endorsement in his new bid to lead Alberta's Progressive Conservative Party. The thumbs up came from former prime minister Stephen Harper who endorsed the former federal minister at a Conservative fundraiser on Saturday evening during the Calgary Stampede. Harper has made few public appearances since his defeat in last October's federal election and his brief remarks at the $200-per-ticket fundraiser could go down as his last significant message before he is expected to leave federal politics later this summer. "Friends, I would ask you tonight, I would ask all of Alberta's members of the Conservative Party of Canada to join me and work to elect as the next leader of the PC Party, the Honourable Jason Kenney," Harper said. The event contrasts with Harper's last annual visit to Stampede when he was still prime minister and about to plunge Canada into a marathon election campaign that he would later lose to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals. Former prime minister Stephen Harper hugs interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose at a political fundraising event at the Calgary Stampede on July 9, 2016. Photo by Louie Villanueva. Kenney said he was "delighted" to receive Harper's "unequivocal" support, calling the former prime minister's unification of the Reform Party and Conservative Party in 2003 the model for his own plans to unite Alberta's right-wing parties. "It's actually a bit moving for me," Kenney said. "I've been with him in the trenches for a very long time. To hear those words from him in what is probably his last political speech as an MP is very touching." Harper bashes union money, corporate donations and media hype Harper said his party isn't one kept afloat "by union money, by corporate donations, media hype, or extensive taxpayer subsidies," and that he believes Wildrose Party supporters want unity and "positive change" for the province. Kenney told reporters that he doesn't "expect unanimity either for my candidacy or the project of unity," but he likes his odds. "I don't think even the most cynical journalist could spin the endorsement of the longest-serving conservative prime minister this century and the leader of the Conservative Party as anything but fantastic news for what I'm trying to do." Jason Kenney salutes the crowd at a Conservative fundraiser in Calgary on July 9, 2016. Photo by Louie Villanueva. Interim federal Conservative Leader Roma Ambrose said she's been "unabashedly supportive of the unite the right movement here in Alberta" for over a year. She threw her own hat in the ring for Kenney, saying he's the right person for Alberta's conservatives to unite behind. "I am incredibly proud and happy that Jason has stepped up to lead this movement and I am behind him 100 per cent," Ambrose said in a scrum before the fundraiser. She declined to say whether she would support his eventual bid for premier should he win the leadership. She said that would be up to Albertans to decide and that "there's a lot that has to happen before we get to the next election." She won't publicly campaign for his leadership bid either, saying she has "a lot on my plate," and that the individual MPs in her caucus would be free to decide whether to support anyone. She also wished Alberta's conservative leaders all the best in their bid to unite the right. Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose speaks to the crowd at the Conservative fundraiser at the Calgary Stampede on July 9, 2016. Photo by Louie Villanueva. She said she is "100 per cent behind the unite-the-right movement in Alberta," and that conservatives have to create an "unstoppable path to victory" if they're going to wrestle control back from the NDP. Speaking later to the crowd, she even joked that she had invited Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean and Alberta's interim Progressive Conservative Leader Ric McIver to stay at Stornoway — the residence of the federal leader of the official opposition in Ottawa — and suggested they stay in the same room. "I told the two of them they could have the room with the bunk beds," she said, with both men listening in the audience. Alberta Wildrose Leader Brian Jean tips his hat at the Conservative rank-and-file at the party's Stampede fundraiser on July 9, 2016. Photo by Louie Villanueva. Ambrose also criticized Russia's military incursion into Ukraine as well as Alberta's carbon tax, adding that the province's economy is in dire straits. She said she has "seen grown men cry, humiliated because they lost their job." Ambrose also thanked Interim leader McIver for his leadership of the Alberta Tories following its crushing electoral defeat in 2015, which ended 44 years of Cosnervative rule in the province. The PCs, then led by former Conservative MP Jim Prentice, were relegated to third-party status in a sweeping election victory for Premier Rachel Notley and the province's New Democrats. Kenney said that he's spoken to both McIver and Jean since his announcement, and that he'll meet with the Wildrose Party leader again in the "near future." |
By Dan Durkin- Editor’s note: This is the ninth and final part in a series that takes an all-encompassing look at the state of the Bears’ roster. Click here to read breakdowns of the other positions. (CBS) Just a few seasons ago, the Bears offset their deficiencies on offense by playing tough defense and winning the field position battle with stellar special teams units. Yet, in just two seasons, the latter phase has rapidly gone from a strength to a weakness. In special team’s parlance, “core four” refers to the coverage and return units on both punts and kickoffs. For the Bears, there was a subset core four that once made those units special – coordinator Dave Toub, returner Devin Hester, kicker Robbie Gould and long snapper Patrick Mannelly. From that group, only Gould remains, and the other roles haven’t been properly addressed. Toub was the first domino piece to fall. After he didn’t make it past the first round of interviews for the Bears’ head coaching vacancy in January 2013, he took over the special teams coordinator role with the Kansas City Chiefs and quickly turned them into one of the league’s best. Rick Gosselin of The Dallas Morning News does an annual ranking of special teams units league-wide, and in those, Toub took the Chiefs from 23rd in 2012 to third overall in 2013 and eighth overall in 2014. On the other hand, the Bears took a tumble, falling from ninth in 2012 to 23rd in 2013 and 26th in 2014. Former coordinator Joe DeCamillis (now the Broncos’ special teams coordinator) deserves some blame, but he wasn’t given much to work with in his tenure from a personnel perspective by former general manager Phil Emery, and DeCamillis’ coaching style didn’t mesh with that of former head coach Marc Trestman. Compared to how much they were focused on under Lovie Smith, special teams were de-emphasized under Trestman. When the team addressed the media during last season’s bye week, Emery admitted that he was using the special teams groups as a means of trying to develop young talent on the roster. The Bears’ plan for the 2014 season was to build an early lead with their offense to make their opponent one-dimensional so they could pin their ears back and rush the passer. That plan only came to fruition once, against the Atlanta Falcons. Special teams’ role in this plan was to provide favorable starting field position to start drives. From 2012 to 2014, the Bears dropped from fourth in average starting field position to 26th in 2014. One of the biggest miscalculations Emery made was how he handled the returner position. The team successfully lured Chris Williams from the Saints’ practice squad with a $100,000 signing bonus three days prior to the 2013 season ending. Williams made a splash play last preseason on a 73-yard reception, but he pulled his hamstring in the process. The injury lingered and ultimately led to him not making the final 53-man roster. The Bears started the season with Senorise Perry as their primary kick returner and Santonio Holmes as their punt returner. The return units provided no lift in field position. In fact, they didn’t crack the 20-yard line on a kickoff return until Week 7. In the end, the Bears cycled through Perry, Rashad Ross, went back to Williams (who was eventually waived on Dec. 6) before signing Marc Mariani to a two-year contract on Nov. 18. Mariani brought some stability to the position and is under contract in 2015, but more competition is needed at the position. The Bears spent a sixth-round draft pick last spring on punter Pat O’Donnell, who became a cult hero in training camp. While O’Donnell did have some strong performances throughout the season, he finished with a lower net punting average than Adam Podlesh — the player he replaced — had the previous season. It’s also worth noting that Tress Way, who was competing with O’Donnell in training camp, latched on with the Redskins and finished top in the league in gross punting average (47.5) and 10th in net average (40). After signing a lucrative four-year extension last year with $9 million guaranteed — the highest ever by a kicker — Gould had his worst season as a pro, finishing with career lows in field goals attempted, made and percentage. Gould was hampered by a quad injury that forced him to miss the final four games of the season and was replaced by veteran Jay Feely. The youth movement on special teams made the units look largely uncoordinated. Penalties were consistent and costly. However, it’s hard to expect positive results when the nucleus is primarily made of undrafted free agent rookies. In years past, the Bears had veterans like Brendon Ayanbadejo, Tim Shaw, Eric Weems and Blake Costanzo who made a career off of special teams. Such players not only served as strong voices in the meeting rooms, they also showed younger players that there are alternate ways to ensure yourself a spot on a 53-man roster. Looking ahead, the Bears’ potential switch to a 3-4 defense may boost special teams, as the team will likely carry more linebackers, which typically comprise the core coverage and return units. Dan Durkin covers the Bears for CBSChicago.com and is a frequent contributor to 670 The Score. Follow him on Twitter at @djdurkin. |
3 Shares Both KGAN (CBS 2) and KXFA (Fox 28) will be increasing the amount of Trump-friendly news commentary they broadcast. Neither station has a choice in the matter. Sinclair Broadcasting Group, the media company that owns one of the Cedar Rapids stations, and operates the other, is mandating the pro-Trump content boost. Politico reported this week that Sinclair, the largest owner of local TV stations in the country, will triple the number of “Bottom Line with Boris” segments its stations must air each week during local news programs. The segments, which last between two and three minutes, feature commentary by Boris Epshteyn, a former Trump campaign spokesperson who also worked for Trump’s inaugural committee and in the press office of the Trump White House. The segments were being run three times a week. They will now air nine times each week. Ephsteyn was born in Russia. His family emigrated to the United States when he was 11, and eventually became citizens. He is a college buddy of Trump’s son Eric, and was an attorney and worked at an investment firm before joining Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. Advertisement Ephsteyn was hired by Sinclair as its chief political analyst in April. By then, Ephsteyn was a well-established presence in the media, and frequently described as Trump’s attack dog. Ephsteyn is “known for his argumentative, badgering style on TV,” was how The New York Times tactfully described Ephsteyn the month before Sinclair hired him. Politico was less restrained in its March 2017 story describing Ephsteyn’s TV career. The story’s title was “White House official terrorizes network green rooms.” Ephsteyn is a natural fit for Sinclair, which is owned by politically conservative members of the family of its founder, Julian Sinclair Smith. During a speech to business executives last December, Jared Kushner boasted that his father-in-law Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, which Kushner helped run, struck a deal with Sinclair executives to guarantee favorable news coverage on its stations. In return, Sinclair stations would receive exclusive sit-down interviews with Trump. Sinclair executives denied any deal was struck, but its stations did provide favorable coverage, and the interviews did occur. Sinclair could guarantee the tone of its news coverage, because unlike other media companies that own local TV stations, Sinclair requires its stations to broadcast certain news show segments. The segments, which are known as “must-runs,” uniformly follow right-wing political talking points, as HBO’s comedy/news show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver recently documented. In a 19-minute segment, Oliver highlights “Bottom Line with Boris,” along with other must-run news segments, including one that associated French beachwear with terrorism. (Seriously, watch the video.) Having a Russian-born partisan named Boris reciting pro-Trump talking points might seem awkward given recent revelations about possible collaboration between the Trump campaign and Russia, but that’s what Sinclair is offering viewers. Little Village attempted to contact Becky Lutgen Gardner, the news director for both KGAN, which Sinclair owns, and KXFA, which Sinclair operates, to discuss how the stations handle the must-runs, but has not yet received a reply. The must-runs are also broadcast in Iowa on KTVO in Ottumwa and KMEG in Sioux Falls. Nationwide, Sinclair’s commentaries are featured on its 84 stations that air local news. The company owns a total of 173 TV stations. Sinclair’s reach may increase in the near future. It is currently attempting to buy 42 local TV stations owned by Tribune media. If the purchase is approved by federal regulators, the combined Sinclair and Tribune stations would reach approximately 72 percent of American households. Advertisement |
Telltale have just announced their upcoming games lineup, and it’s pretty exciting. Not only are we getting a follow-up to The Wolf Among Us, we’re getting more Batman, and even the final season of The Walking Dead. For more future hits, check out our list of upcoming PC games. The Wolf Among Us will be returning in 2018 and will be bathed in that same neon-noir style of the first season. There aren’t many other details but we’re told it’ll be a completely new story with a fresh mystery. As Telltale said recently, they won’t be resolving season one’s cliffhanger ending. Batman’s back next month, too. Batman: The Enemy Within makes its debut on August 8 with its first episode, The Enigma. As the name suggests, it centres around The Riddler’s return to Gotham, though worse threats linger on the horizon. Yes, Joker’s going to be in it. Choices from season one will carry over for those who’ve played it. Meanwhile, The Walking Dead is coming back for a fourth season, closing the book on Clementine’s story, this time with her taking the lead role. “It’s going to be an amazing experience. Thank you all so much, from the bottom of my heart,” Melissa Hutchison says, who is the award-winning voice actress behind Clementine. “It’s been a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, and so much love has been behind this whole experience. Good luck, I’ll be right there with you.” As with The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead’s finale will debut next year. Have a watch of the video above, in which the actors and developers look back across the games and hint at what lies ahead. |
Mark Sanchez ended up going to the Jets practice facility yesterday — out of habit. And because he didn’t know what else he should be doing. The Jets’ season-ending loss to the Steelers was so surprising to the quarterback, he said on “The Michael Kay Show” on 1050 ESPN Radio he didn’t know what to do with himself when he woke up yesterday. VOTE: What grades would you give the Jets? VOTE: JETS FREE AGENTS “It’s weird — I just really didn’t plan on [the offseason being now],” Sanchez said. “It’s hard. It’s just so weird, waking up [yesterday] and not — just kind of waking up. It’s weird. “I went in and saw the coaches again [yesterday]. They were like, ‘What are you doing here?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know where else to go. I live here. I don’t know.’ It’s hard.” Sanchez said he’ll return to his native California this offseason but isn’t sure when that’ll be. He did say he expects to be in Texas during Super Bowl week due to events with Pepsi, Verizon and Degree. Sanchez reiterated he thinks offseason shoulder surgery is unnecessary but will speak further with doctors this week. mark.hale@nypost.com |
Sony has announced the launch of its new flagship, the Xperia Z2. The unit will feature 4K video capture and a 20.7 megapixel camera. IF WATCHING movies, taking photos, recording videos and listening to music is what you use your phone for, then Sony’s new flagship Xperia Z2 could be the device for you. Announced today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the Xperia Z2 is a technology monster packing in 4K video capture capability and Sony’s brilliant Full HD display this time in 5.2-inch size. It’s also the first phone in the world to have digital noise cancelling technology, letting you listen to music clearly without interruptions in noisy places. “We have redefined the smartphone once again with our camera. Xperia Z2 offers an innovative experience that captures memories in stunning detail through 4K video shooting,” said John Featherstone, Managing Director, Sony Mobile Communications Oceania. The Xperia Z2 has what Sony is claiming the world’s best camera and camcorder in a waterproof smartphone, being only the second phone to have 4K video recording capability and using an improved version of Sony’s brilliant 20.7-megapixel camera from last year. A slew of new camera software features are also included like the new Timeshift mode which lets you record videos in 120 frames per second, allowing slow motion video similar to what the iPhone 5S does. The screen borrows technology from Sony’s latest televisions, creating a 5.2-inch Full HD display with great colour reproduction and a viewing experience that Sony claims is “as close to reality as possible”. Sony’s use of waterproof designs continue with the Xperia Z2, letting you record and take pictures underwater and never having to worry about getting your phone wet again. Its other features include super quick 4G connectivity, a lag-free quad-core processor and a huge 3200mAh (twice the size of an iPhone 5s) battery which should keep you going all day without making you worry about your phone dying. Sony also announced a new SmartBand fitness tracker and Xperia Z2 tablet which also includes Sony’s new noise cancelling technology and TV technology in its display. While no exact release date or pricing has been announced, the Sony Xperia Z2 will be available on Telstra, Optus and Vodafone plus Sony’s own retail stores. Specs: — 5.2-inch Full High Definition display — 2.3GHz quad-core processor — 20.7-megapixel camera — 4K video recording — 3200 mAh battery News_Image_File: The phone features a 20.7MP camera |
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ES News Email Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in or register with your social account Crowds of animal rights activists protested outside a high-end central London clothing store amid claims coyotes and geese are mistreated to make the brand’s products. Canada Goose, which makes luxury winter clothing, opened its flagship UK store on the capital’s iconic Regent Street this week. But the Canadian brand has faced global criticism for producing parka jackets with a trim made from coyote fur, which animal rights group PETA claim are caught in the wild in steel traps. PETA alleges the coyotes are then shot or bludgeoned to death. The group also claims the geese, whose feathers are used in the company’s jackets, are mistreated. Hordes of protesters gathered outside the shop on Saturday holding posters with slogans reading “fur is murder”, “blood on your hands” and “is your vanity worth your suffering?” There was a heavy police presence around the entrance of the store as demonstrators shouted: “Shame on you.” A man with a loudspeaker led activists in chants reciting “fur trade, torture trade”, “fur trade, death trade” and “fur trade, murder trade”. The nine-hour protest began at 11am and was expected to go on until 8pm. The retailer previously hit back at charity PETA’s claims, saying: “Surge, PETA and other activist groups misrepresent the facts and use sensational tactics to try to illicit a reaction and mislead consumers. “They ignore the strict government regulation and standards that are in place, as well as our commitment to ethical sourcing practices and responsible use of fur and down.” On Saturday a spokeswoman told the Standard: "PETA and other animal activists are grossly misinformed about our animal welfare practices. "Canada Goose remains deeply committed to the responsible use and ethical sourcing of all animal materials in our products. "While we respect their opinion and right to protest, we are appalled by their extreme, inexcusable behavior and unsurprised by their attempt to capitalize on media attention tied to the opening of our store in London." Canada Goose is already stocked by retailers including Harrods and Harvey Nichols. Its London store is the first to be opened in the UK and the largest in Europe. Jackets range in price from around £650 to more than £1,000. |
Arsene Wenger says he’s open to the idea of managing England in the future but underlined that he’s unwavering in his commitment to fulfilling his current Arsenal deal. The boss has one year left on his current contract and has said on a number of occasions he’ll wait until the summer before deciding his next step. Roy Hodgson’s decision to quit following England’s abject defeat to Iceland has left the FA trawling through the phonebook looking for someone anyone to take on the best-paid poisoned chalice in world football. “Could I manage England? Why not?” Wenger told French TV. “I would never rule that out, but I am happy and focused in club football. I have one more year to go with Arsenal and I have been with them for a long time. I have always respected all my contracts and will continue to do that. What will I do after that? Honestly, I don’t know. “England is my second country. I was absolutely on my knees when England went out against Iceland. I couldn’t believe it. But when you watched the game you could sense, after 60 minutes, that the worst could happen. Did they panic or were they tired? I don’t know, but England couldn’t find an answer to what Iceland posed.” There was talk about Wenger taking over from Gareth Southgate – who was penciled in to take over from Hodgson on an interim basis until 2017 – but that was shelved when the former Villa and Boro defender ruled himself out of the race. Obviously, Arsene has spoken in the past about his masochistic tendencies, but we’re not sure he’d necessarily be up for the weekly garroting that comes with being the boss of the Three Lions. |
Be sure to head over to Twitter and follow @PlanetSide2 On Friday at 4PM PDT the PlanetSide 2 Developers will be answering questions on Twitter: Latest Comments 2011-09-17 10:19 AM TheBiscuit Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday Thank god FF is on, I just couldn't imagine PS2 without it! 2011-09-17 02:05 PM Traak Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday PS without FF = Thumper Blizzard 2011-09-17 04:28 PM Hamma Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday Yea twitter is a horrible medium for this stuff, we were doing Q&A's like this better in the early 2000's with IRC. 2011-09-17 07:26 PM FIREk Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday Shogun Originally Posted by holy rek, never do a google picsearch for matt highby ;-) 2011-09-18 05:48 AM Vancha Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday Lunarchild Originally Posted by His new haircut And let's not forget the reason Higby was late:His new haircut 2011-09-18 12:55 PM klu Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday did they say if/when they will be doing another q&a? 2011-09-18 01:10 PM Lunarchild Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday klu Originally Posted by did they say if/when they will be doing another q&a? 2011-09-23 07:40 PM Hamma Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday We've posted a recap of this: http://www.planetside-universe.com/p...er-16th-98.htm Bit late, and I know some others have done it but we wanted to get it out there also. Enjoy! 2011-09-23 08:40 PM basti Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday That link just got shared from Planetside 2 on FB. Consider yourself having 16.5k readers now hamma. 2011-09-23 08:45 PM Bags Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday >waste time transcribing twitter >someone else also does it >rip hair out 2011-09-23 09:39 PM NapalmEnima Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday basti Originally Posted by That link just got shared from Planetside 2 on FB. Consider yourself having 16.5k readers now hamma. 2011-09-23 10:04 PM Hamma Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday hehe thanks guys - awesome to have it shared out to that massive audience! Was tweeted on the PlanetSide and PlanetSide 2 accounts on Twitter also. Bags Originally Posted by >waste time transcribing twitter >someone else also does it >rip hair out Yours was up much faster than ours! 2011-09-23 11:17 PM Hamma Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday Yea I think we are all in agreement on the Twitter thing but I'm sure they will continue using it. We were doing the IRC thing back in the early 2000's with PS1. 2011-09-24 02:47 AM Gryphon Re: PlanetSide 2 Q&A on Twitter Friday Hamma Originally Posted by naw you didn't waste any time Yours was up much faster than ours! hehe thanks guys - awesome to have it shared out to that massive audience! Was tweeted on the PlanetSide and PlanetSide 2 accounts on Twitter also.naw you didn't waste any timeYours was up much faster than ours! IDukeNukeml Originally Posted by Maybe if they create or use an IRC channel? 2011-09-26 01:49 AM |
This study aimed to examine the acute and sub-chronic effects of cocoa polyphenols on cognition and mood. In a randomized, double-blind study, healthy middle-aged participants received a dark chocolate drink mix standardized to contain 500 mg, 250 mg or 0 mg of polyphenols (placebo) in a parallel-groups design. Participants consumed their assigned treatment once daily for 30 days. Cognition was measured with the Cognitive Drug Research system and self-rated mood with the Bond-Lader Visual Analogue Scale. Participants were tested at baseline, at 1, 2.5 and 4 h after a single acute dose and again after receiving 30 days of treatment. In total, 72 participants completed the trial. After 30 days, the high dose of treatment significantly increased self-rated calmness and contentedness relative to placebo. Mood was unchanged by treatment acutely while cognition was unaffected by treatment at all time points. This randomized controlled trial is perhaps the first to demonstrate the positive effects of cocoa polyphenols on mood in healthy participants. This provides a rationale for exploring whether cocoa polyphenols can ameliorate the symptoms associated with clinical anxiety or depression. |
While its financial numbers are daunting, uranium mining company Cameco says it's remaining confident about the future. In its first quarter results, Cameco said its net loss attributable to equity holders was $18 million. At the same time last year, the company had made $78 million. "As we expected, our first quarter sales were light, resulting in the usual seasonality of our cash flow," wrote CEO Tim Gitzel in a news release. "However, our strategic focus on costs and efficiency is beginning to pay off, with administration and production costs coming down significantly compared to last year." Cameco has struggled over the past year. In 2016, the company reported a loss of $62 million after revenue dropped by $323 million. Last year, Uranium spot prices hit a 12-year low, caused by oversupply after Japan shut its power reactors down following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. In January, Japanese power company TEPCO issued a notice it was canceling a contract with the company worth $1.3 billion through 2028. Cameco said it planned to fight the matter in court. Gitzel is confident that prices will improve this year. "With Japan continuing down its path to restarting reactors, and with construction of new nuclear plants fuelling increasing future uranium requirements, we believe our focus on value and on our tier-one assets will allow us to maintain our competitive position, and thrive in a rising market," he said. This spring, 120 Cameco employees were expected to be laid off at its operations in McArthur River, Key Lake and Cigar Lake. The layoffs were expected to be completed by May. |
Summertime in Colorado: It brings forth such rich imagery. Hiking among the Maroon Bells. Biking outside of Fruita. Rafting the Arkansas. The great outdoors — which is occasionally synonymous with live music here in the Mile High. Camping out at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. A night under the stars at Red Rocks. A blanket, a basket of tapas and a bottle of wine at the Denver Botanic Gardens. A large group gathering on the lawn at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre. Tubing on the St. Vrain through the Planet Bluegrass Ranch. Colorado’s legendary summer weather combined with Coloradans’ renowned passion for live music creates a maelstrom of good times. And here are 10 shows we’re especially looking forward in the next few months. 1. MANA: The name might not be familiar to many readers, but that takes nothing away from its status as one of the biggest bands in the world. The band’s publicity materials call it “the most widely sold and heard Latin band in the world,” and if you’ve ever traveled through any Spanish-speaking countries — from Spain to Mexico, Nicaragua to Argentina — you’ve likely heard Mana on trains, in bars and on taxi radios. It is that inescapable band that is everywhere, and this Denver date is a rare one. (May 1, Pepsi Center) 2. DRAKE, J. COLE: In a short time, Drake has become one of the biggest, suavest names in R&B. His 2011 record “Take Care” quietly captured a generation of hip-hop fans who like straightforward R&B grooves and the occasional guest spot from Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Rihanna or the Weeknd. What’s especially alluring about this show is the lead support, J. Cole, the most captivating new voice in modern hip-hop. Haven’t heard Cole’s music? Spotify the exquisite “Can’t Get Enough” and the more pop-friendly “Work Out.” (May. 13, Comfort Dental Amphitheatre) 3. THE DENVER UKEFEST WITH JAKE SHIMABUKURO, NELLIE MCKAY, ALDRINE GUERRERO: What started as a modest festival a few years ago has exploded into a powder keg of a catalyst. Yes, the ukulele is taking over Denver — from rock bands employing the tiny, simple instrument to entire families learning how to play the four-stringer. The acoustic enthusiasts at Swallow Hill are leading the charge with their many classes and this full-weekend event, which boasts its biggest-ever lineup this summer. (May 17-19, Wynkoop Brewing Co./Oriental Theater/L2 Arts & Culture Center) 4. THE SHINS: As a longtime fan of the Shins, I’ve also been quick to admit their weakness as a lackluster live band. But seeing them at the Coachella Music and Art Festival a few weeks ago changed my perspective on James Mercer and the gang — primarily because the gang is entirely different. Mercer replaced most of his band and shook up his catalog, and suddenly his band — touring the biggest record of its career, “Port of Morrow” — is one of the most interesting live bands in indie rock. (May 29, Red Rocks) 5. BASSNECTAR: Has dubstep completely taken over the planet, or is the bass-heavy electronic subgenre just dominating Colorado’s clubs, arenas and amphitheaters? Either way, San Francisco DJ/producer Bassnectar is one of the biggest names in the game — with his heavy whomp-whomp and his legendary remixes (the Pixies, Metallica, the Cranberries). His live shows are nothing if not wild. (June 1-2, Red Rocks) 6. THE DENVER POST UNDERGROUND MUSIC SHOWCASE WITH BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW, BIG FREEDIA AND THE DIVAS, A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB:The UMS is the biggest indie music festival in the Rocky Mountain region, and The Denver Post-owned event will be bigger than ever this summer. Just look at the names already released. Black Moth Super Rainbow is a total freak show, a psychedelic outfit with a penchant for spectacle. Big Freedia puts on the best dance party you’ve ever been to. Don’t forget your earplugs for A Place to Bury Strangers, which continues to channel the weight and volume of My Bloody Valentine within the melodic context of the Jesus and Mary Chain. And Slim Cessna’s Auto Club remains a dynamic, mostly local institution with its gothic-tinged, God-fearing alt-country jams. (July 19-22, Historic Baker District) 7. CHEYENNE FRONTIER DAYS WITH ZAC BROWN BAND, BRAD PAISLEY, MERLE HAGGARD, JOURNEY: Frontier Days always features a big lineup, but this year’s is especially mammoth. From country legend Haggard to megastars Brown and Paisley — along with arena rockers Journey — this is as solid a lineup as the event has in years. (July 20-28, Cheyenne Frontier Nights) 8. FLORENCE + THE MACHINE:Is Florence this generation’s Sarah McLachlan? Witchy and ethereal? Check. Knows her way around a hit pop melody? Check. But where she’s entirely better than McLachlan is her voice, which is a soaring, forceful entity that is otherworldly in nature. Her vocals sound textured and lovely on record, but they’re even better live. (July 25, Red Rocks) 9. JACK WHITE:No other contemporary musician has created such a lauded, diverse catalog of work as White, the founder of the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather. And now comes the solo release, which is a searing blast of rock that often sounds like a late-Stripes B-side as heard through the filter of the Dead Weather’s reverb-y filth. White is on fire creatively, and judging from his very sold-out show at South by Southwest — we waited in line 90 minutes for that — this tour will be a special one. (Aug. 8, Red Rocks) 10. ROCKY MOUNTAIN FOLKS FESTIVAL WITH LYLE LOVETT, IRON & WINE, NEKO CASE: The Folks Festival always seems to be one of the most appealing lineups of the summer. Then again, any day at the Planet Bluegrass Ranch is a pleasure — with the creek hugging its boundaries, kids splashing about and tubers relaxing while towing their coolers of canned beer. This year’s musical lineup is deep, but the above names are enough of a reason to give the more-popular-than-ever festival a chance. (Aug. 17-19, Planet Bluegrass Ranch in Lyons) Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394, rbaca@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bruvs |
Girlfriends are a woman's worst enemy when it comes to romance. Confiding in your best friend during a rough patch in a relationship is more likely to hinder than help, according to a new study. The researchers blamed jealousy on dissatisfied confidantes taking out their own relationship problems on other couples. Rather than be a shoulder-to-cry-on, members of the same sex can add to the problems with their meddling. Women who poured their heart out to a girlfriend, instead of to a partner, were a third more likely to break-up. Rather than be a shoulder-to-cry-on, members of the same sex can add to the problems with their meddling. Women who poured their heart out to a girlfriend, instead of to a partner, were a third more likely to break-up. Stock image The report, whose lead author is family therapist Dr Jakob Jensen, of East Carolina University, said: 'Maintaining romantic relationships over time is a critical part of successful romantic encounters. 'Unfortunately, our findings suggest that turning away from the partner to a friend may only exacerbate relationship problems and contribute to romantic instability. 'Sharing of romantic problems within a social network appears to have the potential to negatively impact. 'Our findings clarify how adult females share their romantic challenges with partners and friends over time and the romantic impact of doing so.' Women are more likely to share the ups-and-downs of new relationships, confiding in their friends and shortcomings, the study said. But it can have its drawbacks as friends may only see a friends's boyfriend in the negative. For the two-year long study 67 women, in their 20s, were asked about their romantic relationships, problems within them, and who they choose to discuss them with - their partner or the best friend. They found that sharing concerns with a friend increased the odds of a break-up by 33 per cent. But talking it out with a lover doubled the chances of them staying together. 'Frequent relationship work with partners was linked with greater romantic stability, whereas frequent relationship work with friends predicted instability,' the report said. Confiding in your best friend during a rough patch in a relationship is more likely to hinder than help, according to a new study. The researchers blamed jealousy on dissatisfied confidantes taking out their own relationship problems on other couples. Stock image 'Results suggest that discussing romantic challenges with one's partner likely has a positive impact both immediately and over time.' 'Many people actively involve their friends when faced with romantic problems by sharing these problems with them,' the report warned. 'This strategy is understandable, as overcoming romantic challenges begins with the ability to openly discuss problems. . '[However], avoiding these discussions of romantic issues with a partner is linked with lower perceptions of romantic closeness and poorer romantic well-being.' The report said girlfriends who may have a negative attitude to their best friend's partner might be feeling jealous if they have problems too - wanting to share their own misery. 'Individuals experiencing romantic challenges who breakup may influence not only their friends but also their friends' friends as the propensity to end the relationship spreads.' Turning to a best friend for advice, rather than a boyfriend may be an early warning sign that a relationship is heading for the rocks. 'Do young women turn to friends when their relationship is troubled or does turning to friends lead to relationship problems? 'Individuals who display poorer conflict resolution skills have also been found to possess undesirable individual traits - less empathy and more neuroticism; partners may more readily turn away from such persons when dealing with a romantic problems.' |
Toronto is headed for another rocky debate on transit expansion after Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee on Tuesday endorsed putting to residents the tough questions of what to build and how to pay for it — even as the mayor himself voiced his strongest opposition yet to new taxes or user fees. Mr. Ford joined his allies in approving public consultations that staff promise will be wide-reaching, with town halls, social media outreach and online surveys. He also voted to broaden the list of revenue tools residents should consider — including a congestion charge in the core — in order to help fund a $50-billion regional transportation plan touted by the provincial agency Metrolinx. [np-related /] But don’t expect him to be out there convincing Torontonians they should get behind any of the money-makers. “The people in the city are up to their eyeballs with taxes and they can barely keep their head above water. I’m not going to implement a new tax or new user fee,” Mayor Ford told reporters Tuesday. “Until the federal and provincial government comes on board and we get the private sector on board, I’m not going to sit around and put a tax or a user fee on the backs of hard-working Torontonians,” he said, while also suggesting he could be swayed if residents say they want to pay. Staff came up with a list of the top 10 potential revenue tools, including tolls, a sales tax and a parking spot levy, which, if applied across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, could help Metrolinx fund its Big Move plan. The executive added to the mix a weekly daytime congestion charge, high-occupancy toll lanes, a utility bill levy, property-tax uplift and employer payroll tax, among others. But the reaction among councillors Tuesday highlighted how elusive a consensus may be, with one Ford ally likening taxes to rat poison, another blasting Queen’s Park for not investing more in transit, and yet another saying it is time to be honest about how to improve a transit system bursting at the seams. “We need to tell people you’re going to have to pay for a system that you want,” said Councillor Michael Thompson. “Unless that level of honesty comes forward, and that expectation, we will never get the public on side.” Budget Chief Mike Del Grande complained that federal and provincial counterparts were taking a back seat in a contentious debate: “We’re basically doing what I call the grunt, dirty work, [and it] is not fair.” Mayor Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, continue to plug public-private partnerships as the best way to build transit, saying the city should take its cue from other places around the world that have tunnelled massive underground networks. City manager Joseph Pennachetti told reporters P3s are a way to deliver a project at a lower cost, not a source of funding. He stressed that the public consultation, to be carried out this fall and winter, focuses on regional funding options for a regional plan. Residents will also be asked to weigh in on the priority of various transit projects. Recommendations are supposed to inform Metrolinx’s investment strategy, due in June, he said. But TTC chair Karen Stintz warned the city will not get all the transit it needs if it sticks only to a regional approach. It should focus on revenue tools Toronto has the power to impose and retain control of that money to pay for its own plan, she said. “We would be naive if we thought that Halton, Mississauga, Markham, Unionville, Stouffville, that those municipalities want to contribute to our Downtown Relief Line,” Ms. Stintz said. The DRL, often cited by TTC CEO Andy Byford as a pressing need, is on the list of projects that Metrolinx wants to build, but not until its 16 to 25 year plan. “I don’t want to be looking back 10 or 12 years from now, when we had ever-increasing gridlock and we did nothing about it but ask for another report,” Councillor Paul Ainslie said. National Post • Email: nalcoba@nationalpost.com | Twitter: NPHallMonitor |
"Piano Man" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel. His first single in North America, it was included on Joel's 1973 album of the same name and later released as a single on November 2, 1973. The song is sung from Joel's point-of-view working as a piano player at a bar, reminiscing on his experiences working there and the people that he encountered. "Piano Man" is based on Joel's real-life experiences working as a lounge musician in Los Angeles from 1972-73, in an effort to escape his contracted New York-based record company at the time, Family Productions, following the poor commercial performance of the album Cold Spring Harbor. Joel describes various characters, including a bartender named John and a "real-estate novelist" named Paul, all based on real-life individuals. Joel's first major hit and his signature song, "Piano Man" peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in April 1974.[2][3] Following Joel's breakthrough as a popular musician with the release of The Stranger, it became one of his most well-known songs. It is now a highlight of Joel's live shows, where he usually allows the audience to sing the chorus. In 2016, the Library of Congress selected "Piano Man" for preservation in the National Recording Registry for its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance."[4] Overview [ edit ] Song background [ edit ] "Piano Man" is a fictionalized retelling of Joel's own experience as a piano-lounge singer for six months in 1972–73 at the now defunct Executive Room bar in the Wilshire district of Los Angeles.[5] In a talk on Inside the Actors Studio, Joel said that he had to get away from New York due to a conflict with his then recording company and hence lived in Los Angeles for three years with his first wife. Since he needed work to pay the bills, but could not use his better known name, he worked at the Executive Room bar as a piano player using the name "Bill Martin" (Joel's full name is William Martin Joel).[6] Joel has stated that all of the characters depicted in the song were based on real people.[7] "John at the bar" was really the bartender who worked during Joel's shift at the piano bar. "Paul is a real estate novelist" refers to a real estate agent named Paul who would sit at the bar each night working on what he believed would be the next great American novel. "The waitress is practicing politics" refers to Joel's first wife Elizabeth Weber, with whom he moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1972 and who worked at The Executive Room as a waitress while Joel played the piano.[8] Joel had moved from New York to L.A. to record his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, which was marred by a mastering error by the album's producers at Family Productions, the first label that signed Joel. After this bad experience, Joel wanted to leave his contract with Family Productions for Columbia Records, but the contract that he had signed made this very difficult. So Joel stated that he was "hiding out" at the bar, performing under the name Bill Martin, while lawyers at Columbia Records tried to get him out of his first record deal.[9] Content [ edit ] The verses of the song are sung from the point of view of a bar piano player who focuses mainly on the “regular crowd” that “shuffles” into the bar at nine o'clock on a Saturday: an old man, John the bartender, the waitress, businessmen, and bar regulars like "real estate novelist" Paul and US Navy sailor, Davy. Most of these characters have broken or unfulfilled dreams, and the pianist's job is to help them "forget about life for a while", as the lyrics state. The pianist makes money when the patrons "sit at the bar, and put bread in my jar, and say, 'Man, what are you doin' here?'" The chorus, in bar-room sing-along style, comes from the bar patrons themselves, who say, "Sing us a song, / You're the piano man; / Sing us a song tonight. / Well, we're all in the mood for a melody, / And you've got us feeling all right." As for the lyrics, Joel admitted that with their five-line grouping, they were more in the form of a limerick than a typical poem.[10] Releases [ edit ] It was first released as a single on November 2, 1973, and then as the second track on Joel's Piano Man album and was later released on several greatest hits collections. When originally issued as a single, the song was deemed too long by Columbia Records executives (5 minutes and 38 seconds), so two verses were cut in half and spliced together for the release as a 45, clocking in at 4 minutes and 33 seconds. A promo 45 had an even shorter edit, clocking in at around 3 minutes. These single edits were also remixed – bringing out a lot of the instrumentation like acoustic guitars and harmonicas. Later, Joel's song "The Entertainer" refers to the editing of the "Piano Man" single by commenting, "It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long / If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit / So they cut it down to 3:05." Composition [ edit ] Joel wrote and originally performed the song in the key of C major. It has a 3 4 waltz time signature and begins with a jazzy piano solo before moving into its piano and harmonica introduction. The verses and the chorus feature a descending walking bassline in C that ends with a D – G turnaround. Instrumentally, Joel's 1973 version features piano, harmonica, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, accordion, mandolin, and drums. As of 2017, Joel now performs the song in B-flat major, a whole step down from the original. When Joel received the Gershwin Prize in 2014, he performed "Piano Man" in the original key of C major for the first time in approximately a decade.[citation needed] Joel acknowledged on Inside the Actors Studio in 1999 that each of the characters in the song was based on a real person, either a friend of his or another customer at the bar. For instance, Joel claimed that the waitress "practicing politics" was actually his first wife, Elizabeth Weber. Joel also regretted the fact that the verses and the chorus of the song both use the same chord sequence and a similar melody, stating that the melody "doesn't go anywhere [musically]."[citation needed] Nevertheless, Joel also included minor harmonic variation and a different melody in the song's bridge section. Track listing [ edit ] 7" US single (1973) [ edit ] Music video [ edit ] The first music video for this song was released in 1973. It features Joel portraying a bar act Bill Martin performing the song, and shows a typical American bar as a setting. A new version of the video was shot in 1985, with new extras, and was more or less the same as the original. The original video used an alternate take of the song but it was at the same length as the album version, while the new video used said album version. Popularity [ edit ] The single broke into the Billboard Top 40 in April 1974 at #30,[11] going on to ultimately peak at #25, making it Joel's first top 40 hit. In Canada, the song peaked at #10, and established Joel as a star there. (From 1975 to 1980, every one of Joel's charting singles peaked higher in Canada than in the US, except for songs that reached #1 in both markets.) Because "Piano Man" was at the time only a moderate hit in the US, the song was not played often on American radio during the next three or four years. However, following the massively successful 1977 release of Joel's album The Stranger and Joel's quick subsequent rise to superstardom, the song would soon become one of his most well-known and loved songs.[12] It has been, since 1977, a big "oldies" radio hit, and is considered Joel's signature song, partially due to its title. Today it remains popular, and ranks as Joel's #1 song on the iTunes Store as of February 2014 . The song is so well known that during Joel's concerts, he usually lets the audience sing the chorus. In concert, Joel often performs "Piano Man" as a finale. During the first Face to Face tour featuring Elton John and Joel, ads promoted the event as "Rocket Man meets Piano Man".[13] "Piano Man" was ranked #421 in the 2004 list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Ultimate Classic Rock placed it at no. 63 in its "Top 100 Classic Rock Songs" list.[14] As part of his 2003 album Poodle Hat, "Weird Al" Yankovic created a parody of the song titled "Ode to a Superhero" which recounts the plot of the 2002 Spider-Man film. This song was released as downloadable content for Rock Band 3, along with 11 of Joel's other songs. During the 2015 and 2016 seasons, it was played during New York Mets home games in the middle of the 8th inning.[15] If the Mets were ahead at this point in the game, or if the game was tied, a smiling image of Mets manager Terry Collins popped up briefly on the ballpark's video boards when the song got to the line "And the manager gives me a smile". This song will be replacing Lou Monte's "Lazy Mary" as the Mets' seventh inning stretch song following the 2018 season. "Piano Man" was selected as one of 25 sound recordings in 2015 to be preserved by the Library of Congress National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[16] "Piano Man" has been used in a TV commercial from the Railway company NS in The Netherlands in 2017. Charts and certifications [ edit ] |
Whether you call it the Devil’s lettuce or mary jane, marijuana and the government policies surrounding it have been on the tip of policymakers' tongues in recent years. The drug has been legalized for recreational use in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, and twenty one states allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. This November, five states will vote on legalizing marijuana, with the issue on the ballot and leading in polls in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Nevada. Voters in all these states should choose to abandon the United States’ current set of failed drug policies and support legalization. It’s a well-established fact that the initial impetus for criminalizing marijuana was the targeting of minorities and people of color. In the 1930s, pseudoscientific claims linking the use of marijuana with violence and social deviance in so-called “racially inferior” groups, especially Hispanics and African-Americans, led to the widespread outlawing of the substance throughout the nation. Four decades later, President Richard Nixon made clear in the Oval Office tapes that his War on Drugs doctrine was in no small part influenced by a desire to associate marijuana use with groups he disdained, like hippies and African-Americans. The legacy of those policies are manifested in the nation’s overflowing prison population. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, at 716 per 100,000 people, costing on average more $30,000 per inmate each year. A disproportionate number of those incarcerated are people of color. And though African Americans and whites use drugs at similar rates, blacks are far more likely to face legal consequences for possessing or selling drugs. Even more startlingly, whites are 32 percent more likely to sell drugs than blacks. These numbers reveal a startling truth: The racist foundations of our criminal justice system are far from gone. Advertisement Despite these consistently hard-line policies toward marijuana, the illicit narcotics trade persists, though the overwhelming majority of marijuana arrests are for non-violent, personal possession. States like Massachusetts have taken a positive step forward through the decriminalization of marijuana, but civil penalties for possessing the drug remain. Ultimately, the United States should treat marijuana as it does alcohol and tobacco. While evidence about marijuana use is difficult to come by due to its legal status, scientific studies have given no reason for policy makers to treat it differently than other dangerous substances. Indeed, beyond its ameliorative effects on the criminal justice system, legalizing marijuana would also provide municipalities and the Commonwealth with significant benefits. Chief among these is the tax revenue that would become newly available, as Colorado’s experience with legalization has shown. While we are still concerned about the potential danger of people under the influence of marijuana driving a car, this concern is also relevant when discussing alcohol policy. Recent research is also building toward the creation of a device able to detect recent marijuana use in a person’s breath. A marijuana breathalyzer, similar to the ubiquitous test used for drunk drivers, removes a potential roadblock to legalization. Rather than continuing to fund the War on Drugs, a policy that has done more to increase violence than stem it, the United States should reorient its priorities towards the regulation of marijuana under a well constructed legal framework. This November, Massachusetts voters have a chance to put the Commonwealth in the lead on this issue. They should take it, and vote yes on Question 4. |
Vital Statistics on Congress, first published in 1980, long ago became the go-to source of impartial data on the United States Congress. Vital Statistics’ purpose is to collect and provide useful data on America’s first branch of government, including data on the composition of its membership, its formal procedure (such as the use of the filibuster), informal norms, party structure, and staff. With some chapters of data dating back nearly 100 years, Vital Statistics also documents how Congress has changed over time, illustrating, for example, the increasing polarization of Congress and the diversifying demographics of those who are elected to serve. Click here to access the Vital Statistics data tables » Vital Statistics began as a joint effort undertaken by Thomas E. Mann of Brookings and Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, in collaboration with Michael Malbin of the Campaign Finance Institute. The datasets were published in print until 2013 when the project migrated online for the first time. This year, Brookings’ Molly E. Reynolds spearheaded Vital Statistics’ most recent update. The eight chapters below contain more than 90 tables of data which were collected through the years of this project and updated most recently in October 2018. Whether you are new to Vital Statistics or an old Vital Statistics hand, here are a few things to know about the most recent update: Each individual chapter and table is available for download below at no cost. Each table is available in several formats, including—for the first time—as .csv files oriented in long, rather than wide, format. (The long format files do not contain the same source and methodological note information as the .xlsx and .pdf formats, so we strongly encourage you to download one other file format as well before using the data.) contain the same source and methodological note information as the .xlsx and .pdf formats, so we encourage you to download one other file format as well before using the data.) As we’ve worked to update the data, we’ve made some changes to information from earlier years in order to correct coding errors and align methodology. A list of these changes are included in this document, and individual tables include a note indicating when earlier data was changed. We encourage you to use these data in your own analyses and to send any questions or feedback you may have, by contacting vitalstatistics@brookings.edu. Want to be informed about future updates to Vital Statistics? Sign up to receive email notifications about new data releases. Acknowledgements The January 2017 update to Vital Statistics was overseen by Molly Reynolds. Curtlyn Kramer provided principal research support with additional assistance from Nick Zeppos, Emma Tatem, and Tanner Lockhead. Data collection for Chapter 3 was performed by Michael Malbin, Brendan Glavin, and the team at the Campaign Finance Institute. Work on the January 2017 update was informed considerably by the work of all past Vital Statistics authors and contributors, especially Thomas E. Mann, Norman J. Ornstein, Raffaela Wakeman, Andrew Rugg, and countless research assistants and interns at Brookings and AEI. |
Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window) Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Harvey Weinstein’s former company was alerted back in 2015 to cash settlements he had made in connection with sexual harassment allegations, according to a report. Lawyer David Boies, who represented Weinstein in 2015 when his contract was up for renewal, told the New York Times that the company’s board was informed of three or four settlements. The Weinstein Company, which has fired the disgraced movie mogul, said this week it had not been aware of any payouts to women who accused him of unwanted touching and sexual harassment. On Tuesday, Weinstein’s brother and company co-founder, Bob Weinstein, and company chief David Glasser told employees they were shocked by the allegations and unaware of payments, the Times reported, citing employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Board member Lance Maerov, who handled the contract talks, acknowledged in an interview that he had been informed of settlements, but said he had assumed they were used to cover up consensual affairs, the paper reported. The contract was up for renewal just as Italian actress Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, 22, reported to police that Weinstein had groped her at his Manhattan office. Working with the NYPD, she later captured Weinstein speaking about the sleazy encounter in audio published along with a lengthy expose in the New Yorker on Tuesday. The District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. on Wednesday said: “Our sex-crimes prosecutors made the determination that this was not going to be a provable case and the decision was made not to go forward.” But some company board members and top execs worried that Weinstein had engaged in a pattern of behavior that could present a legal liability for the company, the paper reported. see also Harvey Weinstein is now accused of rape Actresses Asia Argento and Lucia Evans detailed their experiences with... The producer refused to make his personnel file available to the board directly and instead used outside lawyer H. Rodgin Cohen to examine the file and determine whether it was legally safe to keep Weinstein, the Times reported. In Cohen’s letter to the board, he does not describe the contents of Weinstein’s file, nor does he address any instances of private settlements with women who had alleged sexual harassment. Boies said that at the time of the contract negotiations, he was aware of three or four settlements but would not specify which ones, and would not say who within the company or the board was informed of them. Maerov said he approved the contract after receiving assurances that no company money was used and that there were no pending complaints against Weinstein, sources told the Times. Bob Weinstein and Glasser declined to comment to the Times. |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - By striking Islamic State in Syria, the United States would be weakening one of President Bashar al-Assad’s major enemies. But the new U.S. strategy may still unnerve Assad by helping other opponents determined to overthrow him. Syria's President Bashar al-Assad heads a meeting of his cabinet in Damascus August 31, 2014 in this picture released by Syria's national news agency SANA. REUTERS/SANA/Handout via Reuters The U.S. strategy for tackling Islamic State in Syria is unlikely to yield quick results. Unlike in Iraq, where U.S. air strikes were able to quickly roll back some Islamic State advances, Washington has no strong partner on the ground. But in a war that has already lasted over three years and killed more than 190,000 people, the U.S. plan looks set to bring with it the most serious effort yet to bolster what is left of the fragmented “moderate” opposition to Assad. It could be a long time before rebel fighters loosely defined as “the Free Syrian Army” can be turned into anything approaching a serious military force. That may not even be the goal. Both Assad’s allies and opponents agree there can be no military solution to a war that requires a political settlement. But enhanced support - including training that Saudi Arabia has agreed to host - may at least provide a life line for the mainstream rebels who have faced the risk of being wiped out altogether by Assad and Islamic State. Eventually, a unified opposition better able to stand its ground could create new momentum for a stalled diplomatic track involving both the West and Assad’s main allies, Russia and Iran which are also alarmed by the rise of Islamic State. President Barack Obama, in a major policy speech on confronting Islamic State, said on Wednesday he would not hesitate to strike the group in Syria, where it has taken over swathes of territory in the east and northeast. He also ruled out the idea of cooperation with the Syrian government which some analysts thought would be an eventual outcome of the fight against Islamic State. Some still believe indirect cooperation through third parties may be possible. “The Assad regime and the Iranians are natural bookends to this in the east and west, but he (Assad) is not going to get to deal with the West as he had hoped,” said Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute and an expert on Syria. “The United States has decided this is going to be a very long war, and they are going to support the opposition.” BOLSTERING REBELS WILL PRESSURE ASSAD - BAHRA Obama said the United States had already ramped up military assistance to the Syrian opposition - a possible reference to aid delivered through an ostensibly covert CIA training program. He also asked Congress to approve additional resources of $500 million to help the opposition. Mainstream rebel groups say they have already started to reorganize themselves. One, the Hazem movement, has reported receiving new supplies of anti-tank missiles in recent weeks. Opposition activists say tens of thousands of fighters have joined mainstream rebel groups since the start of the revolt. But rebels say many continue to abandon the moderate opposition units for better-funded Islamist groups, including not only Islamic State but also the Nusra Front, which is allied to al Qaeda. Critics of plans to arm mainstream rebels worry that new weapons could end up in the hands of radicals. Any attempt to bolster the moderates will also face scepticism from opposition activists who blame a lack of Western support for the failure of their uprising. Although some have fought against Islamic State, they say their main enemy is Assad and Washington has so far done too little to help them. “The people must have faith in Obama’s intentions,” said one rebel commander. “But yes I will accept weapons and training assistance,” he said. Hadi Al Bahra, head of the main Western-backed opposition group in exile, said strengthening the mainstream opposition would disabuse Assad of the notion that he could win a military victory. “Any strengthening of the FSA will help fortify its situation on the ground, thereby putting pressure on the regime to go to the negotiating table to bring about the political transition,” said Bahra, head of the National Coalition. U.N.-backed peace talks were convened in January between the opposition and the Assad government but swiftly collapsed. Assad has shown little appetite for a political solution while his forces have been making gains, aided by allies including the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah. The government and its allies have managed to shore up control over a strategic corridor of territory in western Syria stretching from Damascus to the coast. The authorities held a presidential election in territories under their control earlier this year, returning Assad for a third seven year term. But life in government-controlled areas is still far from normal. Fierce clashes are still raging to the east and the southeast of Damascus for example, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the war. The Islamic State’s gains in eastern Syria have triggered rare criticism on social media of the government’s military strategy from Assad loyalists, including one of his cousins, suggesting a possible pressure point for him. Some of the criticism surfaced when Islamic State fighters executed scores of Syrian government soldiers captured at an air base in Raqqa province last month. “THE GOAL IS IRAQ” The Syrian air force has escalated its bombardment of Islamic State-held territory since the group seized the Iraqi city of Mosul in June. Islamic State now holds much of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor provinces in Syria’s east and has advanced westwards near the Turkish border and north of the city of Aleppo, an important theater for conflict between rebels and pro-government forces. If Islamic State can secure its hold over the territory near Aleppo, it could sever rebel supply lines into the city, Syria’s largest before hundreds of thousands of refugees fled. Fighters from the Kurdish minority, who have also fought against Islamic State but have so far failed to persuade the West to aid them, could also be a factor. There are increasing signs they are cooperating with the mainstream rebels. A group of mainstream rebels joined forces this week with well-organized Kurdish fighters to fight Islamic State in parts of Raqqa and Aleppo provinces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Wednesday. The factions formed a joint operations room and have issued a statement calling for the international community to eliminate Islamic State. The scope of intended action in Syria remains unclear. The Syrian government has said any military action undertaken without its permission would be an act of aggression - a view shared by Russia, which has consistently blocked meaningful measures against Syria at the U.N. Security Council. Bahra, the opposition leader, envisioned an international alliance against Islamic State going as far as protecting civilian areas from Syrian government air strikes - an outcome tantamount to a no-fly zone the opposition had long sought. Assad’s unchallenged air power has given him a decisive advantage in the conflict. But the West has shown no appetite for imposing a no-fly zone over Syria, much less bombing to help remove Assad as it did in 2011 against Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi. Hezbollah’s deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem has forecast a limited U.S. intervention aimed at containing Islamic State rather than eradicating it. Amine Kammourieh, a Lebanese journalist and political analyst, predicted that any air strikes against Islamic State would be limited to areas on the border and supply routes. He added that the moderate opposition was “non existent”. “The strike will be to weaken ISIS, not to eliminate it completely, and it will be weakened not for the sake of Syria, but Iraq. The American goal today is always Iraq,” he said. |
A newly released report reveals details of Avalon ASIC’s upcoming third-generation bitcoin mining chip. According to the preliminary report, the 40nm ASIC – which Avalon is calling the A3233-Q48 – will have 7 GH/s of power per integrated circuit, which is a substantial performance increase from Avalon’s previous 55nm node chip. Furthermore, that boost will come with reduced power consumption because of the decreased node size – welcome news for miners struggling with high electricity bills. The chip will come in a 7 x 7mm package, which has not changed from the second-generation version. Smaller and shorter paths will endow the chip with lower power consumption, but increased heat density – hence the decision to stick with the same overall dimensions. Avalon was the first company to manufacture and deliver ASIC chips for bitcoin mining, but it has experienced problems with shipment delays in the past, which they have tried to put behind them. ASIC Evolution When asked about the new chip, Yifu Guo, co-founder of Avalon, told CoinDesk: “[With the] last generation, we had 120 hash cores in the chip design, 1.5 GH/s per chip, 2 watts per GH/s, on 55nm standard cell design. This generation we have 768 hash cores, 7 GH/s per chip, 0.75 watts per GH/s, on a 40nm full custom design.” The new chip will be able to hash much faster, while increasing power efficiency by a factor of 2.5. For comparison of specifications, Avalon’s second-generation A3255-Q48 chip preliminary report can be found here. Focusing on chips Guo said that pricing for the A3233-Q48 has not yet been determined, but he made it clear that Avalon’s focus is on selling quantities of ASIC chips to sophisticated buyers: “Pricing is not yet determined. We are focusing mainly on chip sales, and producing some of our design as prototypes to demonstrate the chips.” The company currently has its second-generation chip available for 13 BTC per 2,500 units. At recent CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index valuations, that’s around $8,200. That chip operates out of the box at 1.2 GH/s, but it can be overclocked to 1.5 GH/s. Avalon has also said it is publishing open-source designs for the chips on its GitHub pages to be used for different applications. A USB stick, 2U rack-mount blade and a PCI-e design will be available form factors. The rivals In comparison to Avalon’s business model, some ASIC chip designers, like Butterfly Labs, only currently sell full mining units. BFL is currently attempting to bring its 600 GH/s 28nm Monarch blade to market, but has experienced delays. KnCMiner is also selling only complete miners. Its 20nm design has been taped out, making it the first SHA256 ASIC at that node. Taping out refers to last stage of the design process for an integrated circuit. As for Avalon, Guo said he expects the bitcoin ecosystem to build complete miners with its chips. The company is endeavouring to provide a low-cost entry into mining with its future chip designs. Said Guo: “We hope the community will take up the production, [so] we can focus on engineering and improving chip design in generation four, while lowering the barrier of entry for mining.” Turbo mode The A3255-Q48 is able to achieve a 1.5-1.6 GH/s speed by overclocking from its typical core voltage of 0.9 volts to 1.0 V, with a maximum of 1.1 V. Avalon will have overclocking, or ‘turbo mode’, results available soon for the third-generation chip, Guo says. This will exceed the 7 GH/s normal operating performance when at .75 V. The chip’s core maximum, according to the report, is .9 V. Guo added: “This is [a] preliminary result. We will be releasing low-power performance mode data, as well as turbo mode data soon as results becomes available.” The third-gen chip will be produced by Taiwan Semiconductor, which has been Avalon’s fabricator for all of its chips so far. A release date for the A3233-Q48 has not yet been set, the company says. Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement of any of the companies mentioned. Please do your own extensive research before considering investing any funds in these products. Integrated circuit image via Shutterstock |
Plasmonic-nanoresonantor-based angle robust colour filtering A schematic diagram of our plasmonic nanostructure is illustrated in Figure 1(a) as well as a corresponding SEM image of a fabricated device. Silver (Ag) is conformally deposited on a fused silica grating defined with the pitch, depth, and width of the grating as P, D, and W respectively. As opposed to trapping the incident light into surface plasmon modes through grating coupling, the dimensions and periodicity of the structure have been designed to concentrate the light into the silica nano-grooves based on a phenomena recognized as light funneling. As light is incident on the nano-groove array, an induced polarization charge pair accumulates at the top corners of the grooves. This charge pair acts as a dipole and further alters the E-field of incident light, redirecting the light into the groove. Figure 1(b) shows this effect with a red-blue surface plot and arrow plot which represent the normalized polarization charge distribution induced by the scattered field31 and propagation direction of the field's Poynting vector, respectively. It is noticed that the purple arrows near the Ag and silica interface point toward the groove verifying this funneling effect. The intensity distribution of the magnetic field |H y |2, under the funneling condition, is depicted in Figure 1(c) showing that the light is well confined in the groove at the resonant wavelength. Figure 1: Plasmonic-nanocavity-based angle robust colour filtering. (a) A schematic of the proposed structure and corresponding SEM image of a fabricated device with width (W) = 45 nm, depth (D) = 160 nm, and period (P) = 180 nm with θ as the incident angle of light. (b) Polarization charge and Poynting vector distribution of light funneled into these nano-grooves, presented with the red–blue surface plot and purple arrows, respectively. (c) Intensity distribution of the magnetic-field H y at resonance, P = 180, W = 50, and D = 170 nm. (d) Reflection (simulated in solid lines and measured in dash lines) and measured absorption spectra (inset, dashed lines) at D = 110, 130, and 170 nm in blue, green, and red curves, given fixed P = 180 and W = 50 nm at normal incidence. (e) Reflection spectra at fixed P = 180 nm and D = 170 nm demonstrating the three basic colours of the CMY colour model, cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), with varying W = 40, 60, and 90 nm at normal incidence. Full size image The above angle insensitive colour filtering results from the fact that light is funneled into metal-insulator-metal Fabry-Perot (MIMFP) cavity modes. By varying the optical path length in the MIMFP cavity through changing the width and depth of the nano-grooves, the resonance of the structure is able to be tuned across the entire visible spectrum. The MIMFP resonant wavelength, λ, is determined by the effective refractive index, n eff , and the depth, D, in the Fabry Perot resonance equation, , where m is a positive integer and n eff is the effective refractive index of MIM waveguide modes. The effective index is insignificantly dependent on the nano-groove depth, D24, but is highly dependent on acute changes in the width, W. The effective indices, n eff , are calculated for changing values in width, W28,32. For example, when the insulator SiO 2 width W = 50 nm, the effective index dispersion relation of even modes in a MIM waveguide is found to be n eff = 1.85, 1.90, and 2.02 for wavelengths of λ = 620, 532, and 460 nm, respectively. When W = 60 nm, n eff = 1.91, 1.99, and 2.11, respectively. This design can be integrated into various applications as well as accommodate different manufacturing processes, since there is a wide degree of freedom in modifying the filtered colour by changing either D or W. Especially by simply changing the nano-grove width but maintaining the grove depths, the fabrication process can be greatly simplified and can be easily scaled to large area devices. This coupling to the MIMFP by means of funneling, as opposed to grating coupling into waveguide or plasmonic modes, allows angle insensitive performance. Ultra-high resolution, widely tunable colour filtering First a description is given on how resonant wavelength, namely the wavelength of the absorption peaks (reflections dips), can be tuned throughout the entire visible spectrum through adjusting the groove depth D. In this set of simulation and experiment, the groove width, W, and period, P, are held constant at 50 nm and 180 nm respectively. The groove depths D corresponding to yellow, cyan, and magenta reflective colours are found to be 110, 130, and 170 nm, respectively. Figure 1(d) presents the simulated and measured reflection spectra (and measured absorption spectra in the inset) of the above three devices with different D at normal incidence and TM polarized light. These devices are able to trap light as much as 96% at the resonance wavelength and reflect all other wavelengths. The optical propagation loss in silver at shorter wavelengths is non-negligible, resulting in an 80% absorption peak at the shorter wavelength. This strong absorption at the selected wavelength range can be exploited for high purity reflective colour filtering. In addition to the colour tuning based on changing D, Figure 1(e) shows that the three basic colours of the cyan, magenta, and yellow (CMY) colour scheme can also be achieved by adjusting the width of the nano-groove W from 40 nm to 90 nm, given fixed P = 180 nm and D = 170 nm. It is noticed that the broad resonance dip on the yellow device is due to larger propagation loss of the MIM waveguides at higher frequencies. A better reflection dip for yellow can be achieved by changing D to 110 nm with W = 50 nm as shown in the blue solid and dotted lines in Figure 1(d). This method of holding the period and depth constant while varying the widths of the groove presents a more viable method for manufacturing where the depth of reactive ion etching (RIE) is held constant and the width of each coloured pixel is altered, allowing multiple colour pixels to be produced on a single wafer. In order to demonstrate the visual performance of these colour filters, we have designed and fabricated coloured images in the format of the Olympic Rings. Figure 2(a) and its insets show SEM images of the devices. The corresponding optical image of these reflective colour filters is in Figure 2(b). The period, P, and depth, D, of each ring are held constant while the widths, W, vary from 40 nm to 90 nm to generate the different colours. The angular dependence of these images was measured only up to 30 degree because of the small size of the structure and the limitation of the optical path in the microscope. Within this range, the color appears unchanged. The next section presents large scale devices fabricated through nanoimprint lithography in which we were able to measure the angled reflection spectrum and confirm angle insensitivity. With this technique, cyan, magenta, and yellow, as well as intermediate colours can be achieved. Note that the purple colour from the rope held by the gymnast in the top middle ring is produced by two nano-grooves. Moreover, the magenta colour from the bow area is produced by several isolated and segmented short lines, as small as 100 nm in length and 60 nm in width, demonstrating ultra-high colour resolution. In the supporting information, we further include simulation results to prove that even single and double slits of tens nm width can have colour filtering effect. This colour demonstration proves that the proposed plasmonic structural colour is capable of creating pixels with sizes beyond the diffraction limit of light. This opens up the possibility of realizing super-pixels imaging5, in which colours are mixed between multiple super-pixels before their combined size is comparable to the diffraction limit. In addition, an Olympic ring with two colours has been fabricated to present an application of the polarization dependence of these filters. Figure 2(c) shows an image with two sets of gratings. As the polarization of incident light is changed, the displayed image is altered. Particularly, the central pattern in Figure 2(c) is concealed when the incident light polarization changes from TM polarized light to TE. This polarization dependence can be utilized in applications of cryptography and anti-counterfeiting. One specific example would be to put such images on a personal identification card. Counterfeiters may be able to reproduce the colour of the symbol but it would be increasingly difficult for them to make the image additionally dependent on polarization of light, adding another element to the validity of the identification card. This polarization dependence is also advantageous for implementation in visual display technologies by creating a multifunctional component that can serve as a conductive electrode, polarizer, and colour filter simultaneously3. Figure 2: Colour demonstrations with ultra-high resolution and polarization dependent images. (a) The SEM images and (b) optical image under white light illumination of fabricated coloured images in the format of the Olympic rings. The full range of CMY colours are achieved by sweeping W from 40 to 90 nm, with P and D fixed at 180 nm and 170 nm respectively. (b) Shows that even a single short segmented nano-groove demonstrates colour response. (c) Demonstrates utilizing polarization dependence to actively change the displayed image, where grooves with W = 40 for cyan and W = 60 nm for magenta under TM illumination. Full size image Design rules for angle insensitivity The effect of periodicity on the angle robustness of these metallic nano-grooves is investigated here. Given W = 50 nm and D = 180 nm, the simulated angle resolved reflection spectra contour plots at periods of P = 140, 180, 220, and 260 nm are shown in Figure 3(a), (b), (c), and (d). Incremental changes of 40 nm in the period are chosen to illustrate three different regimes: grating coupling, localized resonance, as well as cavity coupling between neighboring waveguides which is explained further in the next section of this letter. Figure 3(a) and (d) indicate higher angle dependence than Figures 3(b) and (c). When the period P = 140 nm, 220 nm, and 260 nm, the MIMFP resonance position shifts with increasing incident angle of light, whereas the spectrum at the periods of 180 nm remains at a relatively constant wavelengths over all incident angles. Furthermore, the angular behavior of absorption at the resonance wavelength 630 nm with P = 140, 180, 220 and 260 nm are presented in Figure 3(e) showing that the absorption reaches over 90% for ±90° angle range with P = 180 nm. This shows that angle independence is achieved at a periodicity of 180 nm for visible wavelengths of light. Above or below P = 180 nm, the resonance wavelength corresponding to the absorption peak is angle dependent and therefore less efficient. The angle resolved reflection spectra from angles of 45° to 75° were measured on various large scale fabricated devices based on nanoimprint lithography. Two of them are shown in Figures 4(a) and (b) with a period of 180 nm and depths D, of 130 and 170 nm, respectively. A device fabricated with a period of 220 nm exhibited angle dependence further validating this design. The angle resolved reflection spectra of this device, with P = 220 nm, W = 45 nm, and D = 160 nm, is displayed in Figure 4(c). 25 nm Δλ is observed per 30° change in incident illumination angle. This change in reflection dip is not observed at P = 180 nm (Figures 4(a) and (b)) showing strong agreement between measured and simulated spectra. Through this analysis we conclude that a colour filter structure with a range of periods from 160 nm to 200 nm possess angle robust spectrum response. Figure 3: Simulated angle resolved reflection spectra with various periods. The simulated angle resolved reflection spectra contour plots at periods P = 140 (a), P = 180 (b), P = 220 (c), and P = 260 nm (d). The green dash lines in all four figures indicate metal-insulator-metal Fabry-Perot (MIMFP) cavity mode, whereas the red dash lines refer to the grating assisted surface plasmon (GASP) modes whose dispersion is dependent on the grating period. The crossing between MIMFP and GASP when P = 220 and 260 nm indicates coupling between the two modes. The green dash line in (a) refers to the dispersion of odd mode defined in Figure 5(c). (e) The simulated angular absorption maxima in terms of various period from 140, 180, 220, and 260 nm. Full size image Figure 4: Experimental angle insensitive spectrum filtering. (a) The angle resolved reflection spectra of this design with sweeping incident illumination angle from 45° to 75° are presented with the following device dimensions (a) P = 180, W = 50, and D = 130 nm, (b) P = 180, W = 50, and D = 170 nm, and (c) P = 220 nm, W = 50 nm, and D = 160 nm. (a) and (b) show flat band absorption response indicating angle insensitivity, while (c) shows 25 nm resonance wavelength shift per 30° change in incident illumination angle representing coupling between MIMFP and GASP modes. Full size image We would now like to further elaborate on the mechanism for angle dependence when the period is away from the optimal range, P > 200 nm and P < 160 nm. Clearly shown in Figures 3(e), the side lobes of the absorption maxima develop at large angles of incidence. Therefore we further analyzed the resonant modes at these larger degrees of incidence. For P > 200 nm, two modes are involved in this phenomenon. MIMFP resonances are angle independent modes, illustrated as green straight dash lines, and grating assisted surface plasmon modes (GASP) generated under the Bragg coupling condition15 are highly angle dependent, illustrated by the red dashed lines in Figures 3(a), (b), (c) and (d). The increasing angle leads to the interaction between the MIMFP modes and the grating assisted surface plasmon modes (GASP) due to momentum matching. For TM-polarized waves, the momentum matching equation for grating assisted surface plasmon resonance excitation of dielectric—metal interfaces is governed by the following relationship, . In this equation, m represents the diffraction order, Λ the period (denoted in the figures as P), λ the wavelength, θ the incident angle, and and are the permittivity of the metal and dielectric materials respectively. The red curves in Figures 3(a), (b), (c), and (d) extend from the ultraviolet to the visible region with increasing periodicity, and finally result in a strong coupling between the GASP and the MIMFP cavity modes. The field distribution of this coupling will be discussed at the end of this paper. Moreover, Λ is found to be proportional to λ in the above equation, which provides a guideline of selecting the appropriate period for angle independent plasmonic resonance at desired wavelength bands. When P < 160 nm, the MIMFP resonance band blue shifts at incident angles greater than 60°. This is due to the breakdown of the assumption that nano-groove structures are well separated (nano-groove size W ≪ Period P). When the thickness of the groove spacing (P-W = groove spacing) is too small, the dispersion has to be reconsidered due to coupling between neighboring metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguides33,34. Figure 5(a) shows the mode dispersion with respect to the groove spacing (P-W) and Period. In this scheme, even and odd modes are defined in Figure 5(a), which indicate whether the field is in-phase or out-of-phase in the neighboring grooves, respectively. The fields of both even and odd modes at an incident angle of 75° are plotted in Figures 5(b) and (c), respectively. Moreover, the dispersion in Figure 5(a) clearly indicates that the splitting between even and odd modes increases as the groove spacing (P-W) reduces. This trend follows the observation found in Figures 3(a) and (b) denoted by the green dashed lines and green dotted lines for the even and odd modes. Only when the incident angle of light is large enough can the odd mode be excited due to phase requirement, which causes the resonance shift to shorter wavelengths at incident angles greater than 60°. Figure 5: Optical mode coupling and period dependent field confinement. (a) shows mode dispersion with respect to the groove spacing (P-W) and Period, as well as the definition of even and odd modes in the insets. The field distribution of H y with defined even and odd modes is plotted in (b) and (c), respectively. The intensity distribution of magnetic field H y at the incident illumination angle of 45° is presented at P = 180 nm (d), 220 nm (e), 260 nm (f). (d) confirms that the field is well confined within the nano-groove corresponding to a MIMFP mode, while (d) and (f) show strong surface modes illustrating coupling to the GASP modes. Full size image |
June 2016 was a highly emotional time for LGBT Americans. This year's annual New York City Pride Parade, held on June 26th, drew record numbers of participants and supporters. However, the event was sadly marred by the still-open wound of the Orlando nightclub shooting two weeks prior. It was widely speculated that the massacre in Florida would cause tensions between American Muslims and the LGBT community, two groups that were already used quite frequently as political pawns through the years. In reaction to Orlando and other recent tragic events, a vigil was held in New York City's Times Square on the evening of the Pride parade. The event, which featured speakers from both the Muslim and LGBT communities, was actually more than just a vigil; it was a rally to speak out against further violence, fear-mongering, and post-tragedy political opportunism. One of the speakers was 56-year old Thomas Simmons of Shelbourne Falls in western Massachusetts. A professor of business and economics at Greenfield Community College, the 56-year old, openly gay adoptive father of six children is running for Congress in Massachusetts' First District, on the Libertarian ticket. He will go up against the incumbent Richard Neal, a Democrat. Simmons grew up in Baldwin Harbor, Long Island, which just under 30 miles from New York City. He is quick to point out to me, however, that his ancestors actually came to New York City in 1642. They were Dutch sea captains. Simmons moved to Massachusetts in 1991. It's easy to forget that there are more than just two political parties in the United States. The Libertarian Party, officially formed in 1971, is the third largest nationally organized political party. The main platforms of the Party are the promotion of civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire ("hands off") economics, and the abolition of the welfare state. Thomas Simmons is always happy to educate the masses on the benefits of less government in our private lives. He is against government-mandated gun control, an issue that has occasionally put him at odds with some of his fellow liberal-minded peers, both gay and straight. However, he believes that the LGBT community has much more to gain in terms of civil rights with the Libertarian model: So often we run to the government as our savior. Pull back a little bit. With DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act), who was the adversary to us exercising our right to marry? It was Congress. It was the government. Right now, there's the whole transgender bathroom issue. McSorley's Old Ale House in New York City has figured out how to have people in a bathroom without a problem for decades. Target has figured it out. Individual businesses have figured it out. Who is the problem? It's the State of North Carolina, saying, "You can't do this! You have to do this instead." Look back to when blacks and whites couldn't marry. Who was the problem? The government. We run to the government for the answer, when many times they are the problem. They are always, sadly, behind the times. At the rally, I wore my Stonewall Inn T-shirt. Think back to those incidents that sparked the Stonewall riots in . It was a reaction against the agents of the State who were sent there to harass gay people. The State is almost always the problem because they have power and authority. They can jail, fine, confront, or arrest you. They have been the problem, not the savior. Articulate and knowledgeable, yet always jovial in personality, Thomas Simmons spoke with me about the Libertarian Party and his political vision for both Massachusetts and the entire nation: Hello, Thomas! Thank you for speaking with me. So, for starts: What was the goal behind the recent rally in Times Square? The goal behind the event was to bring a groups of people from different perspectives within the Libertarian party, to talk mostly about civil rights from our perspective. We billed it as a vigil for dealing with people as individuals and not as members of groups. What we've seen, especially in the wake of the Orlando shootings, is that politicians were really quick as to who the "bad guys" are: "Muslims are the bad guys". "Gay people are the bad guys." "Legal firearm owners are the bad guys." It was very quick. In this country, every time there's a crisis, there's a call for immediate, instant action... and every time that happens, there's an erosion of civil rights. The examples we brought up were: World War II, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Crisis! So lets take Japanese-Americans out of their houses, out of their jobs, and put them in--let's call them what they were-- concentration camps. Yes. There was a recent musical on Broadway about that, "Allegiance". Yes! Another example: September 11th happens, and the immediate reaction is The Patriot Act. Now the government wants your library records, and they want limitless search and seizure, and they want a Secret FISA Court to get a warrant. In 2016, after the Orlando shootings, it's like, "We gotta do something! We gotta do it now!" Whenever we act out of fear and crisis, we tend to do it in the name of national security, and we tend to be willing to give up civil rights. The groups that were present at the Rally included Muslims for Liberty-- a group of Muslims mostly in the New York area, who actually believe in freedom and constitutional rights. They are not terrorists, and they don't want their name on a "No Fly List" simply because it sounds Arabic. Another group was Outright Libertarians, who I represented, which is the gay/lesbian/transgender caucus within the Party. Pink Pistols did not show up because there was a scheduling conflict. So, it was a number of groups who all believe in holding up the Constitution and not giving in to crisis mentality, hate, or the "Who are the bad guys?" kind of thinking. Congratulations on that event! Now, it's safe to say that a lot of Americans see only two political parties in this country. They only see Democrats and Republicans. What would be the most important thing that you'd want the masses to know about the Libertarian party? We start from the perspective that the majority of Americans-- or at least the plurality if not the majority-- actually see themselves as Independents: Not as Democrats and not as Republicans, even though they may naturally gravitate towards those parties. They are registered as, or consider themselves to be, Independents. They have really rejected the Establishment politics of both, and the nonsense that both parties play. A great example of that nonsense is the recent four votes on gun control in the House. The difference in those four proposals was minute. It was a hair. Yet, the Democrats only voted for their proposals, and the Republicans only voted for theirs-- because to them, voting for their proposals was more important overall than actually doing anything. So, if you start from the perspective that the majority of Americans are really Independent and are sick of both parties-- as evidenced by both the Sanders phenomenon and the Trump phenomenon-- then the Libertarians actually represent what most Americans are. That means: Get the government out of my life. If I'm not hurting anybody, let me live my life. We represent Americans who are fiscally responsible and socially tolerant. It's just hard for us, as Libertarians, to get on the national stage. We've done better this year than any year previously, because Gary Johnson and Bill Weld leading the ticket are credible candidates. This year, there is a credible third choice. I think that we are very used to "Democrat versus Republican", but Americans are very willing to go "Third Party". Ross Perot got 18 percent of the vote. John Anderson did much better against Reagan and Carter than anyone thought. We simply need to get on the main stage... but there's such a fixation that it's only Democrat and Republican that it's hard to do that. In my case, I am running for Congress and there's no Republican in the race. It's still a two Party race. It's me against the incumbent Democrat. I understand! So, for people who have never been in your district in Massachusetts, what is unique and/or distinctive about where live and where you hope to represent? Western Massachusetts is very different from the rest of the State. With the exception of the city Springfield-- which is kind of an anchor in the Southwest corner of my district-- my district is very rural. It is very liberal. These are "farmers with PhD's", as I like to describe them! They are organic farmers. They are people who believe in local economies, local networking, small business... They are this interesting dichotomy of both sportsmen and hunters, and Bernie Sanders supporters. Our district voted for Bernie Sanders three to one in the Democratic primary. So, it's highly educated. We call it the "Pioneer Valley" along the Connecticut Valley-- that's where U Mass Amherst is. We also have four community colleges, and the Five Sisters consortium of colleges-- all private. The people in my district are very highly educated, very open, and very tolerant. We have a town meeting form of government, and everyone participates. It's very realistic. People are very bent on having conversation and on coming to a consensus to govern. It's just very different from living in a big city like Boston or Bedford. On a larger level, what characteristics are in your district which also would apply to the proverbial "Anytown, USA"? What applies to "Anytown, USA" would be the emphasis on small business. In this economy, small businesses have been creamed. A lot of Congressional legislation is all geared towards helping large corporations. Bailouts, for example, were geared towards keeping large corporations afloat. The Import/Export Bank was geared towards helping military contractors in Washington stay afloat. The "small guy" is actually getting wiped out. the Berkshires, which are in my district, is a big vacation spot. You can see motel after motel after motel boarded up. Restaurants come and go. They turn over after three or four months because they can't make it. Being a small business person in this climate is really tough. I think that is the case in "Smalltown, America" all across the country. There's the whole idea that if you're big and wealthy and have connections in Washington, you can get bigger and wealthier and have more connections and more government support. But if you're the little guy, that doesn't happen. Living in New York City, I have seen much of that through the years in many neighborhoods. It can be depressing and discouraging to see so many small businesses close down. So, as a political candidate, what issue or issues do you feel most strongly about? There are a couple of issues which really prompted my run against the incumbent. The first is Common Core. It might not be a glitzy issue, but for teachers-- and I have been a teacher for 18 years-- it's a big issue, especially in Massachusetts. The students and the teachers themselves have their hands tied. It interferes with teaching students to think critically, to explore things, and to pull information from different disciplines together to come up with new ideas. Instead, what they are told is, "Here is the curriculum package we bought from this big curriculum company. Here are the A, B, C, and D multiple choice tests. This is how you answer the test." That's what they spend their time doing. As long as they get the right percentage of students to do well on the tests, then the federal government releases funding to the schools. So, everything is incentivized to get good grades on a test, and not to teach students how to think critically. They come to the college level after high school, and the ability to think critically and to integrate different disciplines is a lost art. When we are dealing with complicated economic questions and having a discussion, a student will ask, "So what's the answer?" In other words, "Don't make me think through it and say, 'Well, it's complicated.' Is the answer A, B, C, or D?" That's what they are being trained to do. I watched this happen for 18 years. That's coming out of the Federal Department of Education--which is, quite frankly, in league with curriculum textbook-publishing companies. There are only four or five of them. The gentleman I am running against has been one of the biggest promoters of this. This actually launched my campaign. There are other issues as well. We are a very pro-choice district. The man I am running against has voted to restrict women's medical choices on a number of occasions. I am 100 percent pro-choice. I don't believe the government should stand between person and their doctor. That could be on the question of abortion, or the prescription of medical marijuana to veterans. It crosses a whole bunch of different issues when you get the government involved; I want them out of medical decisions. Here's my real radical stance: I am running as openly gay and openly HIV-positive, which puts me in a fairly unique and very narrow category of people running for Congress this year. Just like the federal government ties transportation funding to having a 21-year drinking age, I actually would tie health care and Medicare funding to eliminating HIV transmission as a crime. There are just too many places in America where that could send you to jail for 10 to 20 years. State legislatures are free to tackle the issue because it's just not "politically safe" to do so. So, I would definitely be on the side of that issue, as well as ending employment discrimination for other gay, lesbian, and transgender people. Those are the three issues I am going to be hitting home in the campaign. On a national level, what do you believe is our most important issue? I'm going to make it a double issue: The national debt, and the erosion of civil liberties. Those are the two things that I've been concerned about as an economics teacher for the last 18 years. The national debt is now 20 trillion dollars. So what? So we owe 20 trillion bucks. How does that affect me? Obviously, in your personal life, it may not. So what if the government owes it? But when the government spends more than it takes in, it really borrows the money. It just doesn't print more on a printing press. It borrows the money from large institutions that have enormous sums of cash. We borrow from Goldman Sachs, from Chase Manhattan, from Citibank, from the House of Saud, from the Chinese government -- and then we pay it back with interest. That interest comes from the United States taxpayer through their federal income tax. We now spend five times more in interest payments alone than we do on infrastructure-- roads, bridges, et cetera. That's a lot of money coming from Joe and Jane Taxpayer. And the money gets paid to these enormous financial institutions. It's an institutional situation where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Bringing revenues and expenses in line-- both the tax system and spending--must be a top priority. Most people in Congress say that, yet they don't want to do it. They'd rather come home to their district and say, "I brought you this and I brought you that!" Never mind the fact that we had to borrow to pay for it. It gets them re-elected in two years. I've already told my district that I'm not going to come back and say that I'm bringing you all sorts of goodies if there's not a way to pay for them. The second issue is the erosion of civil liberties. I've always been a big supporter of the ACLU. I get emotional talking about constitutional rights and civil liberties. I fear the State. It doesn't matter whether it's the Russian pogroms of Jews, the "internment" of Japanese-Americans, the jailing of draft resisters, the attack on the Waco compound... The Bill of Rights to me is very special. It says, "Government, stop! You can't get involved in my life." When you start saying, "Yes, they can read my e-mails, and they can tap my phone, and they can put me on a 'No Fly' list and not even tell me that they're doing it." then we have reached an Orwellian, authoritarian State. We have, in essence, pretty much become-- and I hate to be so bold about this, but I will-- the Soviet Union that I learned about as a kid in elementary school, and that's scary. I don't believe in government surveillance. A very hot issue right now is the concern for our country's safety with the influx of refugees from the Middle East coming into the United States. We had spoken about that a while back. You told me that some of our fears may be hyperbolized, because most of the refugees will likely assimilate into our culture over time. However, some people dispute that-- and they use recent tragic events in France and other European countries as an example. What would you say to them? It's a different scenario in Europe. What makes France, for example, unique is that they are French. They have their French language and their French culture. What makes Germany unique is their "Germanity". What makes the Danes unique is that they speak Danish and have Danish culture. America does not have that, to that extent. We are this enormous "salad bowl" of so many cultures. People still harken back to their ethnic backgrounds. You can still see ethnic Germans doing schuhplattler dances. You can see Hispanic-Americans celebrating Quinceañera. People bring with them the best of their culture. But all you have to do is walk down the street here in New York City, and you'll see an Arab, a Jew, a German, an Albanian, a Latino, and a Brazilian all working at the same construction site together. People remember who they are and they bring with them the good-- but they tend to begin much better here in the States rather than in Europe, which is so identified by their own language and their one culture. This has been the history of America. How true! Well, thank you for speaking with me. Where can people learn more about the Libertarian Party? They can go to www.LP.org, which is the national Party's website. Again, I will say that like any political party, there is a national platform and there are individual candidates. That website gives a very general, "Here's our philosophy" approach. My candidacy in general is www.Simmons4Congress.com. |
French riot police have deployed tear gas on protesters who gathered at the Place de la Bastille in central Paris after preliminary results of the first round of the presidential election were announced. Protests in Paris in the aftermath of the vote have turned violent with smoke grenades, flares and glass bottles thrown at police. RT’s correspondent Charlotte Dubenskij was tear gassed while reporting from the scene. READ MORE: Macron, Le Pen lead in 1st round of French presidential elections – projection The rallies, dubbed the “night of the barricades,” are expected to take place in 13 cities across France. The protests erupted minutes after the polling stations closed in the first round of the presidential elections. There is a massive riot police presence on the streets of Paris, with officers wearing full body armor, including shields and carrying batons and pepper spray bottles, as can be seen on images from a Ruptly video. At some point protesters were seen throwing chairs – apparently from nearby cafes – at police officers. READ MORE: Tear gas, smoke grenades & flares: Violence erupts at Paris protest day before election (VIDEO) Three people have been detained by police at the protest, AP reported. At least one protester has been reportedly injured in clashes with police. Police attending to someone who has been injured in the protest... pic.twitter.com/5Jc3sfGVqP — Charlotte Dubenskij (@CDubenskij_RT) April 23, 2017 La personne blessée est prise en charge par les pompiers. #bastillepic.twitter.com/fd76WslBKK — Clément Lanot (@ClementLanot) April 23, 2017 The protesters say they are unhappy with all of the 11 candidates taking part in the elections, according RT's Dubenskij. Police are currently trying to kettle the crowd and block it off in one area to prevent the protest from escalating. Police now letting some of the kettled protesters free #Paris#Presidentielle2017pic.twitter.com/58LjVqSNhF — Charlotte Dubenskij (@CDubenskij_RT) April 23, 2017 Protesters brought a makeshift guillotine to the Opéra Bastille to show their dissatisfaction with the elections, claiming they are against racism, sexism, fascism and basically anything that has to do with the establishment, Dubenskij added. “We came to protest against the masquerade that represents this election," a protester said, the French Europe1 news outlet reported. Paris police have issued a warning on Twitter, saying the traffic around the Bastille area is heavy due to the protest. #circulation#manifestation en cours Automobilistes, évitez le secteur Bastille / République — Préfecture de police (@prefpolice) April 23, 2017 Hashtag #NuitDesBarricades (Night of the Barricades) has appeared on social media, calling upon French voters to join the protest against the election results. People in the city of Nantes in western France staged a protest against the results of the elections. “Neither Macron, nor Le Pen. Long live elections,” said the banners of the demonstrators. According to French media, the rallies in Nantes turned violent, with protesters clashing with police. Violent protests took place in the city of Rennes in northwestern France. Protesters against the results of the elections took to the streets of Rouen, a city in the northern French region of Normandy. They said they stood neither for Macron, nor for Le Pen. |
MAUMELLE, AR - Lawmakers asked school districts to tell them about gun incidents on campus. The final report this week reveals 52 gun incidents that resulted in only 11 expulsions statewide. "The data at face value is certainly alarming," says State Representative Mark Lowery, of Maumelle. It's alarming for Lowery because Pulaski County schools located in his district reporting 10 handgun incidents and just 1 expulsion. "There's no wonder parents are, by the thousands, putting their students into private schools, especially if they see or hear numbers like that," says Lowery. "We err on the side of caution in our reporting. We don't want any parent to believe we're being deceptive," says Jerry Guess, Superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District. The deception, Guess would argue, assuming the reported 10 guns is just that, saying instead, a majority of that number centers around a gun found at Maumelle High School last April. In that incident, a student was expelled and five others were disciplined "All six students were reported and it was reported as if there were six separate guns. There was one," says Guess. Lowery says he first noticed the numbers at a State Capitol hearing on Monday. "I think it's enough for us to really reasonably look at whether local control is that paramount issue here. We need to look at this in this next legislative session," he says. Guess says two BB guns and toy guns that were found on elementary campuses, in his words, "inflates" the stats further. "I would hope parents would understand that these are not true weapons," says Guess. "I think maybe the school district needs to be much more proactive in terms of explaining those kinds of alarming numbers," says Lowery. |
Pablo Zabaleta admits he is considering his Manchester City future Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta admits he is considering his future, potentially putting an end to his eight-year spell at the club. The 31-year-old was substituted in Manchester City's 3-0 win against Chelsea last weekend in what was just his 10th league appearance of the season. The Argentina international has been sidelined with knee and medial ligament injuries this season, and has been competing for game time with team-mate Bacary Sagna. As a result, Zabaleta admits he has been considering his future at the club. Speaking exclusively to Sky Sports News HQ, Zabaleta said: "He [Sagna] has been outstanding this season. "I'm so glad for him because he's a great lad, a great player and also he's given me a chance to have some rest thinking about the future. Manchester City defender Bacary Sagna has been playing regularly ahead of Zabaleta this season "I have just one more year here [on my contract] and we'll see what happens at the end of the season. We expect big changes at the club with a new manager coming in." Zabaleta says discussions about his future are likely to happen at the end of the season before he sets off on international duty with Argentina to Copa America. "Probably at the end of the season, we have to sit down with the club and decide what will happen," he added. Pep Guardiola will take over as Manchester City manager in the summer "My only concern is just thinking about another big tournament in the summer and coming back probably without rest and without pre-season. "The best thing for me is just be focused on trying to finish this season in the best way. All the players will have to hear from the new manager and what his new ideas are for next season." Manchester City face Newcastle on Tuesday, live on Sky Sports, and a win would create a three-point gap over fourth-placed Arsenal. Manchester City's Pablo Zabaleta has suffered with injuries this season "It's going to be a really tough game," said Zabaleta. "Even if they are not in their best situation so far this season. I think its huge game for them to get three points and move closer to staying up in the Premier League. "St James' Park is one of the best grounds, I really enjoy playing there, the atmosphere is always fantastic. "I want Manchester City to win the game and if we get three points and can finish the season in third or second that would be important thinking about next season." Watch Newcastle v Manchester City on Tuesday night from 7pm on Sky Sports 1 HD. |
Flirc was invited to share and create in the building of the first Kodi hardware product. The Kodi Edition Raspberry Pi Case is a special edition run. A limited quantity were built and the product shares all the same great qualities as the Flirc Raspberry Pi Case. Another Perfect Media Center Companion This is the first affordable Raspberry Pi case made out of aluminum. We wanted to ensure we didn’t sacrifice form over function, so we used the aluminum housing of the case to provide a built in heat sink. Supplied with the case is a thermal pad and 4 screws for the simplest Raspberry Pi case assembly on the market. It only takes seconds to drop your Raspberry Pi into it’s amazing new home and show it off on your counter top. |
What would @CollinsworthPFF say if he had a chance to talk to the president? "He should apologize." pic.twitter.com/S8kNbXaZJw NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” analyst Cris Collinsworth called on President Donald Trump to apologize for calling players protesting the national anthem “SOBs.” “I would say he should apologize,” Collinsworth stated Sunday. “They’re not SOBs. They’re smart, thoughtful guys. They really are.” Collinsworth continued, adding that the protesters want the same thing as Trump: “a better America.” “I guarantee you if the president invited — I can make a list of 10 guys — to the White House and heard their stories and heard their thoughts and heard how concerned they are about America, they would find the common ground and they would move this forward,” he said. Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent |
Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Three Northumberland huntsmen have been found guilty of fox hunting. Joint Master Timothy Wyndham Basil Smalley, Huntsman Ian McKie and Kennel Huntsman Andrew Proe, of College Valley and North Northumberland Hunt, were all convicted of hunting a wild mammal with dogs following a trial at Berwick Magistrates’ Court. The trio were secretly filmed by two League Against Cruel Sports investigators as they led a meet in and around West Kyloe Farm near Lowick on Thursday, February 27. They had claimed they were trying to follow a legal scent trail of fox urine and the foxes were disturbed unintentionally. But District Judge Bernard Begley concluded that McKie, 56, of Wooler, Proe, 52, of Cornhill-on-Tweed, and Smalley, 53, of Lowick, intentionally hunted the animal instead of the scent on one occasion. A not guilty verdict was reached on another count relating to a different fox. During the trial, the court heard Smalley, who grew up in Kyloe and is one of five joint masters responsible for the conduct and finances of the hunt, signalled for the hunt to follow a fox which had bolted from gorse bushes by removing his hat and pointing in its direction. McKie, who controls the hounds, and his assistant Proe, who looks after them in the kennels, encouraged the dogs to pick up the scent with shouts and blasts on the hunting horn. Mr Begley, sentencing, said: “I accept that a trail was laid at the start of the day but as events unfolded the offence occurred and as very experienced members of the hunt you should have known better. “The impact of these convictions on your good character and on the College Valley and North Northumberland Hunt is not lost on me, but all actions have consequences however dramatic.” During his summing up, prosecutor Jonathan Moore said: “Going after the real thing accidentally is not an offence but going after the real thing intentionally is.” He added: “They had every opportunity to gather the hounds together and stop them following a fox but they did not. “The idea of trail hunting is either shambolic or a sham. You lay fox urine to make the hounds able to fox hunt and if you come across a fox on your way you can then hunt it.” However, Steven Welford, mitigating, argued that there was no evidence any of his clients intended to hunt a fox. He said: “Accidents happen and wildlife is disturbed - that is what happened.” McKie was fined £1,150 and must pay a £115 victim surcharge and £385 court costs, while Smalley’s fine was £2,075 with a victim surcharge of £120 and £385 court costs. Proe must pay a £480 fine with a £48 victim surcharge and £385 costs. The Hunting Act came into force in February 2005 and outlawed fox hunting except for rare exemptions. After the hearing, Adrian Simpson, of the Countryside Alliance, spoke on behalf of the defendants. He said: “We are obviously disappointed with the verdict. “Now we have to consider our options given that the College Valley and North Northumberland Hunt was open and transparent on the day and believed its activities were totally legal. “They did not breach any legislation and that is why the verdict is confusing.” The College Valley and North Northumberland Hunt was formed in 1982 and extends to the Kale Water in the north-west taking in the Cheviot Hills to the Harthope Burn and Glendale Valley and on to the coastal strip by Holy Island and then north to Berwick and the Scottish Border. On the day in question, half a dozen riders and about 30 hounds took part. |
The result of the EU referendum in the UK to leave is one of the most influential political events in the last 25 years. Discussion over the outcome has been endlessly approached with rigour from many different angles, many seeking to find to answer to what will happen next. But many news outlets are treating the cause of BREXIT as settled: an ignorant populace convinced by a few populist nationalist leaders to make a bad choice. However, failing to investigate the causes and simply chalking up the supporting argument for the referendum to xenophobia or racism could stand to be the largest failure of the entire process. The arguments for staying have been well laid out and can be understood intuitively. Within the largest single market that is the EU, the UK stands to benefit from receiving preferential treatment and reductions to fiscal and political barriers to trade, as well as a standardized system for transportation and safety making trade run smoothly across Europe. Outside the Union, should the EU and Britain fail to come to terms over a new trade agreement, Britain will be subject to the WTO’s ‘most favoured nations’ clause, where it would be required to receive no special treatment compared to other states. Because the UK would suffer from increased tariff on trade and the loss of trade deals with the EU (which represents 15% of their economy’s output), early on in the referendum campaign it was concluded that xenophobia and fear was the main driver of the leave option. As immigration came to characterize the debate, separatist ideas, through no help of their own, were perceived as entirely racist, unfounded and opportunistic. Many European leaders are now urging the UK to speed up the process of triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the foundational document of the EU, which lays out the exit plans for a nation leaving the Union. The reluctance of Prime Minister Cameron to do so has leaders like European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker particularly pressing the point. But a more important discussion about the economy and the lack of economic growth across Europe is being submerged in an argument of political correctness. The intense focus on the financial sector that produces little physical capital (transport systems, infrastructure, factories) or finished products has created a need for cheap labour a decrease in paid positions to minimize costs in other sectors. In capitalism, the economic definition of immigration is the addition of units to the labour force, or the “insourcing” of labour, a very numeric and asocial way of interpreting human movement. The United Kingdom saw its annual net migration increase by nearly double from 2012 to 2015, with 183,000 net new immigrants in 2015. This has had the effect of boosting the workforce by 0.5% per year, which supports the economy’s ability to grow, but at the expense of deflating workers wages. Most of these migrants are from other economically struggling Eastern European countries. What is lost in the numbers is the social responses, the fact that it is far easier for a worker to blame a foreigner when employers use desperate people willing to work for less to undermine their wages. Political correctness and hateful racism makes governments unwilling to explore the real impacts of immigration due to fears of political suicide. This obscures the larger problem that the free movement of labour across borders has exposed due to friction in the workforce. The problem is found in the general decline in labour productivity, measured in the change in GDP by percentage for every hour worked, across the western world. The financial crisis sent the world into a harsh decline in productivity rates compared to decades prior. France and Germany have managed to just hover around the 0.5% mark for the past 6 years, but the UK has seen erratic alterations between minor growth and losses in labor productivity. This results in lower wages for more hours, doubly compounded by the introduction of cheaper foreign labour. Nouriel Roubini, a current professor of business at NYU’s School of Business who has worked for the IMF, says the buzz of silicon valley bringing breakthroughs in Biotech, Energy tech, and Info tech has not translated into productivity growth as was expected. The result of the rapid increase in efficient production technologies is that more jobs are eliminated then those created by the services sector. Free flowing immigration results in the crowding of the labour market, giving no room to solve this problem. What is increasingly clear is that the economy is experiencing a persistent cyclical downturn and poor recovery, something economists call hypersterisis. Because investment occurs at the development stages, goods come to the production line with technology built in and require less assembly and work to create the finished product. This means less investment goes into production (the factories and the workforce), which results in a permanent loss in productivity of the population. Even skilled workers who remain unemployed too long by these changes and by the effects of the financial crisis are therefore in danger of losing their skills at a faster rate because technology outpaces them. Insourcing cheaper skilled and unskilled labour seriously agitates the effects of the financial crisis, as the previous factors are strained by the sheer increase in demand for work and lower levels of investment. Europe has been struggling with unemployment, like with France, Italy and Spain who all have had unemployment over 10% for more than 5 years. Many governments inability to find solutions has given rise to strong nationalist parties across Europe. When the labour market is diluted by both technological improvements making professions obsolete, foreign labourers who work for less, and when the general trend results in less wages for more hours, people easily blame immigrants who are products of a poorly performing system themselves as the cause of their woes. BREXIT, whatever its final result may be, forces the question: Has the economy really recovered since 2008, or is it time to think of new way to organize the economies of the developed world? How the EU responds may yet determine its fate. Photo: UK Border Control at Heathrow Airport (2010), by dannyman via Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY 2.0. Disclaimer: Any views or opinions expressed in articles are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the NATO Association of Canada. |
When Aaron Rodgers starts to scramble, wide receiver Randall Cobb is often a favorite target. Credit: Mark Hoffman By of the Green Bay — When the Green Bay Packers offense gathers for the initial passing game meeting in training camp, the first thing addressed isn't play-action or shotgun or seven-step drops or red zone. That has to wait. The first step is installing the scramble play. If you're the Denver Broncos or New Orleans Saints or San Diego Chargers or New England Patriots, that slide is probably buried in the pile. If you're the Packers, and Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback, it's in the pole position in coach Mike McCarthy's PowerPoint presentation. "That's the very first one, what's expected if the quarterback breaks contain or gets flushed out of the pocket," quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said. "From Day 1, we emphasize it. "Our guys are very good at it and understand what we're trying to accomplish and how to find the open area. Aaron is as good as anyone once he leaves the pocket." If you thought Rodgers was the only reason the scramble play has been effective for the Packers, you'd be neglecting the other end of the connection. Few can make the kind of across-the-body throw Rodgers did rolling to his right on a 5-yard touchdown pass to receiver Randall Cobb against Miami two weeks ago. But if Cobb hadn't worked his way back to Rodgers after running a route to the middle of the end zone, the throw would never have been made. "It always comes down to being on the same page with Aaron, having the ability to anticipate," receivers coach Edgar Bennett said. "That's an important part of it. Some of it, you go over that and they work that drill in practice and then you go out and see them execute in a game situation. It's a little bit of everything." Sense of purpose The scramble play is not a chaotic car chase scene with everyone doing wheelies and doughnuts in order to escape the authorities. There is structure to which each player needs to adhere, which is detailed in that PowerPoint presentation on the first day of training camp. Take the 47-yard catch and run Cobb made Sunday against Carolina. Rodgers saw some pressure from the left side and rolled to his right. Cobb, who had lined up in the slot on the right, ran a short hook at the numbers. Upon seeing Rodgers break the pocket, he curled to the middle and then back in a horseshoe maneuver before jab-stepping back to the middle one more time. The final move left him right between linebacker Luke Kuechly and cornerback Antoine Cason. Rodgers delivered the ball and Cobb made a socks-stealing move that left him free to run. No one on the Packers roster could have made those moves but Cobb, which explains why he is often the target of Rodgers' scramble throws, including the division-winning touchdown catch against the Chicago Bears on Dec. 29 "He can create separation," Bennett said. "He's an extremely instinctive football player. Some of those qualities start to come out." There's more to the story on the play against Carolina and some of the others Cobb has made. On this one, rookie Davante Adams, who was lined up to Cobb's right and ran a similar pattern toward the sideline, saw Rodgers scrambling. But unlike Cobb, he didn't come back and try to get in Rodgers' vision. He turned and ran down the field, creating a high-low concept that spread out the Panthers defenders and made it easier for Cobb to find a hole. "You've got to understand the play call and where other guys are on the field, and not go into their area of the field whenever the scramble drill happens," Cobb said. "And (it's) understanding where the quarterback's moving to." The same thing happened on the play in Miami. Jordy Nelson was on Rodgers' side of the field, but rather than run to the middle, he worked the sideline, which occupied defenders and allowed Cobb to find the void in the defense. He might have gotten the ball if Cobb hadn't broken open. "You have to get lucky, fortunate that he scrambles your way and you're in the position to make that separation," Nelson said. "And sometimes you're on a deep ball and you can't do anything about it, or your backside. "If it comes your way, you have to get separation at the right time and give him a place to go with the ball." The Packers work the scramble drill every week in practice so that when Rodgers breaks the pocket there's some semblance of order. When Rodgers takes off to one side of the field or the other, his vision is generally limited to that side. So, if Nelson has run a curl on the right side and Rodgers has scrambled to the left, he'll start to work back to the left and try to get into the quarterback's vision. But he also has to be aware of where others are and not crowd their space. "In my mind, it's more about knowing where you are in relationship to the other receivers on the field and seeing where the quarterback is moving," tight ends coach Jerry Fontenot said. "We have definitive rules that they need to follow. "I think instincts kind of take over and guys don't follow the rules all the time. That's something we focus a lot on because of all the production we've had extending the play with Aaron." Scoring plays Four of Rodgers' 18 touchdown passes this season have come on scrambles. Many other key completions were the result of Rodgers using his legs to avoid pressure. In addition, he has run 17 times for 91 yards, most of which have come on scrambles. As the Packers get ready to take on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night, the threat of Rodgers getting outside the pocket and hurting the Saints defense is probably causing defensive coordinator Rob Ryan indigestion this week. Everyone who plays the Packers knows it's a part of their offense. "We have Aaron, the best in the business as far as extending plays and buying that time," Bennett said. "Then it's the receiver getting open and being on the same page as far as the area and space he's looking for. It starts with our protection and the receiver being on the same page." And then quite often it ends in a big play. |
Robert Kagan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writes a monthly column for The Post. His latest book is “The World America Made.” These days “soft” power and “smart” power are in vogue (who wants to make the case for “dumb” power?) while American “hard” power is on the chopping block. This is, in part, a symbolic sacrifice to the fiscal crisis — even though the looming defense cuts are a drop in the bucket compared with the ballooning entitlement spending that is not being cut. And partly this is the Obama administration’s election-year strategy of playing to a presumably war-weary nation. But there is a theory behind all this: The United States has relied too much on hard power for too long, and to be truly effective in a complex, modern world, the United States needs to emphasize other tools. It must be an attractive power, capable of persuading rather than compelling. It must convene and corral both partners and non-partners, using economic, diplomatic and other means to “leverage” American influence. These are sensible arguments. Power takes many forms, and it’s smart to make use of all of them. But there is a danger in taking this wisdom too far and forgetting just how important U.S. military power has been in building and sustaining the present liberal international order. That order has rested significantly on the U.S. ability to provide security in parts of the world, such as Europe and Asia, that had known endless cycles of warfare before the arrival of the United States. The world’s free-trade, free-market economy has depended on America’s ability to keep trade routes open, even during times of conflict. And the remarkably wide spread of democracy around the world owes something to America’s ability to provide support to democratic forces under siege and to protect peoples from dictators such as Moammar Gaddafi and Slobodan Milosevic. Some find it absurd that the United States should have a larger military than the next 10 nations combined. But that gap in military power has probably been the greatest factor in upholding an international system that, in historical terms, is unique — and uniquely beneficial to Americans. Nor should we forget that this power is part of what makes America attractive to many other nations. The world has not always loved America. During the era of Vietnam and Watergate and the ugly last stand of segregationists, America was often hated. But nations that relied on the United States for security from threatening neighbors tended to overlook the country’s flaws. In the 1960s, millions of young Europeans took to the streets to protest American “imperialism,” while their governments worked to ensure that the alliance with the United States held firm. Soft power, meanwhile, has its limits. No U.S. president has enjoyed more international popularity than Woodrow Wilson did when he traveled to Paris to negotiate the treaty ending World War I. He was a hero to the world, but he found his ability to shape the peace, and to establish the new League of Nations, severely limited, in no small part by his countrymen’s refusal to commit U.S. military power to the defense of the peace. John F. Kennedy, another globally admired president, found his popularity of no use in his confrontations with Nikita Khrushchev, who, by Kennedy’s own admission, “beat the hell out of me” and who may have been convinced by his perception of Kennedy’s weakness that the United States would tolerate his placing Soviet missiles in Cuba. The international system is not static. It responds quickly to fluctuations in power. If the United States were to cut too deeply into its ability to project military power, other nations could be counted on to respond accordingly. Those nations whose power rises in relative terms would display expanding ambitions commensurate with their new clout in the international system. They would, as in the past, demand particular spheres of influence. Those whose power declined in relative terms, like the United States, would have little choice but to cede some influence in those areas. Thus China would lay claim to its sphere of influence in Asia, Russia in eastern Europe and the Caucasus. And, as in the past, these burgeoning great-power claims would overlap and conflict: India and China claim the same sphere in the Indian Ocean; Russia and Europe have overlapping spheres in the region between the Black Sea and the Baltic. Without the United States to suppress and contain these conflicting ambitions, there would have to be complex adjustments to establish a new balance. Some of these adjustments could be made through diplomacy, as they were sometimes in the past. Other adjustments might be made through war or the threat of war, as also happened in the past. The biggest illusion is to imagine that as American power declines, the world stays the same. What has been true since the time of Rome remains true today: There can be no world order without power to preserve it, to shape its norms, uphold its institutions, defend the sinews of its economic system and keep the peace. Military power can be abused, wielded unwisely and ineffectively. It can be deployed to answer problems that it cannot answer or that have no answer. But it is also essential. No nation or group of nations that renounced power could expect to maintain any kind of world order. If the United States begins to look like a less reliable defender of the present order, that order will begin to unravel. People might indeed find Americans very attractive in this weaker state, but if the United States cannot help them when and where they need help the most, they will make other arrangements. |
PATNA: Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha on Friday favoured reservation in private sector jobs and also pitched for increasing the quota slab from the existing 50% to higher side in government jobs.Sinha, who in 2002 introduced corporate social responsibility (CSR), said, “If the corporates have any objection to it, they should spell out the reasons for that.”He said the Centre should constitute a commission to study and assess the transformation that had occurred due to application of job reservation in government sector, apart from pointing to the shortcomings in the implementation of the quota policy, including for the scheduled caste (SC), scheduled tribe (ST) and other backward class (OBC) people.“Now even the Centre has also started talking about reservation for the extremely backward classes (EBCs). It means that there was some problem with the implementation of the quota policy,” Sinha said.Addressing a function organized here by Vanchit Varg Morcha (VVM) headed by former Bihar assembly Speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary, Sinha said, “The growth of economy is a must for reaching out benefits to weaker sections, but the recent developments have also impacted people negatively. The demonetisation done last year not only led to fall in the GDP growth rate, but also resulted in loss of 20 lakh jobs.”VVM, in principle, stands as umbrella organization for the deprived sections of the society.Earlier, Choudhary described the grim conditions facing the deprived sections, like homelessness, increase in atrocities on dalits, their preponderance among jail inmates, incidents of rape, abolition of scholarship for students, introduction of credit card for loans from banks for higher studies, annulment of reservation in promotion, backlogs of unfilled reserved posts, lack of reservation in judiciary. He assailed the policies pursued by PM Narendra Modi Choudhary, who is still in the JD(U) and has fallen out with its president cum state CM Nitish Kumar , also assailed Nitish for his belated announcement of quota in outsourced jobs, even as the law regarding it had been existing since 1993.In the same vein, he criticised the death of children in the government hospitals for want of oxygen in Uttar Pradesh where, he said, Rs500 crore was spent on the celebration of Ram and Sita. “In their eyes, human lives have no value,” he said.Sinha had been principal secretary to former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur, a popular leader from an EBC group. He asked Choudhary to gather together intellectuals, including Sachindra Narayan, who also addressed the function, to prepare a white paper on the condition of weaker/deprived sections. |
In the coming months J.J. Abrams is going to have a very interesting perspective on the eternal geek debate of Star Trek vs. Star Wars. He is (figuratively) helming both the U.S.S. Enterprise in this year’s Star Trek Into Darkness and an X-Wing Fighter (or something) in Star Wars Episode VII. With the former coming out in just a few short months, the director will soon be turning his full attention to a galaxy far, far away. In addition, he’ll be pressed to talk about it while promoting the new Trek. In one of his first major interviews leading up to the release of the May 17 Trek sequel, Abrams spoke to Empire Magazine about his frame of mind and approach to Star Wars. He says he’s approaching it from a place of excitement and passion and also admitted Steven Spielberg was one of the primary reasons for him taking the job. Read his quotes below. Thanks to Empire Online for these quotes which, if not exactly enlightening, are at least interesting. First up, he was asked about his approach to the film. I don’t know because we’re just getting started. So it’s a great question that I hope I’ll have a good answer to when I know what the answer is. There are infinitely more questions than answers right now, but to me, they’re not that dissimilar. Though I came at these both from very different places, where they both meet is a place of ‘Ooh, that’s really exciting.’ And even though I was never a Star Trek fan, I felt like there was a version of it that would make me excited, that I would think ‘that’s cool, that feels right, I actually would want to see that. How we were going to get there, what the choices were going to be, who was going to be in it – all of those things I knew would have to be figured out, but it was all based on a foundation of this indescribable, guttural passion for something that could be. It’s a similar feeling that I have with Star Wars. I feel like I can identify a hunger for what I would want to see again and that is an incredibly exciting place to begin a project. The movies, the worlds could not be more different but that feeling that there’s something amazing here is the thing that they share. He then spoke about his change of heart. Abrams, of course, first publicly turned down the job. My knee-jerk reaction was that I’m in the middle of working on the Star Trek movie and I can’t even consider it. But then time went by and I got further along working on the movie and getting to a place where I had done most of the heavy lifting. So when I met with Kathy Kennedy we just started discussing it and I was able to actually engage in the conversation. I went down to tell Katie, my wife, and I said ‘I had just a very interesting conversation with Kathy.’ That was the beginning. I will say that Steven [Spielberg] was very encouraging of Star Wars. It’s funny because I talked to him about it and it turned out he knew all about what was going on. Star Trek Into Darkness opens May 17 in North America while Star Wars Episode VII is tentatively scheduled for 2015. Though, from the above quotes, that sounds like a bit of a stretch, does it not? What do you think? |
“Under God” compromises the patriotic message of the Pledge “Under God” wasn’t part of the original Pledge of Allegiance. Those two words were added to the Pledge in 1954, when the country was in the grip of McCarthyism and communist witch-hunt hysteria. Before 1954, the Pledge affirmed that we were “one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Indivisible means we can rise above our differences, religious or otherwise. Liberty means the right to act and speak freely no matter what one’s faith or philosophy may be. And Justice, of course, means equal rights for all, regardless of whether or not we believe in a deity. The Knights of Columbus – a Catholic men’s group – led the lobbying effort to add “under God.” Now the Pledge is twisted, with divisive religious language that implies true patriots must be believers. With “under God” added, the Pledge is not a statement of patriotism. Instead, extremist preachers and politicians point to the language to validate their view that those who don’t believe in God don’t belong. Religious or not, don’t say this altered Pledge Until the Pledge is restored to its inclusive version, we can take it upon ourselves to refuse to participate in what’s become a discriminatory exercise. (Note: A Supreme Court case – West Virginia vs. Barnette –gives public school students the absolute right to sit out the Pledge, for any reason. Public schools might not tell you about this right, but if anyone questions you about sitting out the Pledge, contact the AHA’s Legal Center.) Whether you are religious or not, you can make a statement for true inclusiveness. Support liberty and justice for all, and support indivisibility. Stand up for America by sitting down during the Pledge of Allegiance boycott until the inclusive version is restored. |
Why eat any of the healthier parts of Lucky Charms cereal when you can just have the marshmallows? In-fact, why not just buy a 40 lb pound bag of them? Yes, you can actually buy a giant bag of strictly Lucky Charm's Marshmallows, without any of the healthy stuff in it right on Amazon. You will get shipped a giant case of Lucky Charm's Marshmallows, that you probably won't know what to do with. But I'm sure you'll figure it out over time. If you don't actually want to eat them, I'm sure there are an assortment of pranks you could use the Marshmallows on. Via Imgur Although not actually the Lucky Charms brand, you'll technically be receiving a giant bag of dehydrated cereal marshmallows. But we all know what you'll really be getting. Via WeeklyItemVideo Check out the giant back of Lucky Charm's Marshmallows in action via the video below. |
President Duterte will be signing an executive order (EO) directing full implementation of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law, the country’s chief economist said. “We are coming up with an EO. [It’s] basically a statement of the President, what his stand is, and how he feels about [it]. He will show his strong position on the importance of RH implementation,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told reporters recently. ADVERTISEMENT Pernia, who is also the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), said the Department of Health (DOH) is currently drafting the EO mandating full RH Law implementation. “If we cannot implement the RH Law fully, that will be problematic because to be able to achieve the [target of] 17-percent poverty incidence by the end of the term of the President, it will have to be a combination of strong economic growth and creation of lots of jobs, complemented by the full implementation of the RH law so that the poor are able to limit or space their child-bearing,” the Neda chief said. 10-point agenda Part of the Duterte administration’s 10-point socioeconomic agenda, which is aimed at slashing poverty incidence from the present 26 percent to 17 percent by 2022, is the plan to strengthen the implementation of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law to enable couples, especially the poor, to make informed choices on financial and family planning. No population policy Pernia earlier blamed the slow reduction in poverty incidence, which in 1990 stood at about 33 percent, to the previous administrations’ lack of a population policy. The Duterte administration will also move to fast-track job generation, Pernia said, as an additional two million jobs per year are needed to absorb the currently unemployed and underemployed as well as new entrants to the labor force. The Neda is in the process of drafting the Philippine Development Plan for 2017-2022, which will serve as the socioeconomic blueprint guiding jobs creation, poverty reduction and overall economic development in the next six years. Pernia earlier said economic growth of 6.5 percent could be achieved this year as the agriculture sector is expected to perform better in the second half of the year. GDP growth Following the robust 6.9-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth posted in the first half, a 5.1-percent expansion in the second semester to hit the lower end of the 2016 target “should not be a problem,” Pernia said. The government targets a “conservative” 6 to 7 percent growth for 2016. ADVERTISEMENT For Pernia, “6.5-percent [growth] should be achievable for the full year.” Pernia’s projection would entail average growth of at least 6.1 percent in the second half. First few months The Cabinet-level, interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) had cut the 2016 growth target from the earlier goal of 6.8 to 7.8 percent set by the Aquino administration, saying that the Duterte administration still had to adjust during its first few months in office. Pernia said the agriculture sector would likely perform better in the second semester as “rains have been good” so far following the onslaught of the prolonged dry spell due to El Niño that lasted until the first half of the year. “There’s been a lot of rain but not destructive, so it’s going to be healthy for agriculture,” Pernia said. Milder La Niña As for the expected La Niña, “it’s supposed to be milder than anticipated,” Pernia said, citing reports by the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration. Although the La Niña could be milder, the government as early as two months ago was already preparing for the wet season, with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on top of the preparations, the Neda chief said. Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READ |
Share. A big open-world adventure that doesn't forget the little things. A big open-world adventure that doesn't forget the little things. Listening to Bethesda Game Studios explain its latest Elder Scrolls game in demo sessions can be a bit overwhelming. It's impossible to try and squeeze everything from the game into something like a half-hour session, so many throwaway comments made while the demo's running could gloss over a feature that represents tens of hours of gameplay. There's so much going on in Skyrim, from dramatic encounters with dragons to the ways you can disrupt the economies of individual towns by messing with their lumber mills, that it's great to see Bethesda hasn't overlooked the details either. By details, I mean the finer points of the presentation. The way fish will jump up small waterfalls in swift streams, or the way clouds drift around the peaks of craggy, snow-clogged mountain peaks. I mean the way the horses animate with a noticeable sense of weight to each hoof step as you ride them up rocky passes into hostile territory. The way every spell you equip produces a different effect in your character's hand, like shards of light while the Circle of Protection spell is active and strips of electrical energy for your lightning spell. I know these types of things may seem minor, but I've always felt detail like this does a lot to make the world more believable. If you get attacked by a frost dragon, for instance, its frigid breath will coat your equipped axe in ice. It's an effect that's so logical it can easily be overlooked, but one that lends even more of a sense of excitement to the battle. This attention to the finer points of presentation extends to the interface, reworked in Skyrim to be less cluttered. Your character's skills are displayed as star constellations, and as you dive into each to see the individual perks contained within they're displayed as stars within each celestial pattern. The text that pops up while in conversation and while quick-swapping weapons and armor is designed to be unobtrusive, so it that it doesn't feel like it's calling any more attention to itself than it has to. Models of all the items, from the more impressive pieces of armor and weapons down to individual herbs, can be inspected, rotated and zoomed in on however you see fit. Effects big and small, from the bassy thud of dragons as they slam down to the ground from the sky to the multitudes of books you can read in your inventory, make me look forward to Skyrim all the more. Maybe these details are something a more casual role-playing fan might not care as much about, but to me it shows an extreme level of care. |
Way back in the beginning of 2012, Burger King started testing the waters of delivery service with a trial run in Washington, D.C. and soon expanded to certain locations in Houston, Miami and New York. Sounds like those tests were a hit: stay-at-home diners in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco will never have to put on real pants again to get fast food, as the service is headed to those metropolitan areas as well. Burger King is fighting a fast food war of epic proportions as its rivals are all throwing new, trendy items on the menu and advertising like crazy. It all comes down to bringing in the customers, and if you can’t get them through your doors, why not eliminate the need to go through a door altogether? The Associated Press says about 20 restaurants will participate in both the Chicago and L.A. markets and 15 in the San Francisco area. But if you’re already drooling over the idea of late-night fries, be warned that orders can only be placed between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m., either online or by phone, and must be a minimum of $10 to get delivered. The move could make Burger King a standout among its competitors, as a Wendy’s spokesman says there’s no delivery service in the U.S. except perhaps by individual franchisees, and McDonald’s didn’t chime in as to whether it offers delivery. It’s still unclear whether this expansion means Burger King will push the program out nationwide, as a spokesman says the company is looking to expand delivery to more locations as consumers demand it. Burger King adds LA, Chicago, SF to delivery list [Associated Press] |
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