text stringlengths 0 100k |
|---|
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. FOR a few weeks over the Christmas holidays, Europeans put their sovereign-debt crisis on hold. Now they are facing grim reality once more. Bond yields are spiking in an ever broader group of countries, just as the euro zone's governments need to raise vast sums from the markets. On January 12th Portugal was forced to pay 6.7% for ten-year money—better than feared but a price it cannot afford for long. Yields for Belgian debt have jumped, as investors fret about its load of debt and lack of leadership. Spain is hanging on. This mess leads to a depressing conclusion: Europe's bail-out strategy, designed to calm financial markets and place a firewall between the euro zone's periphery and its centre, is failing. Investors are becoming more, not less, nervous, and the crisis is spreading. Plan A, based on postponing the restructuring of Europe's struggling countries, was worth trying: it has bought some time. But it is no longer working. Restructuring now is more clearly affordable than it was last year. It is also surely cheaper for everybody than it will be in a few years' time. Hence the need for Plan B. The initial response, forged in the rescue of Greece in May 2010, has been undone by its own contradiction. Europe's politicians have created a system for making loans to prevent illiquid governments from defaulting in the short term, while simultaneously making clear (at Germany's insistence) that in the medium term insolvent countries should have their debts restructured. Unsure about who will eventually be deemed insolvent, investors are nervous—and costs have risen. The least-bad way to deal with this contradiction is to restructure the debt of plainly insolvent countries now. Based on this newspaper's calculations (see article), that group should start with Greece and probably also include Portugal and Ireland. Spain has deep problems, but even with a big bank bail-out it should be able to keep its public debt at a sustainable level (see article). Italy and Belgium have high debt levels but more ample private savings, and their underlying budgets are closer to surplus. There is, thus, a reasonable chance that, handled correctly, euro-zone sovereign defaults could be limited to three small, peripheral economies. This newspaper does not advocate the first rich-country sovereign defaults in half a century lightly. But the logic for taking action sooner rather than later is powerful. First, the only plausible long-term alternative to debt restructuring—permanent fiscal transfer from Europe's richer core (read Germany)—seems to be a political non-starter. Some of Europe's politicians favour closer fiscal union, including issuing euro bonds, but they are unlikely to accept budget transfers big enough to underwrite the peripheral economies' entire debt stock. Second, the dangers from debt restructuring have diminished even as the costs of delay are rising. Eight months ago, when euro-zone governments and the IMF joined forces to rescue Greece, their determination to avoid immediate restructuring made sense. There were reasonable fears that default could plunge Greece into chaos, precipitate bond crises in the euro zone and spark a European banking catastrophe. But the European economy, as a whole, is now in better shape. Banks have had time to build up more capital—and palm off some of their holdings of dodgy sovereign bonds to the European Central Bank. Greece and other peripherals have shown their mettle with austerity plans. Europe's officials have created mechanisms to stump up rescue money quickly. And lawyers have been thinking about managing an “orderly” default. A sovereign restructuring could still spook financial markets—fear that it would spread panic makes Europe's politicians shy away from it—but if handled correctly, it should not spawn Lehman-like chaos. At the same time the costs of buying time with loans have become painfully clear. The burden on the countries that have been rescued is enormous. Despite the toughest fiscal adjustment by any rich country since 1945, Greece's debt burden will, on plausible assumptions, peak at 165% of GDP by 2014. The Irish will toil for years to service rescue loans that, at Europe's insistence, pay off the bondholders of its defunct banks. At some point it will become politically impossible to demand more austerity to pay off foreigners. And the longer a restructuring is put off, the more painful it will eventually be, both for any remaining bondholders and for taxpayers in the euro zone's core. The rescues of Greece and Ireland have increased their overall debts while their private debts fall, so that a growing share will be owed to European governments. That means that the write-downs in any future restructuring will be bigger. By 2015, for instance, Greece could not reduce its debt to a sustainable level even if it wiped out the remaining private bondholders. A cost-benefit analysis, in short, argues in favour of carrying out an orderly restructuring now. The debt reduction should be big enough to put afflicted economies on a sustainable path. Greece may have to halve its debt burden. Ireland's may need to be cut by up to a third, with some of this coming from writing down bank rather than sovereign debt. All creditors, including governments and the European Central Bank, will have to chip in. New rescue money will also be needed: to fund defaulting countries' budget deficits; to help recapitalise these countries' local banks (which will suffer losses on their holdings of government bonds); and, if necessary, to recapitalise any hard-hit banks in Europe's core economies. The ECB and others should stand ready to defend Belgium, Italy and Spain if need be. If Europe's leaders stick to plan A, the debt crisis will continue to deepen. If they get on with restructurings that are eventually inevitable, they have a fighting chance of putting the crisis behind them. Plan B will require deft technical management and political courage. Thanks to its emerging-market expertise, the IMF has some of the former. It is up to Europe's politicians to find the latter. |
Uber’s taking UberPool global, testing it soon in Bangalore, India. This is one of the first times the company has offered its carpooling version in another country (it’s also in France). Funnily enough, India will have access to UberPool before many suburban Uber markets in the United States like Palo Alto and San Jose. It’s possible the company plans to focus UberPool in dense cities, where it’s more likely to find matches between passengers heading the same way, instead of sprawling suburbs. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said recently at the Salesforce conference that UberPool isn’t as profitable as its original UberX service. UberPool in India might face some major challenges. GPS and mapping tools are a different beast in the South Asian country, where the city landscape changes daily, roads start and stop in unexpected places and businesses launch and disappear unexpectedly. With a population of 4.3 million — by comparison, San Francisco is at 1 million — Bangalore is known for major traffic issues. UberPool requires picking up people from different destinations quickly and efficiently so carpooling doesn’t add too much more time to a person’s commute. It’s a tough enough problem in the U.S.; navigating the maze of streets and traffic in India might be even harder. Uber will also be taking on its competitors — sources tell Re/code that Ola Cabs is launching its carpool version, Ola Share, in five cities soon. Long distance travel app BlaBlaCar, which offers a more traditional form of carpooling, is already live in India. |
Comcast, NASCAR To Announce 10-Year Deal Next Week For Xfinity To Title No. 2 Series Comcast and NASCAR plan to announce a 10-year sponsorship agreement next week that will turn the sport’s secondary circuit into the Xfinity Series. The deal, which is valued at close to $200M, is expected to be announced on Wednesday in Charlotte, according to sources. Comcast and NASCAR both declined to comment. The announcement follows several months of negotiations and represents a major achievement for NASCAR. The sanctioning body began looking for a title sponsor late last year after current sponsor Nationwide Insurance decided to discontinue its sponsorship. Comcast emerged as a viable replacement after the company’s sports TV group, NBC, signed a 10-year, $4.4B rights deal with NASCAR. As part of the deal, Comcast agreed to spend $10M marketing and promoting the sport. Its marketing team saw title sponsorship of NASCAR’s secondary series as a way to fulfill that obligation and also promote its cable TV, broadband and phone business unit, Xfinity. Comcast initially wanted a shorter-term deal and resisted NASCAR’s push for a 10-year agreement. However, in recent weeks, it decided to commit to 10 years to match the length of NBC’s broadcast deal. NASCAR was asking for $12-15M a year in rights fees, with media and activation commitments that would take the total value of a deal to more than $25M. A deal of that size would have been an increase from the approximately $10M in rights fees Nationwide spent for title sponsorship of the series. NASCAR was unable to find a replacement partner willing to pay more for a series that had seen its average TV viewership per race fall from 2.06 million in ‘08, when Nationwide started its sponsorship to 1.7 million this season. Comcast approved a rights fee in ‘15 of approximately $9M, with media and activation commitments that would take the total spend to more than $18M. FOOTPRINT KEY TO THE DEAL: The company’s ability to make the deal work will depend on the size of Xfinity’s national footprint. Xfinity currently operates in 40 states and provides cable and broadband services in several U.S. cities with NASCAR tracks nearby: Atlanta, Miami, Chicago and Detroit. But Comcast is waiting for regulatory approval of a $45B merger with Time Warner Cable, and that merger would expand Xfinity’s footprint into traditional NASCAR areas such as Texas and the Carolinas. NASCAR Chief Sales Officer Jim O’Connell spearheaded the sale. Comcast Senior Dir of Sports Brand Strategy Matt Lederer and Senior VP/Marketing Communications Peter Intermaggio led Xfinity’s negotiations. GMR Marketing serves as Xfinity’s sponsorship consulting and activation agency. |
Of all the terrible symptoms of depression, the worst one for me was the way it sucked the enjoyment out of everything I once loved. I could no longer feel the release that a hard workout at the gym gave me after a tough day. Spending time with even my best friends was more exhausting than fun. All my greatest passions became things that I used to do — just as the driven, enthusiastic person all my loved ones had once known became someone that I used to be. Possibly the most frustrating thing my depression snatched away from me, though, was my love for reading. When I was younger, I practically inhaled books. I'd sit up in my room for entire weekends at a time, knowing that my internal promises of "just one more chapter" were completely empty. Once my depression set in a few years ago, though, the urge to consume page after page vanished. I went months on end without reading a single book. I'd try to get into a story, then find my attention wavering. I couldn't focus on the words. I couldn't care about the characters or their struggles. Rather than thinking I wasn't reading the right books or that I had a mental illness that was causing all this, I assumed that I had simply "grown out" of reading. So I did what my depression had been pushing me to do: I gave up. Rather than thinking I wasn't reading the right books or that I had a mental illness that was causing all this, I assumed that I had simply "grown out" of reading. So I did what my depression had been pushing me to do: I gave up. I clearly remember the moment I bought Brandon Sanderson's original Mistborn trilogy, probably because I said, "Screw it, why not?" out loud when I clicked the button that would add them to my Kindle. The novels had popped up as a recommendation for me, though since I hadn't bought any books in quite a long time, I couldn't figure out why. In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time I'd read a true fantasy book. All I had to go off of were the books' reviews, just about all of which were raving about how good these books were. Everyone spoke about the unique magic system, which involved different metals giving different abilities to people who had the power to use them. The multi-dimensional characters and the complex world they lived in had also garnered a lot of attention. All the signs pointed to this being a series that would be impossible not to love, but I just wanted something that would make me feel something, anything other than apathy. At the time, the state I was in seemed normal. I couldn't fathom the concept that there were people out there who weren't tired all the time and could actually be motivated enough to clean the house and do things they enjoyed. But looking back, I was in a very, very dark place. I was bored out of my skull, but I didn't have the energy or the motivation to get out of bed. My brain was too foggy to be creative, which is the worst thing that can happen when you write for a living. I e-mailed my boss and told him I was sick with the flu, ashamed of having to admit the truth. Logically, I know that my brain is a body part, and that body part was very, very sick. But at the same time, I felt like he'd think what I thought about myself: that I wasn't sick; that I was just lazy. So lazy that I couldn't even bring myself to brush my hair, so lazy that I chose to lie in bed with a grumbling stomach because the idea of getting dressed and taking the two-minute walk to the supermarket was more excruciating than being hungry. So because I couldn't bear to do anything that involved leaving the house, I shut myself out from the world and started to read. It wasn't long before I was finally in a place other than the tiny apartment that I hadn't left in days. I was absorbed in an ash-covered world that lay beneath a red sky, its people suffering under the oppression of a god-like leader. I found myself connecting with fictional characters who felt more like friends, especially as it was revealed that they were struggling with their own mental problems. I saw my anxiety reflected in the young heroine Vin, whose difficult past left her constantly wondering who she could trust and when she was going to be abandoned or betrayed again. I saw my anxiety reflected in the young heroine Vin, whose difficult past left her constantly wondering who she could trust and when she was going to be abandoned or betrayed again. I saw the person I was trying to be in Kelsier, the thieving hero who had survived a hellish prison and escaped: something that no one had ever done before. He was left grieving and knowing that he lost his mind a little bit during his ordeal, but still, he always smiled and encouraged his friends to keep their spirits high even when things looked utterly hopeless. While my own struggles were obviously nothing compared to what many people (both real and fictional) had dealt with, I saw bits of my own life reflected in the actions of the main characters. Like Kelsier, I had spent an exhausting amount of time and effort forcing myself to be cheery for the sake of other people, even when I myself felt like giving up. On the inside, though, I was more like Vin, constantly looking over my shoulder and questioning myself and others. As I continued reading, I realized that something strange was happening to me: I was enjoying this. I felt like I was going on a grand adventure, and I remembered that this was what I used to feel when I was younger and discovering the Harry Potter books for the first time. Even before my depression hit me like a truck, such an emotion was something I hadn't experienced in years. I devoured the first book, then powered through the second and third books so fast that I wasn't sure which events had happened in which novel. The whole time I was reading, though, I was feeling things. There were points in which I laughed out loud, many others in which I sobbed until my eyes were red and puffy. My brain felt clearer, and the strange weighted blanket that seemed to be holding down my emotions had been peeled back. It might seem silly to some to believe that something as simple as a book series would be the secret to digging a person out of a deep, dark hole of apathy and exhaustion. In fact, I would be lying if I said that these books cured my depression. But they did give me the boost I needed... It might seem silly to some to believe that something as simple as a book series would be the secret to digging a person out of a deep, dark hole of apathy and exhaustion. In fact, I would be lying if I said that these books cured my depression. But they did give me the boost I needed to get up and actually do things, including going to therapy and getting on the medication that I needed to really stop letting this illness run my life. For so long, I'd felt as though I was drowning in a bottomless ocean. Mistborn wasn't the rescue ship that came to pull me out, but it did give me the brief gulps of air that I needed to stay alive and know that there was hope. Its power to make me feel real emotions again reminded me what life could be like if I got the help I so desperately needed. For the first time in a long time, I was invested in something, even if it wasn't myself (yet). Since that day when I decided that I had nothing left to lose by giving reading one more shot, I feel a lot more like me again. I still have days in which washing my hair feels like a grand accomplishment, but they're becoming less and less frequent. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone more, and my friends aren't so shocked when I accept their invitations to hang out. And I've read over thirty books since the start of 2016 (including most of Brandon Sanderson's other works). If your depression has caused you to lose interest in reading, please know that there is hope to be found in the pages of some book out there that is just waiting for you to discover it. Although my depression never made me suicidal, it did kill the parts of me that I loved most. Mistborn was instrumental in bringing me, the real me, back to life when I thought I'd lost myself forever. Images: Averi Clements |
How teachers are evaluated has become one of the big issues in the ongoing strike by Chicago public school teachers as well as in the many debates on school reform being conducted around the country. Assessment experts say that the method of using student standardized scores to gauge a teacher’s effectiveness is unreliable, but reformers still insist on using this “value-added” method of evaluation. Some reformers, such as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, want as much as half of a teacher’s evaluation to be linked to student test scores. “Value added” scores sometimes label very effective teachers as ineffective, and vice versa. How can that happen? Here’s a case that tells you how an excellent teacher got a low value-added score. This story is not an aberration. It was written by Sean C. Feeney, principal of The Wheatley School in New York State and president of the Nassau County High School Principals’ Association. He is the co-author of an open letter of concern about New York state’s new test-based educator evaluation system that has been signed by thousands of people. By Sean C. Feeney (Linda Davidson/THE WASHINGTON POST) These state-supplied scores were the missing piece in a teacher’s final end-of-year score — potentially determining whether or not a teacher is deemed Ineffective and therefore subject to requiring a Teacher Improvement Plan (TIP) within 10 days of the start of the school year. These scores were not available to schools until the third week of August. So there you have it: high-stakes information that can potentially have a serious impact on a teacher’s career being supplied well past any sort of reasonable timeframe. Welcome to New York’s APPR system! As a principal, I sat with each of the teachers who received a score from the state and tried to explain how the state arrived at these scores out of 20 points. One of the first teachers with whom I did this was Ashley. Ashley is the type of teacher that all parents want for their child: smart in her content area and committed to making a difference in her students’ lives. Ashley works incessantly with her students, both inside and outside of the classroom. During her free time, Ashley can always be found working with small groups of students in the hallways or any free space in the area. She has taken our school’s math teams on weekend trips as our mathematics team has found success in various competitions. Over the past four years, 91% of her 179 Algebra 1, Geometry or Algebra 2/Trigonometry students have passed the corresponding Regents examination on their first attempt. At the end of every year, students and parents send in countless notes of thanks to Ashley for her tireless efforts. Ashley has worked with our highest achieving students as well as many of those who struggle with mathematical understanding. For those who struggle, Ashley has a well-deserved reputation for making them more confident, successful and comfortable with the material. Last spring, Ashley was recognized as the Parent Teacher Organization teacher of the year. So what score did the state assign Ashley? Well, she earned a score of 7 out of 20 points. According to the state’s guidelines, this makes Ashley a Developing teacher. Goodness. To those of us who know Ashley and have had the pleasure of working with her over the years, this is a jaw-dropping result. Ashley’s score defies all understanding of who she is as an educator. Her score flies in the face of how she is valued in our school and what she has done for students in our school. Her score contradicts the thoughtful evaluations given to her over the past five years. How, then, is one to understand this score? Officials at our State Education Department have certainly spent countless hours putting together guides explaining the scores. These documents describe what they call an objective teacher evaluation process that is based on student test scores, takes into account students’ prior performance, and arrives at a score that is able to measure teacher effectiveness. Along the way, the guides are careful to walk the reader through their explanations of Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) and a teacher’s Mean Growth Percentile (MGP), impressing the reader with discussions and charts of confidence ranges and the need to be transparent about the data. It all seems so thoughtful and convincing! After all, how could such numbers fail to paint an accurate picture of a teacher’s effectiveness? (One of the more audacious claims of this document is that the development of this evaluative model is the result of the collaborative efforts of the Regents Task Force on Teacher and Principal Effectiveness. Those of us who know people who served on this committee are well aware that the recommendations of the committee were either rejected or ignored by State Education officials.) One of the items missing from this presentation, however, is an explanation of how State officials translated SGPs and MGPs into a number from 1 to 20. In order to find out how the State went from MGPs to a teacher effectiveness score out of 20 points, one needs to refer to the 2010-11 Beta Growth Model for Educator Evaluation Technical Report. Why a separate document for explaining these scores? Most likely because there are few State officials who are fluent in the psychometrics necessary to explain how this part of our APPR system works. It is incredulous that the state feels that it is perfectly fine to use a statistical model still in a beta phase to arrive at these amorphous teacher effectiveness scores. I make it a point not to use beta software on my computer, for I do not want something untested and filled with bugs to contaminate the programs that are working fine on my machine. It is a shame that the State does not have the same opinion regarding its reform initiatives. As explained in the technical paper, the SGP model championed by New York State claims to account for students who are English Language Learners (ELL), students with disabilities (SWD) and even economically disadvantaged students as it determines a teachers adjusted mean growth percentage. While the statistical explanation underlying the SGP model is carefully developed, nowhere do the statisticians justify the underlying cause for any change in student score measured. In other words, what is the research basis for attributing any change in score from year to year to the singular variable of a teacher? The reason why this is never explained is because there is virtually no research that justifies attributing the teacher as the sole cause of a change in student score from year to year. So if it is not solely the teacher who caused the change in score, to what should one attribute a change in student score? Well, that is a question that continues to challenge statisticians and educational researchers. Despite the hopes and declarations of so many of our present-day “reformers,” we simply do not have to tools necessary to quantify the impact a single teacher has on an individual student’s test score over the course of time. Derek Briggs presented a critique of the use of SGPs in this paper. How can one explain Ashley’s shockingly low score, however? As a principal who has always availed himself of data when evaluating teachers, I would sit down and have a conversation about the test results so that I could put them in context. Here is what we know about the context of Ashley’s score: * This year, Ashley’s score was based on her two eighth grade classes, not the results of her Regents-level classes * The two eighth grade classes were different curricula: one was an Algebra course and the other was a Math 8 course. * The Algebra 8 course is geared towards the Regents exam, which is a high-school level assessment that is beyond the mathematical level of the NYS Math 8 examination. Ninety one percent of Ashley’s students in this class passed the Regents Algebra 1 examination. There is different content on the Math 8 exam, which can make it a challenge for some of our weaker Algebra students. In fact, of the students who took the Algebra course, one-quarter of them passed the Regents examination but scored below proficiency on the Math 8 exam. * In the two weeks prior to the three-day administration of the Math 8 exam in April 2012, students in Ashley’s class had one week of vacation followed by three days of English testing. In the two weeks leading to the beginning of the Math 8 exam, Ashley saw her class only three times. Rather than place the student results in context, the State issued a blind judgment based on data that was developed through unproven and invalid calculations. These scores are then distributed with an authority and “scientific objectivity” that is simply unwarranted. Along the way, teacher reputations and careers will be destroyed. Despite the judgment of the New York State Education Department, Ashley remains a model teacher in our school: beloved by students and parents; respected by colleagues and supervisors. She continues to work on perfecting her practice and helping her students gain confidence and skills. My hope, of course, is that she will continue to feel that she is part of a profession that respects teachers and students alike, not one that reduces them to a poorly conceived and incoherent number. Follow The Answer Sheet every day by bookmarking www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet . |
2013 Mad Dash To Madison Registration for the 2013 Mad Dash to Madison 5K Run/10K Skate is now open! Click here to register Event Day Timeline 3 p.m. Registration begins outside (see map) 5 p.m. Training Camp Festival begins and United Center doors open 5:30 p.m. 10K Skate begins 6:30 p.m. 5K Run/Walk begins 7-7:30 p.m. Blackhawks practice and scrimmage starts Click here to view the Mad Dash to Madison route Additional information: 10K Skate begins at 5:30 p.m. It is the same course as 5K Run but participants will make two loops Please note that a 15 minute mile pace or faster is required for the 5K. A 15 min. mile pace is roughly four miles per hour, equivalent to a very brisk walk. Upon completion of the Mad Dash to Madison, all participants must enter United Center Gate 2 to receive a Jonathan Toews bobblehead Course route and timing subject to change To purchase tickets for Training Camp Festival, click here. Supported by: |
Jeb Bush: Wouldn't have changed anything in Schiavo case MANCHESTER, N.H.—Looking back 10 years, Jeb Bush said Friday he would not have handled the Terri Schiavo saga any differently. “I don’t think I would have changed anything,” the former Florida governor told a woman who asked him about the case at a “Politics and Eggs” event put on by Saint Anselm College’s Institute of Politics. Story Continued Below Bush, gearing up for his presidential campaign, has faced renewed scrutiny over his role in the prolonged controversy from 2003 to 2005, during which a brain-dead woman from the Tampa Bay area became the subject of a contentious legal fight between her parents and her husband over whether to keep her on life support. Bush sided with the parents, who wanted to maintain a feeding tube. Ultimately, the husband — who remains deeply resentful of Bush — prevailed at the Supreme Court. “I stayed within the constitutional responsibilities or authority that I had,” Bush told the crowd of local business leaders. “We changed the law first, and a year later it was ruled unconstitutional. Then basically, we didn’t have the ability to do anything. The federal government tried to intervene, and that was also ruled unconstitutional.” “So she starved to death,” he went on, turning somber. Bush offered support for a federal mandate of end-of-life directives. “In hindsight, the one thing that I would have loved to have seen is an advance directive,” he said. Not that he had control over it, but he said it would have been better if the family had sorted the tough questions out ahead of time, “rather than hearsay being the driver of this.” “If we’re going to mandate anything from government, it might be that if you’re going to take Medicare that you also sign up for an advance directive,” he said, “where you talk about this before you’re so disabled that then there aren’t fights within the family.” Bush said he “knew for a fact” that Schiavo’s parents “were more than happy to take over the care of this child.” “I supported that,” he said. “I think life is precious. It’s the definition of what kind of society we have. From the beginning to the end, there should be some respect.” “I feel sad,” he finished. “It was one of the most difficult things I had to go through. It broke my heart that we weren’t successful at sustaining this person’s life, so she could be loved by her mom and dad. But the courts decided otherwise, and I was respectful of that.” |
Ritual abuse has been alleged to occur in a number of different locations nationally and internationally. Areas like Napa Valley in California have been specifically pointed out as hotspots for such abuse and are relatively well known for the issue. One less well known location that can serve as a case study of ritual abuse is the surprisingly wealthy small town called Bartlesville, in Oklahoma. Bartlesville is unique in Oklahoma because it is unusually wealthy. It was founded on oil money, and the Petroleum company Phillips 66 was headquartered there for decades. In this location there have been multiple reports of ritual abuse over a long period, and the population of the area is so small, that these numerous allegations when viewed in totality appear to corroborate each other. Some of the research included here was shared with me by Sharpedge42. The abuse ring in Bartlesville is ongoing. It's not only a pedophilia network, or a trafficking network, or where CIA experiments take place. It is specifically a site of ritualistic abuse which is ingrained in the town's power structure. It's not necessarily Satanic, but it is a location where cult related ritual abuse takes place. This is important because it's such a small ecosystem of a town, that it provides a good example of a location where ritual abuse occurs. Larger cities can camouflage abuses more easily within the usual crime of a large metropolitan area. In Bartlesville and the surrounding area, the rampant ritual abuse is much more apparent. In 2015 Bartlesville had about 50,000 inhabitants. Bartlesville has an unusual history for a small mid western town. It includes a number of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Bruce Goff, and the Bartlesville Community Center was designed by William Wesley Peters, one of Wright's students. Bruce Goff was charged with 'corrupting the morals of a minor' in the 1950's, and Frank Lloyd Wright's troubled private life was notorious if not downright abusive. Wright's first Taliesin studio was also the scene of a brutal murder, during which the building was burnt to the ground. Interestingly, the second incarnation of Taliesin was also destroyed by fire. According to the BBC: "All hell broke loose at Taliesin when one of Wright's servants unleashed an attack that claimed eight lives (including the attacker's), left the world-famous architectural treasure in rubble, and devastated Wright, who was then 47 years old. The attacker was 30-year-old Julian Carlton, an estate worker originally from Barbados. While Wright was away in Chicago, Carlton bolted the doors and windows of the dining room where Mamah Borthwick, her two children, and six other people were eating, poured buckets of petrol under the doors and torched the building. He then used an axe to attack those who jumped out of the windows to escape the flames. Another source on the massacre notes that "bizarrely enough, Taliesin II would also burn to the ground, apparently the result of an electrical surge. Taliesin III stands to this day." The New York Post describes Wright: "He was a narcissist and control freak, a spendthrift and adulterer who led a life marked by scandal, debt and even murder." Within a year of the firey massacre, Wright had proclaimed his love for another woman who had penned him a condolence letter. It's possible that the massacre at Taliesin was one of the country's earliest and bloodiest 'false flags.' A motive for the murders was never determined. The massacre took place when Wright was conveniently visiting Chicago. The Post also noted Wright's abusive personality, and wrote regarding conditions at a later incarnation of Taliesin: "The Wrights dictated their workers’ sex lives, rotating the few women as needed. On the plus side, Friedland noted, many young gay men found the compound a safe space during homophobic times." In my reading of this commune, it may have been a haven for early 20th century adherents to the ritualistic cults involved in serious abusive practices. I provide this context, because Wright and his acolytes formed the center of Bartlesville architecture and provide a potentially important tie into more recent claims of ritual abuse in that area. Some extra links on Frank Lloyd Wright are included in this pastebin. Taliesin West: The spiral here is reminiscent of the oft-cited 'pedo spiral' noted by the FBI and greatly discussed in the last year. The dragon showed here 'breathes fire' when a fire is lit beneath it. I speculate that this is somewhat similar to the statue of the giant owl seen at Bohemian Grove, where fire rituals take place every year. My suspicions of ritual abuse occurring in the Taliesin communes is strengthened by this blog post's description of rituals taking place at Taliesin: "A reverence for Nature, for ancient archaeological artifacts, and for American Indian and Eastern/Oriental culture not only contributed to Wright’s architectural designs but also to ritual alternative-education practices within his Taliesin Fellowship." "Rituals at Taliesin also included extemporized ‘sermonettes’ by Wright and by some of his Apprentices on Sundays. Readings included Nietzsche, a variety of poets, and essays written by Taliesin Fellowship members and visitors. (Wright had been raised a Unitarian, but Olgivanna was inclined toward Theosophy and, prior to marrying Wright, had spent time in France with Gurdjieff and his disciples.) Chamber music was sometimes part of these Sunday exercises in spirituality at Taliesin. The symbolic function of music in these rituals was, I would say, ‘sacrament-like’: mysterious, or embodying a sacred mystery that the Fellowship regarded as essential; mediating ‘grace’ for the Fellowship members or in a ‘tikkun olam’ sense, for all of humankind; a means for communing with God or entering into and participating in transcendence. Chamber music as sacred mystery, a portal to the source of meaning and value. Chamber music co-opted as ‘tool’ for cult?" The style of 'cult' present at Taliesin is probably in part connected with Wright's third Wife, Oglivanna Lloyd Wright, who was an ardent disciple of the Mystic George Gurdjieff. Interestingly, one of Gudjieff's other fanatic disciples was none other than head of British Military Intelligence in the Middle East John G. Bennet. Bennet was also very active in the Subud movement. Gurdjieff is rumored to have been a Russian spy, also said to have personally known Stalin. Gurdjieff's beliefs were stongly influenced by Blavatsky's Theosophy. He also claims to have had contact with the "Sarmoung Brotherhood," apparently related to Sufism and Asian shamanism, which Gurdjieff described: "What struck us most was the word "Sarmoung", which we had come across several times in the book called "Merkhavat". This word is the name of a famous esoteric school which, according to tradition, was founded in Babylon as far back as 2500 BC, and which was known to have existed somewhere in Mesopotamia up to the sixth or seventh century AD; ...." Gurdjieff's influences were described here: A video on the subject is available here. Gurdjieff also appears to have been in contact with the Yazidis at some point. There is some indication that whatever strain of mysticism Gurdjieff ascribed to, it may have been extremely ancient, and focused in particular on the ritualistic movement of the body, in the tradition of the Sufi whirling dervish. Interestingly, a similar style of 'sacred dance' was seen in the darkest aspects of my research into Findhorn., which led to Gabriele Wosien, and finally, Svetlana Bakushina. Other practitioners of Ritualistic dance (who have visited Findhorn) speak about the 'trance' state invoked by repetitive, simple movement. One infamous performance artist Maria Abramovic, provides a key insight into Gurdjieff's practices. She stated in an interview that: "I looked at different people, like shamans, and I was very influenced by theosophy and Buddhism. So who can be my daddy? I’d like to think of Gurdjieff as my daddy. Gurdjieff mixed with volcano." The Daily Mail wrote of Gurjieff: "Gurdjieff’s long-winded teachings are hard, perhaps even impossible, to summarize, but revolve around the belief that the moon feeds off the energy of dead human beings, and controls all our actions. His beliefs are also described as "an amalgam of Theosophy, Neopythagoreanism, Rosicrucianism and alchemy. " Frank Lloyd Wright & Oglivanna's daughter at Taliesin: Again, Oglivanna is not only distantly related to Bartlesville through her husband's architectural work which included the Bartlesville Price Tower. Her daughter married one of Wright's acolytes, William Wesley Peters. Peters built the Bartlesville community center. Peters was described as a Wright devotee by the New York Times. When he died, he was chairman of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, and he was Wright's first apprentice. Peters was also later briefly married to Svetlana Alliluyeva, the youngest child and only daughter of Joseph Stalin, in a union arranged by his former mother-in-law, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright. So it appears that rumors of Gurdjieff's connection to Stalin may have had some basis in reality. One source writes: "Many of the hundreds who came to study there were transformed by the Wrights into willing instruments of Olgivanna’s will, how she was able to exert total emotional and sexual control over many of Wright’s protégés. Frank Lloyd gave his wife the ultimate gift — her own live-action dollhouse. The stories of Olgivanna toying with that dollhouse are riveting, particularly those about Joseph Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana, who became a virtual slave of the Wrights and complained that her experience at Taliesin was emotionally scarring." If Stalin's daughter found Taliesin emotionally scarring, then what exactly was going on in the compound? Another source indicates that Wright was friends with American Nazis like Phillip Johnson. One document likewise claims that Gurdjieff actually taught Stalin and Hitler. If true, his connection to Frank Lloyd Wright, and indirectly, Bartlesville, would become even more ominous. Importantly, some sources links Gurdjieff's practices to Tavistock and the Nazis - which may be substantiated by his disciple having been the head of British Military Intelligence in the Middle East. This may represent an early crux between military intelligence groups and esotericism which has also been described at places like Esalen. Gurdjieff is also associated with he Human Potential Movement, which was born at Esalen. I've written a number of times about the connections between Esalen, military intelligence, and the use of the Human Potential Movement as a euphemism for MKULTRA experimentation. Some documents claim that Gurdjieff taught Karl Haushofer and was directly involved in the esoteric arm of Nazi activity, for example, the Vril society. I provide a pastebin of important links and extra information on Gurdjieff, here: "Louis Pauwels, in his book Monsieur Gurdjieff, describes Haushofer as a former student of George Gurdjieff. Others, including Pauwels, said that Haushofer created a Vril society and that he was a secret member of the Thule Society.[1] ... Zweig credits him with the concept of Lebensraum, used in a psychological sense of a nation's relative energies." "Both Gurdjeiff and Haushofer maintained that they had contacts with secret Tibetan Lodges that possessed the secret of the "Superman". The lodge included Hitler, Alfred Rosenberg, Himmler, Goring, and Hitler's subsequent personal physician Dr. Morell. It is also known that Aleister Crowley and Gurdjieff sought contact with Hitler. " "Hitler's unusual powers of suggestion become more understandable if one keeps in mind that he had access to the "secret" psychological techniques of the esoteric lodges. Haushofer taught him the techniques of Gurdjieff which, in turn, were based on the teachings of the Sufis and the Tibetan Lamas- and familiarized him with the Zen teaching of the Japanese Society of the Green Dragon." There may also be some connection between Gurdjieff's practices and those of the Donmeh. He developed a method for doing so called “The Work” or “the Method.” Because his method for awakening one’s consciousness was different from that of the fakir, monk or yogi, his discipline is also called the “Fourth Way.” As Gurdjieff explained, “The way of the development of hidden possibilities is a way against nature and against God.” Apparently, Gurdjieff’s deceptive and tyrannical ways led to his reputation as a “rascal guru.” He was widely referred to as a black magician, and Rasputin was so fearful of him that he was quoted to have said, “I had been especially careful not to look at Gurdjieff and not to allow him to look into my eyes...” According to an extremely informative conspiracy blog, He was criticized by many of his former students as being slovenly, gluttonous and was notorious for seducing his female students and fathering several illegitimate children. "P. D. Ouspensky, his leading student, finally broke with him, claiming that he was “a very extraordinary man,” but that it was “dangerous to be near him.” It seems bizarre and somewhat surreal that individuals with connections to Stalin and surreal theosophical cults would be so intimately tied to a town like Bartlesville in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. However, this history provides an important backdrop to the ongoing allegations of ritual abuse that arise in the area. It's also notable that infamous MKULTRA doctor and False Memory Syndrome Associate Dr. Joylon West, was stationed for years at Oklahoma City University in Norman. West was affiliated with the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, and it was during this time that he killed an elephant with LSD in Oklahoma. This ties indirectly to Bartlesville in that Bruce Goff, who built many structures in the area, taught at the same campus as West. It was while teaching at this campus in 1955 that Goff was accused of pedophilia. A report by Hypoallergenic about Goff states: "Goff lived in Bartlesville after being forced to retire from the University of Oklahoma where he was department chair at the architecture school, which he had invigorated as a center for avant-garde thought on design. The exact reasons for his forced exile are still unclear, but are definitely linked to the fact that he was gay. He was accused of endangering the morals of a minor, " His wikipedia entry also reads: "In 1955, Goff, who was homosexual, was accused of "endangering the morals of a minor", as homosexuality was not socially acceptable in Oklahoma in 1955.[4] As a result of the unproven claims, he was forced to resign from his position at the University of Oklahoma.[3] Historians and writers have expressed their belief that Goff was politically forced from his position specifically for being homosexual. A book describes the accusations against Goff regarding a 14 year old boy, to which he plead guilty: Bruce Goff created a large number of homes in and around Bartlesville. One of the was known as Shin'en Khan, or 'Way of the Far Way heart.' (Or dislocated mind) The building burned down in the mid 90's, continuing the earlier pattern seen in Wright's Taliesin compounds. Goff eventually relocated his office to Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower in Bartlesville. Shin'en Khan burned down in the mid-90's. The event was referred to as an arson, and even resulted in a grand jury on the matter. The New York Times reported: "The police in Bartlesville said the building was destroyed by intentionally set fires from multiple sources, but no one was ever prosecuted. " A number of publicly available interior shots of Shin'en Khan follow: Shin'en Khan included a pool which drained into a bath tub, in a floor below: "Goose Feathers deadened the sound." Closeup of this tub: The pool from the floor above: Shin'enKhan was not the only Goff building to be destroyed under mysterious circumstances: In fact, the destruction of his Bavinger house was reported by local news to have involved gunfire "Yet the most lamentable loss may be the Bavinger House in Norman, Oklahoma, arguably Goff’s masterpiece, which was destroyed just this past year under very unusual circumstances." Goff served in the Navy during World War II, and also designed a Lutheran Church in Bartlesville, called the "Church of the Redeemer." as well as a church in Edmond, Oklahoma (near Bartlesville) Goff was far from the only prominent Bartlesville citizen to be accused of child abuse, and the accusations of ritual stemming from the area have continued for decades. One of the numerous sex abuse scandals to come out of Bartlesville is the "Voice of the Martyrs" scandal, which was pointed out to me by Sharpedge42. Voice of the Martyrs is headquartered in Bartlesville OK. It describes itself as a "nonprofit, interdenominational Christian missions organization dedicated to serving our persecuted family worldwide through practical and spiritual assistance and leading other members of the body of Christ into fellowship with them." Sharpedge42 pointed out that the group is very well funded. The President of the group killed himself after an investigation into alleged abuse of a young girl was initiated. After White's death, the investigation into child abuse was closed. White's obituary may be read here. The latest VOM headquarters featured high levels of security.: "President Jim Dau said the facility was built with high security because of the nature of the organization's work, but there have been no incidents." The founder's son had disowned the organization The founder of Voice of the Martyrs is Richard Wurmbrand.. He is described by local press: "The Voice of the Martyrs was founded in 1967 by Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian who spent 14 years as a prisoner for his faith. His wife, Sabina, who died last month at 87, spent three years in prison." Sharpedge42 also noted that Thomas R. Holland has served as the Bartlesville chief of Police, while also serving on the board of Directors of Voice of the Martyr. This connection with a high-security 'cult' associated with child abuse may strengthen allegations that the power structure in Bartlesville is intimately involved with and protective of ritual abuse. These additional accounts of cult activity are discussed later in this post. There is also some indication that Holland, the Chief of Police and Board Member of Voice of the Martyrs, may have been a CIA or FBI agent. Holland was also listed as one of the 'worst bosses in America,' as reported by local news. The reasons for this designation included sexual harrassment suits filed against the Bartlesville police department. The allegations in the wordpress blog is also seriously indicative of the deep corruption that has existed in Bartlesville for decades. A petition to continue an investigation into Voice of the Martyrs was also created, where a commenter stated: Bartlesville is very close to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where some psychologists list themselves as working with ritual abuse cases. Sharpedge42 also noted that "Only three cities have facilities which train Catholic priests in exorcism, and one of them is Tulsa." One article discusses the training of Catholic exorcists in Tulsa: One such exorcist based in Tulsa specifically stated that Satanic cults should be taken seriously. The article states that one woman who alleges having been used in a ritualistic cult was located in Tulsa, which again is extremely close to Bartlesville: The Catholic exorcist from Tulsa cited in the article relates Barkin's claims to have worked with victims of Satanic ritual abuse in Oklahoma. He says: "Oklahoma has pockets of Satanic cults whose rituals involve the sexual abuse of children and adults, and sometimes the blood of the victims." "Brankin ... [has] himself has worked with victims of Satanic ritual abuse. He said Oklahoma has pockets of Satanic cults whose rituals involve the sexual abuse of children and adults, and sometimes the blood of the victims." Kyle L Stewart, was a psychiatrist living in Bartlesville who retired after sexual abuse claims were made against him. He was found by the Board to have likely committed criminal acts, but he was never charged. His victim was warned by authorities to stop speaking out against him, or she would suffer and he would "walk" regardless. An article published by the Daily Mail in August of last year stated: "An Oklahoma psychiatrist was allowed to quietly retire despite allegations by two patients that he used stories of witchcraft and demons in order to abuse them. Kyle L Stewart, 68, a married father from the small town of Bartlesville, north of Tulsa, retired in November last year after agreeing to surrender his medical licence following allegations of sexual misconduct." As the title relates, Stewart was accused of child sexual abuse. It's also important to recognize that he practiced in Bartlesville, in addition to living there. The article in the Daily Mail also states: "The victim said Stewart convinced her that she was afflicted by evil spirits, and that fallen angels could be inside her. She also claims that Stewart said her mother had given her over to witchcraft while she was still in the womb, and that at night she left her house to perform satanic rituals in the woods without knowing it. The victim said Stewart 'terrified' her by praying over her and saying an exorcism may need to be performed." A FOX report states that Stewart attended the Grace Community Church in Bartlesville. He was not only a Deacon, but a Church Board Member. Another source on this story writes that: "A church elder with fatherly charm, Stewart was one of only a few psychiatrists in Bartlesville, a small town north of Tulsa where Phillips Petroleum was founded a century ago. The first victim who came forward told the AJC that after only a few sessions, Stewart told her she suffered from multiple personalities, which another psychiatrist has since debunked." It is interesting that a psychiatrist would specifically use multiple personality disorder and descriptions of ritual abuse in order to sexually molest a client. The similar statements of another victim imply that something deeper may be at play here. The additional victim did believe that her parents had dedicated her to witchcraft, and that she "involuntarily took part in satanic rituals after dark. She may have held those beliefs before she started sessions with Stewart, her former husband, Geoff Higbee, told the AJC." Higbee committed suicide in 2003. The Daily Mail wrote: The Bartlesville Examiner, the local paper in the area, wrote an article on the story. An attorney for Stewart's victims stated: Stewart wasn't the only doctor in Bartlesville who sexually abused his patients and was never criminally charged. The documentary "In A Town This Size" discussed pedophilic abuse committed by Dr. William (Bill) Dougherty, unpunished for decades. Dougherty is described in the documentary's supplemental information as having abused dozens of children in Bartlesville for decades. He was never charged with any crime, and is reported to still live in Bartlesville, only emerging from his home at night in disguise. In the documentary, many survivors of Dougherty's abuse refer to him as an absolutely stone cold psychopath. Yet another doctor who treats ritual abuse in Bartlesville is James Musgrave. The large number of mental health groups and professionals working specifically on Ritual abuse cases may serve as an indication of the high demand for help in this vein, and appears to be a very high amount of demand for such services, given the relatively small size of the town. One of the most shocking allegations of ritual abuse surfaced in Bartlesville relatively recently. In this case, the father of the victim spoke out about the abuse. He attempted to protect his child, and posted angry statements about the alleged ritualistic rape on social media. As a result, this father attempting to protect his child from ritual abuse was the only one ultimately arrested. He was unironically charged with"child abuse." This is especially damning when considering the infamously corrupt long time police chief of Bartlesville, Tom Holland, and the allegations of sexual abuse made against the Bartlesville Police Department. Its also important to not that this father speaking as an advocate for protecting his child was actually charged with child abuse - unlike the psychiatrist operating in Bartlesville who admitted to molesting his own patient and convinced her she was ritually abused - who was never charged. I want to re-emphasize that the arrested man in this case is the person who was trying to raise the alarm about the ritual abuse suffered by his own child, and who accused the power structure in Bartlesville of being complicit in this abuse. The Bartlesville-Examiner stated: "According to a probable cause arrest affidavit filed in Washington County District Court, Hudnall and his minor child approached a Bartlesville police officer May 27 to report that in 2015, the child had been kidnapped, hit in the head and dragged to Bartlesville High School where he was subsequently raped by a cult of 18 individuals — including personnel from the Bartlesville Police Department, Washington County District Attorney’s office and St. John’s Catholic School." The article continues: |
If you’re one of the millions of homeowners nationwide with vinyl siding, chances are you value materials and products that are long-lasting, low-maintenance and beautiful. As such, desired tips for increasing curb appeal should be affordable, durable and doable from a DIY perspective. The perfect project? Hanging window planters! With the help of this how-to guide, installing a window box on vinyl siding is made easy. Here at Hooks And Lattice, our mission is to improve curb appeal for every abode, from ranch homes to colonials. And being that vinyl is the #1 siding used in the United States, many a homeowner will find this tutorial useful learning how to hang window boxes on vinyl siding. When deciding how to hang a window box planter, there are essentially two options to choose from: Option #1: Direct Mount with Bolts Option #2: Mounting Hooks For Vinyl Deciding between the two is really a matter of preference. There’s no single best way to hang window boxes on vinyl siding, although we recommend a direct mount installation. Read on to see why. Installing Window Boxes Directly to Vinyl Siding The Perks: Simple and stable for a lasting mount Lower risk of coming unattached compared w/ vinyl hooks Greater weight bearing capabilities Mounts flush to siding for a polished look Supply List: Correctly sized window box Mounting bolts Stud finder Pencil or marker How To Install: Get the appropriate hardware. Depending on the size and weight of your window box, we recommend these 1/4″ diameter bolts or 3/8″ diameter bolts. Find the wooden studs beneath vinyl siding. You will be drilling straight through in order to anchor mounting bolts right into studs. Measure your garden container to determine the distance between mounting brackets or holes in the frame. You will align this with your stud spacing. Note: If using a Hooks And Lattice Window Box made of wood, composite PVC or one of our metal cages, your container is compatible with standard 16″-18″ stud spacing. Use window box measurements to identify mounting position. Then mark your spots on the vinyl clearly to guide drilling. Drill starter holes into siding. Just enough to give the bolt an opening that will help to guide it through. Thread your first bolt through a pre-drilled mounting hole on the window box. Depending on their position, either begin with one side or, if there’s a center bracket or mounting tab, begin here. Attach your container to siding. Depending on how comfortable you are holding up the weight of your window box, this part can be a one or two-person job. While supporting the full weight of the planter, drill in your first threaded bolt all the way through to wood siding, just shy of tightening all the way. Finally, add remaining bolts and repeat the step above. Once the last is in and you’ve checked to make sure the display is straight, tighten bolts the rest of the way to secure the mount. Now you’re ready to try out all of your favorite container garden arrangements for spring, summer, fall and winter. For homes in colder climates, be sure to choose a weather resistant flower planter or choose window boxes with removable liners that are easy to winterize and store. |
Dead Men CAN talk… There are many odd stories from the Vatican, one of the perennial favourites is that in the Middle Ages there was a Pope Joan. The story goes that a woman managed to become Pope and the deception was only revealed after she gave birth as she mounted a horse. The list of Pope’s is pretty good and anytime a later source quotes a date for when this all happened, there’s a legitimate (male) Pope. Also ladies, how easy is it for a heavily pregnant woman to get on a horse and then give birth? The fact is this myth became much repeated and embellished after the reformation. It is protestant propaganda to ridicule the Roman Catholic faith. However they needn’t have bothered because there are far stranger stories lurking in the history of the Vatican. Indeed perhaps the most ghoulish and strangest of all is probably the “Cadaver Synod”. Occasionally the Papal numbering system can get a bit muddled so Pope Stephen VII is also sometimes called the VI, either way he obviously didn’t quite understand Christian teaching because rather than wanting to turn the other cheek, he wanted revenge. Revenge principally on his predecessor Pope Formosus. So in 897 the dead Pope Formosus was exhumed from the grave and put on trial for Perjury (amongst other crimes). There was some real world politics present in the decision. The late 9th century saw central Europe at a cross roads. Formosus in his day had backed the old Carolingian powers in France hoping for protection. This was not unreasonable as for a century or more this dynasty had been hugely powerful and able to project power into the Italian peninsula. However by this time the Carolinginas were on the wane. So with the arrival of Stephen as the new Pontiff, he decided to go in another direction and look to the new more local Italian powers. However this change of allegiance to the Vatican would come at a price which meant denigrating his predecessor Formosus. The idea of countering your predecessor was nothing new in Papal politics and would indeed last for centuries. The Vatican from the early Middle Ages until the 19th century not only had spiritual power, but temporal power too. The Vatican States ebbed and flowed over the centuries in terms of actual size but for more than a millennium, central Italy was under control of the Pope. That meant having armies, fortifications and an ability to raise regular taxes as well as the almost unlimited supply of funds as the focal point of the church. This was all worth fighting for, even dying for, but the idea of a exhuming a previous Pope was unique in the annals of Papal history. Exactly who suggested a post mortem synod with a corpse in attendance is unknown but the fact that Stephen was actively involved in this trial is not in any doubt. Formosus was exhumed from underneath St Peters and had fresh robes placed on the rotting corpse. Formosus was placed in a high seated chair and presumably somehow tied into position. Stephen was present during the trial and, unsurprisingly, Formosus put up a poor defence. When questions were asked to the deceased pontiff, a cleric stood behind the body and called out pre-prepared statements. The whole thing was both farcical and deeply creepy. After all a synod of this type would not have been open for the general public to see, so why go through with the whole charade in the first place? To be clear, Stephen going against the wishes of his predecessor was nothing new and would be a regular event in the history of the Vatican, but what most Popes tended to do was create a writ (called a Papal Bull) and declare some kind of new holy revelation that nullified the old views and allowed a fresh direction that suited the new Pope. Digging up a dead man, putting him in fresh clothes and making him stand (well sit) trial all seemed a bit…unnecessary. After all this effort, it came as no surprise to anyone that Formosus was found “guilty”. Once the verdict was reached, poor old Formosus was stripped of his sacred vestments, and had three fingers of its right hand (the blessing fingers) cut off. The attending clergy then put him in the clothes of a layman. This rather morbid act had repercussions beyond the walls of the Vatican, the guilty verdict was the perfect excuse for Stephen to attempt to get rid of Formosus’ followers and appointments and consolidate his own power. In doing so he tilted the Vatican away from Carolingian powers beyond the borders of Italy and instead looked more locally for allies. Formosus was then buried not under St Peters but in a local graveyard for foreigners- this was of course a deliberate insult. But then Stephen changed his mind and Formosus was dug up again (this corpse really did get around) and this time he was tied to weights and thrown in the river Tiber. The idea was to get rid of the problem once and for all, however it was a botched job and the body washed up on the banks of the river and rumours spread across Rome that Formosus’ body had begun to perform miracles. It is therefore unsurprising that public opinion turned against Stephen. The Vatican was quick to react and an unknown group of clerics imprisoned him and a few weeks later Stephen was found in his cell strangled. Stephen’s pontificate had lasted barely a year. Who said ecclesiastical history was dull? |
On Tuesday, a GoFundMe drive was started to try to keep Gordon Hayward a member of the Utah Jazz beyond this summer. On Wednesday, Hayward tried to redirect the effort to help raise money for cancer research in honor of a former college teammate. A free agent on July 1, Hayward is a critical piece of the Jazz's future, but he will have the option to sign elsewhere. With that in mind, fan Garrett Jones on Tuesday set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds for renting a billboard in downtown Salt Lake City between Vivint Arena and Utah's practice facility with "Stayward" written on it, accompanied by an image of the All-Star small forward. Jazz fans, share this like crazy. Let's get this billboard up and convince Hayward to stay in Utah. #TakeNotehttps://t.co/GtrptMTVPo — Dennis WINdsey (@UtahJazz6Man) April 5, 2017 "Here in Utah, we've seen it too many times. Draft the good player, watch him become a great player, and then watch him leave in free agency," Jones wrote. "We as fans have been patient with this rebuild to get to this point. Hayward and (Rudy) Gobert are the core of what could be a great team in coming years. Let's show Gordon how much he means to this city and fan base." As of noon on Wednesday, the fund had raised $1,275 of a stated goal of $5,000 to cover the cost of renting the billboard during the month of May. Just over an hour before that, Hayward posted on his social media channels encouraging people to donate to a fund for cancer research that he has a close connection to. One of his former college teammates at Butler, Erik Fromm, is aiming to raise $100,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of his father, Leonard, and former Bulldog Andrew Smith, who died from cancer in 2016. Hey everyone if you could help me help @erik4romm reach his goal of 100k to honor his father and… https://t.co/9Nih2mBfiF — Gordon Hayward (@gordonhayward) April 5, 2017 "I am running (to be the 2017 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Man of the Year) in honor of two men in my life who I constantly try to live up to ...," Fromm wrote on the page. "I am running in hopes to find a cure to this terrible disease ... and I hope you all run with me. Thank you so much for your donation — none is too big or too small." |
Iman Malekiwas born on 1976 in Tehran. He has been fascinated by the art of Painting since he was a child. At the age of 15, he started to learn painting under the mastery of his first and only teacher – Morteza Katouzian – who is the greatest realist painter of Iran. Meanwhile, he began to paint professionally. In 1999 he graduated in Graphic Design from the Art University of Tehran. Since 1998, he has participated in several exhibitions. In the year 2000, he got married and in the following year he established ARA Painting Studio and started to teach painting, considering classical and traditional values. The most important exhibitions he has participated in, are: The Exhibition of Realist painters of Iran at Tehran Contemporary Museum of Art(1999) and The Group Exhibition of KARA Studio Painters at SABZ Gallery(1998) and at SA’AD ABAD Palace(2003). In 2005, Iman received the William Bouguereau award and the Chairman’s Choice award in the second international ARC salon competition. For more information visit Iman Maleki home page here. RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL Tags: art, iman maleki, paintings, photos |
Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney sparked controversy in 2012 when during a debate with then-President Barack Obama, he referred to “binders full of women.” Now, it’s emerged that it wasn’t just a figure of speech and that the former governor of Massachusetts did actually have “binders full of women” after they were handed over to the press. According to the Independent, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney was widely mocked when he used the phrase in an election debate with Barack Obama, who he later lost the election to. Romney, when asked a question about workplace equality, replied by saying, “I had the chance to put together a cabinet, and all the applicants seemed to be men… I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.” null At the time, Romney’s comments were criticized as both clumsy and sexist, however, it wasn’t clear if the “binders full of women” Romney was referring to were real or just a figure of speech. But it’s now confirmed that the binders do exist after a former Romney aide passed them to a reporter at the Boston Globe. According to Salon, the binders date back to 2002 when Romney was Massachusetts governor-elect, with plans to diversify his cabinet. Romney reportedly segregated candidates in order to prioritize women who were qualified for key jobs in his administration. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama during a presidential debate in 2012. [Image by Rick Wilking-Pool/Getty Images] While Romney claims that he approached women’s groups in order to field candidates, those groups claim that they approached Romney with names. Concerned about a lack of females in high-level positions, the coalition of women’s groups said that they put together a list of names of women interested in positions in Romney’s cabinet and supplied them to the governor-elect. Despite being mocked for his approach, Romney is widely praised for the number of female cabinet appointees he made during his term as governor. RELATED STORIES ON INQUISITR: Former Presidents Bill Clinton And George H. W. Bush Hang Out In Houston And Share Socks Bernie Sanders Podcast: Former Presidential Hopeful Brings His Talk Show To iTunes In Her First Post-Election Interview, Hillary Clinton Reveals That She Won’t Run For Office Again Romney ultimately lost the 2012 presidential election to Democratic candidate and then-incumbent President Barack Obama. Obama defeated Romney, winning both the popular vote and the electoral college, with 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206. Despite that, Romney did manage to decrease Obama’s margin of victory from 2008. In the 2016 presidential election, several key Republican figures called upon Romney to run for a third time, with no clear nominee. Romney repeatedly declined. He later attacked his party’s nominee, Donald Trump, while also saying that he refused to vote for Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Romney later met with the president-elect to reportedly discuss the position of secretary of state, despite it ultimately being given to Rex Tillerson. In February, Romney said Trump is “off to a very strong start” in fulfilling his campaign promises. Then-president-elect Donald Trump and Mitt Romney. [Image by Drew Angerer/Getty Images] According to the Atlantic, Romney is currently reportedly exploring a 2018 senate bid in Utah, where he has strong support. Republican leaders are reportedly trying to convince 83-year-old incumbent Senator Orrin Hatch not to seek reelection next year and instead allow Romney to run for the seat. Sources close to Romney claim that he has spent the past few weeks discussing a potential Senate bid with high-level Republicans in both Utah and Washington. Orrin Hatch’s office, meanwhile, has persisted that the president pro tempore hasn’t yet decided whether he will seek reelection next year, with Romney making clear that he would not pursue the seat without Hatch’s blessing. null Since his presidential defeat in 2012, Romney’s return to politics has been the subject of much speculation. [Featured Image by Theo Wargo/Getty Images] |
Nancy Pelosi: Donald Trump Hasn't Said Anything That Republican Members Of Congress Haven't Said "Over And Over" In an interview on CNN's 'New Day' on Friday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that Donald Trump has not said anything that Republican members of Congress haven't said "over and over." REP. NANCY PELOSI: There's nothing that Donald Trump has said, whether it is about birther, whether it is about immigrants, whether it is about Mexicans --as he said. Whether it is about Muslims, about women. None of the things he has said haven't been said over and over again by members of Congress on the Republican side. Not all of them. This issue, whether it is put to rest or not, the damage is done, in terms of him evoking a response from a certain element in our country. CNN HOST: Don't you think that Republicans in Congress are following his lead? PELOSI: No, I think he is following theirs. I think that in Congress, if you look at the public record, on, for example, immigration, there are worse statements made by Republican members of Congress that they tried to implement into law, in terms of Muslims. Shocking language used by Republicans in Congress. He is a reflection of them... He has pulled back the veil... What Donald Trump is saying is not shocking to us. |
Brad Friedman Byon 9/19/2011, 10:33am PT "We know that this was not a family vacation to Disney World, but a political fundraiser designed to further the governor's national political aspirations," NJ state Sen. Loretta Weinberg said on Friday, in announcing her plan to introduce new legislation today requiring the Governor to alert state legislators when he's traveling out of state. As mentioned on Friday, more new developments continue to follow in the wake of our Mother Jones exclusive on NJ Gov. Chris Christie's secret appearance (at least until we revealed it) and keynote speech at the billionaire Koch brother's ultra-confidential (at least until we ruined that too) political strategy and fund raising soiree near Vail, Colorado late last June. "No man is an island, and the governor needs to recognize that he has a responsibility to the people of New Jersey to at least assure for the orderly transfer of power if he does decide to leave the state in search of right-wing campaign donations," Weinberg told New Jersey Newsroom's Tom Hester, Sr. "If an emergency situation had occurred while he was away, the members of the Legislature would have had to scramble to figure out who they're supposed to be working with in the front office." As Hester reports, "Christie traveled with a state police escort to Vail to give the keynote address at a political fundraiser hosted by David and Charles Koch, oil billionaires and conservative Republican powerbrokers. It was at least the fourth time Christie left the state since taking office without notifying legislators, the public or the media." The first the local media, or Christie's constituents, had heard about his pilgrimage to the Koch shindig in Vail, was more than two months afterward in our report, based on audio we'd obtained, as recorded by an insider source at the event. Incredibly, when he was called on the carpet for the secret political trip halfway across the country on a friendly NJ Meet the Governor radio show last week, Christie attempted to downplay it all as little more than a family vacation, even likening it to running out to the deli to pick up a quick sandwich. "Like this past Saturday," he told 101.5FM's host Eric Scott, "I left the state to go to a University of Delaware football game with my wife and my four children. Do you think the people of the state of New Jersey are dying to know that?" "I also, ya know, went to the deli on Saturday, do I need to tell people that too?," Christie continued, insisting his hob-nob with the Kochs and several hundred of their closest corporate titan friends was little more than "personal time"... New Jersey columnist Charles Stile disagrees, and responded to the absurd comparisons: Christie knows it's not his Family Guy role that has him again defending his travel plans. It's his below-the-radar visits to political sugar daddies, the donors and kingmakers that can steer millions of dollars into the state GOP coffers and choreograph his ascendancy to the national stage, like his two, pay-homage trips to David and Charles Koch, the billionaire industrialists, climate change deniers and nurturers of Tea Party extremism. "Christie's explanations for not disclosing the Koch trips zigged all over the map without a GPS," wrote Stiles. Weinberg says that "governors and other elected officials should realize that public service comes at the cost of some measure of privacy - he's got to be governor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, not just when it suits him." She added, "a simple notification that he will be out-of-state isn't too much of a breach in his privacy, considering that his leaving affects every aspect of state government and necessitates a successor for the time that he's gone. ... He shouldn't be able to hand over the keys to the kingdom [to his Lt. Governor, actually] without at the very least giving the Legislature a heads up." For his part, a Christie spokesman described Weinberg's legislation as nothing more than "crass politics." If Weinberg's politics are "crass," we wonder how his spokesman might describes Christie's description of the Democratic majority in the state legislature when he thought he was secretly speaking to the Kochs' corporate cronies. "You know, I cannot believe how stupid these people are," said Christie to much laughter and applause among the hard-right cognoscenti assembled in Vail. Christie's new positions on "privacy" are in stark contrast to his campaign for office, when he called for a more open and transparent New Jersey government, was highly critical of then Gov. John Corzine's out of state trips, and when he reportedly announced at his first cabinet meeting: "Folks in this state have a right to know what we're doing in their name every day." Stiles, however, believes Christie's lack of interest in disclosure is for more than a simple need for a "zone of privacy", as Christie described it, around his personal life: It was a political trip, which leads me to believe there is another reason he keeps much of his out-of-Jersey political travel secret: It simply would look bad. He doesn't want voters to know about the large stretches of time courting operatives and donors - including those with important interests in New Jersey - instead of tending to state business. Or perhaps he's concerned that his wooing of shadowy anti-government activists like the Koch brothers, or his dining earlier this year at the Westchester home of Fox News baron Roger Ailes with conservative talk-show demagogue Rush Limbaugh might not sit so well with the centrist New Jersey voter. When I ran this theory by Christie on Wednesday, he replied, "No, no, next question." Failing to disclose fosters suspicion of undue influence. ... Christie can certainly meet with anybody. But you would think that Christie, whose crusade as a federal prosecutor against public corruption catapulted him to power, might take extra care in disclosing his private, out-of-state politicking. While Weinberg's bill requiring notification to legislative leaders when the Governor leaves the state might easily pass in the Democrat-dominated state legislature, it would still have to be signed into law by Christie who enjoys the right of line-item veto in his executive role of what he described at the Koch gathering as the "the most powerful constitutional governorship in America." “It just seems rational that when someone else is taking over as governor that people should be informed,” Weinberg told The Associated Press over the weekend. NJ's Democratic State Party chair, John Wisniewski similarly called on Christie to "stop hiding his actions from the public," and over the summer, the ACLU had threatened to sue the Governor after he'd declined to release records confirming another private meeting he'd had with Roger Ailes of Fox "News" last year. "This may seem like legislating common sense," says Weinberg about her bill, which she describes as a sensible compromise between security concerns that come with announcing every detail of such trips, the Governor's right to privacy, and the public's right to know about the conduct of elected officials. "But after it was revealed that common sense wasn't used," on numerous occasions by the Governor, most notably in his recent covert political trip to Colorado, "this is what we're left with." * * * For much more on other recent fall-out following on our revelation of Christie's secret Colorado Koch speech, please see our Friday story here... |
The David Thompson Highway is described as “one of the finest drives in Canada”. It is a gateway to the Rockies yet few people know about it. Andrew Sunter came upon it during a weeklong mountaineering course and shares his views. I ‘discovered’ the David Thompson Highway during the summer when I was doing a climb to Mount Cline (3361 m) just east of Banff National Park. The trail to the Mount Cline basecamp takes about 4-5 hours and when you reach it the setting is spectacular with gigantic boulders all around and towering peaks above. You almost feel like you’re on the moon. It is crown land, not part of a national or provincial park, so there are no services but that adds to the atmosphere. I started wondering why I hadn’t been there before and in fact knew very little about it. So I started doing some research. The hike to the basecamp, in fact, is just one of many trails along this Hwy (and a strenuous one at that). There is a great choice from leisurely nature walks where you just enjoy the scenery to treks down old logging roads and along wild rivers. There is a short and superb trek to Siffleur Falls where there is a sheer drop into the gorge. This is also the access area to the Siffleur Wilderness Area, backcountry that is suitable for skilled backpackers and horse travellers. The short gravel road into Crescent Falls is considered to be one of the best in the area. And there are many routes for experienced trekers to take over the passes into both Banff and Jasper National Parks. Guidebooks are available so you should do your own research before attempting any of these hikes. While you’re in this great Canadian wilderness and have it almost to yourself, you do have to remember that the trails are not groomed or marked and that with wilderness comes bears. So be prepared. You find David Thompson Hwy off the Icefield Parkway (the Hwy that joins Banff and Jasper) at the Saskatchewan Crossing, which is in the northern part of Banff National Park and about two hours from the town of Jasper. The Hwy itself follows the North Saskatchewan River. As you drive along you pass Abraham Lake, one of Alberta’s largest reservoirs, Bighorn Canyon and Crescent Falls. The Hwy passes through an old mining town of Nordegg (where people go to ice climb) and then slowly descends for about 85 km down the eastern slopes of the Rockies to the town of Rocky Mountain House. You can continue from there to Red Deer and then take the Queen Elizabeth II Hwy to either Calgary or Edmonton. The Hwy is well maintained and there are wide shoulders that would suit bikers. Aside from hiking and climbing, the area is known as a place to fish and canoe. There are some campgrounds along the road but in peak season they can fill up very fast. Some people set up their tent or park their trailer on crown land, where there are no formal services but some have fire pits and seats out of logs. The route also has historical importance for it was along this section of the North Saskatchewan River that five fur trading posts were established. The Hwy was named after David Thompson whose work as a cartographer helped to open up the Canadian west. The setting couldn’t be better; you’re not competing with the crowds of the national parks; a grocery store and gas station are not far off. So next time you’re in the neighbourhood give it a try! Photo credits Andrew Sunter © Riding the buses 2012 |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video LEXINGTON, S.C. -- An incredible moment was caught on camera in South Carolina on Tuesday when a group of strangers flipped a car to free a man trapped under the crushed vehicle. The crash happened in Lexington County. The vehicle reportedly went off the side of the road and flipped over. Bert Sorin, who shot the video, wrote: "So this just happened. On the way to a meeting we watched a car veer off of the road and flip. We grabbed my med kit, ran to the site and attempted to flip the car with just a few of us. No go. The car was leaking gas, so we knew we needed to get him out quickly. Went back and brought my truck and tow strap to pull off the doors, but they were stuck and the strap kept snapping. By that time, more concerned folks showed up and we were able to flip over his car and free him. It was awesome seeing everyone working together and saving this man before the EMTs could even arrive. God and fine American citizens were looking out for this fella." He continued: "...it was amazing how people just started coming from everywhere to take action. Know one knew what we were going to find when we flipped the car, but everyone was ready to help as much as they could. Please- where your seatbelt, that completely saved this man, he was a convertible! Also, carry a med kit and learn how to use it. Tools like a knife and pry bars were helpful too. It was awesome seeing that man standing and getting hugs and handshakes from everyone." The driver was not seriously injured in the crash. |
Lucknow, Jan 14: Incident of communal violence is reported from Uttar Pradesh as four people have been reportedly killed inter-community clashes. According to local media reports, a procession related to Makar Sankranti was being taken from Kanpur to Fatehpur. However, as they reached Jehanabad, two groups began clashing against each other resulting into the death of four individuals. Communal violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur after stone pelting on Makar Sankranti procession — ABP News (@abpnewstv) January 14, 2016 Tension between two groups in UP’s Jahanabad area. Reports of stone pelting, firing and local shops set on fire. — ANI (@ANI_news) January 14, 2016 At least six shops of local traders and 3 vehicles have been burnt by the rioters. The security forces have rushed to the spot to take control of the situation. Uttar Pradesh government has imposed section 144 between Fatehpur to Jehanabad in order to control the situation. Police have been alerted across the state to prevent the communal fire from spreading. (ALSO READ: Azam Khan attacks BJP for creating ‘communal tensions’ in Uttar Pradesh) Social tensions in Uttar Pradesh is at an all-time high. Fringe elements within both major communities have left no stone unturned to polarize people. Ever since the remarks of one right-wing leader Kamlesh Tiwari against Prophet Muhammad, Muslims in the state have staged protest in several districts. The relaunching of Ram Janmbhoomi movement, along with the reports of hooliganism by the minority community in West Bengal’s Malda has escalated inter-community bitterness. |
Munir Hussain, who was tied up by a gang of masked men in his own home, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Walid Salem. The 52-year-old was released in January after the Lord Chief Justice reduced his term to a 12-month suspended sentence saying he had acted under “extreme provocation”. Hussain said: “The justice system has failed us and it has failed the country as we should never have been charged. “The whole nation stood up and supported us as everyone recognised that these criminals could have walked into their house as well.” Hussain was jailed in December alongside his brother, Tokeer, 35, who was sentenced to 39 months, after they chased Salem down the street and attacked him with a cricket bat, fracturing his skull, jaw and ribs, and causing brain damage. Both men appealed their convictions and sentences to the Court of Appeal and earlier this year Lord Judge upheld their convictions but reduced their sentences. Last week the Crown Prosecution Service said it was taking no further action against Hussain’s 20-year-old nephew, Wahleed, after a jury failed to reach a verdict on the same charges against him. Hussain praised the decision as a “victory for common sense”. He said: “The family are pleased that the case against Wahleed has been dropped. The crime committed against us could have happened to any other householder.” Hussain, his wife and children, found the three intruders as they returned to their home in High Wycombe, Bucks, from a mosque in September 2008. They were tied up and threatened before Hussain escaped and attacked Salem. Salem, 56, who has more than 50 convictions, was given a two-year supervision order. The initial judgments caused a public outcry and Sir Paul Stephenson, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said that people who injured others while defending their families or homes should be told that they would not face prosecution. |
mzn528 Dark Souls, Berserk and Vagabond Ultimate Fanboy Level 2Dark Souls, Berserk and Vagabond Ultimate Fanboy [Tutorial] How to easily (I am lying) animate a running/walking cycle « on: May 21, 2015, 08:15:47 AM » I've struggled with this (still am) when I first started doing pixel art so I think it will be helpful to share what I learned so far in pixel art. First, an image of reference, THIS IS THE MOST HELPFUL IMAGE YOU WILL SEE IN THIS POST, all TL; DR can stop right here and download this image. The style is a bit cartoonish in this pic but the motion is on point, for example, if you follow this, your final product will look something like this: (credit to redditer Larlock1, I am too lazy to make one...) So I loosely followed this (yeah...), and below are some examples for fast runs: This is one of my oldest animations (did it when I first start), but you can see the same motion (it's bad I know hur): The above are 10 frame animations, they are for faster runs. For a more relaxed run, you want to slow it down a bit by using more frames to make it smoother, example: This is a bad example, I am trying to animate a slow, heavier run but used only 8 frames: Mr. Ogre here, is doing a slightly better job on that, notice he's limping a little bit, as the leg on the left never crossed the middle position, if you want to do a normal one you should make his body turn and make the leg go forward a bit more: For me, I am not really that kind of guy who focus on the accurate locations of the body parts (like the highest point of leg motion much be at this point on canvas) but rather a general feeling (Yeah it's bad don't learn from me), so... I am out of things to say. Here's a nice picture: Let me know if this is helpful or if you guys want to see a tutorial on attack animations or something. Peace and love you all! Haro.I've struggled with this (still am) when I first started doing pixel art so I think it will be helpful to share what I learned so far in pixel art.First, an image of reference, THIS IS THE MOST HELPFUL IMAGE YOU WILL SEE IN THIS POST, all TL; DR can stop right here and download this image.The style is a bit cartoonish in this pic but the motion is on point, for example, if you follow this, your final product will look something like this:(credit to redditer Larlock1, I am too lazy to make one...)So I loosely followed this (yeah...), and below are some examples for fast runs:This is one of my oldest animations (did it when I first start), but you can see the same motion (it's bad I know hur):The above are 10 frame animations, they are for faster runs. For a more relaxed run, you want to slow it down a bit by using more frames to make it smoother, example:This is a bad example, I am trying to animate a slow, heavier run but used only 8 frames:Mr. Ogre here, is doing a slightly better job on that, notice he's limping a little bit, as the leg on the left never crossed the middle position, if you want to do a normal one you should make his body turn and make the leg go forward a bit more:For me, I am not really that kind of guy who focus on the accurate locations of the body parts (like the highest point of leg motion much be at this point on canvas) but rather a general feeling (Yeah it's bad don't learn from me), so... I am out of things to say.Here's a nice picture:Let me know if this is helpful or if you guys want to see a tutorial on attack animations or something.Peace and love you all! Logged Soul Appeaser, a combat focused story rich ARPG DevLog Noob Game Dev and Pixel Artist, twitter @mzn528Soul Appeaser, a combat focused story rich ARPG |
A two-day search by police and military forces for a wild animal roaming through French towns has come to one conclusion: it isn't a tiger. One theory is that it could be a lynx, an extinct cat that was reintroduced to France in the 1970s. But the public and Disneyland Paris, the main tourist attraction in the area, didn't seem too concerned on Friday by what officials were calling a security threat. In fact, if the search doesn't capture the animal soon, locals could begin seeing it less as an invader and more like a harmless Pepé Le Pew, the French skunk. Officials who had identified the cat spotted near a grocery store in a Paris suburb on Thursday morning as a panthera tigris are now ruling that out. The wild cat caught in several fuzzy photographs in the town of Montevrain was spotted again on Friday, but it has eluded 200 police and military forces. Police are hunting for a wild cat on the loose in Montevrain, east of Paris. (Google Maps) Residents of Montevrain and two other nearby towns were urged to stay indoors — but most people seemed to be taking the cat hunt in stride. One official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said "It's definitely not typical of the animals of this region." One theory is that the mystery cat could be a lynx — the wild cat once omnipresent in France before being hunted out of existence. It was reintroduced in the 1970s, according to wildlife conservation group Ferus. A 2003 survey by the National Office for Hunting and Wildlife estimated France's lynx population at about 170, located in mountainous areas of eastern France and the Alps. But the nearest known habitat, the Vosges Mountains, is 350 kilometres away from where the creature was spotted Thursday. In a statement Friday afternoon, the regional administration near the search site said experts have concluded that the wandering animal isn't a tiger, but a feline of an unknown species. France's national hunting office could not be reached for comment. Meanwhile, some 200 police, military officers and others were still searching for the animal Friday. A helicopter buzzed over woods east of Paris, and a dozen police vehicles lined a grassy area where the feline had been spotted earlier in the day. Police officers stand next to a school in Montevrain, France on Friday. Scores of police patrolled the town east of the French capital on Thursday night after a wild cat eluded a massive search in the region near Disneyland Paris. (Thibault Camus/Associated Press) "He was also seen by truck drivers on the road," said Christian Robache, the mayor of Montevrain. A Total gas station near the sighting was briefly closed. Police officers guarded a school Friday morning as children arrived for class in the town. The regional administration asked drivers to take "the greatest precautions" on the highway, a major artery between Paris and eastern France. But the operator of the Disneyland Paris, which is surrounded by high walls, said it isn't taking special precautions because the animal isn't deemed a threat. French tiger trainer Thierry Le Portier told BFM television that if the feline was raised by its mother it could be tough to catch. Raised by humans, it would be less distrustful but no less dangerous, he said. "It can remain in hiding for a long time," he said, adding that it's "no problem" if the cat goes without eating for up to four days. |
Tunisia's president has declared a state of emergency throughout the country and a curfew in the capital after an attack on a bus carrying his presidential guard that killed 12 people. Video posted on YouTube by News Live reportedly shows the aftermath of the blast. According to a translation of his Twitter account, 20 more were wounded in the attack. Beji Caid Essebsi said in a televised address that the country is at "war against terrorism" and called for international cooperation against extremists who have staged several attacks around the world in recent weeks. Essebsi said "I want to reassure the Tunisian people that we will vanquish terrorism." He wasn't in the bus when it was attacked Tuesday in the center of the capital. His office says he is cancelling a trip to Switzerland that had been scheduled for Wednesday. |
Moscow warned the US about the consequences of interfering in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and happened to be right. In the Syrian conflict, Russia also turned out more clear-sighted. Washington has to admit that both countries will benefit from cooperation and start supporting Moscow’s strategy in Syria, a US analyst wrote. Russia's strategy on settling the Syrian conflict has been more thought-out, a reputed American journalist and a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, Stephen Kinzer, wrote in an article for the Boston Globe. As for Washington's policy on the matter, it was wrong all the way, he believes. By making the toppling of the Syrian President Bashar Assad its primary goal, the US basically reduced to zero the possibility of negotiations between the Syrian government and opposition forces and contributed to the escalation of the conflict in the country, the analyst wrote. Meanwhile, the toppling of Assad would create a "catastrophic vacuum" in Syria, which would be filled by representatives of terrorist groups. Russia takes the threat of such an outcome into account and for that reason wants victory for the government forces, Kinzer says. And he believes that the US needs to adopt this approach. "We would have been more secure as a nation, and might have contributed to a more stable world, if we had followed Russia's foreign policy lead in the past," he wrote. He also reminded about the failure of US interference in Iraq and Afghanistan. "They were right both times, and we were wrong. In Syria, Russia is right for a third time," he asserted. Kinzer concluded that the best decision for Washington would be to support Moscow's strategy in Syria, otherwise it will only encourage continuous bloodshed in the region. By stubbornly refusing to cooperate, the US does itself more harm to itself than it does to Russia. |
Bitcoin Foundation chief scientist Gavin Andresen has proposed increasing the number of transactions allowed on the bitcoin network by raising the maximum block size by 50% per year. Doing so would require a hard fork and “some risk”, Andresen conceded in a new Bitcoin Foundation blog post, but he concluded that such proposals are necessary for the long-term viability of bitcoin as a global payments system. Entitled A Scalability Roadmap, the piece builds on Andresen’s past statements regarding how he believes the bitcoin network can be scaled to handle more transactions. While the near-term need to do so may not seem apparent, Andresen wrote, an opportunity to address the bitcoin network’s scalability needs shouldn’t be missed. Andresen suggested that the bitcoin development community’s consensus-driven decision-making process might result in an alternative solution or even multiple fixes to scalabiilty. Still, he argued that the limit on bitcoin transactions has been identified in the past as a weakness in need of addressing. Andresen wrote: “Agreeing on exactly how to accomplish that goal is where people start to disagree – there are lots of possible solutions. Here is my current favorite: roll out a hard fork that increases the maximum block size, and implements a rule to increase that size over time, very similar to the rule that decreases the block reward over time.” Andresen added that the development community has always intended to raise the block size, but that a long-term scalability fix has yet to take place. Bigger blocks are better The bitcoin network is currently experiencing 50,000–80,000 transactions per day. As Andresen noted, however, the data needs being placed on the bitcoin network aren’t huge, making the 1-megabyte block size sufficient for use today. In the long-term, though, this block size may lead to issues, Andresen wrote, arguing that the need to take action makes sense not only from a practical perspective but also an ideological one. Andresen said that a hard fork to increase the block size is in line with the spirit of bitcoin, arguing: “I think the maximum block size must be increased for the same reason the limit of 21 million coins must NEVER be increased: because people were told that the system would scale up to handle lots of transactions, just as they were told that there will only ever be 21 million bitcoins.” Andresen suggested that the inflection point for the bitcoin block chain may come during a future price upswing, an event that has historically been associated with an increase in the number of bitcoin transactions. Any fix needs time Acknowledging the challenges involved, Andresen conceded that the process won’t be easy. However, he said that such work is inevitable, noting: “Getting there won’t be trivial, because writing solid, secure code takes time and because getting consensus is hard. Fortunately, technological progress marches on, and Nielsen’s Law of Internet Bandwidth and Moore’s Law make scaling up easier as time passes.” Andresen posited that the 50% annual growth rate he suggested would enable the distributed network to facilitate as many as 400 million transactions per day if implemented now. After 12 years, the bitcoin network’s estimated transaction capacity would reach 56 billion transactions per day, according to Andresen’s initial calculations. This, Andresen said, would put the bitcoin network in a position to serve as a truly global value exchange system. “Even if everybody in the world switched entirely from cash to bitcoin in 20 years, broadcasting every transaction to every fully-validating node won’t be a problem,” he concluded. Image via Shutterstock |
Paul Manafort checking the teleprompters before Donald Trump's speech at the Mayflower Hotel on April 27, 2016, in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images A new book details a fight that it says happened shortly before Donald Trump ousted Paul Manafort, who served as chairman and, for a time, manager of his presidential campaign. The book, "Devil's Bargain" by Bloomberg Businessweek correspondent Joshua Green, was previewed in the Daily Mail on Monday. According to the Daily Mail, the book says a New York Times article was the "final straw" and led to the fight that precipitated Manafort's removal from the Trump campaign. The Times article noted that Trump's aides used TV appearances to get their messages across to him because they found that more effective than communicating face-to-face. The day after the article's publication, apparently at the urging of Rebekah Mercer, a Republican donor who threw her weight behind Trump during the election, Trump reportedly called a meeting with his top staff at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club. The meeting, the Daily Mail said, included Manafort, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York, former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, and Manafort's deputy Rick Gates. When everybody was assembled, Trump reportedly shouted at Manafort, "How can anybody allow an article that says your campaign is all f----- up?" "You think you've gotta go on TV to talk to me? You treat me like a baby!" Trump added, according to Green's account of the meeting quoted in the Daily Mail. "Am I like a baby to you? I sit there like a little baby and watch TV and you talk to me? Am I a f------ baby, Paul?" Trump reportedly continued. The room then "fell silent," the book says, according to the Daily Mail. A second Times article the following day appeared to seal Manafort's fate. The report, citing a secret ledger, said Manafort had been paid millions by a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. Manafort had long worked as a consultant to Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in 2014 and now lives in exile in Russia. Aides saw the Times report as the "kill shot" that determined Manafort would be forced out, the Daily Mail said. When Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, returned from a vacation later that week, he reportedly told Manafort: "We've really got a problem here. You're going to have to step down." Manafort said that if he stepped down, it would "look like I'm guilty," the Daily Mail said, citing Green's book. It "would be helpful if you stepped down," Kushner reportedly said in response. "Yes, but I can't do that," Manafort reportedly responded. It was at that point, the Daily Mail said, that Kushner made his point clear: "We're putting out a press release at 9 a.m. that says you've resigned. That's in 30 seconds." Manafort resigned on August 19, opening the door for Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon to lead the Trump campaign. |
Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse men's lacrosse player Brad McKinney was charged by Watertown police with unlawful possession of alcohol, according to Watertown detective lieutenant Joseph R. Donoghue Sr. According to an arrest report from the Watertown police, the 19-year-old McKinney was arrested at 3:37 a.m. on Thursday. The police report indicates he was intoxicated and carrying a bottle of Jagermeister and a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. Donoghue said police were called to the area after a report of McKinney and two others men pulling up a mailbox on a local homeowner's property. The three men put the mailbox back into the ground before officers arrived. According to Donoghue, when police arrived on the scene McKinney tried to hide, Christopher Krake tried to walk away and a third male, who has not yet been identified, ran from police. Donoghue said McKinney and Krake were cooperative at the scene. McKinney is scheduled for a city court hearing on June 22. The incident was first reported by Sam Blum of The Daily Orange, Syracuse's student newspaper. "We are aware of the matter and are in the process of gathering all of the facts," Syracuse associate athletics director for communications Sue Edson said via email. McKinney, a Watertown native, did not play last year as a true freshman. A high school All-American, McKinney was ranked the No. 60 recruit in the 2014 class by Inside Lacrosse. He is listed on the Syracuse roster as a 6-foot-1, 192-pound midfielder. It was the second alcohol-related incident involving a member of the men's lacrosse team in the past year. Redshirt freshman Hayes McGiney pled guilty in April to second-degree harassment after punching a pair of people and attempting to get into a car that wasn't his. McGinley was suspended from the team after the incident. Contact Chris Carlson anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1639. |
Congress Breathes Life Into President's Fast-Track Trade Plan President Obama's "fast-track" trade proposal, written off by many last week, got a key boost in the House on Thursday when lawmakers voted 218-208 to approve the measure. The bill now moves back to the Senate, where a vote is expected next week. The fast-track measure would enable the president to send to Congress, for an up or down vote, a trade deal with Pacific Rim nations called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Last week, House Democrats joined with a handful of Republicans to defeat a measure that the fast-track authority was tied to, casting doubts on the future of the overall trade package. But earlier this week, GOP leaders in the House separated the fast-track bill from the other bill, which would provide training assistance to workers hurt by trade, smoothing the way for Thursday's vote. Still, as The Wall Street Journal reports, "the course forward is uncertain. The fate of the fast-track legislation is intertwined with a related measure to help workers hurt by international trade. Many pro-trade Senate Democrats say they won't vote for the fast-track bill without evidence the workers' aid program will pass both chambers. " NPR's Marilyn Geewax summed up the complicated political maneuvering on the trade package and provided a bit of context: 1. President Obama, along with the Republican House and Senate leaders, want to restore the White House's "fast-track" negotiating authority. That power expired during the Bush administration, and Obama wants it back to have a fast track that leads to a simple yes-or-no vote on trade deals. This is called Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA. 2. Unions and most Democrats worry that having TPA restored would allow Obama to complete a massive trade deal with Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim countries. This deal, called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is still being negotiated. By killing TPA, the Democrats likely would kill TPP. But TPA lives on. The question is whether it will pass the Senate. Here's what NPR's Juana Summers reported for our Newscast unit: "To grant President Obama fast-track authority, the Senate still has to vote on the measure. Then, both the Senate AND the House must pass a separate bill including Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program to aid workers who lose their jobs due to trade deals. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell say they're committed to passing both parts of the trade package. But House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says she sees no path for the worker aid package through Congress." So, stay tuned. |
I was doing what everyone does with their phones when they’re bored – refreshing social media feeds to the point where minutes turn to hours and suddenly it’s 3am and you’re eating cereal – when I saw Chester Bennington’s name trending. I scanned for facts hoping that his reported suicide was another sick example of fake news being spread on social media. Male suicide: Gender should not be a death sentence | Simon Gunning Read more Bennington took his own life just months after his close friend Chris Cornell of the band Soundgarden died by suicide, and I’m sure it’s no coincidence that it also happened to be Cornell’s birthday when Bennington was found dead at his home in California. Bennington’s death prompted an outpouring of posts from fans online: many of them accounts by people whose lives were touched by his lyrics, his humanity and his passion. They swept me back in time to a place in my past that I’d happily forget. Five years ago, I was at the tail end of being bed-bound for nine months and I’d lost all sense of rationality. My memory of this period is patchy and blurred but my severe depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) had deteriorated and I was suicidal. I was trapped by my mind, constantly listening and falling prey to lie after lie, following the thoughts as far down as I possibly could, engulfed by their ever-growing shadow. When you’re mentally ill, “normality” becomes meaningless and the world reflects the distorted and warped version of reality you project through bloodshot eyes. This situation became so unmanageable that my father also experienced a breakdown. He couldn’t bear to see his son, his only child, wasting away in front of him. With tears streaming down his face, unable to hug me because my OCD prevented me from touching anyone or anything, he asked if it wouldn’t be better if he ended both of our lives. He had run out of hope and was desperate for an end to my pain and suffering, as well as his own. I can’t even begin to fathom what he must have been going through as a parent; that he even briefly imagined that a suicide pact with his child was the only answer, fills me with overwhelming sadness. Suicide is the biggest killer of men in Britain between the ages of 20 and 50, but we seem only to talk about it when famous men die. When my father’s friend – a trained counsellor who had a loving family and caring mates – stepped off the edge of a platform and took his own life, there was no outcry. OK he wasn’t famous, so no hashtags, no retweets, no vigils, memorials or concerts. But more importantly, nobody seemed to be asking how someone who had a seemingly great support network could wind up on the platform’s edge. And while it’s progress that we talk about male suicide when the Robin Williamses or the Chester Benningtons of this world take their own lives, if we don’t carry on the conversation, if the hashtags only last a day or two, then I think we’re failing. We need to open the conversation for everyone and retrain the way we all think about suicide. We’re being told to do an awful lot of waiting when we frankly don’t have much time to waste Men who speak up about depression or illness and talk about what’s going on in their heads are usually the exceptions. But a lot of the blame for the silence lies with us as more broadly as a society. Online, behind the comfort of a screen, people will say that it’s OK for young men to cry – it’s OK not to be OK seems to be the buzz phrase of late – but when it comes to listening to men or giving them practical help, the support is non-existent. Aside from the Samaritans and Calm , I can’t think of anywhere you can go to seek urgent help when you’re feeling suicidal without becoming caught up in the NHS conveyor belt of woe and misery. I’ve been on the seemingly endless waiting lists, I’ve sat in dreary GP waiting rooms and been told that “a place in a support group is waiting for me”. We’re being told to do an awful lot of waiting when we frankly don’t have much time to waste. What’s the point in telling men it’s OK not to be OK if we fail to lift them out of the fog? In my case, I now know that talking with my father about our joint experience of a life event that was truly horrific will be the beginning of a recovery process and the best way to start healing the intangible wounds. Only months before taking his own life, Chester Bennington gave an interview in which he was clearly articulating that he was suffering, that he needed help. However, no one seemed to notice until it was too late. The bold new fight to eradicate suicide Read more Where are we going wrong? Do we fear seeing the men in our lives as weak and vulnerable? Is the problem the ongoing taboo and stigma attached to discussing suicide? Is it that human compassion is sometimes so absent that people complain about their train being late rather than trying to imagine how hopeless, desperate and isolated the person on the tracks must have felt before they jumped? I think it’s a sorrowful cocktail of all the above. Yet one thing I know from my bones, is that everyone has a duty to talk to the men in their lives and let them know that you will listen. Let them know that talking about suicidal feelings isn’t cowardly. Talking about your feelings is an incredibly brave thing to do. Let them know there is always hope, there is always another way. In the UK and Ireland, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Papyrus are contactable on 0800 068 41 41 or by texting 07786 209 697, or emailing pat@papyrus-uk.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here. • Richard Taylor is chair of the youth advisory panel at OCD Action (voluntary) |
A trauma expert gives us the scoop on whether you could survive beheadings, disfigurements and wang removals. A Doctor Explains Why Everyone On 'Game Of Thrones' Should Be Dead When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die — or, sometimes, you sustain life-altering horrible injuries that are agony to endure and disgusting to behold! As anyone who's ever spent a Sunday night glued to HBO's "Game of Thrones" knows, living in Westeros is a risky business. At any moment, you might take a sword to the face, or a screw to the foot, or have your Hodor hodored off by some crazy hodoring bastard. And yet, strangely enough, most of the show's grievously injured characters are still alive, in some cases seemingly against all odds. But in real life, could they really survive? We brought in Dr. Deborah Mogelof, a physican with special expertise in trauma, to give us the rundown on "Game of Thrones'" most exciting medical mysteries. The Face Wounds of Tyrion Lannister Thanks to a traitorous swordsman, Tyrion's face isn't quite as pretty as it used to be — albeit in better shape than in the source material. In "A Clash of Kings," he loses his entire nose in the Battle of the Blackwater. Our medical source, consulting footage of the petite Lannister's injuries, had this to say. Dr. Mogelof: Even if the nose were cut off completely, there are no major vessels right there. I've also seen people get their noses shot off and recover. MTV: So despite getting slashed, it's reasonable for him to still be alive? Dr. Mogelof: Well, looking at his wound, you can see that golden-yellow kind of crusting to it. It does look like impetigo, which is a staph or strep infection. So it would already be infected there, although I don't know if they meant for it to look like that. But provided that it's cleaned out immediately, this is a survivable injury. CONCLUSION: Assuming that Tyrion's crusty face was the mistake of an overzealous makeup artist, our favorite Lion of Lannister would still be alive and kicking, even if he weren't living in a Westerosian fantasy world. Get All Caught Up On Who's Who In Westeros With Our Interactive Map Jaime Lannister's Lost Hand After being ignominiously relieved of his hand by one of Roose Bolton's men, Jaime nevertheless managed to make a full (albeit stumpy) recovery. But according to Dr. Mogelof, a real-life amputation wouldn't be so easy to contend with. Dr. Mogelof: The biggest thing you would worry about is infection, which would happen quickly, in a matter of hours, especially if he's walking around in the forest. It would spread to his lymph glands, then throughout his body. And the loss of a hand, that's a big problem, too, obviously. But sepsis and dying of sepsis would be the primary risks. MTV: He does encounter a sort of healer (Maester Qyburn) who cuts away the gangrenous tissue from his stump. Would that make any difference? Dr. Mogelof: Getting rid of the dead, septic tissue is helpful, but I don't think it would 100% treat him without antibiotics. Doing only the surgical part would probably prolong his survival, but not cure him. MTV: On a completely different note, Jaime Lannister is also involved in an incestuous sexual relationship with his twin sister. Any medical risks associated with that? Dr. Mogelof: Not with the sexual relationship specifically. Although at that time [the 1400s, the historical era which "Game of Thrones" most closely resembles], one thing that was rampant was sexually transmitted disease. And of course, if she gets pregnant, there would be a lot issues with that baby. MTV: Like, he might grow up to be a power-hungry little sadist? Because that would explain a lot. Dr. Mogelof: ...No. CONCLUSION: In real life, Jaime Lannister would probably be dead of septic shock, and possibly riddled with STDs given to him by Cersei. We cannot, however, blame him for Joffrey Baratheon. Watch Peter Dinklage Sum Up 'Game Of Thrones' In 45 Seconds The Decapitation of Ned Stark No, you can't survive a beheading. Yes, we asked. But if you were curious about it: Dr. Mogelof: There are people who claim that they've seen beheaded bodies with reflexes after, where the head still makes facial expressions. The research supports that: you might get some blinking or twitching. But your spinal cord is completely severed, there's a lot of blood loss, there's no oxygen going to your brain. It would just be a reflex, the last bit of neurons firing off and that's it. MTV: So, just to ask the ridiculous question: how beheaded could you be, and still survive? Dr. Mogelof: You would have to miss the spinal cord. If there's any destruction of the first and second vertebrae, you're not going to be able to breathe. But if you miss the major vessels, and someone gets you somewhere where you can be sewn up and fixed immediately, you might survive. CONCLUSION: Sorry, kids, but Ned Stark is really, truly dead. The Theon Greyjoy Catalog of Pain It's the one you've all been waiting for: Theon Greyjoy! Beaten, tortured, flayed, impaled, and cruelly relieved of his fingernails and his wiener, the poor captive of Bolton bastard Ramsay Snow made for a lengthy medical discussion. MTV: Let's start with the least of Theon's woes: he's strapped to a rack and deprived of food and water. Dr. Mogelof: Right. In that case, your worry is pure dehydration. Your kidneys start to shut down, you get an electrolyte imbalance. Your potassium can go up or down, which can eventually cause cardiac arrest. MTV: And assuming you survive that long, then there's the fingernail pulling, the screw through the foot, the flaying. Plus, they've broken his teeth. Dr. Mogelof: Most of this hurts a lot, but it's not going to kill you. You have to worry about infection; you have to worry about the screw going through the bone, or with the teeth, if there are roots or nerves exposed. MTV: And this is all just a prelude to the big one: penis amputation. Dr. Mogelof: Although that's very painful, it's survivable. There are no major vessels in there. MTV: What would be the challenges of living with an injury like that? I'm especially curious about how he'd pee. Dr. Mogelof: Well, in today's world — like when Lorena Bobbitt did it — they do a reconstruction. You'd have a kind of fake penis going on there. But in this case, there would still be some part of the urethra hanging out, and it could dribble out of there. As long as he continues to use it, it'll remain open. Really, it's probably most difficult to recover from this psychologically. The big problem for guys is that their sexual impulse isn't from the penis, so [if the penis is amputated], they're still having that impulse, but they can't do anything about it. I think it's extremely frustrating. MTV: So what you're saying is, at this point, it would actually be better for Theon if they went back and cut off the rest of his... equipment? Dr. Mogelof: Basically, yes. I think that would alleviate the need to, ah, do something about it. CONCLUSION: In real life, Theon Greyjoy would most likely be just as miserably, horrible, sexually frustratedly alive as he is in his fictional universe — and probably praying for a nice, fatal potassium imbalance to put him out of his misery. "Game of Thrones" returns to HBO on Sunday, April 6 at 9 p.m. ET, ready to release a whole new set of injuries on all of your favorite characters. |
Why do we do the crazy things we do? For our stupidest behavior, we blame bad genes and peer pressure; for the deeds we want to own, we credit a steely sense of purpose or even divine guidance. But a disturbing new force is emerging as a remote driver of our behavior … ~ The Week, March 9 2012 If we want to get into the driver’s seat and gain control over the direction our life and actions are taking us, it is exceedingly helpful to understand the actual causes of our unpeaceful, uncontrolled states of mind, or so-called delusions, introduced in the last two articles. Buddha explained these causes to be: (1) the seed, (2) the object, (3) inappropriate attention, (4) familiarity, (5) distraction and being influenced by others, and (6) bad habits. Since these cause our delusions, they also are responsible for our suffering, because there is no suffering without delusions. But what do we think really causes our delusions and suffering? “… of our behavior: parasites.” ~ The Week At the moment we tend to think that happiness comes from out there, and we also think that our problems come from out there. We will generally blame someone, something, anyone, anything, rather than our own states of mind. Even parasites! A recent story in The Atlantic lays out the chilling case that a microbe called Toxoplasma gondii has infested the brains of as many as 20 per cent of Americans (and 55 per cent of French people), refashioning neural connections to make us more fearless, more prone to schizophrenia, and – not incidentally – better disposed to cats, in whose guts the parasites reproduce. ~ The Week Anything that makes 55 percent of my French relatives better disposed to cats is fine by me; however I am quoting this only to show how creative we are at finding new sources for all our woes. Here’s a simple illustration of casting around outside for something on which to blame our own states of mind. We’re sitting here peacefully reading this article, but now someone walks into the room – someone we are finding a little irritating of late, or with whom we have a complicated relationship. They don’t do a single thing, but they ignore us, and we start to get annoyed. Then they go out again. Our mind starts to calm down. Let’s analyze this Let’s analyze this. Who or what caused that mind of irritation? Usually we’ll say to ourselves something like: “So and so just walked into the room, ignored me, as usual, and then walked out again. He is always ignoring me! That is, when he’s not criticizing me. And he never puts out the garbage, it’s always left to me. What did I ever see in him?” There’s this fantasy playing out. We’ve managed to (re)write the whole history of this person in an astonishingly short period of time – they walked in with the record of past grievances stamped on their forehead. Maybe they’re just coming into the room to get a pen, or something. Perhaps they’re not ignoring us, they are simply preoccupied with some pressing matter, or don’t want to disturb our peaceful reading. They could be thinking all sorts of things. But we don’t take any of that into account. They walk in, they’re irritating already, and then they ignore us again; and that gets added to the catalog of grievances that they’ve inflicted on us since time began. This person is suddenly Mr. Irritation Number One. We’ve labeled him. Then, when they leave the room, and we settle back to our reading, the irritation starts to lift. We were happy, then they came in, then we got unhappy, then they left, then we calmed down again ~ isn’t this all proof that they are the source of irritation?! We may smile wryly reading this, but in the heat of the moment that’s what we think, isn’t it? That’s what it feels like, and that’s why we get irritated with them. Mentally, and then the next time we see them, we cry: “You ignore me, you’re always ignoring me, and I hate you! You make my life miserable! You do! If you were out of my life I’d be happy and confident all the time. Look at you, you walked out of the room and I became happy again.” Actually the source of our unhappiness is our own so-called inappropriate attention (the third of the six causes). We think of all of their faults and exaggerate them, and edit out any of their good qualities, until we can’t remember why we ever married them, and now we need a divorce. All of this is going on in our mind, and meanwhile our old friend just came in because he needed to write something down and didn’t see us. We’re doing it all the time, aren’t we? We’re actually thinking the causes of our irritation do lie in other things or other people. And we think it’s perfectly okay, normal, and reasonable to assume that – that is what everybody else does. What’s wrong with it? Disempowerment Well, what’s wrong with it is that we’re utterly enfeebling ourselves. We’re giving the key to our happiness away to someone else. We’re saying, “My happiness actually depends on you. I need you to come into this room and be nice to me. If you’re not, I’m going to get irritated and mad.” We are surrendering our happiness to the whims, behavior, and attitudes of others. We are disempowering ourselves. We have lost control over our own peace of mind and therefore our own happiness due to misdiagnosing the causes of our own suffering, unhappiness, irritation, and delusion. (Someone once asked me about another more extreme example — say a person came up to you and hit you, would you then have a legitimate reason to be upset? I replied that we could say that it was perfectly normal and reasonable to get upset, and so on and so forth, but the fact remains that by allowing ourselves to get upset, we compound the injury, whereas if we manage to stay peaceful, un-upset, in that instance where is the problem? You are still relinquishing control to the other person by letting them hurt you mentally. Of course we need to work our way up to being able to stay un-rattled in situations like this, but simply knowing that we are never really free whilst we feel entirely dependent on others’ behavior is a good starting point for practice.) This is one major reason why we’re not as happy as we would like to be, why we continue to suffer, why we continue to experience unhappiness. It is because we’re not in control – we allow everything and everybody to get to us. But what is actually getting to us is our own delusions. My parasites made me do it To James Graff of The Week’s credit, he didn’t seem to buy into the parasite thing either. I’ll let him have the last word: The idea that the evolutionary drive of microbes can trump the human will is deeply depressing. Was that Winston Churchill standing up for Western civilization, or just parasites he caught from his ginger tabby, Jock? I say we just can’t go there. We have to draw a line in the cerebrum and lay claim to our own fates. “My parasites made me do it” is an even lamer excuse for foolishness than “I’m having a bad day.” So I hereby declare responsibility not only for my own actions, but for those of my entire biosystem. I urge you and all humanity to join me. Or should I say us? ~ The Week Your turn: What causes your delusions (really)? Examples welcome! Like this? Please share it: Facebook Twitter Reddit Print Email Pocket Google LinkedIn Tumblr Pinterest WhatsApp Skype Like this: Like Loading... Related |
Story highlights A new poll finds a widespread lack of enthusiasm for the 2016 presidential candidates Just 11% of voters overall say they would feel excited if Trump were to win; 12% feel that way about Clinton (CNN) Even if their preferred candidate wins, a new poll released Wednesday found that supporters of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will feel more relief than excitement. The findings from the Pew Research Center revealed widespread disenchantment toward this year's presidential contest among American voters. Majorities of voters say they are frustrated (57%) and disgusted (55%) with the campaign, dwarfing those who say they are interested (31%), optimistic (15%) and excited (10%). Those lukewarm attitudes even extend to backers of the two major party nominees. Only 25% of Clinton supporters say they would feel excited if she were to win. There was little more enthusiasm among Trump supporters; just 28% would be excited if the GOP nominee triumphs in November. But many more Clinton supporters, 68%, say they would feel relieved if she were to win. Ditto for Trump supporters, 61% of whom say they would also feel relief if he wins. According to Pew, a mere 11% of voters overall say they would feel excited if Trump were to win, virtually the same number (12%) who would be excited if the former secretary of state is victorious. Read More |
You are talking to your new patient, John. He's a pleasant 30 year old man who, by your estimation appears to be a victim of HGS... Holiday Gluttony Syndrome. John presented to you in the ED with abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. He goes on to tell you all this started after he chowed his way through a few too many Buckeyes. You see every Christmas, his mom sends him a far too large tin of Buckeye candies, which John had eagerly eaten and eaten and eaten, until the belly pain hit. He tells you he thought it was just a typical belly ache and that it would pass, but for the past 3 hours he's had constant right upper quadrant and epigastric abdominal pain which is burning and aching in quality. He's had a couple episodes of non-bloody, non-bilious emesis to go along with it. He sorta remembers some similar pain in the past after eating but can't be too sure about it. On exam you find him to have some pretty significant epigastric and right upper quadrant pain. You're mind spins through the differential as you look over the labs sent in triage. Normal CBC, normal LFTs, normal lipase, normal renal panel. You know that despite the normal labs, something still isn't right about his exam. Still worried about symptomatic cholelithiasis or cholecystitis, you wheel the ultrasound into the room. |
Animal lovers, listen up: I know critters are cute and everything, but you should know that nature is fucking weird. And nothing fucks weirder than kangaroos. Science blogger to the stars Ed Yong watched a documentary about ‘roo junk so you don’t have to, and here’s what you need to know: Kangaroo testicles are above the penis and “highly mobile.” Kangaroos have three vaginas. The outside two are for sperm and lead to two uteruses. The middle one is for giving birth. The urinary tract goes through the middle of the three vaginas, which may be why joeys are so small (40,000 times smaller than adult kangaroos) — there’s no room for a bigger birth canal with the urinary tract in the way. To go with the two sperm-vaginas, male kangaroos often have two-pronged penises. Because they have two uteruses plus a pouch, female kangaroos can be perpetually pregnant. Also possibly important to marsupial sex lives: Kangaroos can unhinge their lower jaws. Ed says that the most common response to the news of triplicate kangaroo vaginas has been “don’t tell the Republicans.” |
The United Nations Security Council is set to vote Monday on a resolution calling for the withdrawal of President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The one-page draft resolution does not mention Trump or the U.S. by name, but expresses “deep regret at recent decisions concerning the status of Jerusalem,” according to Reuters. The council also “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered, the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.” Written by Egypt, the document is said to have widespread support within the 15-member security council. To pass, a resolution must have the support of nine members and no vetoes by the U.S., France, Britain, Russia or China. U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, one of the most prominent Israel supporters in a pro-Israel administration, has said she would cast a no vote against any resolution denouncing U.S. policy on Jerusalem. (RELATED: Nikki Haley Slams UN ‘Israel-Bashing Sessions’ In Defense Of Trump’s Jerusalem Decision) The upcoming vote comes on the heels of a declaration by the 57-member Organization for Islamic Cooperation calling Trump’s decision “null and void.” Made at the behest of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the statement claimed the U.S. could no longer act as an “unbiased” broker of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Israeli leaders dismissed the proposed security council resolution over the weekend as an attempt to revise history and deny Israel the right to choose its own capital. “No vote or discussion can change the clear reality — Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, now and always,” Israeli envoy to the U.N. Danny Danon said Saturday, according to the Times of Israel. “We will continue to fight for the historical truth, this time, together with our allies.” Israel has always claimed Jerusalem as its undivided capital, and the city has been the seat of Israeli government since the Jewish state was founded in 1948. However, Palestinians and other Arabs consider East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in 1967, to be the capital of a future Palestinian state Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem has never been recognized internationally, and under U.N. resolutions, the disputed city’s final borders are to be determined through a negotiated peace settlement. A December 2016 U.N. security council resolution says, “It will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations.” That measure passed by a vote of 14-0, with former President Barack Obama’s administration abstaining despite pressure from Israel and then-President-elect Trump. WATCH: Follow Will on Twitter Send tips to will@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. The Daily Caller News Foundation is working hard to balance out the biased American media. For as little as $3, you can help us. Freedom of speech isn’t free. Make a one-time donation to support the quality, independent journalism of TheDCNF. We’re not dependent on commercial or political support and we do not accept any government funding. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org. |
Image caption The constitution will determine the influence of Sharia on Egyptian law and minority rights A court in Egypt has suspended the 100-member assembly appointed last month to draft the country's new constitution. Several lawsuits had demanded Cairo's Administrative Court block the decision to form the panel as it did not reflect the diversity of Egyptian society. They said women, young people and minorities were under-represented. Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party and the Salafist Nour party, which dominate parliament, have a near-majority. Liberals and secularists fear some of them would like to amend the constitution so that it follows the principles of Islamic law more strictly. The new document will also determine the rights of Egypt's religious and ethnic minority groups and the balance of power between the president - previously the supreme authority - and parliament. Once the assembly has produced a draft, it will be put to a referendum. It had been hoped that would take place before May's presidential election. 'Unrepresentative' The Administrative Court did not give the reasons for the ruling to suspend the constitutional assembly, stating only that it had halted "the implementation of the decision by the speaker of parliament" to form it and had referred the question of its legitimacy to a legal adviser. At the scene "Illegitimate" was the cry that went up from campaigners celebrating outside the Cairo Administrative Court, after news came through of its ruling. The judge said he was suspending the assembly drawing up Egypt's new constitution and referring the question of its legitimacy to a legal adviser. "This is great, it's very reassuring and I'm very happy," said Hala Gamal of the Women and Memory Forum, a civil rights group. "The formation of the constitutional committee was illegal, unconstitutional, so that is why we resorted to court. It was totally unrepresentative of Egyptian society, not only women but students, workers and peasants." "It's an historic ruling," added Abdul Jalil Mustafa of the Egyptian Association for Change. "They suggested a committee in the sense of the Islamic political current and yes this is a part of Egypt, but not the whole." The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, which controls more than half of parliamentary seats has said it will appeal against the court's decision describing it as "political". Campaigners nevertheless celebrated outside the court when news came through of the ruling, which followed complaints by political groups and constitutional experts over parliament's decision to select the assembly itself and to allocate half the seats to sitting MPs. The complaints said both moves violated Article 60 of the constitutional declaration adopted in a referendum last year - which does not state how the assembly should be appointed - and would also give Islamists unmatched influence over the constitution-drafting process. "The constituent assembly is unrepresentative of Egyptians," said the advisory council of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. "A new constitutional declaration should be issued... specifying how the constituent assembly is formed. Article 60 of the current declaration was so vague that it has left the assembly in the hands of one force." The Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said it would appeal against the court's decision, describing it as "political". Secular and liberal parties have already withdrawn from the assembly, believing that their presence was only conferring legitimacy on it. Some members are planning to draft an alternative with all parts of society. Al-Azhar University, one of Sunni Islam's most important institutions, and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt have also announced a boycott. The FJP disputes that Islamists, who control 70% of the seats in parliament, dominate the constitutional assembly. It says only 48 members are Islamists - 36 from parliament and 12 others. |
This article is part of a collaboration with iQ by Intel. Mental illness is a complex, nuanced subject that many forms of entertainment have tried to faithfully portray. Movies such as Silver Linings Playbook and TV series like Showtimes’ Homeland have succeeded to varying degrees, but many attempts fall into clichés that perpetuate misinformation. Despite some mishaps like Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, where those who suffer from mental illness are seen as defective, video games are a powerful vehicle for exploring this topic in new and enlightening ways. “The challenge games face in regard to the mental health discussion is how to bring these issues to light without falling into the common traps,” Patrick Lindsey wrote in a 2014 opinion piece for Polygon, noting that horror games tend to be the guiltiest of misrepresentation. “Mental illness is horrifying for those who suffer, and it can drastically affect one’s perception of the world, but to focus solely on the spooky and the irrational is to only tell half the story.” Because players adopt the perspective of the game’s characters, they experience the symptoms and thinking patterns of different mental illnesses firsthand. This gameplay method could help increase understanding and empathy when done well. “Videogames in particular have the uniquely awesome power to virtually place you directly in the shoes of another person, creating incredible opportunities to educate, raise awareness and build empathy around topics like various psychiatric conditions,” said Erin Reynolds, creative director for the horror adventure game Nevermind. Researchers have found promising leads when using videogames to treat individuals suffering from illnesses like PTSD. Through a method called “exposure therapy,” virtual reality games help patients with anxiety and phobias address their symptoms in safe, controlled virtual environments. By understanding the link between videogames and mental illness, experts can help patients develop coping mechanisms. Games like Nevermind take a different, yet equally ambitious approach to addressing mental health issues. It uses optional biofeedback technology to help players manage their fear and anxiety response to the scary scenarios in the game.“From the very beginning of Nevermind’s conceptual development, I knew I wanted to work within the horror genre, not only because it would allow for an aesthetic I’m personally drawn toward, but also because of the capabilities horror games have to evoke a physiological reaction and leave a lasting impression on the player,” said Reynolds. How horror manifests itself in Nevermind is important. While many games still fall prey to perpetuating stigma and misrepresentation, horror games like Evil Within in particular continue to use mental illness as set dressing, vilifying the people suffering from it. Instead of jump scares, however, Nevermind uses “twisted, surreal and oftentimes disturbing settings, sounds and imagery.” The player’s imagination is ultimately more dangerous than the game world itself. The player’s imagination is ultimately more dangerous than the game world itself. Reynolds said this is similar to how things often play out in real life. “I’ve found that the things we fear or worry about—be them an upcoming due date, speaking in front of a large group, taking a test, etc.—rarely are actually directly harmful to us,” she said. “Rather, it’s the unaddressed feelings of stress and anxiety that we experience leading up to that event that drain our energy and serve to harm us more than anything else.” Nevermind wants to teach people how to face their fears head-on, tackling them and gaining the confidence to handle fear and anxiety both in the game and in real life. In doing so, it not only helps people who may be suffering from mental illness, but also begins to chip away at the unfortunate stigma attached to it. “The more we accurately represent the complexities and ubiquity of all types of psychological distress, the less ‘unknown,’ and thus the less ‘scary,’ it will be,” Reynolds explained. “People might be able to see that an illness doesn’t define them; rather, it is just one aspect of life that the individual has an ongoing struggle with.” Although creating games that improve empathy and reduce stigma may be a great start, the question of how to treat mental illness remains. Here, too, videogames might have an answer, according to Nicky Case, who creates everything from augmented and virtual reality experiences to games. Case has explored the topic through what he calls “interactive explanations.” Designed in a manner similar to a brief animated short, these exploration narratives provide powerful visual cues and viewer feedback to help illustrate how different complex societal or psychological systems work. His latest interactive explanation is Neurotic Neurons, a quick primer on the way our brains learn and can be re-trained through treatments like exposure therapy. Demonstrating how neurons create and destroy thoughts, Case makes conquering his lifelong anxiety not only feel possible but actionable. “While doing research for it, there was something stressful looming over me, and I wanted to avoid it,” he said of his own struggles while making Neurotic Neurons. “Just in time, I stumbled across exposure therapy and learned that while avoidance may feel relieving in the short term, in the long term it just prolongs the anxiety. That really helped me.” Case’s theory is that he can help people understand how to change the way they think through safe exposure to phobias and stressors. This works beyond anxiety and mental illness issues, too, as he’s contemplated using the same method to help people learn empathy toward other cultures and identities. Neurotic Neurons provides a powerful explanation: Our brains are malleable forms that can, over time, be re-wired with healthier, safer thoughts. “It can be worked through,” he said. “It’s hard, but it can be worked through.” |
Dear Bird Folks, I came out to my car this morning and found clear liquid in the middle of my windshield. It was about an inch wide and three inches long. It didn't look like water to me, plus the sun was out. I don't mean to sound gross, but do birds pee and what does it look like/ -Norman, Evansville, IN Come on, Norm, It's spring. The brilliant hummingbirds and orioles have just returned from the tropics. The colorful warblers are feeding in the branches of the flowering trees. The male goldfinch is radiant in his breeding plumage, and everywhere we turn robins and cardinals are building nests. Couldn't you wait for a less interesting time of year to ask about bird pee? What about November? In fact, I think the government has just declared that November is Bird Pee Awareness Month. Come on, Norm, couldn't you hold it until then? Because of the season I was going to wait to answer this question, but two days after receiving it I got another one on the same topic. What is going on? Are people trying to earn merit badges at urology camp? Well, whatever. Let's just get this out of the way so we can get back to talking about spring... after we wash our hands. In order to gain flight birds can't afford any significant addtioinal weight. Laying eggs saves them from a long and chubby pregnancy. They also don't carry their young in pouches, produce gallons of milk for nursing, or store used beer in their bladders, like some mammals do. The weight of a beer-filled bladder, or a bladder filled with any other liquid, would impact a bird's flying ability. In order to prevent such a problem, birds have evolved a method of waste removal that doesn't involve using a bladder, which is lucky for them because they don't have one. In mammals the kidneys pass waste liquid to the bladder where it is stored until the creature gets tired of carrying it around, it is then eliminated it from the body, hopefully in an acceptable location. Birds' kidneys (which they do have) don't pass wastewater, but instead pass a white pasty substance. The substance (uric acid) is pasty because in an effort to conserve, the birds reabsorb most of the water in their waste. The uric acid (which is white remember?) passes into the lower intestine, where it mixes with darker solid waste (fecal matter). The whole lot is finally shot out of the bird's body. Whereas mammals have two exits for waste removal, the efficient birds have only one. Their one exit is called the "cloaca," and it is located just where you think it should be. The stereotypical bird dropping, the white splotch with the black bull's eye in the middle, is a bird's version of both poop and pee. With birds there is no "number one" and "number two." It's one complete package. (However, I'm not sure what number birds call their combination. I'll have to get back to you on that one, Norm.) I should also note that the white uric acid is not very water-soluble. That may explain why I have so much trouble cleaning it off the hood of my Corvette, or at least I would have trouble cleaning it off if I had a Corvette. Except to perhaps the Corvette crowd, and just about everyone else, bird droppings can be actually useful. In some locations of the world, wild bird guano is used for fertilizer and for making gunpowder. Yes, gunpowder. Can you imagine somebody being blown-up by something made from bird poop? Who's going to want to help patch up that person? Occasionally large amounts of bird guano are found on isolated, arid islands. Nesting seabirds, such as pelicans, frigate birds and boobies, gather on these islands by the hundreds to breed or roost. With little rain to wash the stuff away it simply piles up, year after year, century after century. Bird guano was in such demand that in 1856 the U.S. Congress passed (get ready for this one and it's true) "The Guano Islands Act." Any American who found an unclaimed island, could claim it and mine the guano with the blessing and protection of the United States Government. Over 100 islands have been claimed under the Guano Act, with many still under U.S. control. Man, the stuff you find out by reading. I don't know what the mystery liquid is that you found on your car, Norm, but I doubt it came from a bird. It could be sap from a tree or perhaps spit. Do you have any camels, llamas or baseball players hanging out where you park your car? No matter what the substance is, I think you'd better go wash your car soon or it won't be clean in time to be in the big parade in November. You know, the annual parade they have for Bird Pee Awareness Month. _ |
Anda Greeney, 32, an entrepreneur and Erica Meissner, 27, a project analyst. (Photo courtesy of daters) interviews By Amanda McGrath Erica Meissner, 27, a project analyst, says she’s witty and confident (but humble), and seeking someone “social, ambitious, tall and impulsive.” Anda Greeney, 32, an entrepreneur, says hanging out with him is “guaranteed to be an interesting date” and describes his type as “ the smarter and more successful, the better.” We sent them to B Too on 14th Street NW. Anda: I enjoy dating. I like the process, even if there’s not a connection. I’ve been on hundreds of dates in D.C. But I’m not seeking something serious. I’m the founder of a start-up focused on the coffee market in Yemen; that’s my No. 1 priority. Erica: When I got there, I knew exactly who I was looking for. Anda is a really unique name; my mom and I kind of stalked him online and found out all about him. Anda: You did a five-star job matching us up. I like tall, smart girls, and she wasn’t a pushover. Erica: He’s tall but very thin; I go for guys who have a more masculine, in-your-face athleticism. Anda: We talked about why we’d been matched. Erica: He’s very confident, on the verge of cocky. It wouldn’t have surprised me if he had just said, “I want a hot chick.” He said a couple of times throughout the date, “I’m so glad you’re not fat,” or “I’m so glad you’re not ugly.” Anda: I have ways to make sure [a date] is fun. Part of that is changing locations. Erica: At B Too, we stayed at the bar. Then we went to ChurchKey. We had good conversation. He always had a follow-up question, which made me think a little bit deeper. Anda: I’ve been on dates where I’m the one holding up the conversation, like Atlas. But she had no problem holding up her side. Erica: He’s very smart, educated. But he’s a little creepy. Like he grabbed my hand and took my ring and put it on his finger for two hours. I wasn’t reciprocating, but he wasn’t reading the signals. Anda: She was going canoeing the next day. I was like, I want to come, can I get an invite? Erica: He asked about it two or three times. I t was odd. Anda: I don’t hang out at 14th Street much. It’s too boring. I was like, “Let’s get a Capital Bikeshare. I’ll stick you on the back and pedal to Columbia Heights.” Erica: I was like, “Why can’t I just get on my own bike?” But I was game. I was on the seat, he was standing to pedal. People were honking. Anda: We went to Red Derby, which is a cool bar. Erica: He tried to kiss me at one point. I turned my head and laughed it off. Anda: We had a couple beers. It [was] maybe 12:30 at that point. She was losing steam. I suggested we go to IHOP. Erica: He was very persistent about [asking] whether we’d have another date. By the end of the night I was like, “I’m not interested in a second date.” Anda: If she’s not interested, I want to understand why; it won’t hurt my feelings. Erica: He challenged me when I said my type was more masculine. Anda: She’s emotionally mature; I was like, how is that working for you with more masculine guys? I’m in touch with my emotions and other people’s emotions. Manly and self-reflective aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but more often than not they are. Erica: It felt like he was trying to convince me I was wrong so I would give a different response. He’s a successful guy who gets what he wants most of the time. I think he just wanted to “win” at this date. Anda: We hung out late. It was like 1 a.m. Erica: I gave him a hug. On my way home he sent me an audio recording of him playing piano. He asked for my email, but I don’t think I’m going to give it to him. Rate the date Erica: I would say a 3 [out of 5]. I was laughing throughout the night. But the creepy things and the air of arrogance turned me off. Anda: I’m gonna say 5. But I’d revise it if she gave me fewer stars. Update Anda sent Erica the location of a lecture he thought she might like. She didn’t respond. A few days later he texted her a picture of a Belgian ale he thought she’d enjoy; that time she did respond, but it seems unlikely much more will happen. |
Boris Johnson was left flustered on Tuesday after being forced to admit – during a live debate on the EU referendum – that he hadn’t read a Bank of England report he had seconds earlier misquoted. The blunder became evident after the former Mayor of London claimed during the debate that large movements of labour across the EU “have a compressing effect on wages”. But Alex Salmond, the former Scottish First Minister who was on the panel arguing the case to Remain in the EU, asked: “Who in the Bank of England said that?” We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras. Mr Johnson replied: “It was a Bank of England study that showed that for every 10 per cent increase in immigration there was a two per cent reduction in wages”. Mr Salmond, however, continued to interrogate the former London Mayor. He asked: “Have you read that study Boris? Have you actually read it,” After a short silence, Mr Johnson replied: “I have not read that study”. Mr Salmond added: “Can we just nail this because I’ve heard this from a number of people. So I’ve taken the trouble of reading the study… it says a 10 per cent rise in immigration would result in a one third of one pence diminution in average wages. One third of one pence." It comes as Lord Stuart Rose, the chair of the Remain campaign, said he had been misquoted over claims wages would go up if Britons voted to leave the EU – adding they would in fact go down. He told the Guardian: “I would say this, wouldn’t I, but I was misquoted. I was asked a straight economic question … which is if labour goes down in availability, what happens to the cost of labour and the answer is simple economics, the cost of labour goes up. “But that is not anything to do with the actual argument about whether we should or shouldn’t be in the bigger community. What we really have to be sure about is a continually growing economy, which I believe we have more chance of doing in a 500 million-person community and the largest economic bloc in the world. Shape Created with Sketch. The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit Show all 7 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. The most scaremongering arguments for Brexit 1/7 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” PA 2/7 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. “Cameron says we’re safer in the EU. Well I’m in the centre of the EU and it doesn’t feel very safe.” Getty Images 3/7 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. “We’re voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration.” Rex 4/7 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: ‘Love Actually’ to dishonour the US stance on the EU. “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend” 5/7 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldn’t not find work because of uncontrolled migration. “The European Union is a ‘force for social injustice’ which backs the ‘haves rather than the have-nots.” EPA 6/7 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. “Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically.” “The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.” PA 7/7 16 May 2016 During a tour of the women’s clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Gove’s in which he compares the EU to ‘badly designed undergarments.’ “So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Let’s say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down.” Getty Images 1/7 22 May 2015 In his regular column in The Express Nigel Farage utilised the concerns over Putin and the EU to deliver a tongue in cheek conclusion. “With friends like these, who needs enemies?” PA 2/7 13 November 2015 UKIP MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire Mike Hookem, was one of several political figures who took no time to harness the toxic atmosphere just moments after Paris attacks to push an agenda. “Cameron says we’re safer in the EU. Well I’m in the centre of the EU and it doesn’t feel very safe.” Getty Images 3/7 19 April 2016 In an article written for The Guardian, Michael Gove attempts to bolster his argument with a highly charged metaphor in which he likens UK remaining in the EU to a hostage situation. “We’re voting to be hostages locked in the back of the car and driven headlong towards deeper EU integration.” Rex 4/7 26 April 2016 In a move that is hard to decipher, let alone understand, Mike Hookem stuck it to Obama re-tweeting a UKIP advertisement that utilises a quote from the film: ‘Love Actually’ to dishonour the US stance on the EU. “A friend who bullies us is no longer a friend” 5/7 10 May 2016 During a speech in London former work and pensions secretary Ian Duncan Smith said that EU migration would cause an increasing divide between people who benefit from immigration and people who couldn’t not find work because of uncontrolled migration. “The European Union is a ‘force for social injustice’ which backs the ‘haves rather than the have-nots.” EPA 6/7 15 May 2016 Cartoon character Boris Johnson made the news again over controversial comments that the EU had the same goal as Hitler in trying to create a political super state. “Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically.” “The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods.” PA 7/7 16 May 2016 During a tour of the women’s clothing manufacturer David Nieper, Boris had ample time to cook up a new metaphor, arguably eclipsing Gove’s in which he compares the EU to ‘badly designed undergarments.’ “So I just say to all those who prophecy doom and gloom for the British Business, I say their pants are on fire. Let’s say knickers to the pessimists, knickers to all those who talk Britain down.” Getty Images Speaking at the online debate, Mr Salmond also quoted the SNP manifesto for last month's Holyrood elections which stated that the parliament should have the right to hold a new referendum if a UK poll saw Scotland taken out of the EU “against her will”. "You don't know the result of a referendum in advance, but what we do know is that the SNP stood on that manifesto in last month's election and got 47% of the vote in Scotland. "Now, this referendum we are having just now was held by David Cameron on a mandate of 37% of the vote. "So, it would have to go through the Scottish Parliament. It would have to be a Remain vote in Scotland, accompanying a Brexit elsewhere, but under these circumstances, the answer to your question is yes," Mr Salmond said. The comments appear in contrast to Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's stance that she is only interested in campaigning for a Remain vote and will not speculate on possible political repercussions of Brexit. The EU referendum debate has so far been characterised by bias, distortion and exaggeration. So until 23 June we we’re running a series of question and answer features that explain the most important issues in a detailed, dispassionate way to help inform your decision. What is Brexit and why are we having an EU referendum? Will we gain or lose rights by leaving the European Union? What will happen to immigration if there's Brexit? Will Brexit make the UK more or less safe? Will the UK benefit from being released from EU laws? Will leaving the EU save taxpayers money and mean more money for the NHS? What will Brexit do to UK trade? How Brexit will affect British tourism What will Brexit mean for British tourists booking holidays in the EU? Will Brexit help or damage the environment? Will Brexit mean that Europeans have to leave the UK? What will Brexit mean for British expats? We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. At The Independent, no one tells us what to write. That’s why, in an era of political lies and Brexit bias, more readers are turning to an independent source. Subscribe from just 15p a day for extra exclusives, events and ebooks – all with no ads. Subscribe now. |
GoPro just proved that there's still room for something fresh in consumer camera drones. After being teased for months, the company finally unveiled the Karma, its first drone designed for its cameras, but simplified for novice drone pilots. Take the Karma's controllers, for example. Many camera drones come with controllers loaded with switches, buttons and knobs. Sure, some are friendlier to use than others, but the Karma's remote has the familiar feel of a gaming controller. On top of that, you don't need to tie up your smartphone or drag along a tablet to get a view from the attached GoPro: The controller has a flip-up touchscreen. The Karma's small, too. Like fold-it-up-and-stick-it-in-a-regular-backpack small. In fact, it even comes with the backpack. And of course it's made to work with the new Hero5 Black and Hero5 Session cameras, but will also work with Hero4 cameras. So you're not stuck with a camera that's permanently attached to a drone, you're getting a camera you can use on its own or in the drone. Perhaps its greatest asset is the three-axis camera stabilizer on the drone. Not only will it keep your video looking smooth in the air, but it can be removed and attached to the included Karma Grip. GoPro says the grip can then be used handheld, perfect for running, riding, skating, etc. alongside your friends, or mounted on other gear. Joshua Goldman/CNET For years now camera makers big and small have been trying to one up GoPro in a category it basically created. Now it's GoPro entering a category with a clear leader in DJI. GoPro already has wide brand recognition, though -- something DJI's competitors and DJI too, for that matter, can't really claim. Combine that brand recognition with the flexibility of using the Karma in the air and on the ground and its potential ease of use, and the Karma might be a spoiler this holiday season. Karma arrives on October 23 for $799 without a camera, $999 with a Hero5 Session and $1,099 with the Hero5 Black. Stay tuned for our full review. Executive Editor David Carnoy contributed to this preview. |
A boater, who said he had been drinking Long Island Ice Teas before the incident, was arrested Wednesday morning after a 72-foot yacht washed ashore on Palm Beach. Thomas Henry Baker, 63, Belle Isle, Fla., a suburb of Orlando, told police he "failed to navigate his vessel into the Palm Beach Inlet and ran the vessel into the beach." The 72-foot yacht named "Time Out" was spotted floating at the shoreline right next to the Palm Beach Inlet. Towboat US, Sea Tow and several other private and public agencies are collaborating to remove the boat, which was still on the shore at 6 p.m. Wednesday. *SEX OFFENDER LISTS FLORIDA WALMART AS HOME ADDRESS Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Tyson Matthews said the top objective was keeping diesel fuel from leaking. “It’s a product that can cause damage to any marine organisms in the water, or beach users who might be out here. Health impacts are the biggest concerns,” he said. The U.S. Coast Guard said it received a report that the yacht had run aground at 2:15 a.m. No injuries were reported and no search and rescue effort was organized. The people on the boat were able to walk ashore. An arrest report from Palm Beach Police stated Baker had a blood alcohol level of about double the legal limit. He was charged with boating under the influence. *NEWBORN IN VIRAL HUGGING PHOTO DIES Baker returned to the boat after bonding out of jail to speak with FWC. Officers said drunk boating doesn’t explain everything. “Right now we’re working the investigation part of how the boat got here and what exactly happened,” Matthews pointed out. |
The Kansas City Chiefs announced on Wednesday that they have signed free agent guard Andrew Tiller to a contract. Tiller started 14 games for the 49ers over the past two seasons, moving between left and right guard. It looks like Tiller will probably compete for an opportunity at left guard in Kansas City. He was a solid player, although standing out amongst the 49ers interior linemen was a relatively low bar the past couple years. He replaced Jordan Devey in the starting lineup in 2015, and was the starting right guard in 2016 before Joshua Garnett moved into the starting lineup. Tiller took over at left guard in Weeks 15 and 16 after injuries to Daniel Kilgore and Joe Staley resulted in shuffling along the left side of the line. Today marks a notable day in the free agency calendar. Yesterday was the last day that free agent signings impact the comp pick formula this offseason. The formula provides for draft picks to teams that lose more free agents than they sign. The 49ers will get no comp picks for the 2018 NFL draft due to the huge number of free agency additions they made. The 49ers signed 12 qualifying free agents, and lost two qualifying free agents. If Tiller gets more than a league minimum deal, he would have been the third qualifying free agent prior to today. |
Bryan Douglas Caplan (born April 8, 1971) is an American economist. Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University, research fellow at the Mercatus Center, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and frequent contributor to Freakonomics[3] as well as publishing his own blog, EconLog. He is a self-described economic libertarian.[4][5] The bulk of Caplan's academic work is in behavioral economics and public economics, especially public choice theory.[6] Education [ edit ] Caplan holds a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley (1993) and a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University (1997).[7] His thesis is titled "Three essays on the economics of government behavior." Books [ edit ] The Myth of the Rational Voter [ edit ] The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, published in 2007, further develops the "rational irrationality" concept from Caplan's earlier academic writing. It draws heavily from the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy in making the argument that voters have systematically biased beliefs about many important economic topics. Caplan writes that rational irrationality is an explanation for the failure of democracy.[8] The book was reviewed in the popular press, including The Wall Street Journal,[9] The New York Times,[10] and The New Yorker,[11] as well as in academic publications such as the Journal of Libertarian Studies,[12] Public Choice,[13] Libertarian Papers,[14] and The Independent Review.[15] It received a disparaging critique by Rupert Read in the European Review.[16] Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids [ edit ] In 2011 Caplan published a book, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, arguing that people often work too hard in child-rearing, and as a result, they are scared of the idea of having children. Caplan's book urged parents to relax with respect to child-rearing. The book argues that as the perceived costs (in terms of child-rearing expense and effort) of having children fell, it made sense to have more children based on the basic theory of supply and demand.[17] The book was reviewed in The Wall Street Journal.[18] The book was also reviewed by The Guardian,[19] RealClearMarkets[20] and the Washington Times.[21] The book also led to debates sponsored by The Wall Street Journal[22] and The Guardian.[23] The Guardian had Caplan debating "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua on the merits of strict parenting style.[23] The book was also featured in a story on National Public Radio.[24] Kirkus Reviews described it as "Inconsistent and unpersuasive."[25] The Case Against Education [ edit ] The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money, published in 2018 by the Princeton University Press. Drawing on the economic concept of job market signaling and research in educational psychology, the book argues that much of higher education is very inefficient and has only a small effect in improving human capital, contrary to much of the conventional consensus in Labor economics that Caplan claims take the human capital theory for granted. Views [ edit ] Open borders [ edit ] Caplan was cited as one of the leading proponents of the open borders position in articles in The Atlantic and Vox.[26][27] He has also been quoted in other mainstream press pieces on immigration in outlets such as the Huffington Post[28] and Time magazine.[29] In the Winter 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed Cato Journal, Caplan published a paper titled Why Should We Restrict Immigration?, where he makes the moral and economic case for open borders while addressing various objections to his stance with practical solutions.[30] Caplan's anarcho-capitalist views were discussed by Brian Doherty in his book Radicals for Capitalism and in Reason magazine.[31] One frequent criticism of Caplan is an accusation that he has engaged in historical negationism by claiming that anarcho-capitalists have a better claim on the history of anarchist thought than mainstream left-anarchists.[32][33] Despite this, Caplan has criticized one of the most notable examples of an anarchist-inspired society, revolutionary Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War, in an essay entitled "The Anarcho-Statists of Spain."[34] Ayn Rand and Objectivism [ edit ] After having long shed a youthful infatuation with the works of Russian American writer Ayn Rand and her philosophical system of Objectivism, in 2004 Caplan wrote in his essay 'An Intellectual Biography', "I rejected Christianity because I determined that it was, to be blunt, idiotic. I rejected Objectivism and Austrianism, in contrast, as mixtures of deep truths and unfortunate mistakes. Let me begin with the deep truths. The Objectivists were right to insist that reality is objective, human reason able to grasp it, and scepticism without merit. They correctly hold that humans have free will, morality is objective, and the pursuit of self-interest typically morally right."[35] In his essay, "Atlas Shrugged and Public Choice: The Obvious Parallels", Caplan lauds Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged as making "an important contribution to social science."[36] Personal life [ edit ] He is married to Corina Caplan, with four children, and resides in Oakton, Virginia.[37][38] |
All Sections GALAS SPECIAL SCREENINGS WORLD CINEMA NEW AUTEURS AMERICAN INDEPENDENTS MIDNIGHT CINEMA'S LEGACY SHORT FILMS CONVERSATIONS All Countries Afghanistan Albania Algeria Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Belgium Benin Bolivia Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Cambodia Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Czech Republic Czechoslovakia Denmark Dominican Republic East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Finland France Gabon Georgia Germany Ghana Great Britain Greece Guatemala Guinea Haiti Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Korea Kosovo Kuwait Latvia Lebanon Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malaysia Mali Mexico Morocco Mozambique Namibia Nepal Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Northern Ireland Norway Pakistan Palestine Palestinian Territories Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Scotland Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Singapore Slovakia Slovenia South Africa South Korea Spain Sudan Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tanzania Thailand Tibet Tunisia Turkey Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay USSR Venezuela Vietnam Wales West Germany Yugoslavia Zaire All Venues TCL Chinese Theatre Chinese 1 Chinese 2 Chinese 3 Chinese 4 Chinese 5 Chinese 6 Egyptian Theatre - Rigler Egyptian Theatre - Spielberg Hollywood Roosevelt |
With at least 17 Broadway shows set to open before the end of 2012, now’s the time to book seats for the fall season’s hottest musicals and star-packed plays. Not sure which show is right for you? Consult our cheat sheet, then grab a calendar and plan a night out with Paul Rudd, Jessica Chastain, Al Pacino, Little Orphan Annie, Buddy the Elf and more! Chaplin Why It’s Hot: The Little Tramp heads to the Great White Way in this musical biography tracing the incredible rise of comic actor, writer, producer, director and composer Charlie Chaplin. Leading a cast of 22 is newcomer Rob McClure, who achieves a thrilling transformation in the title role. The Details: Now in previews at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre; opens on September 10. An Enemy of the People Why It’s Hot: A timely tale of whistle-blowing and its consequences, Ibsen’s drama is actually 130 years old—but the play is getting a fast-paced revival pitting four-time Tony winner Boyd Gaines against Emmy winner Richard Thomas as his brother and nemesis. Place your bets! The Details: Previews begin on September 4 at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre; opens on September 27. Grace Why It’s Hot: When a script attracts movie stars like Paul Rudd and Michael Shannon, you can bet it’s special. Craig Wright’s play is a surreal look at what happens when the would-be owner of a chain of Gospel-theme motels (Rudd) and his wife move next door to disfigured accident victim (Shannon). The Details: Previews begin on September 13 at the Cort Theatre; opens on October 4. Cyrano de Bergerac Why It’s Hot: The swashbuckling 17th century star-crossed romance is back: Tony winner Douglas Hodge plays the poetic hero with the prominent nose opposite Harry Potter movie vet Clemence Poesy as the object of his doomed affection, the lovely (but clueless) Roxane. The Details: Previews begin on September 14 at Roundabout Theatre Company’s American Airlines Theatre; opens on October 11. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Why It’s Hot: A sold-out hit in Chicago and Washington DC, this scorching Albee revival pairs playwright and actor Tracy Letts and Tony nominee Amy Morton as one of the unhappiest (but most entertaining) married couples ever written. Down a bourbon on the rocks and get tickets. The Details: Previews begin on September 27 at the Booth Theatre; opens on October 13. Annie Why It’s Hot: Little Orphan Annie and Daddy Warbucks are back where they belong, on one Broadway’s biggest stages. Hum along to “Hard Knock Life” and “Tomorrow” and savor two-time Tony winner Katie Finneran’s sure-to-be-delicious comic turn. We love you, Miss Hannigan! The Details: Previews begin on October 3 at the Palace Theatre; opens on November 8. The Heiress Why It’s Hot: After watching Dan Stevens smolder for two seasons as Matthew Crawley on Downton Abbey, fans will drool over his fraught romance with Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain. The biggest problem may be making Chastain—as a shy 1850s heiress—look plain enough to attract a fortune hunter. The Details: Previews begin on October 7 at the Walter Kerr Theatre; opens on November 1. Scandalous Why It’s Hot: Broadway favorite Carolee Carmello joins forces with composer Kathie Lee Gifford to tell the fascinating true story of Aimee Semple McPherson, a superstar evangelist of the early 20th century. This long-awaited musical offers a timely mix of religion and ambition. The Details: Previews begin on October 13 at the Neil Simon Theatre; opens on November 15. Glengarry Glen Ross Why It’s Hot: David Mamet’s irresistible f**cking comedy about a bunch of ruthless f**king real estate hucksters returns to Broadway with an awesome f**king cast led by Al Pacino as over-the-hill salesman Shelly Levene and Bobby Cannavale as ballsy motherf**cker Ricky Roma, the role played on film by Pacino. The Details: Previews begin on October 16 at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre; opens on November 11. The Mystery of Edwin Drood Why It’s Hot: Before Peter and the Starcatcher, there was Drood, a rollicking, Tony-winning 1985 musical inspired by Dickens, in which audiences vote on the ending. Chita Rivera and Stephanie J. Block headline Rupert Holmes’ crowd-pleaser, performed in music hall style. The Details: Previews begin on October 19 at Roundabout Theatre Company’s Studio 54; opens on November 13. The Performers Why It’s Hot: Four words: Cheyenne Jackson, Porn Star. Honestly, isn’t that all you need to know? And his character is named Mandrew. Happy Days icon Henry Winkler plays adult film superstar Chuck Wood (based on Ron Jeremy) in David West Read’s new comedy. The Details: Previews begin on October 23 at the Longacre Theatre; opens on November 14. Rebecca Why It’s Hot: Generations of readers have been riveted by the story of the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter and her battle of wits with evil housekeeper Mrs. Danvers. Now, after six years of hit productions worldwide, the musical version of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 gothic romance is finally headed to New York. The Details: Previews begin on October 30 at the Broadhurst Theatre; opens on November 18. Dead Accounts Why It’s Hot: The brother-sister matchup of Katie Holmes and Norbert Leo Butz makes Theresa Rebeck’s new comedy a must-see, as the prodigal son played by Norbert heads home to Cincinnati with mysterious millions, welcomed by Holmes as his spinster (?) sib. Let the stage door frenzy begin! The Details: Previews begin on November 3 at the Music Box Theatre; opens on November 29. A Christmas Story Why It’s Hot: A Red Ryder BB gun; a lamp shaped like a leg; “I can’t put my arms down!” Yes, A Christmas Story is coming to Broadway in a new musical adaptation of the 1983 holiday favorite. Fans will get to see Ralphie, his Old Man, Scut Farkus and the gang in the flesh—and hear them sing. The Details: Previews begin on November 6 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre; opens on November 19. Golden Boy Why It’s Hot: This rare production of Clifford Odets’ Depression-era drama stars Seth Numrich (War Horse) as a young violinist torn between a career in music and earning big bucks as a prize fighter. Tony winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific, Odets’ Awake and Sing!) directs a cast of 19 in Lincoln Center Theater’s revival. The Details: Previews begin on November 8 at the Belasco Theatre; opens on December 6. Elf Why It’s Hot: The perfect Christmas season outing for the entire family, Elf returns after a successful 2010 run. It’s the sweet and sassy story of an adult-size elf who arrives in NYC from the North Pole searching for his family. A hummable score and funny script make the show a holiday treat. The Details: Performances begin on November 9 at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre, through January 6, 2013. The Anarchist Why It’s Hot: Sparks are sure to fly at a female penitentiary when inmate Patti LuPone pleads with warden Debra Winger for parole, in a new play written and directed by David Mamet. LuPone, who has worked many times with her pal Mamet, lauds the drama’s “two kick-ass, powerful parts.” The Details: Previews begin on November 13 at the Golden Theatre; opens on December 2. |
Image copyright PA A year after the first case of ash dieback in wild trees in Britain, the disease has now spread across much of England, Wales and Scotland. The public is being asked to be the "eyes and ears" of the countryside amid concern about new global threats that could spell disaster for forests. Six most unwanted tree pests Oak processionary moth (pictured): first detected in Ealing and Richmond in 2006, then outbreaks in south London, west London and Berkshire - it defoliates and weakens trees, making them susceptible to pests and diseases first detected in Ealing and Richmond in 2006, then outbreaks in south London, west London and Berkshire - it defoliates and weakens trees, making them susceptible to pests and diseases Asian longhorn beetle: wood-boring insect that can cause damage to a range of trees - a major 2012 outbreak in Kent was traced to wood packaging imported from the Far East wood-boring insect that can cause damage to a range of trees - a major 2012 outbreak in Kent was traced to wood packaging imported from the Far East Citrus longhorn beetle: a few have arrived on trees imported from China, Japan and South Korea, but have so far been intercepted a few have arrived on trees imported from China, Japan and South Korea, but have so far been intercepted Chalara dieback of ash : fungal disease of ash trees, now established in the UK, which causes crown death and wilting and dieback of branches : fungal disease of ash trees, now established in the UK, which causes crown death and wilting and dieback of branches Pine processionary moth: insect moving north through France and now breeding near Paris - 1995 outbreak in Scotland was contained insect moving north through France and now breeding near Paris - 1995 outbreak in Scotland was contained Emerald Ash borer: beetle that damages ash trees - a native of Asia, it's arrived in the US in imported wooden packing material Source: The OPAL Tree Health Survey How do we make forests more resilient to diseases? In a London park, forester Simon Levy is checking a moth trap strung high in the canopy of an oak tree. He is searching for signs of the oak processionary moth, which is present in parts of the capital and Berkshire. When the moth's caterpillars emerge from their nests, they can strip oak trees bare and harm human health. "What we're looking for in these oak trees we see around us is their nests," says Mr Levy. "They're like a grey wart on the side of a tree that can range from the size of a golf ball, if not smaller, to things that are almost a couple of foot in size." It is the moth's caterpillars - with their thousands of tiny hairs - that are the hazard. Touching the caterpillars or their nests can cause skin rashes or, in extreme cases, sore throats, breathing difficulties and eye problems. In Croydon, inspections are being carried out for the moth around a 2km zone as part of a rigorous programme of control and monitoring. Infected areas are sprayed with a bacteriological agent to destroy nests and caterpillars. The traps - which contain a sex hormone that attracts male moths - are set outside from July to September, when adult moths are in flight, to see how far they have spread. "We've actually created a ring of traps for these moths round the infected area just to see if the moths are flying beyond where we would expect them to be," says Mr Levy. Image caption Traps contain a sex hormone to attract the oak processionary moth Dr Nigel Straw from the Centre for Forestry and Climate Change at the Forestry Commission says monitoring is key to organising a control programme - including surveys from the ground and pheromone trapping. Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption Oak processionary moth caterpillars Any moths captured are sent to the Forestry Commission's research station in Hampshire for analysis. "We will look at how many moths have been caught and at which locations and this will tell us where we are likely to have trees with eggs which will lead to infestations next year," says Dr Straw. Officials hope the outbreak in Croydon can be contained. But they accept the battle is lost in west and south-west London - where the moth is here to stay. Britain should expect "many hundreds" more pests and pathogens to arrive in the coming years, say scientists at Exeter University. The rise in global trade means pests that damage crops such as fungi, beetle and moths are now moving into new territories faster than other wildlife, aided by climate change, they report in the journal Nature Climate Change. Hundreds of pests and pathogens have shifted their ranges towards the poles by an average of about 3km a year since 1960. Insects are moving even faster, expanding their range by tens of kilometres a year, says Dr Daniel Bebber. "We know things are spreading and part of that spread is due to climate change. It's just one more impact that climate change is having on us. Things are being introduced all the time to different places. Climate change can help things to establish." In Croydon, Simon Levy is concerned about a decline if not a "potentially catastrophic loss" of some of Britain's dominant tree species, including the oak. Image copyright Forestry Commission Image caption Bark from a tree with symptoms of acute oak decline in Surrey He says acute oak decline is present in the area, but it is difficult to identify. "There's huge pressure on resources in terms of actually getting out there and identifying them," he says, "I suspect that if things progress as they do, we might face a real problem with our oak trees - a significant change in our landscape similar to the landscape changes when Dutch elm disease had its heyday in the '70s." With only limited government resources to monitor for new pests, some of that job may fall to the public. This is not unprecedented. In the past, the citrus longhorn beetle, which can arrive on deliveries from Asia of tree and shrub plants, and goods in wooden crates and packaging, has been spotted by vigilant members of the public. In July, Martin Ward, the UK government's chief plant health officer, asked for help from the public to spot Asian longhorn and citrus longhorn beetles. "Government plant health services cannot do this work alone, and we need the public to act as our eyes and ears in gardens, parks, woodlands and workplaces to help us spot threats quickly before they become a serious problem," he said. "The public can really help us at this time of year by looking out for these two potentially serious beetle pests. They thrive in climates similar to ours, and their establishment could result in losses of trees from a wide range of species." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Spraying pesticide in Central Park to kill Asian long-horned beetles The Woodland Trust is currently training volunteers to look out for signs of tree diseases, while a citizen science project, known as Opal (Open Air Laboratories), is harnessing people-power to build a national picture of tree health. In the long term, however, there are big questions about the future shape and role of Britain's treescape. "What protects trees in the long term is diversity both in species and genetics," says Dr Bebber. "We don't have a very diverse tree flora - both in genetics and species diversity. We lost our elms in large because they were so genetically uniform. "We can learn from the science of ecology and evolution and look at the natural world and see that diversity is the protection. We certainly don't want to see the oak disappearing, the ash disappearing - it would be a sadder Britain." |
By permitting images like this one to move through the mail at all, the government tacitly endorsed lynching, along with the presumption that African-Americans were less than human. The mailings also aided a propaganda campaign that was intended to terrorize the black population in the nation as a whole, not just in the South. Joe from Waco is no doubt long dead. But many of the people who attended lynchings as children in the 1930’s and 40’s must be still alive and walking the streets of the principal states of the lynching belt. They include Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas, all of which voted against the first black president. The nearness of the past was fully evident not long ago in Atlanta, when the collectors James Allen and John Littlefield were trying to mount an exhibition of lynching images that had drawn a huge audience and international attention when shown at the New-York Historical Society’s “Without Sanctuary” exhibition of 2000. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Influential Atlantans equivocated. As a person familiar with the issue told me recently: “There were concerns that people in crowds were still alive. And of course, family members and relatives of those people might come in and have to say, ‘That’s my dad’ or ‘That’s my mom.’ ” “Without Sanctuary” was shown in Atlanta in 2002 at the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and drew more than 175,000 people, three times as many as viewed it in New York. But the tension surrounding the exhibition made it seem unlikely that the images and the accompanying documents would find a permanent home in Georgia or any other lynching belt state. So it came as a surprise earlier this year when the collection was acquired by Atlanta’s Center for Civil and Human Rights, an ambitious cultural and historical institution that has yet to break ground for its building and plans to open in 2011. The center aspires to emulate the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington in method, linking the civil rights movement to national and international issues of the day. The notion of housing the lynching material in the same institution as, say, Martin Luther King’s sermons and speeches strikes some as jarring. But this is just as it should be. The civil rights movement can only be properly understood in the context of the reign of terror that gripped black Southerners. The victims of those public hangings and burnings were sometimes accused of crimes. But they were often guilty of nothing more than seeking the right to vote, speaking truth to white power. Black business owners who challenged white supremacy in the marketplace were favorite targets. The victims were sometimes killed after they had been marched through the black section of town — with a stop at the school for the colored — and fully exploited as a testament to black powerlessness. Lynching, in other words, was a method of social control. Advertisement Continue reading the main story When visitors to the Center for Civil and Human Rights confront these realities, they will know what the civil rights pioneers faced — and what they feared — when they took those first, perilous steps along the path to freedom. |
In a groundbreaking report, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that cannabidiol (CBD) — the relaxant property of cannabis used in medical marijuana — is beneficial for cancer, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and many more diseases, AND should not be a scheduled drug. According to the U.S. federal law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” alongside heroin, LSD, ecstasy, methaqualone, and peyote. But WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence [ECDD] gathered scientific evidence on therapeutic use and side effects of cannabis and cannabis components, and confirmed: “Recent evidence from animal and human studies shows that its use could have some therapeutic value for seizures due to epilepsy and related conditions. Current evidence also shows that cannabidiol is not likely to be abused or create dependence as for other cannabinoids (such as Tetra Hydro Cannabinol (THC), for instance). “The ECDD therefore concluded that current information does not justify scheduling of cannabidiol and postponed a fuller review of cannabidiol preparations to May 2018, when the committee will undertake a comprehensive review of cannabis and cannabis related substances.” WHO experts also recommended imposing stronger restrictions on fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent and has taken thousands of lives in the U.S. drug addiction epidemic. Raul Elizalde, the Mexican father responsible for driving the Mexican government to legalize medical marijuana, told The Daily Mail: “I’m ecstatic that these international health leaders agree that CBD is a substance that should not be scheduled and has therapeutic value for a variety of medical conditions. We look forward to continuing our conversation about its many benefits in 2018.” The report comes after widespread declassification of cannabis in North America and Europe. In the U.S., a total of 29 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico now allow for comprehensive public medical marijuana and cannabis programs. In Europe, Greece, Czech Republic, Finland, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain have legalized marijuana. More than 100 peer-reviewed studies have concluded that cannabis cures cancer. Researchers at the University of Florida have found that the ‘gateway drug’ is alcohol, not marijuana. In fact, the National Cancer Institute in 2015 admitted marijuana kills cancer cells naturally. The latest WHO report adds to the already existing overwhelming evidence of the efficacy of the plant. Hopefully, the U.S. will turn the page, and stop classifying marijuana in the near future. |
Next two years likely to be hottest recorded as the world’s climate reaches major turning point – but UK summers may be cooler, report predicts The world’s climate has reached a major turning point and is set to deliver record-breaking global temperatures in 2015 and 2016, according to a new report from the UK Met Office. Natural climate cycles in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are reversing and will amplify the strong manmade-driven global warming, the report concludes. This will change weather patterns around the world including more heatwaves, but it is possible that the UK will actually have cooler summers. “We will look back on this period as an important turning point,” said Professor Adam Scaife, who led the Met Office analysis. “That is why we are emphasising it, because there are so many big changes happening at once. This year and next year are likely to be at, or near, record levels of warming.” The record for the hottest year was broken in 2014, when heatwaves scorched China, Russia, Australia and parts of South America. But, despite rising greenhouse gas emissions continuing to trap more heat on Earth, the last decade has seen relatively slow warming of air temperatures, dubbed a “pause” in climate change by some. In fact, global warming had not paused at all. Instead, natural climate cycles led to more of the trapped heat being stored in the oceans. Now, according to the Met Office report, all the signs are that the pause in rising air temperatures is over and the rate of global warming will accelerate fast in coming years. The warning comes ahead of a crunch UN summit in Paris in November at which the world’s nations must hammer out a deal to halt climate change. Opponents of action to curb climate change have cited the pause as a reason to reject urgent cuts in carbon emissions. Extreme weather already on increase due to climate change, study finds Read more But Professor Rowan Sutton, at the University of Reading and who reviewed the Met Office report, said: “None of the debate around the pause has changed our long term understanding of greenhouse-gas-driven climate change. That is the most fundamental point for Paris. The fact that 2014, 2015 and 2016 look like being among the very warmest years on record is a further reminder about climate change.” The report analyses the latest data on all the key factors that combine to determine the global climate. The warming caused by carbon emissions is the largest influence and continues to rise. But the El Niño natural cycle of warming in the equatorial Pacific, that can be a significant peak in this cycle, is now underway. It is expected to be the strongest El Niño since 1998 and will push up global temperatures – it has already weakened the Indian monsoon and the Atlantic hurricane season. Another longer-term natural cycle in the Pacific (the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) also looks to be shifting into its warmer phase. In contrast, there are now strong signs that a natural cycle in the North Atlantic is moving into a cooler period. This has less impact on global temperature than manmade climate change or Pacific ocean cycles but it influences conditions in the UK and Northern Europe. “If the Atlantic cooling continues as we expect, that would favour cooler and on the whole, drier summers, but there are other factors that compete to affect our climate,” said Sutton. Periods of cooler Atlantic waters in the past, such the 1980s, have also been associated with severe African droughts but more rain in the US. Scaife said the weather experienced in specific places from year-to-year results from the combined effects of all the natural cycles and manmade global warming. “A lot of these cycles can occur without the influence of human beings, but they are now occurring on top of the influence of man’s activities,” he said. “So now, for example, when an El Niño comes and raises the global temperature, that is the icing on the cake, the extra bit that creates the record year.” “Although these natural variations continue to be important, and will probably determine exactly which year breaks the record, you have to put them into context,” Scaife said. “In terms of global temperature, they are all smaller than the amount of warming we have already created.” |
Mary Shaw “You have the power to hold your leaders accountable.” – President Obama, Ghana, July 14, 2009 At an Amnesty International conference a few years ago, I had the honor of attending a talk by Clive Stafford Smith, a British attorney who represents some of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Smith shared some alarming details about the abuse that his clients received. Perhaps most shocking was Smith's description of cigarette burns and other scars that covered the body of a teenage prisoner. This boy had been taken into custody when he was only 14 years old. And this kid is allegedly not the only child who has been forced to experience the nightmare that is Gitmo. In a forthcoming book, Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror, which was recently excerpted at truthout.org, author Henry A. Giroux describes some of these cases in horrifying detail. He righteously condemns the culture of cruelty in which this kind of thing is even possible, and the "resounding silence" on the part of the media, which keeps it off the public radar. But, even if the mainstream media did find the courage to cover these atrocities, would it make a difference? It seems as though many Americans have become so desensitized by the right-wing spin machine that they see all Muslims as the enemy, in an overly simplistic "us vs. them" kind of mindset. Influenced by haters like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, and Sean Hannity, they think every Middle Eastern person looks suspicious. Influenced by those right-wing extremists, they see every Muslim as a jihadist who wants to finish the job that the 9/11 hijackers started. And, influenced by those right-wing extremists, they regard the perceived "enemy" as less than human. Like the "gooks" of World War II and Vietnam, the "towelheads" and "hajis" of Iraq and Afghanistan are painted with one big broad brush. Even the children. How else could they justify the killing and maiming of so many innocent civilian men, women, and children, and the torture of any human being, let alone a child? This is what we have become, seduced by the misguided emotional appeasement of hate. We attacked an unarmed nation that posed no threat to us or to its neighbors. Then we tortured human beings. We abused children. And we killed the innocent. All paid for with our tax dollars. America has lost its conscience. If we are ever to regain a moral standing in this world, Americans need to wake up and see these atrocities for what they truly are: War crimes, and crimes against humanity And, if we are ever to regain a moral standing in this world, those who committed these crimes -- and those who authorized them -- must be held accountable. And they must be held up as an example of a foreign policy gone terribly wrong, a foreign policy gone evil. Because what is more evil than these things that have been done in our name in the past eight years? There is no excuse. No excuse at all. Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views on politics, human rights, and social justice issues have appeared in numerous online forums and in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated. E-mail: mary@maryshawonline.com Illustration: http://www.truthout.org/files/imagecache/image_full_page/files/images/080309A2.jpg |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.