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SINGAPORE: A man and a woman who were seen throwing two oBike bicycles into a drain turned themselves in to the police on Friday (Nov 24) morning, Channel NewsAsia understands. In a viral video that was circulating on social media on Tuesday, the pair were seen pushing two oBike bicycles from the pavement into a drain along Lower Delta Road. Advertisement According to the Singapore Police Force, a 36-year-old woman and 37-year-old man are currently assisting with investigations. Channel NewsAsia learned that the couple turned themselves in at the Bukit Merah East Neighbourhood Police Centre. oBike is aware of the incident and has urged "civic-mindedness" among its riders to create a pleasant experience for everyone, the company's co-founder and chief marketing officer Edward Chen had said earlier. Advertisement Advertisement "It is evident that the perpetrators have damaged our bikes maliciously and we strongly condemn their behaviour," added Mr Chen. |
Every American has the right to support the political speech they choose by: Keith Farrell There is a lot of hyperbole going on in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in the case of McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. In what is being seen as an extension of the controversial 2010 Citizens United ruling, the Court struck down aggregate limits of campaign donation over a two year period. While the amount one may give to an individual campaign has remained, the aggregate cap has been lifted, allowing individuals to donate to as many campaigns as they’d like. The majority opinion, authored by Justice John Roberts, stated that the cap failed to deter corruption while violating the First Amendment. Follow TLR on Google+ Liberals, who often malign the right of people to spend their money as they choose, have been railing against Citizens United for the past four years. Yesterday’s ruling, they have proclaimed, was America’s final decent into plutocracy. In typical fashion, they ignore the very real effects of regulation in favor of fantastical fears over what bedlam could occur if Americans are allowed to do with their money as they see fit. Several myths go into the construction of the liberal narrative on McCutcheon. The first being the idea that Citizens United has helped to further wealthy Americans influence in elections. In actuality, the Super PACS which Citizens United gave way to have done more to help boost candidates who otherwise would not have been able to compete and thus prolonged our democratic process. Instead of an independently wealthy candidate like Mitt Romney running away with the election, Super PACs helped to prolong the race by giving candidates like Ron Paul additional revenue sources. Another pervasive myth is that the wealthy are a consolidated interest group, primarily rooted in the GOP. First, there is no collective of “the wealthy” of a single mind. Wealthy Americans, like all Americans, come from all ideological leanings. The five wealthiest Congressional districts are actually Democratic districts. Yet another myth about money and politics is that money buys elections. One need only recall Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama or Linda McMahon’s failed bid for a Connecticut Senate seat to realize that money alone doesn’t cut it. In another race from Connecticut, Dannel Malloy defeated the independently wealthy Tom Foley in our 2010 Governor’s race. Having money is not enough to win elections, especially now that those without money can appeal to a wider donor base. The last myth this narrative requires is one of the gullibility and ignorance of the American people in general. The myth would have it believed that Americans are helpless to discern truth for themselves, that government needs to regulate our elections or we will simply vote for who has the most TV ads or shiniest buttons. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia addressed this myth in 2012. He said that believing that allowing Americans discretion with their own money meant that corporation and the wealthy would simply buy government was to believe that the people were sheep. “If you believe that we ought to go back to monarchy. That the people are such sheep that they just swallow whatever they see on television or read in the newspapers? No. The premise of democracy is that people are intelligent and can discern the true from the false.” Americans have the right to speak politically and to use the fruits of their labors to support other’s political speech. The SCOTUS was absolutely correct when it linked political contributions to the First Amendment right of free speech. Every American has the right to support the candidates he or she chooses to. The alternative to this type of political funding is public financing of campaigns. That means pro-gun rights advocates would have their money used to support candidates who favor gun control. It would mean Catholics would be made to fund pro-choice candidates. It would mean gay Americans having to fund the campaigns of people who wish to deprive them of rights. Cronyism, which leads to conflicts of interest and a revolving door between corporate and elected positions, is created by the influence we allow the federal government in certain sectors and not by allowing the free exchange of money and ideas. It’s the politicizing of these markets that creates the problem. Regulating the economic and democratic rights of all Americans isn’t the answer. About the Author: Keith Farrell is a regular contributor to The Libertarian Republic, an Advocate for Young Voices, and President and Founder of Spirits of ’76 national nonprofit organization. He holds a BA in American Studies and Urban & Community Studies from the University of Connecticut. He has also been published at PJ Media and The Daily Caller. |
I think it’s very odd that liberals feel the “right” way to be religious is to do so quietly. They seem to forget that religion deals, quite literally, with the fate of humanity’s soul, in the form of eternal suffering and damnation. It’s the kind of thing that prods believers into being somewhat vocal. And isn’t that the right thing to do for someone who holds these beliefs? Why not annoy the crap out of anyone who will listen? Why not try and get evolution pushed out of the schools, or kill an abortion doctor. Greater good, right? Actually, yes, assuming they’re right about their religion being true the actions of any religious extremist are completely moral. Everything hinges on the truth of their claims. So, no. It’s not a private matter. The reason liberals think of religion as a private matter is because they’re talking about their kind of religion–the kind you don’t think about much and doesn’t interfere in your life. In other words, the kind not in the primary holy books. And that’s where the disconnect is. You can’t tell religious people that they need to shut up about the fact that the world is disobeying God and dying right in front of their eyes. It would be immoral for them to listen to you (or anyone else who doesn’t get it), and, furthermore, it’s immoral for you to even ask. Why would you want to stop someone from doing the right thing? So where does that leave us? If we accept that the right thing for religious people to do is to try and save as many people as possible, and we accept that for many that means getting evolution out of schools or taking out doctors who perform abortions (life of a sinner vs. the life of an innocent), then why should we be surprised when religious people attempt to affect the world we live in? Isn’t that precisely the expected behavior? Isn’t that what they should be doing, given their beliefs? In fact, wouldn’t they be less moral if they just sat around and watched the world go to shit around them? Remember, they have the big picture, and we liberals are looking at little stuff like the freedom of doctors to not get shot in the face. On a grand scale, though, wouldn’t you kill a doctor in order to save the lives of millions? I damn sure would, and so would they. That’s why there are dead abortion doctors. No, religion isn’t a problem when it’s vocal. If it were true it would be immoral not to be pushing itself. The reason religion is a problem is because there is no evidence that what it’s pushing is actually true. Truth is the key. Objective truth–verifiable by others. This is what leads us to secular humanism–a set of guidelines based on universal human experiences such as happiness and suffering. And we can’t be content in simply adopting this ourselves; we have to require that those who want to participate in our society adopt the standard as well. Religion is harmful to the extent that it is believed and acted upon, and it is benign to the extent that it is diluted and restrained by modern, secular morality. The stronger religion becomes, the more it penetrates and changes society. Religion was most powerful during the Dark Ages, and it’s the weakest it’s ever been now; this is not a coincidence. :: |
So Who Are We? Pawn & Pint is Kansas City's one and only Board Game Pub! We saw some other cities starting board game cafés and pubs and thought, why not KC? And why not us? So after 272 Kickstarter contributions, we opened our doors on Southwest Boulevard in 2016. One year later we'd already outgrown our space, so we moved on up to a bigger, swankier space on Walnut, right between the Crossroads and the River Market. Now complete with a full bar, a mezzanine level, skyline views of Kansas City stretching majestically out to the horizon – and a full parking lot of free parking! – we're feeling pretty good in our new home. And we're excited for the privilege of hosting you here at our gamer's haven! |
Crystal Palace are rivalling Red Bull Leipzig for the signature of Juventus midfielder Mario Lemina, according to Calcio Mercato. Despite having only signed permanently for the Serie A champions in April, the Gabon international only appeared 10 times for the Old Lady last season during his loan spell from Marseille. With his future under scrutiny, the newly promoted Leipzig have reportedly offered €14 million for the 22 year old. But Palace are also in the race for the Juventus midfielder as they look to continue their strong start to the transfer window. Alan Pardew’s side have signalled their intent for the new season with the recent additions of Andros Townsend, Steve Mandanda and James Tomkins. Adding Lemina to play alongside Yohan Cabaye will only boost Palace’s chances of improving their league position following a disappointing second half to the season last year. Palace would face serious competition for Lemina’s signature as Calcio has reported that Stoke and West Brom are also in the race to sign Lemina and the interest in the former Lorient man could drive up his price. Given the age of Mile Jedinak, Joe Ledley and Yohan Cabaye, Lemina would give Palace a quality young player in the middle of the park. The Eagles may be wary of a potential bidding war given the outlay that the Eagles have already spent this window as well. |
There have been questions as to who the South Carolina Gamecocks would schedule to fill their open dates in the future. We received part of that that answer today, as the Gamecocks will extend their series with the East Carolina Pirates until 2021. The most recent game between Carolina and the AAC team was last year, a 33-23 win. The two sides have faced each other a total of eighteen times, with the Gamecocks holding a 13-5 edge. According to FBSchedules.com, the Gamecocks will host the Pirates at Williams-Brice Stadium in 2016 (likely September 16 of that year) and 2020, and will travel to ECU in 2019 and 2021. While there has not been an official announcement by either school (we'll post a link once we receive it), FBSchedules has been very accurate on things like this in the past, and with the 2015 season being a week out, we'd expect a confirmation in short order. ECU is a somewhat familiar opponent, and the relationship the two sides have built will continue for the foreseeable future. That's despite a few of these games being a little too close for comfort for the Gamecocks' liking. It will be interesting to see, too, if there is a push to get one of the games in the later years pushed to Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, where the two teams squared off several years ago. Update: Now more scheduling news: The State reports that the Gamecocks will play UMass and Western Carolina next season. Carolina usually plays an in-state FCS team, but the Western Carolina game will replace that (Coastal Carolina was believed to be that FCS opponent). UMass, a member of the Mid-American Conference that will play as an independent after the 2015 season, began FBS play in 2012 after a number of years as an FCS program. With the UMass announcement, the Gamecocks have now filled their 2016 non-conference schedule. |
A bug bounty hunter compromises a Facebook staff server through a sloppy file-sharing webapp – and finds someone's already beaten him to it by backdooring the machine. The pseudo-anonymous penetration tester Orange Tsai, who works for Taiwan-based outfit Devcore, banked $10,000 from Facebook in February for successfully drilling into the vulnerable system. In a writeup published this week describing how the Linux server was infiltrated, Orange reveals how he or she stumbled across malware installed by someone else that was stealing usernames and passwords of FB employees who logged into the machine. The login credentials were siphoned off to an outside computer. It's understood no Facebook user information was compromised. Here's how it went down: With some Googling and poking around IP address ranges belonging to Facebook, Orange discovers that files.fb.com exists. The website is running Accellion’s web-based Secure File Transfer service. This webapp previously suffered a remote-code execution bug, so Orange looks for similar flaws in the software. Orange finds, among other bugs, a pre-authentication SQL injection vulnerability that can be exploited to achieve remote code execution. Accellion has since patched four holes – CVE-2016-2350 to CVE-2016-2353 – reported privately by Orange. Having exploited the classic SQL injection bug to install a webshell and gain control of the box, Orange discovers PHP scripts that intercept Facebook employees' usernames and passwords submitted to the files.fb.com site – credentials which could be used to access other parts of Facebook or be exploited in someway by a creative miscreant. The malicious scripts were used sometime in July and September last year. It also turns out the server had a *.fb.com wildcard SSL certificate installed on it. Misusing it would trip Facebook's cert logs, though. According to Facebook security engineer Reginaldo Silva, the password-slurping malware was installed by another security researcher who had earlier poked around within Facebook's system in an attempt to snag a bug bounty. "We're really glad Orange reported this to us. In this case, the software we were using is third party. As we don't have full control of it, we ran it isolated from the systems that host the data people share on Facebook. We do this precisely to have better security," said Silva. "We determined that the activity Orange detected was in fact from another researcher who participates in our bounty program. Neither of them were able to compromise other parts of our infrastructure, so the way we see it, it's a double win: two competent researchers assessed the system, one of them reported what he found to us and got a good bounty, none of them were able to escalate access." ® |
Warren Jeffs, the leader of the Fundamentalist Mormon church that practises polygamy, is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars after he was given the maximum sentence for taking girls as young as 12 to be his brides. Jeffs, 55, who represented himself during most of his trial though he refused to attend the final stages, claimed that his prosecution was a violation of his religious rights and warned it would lead to "sickness and death" being brought on the locality. But a Texas jury took just 40 minutes to hand him the toughest sentence open to them – life in prison for aggravated sexual assault and 20 years in prison for sexual assault of a child. The sentences followed Jeffs's conviction last week on two counts relating to polygamist marriages with girls aged 12 and 15. The sentencing of Jeffs brings to an end the most high-profile prosecution yet of a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church, which has been based in Eldorado in west Texas since 2004, claims to be the genuine Mormon church adhering to the traditional practice of polygamy, or plural marriage as it calls it. The official Mormon church broke with the practice of polygamy in 1890 under pressure from the federal US government which made renouncing the practice a condition of granting statehood to Utah. The polygamist Mormons, under Jeffs's leadership, refused to renounce plural marriages and now have about 10,000 followers. The jury heard that Jeffs personally had about 78 wives, including 12 who he married at 16 and 12 who he married at 15 or younger. Jurors were played audio tapes which the prosecution alleged recorded Jeffs giving sexual instructions to several underage wives. One tape was said to have captured the sounds of Jeffs having sex inside the temple at the church's Yearning for Zion Ranch in Eldorado. The court was also presented with DNA evidence that showed Jeffs fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl. The jury heard that Jeffs was an overweening presence within his church. When fathers resisted handing over their daughters, Jeffs would expel them – he ejected 60 church members and broke up 300 families. As the carrot to the stick, he encouraged fathers to give away their teenage daughters by offering them their own young brides. Jeffs dismissed several teams of defence lawyers and in the end represented himself in his own unorthodox style. Last Friday he gave a speech in which he accused the court of mocking his religion and read from a piece of paper which he said carried Jesus's own words: "I will wrest your power. I shall judge you. I shall let all peoples know your unjust ways. I will send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to be humbled by sickness and death," he read. In the course of his defence, Jeffs said polygamy was a "pure, natural way of life" and one of "God's laws". He pointed out that it was a central element of Mormonism in the early days of the church, which was founded by Joseph Smith in New York state in the 1820s. Smith himself is thought to have had at least 30 wives. |
A Starbucks owned bottled-water company in California is continuing to sell locally sourced spring water, as the Golden State battles one of the worst droughts in recent memory, according to a report in Mother Jones. Starbucks acquired Ethos Water, an enterprise that gives a nickel of every $1.95 bottle sold to water charity projects around the world, in 2005. Ethos has reportedly raised around $12.3 million for water charity projects to date. However, the company partially relies on water from private springs in central California’s Placer County and also operates a factory further south in Merced, where it uses local water sources at its production facility. Both areas are in territories that are experiencing “exceptional drought” conditions, according to federal authorities. The Merced Sun-Star reports that locals are increasingly irritated that the company is continuing to tap the area’s scarce water resources amid the blistering dry spell. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now A Starbucks spokesperson told Mother Jones that Ethos water came from “a private spring source that is not used for municipal water for any communities.” However, the magazine also spoke to a geologist with the state’s Department of Water Resources, who said that local communities downstream could still be adversely affected “if you capture and pull it out before it ever makes it.” Read more at Mother Jones. Contact us at editors@time.com. |
Whenever my colleague, Dr Mythily Subramaniam, presents her findings from the Singapore Mental Health Study to any local audience on the number of people here who have obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), she invariably raises a laugh when she reveals that three out of 100 adults in Singapore have the disorder. The laughter, which is neither derisive nor mocking, comes instead from a common feeling of empathy and identification. There is a popular notion that OCD is a set of quirky characteristics that we have claimed as uniquely Singaporean - being excessively conscientious, punctilious, hyper-efficient with a need to be in control of things, perfectionistic, and with an undercurrent of anxiety. There is even a sneaking sense of pride, and a number of people who would willingly confess to being "a bit OCD". Professor of medicine Jerome Groopman of Harvard Medical School pondered in a piece in The New Yorker magazine on "whether scientists and other driven, detail-oriented professionals" have somewhat similar neurological circuitry as patients with OCD, or whether people with these characteristics are more likely to be attracted to these fields. He interviewed well-known molecular biologist Laurence Lasky, who admitted to having "traits that are distributed at the far end of the bell-shaped curve of obsessions and compulsions" and which inflict on him constant anxiety. Dr Lasky believes that this is the fount of his creativity and drive, and he does not wish for any alleviation of this anxiety. "Who says advancing science has anything to do with being happy," he said. Of course, Dr Lasky's "obsessions and compulsions" - as with many other overachieving and high-functioning individuals - are manifestations of a single-minded striving towards a self-chosen goal. These characteristics, however, are quite unlike those in patients with OCD where the obsessions and compulsions create nothing but psychic pain and a profound loss of self-control. SEIZED BY EVIL SPIRIT The obsessions of clinical OCD are distressing, recurrent, uncontrollable and intrusive thoughts, feelings or ideas. Obsessions tend to cluster around a few major themes: cleanliness and contamination; an insatiable need for symmetry or precision; pathological doubt; thoughts of carrying out acts that are actually reprehensible and repulsive to the person - such as those of a violent, sexual, sacrilegious or blasphemous nature. ST ILLUSTRATION: MIEL There is also a dissolution and distortion of perspective. Consider an actual case - as described in a standard textbook of psychiatry - of a woman who was beset with the pathological doubt that her car door was never properly locked. An initial kernel of doubt inside her would loom large and harden as a certainty, bringing in its wake an intense anxiety that was relieved by checking the car door (an action which is called the compulsion in medical nomenclature). However, that would provide just a temporary relief as the doubt would return, and those compulsive checking needs would have to be performed again, and again, and again. The woman found it impossible to leave her car until she had checked repeatedly. She had broken several car door handles and was often late for work, which led in turn to the loss of several jobs. While obsessions are tumultuous mental events that are invisible to the external world, obsessive behaviours are often overt, and their bizarreness and excessiveness invite ridicule from others. Perhaps that is why OCD - more than any other mental illness - is often portrayed in film and television for laughs. One remembers Jack Nicholson playing the role of a writer with OCD in the movie As Good As It Gets with his array of fearful contamination-related obsessions and ritualistic behaviours: wearing gloves in public and frantically warding off fellow pedestrians so that they would not "contaminate" him, compulsively sidestepping the cracks in the sidewalk, and the excruciating multi-step cleansing ritual of his apartment with countless bars of soap. English professor Paul Cefalu at Louisiana State University contemplated this in an article entitled What's So Funny About Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?, which was published in PMLA (the official journal of the Modern Language Association of America). "Not only is there something fundamentally ironic about the extent to which obsessives with OCD concentrate on tasks that they believe ridiculous, but compulsions, usually orchestrated to relieve underlying obsessions, tend to worsen the motivating obsession," he writes. He thinks it is the "irony" and "incongruity" of the behaviour that make it funny - at least to someone without any real or direct knowledge of OCD. To the person so afflicted, it means being caught in a vicious circle of desperate misery. The old English meaning of obsession, which meant a state of being seized by an evil spirit, is perhaps an apt metaphorical description. TRAGEDY OF OCD In some ways, OCD resembles an addiction where the need to repeat something is not because it is pleasurable, but because not doing it is intolerable; and where the obsession sucks time, energy, attention and focus from everything else in the person's life that makes it worthwhile - family, friends, work, community and leisure. (People with OCD are, on the whole, more likely to be unemployed, unmarried, divorced and childless). And like someone with an addiction, the rest of the family could be drawn in and embroiled in the compulsions of the one with OCD. Some accommodate or even participate in the compulsions because they want to ease the distress of the one with OCD. Others do so because that is the easier thing to do in the short run - as in the instance of a woman with an obsessive fear of contamination who compelled her husband and children to change at the doorway of their flat into a clean set of clothes before they could go in. For them, it was easier to put up with that than to face and endure the terrible scenes if they had refused. In some ways, OCD resembles an addiction where the need to repeat something is not because it is pleasurable, but because not doing it is intolerable; and where the obsession sucks time, energy, attention and focus from everything else in the person's life that makes it worthwhile - family, friends, work, community and leisure. People with OCD can get agitated and enraged if their rituals and rules are not obeyed. However, there can sometimes be what is known as hostile non-compliance where family members react with aggression and actual violence. In the Singapore Mental Health Study, we found that OCD affects men and women equally. "It is an extremely distressing disorder that sets in during late adolescence, which is the earliest age of onset among the various mental disorders that we had examined in this study that has included depression and general anxiety disorder," said Dr Mythily, who co-led the study. "It is particularly of concern as it can mean a progressive, pervasive and unrelenting deterioration in the young person's functioning." The study also found that nine out of 10 people with OCD have never sought any kind of treatment, and of those who did, they took an average of nine years to do so. We do not really know why that is the case. It could be that they are not aware that it is a mental illness, or do not know where they can go for help, or they could be afraid of the subsequent stigmatisation and discrimination after being diagnosed with OCD. It could be that they are fearful of being misunderstood and ridiculed, or are too embarrassed by the contents of their obsessions and are afraid of being labelled violent or perverse. Whatever these reasons might be, it is beyond sad; it is a singular tragedy as OCD is a treatable condition. With the right medications and psychological treatment that are readily available in Singapore, people with OCD do get much better or even recover. Yet at this time, we have tens of thousands among us who are still enslaved to their illness and face the prospect of a lifetime of suffering and disability. •The writer is vice-chairman of the medical board (research) at the Institute of Mental Health. |
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)—Russian customs and security officials frequently collect illegal payments from Armenian businesses exporting goods to Russia, Armenian Economy Minister Artsvik Minasian claimed on Friday. Minasian said that the Russian and Armenian governments should jointly address “illegal actions that are often taken against Armenian carriers and citizens” at Russian border checkpoints. “As regards such practices or manifestations at some Russian sections, I believe that there has to be a systemic solution,” Minasian told reporters. “We need to create a system of joint work with Russian authorities.” The minister did not elaborate on the alleged violations of a free trade regime between the two countries, which was further simplified after Armenia joined the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) 18 months ago. Despite Minasian’s criticism, the authorities in Yerevan insist that Armenia’s membership in the EEU is already bearing fruit. According to Armenian government data, Armenian exports to Russia — most of them alcoholic beverages and agricultural products — doubled in the first five months of this year. The Russian Ministry of Transport said on Friday that Russia’s imports of Armenian products have actually more than tripled since the beginning of this year. It was not clear whether the ministry referred to the physical volume of commercial cargo shipments from Armenia or their monetary value. The ministry reported the sharp rise in a statement on a session of a Russian-Armenian commission economic cooperation held in Saint Petersburg earlier in the day. The intergovernmental body is co-headed by Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. Sokolov praised the increased Russian-Armenian trade when he addressed the press after the meeting. “Russia has been and remains Armenia’s main trading partner,” he said. |
As someone who does think that diversity could be a good thing in games, I've been watching the whole Gamergate movement since it began, and I have to say that the whole subject this episode's trying to portray is so much more complex. This episode is the video game edition of the 1930s PSA Reefer Madness: sensationalist, barely accurate regarding the subject matter, and has no concept of how people actually behave aside from stereotypes. I could go on with a whole essay about movement, but I'll just briefly put in my slightly-rambling view on this: Gamergate does not hate women. Although they certainly deserve more recognition, women have made up the gaming and game dev community for decades. In fact, many of its supporters have been female gamers and devs who are against individuals such as Anita for misinforming the public about the nature of video games. Look up the hashtag #NotYourShield for some of these individuals. Putting it even further, Gamergate's mascot is Vivian James: a regular ginger-haired female gamer with a cynical personality but a passion for games. They created the character after the group donated around $23,000 to a feminist charity game jam called 'The Fine Young Capitalists', which would give women with no experience in game development a chance to create and publish their own game. Said character would be put into the finished game as an in-game avatar. Actually, there's an interesting story attached to that. Before members of 4chan's video game board came along, TFYC was nearly on the brink of failure because developer Zoe Quinn accused the group of discriminating against trans-women, and for financial exploiting the women whose game concepts would be nominated by the public. The first point was because the TFYC allowed only people identifying as female to take part in the game jam, but as it was a contest meant to help women enter the games industry it was a measure to keep men from secretly entering in their game ideas. The second point was moot as 8% profits would go to the person whose game concept gets chosen, a portion would go to the game's development, while the rest would go to a charity of the majority donor's choice. In addition to slandering the group, Quinn and her supporters took down the TFYC website through a DDOS attack, and later also hacked its Patreon site. Quinn also had the gall to start funding her own game jam called 'Rebel Jam' despite having no stated information about it whatsoever, and was completely silent to any questions coming from TFYC's organizers. Gamergate saved TFYC and picked a charity for Colon Cancer to donate most of the proceeds. Aside from being able to create their own female character for the winning project, they also asked the TFYC to produce a short video series on influential female video game developers. Despite what the common media narrative has stated, harassment has been very present from the anti-Gamergate side, maybe even more so than from Gamergate. Gamergate supporters have been doxxed by the opposition, and some even lost their jobs from GG opponents calling their employers. Journalist Milo Yiannopoulos, who wrote in support of Gamergate in several articles, had a filled syringe sent to his home in an envelop, while attorney Mike Cernovich had harassing phone calls sent to his home and workplace. I don't deny that there has been bad members from the Gamergate crowd, but what I really dislike is the unfair portrayal of Gamergate's activities compared to those of its opposition. And that all ties back to the very reason why Gamergate exists: to bring integrity to games journalism and stop corruption. Some say that the whole Gamergate movement was a response to the fact that Zoe Quinn slept with several developers in order to get favorable reviews for her games. I do think it played part of the creation of the movement, but the main catalyst was what happened immediately afterwards. Several articles from various different gaming news sites came out with the theme of 'Gamers are Dead', all on the exact day on August 28th, 2014. When people suspected that there was a media narrative being created behind the scenes, there was a mass censoring of any related discussion on these sites, including game sites that didn't publish such articles in the first place. All this did was confirmed their suspicions, leading to all this current drama. In the past few months, there have been around five articles from gaming news sites stating that Gamergate was dead. It's not. If I learned anything from this whole event, it's that once in awhile there will come a news topic that you can't rely on most news sources for, especially when it involves corruption in those very news sources. This is far from a simple good vs. evil fight between a bunch of women-hating white male gamers and a group of innocent crusading feminists. If it were so simple, it wouldn't have lasted for so long to begin with, and it wouldn't have been so controversial. |
A BIZARRE stand-off unfolded on Victoria Bridge, Picton, this afternoon between two elderly motorists. The two drivers, a male and female, drove on to the single-lane Prince St bridge and refused to ‘give-way,’ with the pair remaining at loggerheads for about 30 minutes in the middle of the bridge. Cars were backed up to Argyle and Menangle streets as they waited for the stubborn drivers to reverse backwards and allow other motorists to pass. Police were eventually called and booked both drivers for ‘unreasonably obstructing a path of a vehicle,’ carrying a $253 fine. Yerrinbool resident Daniel Valenzi filmed the incident and said he was shocked to discover the cause of the traffic jam as he approached the 118-year-old bridge. “I assumed someone had an accident or jumped off the bridge or something like that, so I hopped out of the car,” he said. “I had never seen anything like this in my life. I spoke to both motorists and they both refused to move because they both believed they had entered the bridge first and had right of way. “The traffic was banked up to both main roads with every third car turning around.” Picton’s Victoria Bridge crosses Stonequarry Creek and opened in October 1897. It is the second oldest Allan Truss bridge built in NSW and is classified by the National Trust. |
A seven-year-old girl was shot and killed in Michigan on Thursday night at a soccer practice facility. Timothy Nelson Obeshaw, 57, allegedly fired rounds into a vehicle holding Emma Watson Nowling and her mother, Sharon Elizabeth Watson. He then turned the handgun on himself. Emma passed away at a nearby hospital; the mother is listed as in serious but stable condition. Police officials said the 9 mm pistol used in the crime was legally registered to Obeshaw, who had a concealed carry permit. He reportedly once lived with the child and her family and was seen by witnesses as happily interacting with the girl at soccer practice shortly before the shooting. No motive has been established outside of family claims that the assailant had been experiencing paranoid episodes as of late. |
UPDATE to the UPDATE – A cleaned up and more coherent example of txweb is here UPDATE – Github repo here I like twisted, and I like Cherrypy, unfortunately just like my militant atheist friends and my more spiritual friends neither seems to get along with the other. What to do? MONKEY PATCH + GHETTO HACKING to the rescue! Note, this is just a mockup of CherryPy’s routing system and not a bridge or interface to CherryPy. There is no CherryPy to be had here, just ghetto py. from twisted.web import server, resource from twisted.internet import reactor def expose(func): func.exposed = True return func class PageOne(object): def foo(self, request): return "Hello From PageOne Foo!" foo.exposed = True @expose def delayed(self, request): def delayedResponse(): request.write("I was delayed 🙁 ") request.finish() reactor.callLater(5, delayedResponse) return server.NOT_DONE_YET class PageTwo(object): @expose def index(self, request): return "Hello From PageTwo index!" class Root(object): @expose def index(self, request): return "Hello From Index!" @expose def __default__(self, request): return "I Caught %s " % request.path pageone = PageOne() pagetwo = PageTwo() class OneTimeResource(resource.Resource): """ Monkey patch to avoid rewriting more of twisted's lower web layer which does a fantastic job dealing with the minute details of receiving and sending HTTP traffic. func is a callable and exposed property in the Root OO tree """ def __init__(self, func): self.func = func def render(self, request): #Here would be a fantastic place for a pre-filter return self.func(request) #ditto here for a post filter class OverrideSite(server.Site): """ A monkey patch that short circuits the normal resource resolution logic @ the getResourceFor point """ def checkAction(self, controller, name): """ On success, returns a bound method from the provided controller instance else it return None """ action = None if hasattr(controller, name): action = getattr(controller, name) if not callable(action) or not hasattr(action, "exposed"): action = None return action def routeRequest(self, request): action = None response = None root = parent = self.resource defaultAction = self.checkAction(root, "__default__") path = request.path.strip("/").split("/") for i in range(len(path)): element = path[i] parent = root root = getattr(root, element, None) request.prepath.append(element) if root is None: break if self.checkAction(root, "__default__"): #Check for a catchall default action defaultAction = self.checkAction(root, "__default__") if element.startswith("_"): #500 simplistic security check action = lambda request: "500 URI segments cannot start with an underscore" break if callable(root) and hasattr(root, "exposed") and root.exposed == True: action = root request.postpath = path[i:] break else: if action is None: if root is not None and self.checkAction(root, "index"): action = self.checkAction(root, "index") #action = OneTimeResource(action) if action is not None else OneTimeResource(lambda request:"500 Routing error :(") if action is None: if defaultAction: action = defaultAction else: action = lambda request:"404 :(" return OneTimeResource(action) def getResourceFor(self, request): return self.routeRequest(request) """ Twisted thankfully doesn't do any type checking, so a dumb OO graph is A-Okay here. It will be assigned to site.resource """ dumb = OverrideSite(Root()) reactor.listenTCP(80, dumb ) reactor.run() Slapped this together in about 30 minutes… so there is a HIGH probability that it is almost entirely edge cased! Still it does work ( for me ) and it doesn’t hijack too much of twisted’s core, so it could be viable with a lot of unit-testing love, some additional sanity checking logics, and maybe some well thought out refactoring. |
Mt Gox Creditors File Lawsuit to Haul Company out of Bankruptcy A group of large creditors in the Mt. Gox debacle have ramped up legal moves to remove the company from bankruptcy, and distribute its remaining bitcoins among claimants. Bitcoin’s massive 2017 price surge has changed circumstances entirely, they say. Also read: Breaking: Israel’s Top Minister Netanyahu Hails Bitcoin as Bank Killer Join the Bitsonline Telegram channel to get the latest Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and tech news updates: https://t.me/bitsonline A Completely Changed Environment for Gox and Its Creditors [Update Dec 14th 17:25] An earlier version of this article stated Mt Gox’s recovered BTC holdings were 620,000 BTC or $10+ billion USD EST. That figure is actually 202,000 BTC or $3.3 billion — remaining from a total 850,000 BTC lost. Bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi and his office have already assessed and approved creditors’ claims according to their BTC, JPY and USD balances at the time Gox shut down in early 2014. But here’s the problem: under Japanese law, the value of a bankrupt company’s non-cash assets are assessed (and frozen) at the time of bankruptcy filing. So creditors, who were never likely to receive more than 20 percent of their original balances anyway, will receive the double insult of getting their diminished bitcoin holdings handed back at $450 (¥50,000) each. The plaintiffs argue that bitcoin and its chaotic price moves put the case in unique and unprecedented legal territory, which demands a fresh look. They are moving to move Mt. Gox out of bankruptcy and into civil rehabilitation. Bitsonline has spoken to people associated with the new lawsuit, who confirmed the action but wished not to be named at this stage. More details on this case and related issues, they said, are coming soon. Unusually for a bankrupt company, Mt. Gox now has about $3.3 billion USD (yes, billion) in asset value. That’s (in theory) more than enough to pay all its liabilities, and possibly even make a massive profit for CEO Mark Karpeles — himself a significant creditor. Long-Time Complaints Over BTC Value Assessment The rising bitcoin price issue in the Gox bankruptcy isn’t new — the legal action represents an official move to address what has become a groundswell among Mt. Gox creditors. There have long been grumblings about the 2014 valuation and calls for Kobayashi’s office to pay creditors in BTC instead of fiat — whatever the current value. These calls continued even when the bitcoin price slumped below the assessed rate from 2014-2015 One counter-argument is that many Mt. Gox bitcoin holders would have sold their BTC for far below the current market value anyway — it’s been a few years of slim pickings. But it’s also impossible to prove, and the current BTC value is very real, so why not make everyone happy? On a surface level and without considering the legal implications, Gox could distribute the bitcoin as bitcoin to creditors’ wallets, and holders could decide what to do with them. That avoids an unlikely situation in which Gox tries to sell all its roughly 202,000 BTC at once — which would crash the price anyway. That could require a change to Japanese law and process, which has moved at a methodical pace since 2014. The Mt Gox Villains Register To many, Karpeles is the main villain in the Gox affair. Others have been more sympathetic, saying he was also the victim of others’ actions beyond his control. Karpeles is currently on trial in Tokyo on fraud and embezzlement charges related to Mt. Gox’s business, but separate to the BTC theft. He already previously spent a whole year in prison waiting for the charges to be formalized, before being released on bail. The identity of the hacker who stole an initial 850,000 BTC from Gox’s “cold” wallets remains unknown — or at least unproven. Analysts and some U.S. federal agencies have pointed the finger at Russian national Alexander Vinnik, whom they also allege held an influential position in the unregulated BTC-e crypto exchange. Kobayashi also confirmed at a hearing in 2016 that lawsuits filed against Mt. Gox by Coinlab and its CEO Peter Vessenes, were delaying payouts to claimants. Coinlab has one active $75 million suit against Gox which would need to be settled before any other funds can be distributed. Ironically, this delay could actually be a plus for some creditors, if it delays claims long enough for the BTC price to rise even higher. Several planets would need to align for that to come true, though. What should the Japanese courts decide? Tell us your opinions and reasons in the comments, and please share this article on Twitter. Images via Jon Southurst, GoxDox |
Hamilton's Tavern 1521 30th Street, South Park Monkey Paw 805 16th Street, East Village Small Bar 4628 Park Boulevard, University Heights When Scot Blair says he’s going to focus more on a new brewing project than anything beer-related that he’s applied his laser-keen attention to in the past, I believe it. One of the most passionate and honest business owners I’ve ever met, he wouldn’t dole out such a statement if he didn’t mean it. Add in the fact that his wife, Karen, who somehow matches his truth and enthusiasm, is all-in on the new venture and it’s impossible not to feel a tinge of excitement. Roughly a year ago, the Blairs let me in on plans to take over the bicycle shop bordering Hamilton’s Café, the small take-out kitchen servicing the couples’ iconic beer bar, Hamilton’s Tavern (1521 30th Street, South Park). Doing so will give the Blairs control of 70% of parcel on the east side of 30th between Cedar and Beech, and they’ll put the new 4,000 to 4,500 square feet to good use by establishing a brewpub called South Park Brewing Company. Already the owner of an award-winning brewpub in East Village’s Monkey Paw Pub & Brewing, Scot believes that every community should have its own brewpub owned and operated by knowledgeable, caring people, and is proud to bring one to the neighborhood where he and his wife kicked off a nationally recognized bar and restaurant empire that also includes Small Bar in University Heights. He feels he has the belief in South Park and affection for its residents to do it right, and wants to establish this business before some Johnny-come-lately who isn’t invested in beer or the community attempts to cash-in with some trendy, posh, inauthentic venue. Hamilton’s Café will be built out so that it can house a pair of kitchens. The original will continue to serve the Hamilton’s Tavern menu and handle take-out orders (the service entrance will remain), while the second will be configured to execute a “casual fish” menu that has yet to be disclosed in detail. There will be plated dishes and prepared sandwiches incorporating cross-cultural influences, all of which will utilize seafood from Catalina Offshore Products, a highly regarded local vendor that the Blairs sought out for its reputation and quality. Fish will also be available to go in a vintage butcher’s case that used to grace The Linkery in North Park before it was converted to Waypoint Public last year. Scot says the design of South Park Brewing Company’s dining room will be cleaner (read: less pleasantly dive-y than his other spots) as well as family-friendly, but in no way cookie-cutter or “Disneyland.” On the brewery side, Monkey Paw’s current five-barrel system will be transported to South Park. Scot is currently working with Escondido’s Premier Stainless Systems on a custom 10-barrel brewhouse that will be installed at Monkey Paw to double that venue’s brewing capacity. Who will brew has yet to be determined, but Blair, who has been deeply involved in conceptualization and recipe development for many of the Monkey Paw beers, will be even more hands-on at the new brewery. Formulation of recipes is already occurring. Styles will be varied, but at this point, Scot is only certain about three of the five beers that will come forth from a quintet of serving tanks. He wants a good IPA, a good malty beer, and a good dark beer to be on all the time. That leaves two tanks for him to have fun with. Expect a great deal of experimentation and, if he has his way, many collaborations with brewers from San Diego and beyond. It’s a large-scale project for a quaint, little (yet big-time funky) neighborhood, and given its scope and the logic behind it, it’s likely South Parks residents will agree with the Blairs that they really are the best-suited pair to bring them a brewpub. |
Former President George W. Bush on Thursday warned against Russia’s attempts to meddle in the United States election, calling on the nation to confront “a new era of cyber threats.” During a forum for the George W. Bush Institute in New York City, Bush detailed recommendations from a call to action paper by two of the institute's scholars. “America must harden its own defenses. Our country must show resolve and resilience in the face of external attacks on our democracy and that begins with confronting a new era of cyber threats,” Bush said. ADVERTISEMENT “This effort is broad, systemic and stealthy. It’s conducted across a range of social media platforms,” Bush said of the threats. “Ultimately this assault won’t succeed, but foreign aggressions including cyberattacks, disinformation and financial influence should never be downplayed or tolerated.” Bush’s comments come as the special counsel appointed by the Office of the Attorney General, in addition to both the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, conduct investigations into Russia’s election interference and any potential ties between President Trump’s campaign staff members and the Kremlin. The congressional probes have recently delved into how Russia may have used social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to interfere in the presidential election. Trump has criticized the Russia investigations as "an excuse used by the Democrats" for their loss in last year's November election. |
RAPORTUL INTEGRAL Instituţiile implicate în procesul de căutare/salvare au avut la dispoziţie date şi informaţii furnizate de la faţa locului de persoanele rănite, neexistând un portofoliu de informaţii verificate, care să permită o evaluare mai corectă a locaţiei unde s-a prăbuşit aeronava. Pe cale de consecinţă, s-a acţionat atipic în raport cu procedura standard, după cum urmează: - În jurul orei 16.01 copilotul Răzvan Petrescu l-a sunat pe tatăl lui şi i-a spus că au aterizat forţat, între Peştera Scărişoara şi localitatea Beliş, că toţi sunt în viaţă şi că el are picioarele rupte; - La ora 16.05, secretarul de stat dr. Raed Aarafat l-a informat despre accident, prin SMS, pe inspectorul general al IGSU – general de brigadă Ion Burlui, ca urmare a convorbirilor telefonice purtate între dr. Zamfir – membru echipă aeronavă, dr. Irinel Popescu (Spitalul Fundeni) şi dr. Zota (Agenţia Naţională de Transplant). - 16.06: dr. Radu Zamfir (pasager în aeronavă) a fost contactat telefonic de către inspectorul general al IGSU pentru informare preliminară privind starea victimelor şi locul accidentului. Doctorul Zamfir a furnizat reperele vizualizate pe ecranul radar al aeronavei (Peştera Scărişoara, localitatea Beliş) şi a efectuat evaluarea primară a victimelor şi acordarea primului ajutor; Orele 16.07 – 16.09: Inspectorul general al IGSU dispune constituirea grupei operative şi alertarea ISU Alba şi ISU Mureş pentru declanşarea procedurii de căutare-salvare a victimelor accidentului; - La ora 16.16:26 Serviciul de Urgenţă a primit un apel, prin Centrul 112 Cluj/Serviciul de Telecomunicaţii Speciale (STS), de la dr. Radu Zamfir, în care a fost anunţată prăbuşirea unui avion. După identificarea urgenţei, conform procedurilor de operare, apelul a fost transferat către ISU Cluj (ora 16.20), SJA Cluj (16.20), IPJ Cluj (16.20), IJJ Cluj (16.20), COAP/MApN (16.22 – 16.27), ROMATSA (între orele 16.28 şi 16.33), Salvamont Braşov (16,34), Elicopter Târgu Mureş. Acesta ar fi trebuit să reprezinte momentul declanşării procedurii prevăzute de Regulamentul privind gestionarea situaţiilor de urgenţă generate de producerea unui accident de aviaţie civilă, aprobat prin HG NR. 741/2008. Potrivit Regulamentului (art.12), alarmarea în caz de accident aviatic se face de către ROMATSA şi/sau de către Sistemul naţional pentru apeluri de urgenţă – 112. Art.16 din acelaşi Regulament specifică faptul că, în baza alarmei primite, Centrul de coordonare – ROMATSA determină zona de căutare a aeronavei dispărute şi declanşează operaţiunile de căutare prin unităţile operative de căutare în a căror zonă de responsabilitate se presupune că ar fi avut loc accidentul (respectiv Unităţi operative ale Ministerului Afacerilor Interne şi unităţi operative ale Ministerului Apărării Naţionale). În acest caz însă, echipamentele de locaţie pentru situaţii de urgenţă (ELT) ale aeronavei nu au funcţionat pe frecvenţa de 406 MHz, prevăzută de Regulament, ci numai pe cea de 121,5 MHz, care nu era aptă să permită localizarea. Au existat informaţii de la aeronave în zbor despre emisia staţiei ELT a aeronavei BN2 prăbuşite, dar nu a exista o informare de la Centrul COSPAS – SARSAT (Centrul de Căutare-Salvare Satelitară), prin Centrul de la Moscova (MCC). Fiind ulterior contactat, de către ROMATSA, (telefonic şi prin e-mail) Centrul de la Moscova nu a comunicat nici un răspuns. 16.20 – Serviciul de Telecomunicații Speciale a alertat şi pus la dispoziţie informaţia de localizare către serviciile de intervenţie: ISU Cluj, IJP Cluj IJJ Cluj, Serviciul judeţean de ambulanţă Cluj. Doctorul Radu Zamfir a revenit de mai multe ori cu apeluri către 112, la orele 16:22:33, 17:30:03, 19:12:39 şi 19:31:51. 16.30 – au fost alertate Centrul de situaţii al Guvernului, MApN şi COS (Centrul Operațional de Salvare) Mureş; 16,30 – elicopterul SMURD de la Târgu Mureş începe misiunea de salvare în zona unde se presupunea că avut loc aterizarea forţată a aeronavei. Echipajul a efectuat cercetarea în zonă însă activitatea a încetat la orele 17,15, datorită condiţiilor meteo nefavorabile (ceaţă, plafon de nori). 16.32 - ordin pre-alertare elicopter ISU Arad. 16:42 - urmare a unor informaţii primite ulterior de la apelant dr. Radu Zamfir, cu precizarea că locul evenimentului ar fi în zona Scărişoara, apelul a fost transferat şi către Centrul 112 Alba, acesta alertând dispeceratele ISU, IJJ, IPJ şi SJA Alba. 16.50 – IJJ Alba a demarat activităţile de căutare/localizare a aeronavei 17.00 – Prefectul judeţului Alba a solicitat sprijin clubului de off-road pentru facilitarea transportului în zonă. 18.15 – comandantul intervenţiei – prim-adjunct al ISU Alba – a dispus organizarea sectoarelor de căutare-salvare, pe direcţii şi formaţiuni de intervenţie: Sud - ISU Alba; Nord – ISU Cluj; Est-Vest – personal Ocol Silvic (pădurari); Vest-Est – ISU Bihor. 19.17 - dr. Radu Zamfir revine cu apel de urgenţă 112; se încearcă din nou obţinerea de date mai exacte de localizare, apelantul comunicând că se află în pădure, în zonă de pantă; de asemenea, se simte miros puternic de benzină. Victimele au aprins un foc la aproximativ 20-30 de metri de avion şi încearcă să resusciteze celelalte persoane rănite grav. Apelantul nu poate da detalii legate de repere precise a zonei în care s-a prăbuşit avionul. Afirmă că se află la jumătatea distanţei între Poiana Horea – localitatea Dârleşti, la limita de județ. 20.15 – IGSU solicită reconfirmarea coordonatelor – în urma rezultatelor acţiunii de căutare, Grupa operativă a IGSU solicită Centrului Naţional de Monitorizare a Situaţiei Operative/MAI realizarea schimbului de date şi informaţii cu SRI şi STS, pentru localizarea telefoanelor mobile aparţinând victimelor pentru identificarea poziţiei aeronavei. La ora 21:13 un lucrător silvic (Trif Gheorghe), membru al echipei de căutare format din personal silvic, a ajuns la locul incidentului, informaţia despre poziţia acestuia fiind comunicată la 112 şi transferată dispeceratelor de urgenţă. 21.15 – Efectivele participante la acţiunea de căutare au fost direcţionate spre Vf. Petreasa, unde a fost indicat locul de prăbuşire a aeronavei. „ROMATSA Bucureşti nu a manifestat un rol activ în conformitate cu competențele prevăzute de lege, nu a luat măsurile necesare în vederea stabilirii zonei de căutare a aeronavei dispărute şi nu a declanşat operaţiunile de căutare, conform Regulamentului aprobat prin HG 471/2008”, se concluzionează în raport. 22.05 – începe transportul victimelor către drumul forestier, fiind preluate apoi de ambulanţe şi alte mijloace. 22.25 – se constituie un punct medical avansat în comuna Horea pentru asigurarea triajului şi stabilizarea victimelor care urmau a fi coborâte de la locul prăbușirii şi se acordă asistenţă medicală de specialitate victimelor. 23.35 - 00.16 – se efectuează manevre de resuscitare ale persoanei de sex feminin (Aurelia ION) în ambulanţă, persoana fiind ulterior declarată decedată. 00.18 – Demararea operaţiunilor de înştiinţare a familiilor pentru victimele decedate. Inspectorul general al IGSU a solicitat sprijin CNMSO (Centrul Național de Monitorizare Situații Operative) pentru anunţarea rudelor persoanelor decedate în accidentul aviatic, sens în care a fost anunţat Centrul operaţional al IGPR. Începând cu ora 01.02 / 21.01.2014, demarează transportul personalului rănit la UPU Cluj. Transportul se finalizează la ora 04.29. 01.55 – echipa de criminalişti, medici legişti şi medici de urgenţă a sosit la locul epavei. 03.15 s-a finalizat operaţiunea de descarcerare a pilotului avionului şi a început coborârea cadavrului pilotului - comandant Adrian Iovan. 04.00 - DGPMB a comunicat faptul că au fost anunţate rudele celor două persoane decedate, Iovan Irina, fiica lui Iovan Adrian, a dnei Grigore Valeria (fostă soţie), respectiv a dlui Ion Victor Alexandru, fratele lui Ion Aurelia. Datele de contact ale rudelor au fost transmise la IGSU. 05.55 - rămân în dispozitiv efective de jandarmi pentru paza aeronavei. |
North Korea declares victory over USA Representatives of the North Korean administration issued a statement saying that the United States and its allies have lost the "political and military confrontation" to the DPRK. Source: UN Security Council official website A press release issued by the Permanent Mission of the DPRK to the United Nations says that the meeting of the Council, held at the initiative of the United States and Japan, not only disregarded the Charter of the Organization, but also serves as an act against the will of the majority of UN member states. North Korean officials noted that the UN Security Council turned into a tool in the hands of the United States, whereas the confidence of the international community in the UN Security Council reached a bottom line, which may only emphasize the need to reform the UN Security Council." The statement also notes that "the Korean people will continue strengthening and developing the Korean socialist system, where human dignity has reached the highest level." Pravda.Ru Read article on the Russian version of Pravda.Ru |
Last week I looked at the realistic ceilings and floors for the top 5 players on the Denver Nuggets roster including Danilo Gallinari and Kenneth Faried. Today, I'll take a look at the bench players, where the Nuggets are hoping one or two of their young prospects will emerge as a long-term foundation piece. The bench has a few veterans who will provide some stability and leadership, especially Jameer Nelson, but a majority of the Nuggets bench will be extremely young and inexperienced as they enter training camp. Will Barton Ceiling - 16 ppg, .350 3FG%, 25 mpg, MIP Barton embraced the city of Denver the moment it was announced that he was traded. With Denver's season off the rails and with a huge hole at SG, Barton knew he had a great chance to come in and play big minutes and he seized the opportunity, scoring 15 or more in 4 of his first 5 games. A healthy Denver team provides a little bit more competition at SG as Randy Foye, Gary Harris, Jameer Nelson, and even Wilson Chandler will play minutes there, but Barton will have an excellent opportunity to build on his great play in 28 games as a Denver Nugget. Floor - 5 ppg, poor shot selection, <.400 fg> Before Barton got to Denver he was an end of the bench type player for the Portland Trailblazers, getting DNPs and rarely getting the opportunity to show off his talents. In Denver, Barton played with a lot of heart and hustle but his shot selection and discipline on defense were inconsistent. Malone may have a problem with both of those traits and Barton will have to find the balance between playing loose and staying efficient and in control or he might risk falling behind one of the numerous young SGs the team has behind him. Adam's prediction - 8 ppg, energy guy, .430 FG% I think Barton will be much closer to the player he was for Denver last season than the player he was in Portland the two-and-a-half seasons before that. His ceiling and floor is as open as anyone on the team's and with shooting guard being the most up-for-grabs position on the roster, Barton will have a great chance to grab a lot of minutes. I think he'll be a player that improves as the season goes on but may face an early adjustment period to Malone's more rigid style of coaching. The biggest variable will be if he can dramatically improve his 3-point efficiency. I'm skeptical that he can improve enough to be a real threat from deep but If he figures out his shot, he'll be in the conversation for most improved player. Darrell Arthur Ceiling - 9 ppg, 20 mpg, defensive anchor Last season, the Nuggets were 9.1 points per 100 possessions better on the defensive end when Darrell was on the court. That was far and away the best on/off defensive rating on the team. Darrell might find more minutes under Malone, even in a crowded back court, especially if he can provide low post protection. Floor - 5 ppg, 2 3FGA, The frontcourt is the most crowded positon on the Nuggets roster and Darrell will be fighting with Kenneth Faried, JJ Hickson, and Joffery Lauvergne for minutes. Faried will get the most minutes at the position and Joff may get more minutes based solely on his youth and the Nuggets desire to prepare for the future. Additionally, over the last two seasons, Darrell has experimented as a stretch four but has not been very accurate as a 3-point shooter. Adam's prediction - 15 mpg, 0.5 3FGA, defensive specialist Darrell will be an interesting case study in what coach Malone values. I don't see him shooting as many 3-pointers as he did under Brian Shaw and it probably won't be an efficient offense if Darrell is constantly taking shots from the mid range. So it will be interesting to see how he is used in the offense. But Malone is a defensive coach and Darrell is a very good defensive player. My guess is he steals minutes from both Joffrey and Hickson and even slides over to center in short stints. Joffrey Lauvergne Ceiling - 20 mpg, 8 ppg, 8 rpg Joffrey's minutes were wildly inconsistent last season. That may have been due in part to Joff's unfamiliarity with the schemes and speed of the NBA since he arrived in Denver midway though the season. With consistent minutes and a well-defined role, Joff could become a great energy guy off of the bench. He'll probably never put up gaudy numbers, but he can be a grunt work guy that gets two or three 5-7 minute stretches per game, provides a decent post game and knocks down open shots. Floor - 7 mpg, .400 FG% The most alarming thing about Joffrey is his low FG%, especially in the spots around the rim just outside of the restricted area where he shot just 38%. It was a fairly small sample size but he'll need to improve his touch on jump hooks and shots at the rim if he wants to stand out among a crowded frontcourt. Adam's prediction - 15 mpg, 5.5 ppg, 48% TS A lot of Joffrey's success will depend on what role he is given and whether he accepts that role. He has some unique skills and runs the floor very well in transition. I think he is used best as a hustle guy and if he can get in to the game and go all out for 5 minute stretches, he'll become a Malone favorite and will have a very successful year. JJ Hickson Ceiling - 12ppg, 10 rpg There isn't a whole lot of mystery to JJ Hickson. After 7 seasons, you pretty much know what you get with him. A double double is highly unlikely but it's his ceiling, especially if Malone elects to play him a lot of minutes, rather than giving minutes to some of Denver's younger talent at PF and C. Floor - 7 ppg, 5 rpg This is basically his stat line from last season as Hickson saw his minutes get dramatically reduced. I can't imagine it would get much worse than this. If Hickson is on the court, he'll fall into 7 points and 5 rebounds. He's an interesting case because he does some of the things offensively that Malone loves, yet will probably drive Malone crazy on the defensive end. Adam's prediction - 8ppg, 6 rpg Hickson is sort of a pivotal guy in terms of telling whether the coaching staff is playing for today or playing for tomorrow. Hickson will be more consistent and, in a sense, more reliable than most of our younger players. However, Hickson probably isn't a part of the long-term future in Denver and probably shouldn't get 20+ mpg unless the goal is to win 35 games. That'd be an awful goal and I'm hopeful that he plays somewhere around 15 mpg off the bench. Gary Harris Ceiling - 20 mpg, .360 3FG%, 1 spg SG is both the most open position on the Nuggets roster. The lion's share of the minutes are ripe for the taking if either Harris or Barton can make a leap. As a rookie last season, Harris didn't get very many minutes and when he did play he struggled with his shot from the perimeter. These things are to be expected from rookies but I still think the ceiling on his 3-point shot will be somewhere around league average. One of the things that stood out the most at summer league was how quick Harris's hands are. If he is guarding a player in isolation he is almost certain to get his hand on the ball at some point. Malone will love that and Gary might get minutes even if his shot isn't falling based solely on his defensive instincts. Floor - 10 mpg, .200 3FG% I have reservations about Harris's confidence from beyond the arc. Often times he'll look to drive to the lane even when he is wide open on the perimeter. He shot an eye popping 5 of 33 from the corners last season. And while he can be a great on ball defender, he still gets lost on rotations at times and at 6'4" he is a bit small to guard some of the taller shooting guards in the league. His floor would be a lack of improvement from last season which may place him on the bench behind Barton, Nelson, Foye and even Nick Johnson. Adam's prediction - 15 mpg, .330 3FG%, up and down performances Harris will be an interesting one because there are plenty of minutes up for grabs at SG and I am really hoping he plays well enough to earn a lot of them. However, there are real concerns about how he fits into the league as a somewhat undersized shooting guard who prefers dribble drives to catch and shoot shots. I'm hopeful that Malone has patience with him and can find ways to put him position to become an efficient outside shooter. That may happen over time, but I think next season will see very mixed results. Jameer Nelson Ceiling - Solid leadership It's hard to quantify Jameer's ceiling since his biggest contribution this season will be his role as a leader of the team and a mentor to Emmanuel Mudaiy. Jameer will be the oldest and most experienced player on the team and he seems to have embraced the role of leader, having recently invited several players to his home in Philadelphia to work out and prepare for training camp. His on-court production has been fairly consistent throughout his career and we know what we'll get on the court with Jameer. It's his ability to lead a team that desperately lacked leadership last season that will be his biggest responsibility. Floor - Poor leadership It's not even so much about poor leadership as it is allowing the team to get away with some of the things that happened last season. Players quitting on the team or giving half effort shouldn't happen with a strong veteran presence. Do you think the Nuggets would've been blown out at home game after game if Kevin Garnett was on the team? Jameer will be graded this season in part by how he keeps the team focused and working toward a far-off goal. Adam's prediction - Solid leadership A team can have several types of leaders. Danilo Gallinari will be the team's best player and will hopefully step into the on-court leader, the player that demands the ball in big moments, and who sets the intensity on the court. Jameer can be the locker room leader, the player that makes sure guys are getting their rest, working on their game, and focused on the right things throughout the season. He can also be the guy that picks a player up when that player has been struggling or shows up early to go over film with him. Jameer chose to be in Denver this summer when he could've signed with almost any team. My guess is that he is excited about the opportunity to be one of the Nuggets leaders. Possibly as a segue into a post-playing career as a coach? Randy Foye Ceiling - >.400 3FG%, 10 ppg Foye might be the best 3-point shooter at the SG position and shooting is the skill that the Nuggets will need the most in the upcoming season. After missing 32 games last season, Foye may be able to step in and contribute big minutes right away, spacing the court and even providing some ball-handling. Floor - 6 ppg, 15 mpg Foye had the least productive season of his career last year, in part due to injuries but possibly due also to the scheme. The team as a whole shot very poorly from beyond the arc so Foye's .357 3FG% shouldn't be too shocking. However, do Malone and the Nuggets front office really want to give the 31-year old Foye heavy minutes when they have three young prospects competing for minutes at SG? Adam's prediction - Traded At 31 years old, Foye's prime is probably behind him and as he plays out the last year on his contract, he'll probably be anxious to play for an extension or one final contract next season. That puts his motivation at odds with the team's motivation in that he'll be trying to grab minutes over young prospects who will need minutes in order to improve. The Nuggets may look to move Foye in a trade although it is highly unlikely that they look to add long term salary without taking on additional picks or prospects. Nikola Jokic Ceiling - 15 mpg, 70 GP Jokic is such a skilled player that I could easily see him knocking down three 3-pointers one night and then dishing out six assists the next night. His per game numbers don't have to be very high for him to have a successful year. All he needs to do is contribute consistently enough to earn 15 minutes per game, night in and night out. Experience is the best teacher but the only way he'll get on-court experience this season is if he earns them by showing he can handle 15 mpg. Floor - 5 mpg, 40 GP The speed and strength of the NBA will be a huge adjustment for Jokic and it could take at least one season before he is able to make any kind of impact. If Malone wants to bring him along slowly, he'll likely see a fair amount of DNP's and play extremely limited minutes. There is also the chance that players like Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin just abuse Jokic in his rookie season and it will be hard for Malone to find 5-minute stretches where he can let Jokic test the waters. Adam's prediction - 10 mpg, 55 GP As I've written here before, I am incredibly high on Jokic and I think he has the unique skill set to become a very good NBA player. However, even I think he is a multi-year project and will likely be a liability this season when he is on the court. He'll have flashes of brilliance, tossing incredible passes and showing off some solid footwork in the post but for the most part, I don't expect to see very much out of Jokic this season. If he looks better in March than he does in November, that alone will be a victory. Nick Johnson Ceiling - Breaks into the rotation, defensive specialist, .350 3FG% Nick enters the team in kind of a tough spot. He and Gary Harris have very similar strengths and weaknesses and as rookies last season, neither player played very many minutes. Harris will likely get the edge on Johnson since he's been with the team longer which means Johnson will be 4th on the depth chart at SG to enter the season. I expect he and Harris will have a lot of battles in training camp and it will be interesting to see who, if either, emerges from that battle. Floor - Out of the rotation It's that simple. If he doesn't play well, I'm not sure the coaching staff is going to invest a ton of time into him and therefore his numbers will be irrelevant. His floor for this season is being stuck on the bench. Adam's prediction - Probably in and out of the rotation Johnson will get minutes in a Nuggets uniform but he has a heck of an uphill battle to fight. If the Nuggets move Foye then he'll have a better chance but as it stands now he'll probably be an afterthought unless he really impresses in training camp. The one thing that he can do to increase his chances is shoot lights out from three and outperform Harris on the defensive end. However, in a very small sample size, Nick scored just 20% on 29 spot up attempts last season. That level of inefficiency will make it difficult for him to get minutes. Erick Green Ceiling - Breaks into the rotation Last season, Green had a hard time finding minutes, appearing in just over half of the team's games. He's stayed in town for much of the off-season, working out with Nuggets trainer Steve Hess and the rest of the Nuggets training staff. He also had a decent summer league where he was able to get acquainted with rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay. Floor - Out of the rotation Despite losing Ty Lawson, the Nuggets backcourt got a little bit more crowded with the additions of Mudiay, Johnson, Barton, and the return of Foye. Green is likely at the bottom of that pecking order and it is unclear what role best suits him. He is listed as a point guard but only injuries would open up minutes for him at PG. He is more likely to get minutes as a SG but he carries many of the same deficiencies as Johnson and Harris, namely, size and shooting. Adam's prediction - Out of the rotation I like Green a lot and will be rooting for him to take advantage of the minutes he gets this season. The harsh reality is that he is fighting an uphill battle against several other players that are all slightly better than him and who share his same strengths and weaknesses. He's been around the team and at Pepsi Center a lot this summer and that is certainly worth something. But I'm not sure he can stand out enough to earn consistent minutes. |
You've been using open source software for a while, and now you want to give back to the community. Even with solid advice, you're probably finding that it's difficult to sift through all of the projects out there to find one that's right for you. To help, I've put together a list of five open source projects that you should consider joining in 2015. Many of them may not be the highest profile projects out there, but they do offer some interesting challenges. And helping them is a great way to give back to the community. Ready? Let's jump in! BRL-CAD If 3D modelling interests you, then BRL-CAD is just the ticket. It's a powerful and flexible system that can present an unique challenge to coders, testers, and even trainers and UI designers. There are numerous tasks that you can tackle which, according to the project team, "range from the very hard and math intense to tedious and VERY easy." You can pick some low-hanging tasks that will take a few hours complete, or aim higher and attack some of the major project ideas. If you're a programmer, you can help clean up the code. You can learn more about getting involved by reading the Contributors' Guide to BRL-CAD. Speed Dreams Have a need for speed? Love gaming? Speed Dreams could be the project you're looking to join. It's a 3D motorsport simulation and racing game that runs on Windows and Linux, with a Mac OS version about 95% complete. How can you contribute? The project is looking for developers, designers, and people to write documentation. If you're a gamer, getting on board with Speed Dreams could be a great way of both combining your passions for gaming and open source. OpenMRS It's not often that you can work on a software project that actually helps people. OpenMRS is one of those projects. It's platform that helps doctors and health care programs manage patient records. The project is looking for contributors of all stripes: coders, testers, IT support, technical writers, UI designers, and translators. To get started, you can join the OpenMRS community and discuss ideas, suggest new features and bug fixes, or promote the project. Audacity Audacity, the popular sound recording and editing software, doesn't need much introduction. It's been around since May 2000 and is still growing and improving. And it continues to gain users. Like many open source projects, Audacity is looking for a range of contributors. Not just developers and testers, but also people to write documentation and to translate the software, the Audacity website, and the program's documentation into various languages. You can also help out by reporting bugs and requesting features. FLOSS Manuals You're not a coder. You're not a designer or a tester. But you can write. In that case, you'll want to check out FLOSS Manuals. The project is "more than a collection of manuals about free and open source software, it is also the community." An active community, at that. The great thing about FLOSS Manuals is that you don't have to jump in and write a manual from scratch. You can help update existing books or just fix typos and errors. You can also edit and proofread books, or help promote the project. You can learn more about getting involved here. If these projects don't appeal to you There's a chance they won't, and if that's the case, then check out OpenHatch or Open Hub which help you track, compare, and choose open source projects to join. Tell us: Do you have a favorite open source project that you think people should join in 2015? |
Energy closed about 0.7 percent higher, giving up earlier gains of more than 1 percent. The sector led advancers in the S&P 500, while financials lagged. Crude oil settled up 53 cents, or 1.15 percent, at $46.59 a barrel. "There's just a whole lot of uncertainty in markets right now," said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at EverBank. We've had "a very good month following a very poor quarter in the third quarter. I think it's some volatility and questioning." Read MoreSo just how great was October for markets? The major averages had their best month since October 2011. The S&P 500 closed up 8.3 percent for the month, while the Dow ended nearly 8.5 percent higher for the month. The Nasdaq composite finished October up nearly 9.4 percent. "You still have very stimulative measures," said Nick Raich, CEO of The Earnings Scout. "You have people who performance chase into the end of the month. It's been a phenomenal October." He said of the 68 percent of S&P 500 firms that have reported so far, 72 percent have beat earnings estimates but only 43 percent have beat revenue forecasts. That percentage of sales beats is below the 58 percent average, Raich said. Read MoreStocks could fade after best month in four years Soft economic data in October encouraged investors' hopes of a delayed U.S. rate hike, while talk of further stimulus from the European Central Bank and a rate cut in China added to a global trend of easy monetary policy. "Absent central bank intervention, this October rally would have fizzled," Raich said. Some recovery in oil prices and diminished concerns about negative impact from China slowdown also supported October's gains. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite ended the month with gains for the year so far, and the Dow within 1 percent of breaking even for 2015. "We're now seeing China may be a soft landing, not a hard fall," Gaffney said. WTI crude closed up 3.33 percent for the month, after hitting its highest level since July of $50.92 a barrel in October. European stocks ended mixed Friday, under some pressure from weak corporate earnings, but the DAX, CAC and Euro STOXX 600 posted their best month in 6 years. Japan's Nikkei closed nearly 0.8 percent higher after the Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady. The index gained 9.75 percent in October for its best month since April 2013. The Shanghai composite and Hang Seng both ended lower on the day but posted their best month since April this year. The Shanghai composite had its first positive month in five. Read MoreJanet Yellen just got some pretty bad news In U.S. economic news, personal income rose 0.1 percent in September, while personal consumption rose 0.1 percent. The employment cost index rose 0.6 percent in the third quarter. The Fed's preferred inflation measure, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, slipped 0.1 percent in September. The decline marked the first drop since January. PCE "certainly wasn't in the category that gives the Fed confidence that we're really pushing the needle towards strong inflation," said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial. Read MoreTepper: THIS could be 'magic formula' for stocks After the market open, the final read for October consumer sentiment came in at 90.0. "I don't think there's anything in today's data that moves the needle," said Peter Boockvar, chief market analyst at The Lindsey Group. He noted that outside the gains in the major U.S. averages for the week and the month, the Shanghai Composite ended nearly 1 percent lower for the week, despite last Friday's rate cut by the People's Bank of China. In the United States, the Russell 2000 and Dow transports also underperformed the major averages for the week and month. |
I’m pleased to report that President Jim Yong Kim has asked me to join the World Bank as Chief Economist and I have agreed to accept his offer. This may surprise you. It surprises me. I have often said to myself that the intersection of the set of jobs in Washington DC that I would find intellectually exciting and the set of jobs that I would accept is empty. Intellectual excitement depends on the chance to learn. The decisions people make when they work in Washington tend to have real consequences, so it is risky to be learning on the job there. A good place to learn is in a job at a university. I came to NYU in 2010 because Dean Peter Henry of the Stern School of Business and President John Sexton were willing to back my vague hunch that there was an opportunity to build a new academic field of inquiry based on “the city as a unit of analysis.” Roughly a century ago, there was no such thing as a business school. Now, the business is a standard unit of academic analysis. Could we bring the same focus to the city? The city is interesting because it fits in between the business and the nation. It is relevant because two of the most predictable patterns in the process of economic development are the shift of employment from agriculture to manufacturing and services and the associated shift in the spatial location of economic activity toward cities. After I arrived, Don Marron offered to support work at NYU on the city. Early in his career, Don hired Otto Eckstein to come work for his new company, Data Resources Incorporated (which came to be known as DRI.) So he had some tolerance for the peculiarities of academic economists and a clear sense of the value of quantitative data as a guide in making decisions. From his experience leading Paine Webber, he also understood the difference between management and policy and the essential role of measurement as a tool of management. His support made possible the Marron Institute of Urban Management. In my work as head of the Stern School’s Urbanization Project and then also as director of the Marron Institute, I had the good fortune to connect with two of the most experienced observers of urban development, Alain Bertaud and Shlomo (Solly) Angel. All I had to do in my official capacity was provide air cover so they could do their work, then watch what they did so I could learn. They both learned about the connection between urban and economic development through decades of work funded by the World Bank. I am betting that going to the World Bank will let me learn enough to keep up with them when I get back. This position gives me a unique chance to learn about the thing that fascinates me most – producing knowledge that is useful in the sense that it yields benefits on the scale of billions of people. If you are familiar with my early work on ideas as nonrival goods, you can appreciate why scale is so compelling to me. So the chance to learn is hard to pass up. And because I will be working with, and working for, people with lots of experience, the risks seem manageable. It is an example of something I never thought possible: an intellectually exciting job in Washington DC that I am eager to accept. Proof yet again of things I have said before, perhaps without fully appreciating that “we” and “us” includes me: – More things are possible than we realize. – Often, what holds us back is a failure of imagination. |
Via Mark Halperin and Jim Geraghty, who points out that Detroit’s TV market doesn’t reach Ohio. This is all about defending Michigan, which would have seemed crazy a month ago but now, in a world where The One is under 50 percent in Oregon, makes lots of sense. This is, after all, a state capable of electing a Republican governor (by a landslide) and a Republican legislature, and there’s a native son at the top of the GOP ticket. The last poll of Michigan — taken one week ago — showed a dead heat. I wonder what those Hopenchange internal numbers are showing right now. From Halperin: An Obama aide tells me this on the Michigan ad buy: “Restore Our Future went up with a $2 million buy in Michigan. We’re matching states where they go up. We’re not going to let them make a play anywhere.” Both sides have enough money for these end-game ad forays. The real issues remain candidate time/visits, the psy-ops involved here, and the belief of some Republicans that a combination of Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania could surprise on Election Day. My only question: How likely is it that any of those three states comes through for Romney if Ohio doesn’t? And if Ohio comes through, why do we need any of those states? Seems like maybe the Romney Super PAC’s ad buy is less about stealing Michigan to capture the presidency even if Ohio falls through than it is (a) forcing Obama to divert money to a formerly “safe” state, and (b) increasing the odds of a big red wave if there’s a final small tilt towards Romney nationally (or regionally) over the next seven days. In that case, he wouldn’t “need” Michigan to win but it’d be lovely to have it as proof of a mandate to govern, and that’ll come in handy in twisting Democratic arms during those fiscal cliff/deficit reduction negotiations. Elsewhere in “painting the map red” news: Romney just went up with his first ad in Pennsylvania, a state that ABC moved from “safe Democratic” to “lean Democratic” just yesterday — along with Minnesota. In the northwest, Team Mitt may be eyeing not only Oregon but even Washington state(!) as having turned more purplish than anticipated. And here’s a new ad from Citizens United that’s going up in Wisconsin and New Hampshire — a.k.a. Romney’s Plan B — but it’s not aimed at drumming up GOP turnout. In fact, it’s airing not on Fox News but on CNN and MSNBC. When you watch, you’ll understand why. |
We’re excited to release our base model of the Sette Series, the Sette 30 AP! It is built with the AP burr, designed for our high end Sette 270/270W grinders, which produces an exceptional espresso grind. It’s an inexpensive grinder at $249 to get started on an espresso journey, suitable for basic and advanced espresso machines. The Sette 30 AP can also be used for grinding for manual brewing methods that require a finer grind (for example, AeroPress and Hario V60). You may be scratching your heads, thinking that this was going to be a brew focused grinder as previously presented, right? Well we have a story around that that’s kept us very busy. We launched the Sette 30 as a brew grinder at SCAA in April. A couple of months later, we felt it didn’t work as well as we would like it to, as a brew grinder, and we postponed the release. However, we were met with pushback and serious demand for this entry level gem, from domestic and international customers. We like to listen closely to our customer’s needs and one of the benefits of being a small company is that we have the ability to be nimble and not constrained by bureaucracy. So, after all the demand, we’ve changed course on the Sette 30 and are releasing it in this different format – with the AP burr as an Entry Level Espresso Grinder! Across the board, the feedback has been that the Sette AP burr, which is in the Sette 270 and 270W, is phenomenal for espresso, so it made sense to build the 30 with this burr too. From our tests we feel confident that it is a winner for espresso enthusiasts at the entry level, while also providing amazing quality and value in the price point against other grinders in this range. Check this blog about some of our testing. We plan to begin shipping the Sette 30 AP at the end of August in the US. We continue to offer the BG burr to those who are interested – this burr grinds in the fine to mid-coarse range which is more suitable for filter/manual brewing (eg Automatic Brewers, Chemex) and espresso. We are working with our burr manufacturer, Etzinger, to design a coarse burr that will be as exceptional for all styles of filter/manual brew grinding as the AP burr is for espresso. We will update you as we have information. Knowing that the grind is the critical first step on the path to great tasting espresso, we think this Sette 30 will be a game changer for the home espresso enthusiast! |
BEIRUT, Lebanon — In the images, he sits alone, a small boy coated with gray dust and encrusted blood. His little feet barely extend beyond his seat. He stares, bewildered, shocked and, above all, weary, as if channeling the mood of Syria. The boy, identified by medical workers as Omran Daqneesh, 5, was pulled from a damaged building after a Syrian government or Russian airstrike in the northern city of Aleppo. He was one of 12 children under the age of 15 treated on Wednesday — not a particularly unusual figure — at one of the hospitals in the city’s rebel-held eastern section, according to doctors there. But some images strike a particular nerve, for reasons both obvious and unknowable, jarring even a public numbed to disaster. Omran’s is one. Within minutes of being posted by witnesses and journalists, a photograph and a video of Omran began rocketing around the world on social media. Unwittingly, Omran — like Alan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler who drowned last September and whose body washed up on a Turkish beach — is bringing new attention to the thousands upon thousands of children killed and injured during five years of war and the inability or unwillingness of global powers to stop the carnage. |
Hat Sizing Chart * Head Circumference Adult Hat Size Inches Centimeters Fitted Easy Fit Sized Stretch Fit Stretch Fit/Adjustable 21 1/4 54 6 3/4 Small (S) Small/Medium (S/M) 21 5/8 55 6 7/8 22 55.9 7 Medium (M) One Size Fits Most 22 3/8 56.8 7-1/8 Medium/Large (M/L) 22 3/4 57.8 7-1/4 Large (L) 23 1/8 58.7 7 3/8 23 1/2 59.7 7 1/2 XL Large/XL (L/XL) 23 7/8 60.6 7 5/8 24 1/4 61.6 7 3/4 XXL 24 5/8 62.5 7 7/8 25 63.5 8 Head Circumference Children's Hat Size Inches Centimeters Fitted Easy Fitted Stretch Fitted Kids 18 1/2 47 Infant 19 48 6 XSM 19 3/8 49.2 6 1/8 S Toddler 19 3/4 50.2 6 1/4 S/M 20 1/8 51 6 3/8 M Child 20 1/2 52 6 1/2 20 7/8 53 6 5/8 L L/X Youth 21 1/4 54 6 3/4 21 5/8 55 6 7/8 XL 22 55.9 7 *These charts are for reference only. Fit may vary depending on the construction, materials and manufacturer. |
× About the Podcast It’s time to get authentic - without the fluff. With The Art of Authenticity, Laura Coe - coach, author, entrepreneur, and philosophy lover - gets real people to get honest, get specific, and go deep about what it really means to live an authentic life and feel amazing, everyday. From figuring out step-by-step how to get the career and relationships that best reflect who you are, to understanding the intricacies of your own mental and physical health, The Art of Authenticity is a real-world guide on becoming the the best, most true version of yourself and the key to finally living a lighter, freer life. Laura has interviewed featured Oprah guests like Dr. Shefali and Dr. Laura Berman, New York Times best selling authors from Ron Lieber to Jeff Goins, leading podcasters from Farnoosh Torabi to John Lee Dumas and countless entrepreneurs and CEOs. |
Baby Girl Discovered with Dead Mouse in Mouth at Preschool Email Print Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin A mother was outraged after learning of a gruesome incident involving her baby and a local childcare center, which has led to a probe by the state health department. The Donald K. Tucker Childcare Center, located in Newark, N.J., sparked criticism after 8-month-old baby Alanah Barba was found nibbling on a rodent while being supervised by preschool staff. "I'm very upset because first of all they should've been watching her more carefully," mother Brittany Barba vented to CNN. The baby was initially found by her grandmother, who assumed that the creature was a toy, but after closer inspection, realized that it was actually a dead mouse. "There's germs, mice carry disease, disgusted by it all," the baby's aunt Nadiyyah Miller told WABC News. Miller explained that the entire family is frustrated because the daycare center refused to answer their questions about the incident, even denying them access to view the incident report. Although the daycare center released a statement explaining that the incident was rare, Miller and Barba have criticized the childcare center for failing to answer a series of questions including how long the rodent was in Alanah's mouth. "This was an isolated incident. I was really hurt by this. It could have been my child," executive director, Kiburi Tucker said. The health department has already visited the premise since the incident occurred, offering prevention tips including moving the childcare center furniture away from walls and reorganizing shelves. "I feel like they (the preschool) were trying to cover it up," Miller said, dismissing Tucker's response to the incidence. "Who was watching her? They need to watch the kids more," Barba fumed. "Lately she's been vomiting. Everything she's eaten, she's throwing it back up," she added. "She could have swallowed it … And- God forbid for saying it- she could have died," a distressed Barba said. Alanah was immediately taken to the emergency room, and the status of her current condition is unknown. Barba, a regular volunteer at the childcare center, immediately removed Alanah, who will likely not return. It is unclear whether Barba plans to take any action against the preschool. |
The Liberals and New Democrats sparred today over the NDP's proposed child-care plan while on the campaign trail. Liberal candidate John McCallum, the incumbent in Markham-Unionville, called NDP financial policies in general "a mirage," and suggested NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is not being realistic about funding child care. "The NDP does not tell us that the provincial governments have to put up $3.3 billion per year to make this plan work," McCallum told reporters in Ottawa. "Where are the provinces going to come up with $3.3 billion? "I come from Ontario," he continued. "Ontario has a significant deficit. Ontario would have to come up with a billion dollars plus per year. Where's Ontario going to get that money? If the provinces don't come up with the money, there won't be child-care spaces." The high-profile Liberal candidate zeroed in on the NDP plan to create one million new day-care spaces, costing $15 a day, saying it will never happen. Of the three main party leaders, only Mulcair had campaign events scheduled Saturday. He was in Saint-Jérôme, Que., where he highlighted his party's child-care plan and insisted his party will "get it done." "Across the country, whether it's boards of trade, or chambers of commerce, or local community groups or families, everybody is happy that the NDP has a clear plan to put in place one million, $15-a-day quality child-care spaces," he said. "Now, I understand the frustration of the Liberals, because they had 13 years to get it done the last time and they didn't get it done. That's their track record. That's their balance sheet. We're going to get it done," Mulcair said. McCallum, a former bank economist, also took aim at the Conservatives, saying they are weak on the economy. He asserted the country's books are already back in the red this year, contrary to Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's insistence, before calling the Oct. 19 election, that the budget will be balanced. McCallum appeared before reporters alongside Montreal Liberal candidate Marwah Rizqy, a tax policy expert, and Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist and author of books on income inequality. The trio portrayed the Liberals as "the party of balanced budgets." |
For anyone who was hoping to see Carey Price get a shot at dominating the World Championship for Canada this offseason, it's not going to happen. Radio Canada is reporting that Price sustained a concussion in practice last Thursday and will be shut down for the year. The Canadiens organization has not confirmed their goaltender as officially having a concussion, only stating that Price has been suffering from headaches, and will undergo further testing. It's getting to the point where you almost have to laugh this season. Very few players have made it through the season unscathed, and some of the ones who have are being dragged through the mud by fans and media. Peter Budaj will take over the reigns for Price and likely start all three remaining games. Budaj's play has gotten markedly better throughout the season after some great work by goaltending coach Pierre Groulx, which is encouraging for next season. It's unclear as of yet who will get the call up from Hamilton, but Robert Mayer has been getting more starts than Nathan Lawson lately. Either way Peter Delmas is likely to get some starts for the Bulldogs down the stretch. On the bright side, this gives the Canadiens a better shot at wrapping up that 2nd overall draft pick. |
Donate On November 12, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda) and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement reached a ceasefire agreement, according to the HTS-linked news agency Iba’a. The source said that the ceasefire is sponsored by leaders of the local tribes. Earlier, public figures from Atarib town in the western Aleppo countryside called on Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement to stop the clashes, and stressed that the locals will defend their areas from any attackers this time. Before the ceasefire took place, Iba’a announced that the Ajnad al-Sham armed group joined HTS. In an official statement, Ajnad al-Sham said that it chose to be a part of “the Sunni body”. Meanwhile, the Hezbollah media wing in Syria revealed that 100 fighters were killed in the clashes between HTS and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement in the western Aleppo countryside. The high number of casualties suggests that the groups will likely clash with each other again. Although of all the rumors about the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement advances in the last few days, local sources confirmed that HTS still controls all of its strategic positions in the western Aleppo countryside. It was once again confriemd that all the opposition armed groups can’t win a battle against HTS without a direct support from a foreign power. Donate |
Digital Album Digital Album Streaming + Download Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Purchasable with gift card Buy Digital Album $2 CAD or more You own this Send as Gift Limited Edition Audio Cassette PRESALE Cassette + Digital Album THIS IS A PRESALE. CASSETTE SHIPS MID-MARCH 2016 Professionally printed in real-time on neon green translucent cassettes. Color paper stickers on each side of cassette (yet to be designed). SIngle side color j-card. Shrinkwrapped. A stolen piece of candy will be included with shipment. Includes unlimited streaming of 身元THIEF via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Sold Out Share / Embed about DISCLAIMER FROMT THE ARTIST (AND LOST ANGLES) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I HAVE STOLEN THE IDENTITIES OF SOME OF THE MOST BELOVED NAMES IN VAPOR. I WILL STRIKE AGAIN, AND I WILL HIT MORE PEOPLE NEXT TIME. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. YOU ARE NOT SAFE. THESE WORKS ARE NOT BY THE ARTISTS MENTIONED IN THE SONG TITLES. THESE ARE ALL ORIGINAL WORKS BY 身元THIEF. NONE OF THESE WORKS ARE AUTHORIZED. credits idthief.bandcamp.com/releases released January 29, 2016 license all rights reserved |
I was told that Nintendo and the Switch were doomed because they waited until October to officially announce the console. Then I was told they were even more doomed and no one would buy Switch because they were going to wait until January to fully reveal the console. Then I was told Nintendo was doomed and the Switch wasn't going to sell because it was just the Wii U all over again and Nintendo never learns. Now I'm sitting here looking at a still-sold-out console that is outpacing Wii, Wii U, and 3DS and a launch game that had over a 100% attach rate. In the current outlook (both inside and outside the company) it will come close to or surpass the lifetime sales of their previous console in the next year. So, with all due respect to the concerned fans, I'm going to remain skeptical of the current doom talk. (Do I think Nintendo can just pack it up and not worry about the future of Switch? Absolutely not. They need to keep building on the success of their console and continually drive it forward. But I'm also not going to get my undies in bunch over one indie being upset their friendship with Nintendo didn't automatically entitle them to getting their port greenlit for Switch. Especially when there are 70+ indies working on Switch as we speak, and many of them have went on record with glowing praise for the process and working with Nintendo. There are limited internal resources and devkits available during the early days of a console. Nintendo decided on a set of priorities for their digital storefront and they are executing that plan. We'll see how it works out in the end, but the October announcement, the January reveal, and the console as a whole have all seemed to go pretty well for them thus far, so at this point they probably deserve some benefit of the doubt as well as the opportunity to keep rolling out their Switch business in the way they want.) Anyway, good for Nintendo! A solid showing so far, and as a fan and gamer, I hope it continues. Good luck! I know there's going to be missteps and things I don't agree with along the way (they are perpetually doomed, after all,) but hopefully the forest continues to thrive despite a few fallen trees. |
If young families in New England can’t find a starter home to buy, she might be partly to blame. As a small-time real estate investor, she swoops in and buys would-be starter homes before families can and turns them into rentals. She says she feels badly about it … but she also feels she has to do it, for her own security, and because tax laws nudge her that way. As a single mother, she and her son live in a condo while she bets long on land, and being a landlord is the only path she sees to financial security. “It is a dog-eat-dog world out there,” she told me. At Credit.com, we’ve chronicled the disappearance of the inexpensive starter home, and the frustration that’s causing first-time homebuyers around the country. Smaller, cheaper, older single-family homes — and homes in foreclosure — are being snapped up by investors and turned into rentals around the country. According to RealtyTrac, about one-third of all three-bedroom homes purchased in the past year weren’t bought by people who live in them. They were mostly bought to be turned into rentals. That’s made life harder for families just starting out, and some believe making America a land of renters instead of owners threatens the very fabric of what makes a community. (This story first appeared on Credit.com. Read it there.) So who’s doing the buying? Recently, I got some unexpected insight in the form of reader feedback. Regarding your starter home article, I found it lacking,” the reader wrote. “Sure, there may be fewer starter homes available, but why? You seem to blame institutional investors gobbling them up. But why are they doing that?“ You probably guessed that in the next paragraph, she answered her own question. “Small-time investors are gobbling them up one by one. I live in a condo with my son. But I own a three-bedroom starter home as a rental — I bought it because it was a good deal, in a good school system,” she said. So I called the woman to hear her side of the story. She agreed to talk with me on condition of anonymity, lest that interfere with tenant relations. Her main point: Sure, some landlords gobbling up small single-family homes are big corporations looking to squeeze out quarterly profits in this newly lucrative part of the housing market. But not all of them. Some are small-time, hustling homebuyers trying to make money and save for retirement the old-fashioned way: owning land. “I’m just trying to take care of myself and my family,” said the landlord. “Employers don’t take care of people anymore. My father has three pensions, and my parents used to say to me in the ’80s, ‘Get a job with a pension.’ Well, there weren’t many then, and there aren’t any now.” There aren’t many good answers to retirement savings, either. Savings accounts and CDs offer paltry interest rates. Stock market investments come with serious risks. But this New England landlord, who began buying properties about 15 years ago, found if she could suss out the right deal, rent payments could cover the loan payments she makes. “I do feel bad, somewhat, that I usurped a starter home potentially from a young family,” she said. “There is some ambivalence … The one I feel bad about is my most recent one, which I had under contract three days after the sign went up and one day after it hit the MLS … It is in a cute neighborhood only two blocks [from] a terrific elementary school.” She has bought and sold 14 properties. She’s doing well but hardly rolling in cash. By the time repairs and other surprises pencil out, she insists on being in the black with every property – but not much in the black. When she closed on her first rental in 2002, she cleared about $100 in the black every month. Now, that property generates $700 per month. Her others range from $400 to $1,000 per month. But she figures her future is fairly secure. As a very rough calculation, were all her mortgages paid off, she’d be generating about $16,500 in monthly income. And that figure is probably conservative. “Cash flow tends to increase over the years — rents tend to increase faster than property taxes and other expenses,” she said. An Edge on First-Time Home Buyers Why do small investors like her have a leg up on first-time buyers? That’s easy. The woman described the transaction she completed just a couple of weeks ago to acquire a new single-family home. As a “strong buyer” who could promise a quick, hassle-free closing, her offer easily beat out families looking to buy the same home. The bank knows her and her financial situation; she knows properties well enough that she feels comfortable waiving inspections if she needs. The implications of that aren’t lost on her. “I said to the seller, I wouldn’t pick it apart in the inspection. I already had my financing in place. There’s no way a first-time home buyer would be comfortable, or advised, to do that,” she said. “I don’t know what to say. I guess it’s a bit dog eat dog.” Why did she feel like she had to buy the property? The landlord says that federal and state tax laws encourage people who own property to buy more property. If she sold a property, she’d have to pay capital gains taxes … unless she used the proceeds to buy another property. Ironically, she can’t use profits from a property sale to pay off her debt, for example, without facing a big tax bill. So instead, she and her small-time investor friends are starting to hoard property. ”I really would have liked to sell an investment property — or two or three — and use the profit to pay off student loans, invest for my son’s college, pay off other debt, renovate my 30-year-old kitchen in which the cabinets are literally falling apart, or most of all, pay cash for a single-family house to live in. But I can’t, due to the tax laws,” she said. “Tax laws are designed to keep investors invested. If I do a 1031 exchange and reinvest, I don’t pay the taxes and just ‘park’ my money in another building, that generates some cash flow.” The landlord began paying attention to the housing market in her late 20s after struggling to find a satisfying career. The germ of an idea for buying properties came from a bit of observation-driven jealousy. “It occurred to me one day as I saw my landlord walking around my apartment … that he did not have to hold down a real job,” she said. “And then it occurred to me that I was, bit by it, buying that place for him.” She didn’t act on the feeling until her late 30s, however. “The real catalyst was when I became self-employed. I was single, 38, [with] no real retirement savings, and I realized I’ve got no backup other than my brains. Luckily, I like real estate and I like old houses.” She also had a law degree and could handle the details of real estate transactions on her own. When a friend called to ask for legal help with a real estate transaction, she bought the property and rented it right away. She was hooked. The Costs of Being a Landlord “People think landlords are just rich and they provide housing for free,” she said. “Tenants have no idea how much things cost … things like taxes, repairs … They don’t realize when they say, ‘Hey, can you send someone over, the oven’s not working,’ I’m looking at a bill of $95 just for the guy to show up, and at least another $50 for time and materials on top of that. A broken screen, minimum $25; re-sanding floors, $2,000; changing locks, $150.” For one of the “starter” homes she owns, she had to spend heavily before she got her first rent check. “I put about $14,000 into renovations. Not the fun stuff like a new kitchen but the ugly stuff, like new wiring and fixing a roof and a wall, and fixing the porch and the windows,” she said. “I had budgeted about $6,000, but then the state electrical inspector — because it’s now a rental, and is subject to safety ordinances — required the house to be completely rewired — a shock to me and to the electrician who had inspected the house for me.” And while repair costs eat into the monthly income her properties generate, she knows the real estate creates a far more secure future for herself and her son. “A lot of people expect someone to take care of them. A company, a spouse,” she said. “Becoming a landlord got me out of the ‘work at a job and hope and pray that what the employers pay is enough to live on and save for retirement and maybe take a vacation,’” she said. “I am profoundly grateful for the opportunities I have had and the wealth I have built. I just wanted you to know a bit of what might really be going on … as I see the issue with my small-time real estate investor friends … they can’t stop buying or they will get taxed so much that it is unworkable.” If you’ve read this far, perhaps you’d like to support what I do. That’s easy. Sign up for my free email list, or click on an advertisement, or just share the story. Share this: Twitter Facebook Reddit Email |
25User Rating: 2 out of 5 Review title of Preston Not bad, but my mind isn't blown. Got the app to work finally. Apparently, if there is any issue causing you to be unable to sign in (incorrect username/password, etc.) or connect (backup off, etc.) then it just closes. Now that I've used it, I like what I see so far, but the app doesn't load all the messages upon retrieval. It seems to do it in random intervals. Also, the settings snap panel is empty. Add a prompt to explain errors instead of just closing, add the force refresh, have the retrieval collect and display all messages up to the time of refresh, and I would give this app 5 stars. As it is, 2 is the best I can offer. (UPDATE: Had given it 3, but it hasn't loaded any of my messages from the past 12 hours, although it says it's downloading them.) ORIGINAL REVIEW "Does not work." OS: Windows 10 The app opens, asks me for my credentials, I enter them, the app closes. That's all it does. Please fix so that I can get a feel for what this app is truly like and can give it a more accurate rating. |
The Coastal Carolina University flag flew over the Statehouse last week, breaking a new state law, according to one group. (WACH file image) South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley apparently broke the law when she flew a university flag over the Capitol to celebrate a national championship last week. A 2000 law ordering the removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse dome notes that only the U.S. and state flag can fly at the dome. It gives no exceptions. Haley followed the law in 2015, getting two-thirds of lawmakers to agree to remove the Confederate flag entirely from the Capitol. South Carolina Secessionist Party Chairman James Bessenger says his organization is considering filing a formal complaint over Haley's decision to fly the Coastal Carolina flag for a day after the team won the college baseball world series Thursday. Haley didn't immediately respond to questions given to her staff Tuesday. |
References 1“15 Incredible Things Apple Does to Win with Retail.” Wall Street Cheat Street. June 18, 2011. Accessed: December 2, 2011. 2“Apple Holding More Cash Than USA.” BBC News. July 29, 2011. Accessed: December 2, 2011. 3Avelar, Tony. “The Apple of Your Ear.” Time. January 12, 2007. Accessed: October 29, 2011. 4Blodget, Henry. “15 Amazing Things We Learned from Apple’s Conference Call.” Business Insider. January 19, 2011. Accessed: December 2, 2011. 5Gonsalves, Antone. “Environmental Group Hits Apple.” Information Week. May 9, 2008. Accessed: October 29, 2011. 6Helft, Miguel and Ashlee Vance. “Apple Passes Microsoft as No. 1 in Tech.” The New York Times. May 26, 2010. Accessed: October 29, 2011. 7Kahney, Leander. Inside Steve’s Brain. London, England: Penguin Books Ltd, 2008. 8Linzmayer, Owen W. Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc. San Francisco, CA: No Starch Press, 1999. 9Moore, Charles. “2010 MacBook Pros Benchmarked, Samsung Passes Apple in Notebook Sales, Platinum MacBook Air, and More.” Low End Mac. July 6, 2010. Accessed: October 29, 2011. 10Moore, Malcolm. “Apple Admits Using Child Labour.” The Telegraph. February 27, 2010. Accessed: October 29, 2011. 11“Sex and the City 2: Product Placement Stars.” CNN. 2011. Accessed: October 29, 2011. 12Siegler, MG. “Apple Pushes Past Exxon to Become the Most Valuable Public Company in the World.” Tech Crunch. August 9, 2011. Accessed: October 29, 2011. 13“Technology Review’s Annual List of 35 Inventors under 35.” Technology Review. 1999. Accessed: December 2, 2011. 14Trivett, Vincent. “25 U.S. Mega Corporations: Where They Rank If They Were Countries.” Business Insider. July 27, 2011. Accessed: October 29, 2011. |
Gay family: Evolutionary suicide or breakthrough? "The international community" headed by the U.S. and EU calls on all countries, including Russia, for tolerance towards "minorities." How far can this tolerance go? Today there are increasingly more talks about "the need to understand" pedophiles. Will the society's willingness to accept such demands lead to an evolutionary suicide? The gay issue in the world has become acute yet again. In France, mass demonstrations were held against the government's intention to legalize gay marriage. In Great Britain, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has resigned. According to local media he left his post because of his inability to cope with homosexuality among the clergy. In Russia, the Moscow Regional Duma refused to include in the agenda the bill similar to the one recently adopted in St. Petersburg about prohibition of homosexual propaganda to children and adolescents. Allegedly, the document "does not agree" with the federal law. However, the Constitution states that the fundamental source of law in the Russian Federation is the will of the people. This will is unambiguously negative towards the "unconventional love". According to a recent survey by Levada Center, homosexuality was considered "morally unacceptable and reprehensible" by 62 percent of the Russians. More negative reaction was caused only by rejection of own children (75 percent) and suicide (64 percent). In the category "morally unacceptable" behavior of the LGBT community was on the top of the list with 81 percent, leaving behind alcohol abuse (64 percent), and even smoking marijuana (78 percent). If the expectations of the "constitutional majority" in an attempt to limit the sin are called scandal - then what is democracy? Is it only homegrown protests of the LGBT activists? Or is it the requirements of the "Washington Regional Committee" that through the mouth of the Department of State or even through the United Nations completely dependent on the U.S. demands "to protect the rights of sexual minorities from discrimination" and enact appropriate legislation? Of course, from the point of view of the liberal paradigm it would be too scandalous and unacceptable to declare homosexuality a disease. For such practices distinguished psychiatrists in America today are denied the right to practice medicine. What kind of "disease" is that? It's just genetically implicit behavior. As if a genetic predisposition to aggression justifies criminals and predisposition to diabetes, hypertension and cancer eliminates the need for a serious treatment. Recently in the "Chief Editor's Club" of PRAVDA.Ru chief editor Inna Novikova talked to a family psychologist, a member of the Professional Psychotherapeutic League Irina Obukhova. Among other things, the expert also touched upon the issue of homosexual marriage. Irina has quite an ironic view on them: "Let's not take stretch some things to the point of a diagnosis, because you can agree to register a marriage even with a parrot. For God's sake, do as you please! You can have a nice diagnosis and still be happy. But if we are talking about a norm, if we consider a conservative view, the majority still wants to see the continuation of themselves, which is possible in children." Next, the psychologist pointed out the underlying attractiveness of vice, nearly of any kind. "What is forbidden is interesting, but once it is no longer forbidden, people lose their interest. It's psychology again. After all, look: it (homosexuality - Ed.) used to be a taboo. Now that it is no longer a taboo and same-sex marriage is officially allowed, there is a topic of intimate moments with animals: it is a taboo, and therefore, interesting. Homosexuality is now an open subject and is no longer a taboo. When a person has some kind of perversion, some differences, they gravitate to what is on the edge. They want to challenge taboos. They go in the direction of the taboo. So let's not confuse two things: the family is traditional, it is for procreation, it grows out of a desire for normal relations." One can agree with the statement of the sad fact that the "forbidden fruit" is sweet and that the last frontier in the fight with it when no other means are left is allowance. In the western hemisphere, the situation regarding the "indulgences for disposition," followed by the announcement of vice, or even a crime, the "norm," sometimes gets absurd. For example, in the U.S. there is an organization called B4U-ACT, advocating for the recognition of pedophilia a normal behavior. Recently, its supporters in Canada, during the parliamentary hearings were trying to make it the norm of law. Speaking to MPs, University of Montreal psychologists Hubert van Gidzhseghem and Dr. Vernon Quincy tried to convince the authorities that pedophilia was not a mental illness, but a special form of sexual orientation, along with homo-and heterosexuality. Dr. van Gidzhseghem stated that until recently, homosexuality was considered a disease, but today anyone who called gay ill was mostly considered crazy, and that pedophilia was the same story. He added that treating pedophiles is the same thing as treating gay from homosexuality - it will not work. He said that pedophiles must be treated with understanding and taught to restrain their sexual desires. They should not be seen as criminals. These are people who need help, he said. The defenders of pedophiles do state that pedophiles should "restrain their sexual desires." Although, if their behavior is "normal" like regular homosexuality, why should they hold back? One would wonder whether the scandal was initiated by the LGBT community that skillfully redirected popular indignation towards their own "minority." In tsarist times in Russia angry crowds were given the most hated of the boyars, and the residents of the Jewish ghetto appointed scapegoats on duty for all more or less serious problems. Now, the adult members of the LGBT community in the West are not just enjoying all the rights, but also beginning to infringe on the rights of heterosexuals. In England, "intolerant" terms such as "father-mother-brother-sister" were stricken out of the official documents. Yet, the residents of these countries are ready to tear pedophiles apart. The concern of individual psychologists with the infringement of pedophiles' rights is understandable. If the preferences of adult homosexuals are already recognized as the norm, up to the registration of their marriage, why is this "discrimination" against their "colleagues" who prefer not the adult men but cute boys? Somehow it does not seem logical. Well, we can only thank God for the fact that the Russian society is still very far from recognizing sodomy a behavioral norm. However, there are some signs of it coming. In psychiatry, for example, under the pressure of the "world community" homosexuality is no longer considered a disease. Psychiatrists should think about the similarity of the phenomena of suicide and homosexuality in the evolutionary aspect. After all, their only difference is in the timing. In the first case the person is deprived of life by their own hands, and in the second the person denies the fundamental qualities of all living things: procreation. No matter if "marriages" between sexual minorities are allowed, they won't produce their own children. If their weight reaches a certain critical mass, the people who had the misfortune to get to this state would be condemned to extinction. Is this the reason why the Russians in the survey cited above put suicide and homosexuality next to each other as the most unacceptable modes of conduct? Personal suicide is not treatable, but the evolutionary suicide is not taken into consideration. While society has a will to fight for its survival, politicians should listen to the opinion of the voters, including their opinion on the transformation of the people into the gay society. This position much better reflects the aspirations of the majority of citizens than the calls of foreign and homegrown "thinkers" who claim to be the "teachers of the nation." Yuri Nosovsky Pravda.Ru Read the original in Russian |
In 2008, Gore Verbinski ("The Lone Ranger") was hired by Universal Pictures to direct a live-action film based on the popular BioShock video game series. The screenplay was written by Penny Dreadful creator John Logan ("Skyfall"). Verbinski's wanted to make the film R-rated and with a budget of $200 million. That's an unheard of budget for an R-rated film, and Universal voiced their concern over it when a year later Zack Snyder's Watchmen, which was another R-rated film, struggled at the box office. When Universal requested Gore slash the budget to $80 million he decide to pass as the film's director and only stayed on as a producer. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo ("28 Weeks Later") was then hired to direct, but in 2010 BioShock creator Ken Levine stepped in and pulled the plug for good. Levine didn't think Juan Carlos Fresnadillo was a good match for BioShock. Conceptual illustrator("Thor") worked on the project, designing various sets. Check out his designs below of the power station set, which include key sequences withand |
If you work for yourself, finding health insurance is a big headache. While there's no holy grail, there are ways to navigate the maze and find good coverage at manageable prices. Whether it is affordable, of course, is a crapshoot. That depends on a myriad of factors–where you live, the ages and the health of who is being covered, and the type of policy you need, among other things. Today, an estimated 42 million people — about a third of the American work force– are technically their own boss. I’m one of them. We’re self-employed freelancers and independent contractors. Some workers who fall into this cadre are temps or part-timers. Some have already officially “retired” and are continuing to work a reduced schedule, or have accepted an early retirement package, then launched an entrepreneurial enterprise. Regardless of the job title, the problem is the same: Finding health insurance. More American adults lacked health insurance coverage last year than in any year since Gallup and Healthways started tracking it in 2008. The uninsured rate has been increasing since 2008, climbing to 17.1% in 2011. For loads of people I’ve interviewed and met over the past several years, it’s a roadblock. They gamely talk the talk of following their passion and finding their dream job, or starting their own business, but the thought of losing health benefits stops them cold. It’s a huge hurdle when you consider that starting over in new field will generally require a pay cut, at least initially. When clients come in for financial planning advice before they make a leap to self-employment, they’re shell-shocked to discover their new health insurance premiums might clock in at $600 or more a month, says Greg Bitz, a fee-only certified financial planner with Metropolitan Financial Group in Chevy Chase, MD. "For some, that’s quadruple what they had been shelling out via their employer-sponsored plan." That can require serious budget revamping, and Bitz usually reviews their possible policies before they sign on for coverage to be sure they know what they're getting. (For more career changing tips, go to How to Plan for A Second Career.) For countless self-employed workers, though, health insurance is simply not within their means. Help is on the way. The Affordable Care Act, now the the 2010 health-care reform law, is intended to tackle this problem beginning in 2014. That’s when if you’re under 65, you will be able to purchase health insurance through state insurance exchanges, with tax credits for those with low and moderate incomes. And if you have a pre-existing condition, you'll be able to land a policy. For more details on what the health-care law does, go here. For now, here’s one piece of good news. If you’re self-employed and pay health insurance premiums, you can deduct 100% of the cost from your income when calculating your federal income taxes. The deduction is not subject to the 7.5% AGI limitation that other medical expenses are. Here are eight ways to land self-employed health insurance in 2012: Ex-employer's plan. If you’re retiring, count your lucky stars if this is an option. Most workers don't have it. One of the biggest hurdles is figuring out how to pay for health insurance until 65 — the magical age when Medicare kicks in. Medicare will cover the majority, but not all, health care costs. Among large firms (200 or more workers) about one in four offered retiree health benefits in 2011, down significantly from 32% in 2007, and a far cry from the whopping 66% who offered retirees health bennies in 1988, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust survey. And only 6 percent of small firms offered retiree health benefits last year. Some companies let retired workers buy health insurance through the company plan. They might even subsidize a portion of the premiums. If not, it can be pricey. A Towers Watson survey of 552 of the nation's largest employers found that retirees under age 65 pay an average of $633 per month for individual coverage and $1,633 monthly for family coverage. Current employees with similar coverage were paying $432 and $1,249, respectively. Moreover, most companies hold the right to alter or cancel the coverage at any time. A spouse's plan. Some freelancers, like me, are fortunate enough to have an insured partner with an employer who offers family coverage. Thanks, Time-Warner! Your spouse will pay a higher premium for family coverage, but it will still be less than an individual policy. Annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage increased to $15,073 ($5,429 for single coverage) last year, up 9% from 2010, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation/Health Research & Educational Trust. On average, workers pay $4,129 and employers pay $10,944 toward those annual premiums. Some plans won't let participants add a relative until open enrollment season, typically in November or December. Try to delay your retirement or resigning until you can be added on. COBRA. Under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, employers are required by federal law to offer COBRA carry-over health and dental coverage for up to 18 months for you and your dependents when you leave your job. The upside is you don't have to be concerned about preexisting conditions being covered. But it’s expensive. The entire cost of the insurance comes out of your own pocket, plus a 2% administrative fee. Ouch. If you have time before you leave your job, switch to the least expensive health plan during the open enrollment period near your departure date. That way you will have lower premiums when you’re picking up the tab. For more information about COBRA coverage, go to the U.S. Department of Labor. Join a professional group. Some professional and trade groups, such as a bar association, your church or alumni associations offer health insurance with group coverage rates. Other possibilities: If you’re over 50, AARP.org, is worth exploring. Or research what's available through a special interest group you're a member. If you are running a small business, you might check with your local Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Service Bureau (sbsb.com). In addition, The National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE.org) offers insurance plans. If you live in New York State, for example, The Freelancers Union offers insurance through the Freelancers Insurance Company (F.I.C.). It currently covers about 25,000 independent workers and their family members and offers premiums that are reportedly a third below market rates. Individual plans might run from $225 to $600 per month. Purchase your own policy. One option for self-employed folks who are in decent health is to sign-up for policies with low premiums and high deductibles, opting for insurance that kicks in for catastrophic illness. You can compare a variety of insurance options in your area at healthcare.gov. Individual policies can be expensive, particularly if you're 55 or older. Expect a deductible of $1,000, $2,500 or even $5,000 in order to keep the premium within budget. Premiums vary broadly based on your age and physical condition. Other online sources to check for availability and get an idea of costs by comparing dozens of health insurance plans that are available in your area include: eHealthInsurance.com, einsurance.com and GoHealthinsurance.com and Insure.com. The National Association of Health Underwriters website (www.nahu.org), can direct you to a local health insurance agent if you prefer to have someone else do your homework. Check with your state insurance commissioner’s office to find out if any complaints have been filed against the agents or the insurers they represent. You can also go directly to the insurer sites for quotes. Keep in mind these "quotes" can be all over the map and are just there to give you a notion of what it might cost. It will ultimately depend on your individual medical situation and so on. When I went to einsurance.com for example, to compare free personal quotes on an individual policy for myself, there were 27 plans to compare quotes offered through five insurers: Aetna , AARP, Celtic, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Kaiser Permanente. The estimates ranged from as low as $135 To $764 per month based on my gender, age–51, my zip code in Washington, DC, and no tobacco use in the last 12 months. Dental coverage ranged from $16.14 to $60.90 and vision came in at $14.99 a month. Of course, there were co-pays and office visit charges and annual deductibles from $750 to $5,000. You might look for a policy that works in combination with a health savings account, which may offer some tax benefits when you need to pay for out-of-pocket medical bills. An HAS permits you to contribute pretax money that you can use tax free for future medical expenses. For individual coverage, you can contribute up to $3,100 to an HSA in 2012. For families, the maximum is $6,250. And you can contribute an extra $1,000 if you're 55 or older. For a list of insurers that offer these plans, see HSAInside.com. Options to consider: premiums, deductibles, co-pays, coinsurance, and the annual limit you have to pay out-of-pocket before insurance covers the remainder. “Importantly, check to see if your preferred doctors are in-network,” advises Financial Planner Bitz. Pre-existing condition plans. If you have existing medical problems, many states have high-risk pool programs that can help. If you have been uninsured for six months, have a pre-existing condition, and have been denied coverage, you may be eligible for insurance through a pre-existing condition insurance plan, or PCIP. Every state is required by law to have a PCIP. You might also check into to a "guaranteed issue" plan. For more details about your state's laws, visit statehealthfacts.org. Set up a small business group plan. If you hire an employee (your spouse, for instance) you may be eligible to buy a small group insurance plan. This could come in handy, if you have a pre-existing condition. Some states require that health insurers offer guaranteed issue group health plans to small groups. And, presumably, that means that your group can't be turned down, even if the group has members with health issues. You’ll probably need an insurance broker to help set this up. Some states also have health benefits associations that provide insurance for small-business owners with at least two employees. Go to naic.org for help. Stay employed. Contemplate getting a part-time job where you can earn enough money to pay for your health benefits. Working just 20 hours a week may also qualify you for group health benefits with some employers. Don’t get your hopes up, though, a meager 16% of all firms that offer health benefits provide them to part-time workers. Click here for an Index of Articles by Kerry Hannon I'm the author of What’s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job, available here www.kerryhannon.com. I'm a MetLifeFoundation Fellow on Aging. To learn about great jobs for retirees, check out my column on AARP. Follow me on Twitter, @KerryHannon |
Of course one of the biggest news items to come out of the Brickyard 400 was the announcement from Roush Fenway Racing that driver Carl Edwards will not be driving for the organization in 2015. Honestly, I thought to make that announcement on the morning of what I consider our third biggest race of the year — behind the Daytona 500 and Homestead — was very unprofessional. There’s always a method to Roush Fenway Racing’s madness. We all know that they have a way of firing the first shot at someone they are offended by. History shows us this is not the first time it has happened from that camp. If you stop and think about it, though, they had those two weeks in between the race at Loudon until the race at Indianapolis to do it, but didn’t. The reality to me is they are cutting their nose off to spite their face. Trust me, I realize the business we are in, and the NASCAR world is a very small world where secrets don’t stay secrets very long. I know there comes a point of no return when you have to make this type of announcements public. Article continues below ... Let’s face it, though: Carl Edwards is the only bullet in the Roush Fenway gun to have a chance to be a contender for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. Unfortunately, I don’t think Carl will be a contender. Yes, he will be in the Chase, but the stark reality is Roush Fenway Racing is struggling week in and week out regardless of the wins Carl has. So to me, losing Carl Edwards is going to be a pretty heavy hit. Let’s be candid, their driver lineup for 2015 is weak. Veteran Greg Biffle is by far their strongest horse in the stable. In two years in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Greg’s teammate, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., only has a couple career top-five finishes. Now sure, the third teammate has a Daytona 500 win under his belt, but it’s the only top-five finish in his NASCAR Sprint Cup career. So to me, Greg Biffle is going to have to do a lot of heavy lifting next year, but the biggest hurdle they have to overcome is the mystery of what is hurting their performance. I talked to Roush Fenway’s Robbie Reiser at Indianapolis and he agreed that the Team Penske Fords are the perfect template of what the problem is not. That would be the engines and the Ford body because those are the same that Roush Fenway Racing has. So obviously they are missing the boat in other areas. So to me these last 16 races of 2014 are all about figuring out what they are missing and what can get Roush Fenway Racing competitive. VIDEO: Roush Fenway Racing announces 2015 driver lineup |
If you listen to metal or heavy music, you have heard of Dillinger Escape Plan. You have also probably heard of Ben Weinman, their guitarist. Ben, recently named one of Spin Magaine's Top 100 Guitarists, joins us on the cast to talk about the formation of Dillinger, his career in music, the music industry, and the soon to be end of the band. Ben is laid back, smart, and extremely talented. Make sure to check out Dillinger on this tour, because this is it! Next, we have Steve Pierce, of the Punkin Chunkin team, "American Chunker", on to discuss what goes into such a unique hobby and competition. We also talk about Scott's insanely awkward weekend, running a 5k while sweating Yuenglings, and the current state of the NFL and its protests. Please continue to share, subscribe and of course, listen! IG-Verbalshenanigans FB-Verbalshenanigans Twitter-VScomedy |
By Elizabeth Norton, *Science*NOW Stop that noise! Many creatures, such as human babies, chimpanzees, and chicks, react negatively to dissonance—harsh, unstable, grating sounds. Since the days of the ancient Greeks, scientists have wondered why the ear prefers harmony. Now, scientists suggest that the reason may go deeper than an aversion to the way clashing notes abrade auditory nerves; instead, it may lie in the very structure of the ear and brain, which are designed to respond to the elegantly spaced structure of a harmonious sound. "Over the past century, researchers have tried to relate the perception of dissonance to the underlying acoustics of the signals," says psychoacoustician Marion Cousineau of the University of Montreal in Canada. In a musical chord, for example, several notes combine to produce a sound wave containing all of the individual frequencies of each tone. Specifically, the wave contains the base, or "fundamental," frequency for each note plus multiples of that frequency known as harmonics. Upon reaching the ear, these frequencies are carried by the auditory nerve to the brain. If the chord is harmonic, or "consonant," the notes are spaced neatly enough so that the individual fibers of the auditory nerve carry specific frequencies to the brain. By perceiving both the parts and the harmonious whole, the brain responds to what scientists call harmonicity. In a dissonant chord, however, some of the notes and their harmonics are so close together that two notes will stimulate the same set of auditory nerve fibers. This clash gives the sound a rough quality known as beating, in which the almost-equal frequencies interfere to create a warbling sound. Most researchers thought that phenomenon accounted for the unpleasantness of a dissonance. But Cousineau and her colleagues suspected that beating might not be the whole story. In a previous paper, cognitive neuroscientist Josh McDermott of New York University in New York City isolated the acoustic factors of harmonicity and beating, and then tested subjects on their preferences. Subjects that were attracted to harmonicity, he found, were drawn to consonant sounds more consistently than they disliked beating. To put the beating hypothesis to an even more rigorous test, Cousineau and McDermott teamed up to study a group of subjects with a condition called amusia, an inherited inability to distinguish pitch, recognize melody, or sing in tune. Amusics also can't distinguish consonance from dissonance. The investigators reasoned that if beating really does explain why people don't like dissonance, and the amusics are unmoved by dissonance, then they presumably wouldn't respond to the beating either. In the new study, reported online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, participants with and without amusia listened through headphones to a range of sounds, both sung and electronically generated. The stimuli included harmonic sounds and inharmonic sounds (produced by shifting some frequencies of a previously harmonic sound), and sounds with beating and without. (To hear samples, click on the audio clips above. The "beating" tone must be heard through headphones.) As expected, amusic subjects could not distinguish consonance from dissonance. Surprisingly, though, they disliked the beating sound just as much as did control subjects without amusia. "Beating is the textbook explanation for why people don't like dissonance, so our study is the first real evidence that goes against this assumption," Cousineau says. "It suggests that consonance rests on the perception of harmonicity, and that, when questioning the innate nature of these preferences, one should study harmonicity and not beating." As far as dislike of dissonance, "the results rule out the idea that beating matters very much," agrees Laurent Demany, a psychophysicist at the University of Bordeaux in France. He says the study of amusic subjects was a spectacular idea. "Sensitivity to harmonicity is important in everyday life, not just in music," he notes. For example, the ability to detect harmonic components of sound allows people to identify different vowel sounds, and to concentrate on one conversation in a noisy crowd. Because amusics don't have problems with these tasks, even though they can't distinguish consonance, further investigation of subjects with the condition should provide valuable information of the role of harmonicity in communication and perception, Demany says. *This story provided by ScienceNOW, the daily online news service of the journal *Science. |
McDonald's The popularity of the McDonald's all-day breakfast menu and McPick 2 promotions is having an unintended consequence that is bad for business. McDonald's introduced all-day breakfast and McPick 2, which allows customers to choose two items for $5, to drive up traffic to its restaurants. The strategy has worked: US same-store sales at McDonald's rose 5.4% in the first quarter of the year, the chain's best quarterly performance in more than four years. But with comparable sales growth now slowing, falling to 1.8% in the second quarter, Conlumino CEO Neil Saunders sees customers increasingly seeking to "exploit" the promotions to trade down to cheaper menu items. "Average transaction values for lunch and dinner have fallen as a consequence, something that has put a dampener on overall sales growth, even if it has been helpful to volumes," Saunders wrote in a research note released Tuesday. "In most markets the pricing differential between breakfast items and lunch and dinner items is fairly pronounced, and this may be something McDonald's needs to assess over the next six months to see if there is any way to remedy the down-trading trend without losing customers." Franchisees have warned that customers are trading down to cheaper breakfast menu items during lunch and dinner now that breakfast is available all day. McDonald's breakfast hash brown "All-day breakfast is a non-starter," one franchisee wrote last fall in response to a survey by Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski. "We are trading customers down from regular menu to lower-priced breakfast items. Not generating new traffic." Operators have also complained about the impact of McPick 2 on their profit margins. "We are discounting heavily, against my will, so sales should be up and profits down," a franchisee wrote in response to a more recent survey by Nomura. Another wrote: "I am very alarmed about the discounting push. I have never seen the corporation be so aggressive with discounts. The regional marketing teams are adding numerous other discounts to the McPick 2, primarily breakfast items. They are encouraging, quite literally, everything being on sale. This is a very hard cultural adjustment for me." Saunders said McDonald's needed to invest more in automation to lower labor costs and offset the impact of customers buying cheaper food. "The solution to all of this [is] in more automation — something that McDonald's has started but is still a long way off perfecting," Saunders wrote. "If McDonald's is to deliver its changes profitably, it needs to forge ahead with this model so that it can simultaneously keep a cap on labor costs at its restaurants while delivering superior products, service, and growth." NOW WATCH: We tried McDonald's popular international hit that's finally in the US — here's the verdict More From Business Insider |
1 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard Nikki Haley looked shocked and gave Trump a what the hell look when she realized that he just made up the military option of invading Venezuela. Here is the picture of Haley’s face as Trump suggested a military option: Here is a video where you can pinpoint the exact second where Haley’s face was like military what now? The military also has no freaking idea what Trump was talking about: Pentagon goes on the record to say it has not received any orders on Venezuela from White House https://t.co/Jg2jCi5TRT — Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) August 11, 2017 Trump is winging it as president. Send the military to Venezuela? Sure, why not? His own administration has no idea what’s going on. The look on Nikki Haley’s face said it all. Trump is ruling by whim, and his whims are endangering the American people by making policy commitments that not even the military knows anything about. If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
Real Madrid Madrid understand he worked for LaLiga There was surprise in some quarters that Real Madrid legend Raul Gonzalez Blanco had turned up to the opening of the New York office of rivals Barcelona. As the former Spanish striker explained, however, it was something he had to do on behalf of LaLiga. "All Madrid must understand that I work with LaLiga and if a club opens an office in New York, then I have to be there," he told Onda Cero. "I went to the inauguration of the headquarters of Barcelona and did what I had to do. "There was no doubt I was going to be at the opening because it is my responsibility as an ambassador, and although I'm Real Madrid, I think I've always been very respectful of all clubs. "I've never been radical, and I'm happy about that. "All Spanish teams need to do well because to be anti-that is not part of my values," he explained. Looking at how both Real and Barcelona did in their respective games, Raul was full of praise for Alaves. "Madrid lacked some fluency in the first half but they had great enthusiasm for the win. "Credit to Alaves who played a very complete match. "I think Barcelona's rotations were necessary, more so after international matches." |
Two schoolboys spent their summers preparing to become professional sportsmen and one took the road less travelled. Their paths will cross again over the next three days in Worcester, 13,500 kilometres from their original path in Johannesburg, and though theirs is the sort of story that is not new to the globalised world, its contrasts hold charms. Twenty-five-year-old Keaton Jennings and 24-year-old Quinton de Kock are not just any pair of players, they are contemporaries of the closest kind. They attended the same school, King Edward VII, in the same year and played in the same teams, both batting left-handed. While de Kock was the rebel who relied on sheer talent, Jennings was drilled to work meticulously on his game from the age of five under the guidance of his father and coach, Ray. As irony would have it, it was the carefree character who fared better early on. "I remember our head of cricket at the time gave Quinton a free weekend - so he could leave hostel on a Friday night - if he got a hundred the weekend before," Jennings told ESPNcricinfo at the unofficial Test between the Lions and South Africa A in Canterbury last week. "And there weren't too many weekends he didn't get hundreds." Any hint of envy Jennings might have had quickly evolved into admiration. "Quinton was a sensational player ever since I was 13. He was very driven, very clinical in the way he went about trying to achieve success in cricket. He hit the ball cleaner than most other guys." It takes all sorts to make a solid batting line-up: the fearlessness of de Kock and the fastidiousness of Jennings. They progressed to the same provincial side and the national Under-19 team together. The time Jennings spent fine-tuning his technique and his temperament had matured him. He emerged as a leader and was made captain of the side, while de Kock remained an explosive enigma. The pair took turns sharing the spotlight. Composite: Quinton de Kock and Keaton Jennings Getty Images In early 2011, Jennings led the U-19 team to a 5-0 win over Zimbabwe and topped the batting charts. Later that year in England, de Kock was the leading run scorer. It seemed Jennings and de Kock would be in a race for franchise and, eventually, international honours, but Jennings had already been directed elsewhere. Jennings senior, who was the coach of that U-19 side, encouraged Keaton to make use of the British passport he had courtesy his English mother and seek a career in the UK, because he thought his son would struggle against the "serious talent" that was coming through the South African system at the time - talent he had had a first-hand look at; talent like de Kock. Perhaps Jennings senior realised de Kock would be the biggest obstacle in his son's way. As top-order batsmen, they could ultimately compete for a similar spot, and though de Kock was, by his own admission, not a big believer in hard work in the early years, Jennings must have known that could change. He pushed his son to apply the meticulousness he had learnt in South Africa to a county career, even as he grappled with the frustration of trying to tame de Kock at home. "My dad is a passionate guy and he cares. If he is sitting on your back, it's because he cares about you and he sits on my back like nobody else's," Jennings said. "He will try and push you to new heights. It's when he turns the other way, that's when you worry." De Kock was not as receptive to the disciplinarian style of Jennings senior and only began to see the value of extra work after he was picked for the South Africa side. In 2013, de Kock had a first stint at the highest level and a top score of 31 in his first seven ODIs. He knew that was not good enough and he went to his franchise coach, Geoffrey Toyana, to ask for extra hours in the nets. When de Kock returned to the South African side, he scored four hundreds in eight matches, including three consecutive centuries against India. In that time, Jennings had been working his way up from the Durham Academy to the second side and eventually into the county first XI all while studying an accounting degree through the University of South Africa. In 2013, he tasted his first major success when Durham won the County Championship, but he then had to wait three more years before he would put on an international shirt. When he did, de Kock was among the first to congratulate him. "Quinton sent me a lovely message after I got picked for the India series, which was awesome after not hearing from him for a while," said Jennings, who went on to make a century on Test debut. Keaton Jennings in Durham kit Getty Images The two have continued to keep an eye on each other's careers, though they are not necessarily close. "I wouldn't say we're friends, we don't stay in touch, but I'd say we are friendly," Jennings said. "If we walk past each other, we catch up over a beer or chat about school times. When you're in different countries, it's hard to stay in touch with guys you went to school with." Harder still, perhaps, because of their journeys continue to differ. De Kock is a regular on the international stage and a sought after T20 player in leagues around the world. Jennings has only played two Tests and, at the time of this interview, knew he was not necessarily a shoo-in for the South Africa series. The Lions squad included two other openers who are also vying for the English Test side: Haseeb Hameed and Mark Stoneman, who outscored Jennings. "In a way, its healthy competition," Jennings said. "When you've got a lot of players scoring good runs, vying for limited opportunity at a Test level, that's really healthy. You put us all in the same side and we've all got to score runs in order to be picked and that's the main currency we deal in. It's a cutthroat environment and you need to score runs to be able to stay there. Simple as." De Kock lives by the same mantra."See ball, hit ball," is the philosophy he underlined at the launch of the CSA's Global T20 last week. Even in the longest format, he has retained his aggression and Jennings knows how destructive he can be. "To see Quinton perform the way he is no surprise. To see the way he has handled international cricket is awesome." Now Jennings wants to be able to show that he can handle it his own way, especially after having taken the scenic route. "When you're 13, that's the way you look at it [that you will play together as adults], but as you go up through the school levels, it doesn't. My life brought me here and I am really thankful it has," Jennings said. "I am happy with the way things have worked out and it would be awesome if I can play against him in a Test in a couple of weeks." |
HELL NO: Births, Deaths and Marriages said no - three times - to the name Lucifer. Meet our new son. We call him Lucifer. Or we would have if the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages hadn't knocked the name back. The list of baby names queried or rejected by the official registry in the past two years shows the agency is at least being consistent. There were three attempts to register Lucifer (all rejected), and one would-be Messiah was also declined. The list runs to 102 and consists mainly of names rejected for being too close to titles – Baron, Bishop, Duke, General, Judge, Justice, King, Knight. One couple wanted to call their child Mr. Religious-themed names were rejected on the grounds of causing offence and several others were rejected for not being words. One proposed name was `89', another was *, and one was . (full stop). Another keyboard-inclined parent tried to call their child / (presumably he/she would be known as "Slash"). Single letters – C, D, I and T – were declined, though J and q were queried but later accepted. The Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act says names can be declined for causing offence, being over-long or "without adequate justification" resembling an official title or rank. Other names that were queried but later accepted included Fanny, Jnr, Shady and Nevaeh (heaven backwards, which, curiously, was the 31st most popular girl's name in the United States in 2007). Though Lucifer and Messiah were rejected on taste grounds, the Sunday Star-Times struggled to find anyone offended by the names. Judy de Leeuwe, an atheist at the Rationalists and Humanists Association, said she was not offended and she did not know why Births, Deaths and Marriages would reject them. Lyndsay Freer, spokeswoman for the Catholic Church in Auckland, said some Christians could object to the name Lucifer, but since millions of Spanish speakers called their children Jesus, she did not see how the name Messiah could be offensive. Lucifer comes from a Latin expression meaning "light-bearer" and was the name given to the dawn appearance of the planet Venus, which heralds daylight. There was originally no connection to the devil. |
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