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Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders positions himself as the champion of the little guy. In his stump speeches, he's fond of saying: "The average American is working longer hours for lower wages." He's tapping into the deep unease that still exists about the American economy. Despite the country's low unemployment rate (5.3%), too many people aren't getting ahead. The typical U.S. household takes home about $52,000 a year -- almost exactly what they made in 1995. But are people really working more than their parents and grandparents did? At first blush, Sanders seems wrong. Americans have worked about the same number of hours a week -- 39 hours -- since World War II, according to government data. It's why we have so many songs and jokes about the "40 hour work week for a livin'." Related: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump agree on 1 big issue Working more per year But dig a little deeper, and Sanders' claim isn't so outlandish. It turns out, Americans are logging more weeks of work a year now that they did in the past, according to research from the Labor Department. In 1979, people were working for 1,687 hours a year. By 2013, that figure had jumped to an average of 1,836 hours a year, according to an analysis of government data by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Related: Turns out Americans work really hard...but some want to work harder 1. Women enter the workforce It's tempting to think that Americans today are taking a lot less vacation. But that's not what this is about. The reason for the big increase comes down to two factors: women and lower income Americans are working more. Since the 1970s, there's been a huge increase in women working outside the home. Many women have also gone from part-time (20 hour a week jobs) to full-time work (40 hour a week employment). "Women are working much more in the market than they used to," says Richard Rogerson, an economist at Princeton University who has studied the changes, especially among married women. Rogerson is quick to point out that it wasn't that women weren't doing any work before, it's just that "they have moved their activity from things which are not generating pay to things generating pay." Overall, men are working just 2% longer hours than they did in 1979. But women's annual hours have gone up almost 20%, according to the Economic Policy Institute analysis. Related: Even with college degrees, blacks and Hispanics fall behind 2. Poor Americans are working longer hours The other key change is that poorer Americans are putting in more hours at work than they did in the past. In 1979, people in the bottom 20% of earners worked about 1,250 hours a year. Today they are putting in 1,500 hours a year. Experts say most of this increase is due to welfare reforms in the 1990s. Benefits were cut and more people were forced to look for work. "People want to work and when they can, they do work," says Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute. He notes that lower income Americans tend to have less education and have a harder time finding jobs. Sanders is right...mostly Sanders is correct that many Americans are working longer hours, at least according to some government data. But are they earning less? Here's the rub: They're earning almost exactly the same. If you adjust for inflation, weekly earnings in 1979 averaged $332 a week. Weekly earnings in 2014 were $334. No wonder Americans feel worse off. |
Story highlights China's embassy in Turkey has issued a travel warning to its citizens Some Chinese tourists were "attacked and harassed" during recent protests China and Turkey are at odds over China's treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs Beijing (CNN) China's embassy in Turkey has issued a travel warning to its citizens after some tourists were "attacked and harassed" during anti-Chinese protests in Istanbul. The Chinese and Turkish governments are at odds over China's treatment of the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that live in China's far western Xinjiang province. In a statement on its website, the Chinese embassy told Chinese tourists to be aware of their safety and avoid going out alone. It also advised them not to get close to protesters or photograph them. At the weekend, there were a series of anti-Chinese protests in Istanbul in support of Uyghurs, during which some demonstrators were seen burning Chinese flags. In one incident, Turkish television showed police intervening on Saturday to stop demonstrators. Read More |
AP Photo Steve Schmidt: Donald Trump 'emasculating' Jeb Bush Donald Trump is "emasculating" former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with his attacks and his performance in state and national polling, prominent Republican strategist Steve Schmidt said Monday. "Look, Jeb Bush was a very successful governor, he's a thoughtful man, he was a good, conservative governor. But every day, Donald Trump is emasculating Jeb Bush, and Republican primary voters are not going to default to the establishment candidate who is being weakened by these attacks that go unresponded to." Story Continued Below Trump has regularly mocked Bush for being a "low-energy person" but still a "nice guy," while the former governor has responded by criticizing Trump's immigration plan as unrealistic and insufficiently conservative. Both Bush and Trump have used the derogatory term "anchor babies" to refer to the American-born children of immigrants who came to the United States illegally, though Bushonce chaireda conservative Hispanic group that told Republicans not to use the term, a fact that hasdelighted Trump. Bush was not directly involved in, nor was he aware of, the 2013 memo containing that guidance at the time it was written, Bush's campaign has said. Breaking down the results of the latest Iowa polling on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Schmidt remarked upon the strong performance of candidates without prior experience in public office. "When you add it all up, 54 percent for the non-establishment candidates, and you look at the establishment candidates who are running there right now, and I think their whole conception of the race is off," he added. "Their whole sense of the mood of the country is off." |
Why are advocates for major media and entertainment companies pushing Congress to rush through a bill that would make the U.S.’s top copyright official— the Register of Copyrights— a position appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate? Unfortunately, it is likely because the new appointment process will increase the ability of the incumbent copyright lobby to influence the Copyright Office, to the detriment consumers, creators and innovators. H.R. 1695’s supporters insist that it would increase accountability by giving Congress more of a voice in the selection process. But in practice, making the appointment one more contentious political contest would create a Register who’s only really accountable to the lobbyists and special interests that help her get selected and confirmed. Indeed, proponents of the bill have touted it as a measure that will better enable the Copyright Office to serve the interests of the “creative industries.” ADVERTISEMENT In the United States, as the Supreme Court has made clear, “[t]he primary objective of copyright is not to reward the labor of authors, but to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." It’s designed to benefit the public as a whole, not just copyright holders or specific industries. That means copyright rules have to strike a careful balance between copyright holders’ control over their works and the public’s interest in accessing, building on and making fair use of those works. Without that balance, copyright law gets in the way of the very progress, innovation, and creativity that it’s meant to support. And in an era where copyright touches so many parts of our lives—from the videos and messages we share online, to our cars and tractors, and the devices that track our blood sugar or entertain our children—we’re all important stakeholders in the copyright system. The Copyright Office plays a role in that system. But historically, that role hasn’t involved making copyright laws or controlling how they’re interpreted. Those tasks belong to Congress and the courts, respectively. But over the past two decades, the Copyright Office has played an increasingly influential role in copyright policy through rule-making hearings, intervening in other agencies’ proceedings, and influencing how some courts interpret the law. And it’s done this in a way that’s often favored the interests of just one set of stakeholders—large media and entertainment companies—over the rest of us. If the Copyright Office is going to have a voice in policy debates, we need to make sure it accounts for the interests of all stakeholders in the copyright system, including small creators, researchers, consumers, and technology users. Unfortunately, it seems some past Registers have seen their primary role as serving big media and entertainment companies. As former Register Maria Pallante once stated, “[c]opyright is for the author first and the nation second.” The Office has often supported industry-friendly policies that undermined the public’s interest—from promoting the disastrous (and ultimately defeated) Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), to helping derail the Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to break up the cable TV set-top box monopoly. That’s not too surprising—as others have pointed out, there’s something of a revolving door between the Copyright Office and the major media and entertainment companies. But what industry advocates get wrong is that the Copyright Office isn’t supposed to be the entertainment industry’s lobbyist within the government. Like copyright itself, it’s supposed to serve the public as a whole, and ensure that the interests of copyright owners are balanced with those of the public. Some of those pushing the bill claim that the Library of Congress is getting in the way—that its mission conflicts with that of the Copyright Office. But looking out for the interests of all stakeholders in the copyright system—creators and users alike—isn’t anti-copyright. It’s the whole point of our copyright system. And if we can’t trust the Copyright Office to do that on it’s own, then at least in the Library of Congress, there’s the chance that someone in the chain of command will. Increasing accountability of the Copyright Office is a good idea. We need to make sure it considers the interests of all stakeholders, and that it’s adequately managing its resources. But making the Register a presidential appointee wouldn’t do that. It would only increase industry influence over the copyright system—hurting the rest of us in the process. Kerry Maeve Sheehan is a consulting policy strategist at Electronic Frontier Foundation, where she works with EFF’s activism team focusing on copyright and patent issues. The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill. |
Pin 6 Shares This is in a way a typical song in my repertoire. It's rhythmically diverse, it's dramatic and it has a certain melancholic mood that I really like. But, don't ask me why I love songs in minor keys, I just don't know. Mills Blue Rhythm Band I already wrote about the band in the Song of the Week #26. The band got its name when Irving Mills became their manager in 1931. From Wikipedia: The Mills Blue Rhythm Band were based at The Cotton Club in New York. They worked steadily through the 1930s deputizing for the Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway Orchestras; often taking their undesirable engagements. Violinist Carroll Dickerson briefly fronted the band, followed by Drummer Willie Lynch in 1931 and then compere Jimmy Ferguson (Baron Lee). Edgar Hayes, Eddie Mallory and Dave Nelson all had temporary stints as band leader until Lucky Millinder permanently took over the role in 1934. (During 1932, the year that Baron Lee fronted the band, they took part many sessions that yielded 22 recordings; after Millinder took over, they recorded roughly twice as many recordings.) The band recorded 150 sides for a variety of labels including Brunswick, Columbia, Victor, the ARC stable of labels (including Oriole, Perfect, Regal, Romeo, Banner, Melotone, Domino), Variety, and Vocalion. Despite success with a few hit records and a strong lineup of talented soloists, the group never attained the prominence of their peers. This is often attributed to the lack of a single identifiable leader, and Irving Mills' preference to have the band perform an understudy role. The group disbanded in 1938. Millinder joined Bill Doggett's band before reforming it into his own orchestra in 1940[4] Many of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band's recordings are now considered jazz classics by collectors. Original records regularly appear on auction lists (which indicates that they did sell records over their lifespan), and recent reissue and remastering projects have made their recordings more widely available. Savage Rhythm Beautiful, isn't it!? Title: Savage Rhythm Artist: Mills Blue Rhythm Band Recorded: July 31, 1931 Album: Blue Rhythm Tempo: 193 bpm Dance: Balboa, Lindy Hop You can find all the songs of the series also on my Spotify playlist and on 8tracks. Official hashtag of the series: #djcsotw What do you think about this song? Do you have tracks by this band in your library? Let us know in the comment section below. Now Check Out |
In VMware Virtual SAN 6.2, we introduced several features highly requested by customers, such as deduplication and compression. An overview of this feature can be found in the blog: Virtual SAN 6.2 – Deduplication And Compression Deep Dive. The deduplication feature adds the most benefit to an all-flash Virtual SAN environment because, while SSDs are more expensive than spinning disks, the cost is amortized because more workloads can fit on the smaller SSDs. Therefore, our performance testing is performed on an all-flash Virtual SAN cluster with deduplication enabled. When testing the performance of the deduplication feature for Virtual SAN, we observed the following: Unexpected deduplication ratio High device read latency in the capacity tier, even though the SSD is perfectly fine In this blog, we discuss the reason behind these two issues and share our testing experience. When we tested the performance of Virtual SAN, we decided to use two common tools, IOBlazer and Iometer: We used IOBlazer to populate the disks. We configured IOBlazer to run 100% large sequential writes. This was to make sure all the blocks were allocated before testing any read-related workload. Some people prefer to zero out all the blocks using the dd command, which has a similar effect. We then ran an Iometer workload. We set the read percentage, randomness, I/O size, number of outstanding I/Os, and so on. We found, however, that there were two issues with the above procedure when testing the deduplication feature: Iometer did not support configuring I/O content. In other words, we could not use Iometer to generate I/Os with various deduplication ratios in step 2. We should not have populated the disks using IOBlazer or dd in step 1 because each utility pollutes the disks with random data or zeros, both of which yielded the wrong deduplication ratio for later tests. To address these issues, we decided to use the Flexible I/O (FIO) benchmark to both populate the disks and run the tests. FIO allowed us to specify the deduplication ratio. By following these steps, we were able to successfully test the deduplication feature in Virtual SAN 6.2: Run FIO with 100% 4KB sequential write with the given deduplication and compression ratio. This will populate the disks with the desired deduplication and compression ratio. Run FIO with the specified read/write percentage, I/O size, randomness, number of outstanding I/Os, and deduplication and compression ratio. Below is a sample configuration file for FIO. We modified the parameters for different tests. [global] ioengine=libaio; async I/O engine for Linux direct=1 thread ; use thread rather than process group_reporting ; Test name: 4K_rd70_rand100_dedup0_compr0 runtime=3600 time_based readwrite=randrw iodepth=8 rwmixread=70 blocksize=4096 randrepeat=0 blockalign=4096 buffer_compress_percentage=0 dedupe_percentage=0 [job 1] filename=/dev/sdb filesize=25G [job 2] filename=/dev/sdc filesize=25G If steps 1 and 2 were not performed properly, the results could be unexpected. To further illustrate that, we take two issues we encountered as examples. Issue #1: The SSD showed high read latency, but the SSD hardware had no issues We observed a high device read latency issue with FIO micro-benchmarks. The high read latency occurred because we were issuing a large amount of concurrent I/O (outstanding I/O, also known as OIO) to the same Logic Block Address/LBA (or a small range of LBAs) on the SSD. This is more likely to happen with any type of deduplication solution, regardless of the storage vendor. To resolve this issue, we first performed a test to learn the behavior of the SSD device. Below shows the read latency to one address with an increasing amount of outstanding I/Os. 4KB read from the same LBA: 1 OIO Latency: 0.12 ms 16 OIOs Latency: 1.51 ms 32 OIOs Latency: 3.06 ms 64 OIOs Latency: 6.07 ms 128 OIOs Latency: 12.08 ms 256 OIOs Latency: 12.68 ms When we issued multiple OIOs to a single 4KB block, those I/Os were serialized to one single channel inside the SSD device that was connected to that offset. In other words, we lost the benefits of the SSD’s internal parallelism (from multiple channels). The device latency rose as we increased the number of OIOs. High OIO to the same LBA (or a smaller range of LBAs) caused high device read latency. In the extreme case where we prepared the disk by zeroing out all the blocks, all the data was deduplicated to one block. As a result, the upcoming read I/O was issued to the same device address, which caused high device read latency as discussed above. Figures 1 and 2 (stats from Virtual SAN observer tool) show sample results from our test. (Even though the screenshots show HDDs, our test was on an all-flash Virtual SAN cluster. The HDDs in the graph actually mean SSDs used as capacity tier devices.) As can be seen, inside one disk group, one capacity tier SSD (naa.55cd2e404ba2ce71 in Figure 1 or naa.55cd2e404ba535b7 in Figure 2) always shows higher than usual read latency (than in the other capacity tier SSDs). This is because we zeroed out the data blocks before running the test. Later in the test, a large amount of outstanding read I/Os were issued to a single address on that SSD. Note: In Figures 1 and 2, where there are no units specified, the unit is milliseconds. Where an “m” is specified, the unit is microseconds. Where “k” is specified, the unit is thousands. Figure 1. Sample test 1 showed the first capacity-tier SSD (“HDD”) to have up to 3 milliseconds latency, which is much higher than the next two capacity-tier SSDs (also labelled “HDD”), which show just below 150 microseconds of latency. Figure 2. Sample test 2 is similar to sample test 1. The bottom capacity-tier SSD (“HDD”) shows up to 6 milliseconds of latency, whereas the first two show slightly over 100 microseconds. Issue #2: Deduplication ratio was not what we set Because Virtual SAN distributes multiple virtual disks across its datastore, it is hard to determine the exact deduplication ratio of the data that the workload generated. In the FIO configuration file, we changed the dedupe_percentage to a desired value. However, in the testing system, there were a couple factors that affected the actual deduplication ratio reported by Virtual SAN. I/Os from other virtual disks (vmdk files) can have the duplicated data. In the FIO configuration file, if the randrepeat parameter is set to 1, FIO will use the same random seed for all the disks. Although the data pattern obeys the dedupe_percentage set by the user for each vmdk, there will be high deduplicated data across vmdks. Note that those vmdks are placed on the same Virtual SAN datastore, which means that datastore will see more duplicated data than specified. I/O size when preparing disks will affect the deduplication ratio. Currently, Virtual SAN uses 4KB chunk size as the unit to calculate the deduplication ratio. If the user uses non 4KB IO size to prepare the disk, Virtual SAN could see a different deduplication ratio. Meanwhile, if the IO is not aligned to 4KB (blockalign parameter), Virtual SAN could also observe a different deduplication ratio. Figure 3 (below) shows a sample test in which we ran FIO with a 0% deduplication ratio. Due to the issues described above, Virtual SAN erroneously reports about an 80% deduplication ratio (shown in blue). Figure 3. The blue line shows a deduplication percentage of about 80%, even though we set deduplication to be 0%. To avoid these problems, we suggest performance testers use a 4KB I/O size (and aligned) and set randrepeat to 0 to prepare the disk in order to get the desired deduplication ratio. Note that Virtual SAN can properly handle any type of I/O configuration. The purpose of this blog is to explain the possible discrepancy between the FIO-specified dedupe_percentage and the Virtual SAN reported deduplication ratio if performance testers use different I/O configurations to evaluate the Virtual SAN datastore. Figure 4. No blue line is shown, indicating the correct deduplication of 0%. |
Ohio continues to fall further into a drug epidemic. There was yet another outbreak of drug overdose deaths in the state — this time officials say seven people died in one day in the Cleveland area. Tests were being conducted to figure out which drugs were involved in the Saturday deaths, Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson said. There was another outbreak of drug overdose deaths in Ohio: seven people died in one day in the Cleveland area Ohio has been among the hardest hit by the opioid scourge in America, with 3,000 unintentional drug overdoses last year — eight per day. In one egregious case, Rhonda Pasek (left) and James Acord overdosed on heroin with their four-year-old grandson in the car The outbreak comes after 52 people died from heroin or fentanyl during August in the Cleveland area Officials believe the drugs involved were either heroin or fentanyl. 'This cluster of deaths is deeply concerning,' Gilson said in a statement. 'Although there is no clear link between the individuals, this number clearly raises the possibility of a very deadly drug in our community.' He issued a warning to take extreme caution while also advising people not to use illicit drugs. The deaths were reported across the county — in both Cleveland and its suburbs — and weren't limited to one area, Chris Harris, a spokesman for the medical examiner, said Sunday. The outbreak comes after 52 people died from heroin or fentanyl during August in the Cleveland area. The opioid deaths last month were the most in the county's history, the medical examiner's office said. Cuyahoga County, which has about 1.2 million residents, is on pace to record more than 500 overdose deaths from heroin or fentanyl this year, Cleveland.com reported. The opioid deaths last month were the most in the county's history, prompting action from community leaders like Christel Brooks (center) to try to raise awareness to the problem Debra Hyde (pictured) was found unconscious in her truck — her eight-month-old grandson in the backseat — while parked at a gas station in front of a wall of propane tanks in Elyria, Ohio The wave of deaths around Cleveland follows outbreaks of overdoses in Akron and Cincinnati involving the animal sedative carfentanil. Hospitals in the Cincinnati area have seen more than a dozen overdoses a day since the powerful drug used to sedate elephants was found in the area's heroin supply about two months ago. In one six-day span last month, there were 174 overdoses reported in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Addiction to opioids such as heroin, fentanyl, codeine and morphine has reached crisis point in many states in the US. Across Ohio. which has been among the hardest hit by the opioid scourge. there were 3,000 unintentional drug overdoses last year — or eight per day. Fentanyl was to blame for nearly 40 per cent of overdose deaths in Ohio last year, state data revealed. The Drug Enforcement Agency said the drug Fentanyl was being used to cut heroin on the streets to stretch dealers' supply. First responders had to break two windows in order to extricate Hyde (pictured) and her grandson from the vehicle Meanwhile, first responders nationwide say there is an ongoing sentiment some people tell them they should just say no to using so many resources on drug abusers. Authorities say people have expressed frustration about rescuing heroin addicts who often immediately resume using the potentially deadly drug. There are also concerns voiced about the wide-ranging social and government budget costs involved, including for the overdose antidote naloxone. First responders nationwide say there is an ongoing sentiment some people tell them they should just say no to using so many resources on drug abusers An effort by authorities in Ohio's Hamilton County to get a dangerous heroin batch off the streets by offering immunity for people who turn in drugs drew a rebuke from Sheriff Richard Jones in neighboring Butler County, who argued it only enables dealers and users and gives them an excuse if they are caught. 'I understand the frustration,' said Police Chief Thomas Synan Jr. of Newtown, Ohio, who heads a Cincinnati-area heroin coalition task force. 'I understand the feeling that someone is doing something to themselves, so why do the rest of us have to pay? But our job is to save lives, period.' Synan said unlike with repeat heroin overdosers, he has never had members of the public say he shouldn't try to save a habitual drunk driver after an auto accident or someone who has repeatedly attempted suicide. Marion, Ohio, Fire Capt. Wade Ralph said heroin has an 'extremely expensive' toll on his department, struggling to keep up while being understaffed and relying on donations from health organizations for naloxone to revive those who overdose. 'If they weren't doing their job, they'd all be dead,' said Christel Brooks, a recovering addict in Cincinnati who said she's been clean for 12 years now. She said the problem is lack of treatment facilities and other resources for intervention before rescued addicts resume drug use. Along with the tireless efforts by Ohio first responders to save heroin users, an increasing challenge with more powerful drugs showing up, some backlash is also showing up from people who question the resources being used to revive overdosed users and to try to get them into treatment There have been a number of egregious cases of overdoses in Ohio recently. On Sept. 19, a grandmother was found passed out after overdosing on heroin in her pickup truck as her 8-month-old grandson was sitting in the backseat. Debra Hyde was discovered unconscious in her truck while it was parked at a gas station in front of a wall of propane tanks in Elyria, Ohio. First responders had to break two windows in order to extricate Hyde and her grandson from the vehicle. Earlier in September,Ohio's East Liverpool police shared shocking images of a couple overdosing on heroin with a four-year-old boy in the back seat of a car. The couple — James Acord, 47, and Rhonda Pasek, 50 — were detained after a policeman spotted their Ford Explorer being driven erratically. An unresponsive woman was caught on camera on the ground suffering from an overdose in a store — as her 2-year-old daughgter tried to pull her arm, wailing Officer Kevin Thompson followed the car as it weaved along the road before it stopped suddenly behind a school bus that was dropping off children. Thompson found Acord with 'pin point pupils', his 'head bobbing back and forth his speech was almost unintelligible'. Acord then tried to speed off, but he reached into the car and yanked the keys out of the ignition. It was then that Officer Thompson noticed Pasek's four-year-old boy strapped in the back seat. He was taken into custody by county children's services. Cleveland has struggled with a number ofbig-city ills — a shrinking population, entrenched poverty and neighborhoods beset with decay and violent crime. Ohio's most populous city is now considering a merger with East Cleveland, a place so impoverished, its citizens sometimes fill their own potholes. |
Riot police was deployed to a prison in Bedford to deal with major unrest, as prison guards reportedly had to seek shelter. UPDATE: The riot has been “successfully resolved,” following police intervention, a spokesman for the local Prison Service said. Update: The incident at HMP Bedford has been resolved. The Prison Service will carry out a full investigation — Bedfordshire Police (@bedspolice) November 6, 2016 Up to 200 inmates were reportedly involved in the unrest at Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP) Bedford, which started at around 5 p.m. local time. POA say could be up to 200 inmates involved in HMP Bedford unrest. Some guards withdrawn to "safe place" as riot-trained officers deployed. — Scott D'Arcy (@DArcysj) November 6, 2016 The rioting inmates reportedly managed to occupy two prison wings by the time police intervened. "There's been a serious incident which has resulted in two wings being taken over by prisoners," a spokesman for the Prison Officers Association (POA) told Reuters, adding that “prison officers from all over the country” were being dispatched to tackle the crisis. “We are clear that prisoners who behave in this way will be punished and could spend significantly longer behind bars,” the BBC reported citing Prison Service spokesman. We're currently working alongside partner agencies to assist HMP Bedford following reports of unrest within the prison earlier today — Bedfordshire Police (@bedspolice) November 6, 2016 Prisoners allegedly stormed a guard’s office and started minor fires inside the building, Bedford Today reported. We are on standby outside Bedford Prison, no indications of any fires inside — Beds Fire and Rescue (@BedsFire) 6 ноября 2016 г. However, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, which has been on standby at the facility, said no signs of fire could be seen. Meanwhile, eyewitnesses outside the prison have reported police actively storming the building, with sounds of loud explosions going off at the facility. #bedfordprison lots of loud explosions just now. — Mark Jeremy (@JeremyGoodband) November 6, 2016 Loud bangs sound fainter which may indicate police moving through building #bedfordprisonpic.twitter.com/5xPvOGd3ya — Olga Norford (@Citizen_Editor) November 6, 2016 A video has emerged on Twitter allegedly showing the mayhem filmed from inside the prison, with dozens of inmates apparently on the loose and yelling loudly. Some of the prisoners were allegedly wielding knives and blades, Bedford Today reported. The riot comes just two months after a report on the Category B prison conducted by the Chief Inspector of Prisons revealed many serious shortcomings. The survey found it was twice as easy for inmates to get drugs since the previous inspection in February 2014. The number of prisoners with a drug problem has respectively jumped from 4 percent to 14 percent. The report also described the living conditions in the prison as “poor,” noting that inmates are forced to live in “crowded and cramped” conditions. Apparently trouble in Bedford prison. Was terrible conditions in Bedford that led John Howard to launch prison reform crusade 200 years ago. — Frances Crook (@francescrook) November 6, 2016 Meanwhile, critics said they were not surprised by the rioting, given the prison’s troubling state of affairs. Frances Cook, CEO of the charity Howard League for Penal Reform, tweeted there was “apparently trouble” in Bedford prison, recalling that the poor state of the same city’s jail actually contributed to penal reform in the 18th century. “Was terrible conditions in Bedford that led John Howard to launch prison reform crusade 200 years ago,” she tweeted. Howard is known as the first English prison reformer who also served as a sheriff of Bedfordshire and who used to inspect the prison. Earlier, Cook wondered on Twitter if “things have reverted” to the state of 1780s. Given the reports about Bedford prison conditions it's not surprising there's a riot. Treat people like animals and they'll behave like them — Felicity Pepper (@probablyflick) November 6, 2016 Some others commenting on social media were even more direct. “Treat people like animals and they'll behave like them,” Felicity Pepper wrote on Twitter. |
In this article you can find an overview about different React mapping libraries. A lot of our projects are about data visualizations and maps. For two years we have been building most of our applications with React. At the beginning we just used Leaflet inside a React component. Now we are mostly using React Leaflet which is a React wrapper for Leaflet. All examples included in this article can be found in the making-maps-with-react Github repo if you want to play around a bit. Github Repo WebGL Support Before you start developing your map you should decide if you need WebGL support or not. You may consider using WebGL if you have a lot of features to be displayed at once, let's say 10k markers for example. For a normal map a library without WebGL support will be sufficient. React Leaflet As mentioned earlier this is the library we use mostly. Leaflet is a very solid mapping library and this is the React wrapper. It's actively maintained and already uses Leaflet version ^1.0.0. The API is fairly simple if you are used to the Leaflet API. The different components are well documented and there are already some nice third-party plugins. In order to see the map you also need to add Leaflet.css . We are importing it in our main.styl file. Installation: yarn add react-leaflet leaflet react react-dom React Component: You can find the full example in the Github repo. class ReactLeafletMap extends PureComponent { render() { // create an array with marker components const LeafletMarkers = markers.map(marker => ( <Marker position={marker.latlng} key={`marker_${marker.name}`}> <Popup> <span>{marker.name}</span> </Popup> </Marker> )); return ( <div className="map"> <Map center={mapConfig.center} zoom={mapConfig.zoom} className="map__reactleaflet"> <TileLayer url="https://cartodb-basemaps-{s}.global.ssl.fastly.net/light_all/{z}/{x}/{y}.png" attribution='© <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright">OpenStreetMap</a>, © <a href="https://carto.com/attribution">CARTO</a>' /> {LeafletMarkers} </Map> </div> ); } } Pigeon Maps This is a very special mapping library because it has no external dependencies. For now you can only display overlays and markers on a basemap, so it could be useful for a very simple locator map. So far, there are no popups for the markers implemented so you would need to come up with your own logic. For more information, check out the project page. Installation yarn add pigeon-maps pigeon-marker React Component: You can find the full example in the Github repo. class PigeonMaps extends PureComponent { onMarkerClick(evt) { console.log(evt.payload); } render() { // create an array with marker components const PigeonMarkers = markers.map(marker => ( <Marker key={`marker_${marker.name}`} anchor={marker.latlng} payload={marker.name} onClick={this.onMarkerClick} /> )); return ( <div className="map"> <Map width={window.innerWidth} height={600} defaultCenter={mapConfig.center} defaultZoom={mapConfig.zoom} provider={getProvider} > {PigeonMarkers} </Map> </div> ); } } Google Map React The Google Map React library wraps your Google map as a React component. The cool thing about it is that it lets you render any React component into the map, which gives you the opportunity to easily create custom markers. Another useful feature is that the components provided by the Google Maps API (for example Traffic or Transit layers or a searchbox) can be included in the map as well. Make sure to include your Google Maps API key. The setup is very straight forward: Installation: yarn add google-map-react react React Component: The full example is available in the Github repo. const CustomMarker = ({ text }) => <div className="custom-marker"><p>{text}</p></div>; class GoogleMapReactComponent extends PureComponent { render() { const GoogleMapsMarkers = markers.map(marker => ( <CustomMarker key={`marker_${marker.name}`} lat={marker.latlng[0]} lng={marker.latlng[1]} text={marker.name} /> )); return ( <GoogleMapReact defaultCenter={mapConfig.center} defaultZoom={mapConfig.zoom} layerTypes={['TrafficLayer', 'TransitLayer']} bootstrapURLKeys={{ key: CONFIG.GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY, language: 'de' }} > {GoogleMapsMarkers} </GoogleMapReact> ); } } React MapGL If you need WebGL support for your project, you might consider using React MapGL. This is a react wrapper for Mapbox GL which uses WebGL to render maps from vector tiles. The library has a small API and some sample overlays like scatterplot. Other useful overlays are provided e.g by deck.gl. As an example we set up a simple map using the scatterplot overlay. In the next section you can find a version that uses deck.gl. The setup is a little tricky and the docs seem to be a bit confusing because the readme of the repo and the docs are different. Note that it is necessary to install immutable and provide an Mapbox API key to get started. Installation: yarn add react-map-gl immutable react react-dom React Component: You can find the full example in the Github repo. class ReactMapGL extends PureComponent { constructor(props) { super(props); this.state = { viewport: { width: window.innerWidth, height: 600, latitude: mapConfig.center[0], longitude: mapConfig.center[1], zoom: mapConfig.zoom, isDragging: false, startDragLngLat: mapConfig.center, pitch: 50, bearing: 0 } }; this.onChangeViewport = this.onChangeViewport.bind(this); } onChangeViewport(viewport) { this.setState({ viewport: { ...this.state.viewport, ...viewport } }); } render() { const { viewport } = this.state; return ( <div className="reactmapgl"> <MapGL {...viewport} mapboxApiAccessToken={CONFIG.MAPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN} perspectiveEnabled onChangeViewport={this.onChangeViewport} > <ScatterplotOverlay {...viewport} locations={locations} dotRadius={2} globalOpacity={1} compositeOperation="screen" dotFill="#1FBAD6" renderWhileDragging /> </MapGL> </div> ); } } React MapGL with Deck.GL: Deck.GL was developed by the uber team and is a framework which provides beautiful overlays for maps rendered with Mapbox GL. On the website of the project you will find a tutorial that shows how to implement different layers in your map. The example below uses the GeoJsonLayer and ScreenGridLayer (with 50.000 points). Installation: yarn add react-map-gl immutable react react-dom deck.gl luma.gl React Component: You can find the full example in the Github repo. |
Four police and 13 stewards were injured in clashes between fans and police in Rome CSKA Moscow's Champions League home game with Manchester City is one of three fixtures the Russian club expect to play behind closed doors. This is because of the violence perpetrated by fans before their 5-1 Group E defeat at Roma on 17 September. CSKA were already due to play Bayern behind closed doors as punishment for racist chanting by fans last season. "It is likely we will have to play all our home games behind closed doors," said CSKA general manager Roman Babaev. "They [Uefa] could exclude us from the Champions League. "We are going to do everything in our power to make sure this does not happen. At the moment, the whole club is going through a difficult time." The club has been charged for the behaviour of their fans in Rome, where violent clashes with police, from which four officers and 13 stewards were left injured, forced the match to be halted. Last season, CSKA were fined after their fans were found guilty of racist chanting during Champions League games with City and Viktoria Plzen. City are due to play CSKA in Moscow on 21 October. |
A Somali woman walks past the scene of a suicide car bomb attack near Juba hotel in capital Mogadishu Saturday. (Feisal Omar/Reuters) At least 21 people were killed in two separate car-bomb attacks in Somalia on Saturday, one in Mogadishu and another at a military training base in the southern port city of Kismayo, police and military officials said. Sixteen soldiers were reportedly killed when militants drove an explosives-laden vehicle into a military training site in Kismayo. The attack was launched as the soldiers were lining up for training, military officials said. Col. Ahmed Ato told Reuters that at least 21 others were wounded in the blast. Later Saturday, a parked car exploded near a bus station in northern Mogadishu. “So far we know five civilians died in this evening’s blast and seven others were injured,” Mohamed Yusuf, spokesman for the Interior Security Ministry, told reporters at the scene. Both attacks bore the hallmarks of al-Shabab. Sheik Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabab spokesman for military operations, said his group was behind the car bomb in Kismayo. The Islamist militant group has lost control of most of its territory to African Union troops in recent years but has stepped up attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. |
I am a 22 year old guy from the great state of Kansas (I don't live on a farm, and I don't know where Dorothy lives either), and this is the story of how a 17 year old gear head accidentally got his hands on an Audi S4 and how it has influenced (read: destroyed) my life. I only joke, owning this piece of German engineering has allowed my father and I to bond over idiosyncrasies that only a German engineer would understand. It has also allowed me to truly appreciate what being a gearhead is all about (having the same sense of excitement as you put the key in the ignition and crank the car no matter what the occasion is) But before this story begins, there has to be a little bit of background. Imagine being a 17 year old High School senior and all of its awkwardness. The only solace I found in these "amazing" years was reading about cars (on Jalopnik...not a plug I swear), and attempting to study. Growing up in an Indian household there are only a few select job opportunities one's parents will support, these include: 1. Doctor 2. Doctor 3. Doctor 4. Lawyer 5. Engineer .... 10^100. A Free Spirit Advertisement (...Note: This handsome mustachioed man is not my father...but looks pretty much the same) Notice how Doctor seems to be in the top three? Luckily for my parents I was a strange breed of person and actually wanted to pursue a career in medicine. I was so sure of this career choice that I actually applied to a direct program from high school. My parents were quite enthusiastic of my choice in colleges, and were supremely overjoyed when I got acceptance into a six year B.A./M.D. program. As apart of my graduation present (apparently thats a thing...?) they insisted on buying me a new (read: used) car. This came as quite a surprise to me as my first and only car has been a 1987 Nissan Maxima (also fondly referred to as Big Bertha/Big Red in my group of friends). My father who is an Engineer by trade (Notice his career choice?) has had a soft spot for the 1985-1987 model year run of the Nissan Maxima. So much of a soft spot that he actually owned at one time three of them. (But the sales of those cars is a story for another time, and involves some strange times of the night and a roll of 20 dollar bills wrapped in a rubber band) Advertisement (This is an actual picture of Big Red)...notice that stoic front that says "Your probably going to die before I do" Big Red and I had always had a pretty complicated relationship. This usually involved me wanting to get to school on a cold morning, and Big Red not being able to idle without stalling out. While Big Red will always be my first love (and still is ready for duty to this day), I really wanted something that had things like: 1. A 0-60 time that does not involve double digits prior to the decimal 2. An A/C that isn't just a Hobgoblin inside of my dash blowing air from behind the vents Advertisement 3. A heater that isn't trying to kill me (Pretty sure there was an exhaust leak...) 4. A car whose description involved "sporty" and "handling" in non-1980's ways ...Seriously check out this 1980's advert And so the hunt was on, come hell or high water I was going to find a way that I could get myself a true drivers car. Now prior to hours of pouring on Craigslist for a listing that would match my dream vehicle (within monetary reason) I had to make a few criterion: Advertisement 1. Car had to be able to seat five (or 7.4 Indians) 2. Car had to have an Automatic trans (Parents Rules...if they are shellin' the cash then I gots to follow this one) 3. Car had to be able to haul at least 2 suitcases in the trunk and have room to fit my laundry basket (For home to dorm transport, and holiday laundry time) Advertisement 4. Could not be a convertible, T-top, targa or any form of removable roof (Kansas winter's are brutal...I swear) 5. Had to be within 7,000 USD when finally negotiated. 6. Could not be RWD (Also a rule set by the parentals...something something something die in the winter) Advertisement 7. Had to have under 100K miles (which I'm pretty sure is a myth...but I'll let Doug DeMuro handle that one) 8. Had to be reliable (as it would be a DD, prolly the only rule my parents and I agreed on...) Hours of searching were yielding no results that I liked, and the cars I had wanted to see would either quickly sell or violate one of the eight rules. But one day as I was browsing the newly listed ads one of them caught my eye.... Advertisement (This is the pic from the advert posted on CL...how can anyone say no to that face!) I slowly glanced over the article, and to my amazement it was a 2000 Audi S4 that had 76K miles on the clock, second owner, full service records, and above all was an automatic... Advertisement A few quick phone calls and a couple of days later we are at the meet. My dad gives this car a solid once over from bumper to bumper. I should mention that my uncle also decided to accompany us, but to be honest he just came to "test drive" the car. Apparently owning a early 2000's MB S430 is enough qualifications to "know all about the German Cars" (Please read quote in thickest Indian accent you have at your disposal). Eventually a price was negotiated and some signatures were exchanged...and just like that I was the proud owner of a 10+ year old German Sports Sedan. Driving this car home will probably be the pinnacle of my career as a gearhead, it was the pure excitement of finding my own car coupled with the constant wooshing of the Biturbo engine that has an almost intoxicating effect. Two weeks of Ownership and a very familiar friend comes to check out the car... Advertisement Yep it's that damn Check Engine Light. My father and I go into full panic mode as we are cruising down the highway on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and we were pretty sure we just bought a lemon. Luckily my dad and I both prescribe to the idea that "If it ain't feel broke...then it ain't broke"...and the turbos were still making the cool whooshing sounds so we just kind of let it go. BIG MISTAKE The CEL stays on for approximately two days, and on one rainy afternoon it begins to do a curious thing...it starts flashing. This wouldn't be a big deal if I wasn't driving along my merry way to the grocery store and the car suddenly would not go faster than 25 mph. The engine then proceeds to sputter and then die...IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. After a few middle fingers and a few "You Shoulda bought Muurrican" AAA shows up and hauls my new DD to my parents home. Advertisement Now normally this is where the story would end in calling a few shops around town and getting some quotes, but my dad thinks if he can wrench on a 1987 Nissan Maxima then a 2000 Audi should be NBD... Little did we know that we would have to learn some German in order to understand the wiring diagrams to the B5 generations 2.7 L Biturbo V6. This mostly involved me looking up stuff on the interwebs and the forums, and then my dad cursing Hans the VW Engineer that designed the said wiring system. Long story short we found out that a coilpack had burst because there was a short in the system, and after nearly 2 months of sorting out the issue I was happy to report that I proceeded to mess with the electrical system some more and install DRL's... because Audi. Advertisement Over the past 4 years of Ownership the S4 has accumulated close to 40,000 miles and is currently not in a state of disrepair (this week). Tune in Next time to see how this managed to happen (only 8 months later): |
A Sydney family is mourning a father-of-two who was killed while cycling through a cemetery in the city's south. Ron Doolan, 39, was struck by a Toyota Corolla while riding though Sutherland's Woronara Cemetery just before 7am today. Mr Doolan became trapped under the car and died at the scene. Ron Doolan died at the scene. (Supplied) () It is believed the car and bike were travelling in the same direction at low speed and police are treating the the crash as a freak accident. There is a 20km/h speed limit in the cemetery and witnesses have told police the driver was abiding by those rules. "It's awful, 23 years in the job and I've never seen an incident like this," Chief Inspector Chris Hill from NSW Police said. Woronora Cemetery. (Google Maps/ File Image) () The accident occurred about 7am. (Google Maps) () Woronora Cemetery CEO Graeme Boyd said staff were shocked. "This is extremely traumatic, it doesn't make sense as to how it's occurred," Mr Boyd said. "We're from the community for the community in this cemetery, everything is geared around that, it's all low speed, how this has occurred, no one knows." The Corolla's 29-year-old driver has undergone mandatory testing at Sutherland Hospital and provided a statement to police. © Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019 |
Seleka fighters stand in their base before a mission in the town of Lioto June 9, 2014. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic BANGUI (Reuters) - Seventeen people were killed in a gun battle between rival factions of the Seleka rebels in territory they control in Central African Republic, a rebel spokesman said on Tuesday. The clash over control of potentially lucrative roadblocks highlights factional tensions within the coalition that for months has controlled the north of a country riven along sectarian lines by a conflict that has killed thousands of people and displaced around 1 million. Three people were also wounded in the clash that started on Monday in central market area of the town of Bambari and was continuing on Tuesday, the rebels’ spokesman, Captain Ahamat Najat, said. “It was a clash between the Selekas of the Goula ethnic group and the Peul Selekas. It all started when the Goula Selekas went to dislodge the Peul Selekas from a roadblock about 5 km (3 miles) outside town because they are were committing lots of abuses,” Najat told Reuters. Religious leaders in Bambari initiated mediation on Tuesday but they made little initial progress. Peacekeeping troops and a conflict-resolution group went to the scene in the morning but fighting continued, Najat said. The former French colony has been gripped by violence since Seleka, a coalition of mostly Muslim rebels and some fighters from neighbouring Chad and Sudan, seized power in March 2013. Their rule was marked by abuses that prompted a backlash from Christian militia. Violence continued after the resignation of Seleka leader Michel Djotodia from the presidency in January. Most Muslims have fled the south of the country to escape violence, creating a de facto partition. Some members of the Seleka leadership have pushed for this to be formalised. Roughly 2,000 French and 6,000 African Union peacekeepers have been deployed to Central African Republic, but they have struggled to help the weak transitional government stamp its authority. |
(FOX NEWS) -- Here's a heartwarming story that's perfect for Mother's Day! A mom got the thrill of a lifetime, attending her son's senior prom after missing her own 24 years earlier. Belinda Smith and her son Danotiss appeared on "Fox and Friends Weekend" to talk about the amazing experience "It was really nice. I really enjoyed all the kids, all my family and friends that came out and supported me," Belinda said. "I couldn't have asked for [a] better Mother's Day gift." Belinda revealed that her mother passed away from leukemia in 1985, so she went to live with her grandmother. Her dire financial situation left her unable to participate with classmates in school activities such as prom. Danotiss said that he wanted his mom to have the experience and be able to say that she went to prom, so he asked her to be his date. "I just thought it was special," he explained. "The corsage, everything, it was just wonderful," Belinda gushed. "My girlfriends came over and my cousin and they just pampered me and helped me with my makeup and they just took care of me. I didn't have to worry about anything." Watch the feel-good video above. |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Black Friday retail sales online this year topped $1 billion for the first time ever as more consumers used the Internet do their early holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday. Young holiday shoppers interact with the iPad at the Apple Store during Black Friday in San Francisco, California, November 23, 2012. REUTERS/Stephen Lam Online sales jumped 26 percent on Black Friday to $1.04 billion from sales of $816 million on the corresponding day last year, according to comScore data. Amazon.com was the most-visited retail website on Black Friday, and it also posted the highest year-over-year visitor growth rate among the top five retailers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s website was second, followed by sites run by Best Buy Co., Target Corp. and Apple Inc, comScore noted. Digital content and subscriptions, including e-books, digital music and video, was the fastest-growing retail category online, with sales up 29 percent versus Black Friday last year, according to comScore data. E-commerce accounts for less than 10 percent of consumer spending in the United States. However, it is growing much faster than bricks-and-mortar retail as shoppers are lured by low prices, convenience, faster shipping and wide selection. ShopperTrak, which counts foot traffic in physical retail stores, estimated Black Friday sales at $11.2 billion, down 1.8 percent from the same day last year. “Online has been around 9 percent of total holiday sales, but it could breach 10 percent for the first time this season,” said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell more on websites, including Amazon.com and eBay.com. ComScore expects online retail spending to rise 17 percent to $43.4 billion through the whole holiday season. That is above the 15 percent increase last season and ahead of the retail industry’s expectation for a 4.1 percent increase in overall spending this holiday. CYBER MONDAY OUTLOOK It’s not clear yet whether strong Black Friday sales online will weaken growth on Cyber Monday, which has been the biggest e-commerce day in the United States in recent years. “Cyber Monday will be a big day, but not as much of a big day as it has been in the past,” said Mia Shernoff, executive vice president for Chase Paymentech, a payment-processing unit of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.. “Faster broadband Internet connections in the office used to drive this. But now many consumers have faster connections at home and smart phones and tablets - they don’t have to wait.” ComScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said Cyber Monday online sales may reach $1.5 billion this year. That would be up 20 percent from the corresponding day last year - slower year-over-year growth than Thanksgiving and Black Friday. More than 129 million Americans plan to shop online on Cyber Monday, up from almost 123 million on the same day last year, according to a survey conducted in recent days for the National Retail Federation. The group also expects 85 percent of retailers to have a special promotion for Cyber Monday. Amazon, the world’s largest Internet retailer, will launch Cyber Monday deals at midnight on Sunday. The company is planning a limited time Cyber Monday promotion for its 7 inch Kindle Fire tablet, offering it at $129 instead of the regular $159, a spokesman said on Sunday. MOBILE SHOPPING GROWTH A big source of online shopping growth this holiday season has come from increased use of smart phones, which let people buy online even when they are in physical stores, and by tablet computers, which have spurred more online shopping in the evenings, Wingo and others said. Mobile devices accounted for 26 percent of visits to retail websites and 16 percent of purchases on Black Friday. That was up from 18.1 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively, on the same day last year, according to International Business Machines, which analyzes online traffic and transactions from 500 U.S. retailers. More than 20 million shoppers plan to use mobile devices on Cyber Monday, up from 17.8 million a year ago, the NRF said. AMAZON AND eBAY Amazon and eBay benefit from increased use of mobile devices for shopping because they are consistently the top two online retail destinations for mobile users, ChannelAdvisor’s Wingo said. Amazon.com was the most visited retail website on Black Friday, with more than 28 million visits, according to Hitwise. Worth noting: eBay runs one of the largest online marketplaces, rather than being a retailer, so its online traffic was not reported by Hitwise. However, eBay said the volume of mobile transactions on its marketplace jumped 153 percent on Black Friday from a year earlier. ChannelAdvisor clients’ same-store sales on Amazon.com shot up 43 percent on Saturday, compared with a year earlier. Last year’s year-over-year growth was 49 percent on the Saturday following Black Friday. Client same-store sales on eBay’s marketplace rose 36 percent on Saturday, compared with a year earlier. Last year’s year-over-year growth was 12 percent, according to ChannelAdvisor. PRICE PRESSURE While mobile devices may be good for sales, they may not be so good for retail profit margins. Smart phones give shoppers real-time access to product prices online, potentially exacerbating the usual holiday discounting and price wars. Black Friday online transactions jumped almost 30 percent, but the average ticket price was down more than 11 percent, according to Chase Paymentech, which reports data from its 50 largest e-commerce merchant clients. “It’s driving prices down,” Shernoff said. “Consumers are checking prices in stores and showing the retailer, and the retailer will succumb to the lowest price online so they don’t lose the consumer.” |
About UPDATE: We are now including an all-new, original novella set in the Demonwars world as part of the base package if this project funds! Southern Honce-the-Bear is in turmoil, its lords and ladies vying for power after the end of the Demon Wars. DEMONWARS: ALLHEART is the second product in the DemonWars Role-playing Game line, an old-school tabletop roleplaying game, this time putting you into the role of an Allheart Knight – an armored warrior, a noble of the Kingdom of Honce-the-Bear, sworn protector of the realm. DEMONWARS: ALLHEART includes: A new character class, the Knight, which can function on its own or operate alongside the Abellican Monk and Rogue classes from DemonWars: Reformation. New game systems including Jousting and Fiefdoms, two mini-games which can be played as standalone games or integrated into a DemonWars campaign; expanded Blacksmithing rules; new monsters and magic items; and a random adventure generator for solo games (or GM-free games). Expanded setting information covering Southern Honce, the war-torn land of rival nobles and roaming bandits. A starting area including detailed information on the lands, nobles, and threats surrounding the barony of Auvon-Lea, in Southern Honce. As a stretch goal, a full adventure may be included set in Auvon-Lea! An all-new novella from R.A. Salvatore, introducing players to the world of Corona as it is at the start of the story arc. Note: For DemonWars: Reformation, R.A. Salvatore wrote "The Education of Brother Thaddius". An audiobook version of that novella can be found here, read by Wil Wheaton! Also includes two additional stories set in the world of Corona -- "Mather's Blood" read by Wil Wheaton, and "A Song for Sadye" read by Felicia Day! The DemonWars Role-playing Game is a throwback tabletop roleplaying game. Unlike many of the most recent entries in the tabletop RPG market, combat encounters are easy for a Game Master (GM) to prepare and adjudicate. Rules are open-ended and designed to encourage creativity. The game mechanics are simple and easy to learn, allowing novice players and GMs to pick up the game quickly and easily. The consistent nature of the mechanics also allows lots of room for improvisation, from both the players' and the GM's perspectives. The game system is deep and diverse, with many advancement paths for characters to pursue. Veteran RPG players will find no lack of skill combinations and customization options; veteran GMs will have many tools for crafting epic adventures. DEMONWARS: ALLHEART is set in Corona, a world of magic and monsters, heroism and intrigue. Corona is the setting for 11 classic novels by R.A. Salvatore—including The Demon Awakens, Mortalis, and The Highwayman. Humans have carved out four major realms—Alpinador, Behren, Honce-the-Bear, and To-gai—but these civilized lands are surrounded by largely unexplored wilderness. Danger and adventure abound, from the Mountains of Fire in the far south, to the blasted wasteland of the Barbacan in the north; from the endless Wilderlands in the west to the Weathered Isles and the Mirianic Ocean to the east. DEMONWARS: ALLHEART focuses on the kingdom of Honce-the-Bear, a temperate land of rolling hills and deep forests. This product focuses specifically on the southern reaches of the kingdom. Once a fertile breadbasket, the recent wars have torn the land and divided the nobility. Now, the nobles struggle to rebuild their lands, to stave off the many bandits and monsters roaming the region, and to protect their fiefdoms from upstart neighbors. Corona is a world of heroes. The monks of the Abellican Church, the elf-trained Rangers, the Allheart Knights encased in their finely crafted steel platemail, the desert blademasters of the Chezhou-Lei. This abundance of powerful characters makes the setting ideally suited to a tabletop RPG, as the players take on the role of truly heroic characters. DEMONWARS: ALLHEART is an expansion to an existing game, the DemonWars Role-playing Game. The first product in the DemonWars RPG line was DemonWars: Reformation, the result of our successful Kickstarter campaign launched and funded in August, 2013. We’ve been working on DEMONWARS: ALLHEART since we finished production on Reformation. With Bryan, the lead designer on Reformation, taking on a full-time job elsewhere, most of the design work on this product was done by Geno, with Bryan consulting. This new product uses the same base rules as Reformation, and though the Knight class functions quite differently from the Abellican Monks (and the Rogues) of Reformation, the classes are well-balanced and designed to co-exist. When we first started creating the DemonWars RPG, we intended to include nearly every group of heroic characters from the world of Corona - the Rangers, Jhesta Tu, Chezhou-Lei, Allheart Knights, Abellicans, and Alpinadoran Barbarians, to name a few. We decided to narrow our approach down to one class – and the setting and history around it – at a time. We want to give each group the focus it deserves, without the constraints of fitting them into a short class entry in a larger book. In the DemonWars: Reformation Kickstarter campaign, we told you we planned to expand beyond the monks and the Abellican Church – and this campaign is us making good on our promise. Much like the Abellican Monk, the Knights are not a “class” in the traditional RPG sense. A Knight character selects two of seven specializations, which will guide his advancement. These specializations range from two-handed weapons, to mounted combat, to inspiring leadership; by mixing and matching, a Knight can fill any of several different roles, as tank or striker or support character. We have already wrapped up most of the game systems for this project, and are in the process of writing the book. If this project is funded, we anticipate one to three more months of playtesting and iteration before we finalize copy and begin production on the physical book. +$35 Additional Game Book U.S. backers at the KNIGHT tier or above--anyone who is already receiving a physical game book--can add additional game books for $35 each. We can ship no more than 10 game books to you! +$45 Additional DemonWars: Reformation Core Rule Book U.S. backers at the KNIGHT tier or above--anyone who is already receiving a physical game book--can add additional DemonWars: Reformation game books for $45 each. We can ship no more than 10 game books (total) to you! Our funding goal is $50,000. If we successfully fund, we will produce a high-quality Character Class book, complete with rules for the Knight class, setting information, a starting area and hooks to begin your campaign, and the new Jousting and Fiefdom systems and the Random Adventure Generator, plus full-color new original art from a number of talented artists. $65,000 – The Mines of Auvon-Lea – A detailed Adventure Module, including fully illustrated map, encounters, and hooks to lead into a larger campaign. This Adventure Module will be included in the DEMONWARS: ALLHEART book, and will be available to all backers at the SQUIRE level and higher, free! $75,000 – Jousting App – We will create an app game based on the Jousting rules in DEMONWARS: ALLHEART. This app will be designed to stand alone as a solo game or to integrate with an existing DemonWars RPG game, just like the Jousting system itself. $85,000 – Heraldry Each of the Jousters for the Jousting Tournament will receive a small flag or banner holding the character's heraldry. Purchased characters at those levels will be able to help design their own! $100,000 – SECRET! – If we hit that magic number of $100,000 we will do something cool, but we won’t tell you what ‘til we get there. $125,000 – Further products, chosen by YOU! – If we reach $125,000, we’ll be pretty sure there’s demand for additional DemonWars RPG products, so we will commit to doing more. And we’ll let you help decide which product we make next, via a poll in your Backer Level surveys after this Kickstarter ends. Everyone gets a vote, even the $1 backers! R.A. Salvatore is one of the best-known fantasy authors working today, with over 50 novels published in a variety of settings and worlds. His works include The Legend of Drizzt series, Star Wars: Vector Prime, The Crimson Shadow trilogy, and, most importantly for this project, the DemonWars and Saga of the First King novels. He is the creator of Corona, the fantasy world setting for DEMONWARS: ALLHEART. Bryan Salvatore is a professional game designer with computer game experience ranging from small, indie projects to AAA online game development. He designed the DemonWars Role-playing Game system, for which this product has been created. Geno Salvatore is the co-author of The Stone of Tymora trilogy, a Young Adult fantasy series set in the Forgotten Realms®. He has also written, co-written, and contributed on several graphic novels, including The Legend of Drizzt: Neverwinter Tales, Dungeons and Dragons: Cutter, and Spooks. He has some game design experience, as well: he was a Narrative Designer at 38 Studios from 2010 to 2012. Project Video: Mike Handverger has been making films and videos for 20 years and has been a gamer for even longer than that. He spends most of his time programming computer games for Tricky Fast Studios. Original Score: Aubrey Hodges’s music and sound design is heard in video games and television all over the world with a combined total of over 220 games totaling over 128 million units shipped since he began his career. Hodges has been crafting music and audio for video games and television since 1985. Logo: Brian Labore has been working as an artist for over twenty years. A gamer since childhood, Brian is also a writer and game designer with treasure type N (x5) and Q (x2). Map (as seen in the Project Video): Also Aubrey Hodges. Composer, artist, cartographer--Aubrey is a man of many talents. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our first wave of playtesters: Mike Handverger, Jim Kelly, Mike Mayhew, Stephanie Piantedosi-Salvatore, Ryan Salvatore, DJ Salvatore and Jim Underdown. |
In the wake of Trumpmania, the political system is as chaotic and insane as it has ever been. If we were watching these events unfold in a Hollywood movie, we would probably say they were too fanciful and absurd to be taken seriously. Nevertheless, it is the reality that is staring us in the face. One of the most peculiar and eye-raising developments of this ridiculous campaign season has been Hillary Clinton’s speech demonizing the alternative right. In Hillary’s speech – which was a more deranged, in-depth rehashing of her “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” talking point of the 1990’s – she painted a sinister picture of dark racist forces working to stop her potential presidency. She even named names. She pointed to Alex Jones, Breitbart, and Vladimir Putin as the apparent masterminds behind a new “alt right” that is vicious, toxic, bigoted, and not traditionally conservative. “This is not conservatism as we have known it,” Clinton said in her Aug. 25 speech. “This is not Republicanism as we have known it. These are race-baiting ideas, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant ideas, anti-woman –– all key tenets making up an emerging racist ideology known as the ‘Alt-Right.’” Obviously, Hillary’s rhetoric is filled with deceptions, half-truths, and nonsense, but the fact that she felt it necessary to attack the alt-right is very interesting. A movement that has been commonly marginalized as a bunch of annoying and crap-spewing Twitter trolls is now on the big stage, having been dragged through the mud by Crooked Hillary herself. This is a water-shed moment for the alt-right that they have been reveling in ever since, and rightfully so. The alt-right is going to face some serious challenges now that it is hitting the big time. Having been around since the beginning of the Ron Paul revolution, I have watched the liberty movement grow exponentially and unexpectedly into a political force, only to later stagnate and let down many of its ranks. Soon, the alt-right will have to deal with sustained resistance from the establishment that will manifest itself in a whole host of ways. Their movement’s future depends on how they can mitigate that threat. As Ron Paul revolutionaries, we faced uncharted territory. We had no similar movements to look at and compare notes. The alt-right would be wise to look at the Ron Paul revolution as a case study to avoid our mistakes as they take on the political establishment. They’ve already captured Hillary’s attention, so they must be doing something right. Let’s review some of the key similarities between the two movements, where the Ron Paul revolution went wrong, and how the alt-right can avoid making those same mistakes moving forward. Similarities Between the Alt-Right and Ron Paul Revolution Plenty of Vitriol – Ron Paul revolutionaries were fighting mad at big government and the Federal Reserve. Instead of politely protesting the wars, they chucked snowballs into Sean Hannity’s face. The alt-right is fighting mad about globalism, multiculturalism, and open borders. Ron had a closed borders position and stood against forced multiculturalism, but these positions weren’t articulated as forcefully by Paul and his supporters as they are on the alt-right. Ron took a much stronger position against globalism, being a massive proponent for ending the IMF, United Nations, and World Bank, as well as warning against the formation of the North American Union. Opposition to globalism in its modern form is the issue where the two movements clearly overlap the most. Not Hatched in the Beltway – Both movements were the result of grassroots fervor run amok. They weren’t hatched in the planning meetings of some corporate think-tank. They weren’t the result of scheming political operatives in Washington D.C. They weren’t tested by a bunch of focus groups or rubber-stamped by the powers-that-be in any way. The alt-right at this point and the Ron Paul revolution at its peak were raw, energetic, passionate, and dominated by fanatics. The feeling that the boots on the ground were leaders rather than followers was an ethos that has emanated throughout both movements. Making the Establishment Squirm – The Ron Paul revolution was ignored at first and treated like it was completely insignificant before finally being taken on directly by the political establishment during the tea party era. Perhaps building from the groundwork laid by the tea party and Ron Paul, the alt-right was named directly by Hillary Clinton not too long after its initial rise. Twitter coming into its own as a medium, where the alt-right is especially tenacious and feared, may explain the difference in the government’s response to them. Regardless of the precise cause for this line of attack, Hillary has risked giving free publicity to her most fierce opposition because she was so desperate to attack the alt-right. They wouldn’t be receiving that type of flak unless they were over the target. Dangerous Ideas – The Ron Paul revolution didn’t piddle around. They didn’t want a 4.5 percent reduction in the income tax over the course of six generations. They weren’t arguing for gradual and moderate reductions in government spending, as chronically-ineffective Beltway “movement conservative” and “movement libertarian” gatekeeper types would have recommended. They were saying that taxation is theft while calling for an end to the Federal Reserve. They went straight for the jugular. Similarly, the alt-right isn’t piddling around when fighting against globalism and multiculturalism. Using the word ‘cuck’ the way a libertarian would use the term ‘statist,’ the alt-right took the fight to the left in a brutal and enduring fashion. Serious Resistance – The most important thing that both movements had in common is that they were radical and driven by the grassroots. They posed a serious threat. They pushed back against the conventional wisdom of the political establishment and stuck it in their face by achieving influence while breaking the rules. There was a bombastic style within both movements that is very admirable. However, the Ron Paul revolution lost many of these characteristics over time as it gained steam and rose to national prominence. The result ended up being a weaker movement that squandered much of the momentum it had with many disenfranchised activists on the sidelines left wondering what went wrong. What Went Wrong with Ron Paul’s Revolution? Lack of Cohesion – This is a common libertarian problem for obvious reasons. In a movement filled with opinionated individualists who tend to have big egos, there is bound to be some infighting and factionalism. This is always going to be a problem for libertarians and one that is difficult to overcome. It is a positive trait in so far as it stops the rush to mad collectivism, which is a tendency that is pervasive in most other political philosophies, but it can certainly hinder us, as well. The tendency of libertarians to butt heads with each other over trivial minutia rather than productively work to advance the cause of liberty has contributed to the general trend of stagnation within the movement. Ron Paul was Declared an Albatross – Due to his difficult stances on hot-button issues, the good doctor was jettisoned by the official liberty movement. He was relegated to the sidelines, and his message was watered down for the masses. This backfired spectacularly. It turned out that Ron’s difficult and provocative stances were why people liked him. Ron’s bold, uncompromising words rattled people’s cages, challenging their preconceived notions, and getting them to change their long-held viewpoints. Erasing that dynamic from the liberty movement threw our greatest weapons (our credibility and our earnestness) straight into the dirt. This was a colossal mistake that cannot be understated. The Parasites Prevailed in Ron’s Absence – Although Dr. Paul is still active in the fight for liberty with the Liberty Report, Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, and homeschool curriculum, he has taken a backseat in a movement that is desperate for his leadership. With Ron out of the fold, liberty activists were easily co-opted. Rather than storming town halls, hounding criminal politicians, and being a subversive force within politics, young liberty activists instead chose to rest on their laurels and live high on the hog in Washington D.C. Corporate money flooded the movement and ideology was suddenly put on the back-burner for pragmatism. Social justice warriors came in to infiltrate, and libertarians didn’t have the backbone to evict them. All of these supposedly inclusive moves to create a “big tent” not only devastated the movement intellectually but also failed to actually grow the movement in real terms as well. Libertarians were Housebroken by the Establishment – This is perhaps the most disheartening consequence of the unraveling of Ron Paul’s revolution. Libertarians have now passively accepted their role as “republicans who smoke pot.” It is now common to hear a self-described libertarian piously regurgitating Hillary’s talking points on any given day. They bleat out “racist” or “Nazi” as fast as any liberal political hack out there. In fact, a once-relevant liberty activist has even stooped as low as becoming a hatchet man for the corporate media where he writes propaganda on behalf of the fledgling GOP establishment as they desperately cling to power. Other libertarians are following suit. Self-marginalizing Libertarian Party members have even gone so far as to degrade themselves by begging a warmongering, gun-grabbing CFR globalist, Bill “Hillary’s Best Buddy” Weld to boss them around in a tacit admission of their own helplessness and inadequacy. The Magic is Gone – Ron Paul’s revolution still resonates throughout the entire political system in various ways. The approval rating of federal bureaucrats has yet to recover. There are more independent-minded folks out there than ever before. Changing the dynamic of the entire political system permanently is no small feat, and every Ron Paul revolutionary should be proud of this accomplishment. That is the silver lining accompanying the sobering reality that Ron Paul’s actual revolution has dissipated and become a shell of its former self. It will likely never accomplish its stated goal of restoring the Republic. This doesn’t mean we need to throw the baby out with the bath water and abandon all hope. The “remnant” will have to manifest itself in new forms, and discover new ways to make waves throughout politics and society. The Pitfalls the Alt Right Needs to Avoid Alt-rightists must take note of all the folks who act like they are the devil and say that they are the worst thing ever to hit the right wing. In mere months from now, those same sorry individuals will be the toadies trying to ride the alt-right’s coattails. Do not waver against these infiltrators. Stand strong, and never give them an inch. These charlatans will come in and turn your movement upside down unless they are stopped. They will conform your movement to their own image, sanitize you on behalf of the political elites, and take your spirit away. Don’t let your enemies dictate to you how to run your movement. Don’t listen to their conventional wisdom. They aren’t giving you constructive criticism that is meant to help you. They want to undermine you and make you ineffective. Many libertarians allowed their enemies to define them and get into their heads. Do not fall into this trap. Work on emboldening and radicalizing your ranks, rather than conforming to the ideals set forth by those who wish to destroy you. Keep hitting the enemy and keep hitting them hard. This is where I see the most promise in the alt-right. Unlike so many libertarians, they abjectly reject political correctness and all social justice dogmas off hand, and they take the fight to the enemy continuously. The political establishment always whines about civility because they don’t want to be ruthlessly attacked and exposed while they are vulnerable. Thus far, the alt-right has worn the infamy of it all as a badge of honor, mercilessly taunting their crybaby critics every step of the way. Even if they are a very tiny fringe minority like their detractors say, they are maximizing their impact with their combative approach. The alt-right needs to keep this up and tune out the naysayers. Facing the Reality Staring Us in the Face Seeing the harsh exchanges taking place between libertarians and alt-rightists throughout the internet is particularly dismaying. Many libertarians have taken it upon themselves to do the bidding of the political establishment against the alt right. It is so heart-breaking because libertarians are using the same cheap tactics straight out of the establishment playbook used against the Ron Paul movement back in 2008 and 2012. These libertarians have effectively fallen into the same divide-and-conquer trap as the rest of the statists out there and have become useful idiots for their enemies out of desperation. Too few libertarians understand that the totalitarian left is the real existential threat to everything that we hold near and dear. The left, driven by Marx’s deranged scribblings and similar babble, is set to destroy our culture and our freedom. They are marching forward aggressively toward those goals with each passing day. The State is the instrument they wish to use to destroy all remaining vestiges of a free society. The alt-right should fight the cultural slide, while the liberty movement fights for lost freedom. This two-headed monster, so to speak, can fend off the left while we determine the particulars of what society will look like after they are vanquished. Regardless of the bickering and pettiness, what is considered the alt-right and what is left of the liberty movement must work together to keep America from crumbling to pieces. All hands are needed on deck to clean up this catastrophic mess. The more formidable that both movements can be, the better chance we will have from stopping the authoritarian slide into 1984. Let’s focus on our common enemies rather than what divides us, and work toward making both movements stronger rather than weaker. |
Cycada lets iOS apps run on Android natively This is the type of research project that will probably have Steve Jobs turning in his grave. A team of engineers from Columbia University have developed Cycada, formerly Cider, a compatibility architecture that would let iOS apps run on Android without heavy virtual machines or convoluted compatibility layers. When it comes to getting one OS’ software to run on another OS, virtualization is usually the answer to such situations. However, the mobile hardware and software architecture have not yet standardized the way PCs have, making such a solution difficult to implement, if not impossible. Then there is WINE, which is a backronym that means “WINE Is Not an Emulator”, that allows Windows apps to run on Linux to some extent. However, what WINE’s developers do is to practically reimplement the Windows API (application programming interface) in order to mimic a Windows system. Cycada, on the other hand, takes a different approach. They have developed a new method called compile-time code adaptation, which lets them build code meant for other operating systems on Linux, which is Android’s base, without modification. They also use what they call diplomatic functions to replace iOS system functions, letting an app call equivalent Android system functions instead. They do not reimplement iOS API like WINE does but instead reuse those to keep things simple. Computer science professor Jason Nieh, who leads the team composed of five Ph.D. candidates, hopes that Cycada will inspire more research into cross-platform standardization. On a practical level, however, this could open the flood gates of getting popular iOS exclusive apps, which are admittedly many, running on Android devices. The team has not revealed how easy, or difficult, that will be nor have they actually released Cycada for the general populace. There is also the matter of Apple chiming in on this effort, which might violate some policy or ToS or whatnot. At the very least, they will most likely not be happy about it. SOURCE: Columbia University (1), (2) |
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday invited the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to send observers to monitor two of its Russian-Ukrainian border crossings - Gukovo and Donetsk. "In connection to the worsening situation in the region where Kyiv is carrying out its military operation in the southeast of Ukraine, the Russian side, in the order of goodwill and without waiting for a ceasefire is inviting OSCE observers to check points...on the Russian-Ukrainian border," the Foreign Ministry said in statement. Meanwhile, Ukraine's defense minister on Monday said that a Ukrainian AN-26 military transport plane had been shot down by a rocket which was "probably" fired from Russian territory. The plane was taking part in the military campaign against separatist rebels. Rebels in conflict-wracked eastern Ukraine had earlier claimed responsibility for the attack. Defense Minister Valeriy Heletey, however, said the rocket was flying at an altitude too high to be reached by the weapons used by the separatist pro-Russia rebels. Authorities say the plane may have been carrying around 20 people but there was no immediate word on casualties. Intense fighting in Luhansk Fighting intensified Monday around Luhansk, which is controlled by pro-Russia separatists. TheUkrainian defense ministry said that its forces had retaken several villages around the city, while at the same time breaking through a rebel blockade and reopening a corridor to the city's airport. The rebels, though, rejected claims that government forces were now actually in control of the airport. The pro-Russia separatists, however, did concede that 30 of their fighters had been killed after coming under fire in Alexandrovka, in the east of Luhansk. The defense ministry in Kyiv confirmed that its warplanes had carried out five airstrikes on Sunday. "The enemy suffered significant losses," the ministry said, without putting a figure on the casualties. This, it was reported, included a strike on an armored convoy, which Kyiv said had crossed into Ukrainian territory. hc/kms (Reuters, AP) |
Jurors began deliberations Thursday in the federal assault and perjury trial of Minneapolis police officer Michael Griffin, but with six days of testimony and evidence to ponder, went home without a verdict. They will resume Friday morning, faced with deciding whether Griffin used his position as an officer to violate the civil rights of four men in separate incidents and then lied about it to FBI agents, as prosecutors allege. Jurors began deliberating after lunch on Thursday, after hearing closing arguments in federal court in St. Paul from assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Schleicher and Griffin’s lawyer Robert Richman. In his closing remarks, Schleicher urged jurors to set aside their feelings about the trustworthiness of police officers and instead carefully consider the evidence in arriving at their decision. Convicting an officer charged with a crime is “harder than you think that it’s going to be,” he told the jury, “because people trust police officers.” He contended that Griffin’s accounts of the incidents were peppered with “magic words to make his actions seem reasonable” in an attempt to shape the narrative surrounding a pair of assaults at downtown hangouts 18 months apart. Schleicher pointed out that the officer’s assertion that another man came charging at him outside the since-closed Envy nightclub wasn’t seen in surveillance footage that appeared to capture the encounter, and that he kicked an apparently unconscious man in the face during a later episode outside the Loop Bar. In both instances, the government claimed, Griffin tried to cover up his bad acts by filing false police reports painting the other men as the aggressors, and later lying about his role to FBI agents and in videotaped depositions. “He was being a bully with a badge,” Schleicher said. Griffin didn’t take the stand during the two-week trial. He has denied the allegations. Richman countered by questioning the credibility of the government’s key witnesses, pointing to inconsistencies in their testimonies as proof they couldn’t be trusted. Race, he said, also played a significant role in the attack outside the Loop Bar. Griffin, who is black, was surrounded by a mixed-race group of men who were upset after being thrown out of the bar, Richman told jurors. Four in the panel of 14, including two alternates, are African-American. “These two white racists — I’m sorry I have to use that word, but the evidence certainly supports it — were in this alley with an unarmed police officer,” he said of two of the men involved in the November 2011 confrontation. As in the Envy incident, Richman argued, Griffin felt threatened by the other men and was defending himself. “Any officer would know that if those two men got to him at the same time, then the situation is dire,” Richman said. “Officer Griffin could not afford to experiment, because if he guesses wrong, he would be beaten.” Jurors must determine beyond a reasonable doubt whether Griffin was the aggressor in the assaults, as the prosecution has claimed. Richman insists that the other men were the aggressors in the encounters, not his client. Griffin was indicted last May on nine criminal counts after a yearlong FBI investigation. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. |
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent the views of Townhall.com. It is no secret that what the major media seem to care most about is radically different from what concerns average Americans. While the inside the Beltway crowd continues to focus on alleged collusion between President Trump and Russia, real concerns like the future of Social Security are ignored. The Social Security Board of Trustees, a six-member panel who serve the federal government by offering a short-term and long-range forecast on the health of the Social Security program, has issued a new report, which says that while the retirement program will be "cash flow positive" through 2021, it is still in line to run out of money unless taxes are raised, or benefits are substantially reduced. Financial Planner Ric Edelman has come up with an idea that is so simple and workable it could transform the aging program and make retirement more comfortable and secure for years to come. Full disclosure: Edelman, who has been ranked three times the number one independent adviser by Barron's, is my financial adviser. Edelman says reforming Social Security is essential because, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, roughly 58 percent of workers have access to a retirement plan, while 49 percent participate in one. Edelman notes that people who do have such plans don't have much money in them, just an average balance of $159,000, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. That amount can only generate a few hundred dollars a month in retirement income, which is why even when Social Security is added to this pittance it can't adequately provide for the needs of most retirees. Edelman's solution? The federal government would set aside $7,000 one time for each child born during the next 35 years. The money would be placed in an investment account managed by a blue-ribbon panel of investment experts appointed by the president and Congress. After 35 years, the government gets back its $7,000 -- increased for inflation -- and uses the money to pay for children born during the next 35-year cycle, making it self-funding. When the child reaches age 70, monthly benefits are provided -- equal in income to what Social Security provides, allowing the current program to be replaced with no adverse effect on retirees. I asked Edelman about the politics of this, since Social Security is considered a political third rail, untouchable, highly charged. "That's why I don't propose altering how the Social Security trust fund is managed," he said, "which is what killed privatization efforts years ago." Under his proposal (he calls it the Trust Fund for America), the money would be invested in a diversified portfolio put together by a panel of investment experts consistent with how the nation's pensions funds and endowments are managed. To keep the money from being "raided" by Congress, Edelman says each baby would be assigned an individual account, much like an IRA, and would receive annual statements showing the account balance. Edelman says he is joining the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that addresses the challenges facing the nation, to focus on fixing the problems with Social Security and ensure a stable retirement program for every American. Anticipating criticism from the usual suspects who want to use Social Security as a political weapon instead of fixing it, Edelman says, "If anyone complains about my proposal, they need to complain about the nation's pension plans, too, because I am doing nothing different from them." Wouldn't you like to see dysfunctional Washington and the anti-Trump news media actually get behind something that benefits the most people? If surveyed, I'd bet an overwhelming number of respondents who are fed-up with issues that do not impact their lives, would scream "yes!" |
After two days of basking in the glow of a Giants-dominated All Star Game, it is back to work tonight as the Giants open up a series at home against the Astros. Given how poorly the first half of the season ended, it is imperative that this team jumps out of the gate and takes advantage of what is a relatively soft schedule the next few weeks. A lot has been written during the break about the keys to the Giants season the rest of the way, so I decided to take a look at three issues I see that perhaps have flown a bit under the radar. I fully believe that the Giants are the best team in the NL West, but in order to prove that they are going to have to overcome more than a few obstacles. The Ryan Theriot Conundrum You might be asking yourself, what “Ryan Theriot conundrum” are you referring to? The answer is simple, Theriot is simply not very good. Sorry Giants fans, but he isn’t and any attempt to suggest otherwise is a major overreaction to a small sample size over the first half of the season. Yes, Theriot has delivered some big hits in crucial moments so far this year. And yes, he has been light years better than Manny Burriss was ever going to be. That said, we’re talking about a player in the #2 spot of the lineup, a spot many feel is where you should bat your best overall hitter, who is carrying a .279 wOBA and a 74 wRC+. Those marks rank him 9th on the team in both categories, which means Bruce Bochy is willingly running the lineup’s biggest black hole up there in a crucial spot in the order on a daily basis. The problem is that there doesn’t appear to be a better option as we know neither Burriss or Joaquin Arias is going to provide any sort of upgrade. I’ve touched on this before, but if Theriot is going to remain the everyday second baseman, he cannot be allowed to continue hitting in the #2 spot and take away at-bats from superior hitters that are lower in the batting order. I could very easily see Theriot’s performance regressing and if that’s the case and you’re looking for possible replacements, there are two names at Fresno that might make sense. The first is 26-year-old Brock Bond, who is not someone that would light the world on fire and isn’t an actual prospect, but who does have a demonstrated ability to take a walk (11.8 BB% in nearly 2,000 minor league PAs) and won’t hurt you in the field. Bond profiles as a very similar player to what Theriot was when he was young and posting OBPs closer to .350 than .300. The second is Conor Gillaspie, who Giants fans know well. Gillaspie has never shown an ability to hit big league pitching, albeit it tiny samples, but he too does have average or better on-base potential. The bigger question with Gillaspie is whether or not he can play second base, but I would be willing to find out as we know he can hardly play his natural position at third base. You could toss 23-year-old Nick Noonan into this mix as well, but the bottom line is that the Giants are not flush with options at second base. I would not be shocked to see Brian Sabean make a deal at the deadline for a second baseman, if for no other reason than it’s ridiculous to even keep Burriss on the bench at this point. Pitching Regression Everyone knows about the struggles of Tim Lincecum and a better second half from him is a must if the Giants are going to contend for a division title and a playoff spot. But to be honest, it can’t get a whole lot worse for Timmy and I fully expect him to be better going forward. How much better? I have no idea, but any sort of rebound will be a plus for this team. I’m much more concerned about the rest of the rotation regressing over the final two-and-a-half months and how that might affect their chances. Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner should continue to be very good, so I’m not really all that worried about them. But the same cannot be said about the other two-thirds of the rotation, Ryan Vogelsong and Barry Zito. My admiration for Vogelsong is well known and you know he will give you everything he’s got and more every time he takes the mound. However, the numbers cannot lie and whether we want to admit it as fans or not, he is pitching a little over his head right now and even I have a hard time believing he will hold his ERA under 3.00 the rest of the way. I believe that he can, but his low K-rate and low-BABIP are hard things to maintain, even for a guy with the intestinal fortitude that Vogelsong has. Zito on the other hand is a ticking time bomb who could end up costing the Giants big time if he can’t hold it together. All you have to do is look at what Zito did last year to see where this thing could be going. In 2011, Zito finished with a 5.87 ERA and a 4.65 xFIP, and he did that while carrying a very low BABIP of .258. So far in 2012, Zito’s ERA stands at an easy-on-the-eyes 4.01. That’s all well and good, until you realize that his xFIP is stands at a career-high 5.33, his strikeout rate is down, his walk rate is up and that BABIP is still very low at .257. If there is a glimmer of hope for Zito it’s that he is inducing more ground balls than he ever has a Giant and he’s managed to keep the ball in the park better than he did in 2011. That said, Zito could very quickly become a black hole in the starting rotation and with Lincecum trying to find himself, I’m not sure if the Giants can get by with two-thirds of their rotation pitching at a level so far below league average. Like the second base issue, the Giants do not have much in the way of options either, unless of course you believe Brad Penny could be good. Spoiler alert, I don’t. Health Matters Perhaps no team in baseball has a thinner, less effective set of bench players than the Giants. That’s an ugly truth, but one that needs to be addressed. As it stands right now, here is what the bench for the Giants looks like on most nights: Hector Sanchez: 0.3 WAR Nate Schierholtz: 0.3 WAR Justin Christian: 0.1 WAR Joaquin Arias: 0.0 WAR Manny Burriss: -1.0 WAR Already this year we’ve seen Pablo Sandoval miss a month because of injury and the team could not come close to replacing him. Buster Posey is of course coming off that horrific ankle injury and who knows how that will affect him as the season drags on. Melky Cabrera missed a series because of a hamstring problem and on more than a few occasions I’ve found myself holding my breath watching him chase a fly ball. The point is, not a single member of the current starting lineup other than Ryan Theriot could reasonably be replaced at anywhere near an equal level should one of them succumb to a season-ending injury. That is a major concern and one that I’m sure keeps Sabean and Bochy up at night. Looking at the farm system, there really isn’t anyone who I believe could step in and do the job should a Sandoval, Posey or Cabrera go down and to think they could pluck another Cody Ross-type player is simply unrealistic. So cross those fingers Giants fans, they’re gonna need all the help they can get. Advertisements |
The Taylors (Photo courtesy of the Taylor family) Downtown is a surreal place where the city's poorest residents are literally living underneath some of its wealthiest. It has a big city feel—it's bustling and chaotic and noisy and smelly—but it's also full of intimate moments befitting a small town. Stick around long enough and you'll find it hard to walk down the street at any given time without running into someone you know—and you'll probably know their dog's name, too. One of those people you would have met—until sadly he died this summer at age 60—was Rickey Taylor. Rickey had been living on Skid Row for decades before lofts started going up around Spring and Main streets. But when they did, he developed into the neighborhood's unofficial ambassador. He became the pirate of downtown. His signature greeting was a hearty "argh." In addition to his self-appointed role as head of the downtown welcoming committee, he was a guardian angel who would look out for the fresh recruits to the loft lifestyle, a bridge between the haves and have-nots and a performer who was always ready to dance or strike a pose at Art Walk. It didn't matter whether you were a loft-dweller, just in the neighborhood to party or a business owner opening up shop. Sooner or later, you were bound to run into him (or more than likely he was going to run into you) and strike up a friendly conversation. After a couple more run-ins with him, you might even feel comfortable calling him your friend, and he would like that. Those friends, along with a family who always stuck by his side, showed up in huge numbers for his funeral and various memorials around town. Rickey lived most of his life on the streets, but after a battle with cancer he didn't get a pauper's sendoff. His younger brother Ronnie wants more than anything for more people to hear Rickey's story: "It's worth people knowing that a transient can bring people together like that." Before he became Rickey "The Pirate," Rickey was born in Los Angeles in 1954, one of six children raised in the projects in Watts by his mother, Floria Taylor. They were far from rich, but "never had a hungry day," said Ronnie. Floria, he said, could feed the entire family for $2. They were a church family—part of a congregation that would later show up en masse to Rickey's funeral to proclaim that in death, Rickey had traded his pirate hat for a crown. Rickey was by all accounts a precocious child and a born performer. It's easy to recognize the man who would break into dance any time he had an audience. Once he turned five, his mother entered Rickey and his sister Sandra in every dance competition she could. He worked two jobs while he was still in elementary school around the time of the 1965 Watts Riots: pressing clothes at a dry cleaner and running the cash register at a liquor store. His family can't agree on exactly how young he was when he began directing the youth choir at Holy Light Missionary Baptist, but they agree he was just a kid at the time. The stories of Rickey Taylor the boy don't sound all that different from the ones told about the Rickey The Pirate. At the cash register, Ronnie said, "He was selling liquor and talking shit like he talks shit." He dressed with a theatrical flair, sporting diamond rings. When Floria had to punish Rickey, she'd force him to shave his 'fro, because nothing hurt his pride quite like a haircut. Still, for the most part "he was a good kid, he never sassed" Floria says. Signs, however, of the substance abuse that plagued him later in life began to surface as early as junior high. Not infrequently, he'd come home from his job at the liquor store with alcohol on his breath. More than anything, Rickey loved attention. Before he was Rickey The Pirate, he was Rickey "James Brown" Taylor and he did a dead-on impersonation of his idol. Ronnie said: "He's always been the star of my family." Rickey always took his mom (on the right) everywhere (Photo courtesy of The Taylor Family) When Rickey was a teenager, his family moved to West Los Angeles. He started singing and dancing with soul and funk groups at clubs around town, like the Proud Bird near LAX or the Regency West in Leimert Park. The venues were limited by a strict rule: his mother refused to let him perform in clubs that served booze. She also put the brakes on promoters' plans to take him on the road to perform. Yet, Floria still beams when talking about Rickey's talent. Shuffling through old photos after his death, she stopped on one of the two of them at the Proud Bird: "He was always taking his mama somewhere—that's why I miss him." Even when times were good though, Rickey's troubles—namely substance abuse— lurked in the background. By the time Rickey reached his late teens, it reached a breaking point. When he was 17, Floria kicked him out of her home because of his escalating drug use. Then in 1975, the year Rickey turned 21, his life took an even more dramatic turn. "That was the down," Ronnie said. Rickey had a son with his then-girlfriend, but their relationship was rocky. One day he came home to find she'd left town, taking his only son with her. In short order, Rickey's life started to unravel. He hit the booze and drugs harder than ever before. He lost his job and started drifting aimlessly around the country, taking odd jobs, stopping in on Texas and San Francisco along the way. More than three decades passed before he would again have an address to call home. "I wanna do what I wanna do," Rickey told his family. And he did, despite their pleas for him to come home. In the meantime, the singing group he'd been a part of in his teens changed their name to Rose Royce. They released their first album in 1976: the hit soundtrack to Car Wash. But Rickey, the natural performer, had given up on a career in music by then. Eventually he settled down on Skid Row, as much anyone can settle on Skid Row. The 50-block section of downtown had previously been occupied mostly by white, male alcoholics. Rickey landed there right in the middle of a sea change that came about in the '80s: Crack and PCP had entered the scene. More and more young black men were landing there, swept in by the drug epidemic and a decline in manufacturing jobs in and around South L.A. There were also more veterans, and more mentally ill people as public institutions crumbled. It was L.A.'s dangerous wild west, with businesses fleeing to the eastern edge of downtown and leaving behind a ghost town after 5 p.m. "Junkies Row" on May 21, 1989 (Photo via the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection) Rickey's family tried to lure him off the streets many times, but nothing swayed him. They still doted on their performer as much as they could. Once, Ronnie bought him gators; Rickey might not have had a home, but he still had flair. Rickey occasionally took the bus to Floria's house for a shower and a good night's sleep. "My mom has never left him," Ronnie said. "She was always with him with, whatever he had to go through." Floria said Rickey was a good son who loved his mom and God. But she wouldn't let him stay under her roof while he was hitting drugs or booze, "I didn't like that drinking and that thing he was doing." "I said 'Rickey, you know you can go home but you can't do drugs,'" Ronnie continued. But Rickey said he liked drugs and would continue to do them. "He didn't want to bother us," said Ronnie. "So he chose to stay downtown." Until the end of his life, even when he was in and out of hospitals to treat his cancer, Rickey's family said he never tried to get clean. Rickey spent a long, long time on the streets—long enough to see the nadir of downtown and its revival. In the late '90s, lofts started to go up for sale right on Skid Row's edge. It became known as the "historic core," and it became Rickey's stomping grounds. Rickey certainly wasn't living the same kind of lifestyle as someone living in a luxury loft on Spring Street, but he became a rare figure who in his own way managed to straddle both worlds. He worked odd jobs for new businesses, like cleaning and construction at a gallery on Fifth and Main streets. "He was a regular, he kept coming back," said Bert Green, owner of the gallery, which has since relocated to Chicago. "He was a great personality." The thing that elevated Rickey from what Green calls a "friendly nice homeless junkie" to a downtown icon was the pirate hat. According to Green, a film crew handed Rickey the hat on a lark sometime around 2006 or 2007. "He thought it was funny," Green recalled. "'Look what I got!'" It became Rickey's signature. Not long after, he showed up to the nascent Art Walk wearing the hat and the rest, as they say, is history. "I think he made more money in one day than he had in the previous year," Green said. "This is around the same time thousands of people are moving into downtown L.A. He became a major fixture." From then on, Rickey always donned a hat. Sometimes he'd lose them or they'd get too dirty from being on the streets. But someone always bought a replacement for him or he'd head over to the Toy District to buy one. And he worked the pirate persona. He'd greet downtowners with "argh" and curl his lips. Rickey had a special knack for putting new downtown denizens, unaccustomed to their new proximity to Skid Row, at ease. As his older brother Donnell puts it, "he had a gift of gab." One of the downtown newbies who didn't last long was screenwriter Mike Armstrong, who moved his family to a huge loft with a jacuzzi on the deck. In 2011, he wrote a piece for the Los Angeles Times describing the neighborhood as "the low-grade horror movie of American cities," full of "a particular class of zombie-like human being seemingly so devastated by drugs or mental illness or both that he or she can't even form the words to ask for money." Rickey, however, was near the top of the list of things Armstrong would miss when he decamped to a quieter neighborhood: I'll especially miss Ricky [sic] the Pirate, a beloved fixture who can be found in and around Spring and 6th. His "Arrrgghh" will frighten you the first time you hear it at 1 in the morning from the shadows of a doorway, but after a while, you won't feel safe without it. Goodbye, Matey. Ahoy and arrrgghh back at you. Rickey would tell other homeless people to back off from the not yet battle-tested residents if they got too aggressive with their panhandling. Gentrification has been hard on many people living on Skid Row. When loft-dwellers started moving in, police ticketed folks sleeping on the streets during the day or jaywalking. But Rickey seemed to thrive, using the changing neighborhood as a sort of stage. He worked in shifts. Throughout the day, he moved from Spring Street Coffee to The Down And Out or Bar 107. He befriended old and new residents everywhere he went, and always kept busy. He met up with artists, he agreed to make a goofy video of himself dancing and put it on YouTube. He was always game for an opportunity to perform. The monthly Art Walk is where he shone. The event grew along with neighborhood, and it also served as a kind of open house for people interested downtown. Artist Robert Vargas called it a place where "strangers would become more intimate." Vargas, whose murals are everywhere in downtown, says he was drawn to the neighborhood's characters, so Rickey's pirate hat stuck out to him right away. Rickey became a "conduit of inspiration." Vargas gave the paintings to Rickey who would sell them. "He genuinely loved to sit for me," Vargas said. "There was a lot going on in drawing Rickey." Robert Vargas drawing Rickey (Photo via Robert Vargas) His family was slow to realize that Rickey had become a local celebrity. He'd come home to visit his family and brag that he was a star. Ronnie said, "We just overlooked it." But they eventually started visiting Rickey during Art Walk. Floria said that just as he would invite her down to be the guest of honor to his shows as a teen, he loved having his mom come downtown to show her off. And he loved to show her the life he'd created downtown. Rickey Taylor and his mom on his birthday in 2011 (Photo by Fernanda Hughes) "It wasn't just the drugs that had him, it was downtown," Ronnie said. He visited his family, but he'd always be eager to get back to the streets: "He couldn't wait to get back to his other family." "Rickey had the mindset that people wanted him, they needed him," Vargas said. And creative types did — some of them had moved downtown in particular because they wanted to an experience that felt authentically urban and gritty, and Rickey was a bridge to that world. There was a darker side to that, of course. Vargas would sometimes get a whiff of exploitation from people who would use Rickey's image in their work or online. Rickey never kept the fact that he loved drinking and drugs a secret, but he kept his addiction out of sight from the people who knew him best. He'd retreat deep into Skid Row to use before returning to the Historic Core with his sociable, friendly, performative A-game. Russell Brown, former head of the Historic Downtown Business Improvement District, struck up a friendship with Rickey early on. Brown says he's dealt with his share of addicts, and Rickey seemed to manage his addiction better than most: "I never once saw him crazy, passed out or unconscious." Rickey's brothers said between growing up in the projects and living on the streets, he was fearless. But it was clear that as he got older he was becoming increasingly vulnerable. One morning Rickey turned up beaten badly, with broken teeth and a bloody eye. "I decided it was time to do an intervention," Brown said. "He had been comfortable sleeping on the streets, but I felt he couldn't continue to sleep there." Brown managed to get help for Rickey through Project 50, a controversial program started in 2007 that aims to house the most vulnerable and chronically homeless people on Skid Row. Rickey qualified in 2009. After spending three decades on the streets, Rickey had a place to hang his pirate hat. He moved into the Rainbow Apartments. There was a house-warming celebration. His mom baked her famous peach cobbler. Friends and community members chipped in to buy Rickey basic supplies for his apartment. "I assumed once he got housing, my part was over and done," Brown said. "But he had been 30 years on the streets." Getting off the streets did help: Rickey was getting better sleep, and he didn't look quite so bleary-eyed. But there were issues. Rickey wouldn't always sleep in his apartment. Brown said, "That's a habit that was hard for him to break." His new apartment also had bed bugs that drove him nuts. Brown said that at first Rickey didn't maintain his apartment, and he had to call in teams a few times to clean it. Rickey had "recreated the dumpsters he'd be living in," Brown said. But eventually his cleaning improved. He received welfare that his mother disbursed to him in small amounts. Rickey's health had already been on the decline by the time he moved into his new place. He told Blogdowntown at the time: "I have bad kidneys, or something. I don't really drink that much. It might be diabetes. That's what a doctor told me a long time ago." His condition worsened, and a few years ago Rickey was diagnosed with cancer. To anyone who didn't know him well, nothing would have seemed out of the ordinary. He continued making his rounds throughout downtown. He still wore the pirate hat. He continued selling portraits or signed black-and-white headshots to locals or tourists passing through. But the people who knew him noticed his energy flagging and that he would disappear for days or weeks at a time for treatments. Photo courtesy of Robert Vargas Even in the hospital, Rickey was still Rickey. During a longer stay, he bragged to the nurses that he was so famous that he had his own artist. He was pleased to see that "his artist," Vargas, did show up. Vargas wasn't happy to see Rickey in a hospital bed, though. His face dropped. Rickey told him, "Vargas, it ain't that kind of party, don't cry." Robert Vargas writes, "I wanted to show him smiling and happy, the way I always wanted him to be. By this time I knew how far along he was with his sickness so I wanted to somehow lock him in the painting with that infectious smile of his and take the pain away." (Photo by Robert Vargas) Vargas sketched pictures of Rickey in his pirate hat at his bedside on a paper towel. Rickey tried to sell the napkin to a nurse. His death caught everyone off guard. There were tales of people who had seen Rickey in the days before his death. Brown knew someone who had seen him just hours before he passed. He had seemed a little weaker, sure, but not like a man facing death. No one was more shocked than his mom, who said he had just bought a new suit and shoes: "He was nice, good as I ever seen him." On June 17, Rickey made his rounds on the streets before returning to the community room in his apartment building. He looked like he had fallen asleep watching TV, but when someone went to shake him, his body was already cold. His family took solace in the fact that his face looked serene. There were more than a few gatherings around downtown where locals swapped Rickey stories. In the weeks since, a bar named a special after him: it's three shots of rum. Someone made a 4,271-piece Lego mosaic and someone else spray-painted a Walk of Fame star for him on the sidewalk. Vargas painted a utility box with a cartoonish portrait, outfitted with a pirate hat. "I like it because it's like he's still posted up here," he said. When I passed by it a week after Rickey died, a homeless man snatched up a pirate hat that was in front of the utility box. It was one of a dozen or so remembrances for Rickey, including flowers, a candle and a few pieces of cardboard written with notes like, "Keep smilin' on heaven's street." A white hipsterish man chided the man: "Don't take that, that belongs to Rickey." One of many memorials for Rickey around downtown (Photo by Emma Gallegos/LAist) Rickey's family pulled out all the stops for his funeral at Inglewood Cemetery. Rickey was dressed in a white suit with a white bow tie and a light gold paisley print. It matched the white casket with gold details. A few hundred people showed up to pay their respects to him: his family, friends and the church community. Reverend Floyd Crume, a reverend at Holy Light Baptist where Rickey had been a youth choir director five decades before, read a passage from scripture. His brother Donnell remembered, "He had showmanship since he was three." Ronnie said he's still trying to understand who his brother was and what he meant to the neighborhood. At night, he said, "I go downtown...just to walk where he walked and see what he saw." The community held a vigil for Rickey after his death, and shouted a collective "argh." (Photo by Fernanda Hughes) |
About 50 people set out on foot from the Swiss village of Fiesch at dawn on July 31. As the sun rose over 13,000-foot (4,000-meter) Alpine peaks, the procession moved slowly up a mountainside and into the cool of a pine forest, stopping at a tiny church. By 7:30 the group had swollen to around a hundred—too many to fit inside the chapel of Maria Heimsuchung, or Mary of the Visitation, so a makeshift altar was erected outside. "Glacier is ice, ice is water, water is life," intoned priest Toni Wenger, before beseeching God to stop the glaciers high above them from melting. By changing a few, crucial words in the liturgy, Father Wenger reversed a Catholic ritual that for 350 years had implored the heavens to push back the glaciers. The Vatican had approved the change as the effects of global warming became all too tangible in the Alps. Climate change's effects are accentuated in mountainous regions, and in the 20th century temperatures in Alpine Switzerland increased by twice the global average. Today Swiss glaciers are shrinking by nearly 33 feet (10 meters) a year, on average. What's more, alpine communities are reporting more rain and stronger winds than in centuries past. When Global Cooling Killed The people of devoutly Catholic Fiesch and Fieschertal have made the annual pilgrimage since 1674, when Europe was in the grip of the Little Ice Age. (Related: "Little Ice Age Shrank Europeans, Sparked Wars.") Looming over the villages, the two largest glaciers in the Alps—the Aletsch (satellite picture) and Fiescher (satellite picture)—grew over the next two centuries, reaching their maximum lengths around 1850. Around that time, the Aletsch stretched some 16 miles (26 kilometers); the Fiescher was larger by similar proportions, though exact measurements aren't available for the smaller glacier. The consequences for the villagers were dire. When pieces of the Aletsch fell into Lake Märjelen—which lies between the two glaciers—the lake overflowed. Three hundred and fifty-three million cubic feet (10 million cubic metres) of water rushed down the valley below, inundating settlements, damaging property, and killing villagers. Extremely poor until the late 19th century, the locals had few options but to rebuild. Having endured hundreds such diasters, the villagers—with the help of local Jesuits—organized the pilgrimage, to be held annually on July 31: the Catholic feast day dedicated to the Jesuits' founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. Answered Prayers? The glaciers began receding in the 1860s, and they continue to shrink today. (Watch a glacier recede in a time-lapse video.) The Aletsch—now 13 miles (21 kilometers) long, about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) wide, and roughly 3,000 feet (900 meters) deep—has lost nearly 3 miles (5 kilometers) in length and 650 feet (200 meters) in depth since 1864. "We prayed for the ice to recede, and our prayer worked—too well," said Herbert Volken, mountain guide and mayor of Conches, the district that includes Fiesch. In 2009 the local parish council petitioned the Vatican to allow a change in the wording of the prayer. A year later the Holy See agreed, and Volken hopes the new prayer will work as well as the last one. Today the villagers no longer worry about floods, he said, but about having less drinking water, energy, and food for their animals, and more forest fires. Another problem is the impact the dwindling glaciers could have on tourism—the main source of income, besides hydropower, for the district—which is already strained by recession and the Eurozone crisis. So far, icemelt doesn't appear to be a factor in the tourism dropoff, Volken said. But "if the [Aletsch] glacier isn't there any more, the tourists won't come." Glacial Pace The effects of global warming are being felt throughout the region. (Video: Melting Alps.) Not far from Fiesch, the Giesen glacier has developed a gigantic crack and is at risk of collapsing and inundating villages below. In Zermatt—where a shifting glacier defines an international border—the Swiss and Italian governments are in the process of renegotiating their frontier. The impact of the changing climate will eventually be felt wider still. The Aletsch and Fiescher glaciers—along with many other, smaller ones—feed the Rhône river system, one of Europe's most important. Hanspeter Holzhäuser, a University of Bern geographer who specializes in glacier history, said the Aletsch is losing about 75 feet (23 meters) a year in length. He's tracked the glacier's fluctuations over several millennia—using historical records and analyses of ice cores, fossil soils, and wood trapped in the ice—and found clear signs of climate variation. During the balmy Bronze Age, for example, the Aletsch was between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (610 and 915 meters) shorter than it is today. But the warmth then, he adds, wasn't abetted by human activities. "Even if all the new prayer does is to draw attention to man-made global warming," he said, "it's a good thing." Whatever the revised prayer's effects, they're unlikely to be immediate. Holzhäuser is confident, based on past trends, that the rapid warming—and subsequent melting—will continue for at least the next 30 years. And the consequences may not be entirely obvious. Earlier this summer, a British couple walking on Aletsch Glacier discovered human remains. The bones, which have been sent to the University of Bern for DNA analysis, are thought to have belonged to local men who disappeared in 1926, probably by falling into a crevasse that then closed above them. According to Renato Julier, Fiesch's head of tourism, other walkers have gone missing in the region since then. "We expect more gruesome discoveries in the future," Julier said. |
Senior forward Nkem Ezurike sits on the bench at the U-M Soccer Stadium, looking out at the field she dominates. Sunday, she became the greatest goal scorer ever to play at Michigan, in the greatest era since the 1990s, on perhaps the greatest team Michigan has ever had. It is dreary, quiet and empty, except for a groundskeeper on the field. The lights are off, the bleachers vacant. That will all change three nights later. It wasn’t always like this, the confident dominance around the program. When Ezurike came to Ann Arbor, the rise of Michigan women’s soccer was in its infancy. There was no stadium, no field and no bench. The uniform she wears did not exist, nor the nets she hits with every goal, nor the supporting cast alongside her. Ezurike is outside the lines of the field, so she is calm, unassuming and soft-spoken. When she is on the field, she is a terror, eager to beat anyone in the way of her journey. “It’s really funny to me because she’s not like that at all off the field,” said freshman forward Madisson Lewis. “She’s such a jokester, and she’s always so calm. She’s a completely different person on and off the field.” Ezurike sits here at the crossroads of two journeys: one to become the greatest goal scorer in Michigan history, the other to take the Wolverines to the top tier of women’s soccer. The first journey is over. The second? Well, that’s just getting started. * * * In 2008, Michigan coach Greg Ryan’s first season, assistant coach Dean Duerst called Ryan from a college showcase tournament in Canada with a message: There’s a kid up here you’re going to want to see. Her name was Nkem Ezurike, which is Nigerian, meaning “What I have is greater than anything else.” She has lived up to that name. “If there’s a player we need to try to get into our program as soon as we can, it would be Nkem,” Duerst said. “She also was the right fit in terms of what we call a target player.” In Ryan’s first two years, Michigan survived on 1-0 wins and scoreless ties. The Wolverines won four games in his first season and six in his second, with just one in the Big Ten each season. He knew there was a ceiling for his teams as long as they kept playing like that. He needed a natural goal scorer, like he had in Abby Wambach when he coached the U.S. Women’s National Team. In his first year, Ryan asked a fellow coach how many Big Ten-caliber players he had on his roster. The answer was one. His goal was to rebuild the program, and he knew if he could nab Ezurike, that would be a start. The coaching staff promised Ezurike an immediate role on the team — there was no adjustment period. The journey to the record started then. “I don’t know if I ever put it in perspective of that,” said senior midfielder Meghan Toohey. “But I knew she was going to be by far one of the best forwards this program’s ever had. When she started scoring and scoring and thinking about the record, I knew for sure that she was going to beat it.” Ezurike is quiet about her individual impact on the team, but her teammates and coaches aren’t. They know the difference between Michigan with and without her. The truth is, the Wolverines go where Ezurike takes them — from nine goals in 2010 for an NCAA Tournament appearance, to 15 goals in 2012 for a Sweet 16 berth, to 10 so far this year as Big Ten contenders. But Ryan knew he needed more than a goal scorer. He needed a team of leaders and pure, die-hard competitors. Ezurike was that, too: when she steps inside the lines, a strange transformation happens. She goes from quiet to loud, unassuming to assertive, shy to fiery. “She just becomes Nkem,” Ryan said. “She becomes that other Nkem that everybody loves to see on the field.” A referee ignores contact against her, and she yells across the field to him. Another player pushes her, and she gets into the player’s face. She misses a shot, and she glares. Why? Because they have one thing in common: they’re all in the way of Ezurike’s journey. “In the previous years, all the seniors had that sense of urgency, like it was their last shot,” Ezurike said. “You definitely don’t understand it until you’re actually a senior. It’s kind of like desperation, that urgency to do well and end on a high.” Three years after she first stepped onto the field as a freshman, Ezurike is on her last go-round. There is no next season, no alternative to winning now. * * * Ezurike’s career has not been a smooth ride. Within every striker is the pressure to score goals and carry the team every game. Ezurike needs to be a contributor, and when she’s not, it weighs on her. “I wouldn’t say that it worried her pulling her confidence down, but it definitely challenged her,” Toohey said. “One reason Nkem is as good of a player as she is, is that she is hard on herself but doesn’t put too much pressure on herself that takes away from scoring an easy goal.” Ezurike said the hardest time of her career was her sophomore year, when Michigan returned the bulk of its 2010 NCAA Tournament team. Ezurike, of course, expected more, perhaps a further run into the tournament. Instead, the Wolverines took a step back: they finished just a shade over .500, won four Big Ten games and gave up three or more goals four times. Now, in the dark stadium, the empty field seems emptier when Ezurike thinks about those moments, the moments that tested Michigan’s ability to rebuild. “We knew we had the potential to be a really good team,” Ezurike said. “Not being able to execute, that was difficult and hard to handle. We grew from it, we learned from it and then we went on to have a good season the next year.” Ezurike’s mother, Christie, knows her daughter. She knows how much pressure she puts on herself. “It was really tough because (Ezurike) is sometimes too hard on herself,” Christie said. “When the team is not doing well, she gets really down. When that happened, she was disappointed. She was a little bit hard on herself, but she bounced back.” That was not Ezurike’s last go-round. The next year, Ezurike missed the first four games of the season to play in the U-20 World Cup for Canada in Japan. When she returned from a 13-hour time difference to a new team and a new season, she struggled. She didn’t score in the first four games — her longest drought since early in her sophomore season — and Michigan lost twice, including once in the last minute of regulation. Ryan said he went to lunch with Ezurike and talked with her to ease her frustration. He taught her to move onto the next chance after she missed one. In her fifth game, Ezurike scored twice to lift Michigan to a 3-0 win. She went onto score in 11 of the last 15 games, including the overtime winner in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. “Her freshman year was a great year for her,” Duerst said. “The next year was a good year. But I think last year was kind of like Nkem coming out.” * * * The lights are on and the stands are full now at the U-M Soccer Stadium, a far cry from when Ezurike sat there alone three days earlier. Michigan is playing Indiana to stay in contention for a Big Ten championship. None of the players are math majors, but they know this: there are 33 points possible in Big Ten play, and they have already lost five of them. Ezurike knows this, too, so when she misses a shot high in the first minute, then again in the 12th minute, then wide right in the 14th and wide left in the 21st, she grows more and more impatient. In the second half, with the game still scoreless, Ezurike battles with an opponent in the box and gets called for a foul. The competitiveness in her simmers, and she yells a few words to the referee. But this is a different Ezurike than the one from three years ago, so Michigan is a different team. The 18-year-old Ezurike might have kept talking and been given a yellow card. The young Michigan team might have fired shots wide and high until the stadium lights went off, falling to yet another 0-0 tie. Instead, Ezurike says her words, then roams around the final third for a few moments. These moments make careers, when players are struggling and still find a way to help their team win. She stands in one spot, catching her breath and checking her emotions. Then she cuts inside, looking for a pass that can bring her one step closer to finishing one journey and continuing the other. * * * As with all questions about herself, Ezurike is mum when talking about the record. She’s scored so many times on this field, but she hesitates to talk about them. The other players start to mill around, trickling into the stadium. Ezurike starts to credit them. But the stats show Ezurike’s impact: last season, the Wolverines won eight of 11 games in which she scored and only four of eight in which she didn’t. Sunday, Ezurike scored twice to break the record. Ezurike claimed last week that she wouldn’t celebrate any differently than any other goal, but it was clear she knew what it meant. After the record-setting goal, she received a hug from almost everyone else on the field with a joyful smile. When the game ended, she went over to the opposite side of the field, where her mother, Christie, awaited after making the trip from Nova Scotia. Ezurike insisted last week that she wouldn’t get swept up in the emotion, but she did. “I think it would mean a lot to Nkem to achieve (the record),” Ryan said last week. “She’s such a humble person that she will be the last to mention it. The way she plays, she’s in the limelight, but that’s not who Nkem is. I think it’s one of those things that she’ll be very quietly proud of for the rest of her life.” Mother and daughter met again later, and Christie beamed with pride. She knew how much went into that moment — all the hours of work, the frustration on the field, the phone calls home, the talks with Ryan, every one of those 45 goals and even a 1,000-mile trip from Lower Sackville, N.S. “She’s a great daughter,” Christie said with a proud smile. “When she comes home, you know she’s home because everything will be taken care of.” Every one of her 45 career goals has added something to the Wolverines’ program. Her 46th will, too, as will her 47th. It may be her goal that clinches Michigan’s first Big Ten championship ever, or her goal that moves the Wolverines along in the NCAA Tournament. The numbers, at that point, are irrelevant. Ezurike is chasing history, but not the number 44. |
By Laurie Margolis BBC News Amateur broadcasts Immediately ahead of you is the plush Langham Hotel, very expensive and also one of the most haunted buildings in London. To your left, BBC Radio's headquarters at Broadcasting House. This busy location, on the northern edge of London's West End, was the focus of the way the story of the Falklands invasion unfolded exactly 25 years ago. Back in 1982 I was a BBC journalist and also an amateur radio operator - I still am. That means I have a call-sign - G3UML - and some expertise in long-distance short-wave communications. At the very end of March, 1982, I was working on the Golan Heights, hearing on the BBC World Service a bizarre story about Argentine scrap metal merchants taking over the British dependency of South Georgia. Invasion claim I returned to London on the morning on 2 April, and went into Broadcasting House to work on a documentary. I was met by scenes of near panic in the radio newsroom. The Argentines were claiming to have invaded and taken over the Falkland Islands, the 2,000-strong British colony off the south-eastern tip of South America. Argentine soldiers took control after a few hours' resistance The newsroom had Argentine claims, but nothing else apart from a laconic message from the Cable and Wireless station on the Falklands - "we have a lot of new friends". At that time the Langham Hotel was a dreary BBC office block and, in a dusty, junk-filled attic room - number 701 - the BBC's own amateur radio club had a shortwave transceiver. With a big aerial on the roof, it worked pretty well. My senior editors wondered if there was any way I could contact the Falklands through amateur radio. Nothing else was working. It seemed a possibility. The remote nature of the islands meant that radio was important, and for the small population there were a lot of radio amateurs down there. 'A true scoop' So I took up a vigil in room 701, listening carefully across the 14, 21 and 28 megahertz bands for anything from VP8 - the international call-sign prefix for the islands. And about six hours later, I struck gold. On 21.205 megahertz at 1600 London time, that rather distinctive accent, a bit West Country - a Falkland Islander. And what a story he had to tell - a true scoop, an exclusive of the greatest magnitude. The voice was that of Bob McLeod, and he lived in the settlement of Goose Green on East Falkland. His call-sign, I realised, was VP8LP but he was anxious that it shouldn't be used. I have much of what he said that day recorded on an old-fashioned audio cassette. "We have now been taken over. The British government still denies it but they have no contact I believe with the Falklands, and this is probably why they are still denying it. "But we have been taken over. There is an aircraft carrier and I believe four other boats - I don't have the details on them - but they do have heavy armoured vehicles in Stanley, details I don't know, and quite a number of personnel. "They landed approx 0930 GMT this morning in landing craft and stormed the capital Port Stanley and have taken over the government office, they landed with heavy armoured vehicles. "We're now under their control. They are broadcasting that all local people will be treated as normal. Fairly peaceful in Stanley at present time." Foreign Office call The Argentines had still to reach Goose Green and so Bob was able to transmit his bombshell. He was getting information from local radio, which broadcast a commentary as the invasion developed early that morning, and then carried on, under Argentine control, transmitting messages of reassurance. The islands' VHF radio network was also buzzing with the story as it developed. The resulting conflict cost hundreds of lives By then my dusty attic was busy with BBC TV crews and newspaper people who'd been told it might be a good place to be. I went onto the Radio 4 PM programme at 1700 London time with an account of what I'd been told. A few minutes later I was rung by the Foreign Office, who understood I'd been in touch with the Falklands and wondered what they were saying. I gave them a bit more of Bob. "Damage we don't know, shooting around a very rough guess approx two hours. Three deaths of Argentineans [sic] in the Falklands, one believed to be very senior. "The English marines and local defence forces - we have no information. Took over Government House, and then taken over all of Port Stanley. And I believe they shot up the Cable and Wireless transmitting station. "Helicopters flying around Stanley. 500 personnel in Stanley, and aircraft carrier believed to be carrying 1,500. Flying Hercules aircraft, one has come in." It clearly made an impression. Within an hour the Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, was on his feet in the House of Lords confirming a massive British humiliation. |
Buy Photo Homeowner Walter Hicks, 57, talks in front of his home Tuesday in Detroit. The city valued his west side brick home at $40,000 in 2013, more than four times what the ACLU says it was worth at that time. The home is on the 11700 block of Robson that has several vacant homes. Hicks bought it in 2012 from the tax auction for $2,700. (Photo: Todd McInturf / The Detroit News)Buy Photo The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and the NAACP Legal and Education Fund on Wednesday sued to stop the Wayne County Treasurer from auctioning hundreds of owner-occupied homes for unpaid taxes this fall, arguing the foreclosures were illegal. The county’s tax sale violates the Federal Fair Housing Act by disproportionately foreclosing on black homeowners, a process driven by Detroit’s inflated city tax assessments, said ACLU Legal Director Michael Steinberg. The suit, filed Wednesday morning in Wayne County Circuit Court, names Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree, the county and the city of Detroit as defendants. “Wayne County and Detroit are creating a human catastrophe by tossing thousands of homeowners into the streets for inability to pay unlawfully assessed taxes,” Steinberg said in a press release. “This short-sighted practice not only violates federal law, it destabilizes families, destroys neighborhoods and undermines the economic recovery of the region.” The city taxed the home of one ACLU client at risk of foreclosure as if it was worth $40,000, while a private appraisal paid by the ACLU pegged its value at $9,000. The controversial auction has drawn critics for years, who say residents are losing properties because of tax bills that bear little relation to market value. The sale has attracted hundreds of out-of-state speculators and local investors who buy for as little as $500, and many don’t pay tax bills either. The treasurer has processed more than 140,000 foreclosures countywide since 2002, according to Loveland Technologies, a company that studies tax foreclosure. The ACLU is asking the court to halt the sale of all properties that are owner occupied, an estimated 1,530, and stop future foreclosures until the city can properly assess them, according to the lawsuit. A total of 5,600 homes headed to the tax sale in September are occupied, which includes renters. The plaintiffs, seven homeowners and four neighborhood associations represented by ACLU attorneys, are also asking the lawsuit be designated as a class action for all homeowners affected. Sabree said he is required by law to auction off properties after three years of unpaid taxes. He said foreclosures are down by more than 46 percent this year to about 15,000 county wide because of efforts to get owners on payment plans. “This complaint filed by the ACLU has nothing to do with the Wayne County Treasurer’s Office,” Sabree said in a statement. “It is an attempt to ignore state law and prevent the property tax foreclosure auction from taking place.” City officials said assessments in 2013 were supported by sales data and that they’ve worked with the county to reduce foreclosures. “This has been one of the mayor’s highest priorities,” city Treasurer David Szymanski said in a statement. “We successfully sought legislation to reduce penalties and interest and create workable payment plans that have helped to keep more than 27,000 homeowners in their homes in just the past year.” Detroit is in the midst of a city-wide reassessment — the first in decades — and has lowered assessments between 5 percent to 20 percent in some neighborhoods for the last three years. But some residents say it hasn’t been enough. Walter Hicks, a 57-year-old disabled Detroiter and one of the plaintiffs, is at risk of foreclosure next year with more than $4,500 in tax debt dating to 2013. The city valued his west side brick home at $40,000 in 2013, more than four times what the ACLU says it was worth at that time. The home is on the 11700 block of Robson that has several vacant homes. Hicks bought it in 2012 from the tax auction for $2,700. “It’s preposterous,” said Hicks, who has to pay the county $339 a month under a payment plan. “All I am worried about is paying that tax bill that I will never get caught up on.” An investigation by The Detroit News in 2013 concluded that Detroit was over-assessing homes by an average of 65 percent, according to a review of state tax appeals. The series prompted state regulators to overhaul Detroit’s Assessment Division. Steinberg said he believes “a huge percentage” of people on county payment plans are defaulting because they can’t afford them. The lawsuit also argues that the Detroit Citizen Board of Review’s process to grant poverty exemptions has violated homeowners’ due process rights by not giving them a reason for their denial. And some ACLU clients didn’t receive a response at all, according to the lawsuit. Poverty exemptions can lower or eliminate tax bills if owners qualify. Detroit Corporation Counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell called the lawsuit “meritless.” “The city is confident that not only is the ACLU’s claim fatally flawed as any potential claim was discharged in bankruptcy, but it is also recklessly irresponsible,” Hollowell said in a statement. “It would violate compliance with the Plan of Adjustment, indefinitely prolong state oversight of city operations and threaten basic city services to all Detroiters.” The ACLU, and NAACP Legal and Education Fund were joined by lawyers from the Washington, D.C.-based Covington & Burling LLP in the lawsuit filing. Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/29PG9SQ |
Chapman University has just published the results of a national study on the factors linked to satisfaction with appearance and weight. In a survey of more than 12,000 American adults, the questions focused on personality, beliefs about romantic relationships, self-esteem, television viewing, and personal characteristics. "Our study shows that men's and women's feelings about their weight and appearance play a major role in how satisfied they are with their lives overall," said David Frederick, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Chapman University and lead author on the study. For women, satisfaction with overall appearance was the third strongest predictor of overall life satisfaction, behind only satisfaction with financial situation and satisfaction with romantic partner. For men, appearance satisfaction was the second strongest predictor of life satisfaction, behind only satisfaction with financial situation. "Few men (24 percent) and women (20 percent) felt very or extremely satisfied with their weight, and only half felt somewhat to extremely satisfied," said Dr. Frederick. "These findings are consistent with the emphasis placed on the importance of being slender for women and for appearing athletic and/or lean for men. It would seem therefore, that we still have a long way to go before we achieve the goal of Americans being truly happy with their bodies." People who were dissatisfied with their weight reported substantially less satisfaction with their sex lives and lower overall self-esteem. The results also showed that people's orientations towards their relationships--known as "attachment styles"--were linked to how people felt about their bodies. People with an "anxious" attachment style are often preoccupied with their romantic relationships and fearful that their partners will leave them. Women with more anxious and fearful attachment styles were more dissatisfied with their appearance and weight. Dr. Frederick noted that, "body dissatisfaction and anxious attachment styles can lead to an out of control spiral and fuel each other. People who are less confident in their appearance become more fearful that their partner will leave, which further fuels their worries about their appearance." The results showed that dissatisfied people had higher neuroticism, had more preoccupied and fearful attachment styles, and spent more hours watching television. In contrast, satisfied people had higher openness, conscientious, extraversion, are more secure in attachment style, and had higher self-esteem and life satisfaction. Other key findings included: People who watched more hours of television per week were less satisfied with their appearance and weight. People who were more satisfied with their physical appearance and weight reported more secure attachment styles, versus fearful and dismissive attachment styles. People who were more satisfied with their appearance reported greater self-esteem, greater satisfaction with life, sex life, friends, romantic partners, family, and financial situation. Body Mass Index (BMI) was strongly related to dissatisfaction with appearance and weight. "These findings highlight the high prevalence of body dissatisfaction and the factors linked to dissatisfaction among U.S. adults," said Dr. Frederick. The study called, Correlates of appearance and weight satisfaction in a U.S. national Sample: Personality, attachment style, television viewing, self-esteem, and life satisfaction is published in the journal Body Image. The sample of participants was 12,176 U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 65 years who reported their height, weight and sexual orientation. Correlates of appearance and weight satisfaction in a U.S. National Sample: Personality, attachment style, television viewing, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. David A. Frederick, Gaganjyot Sandhu, Patrick J. Morse, Viren Swami. Body Image. DOI:10.1016/j.bodyim.2016.04.001. Published online 9 May 2016. |
Nick Riewoldt is one of a number of AFL champions to retire this year THE RETIREMENT Class of 2017 versus the Retirement Class of 2007. Luke Hodge, Nick Riewoldt, Sam Mitchell, Steve Johnson, Jobe Watson, Matt Priddis, Josh Gibson and Bob Murphy versus Nathan Buckley, James Hird, Mark Ricciuto, Anthony Koutoufides, Glenn Archer, Chris Grant, Chris Scott and Luke Darcy. Determining the better group is an inexact science. There can be no right or wrong answer. But it's a fun project. When the older set retired, it was thought that season 2007 would never be topped when it came to collective clout and class exiting the game. Season 2014 also saw some of the all-time greats retire, including Jonathan Brown, Lenny Hayes and Dean Cox. But not until this year has a group of exiting champions challenged the 2007 bunch on status. Retirements prompt all sorts of reactions and emotions. Initially, it is often disappointment which takes hold the moment a player announces he's done. Then there's reflection as the memories kick in. Riewoldt's near-suicidal mark at the SCG. Hodge's two Norm Smith Medals. Johnson's freakish goals and "cash or credit?" friendly taunting of hapless opponents. Watson's work rate which elevated him from effectively nowhere to a Bomber great. Mitchell's defiance of being told he was not good enough as a junior. Priddis' courage and toil to add a Brownlow Medal to a Sandover Medal. Gibson's man-about-town ways and initially underrated football ability which saw him become as crucial as any component in the Hawthorn flag-winning machine of 2013-15. Leigh Matthews won two best and fairests in Hawk premiership years, so too Jason Dunstall, so too Gibson. Nothing morre needs to be said. Murphy, from his day one in the AFL back in 2000, has always carried himself with class and composure, on and off the field. It's an ultra high-quality retirement group from this year, with Scott Thompson and Matthew Boyd also part of the departing set, and possibly Leigh Montagna and Drew Petrie to join them. The game will lose Matt Priddis and Jobe Watson at season's end. Picture: AFL Photos Let's look at some numbers comparing the eight players retiring in 2017 as mentioned in the second paragraph, with the eight mentioned in the same paragraph from 2007. As of the completion of round 21, 2017, it is 2305 matches for the 2017 lot versus 2216. Goals are 1857, against 2104. From the 2017 group, there are 136 finals, 22 Grand Finals, 14 premierships. For the 2007 class, those numbers are 121, 14 and eight. It's two Brownlow Medals against three, but 945 Brownlow votes against 750. Best-and-fairest awards are close, 19 to 20. The older group has a collective eight more Virgin Australia AFL All Australian representations, 29 to 20. Collective games as captain are 584 (2017 group) versus 576. Riewoldt and Mitchell won NAB AFL Rising Star Awards, so too Buckley and Scott. James Hird and Nathan Buckley shake hands at the MCG in 2002. Picture: AFL Photos Raw numbers, of course, are only part of the story. Among the exits of 2007 and 2017 are some of the most powerful personalities the game has seen. Ricciuto, Buckley, Archer, Hird, and Hodge, Johnson, Riewoldt and Mitchell all have, or had, bold personalities which commanded attention on and off the field. There was the mostly controlled larrikin streaks in Ricciuto and Johnson. Remember the Ramsgate brawl? And the busted ankles from trying to re-enter the Torquay Hotel? Buckley, Hird and Scott went on to coach, only the latter with success to this point. Mitchell and Johnson will also head down that path, with Hodge to do so possibly after a year off. So much excitement lies ahead in the AFL's final two home and away rounds and finals series this season. Johnson's CV might include a fourth premiership by the time it is completed. The Eagles might finally find high-end form and provide finals finishes for Priddis, Mitchell and Petrie. There are still mathematical possibilities for finals for Hodge, Riewoldt, Watson, Murphy, Boyd, Gibson and Montagna. Thompson might even get a call-up to the ladder-leading Crows. Just as Joel Selwood, Travis Boak, Tom Hawkins and Jack Riewoldt began AFL careers in the same season that Buckley, Ricciuto, Hird, Archer and co. completed theirs, 2017 has seen the debuts of Andrew McGrath, Will Hayward, Sam Petrevski-Seton, Sam Powell-Pepper, Jy Simpkin, Will Hayward, Hugh McCluggage and Ben Ainsworth. The past is beautiful, the future equally so. For the record, if you had the 2007 Retirement Class lined up alongside the 2017 set, we'd take the older group. Twitter: @barrettdamian 2017 retirees Player Current club Games Finals Grand Finals Flags Norm Smith Brownlows B&Fs All Aust Games as captain Rising star Josh Gibson Hawthorn 225 23 4 3 0 0 2 1 0 0 Luke Hodge Hawthorn 303 23 5 4 2 0 2 3 125 0 Steve Johnson GWS 290 24 4 3 1 0 0 3 0 0 Sam Mitchell West Coast 325 24 5 4 0 1 5 3 79 1 Robert Murphy W. Bulldogs 310 10 0 0 0 0 0 2 46 0 Matt Priddis West Coast 236 10 1 0 0 1 1 1 6 0 Nick Riewoldt St Kilda 334 17 3 0 0 0 6 5 220 1 Jobe Watson Essendon 218 5 0 0 0 0 3 2 108 0 Total 2241 136 22 14 3 2 19 20 584 2 |
No more paying $80 for a 700c mountain bike studded tire. No more worrying about falling or slipping on ice or snow. No more excuses for gaining five pounds. The game is up. I have you covered, and it will only cost you anywhere from a Hamilton to a Jackson ($10 – 20 for those who are not from the USA Tools / Supplies Needed: For a 700c Wheel: 24 ft of Braided Cable. 1/16″ or 3/32″ (I’m sure picture frame wire will work too) Braided Cable Clamps x 4 – two for each wheel Chain Zip Ties Adjustable wrench or Crescent wrench Needle nose pliers Cable Cutter – I used an old pair of Bowden cable/housing cutters from my bike tools. You do have one, right? Note: You will need a bike with disc brakes for this to work. Step 1: Measure your Braided Cable around the edge of where your wheel rim meets the tire. Clip with an extra 2″-4″ for clamping space. Once you have this piece measured, cut three more pieces to this length. Step 2: Measure the length of chain needed to have the chain reach both sides of the rim. Mine were roughly 5.75″ with a 700 x 51/53 (2.1″) Tire. Clip either 32 or 64 sections depending on how spread apart you want the chain. Step 3 This is the point in which I goofed up. I was expecting to be able to make these tire chains modular enough for quick installation/removal. Nope. Not going to happen… at least not this time. You can see here that I used twist-ties to temporarily hold the chain pieces in place. What you really need to do is properly space the chains equidistantly between your spokes and ZIP-TIE them into place. Pull the zip ties tight enough to hold well, but not tight enough to make indents into the tire. Note: I deflated my tires to 10 psi before wrapping/zipping the chain. Step 4: Put the wire through the chains on the respective sides of the tire, then pull tight and clamp with the little aluminum clamps. Note: This took two people do to for me. Once you are done with one wheel, complete the other also. All in all this project cost me $10, and about an hour and a half of time (even with twist tie fiasco). I was luck and found 20 feet of chain on sale for $3.00 or about $0.19 a foot instead of $0.50 a foot. 😀 Here is a quick video of me trying the snow chains out the night I made them. Fun Stuff This is my second video of trying out the snow chains. You turn and move like you are in loose dirt with no slipping. It’s actually pretty equivalent to riding in August. Other people who inspired me or have made snow chains for their bike: http://www.icebike.org/Equipment/tirechains.htm http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=578635 Comment if you want to try this, if you have a question, or if you like them! Snow Chains Pt.2: Here 38.984702 -80.221746 Advertisements |
egernya Profile Joined March 2013 Canada 351 Posts Last Edited: 2015-03-30 02:43:23 #1 http://pgr21.com/pb/pb.php?id=gamenews&no=9533 Sonic, the president of Sbenu, stated "It's our pleasure to expand our support to E-sports through sponsoring GSL, the greatest Starcraft 2 league in the world. " Map change Out: Catalena, Foxtrot Lab In: Vanni Research Station, Expedition Lost also with King Sejong Station, Merry Go Round, Overgrowth, Deadwing, and Iron Fortress from the previous season. Starting on April first with the games: _Prime vs. Invasion eSport_ DongRaeGu Dignitas_ vs. SK Telecom T1_ soO Team Liquid_ vs. SK Telecom T1_ Sorry http://sports.news.naver.com/sports/index.nhn?category=e_sports&ctg=news&mod=read&office_id=236&article_id=0000118486&date=20150330&page=1 's statement as his debut as a commentator for GSL "I didn't expect such an opportunity, I accepted this because it looked like a good one. I am practicing commentating watching old games, but it's still awkward to be honest" " Canata from Spotv is doing a excellent job, and that makes me think I should do as good as him as another ex-progamer, It's my goal to hear fans saying JYP is doing so well as a commentator. " Sonic, the president of Sbenu, stated "It's our pleasure to expand our support to E-sports through sponsoring GSL, the greatest Starcraft 2 league in the world. "Map changeOut: Catalena, Foxtrot LabIn: Vanni Research Station, Expedition Lostalso with King Sejong Station, Merry Go Round, Overgrowth, Deadwing, and Iron Fortress from the previous season.Starting on April first with the games: YoDa _Prime vs. Invasion eSport_Dignitas_ Seed vs. SK Telecom T1_Team Liquid_ TaeJa vs. SK Telecom T1_ JYP 's statement as his debut as a commentator for GSL"I didn't expect such an opportunity, I accepted this because it looked like a good one. I am practicing commentating watching old games, but it's still awkward to be honest"" Canata from Spotv is doing a excellent job, and that makes me think I should do as good as him as another ex-progamer, It's my goal to hear fans saying JYP is doing so well as a commentator. " Lexender Profile Joined September 2013 Mexico 2156 Posts #2 so now we are going to have ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)STYLE START SBENU( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) on GSL too? HYPEEE!!! iMrising Profile Blog Joined March 2012 United States 1074 Posts #3 if JYP sings every day as a caster ill consider subscribing $O$ | soO FrostedMiniWheats Profile Joined August 2010 United States 30311 Posts #4 Glad JYP is landing well. Wish GSL would kick out 1-2 more maps and try out Cactus Valley and Echo though. NesTea | Mvp | MC | Leenock | Losira | Gumiho | DRG | Taeja | Jinro | Stephano | Thorzain | Sen | Idra |Polt | Bomber | Symbol | Squirtle | Fantasy | Jaedong | Maru | sOs | Seed | ByuN | ByuL | Neeb| Scarlett | Rogue | IM forever BisuDagger Profile Blog Joined October 2009 Bisutopia 16634 Posts #5 Holy Hell! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)STYLE START SBENU( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Moderator Ofiicial Afreeca Starleague Caster: http://afreeca.tv/ASL2ENG2 Alucen-Will- Profile Joined October 2014 United States 3998 Posts #6 This is a really big deal. Sbenu is the official sponsor for the LoL OGN tournaments and sponsored the BW tournament OGN sponsored earlier this year. Alucen-Will- Profile Joined October 2014 United States 3998 Posts Last Edited: 2015-03-30 02:17:11 #7 On March 30 2015 11:14 BisuDagger wrote: Holy Hell! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)STYLE START SBENU( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) SAYLE SBENU LIFEE SAYLE SBENU LIFEE The_Templar Profile Blog Joined January 2011 THE FUTURE 52439 Posts #8 This is some damn good news. Moderator I'm actually a lestye Profile Joined August 2010 United States 3106 Posts #9 Holy shit, God Bless Sonic. I think he's like the ultimate e-sports fan dream. Passionate fan becomes successful businessman, and uses his marketing budget/influence to help grow his business and e-sports.Is he going to literally sponsor 3 of the biggest esports leagues in Korea at the same time?? I was going to buy shoes in the name of awesome kpop star commercials (in spite of Syle being a hater :-< ) but I'll have to buy more stuff now. "You guys are just edgelords. Embrace your inner weeb desu" -Zergneedsfood Alucen-Will- Profile Joined October 2014 United States 3998 Posts #10 TO GOMTV: NO dubstep. SBENU lestye Profile Joined August 2010 United States 3106 Posts #11 Also: I love my ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)STYLE START SBENU( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) like everyone else, however I feel this commercial didn't get the love it deserved since it only aired during the Grand Finals, iicr. "You guys are just edgelords. Embrace your inner weeb desu" -Zergneedsfood BLinD-RawR Profile Blog Joined April 2010 ALLEYCAT BLUES 43985 Posts #12 SBENU TAKES OVER THE WORLD. sonic saving sc2 too lol. Moderator Woo Jung Ho, never forget.| Twitter: @BLinDRawR Kommatiazo Profile Blog Joined February 2011 United States 576 Posts #13 Do they sell these in the states? "You must enemy don't know, and very good micro" - Bosstoss #Wet4Ret BigFan Profile Blog Joined December 2010 TLADT 23520 Posts #14 oh wow, Sonic is on fire. BW, LoL and now SCII T.T Good news for SCII fans! BW Editor-In-Chief "Watch Bakemonogatari or I will kill you." -Toad, April 18th, 2017 BigFan Profile Blog Joined December 2010 TLADT 23520 Posts #15 On March 30 2015 11:22 Kommatiazo wrote: Do they sell these in the states? nope, Korea only as I recall and I think bigger sizes are hard to find (based on some TLers experience) nope, Korea only as I recall and I think bigger sizes are hard to find (based on some TLers experience) BW Editor-In-Chief "Watch Bakemonogatari or I will kill you." -Toad, April 18th, 2017 eviltomahawk Profile Blog Joined August 2010 United States 10876 Posts #16 On March 30 2015 11:13 iMrising wrote: if JYP sings every day as a caster ill consider subscribing If he sings with IU I'll definitely subscribe many times over If he sings with IU I'll definitely subscribe many times over ㅇㅅㅌㅅ Dodgin Profile Blog Joined July 2011 Canada 38849 Posts #17 Great news for GSL! Too bad we won't be able to see JYP on the english stream. amazingxkcd Profile Blog Joined September 2010 GRAND OLD AMERICA 15736 Posts #18 this is hilarious, sonic now saving the sc2 scene in korea now The world is burning and you rather be on this terrible website discussing video games and your shallow feelings Ja.Y. Profile Joined February 2015 United States 253 Posts #19 Sweet! Does that mean Hot6ix is no longer the main sponsor for GSL? Or is it just another sponsor for GSL? And, hopefully this will mean that VODs will come out like SPL and SSL. I'm one of the fans who wants to subscribe but can't afford to, atm. MMA will reign supreme once again // MaSa is gawd laaaaaaaamee Profile Joined July 2012 Australia 95 Posts Last Edited: 2015-03-30 02:30:21 #20 this guy sonic is bloody awesome tfw maru promises to show me good games 1 2 3 4 5 7 8 9 Next All |
Abstract Background Repeated stress paradigms have been shown to cause devastating alterations on memory functions. Stress is linked with inflammation. Psychological and certain physical stressors could lead to neuroinflammation. Inflammatory process may occur by release of mediators and stimulate the production of prostaglandins through cyclooxygenase (COX). Treatment with COX inhibitors, which restrain prostaglandin production, has enhanced memory in a number of neuroinflammatory states showing a potential function for raised prostaglandins in these memory shortfalls. In the present study, potential therapeutic effects of indomethacin and diclofenac sodium on memory in both unrestraint and restraint rats were observed. Methods and results Two components, long term memory and short term memory were examined by Morris water maze (MWM) and elevated plus maze (EPM) respectively. The present study also demonstrated the effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on lipid peroxidation (LPO) and activities of antioxidant enzymes along with the activity of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). Results of MWM and EPM showed significant effects of drugs in both unrestraint and restraint rats as escape latency and transfer latency, in respective behavioral models were decreased as compared to that of control. This study also showed NSAIDs administration decreased LPO and increased antioxidant enzymes activity and decreased AChE activity in rats exposed to repeated stress. |
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York addresses the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, Maryland November 14, 2011. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque BALTIMORE (Reuters) - The top U.S. Catholic bishop said on Monday that a child sex abuse scandal at Penn State University “opens a wound” within the church, which remains scarred from its own similar controversies and cover-ups. “We know what you’re going through,” Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, told a news conference in Baltimore where hundreds of bishops have gathered for their national meeting. Dolan declined to offer advice to Penn State University on how to deal with its scandal, because the church “has not been a good example of how to deal with this in the past,” he said. “No one has suffered more than the Catholic community.” “Whenever this issue has come into public view again as it has with Penn State, it opens a wound,” Dolan said.” Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was charged on November 5 with sexually abusing eight boys over more than a decade. Two university officials have also been charged with failing to tell police when a graduate assistant told them he saw Sandusky raping a boy in a campus shower. The Penn State scandal has drawn comparisons to the child abuse controversies that rocked the Catholic Church, whose top officials were also accused of a decades-long cover-up of the abuse of children by priests. The U.S. Catholic Church has paid out some $2 billion in settlements to victims, bankrupting a handful of dioceses. Dolan said the Penn State scandal was proof that sex abuse was “widespread” and not associated with a particular faith. “One of the things we’ve learned is, tragically, it’s people who have earned positions of trust,” he said. Before becoming archbishop of New York, Dolan served as archbishop of Milwaukee, following a large sex abuse scandal there. At a previous post as bishop of St. Louis, Dolan also dealt with sex abuse allegations within that diocese. (Editing by Michelle Nichols and Cynthia Osterman) |
Speaker John Boehner John Andrew BoehnerEx-GOP lawmaker joins marijuana trade group Crowley, Shuster moving to K Street On unilateral executive action, Mitch McConnell was right — in 2014 MORE (R-Ohio) on Wednesday invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress, just a day after President Obama reiterated his threat to veto an Iran sanctions bill during his State of the Union address. Boehner cast Netanyahu's address, scheduled for Feb. 11, as being intended to rebuke Obama's negotiations with Iran on that country's nuclear program. The Israeli leader and Republicans have repeatedly criticized the talks. ADVERTISEMENT Noting Obama's comments in Tuesday's address, Boehner said he would tell his conference at a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning that the president "expects us to stand idly by and do nothing while he cuts a bad deal with Iran." "Two words: 'Hell no!' … we’re going to do no such thing," Boehner said. "So today I will announce that I am inviting the prime minister of Israel, a great friend of this country, to address a joint meeting of Congress next month. At a press conference following that closed-door GOP meeting, Boehner was asked whether the decision to invite Netanyahu was coordinated with the White House or a way to poke the president in the eye. “I did not consult with the White House,” Boehner told reporters. “The Congress can make this decision on its own. I don't believe I'm poking anyone in the eye. There is a serious threat that exists in the world and the president last night kind of papered over it. The fact is there needs to be a more serious conversation in American about how serious the threat is from radical Islamic jihadists and the threat posed by Iran.” Boehner said it’s unclear if Congress will vote on new Iran sanctions legislation in advance of Netanyahu’s address. “I do expect to have hearings on an Iran sanctions bill. Timing has yet to be determined,” he said. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the administration would "reserve judgment on the trip" until they had a chance to speak to the Israeli government, but that the unilateral invitation from Congress "seems to be a departure from the protocol." He said that the White House had not heard from the Israelis "about this at all," and was only notified by the Speaker's office earlier Wednesday. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the administration was not opposed to Netanyahu speaking, but reiterated that the invitation was a surprise to the administration. "Certainly, traditionally, we would learn about the plans of a leader to come to the United States, separately from learning about it from the Speaker of the House, which is how we learned of Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans to come and speak to a joint session," Psaki said. The address would mark Netanyahu's third appearance before Congress and his second during Boehner’s tenure as Speaker. Boehner aides point out there is bipartisan support for Iran sanctions legislation. And they’re concerned that any concessions Obama offers to curb Iran’s nuclear program “would undermine American security and the security of our allies, especially Israel.” But during his speech Wednesday night, Obama warned Congress not to disrupt delicate negotiations with Iran over dismantling its nuclear program. “There are no guarantees that negotiations will succeed, and I keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear Iran,” Obama told lawmakers. “But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails — alienating America from its allies and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again. It doesn’t make sense. “That is why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress. The American people expect us to only go to war as a last resort, and I intend to stay true to that wisdom.” --Rebecca Shabad and Justin Sink contributed to this report, which was updated at 12:41 p.m. |
This story was written with Yahoo News Deputy Editor Dan Klaidman. The Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the Paris attacks that killed 129 people — including one American college student — has the potential to dramatically alter U.S. intelligence assessments of the group’s capabilities to carry off well-orchestrated, mass casualty attacks. At the same time, the attacks underscore the mounting difficulties U.S. and Western intelligence agencies are having in tracking the terror group, resulting in repeated warnings that their efforts to conduct surveillance of Islamic State suspects were “going dark.” Over the past year, current and former intelligence officials tell Yahoo News, IS terror suspects have moved to increasingly sophisticated methods of encrypted communications, using new software such as Tor, that intelligence agencies are having difficulty penetrating — a switch that some officials say was accelerated by the disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The result played out in deadly fashion in Paris: At least eight terrorists, armed with heavy weaponry and suicide vests, and most likely aided by a support network, plotted and executed a highly elaborate mass casualty attack on multiple targets without the French or any other Western intelligence agency having a clue. CLICK PHOTO FOR SLIDESHOW: A policeman patrols after gunfire in the Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, 2015 in Paris, France. (Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images) More “Absolutely, this was an intelligence failure,” said Ali Soufan, a former top FBI counterterrorism official who now runs an international security firm that has been warning about the dangers posed by IS, also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, for over a year. Soufan noted that the Paris attack would have required extensive planning, including support from a network of IS sympathizers who would likely have had to assist the terrorist perpetrators in obtaining weapons and explosives as well as casing the targets and conducting countersurveillance. (Police in Belgium today arrested three suspects linked to the attacks after tracing a rental car with a Belgian license plate that was seen at the Bataclan Theatre at the time of the attacks.) For the past year and a half, Western intelligence and law enforcement officials have highlighted the threat posed by foreign fighters, including as many as 100 Americans and thousands of European passport holders, who have flocked to Syria and Iraq to fight with IS and might return undetected to conduct attacks in the West. (French officials are investigating the possibility that one of the terrorists came to France from Syria as a refugee.) But until now, U.S. officials have tended to describe the threat as mostly coming from “lone wolves” — what one described as disgruntled “glory seekers.” They have downplayed the idea that IS had either the intention or ability to carry out the sort of spectacular attacks such as 9/11 that had been the hallmark of al-Qaida. “They had made blustery statements in the past,” said Matthew Olsen, who until last year served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), about IS. But the group had not shown they could execute highly sophisticated attacks on Western soil. “We hadn’t seen that,” said Olsen. “They hadn’t proven they could do that.” While he said the Paris attacks — similar in some ways to the 2008 attack on multiple targets in Mumbai, India, by an al-Qaida allied Pakistani terror group — “shouldn’t be a surprise,” Olsen said U.S. intelligence agencies will now have to reassess their judgment of what IS is capable of. “They’ll have to recalibrate the assessment,” he said. And that inevitably means the prospect of a similar mass casualty strike inside the United States. |
Sport England's Active People survey reveals over two million adults in England now ride a bike at least once a week The number of people cycling at least once a week has risen by more than 100,000 since October 2012, according to figures released by British Cycling. With 2,069,200 adults in England now cycling regularly, as revealed in Sport England’s Active People survey, BC remain on course to meet its participation targets. >>> Cycle to work to beat train fare rises, urges British Cycling Over half a million regular cyclists are now women – an increase of two per cent over the last year – and 385,600 young people are active on two wheels. British Cycling’s chief executive, Ian Drake, said: “The appetite we’re seeing for cycling in this country is at an all-time high. Over two years on from London 2012, and with a fantastic Tour de France behind us, we are still seeing a steady increase in the number of people getting on bikes. And we’re not talking about getting the bike out of the shed once a year, these results are about inspiring people to ride week-in, week- out – whatever the weather. “Our focus is now on the sustainable growth of the sport and we’ve forged a wealth of new partnerships in the last year with transport authorities like Transport for London as well as councils and the private sector.” Read the full Active People survey results on the Sport England website |
I made some animal crossing 2019 asks! 🍑 Peach: What new kind of animal villager would you like to see? 🍐 Pear: What kind of town do you want to make? 🍎 Apple: do you want to see larger towns or smaller towns? 🍒 Cherry: What’s your favourite villager you’d like to see brought over to the new game? 🍊 Orange: What’s on your wish list for the new game? 🌸 Blossom: What will you call your new town? 🥥 Coconut: Do you want to be mayor in the new game? Why/Why not? 🍌 Banana: Are there any town themes your like to see carried over from pocket camp? 🍋 Lemon: Do you think Isabelle will return to the game or will she be away in Smash? 🎋 Bamboo: Will you have more than one town? 🌲 Pine tree: When do you think the new game will be released? 🌱 Sapling: Amiibo functionality or not? 💩 Fertiliser: anything you DON’T want to see carried over to the new game? |
King Salman was momentarily confused when the escalator stopped (Picture: Twitter/@EnglishRussia1) Don’t you hate it when your golden escalator breaks down and you have to walk to the bottom? That’s the indignity the Saudi Arabian leader King Salman faced when he arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for a state visit. Donald Trump 'deflated assets to avoid taxes, inflated them to scam insurance' He seemed momentarily confused as to what he should do when his plane’s escalator suddenly failed. It was almost like the king, 81, had never walked down one in his life. MORE: Drunks who use ambulances as a free taxis call it ‘getting a Bluber’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video But after a moment of staring into space wondering what the hell he was going to do, his aide suggested he should use his legs. Advertisement Advertisement The king agreed but by that time the embarrassing moment had been caught on video and now everyone is making fun of him. ‘King of Saudi Arabia forced to walk down the stairs when his golden escalator malfunctioned. Prayers up to Salman during this tough time,’ wrote @rezamarashi. MORE: For the first time ever, a black model opened the show for Louis Vuitton King of Saudi Arabia forced to walk down the stairs when his golden escalator malfunctioned. Prayers up to Salman during this tough time. 🙏🏽 pic.twitter.com/EVHJWhOLoB — Reza Marashi (@rezamarashi) October 5, 2017 The moment when your gold escalator breaks and you think "how do I use the stairs again?" #EpicFail #SaudiArabia – https://t.co/HvVUH9YSXr — DDMSEO (@ddmseo) October 6, 2017 Sorry I'm late, but my #escalator stopped and I had to wait for them to fix it #SaudiArabia — BusinessToday (@businesstoday) October 6, 2017 The Saudi King eventually figured it out and walked down (Picture: Twitter/@EnglishRussia1) Another joker added: ‘Sorry I’m late, but my #escalator stopped and I had to wait for them to fix it #SaudiArabia.’ This user was also unsympathetic and wrote: ‘The moment when your gold escalator breaks and you think “how do I use the stairs again?” #EpicFail #SaudiArabia’ King Salman did eventually get to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin after the momentary delay. MORE: A surgeon says women are getting designer vagina surgery to look better in leggings MORE: Girl, 10, becomes the world’s youngest breast cancer survivor |
Judge Napolitano says that the Imran Awan case is not about bank fraud though that is the charge – for now. The investigation is really about — no, not Islamophobia — selling national secrets. Many suggest he was selling information to radical Islamists. “He was arrested for some financial crime. That’s the tip of the iceberg. The real crime against him was that he had contact, he had access to emails of every member of Congress and he sold what he found in there. What did he sell and to whom did he sell it. That’s what the FBI wants to know. This may be a very, very serious national security investigation.” There is a great article at National Review by Andy McCarthy that provides a great rundown. It’s succinct, interesting and raises some fascinating questions. Mr. McCarthy was a U.S. prosecutor and he doesn’t believe this case is about bank fraud. He agrees that it’s about national security. These Awans were getting paid astronomically and some seemed to have been paid for no-show jobs. Imran Awan’s wife was allowed to leave the country with a sum on money that does not fit legal guidelines. Two other Awans are under suspicion. There is a lot of evidence suggesting the Awans are master swindlers. Given the Awan family’s obvious failings and suspicious behavior in accessing secret intel and transferring it to remote servers, what are they chances they didn’t sell Democrat congressional secrets? Imran worked for Wasserman-Schultz for 13 years and, according to Rep. Steve King, had access to everything on the House Foreign Intelligence Committee computers. In total, about 20 to 80 computers were compromised. Even stranger is that last year eight members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence issued a demand that staffers be given access to top secret classified information, Frontpage Magazine reported. Why? That gave the Awans full access. The signatories to the letter demanding access were Andre Carson, Luis Guiterez, Jim Himes, Terri Sewell, Jackie Speier, Mike Quigley, Eric Swalwell and Patrick Murphy. All the signatories were Democrats. Some had a history of attempting to undermine national security. The access was granted. Here are a few excerpts from the McCarthy article: …Awan and his family cabal of fraudsters had access for years to the e-mails and other electronic files of members of the House’s Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees. It turns out they were accessing members’ computers without their knowledge, transferring files to remote servers, and stealing computer equipment — including hard drives that Awan & Co. smashed to bits of bytes before making tracks… …This is not about bank fraud. The Awan family swindles are plentiful, but they are just window-dressing. This appears to be a real conspiracy, aimed at undermining American national security… …A more pressing question is: Why were they given access to highly sensitive government information? Ordinarily, that requires a security clearance, awarded only after a background check that peruses ties to foreign countries, associations with unsavory characters, and vulnerability to blackmail. Read the rest of the story at National Review. It’s excellent. There are many other questions in this complicated case. We don’t know however if we have all the facts. Why did Wasserman-Schultz keep Imran on staff after all this suspicious information came out? It seems that she was going to pay Imran while he was doing whatever he does in Pakistan. Andy McCarthy suggests one possibility for her behavior – blackmail? |
For other people named Miguel Hernández, see Miguel Hernández (disambiguation) Hernández and the second or maternal family name is Gilabert. This name uses Spanish naming customs : the first or paternal family name isand the second or maternal family name is Miguel Hernández Gilabert (30 October 1910 – 28 March 1942[1][2]) was a 20th-century Spanish language poet and playwright associated with the Generation of '27 movement and the Generation of '36 movement. Born and raised in a family of low resources, he was an autodidact in what refers to literature, and struggled against a unfavourable environment to build up his intellectual education, such as a father who beat him because of spending time with books instead of working, and who took him out of school as soon as he finished his primary education. At school, he became a friend of Ramón Sijé, a well-educated boy who lend and recommended books to Hernández, and whose death would inspire his most famous poem, Elegy. Hernández died of tuberculosis, imprisoned due to his active participation on the Republican side of the civil war, and having escaped death-penalty only thanks to Neruda's intervention, who was the Chilean ambassador in Spain at the time. His last book, Cancionero y romancero de ausencias, was published after his death, and is a collection of the poems he wrote in prison, some written in rudimentary pieces of toilet paper, others preserved in letters to his wife, is considered one of the finest pieces of Spanish poetry on the xx century. Biography [ edit ] Hernández was born in Orihuela, in the Valencian Community, to a poor family and received little formal education; he published his first book of poetry at 23, and gained considerable fame before his death. He spent his childhood as a goatherd and farmhand, and was, for the most part, self-taught, although he did receive basic education from state schools and the Jesuits.[3] He was introduced to literature by friend Ramon Sijé. As a youth, Hernández greatly admired the Spanish Baroque lyric poet Luis de Góngora, who was an influence in his early works.[3] Shaped by both Golden Age writers such as Francisco de Quevedo and, like many Spanish poets of his era, by European vanguard movements, notably by surrealism, he joined a generation of socially conscious Spanish authors concerned with workers rights.[4] Though Hernández employed novel images and concepts in his verses, he never abandoned classical, popular rhythms and rhymes. Member of the Communist Party of Spain, Hernández campaigned for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War, writing poetry and addressing troops deployed to the front. During the Civil War, on the ninth of March in 1937, he married Josefina Manresa Marhuenda, whom he had met in 1933 in Orihuela. His wife inspired him to write most of his romantic work. Their first son, Manuel Ramón, was born on 19 December 1937 but died in infancy on 19 October 1938. Months later came their second son, Manuel Miguel (4 January 1939 – 1984). Josefina died on 18 February 1987 at age 71 in Elche, Alicante.[5]Republican side Unlike others, he could not escape Spain after the Republican surrender and was arrested multiple times after the war for his anti-fascist sympathies, and was eventually sentenced to death. His death sentence, however, was commuted to a prison term of 30 years, leading to incarceration in multiple jails under extraordinarily harsh conditions until he eventually succumbed to tuberculosis in 1942.[6] Just before his death, Hernández scrawled his last verse on the wall of the hospital: Goodbye, brothers, comrades, friends: let me take my leave of the sun and the fields.[3] Some of his verses were kept by his jailers. While in prison, Hernández produced an extraordinary amount of poetry, much of it in the form of simple songs, which the poet collected in his papers and sent to his wife and others. These poems are now known as his Cancionero y romancero de ausencia (Songs and Ballads of Absence). In these works, the poet writes not only of the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War and his own incarceration, but also of the death of an infant son and the struggle of his wife and another son to survive in poverty. The intensity and simplicity of the poems, combined with the extraordinary situation of the poet, give them remarkable power. Perhaps Hernández's best known poem is "Nanas de la cebolla" ("Onion Lullaby"), a reply in verse to a letter from his wife in which she informed him that she was surviving on bread and onions. In the poem, the poet envisions his son breastfeeding on his mother's onion blood (sangre de cebolla), and uses the child's laughter as a counterpoint to the mother's desperation. In this as in other poems, the poet turns his wife's body into a mythic symbol of desperation and hope, of regenerative power desperately needed in a broken Spain. The poet's works include: Poetry: Perito en lunas (1933) (1933) El rayo que no cesa (1936) (1936) Viento del pueblo (1937) (1937) El hombre acecha (1938–1939) (1938–1939) Cancionero y romancero de ausencias (incomplete, 1938–1942) Drama: Quién te ha visto y quién te ve y sombra de lo que eras (If only they could see you now, and shadow of what you were) (1944), an auto sacramental that mimics Calderón ones. (If only they could see you now, and shadow of what you were) (1944), an auto sacramental that mimics Calderón ones. El torero más valiente (The Bravest Bullfighter) (1934) dedicated to Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. (The Bravest Bullfighter) (1934) dedicated to Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. Hijos de la piedra (The sons of the stone) (The sons of the stone) El labrador de más aire (The peasant of more air) (The peasant of more air) Teatro en la guerra (War theatre) (War theatre) Pastor de la muerte (Death's shepherd) In July 2010 the poet's family filed a lawsuit in the Spanish Supreme Court in which they asked for his guilty verdict (for his supposed crime of left wing sympathies), to be annulled. In 1939 he had been condemned to death as " an extremely dangerous and despicable element to all good Spaniards." Franco later reduced the sentence so that he would not become an international martyr, as Lorca did. In March 2010 the family had a posthumous " declaration of reparation" from the Spanish government, but, his daughter-in-law Lucía Izquierdo said ; " We want something more, that they void the death sentence.. that they hand down a ruling of innocent." Lawyers for the poet's family had new evidence, a 1939 letter from a fascist military official, Juan Bellod, testifying to his innocence. "I have known Miguel Hernández since he was a boy", the letter began. "He is a person with an impeccable past, generous sentiments and deep religious and humanist training, but whose excessive sensitivity and poetic temperament have led him to act in accordance with the passion of the moment rather than calm, firm will. I fully guarantee his behaviour and his patriotic and religious fervour. I do not believe that he is, at heart, an enemy of our Glorious Movement."[4] See also [ edit ] |
Get a clue Fun projects for parent-child interaction See how your child is progressing over time 15% of author royalties go to Show HOPE charity Haven't you always secretly wanted to experiment with your baby? No! We aren't talking about dying their hair a crazy color or seeing how loud they can wail. We mean real experiments that examine their cognitive, behavioral, social development, and more. It's okay. We won't tell Child Protective Services. Experimenting with Babies is a great new book that lets you do just that. The book includes 50 science projects that you can perform on your baby allowing you to test your baby's ability to understand and interact with the world around them. One example experiment is called Make Em Laugh. This experiment asks you to play with baby for 10 minutes trying to make them laugh or smile. It shows that speaking in "motherese" or laughing at yourself may elicit laughter at a younger age, but once your baby is 5 to 6 months old he or she will grow out of it. This experiment shows that even in just a few months your baby's sense of humor is developing and by that time it's already hipper than you. |
Migratory birds are arriving at their breeding grounds earlier than they previously did because they’ve bought into the liberal lie that global warming is real, according to researchers at Liberty University. In examining the findings of a University of Edinburgh study showing rising global temperatures are prompting birds to migrate sooner, scientists at the Lynchburg, VA, school founded by Jerry Falwell have concluded hundreds of species of birds simply aren’t able to understand climate change is not actually happening. The Liberty University scientists analyzed the Edinburgh study — which researched centuries-old records of 413 species across five continents — for approximately 30 minutes before reaching their conclusions regarding avian gullibility. The “myth of man-made climate change disseminated by leftist environmentalist alarmists and their allies in the liberal media” is endangering the progeny of these birds. “They’re obviously buying into scare tactics put forth by the radical, godless, liberal agenda,” surmised Dr. Paul Sattler, a professor of biology at LU who led the half-hour study. “Why else would they arrive at their summer breeding grounds early when they might not be able to find food and nesting places?” Sattler explained how the “myth of man-made climate change disseminated by leftist environmentalist alarmists and their allies in the liberal media” is endangering the progeny of these birds. “This conspiracy to convince the entire world that humans are killing the planet is prompting birds to migrate prematurely, which in turn affects the timing of laying and hatching eggs, as well as their offspring’s chances of survival,” Sattler stated, adding, “Their little bird brains simply don’t have the capacity to comprehend global warming is a hoax and that God has this all under control.” |
Deputy Chief Minister of Government of Telangana, Janab Mohammed Mahmood Ali siad that the Haj pilgrims going on Haj this year would be given best facilities. Speaking a gathering at the first Haj Orientation Training camp at Hi-Tech Garden Function Hall at Old Malakpet on Sunday, the Deputy Chief Minister said that he would try to provide free accommodation to six hundred pilgrims at Makkah which was deprived of for the past two years. On the directions of the Chief Minsiter K. Chandrasekhara Rao an official delegation would be sent to Mecca to oversee the arrangements there. He requested the pilgrims to pray for the development of the country, the state and the community. Janab Syed Omer Jaleel, special Secretary to Government gave useful advises to the Haj pilgrims and said that they should be prepared to face the difficulties, problems during this journey. He advised the pilgrims to carry necessary drugs along with them as the medicines would not be available there. He said that Qurbani (Sheep sacrifice) arrangements would be made by Haj committee of India through Islamic development Bank. Food would be served in Madeenah and each pilgrim would be provided with SR 1500/- at the time of departure from Hyderabad. Distinguished scholars Moulana Syed Shah Azam Ali Sufi, Moulana Khaja Moinuddin, Molana Abdur Rasheed Talha and others highlighted the rituals, their significance. Master Trainer Khaja Naseruddin detailed the logistic arrangements. |
YANGON (Reuters) - Seven Myanmar soldiers on trial for murder have admitted their involvement in the killing of five villagers in northern Shan State, according to witnesses at an unprecedented court martial. In a highly unusual move, the army invited 15 residents from the remote village of Mong Yaw, where the killings took place, to witness the court martial at a nearby military base on Tuesday. Four of them have described the proceedings to Reuters. “The judge read the murder case reports and asked for confessions from the soldiers, who admitted they were responsible,” said Sai Kaung Kham, a Mong Yaw villager who has been helping the families attending the military trial. Military officials did not respond to requests for comment, and it was not possible to independently verify the testimony at the closed proceedings in the northern city of Lashio. In July, in a rare public admission of wrongdoing by the still-powerful military, intelligence chief Mya Tun Oo told reporters the army was responsible for killing five men from Mong Yaw and said the culprits would be prosecuted. Witnesses had previously told Reuters that soldiers rounded up dozens of men from the village, in an area riven by a long-running ethnic insurgency, on June 25 and led five away. Their bodies were found in a shallow grave a few days later. Both the news conference by one of the country’s most senior generals and the invitation to villagers to attend the military trial were unprecedented. The army has occasionally acknowledged troops have been at fault in previous incidents, but has usually done so in vaguely worded official statements. The response this time suggests a heightened sensitivity about the military’s image as it tries to present itself as a responsible partner in Myanmar’s democratic transition and seeks closer ties with Western counterparts. Military representatives contacted in the capital Naypyitaw and at the Northeast Command in Lashio did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the trial. KNIFED TO DEATH Myanmar’s armed forces have often been accused by human rights groups of abuses during decades of conflict with ethnic armed groups in the country’s lawless border zones, but campaigners such as Amnesty International say it is extremely rare for soldiers to be held to account. Mong Yaw lies in a distant corner of Shan State, where thousands of people have been displaced by decades of fighting between the military and ethnic insurgents. Three officers and three lower-ranking soldiers have admitted murdering the villagers, according to the witnesses present at the court martial. The seventh serviceman, the highest-ranking of those on trial, said he did not order the soldiers to “kill” the villagers, but to “clear them out”. The soldiers said they had arrested and interrogated five men and found two of them were related to a local ethnic armed group. They said they asked their superiors for further instructions, villager Sai Kaung Kham said. The low-ranking soldiers then proceeded to kill the villagers, acting on orders, the witnesses at the trial said. “They were worried that if they let the three villagers go back, they would tell others they had been tortured,” the soldiers told the court martial, according to Sai Kaung Kham. Before killing them, the soldiers dressed some of the men in camouflage trousers, Sai Kaung Kham and other witnesses said. It was not clear when the court martial would end. Aye Lu, the wife of Aik Sai who was one of the men killed, said that at the court martial one of the soldiers admitted knifing her husband to death. “I want to see those who killed my husband sent to jail,” she said. |
Forty years from now, I'll be almost 70, and hopefully still alive. But if you think about the world we're going to be passing on at that point - if we haven't overthrown capitalism and the state by that point, it's toast. It's totally wrecked, and we're handing over a really awful situation to the next generation. They will hold us responsible, and we will be responsible. It's over the next few decades we have the chance to exercise some generational impact on our society. Writer Malcolm Harris examines the short history and dark future of Millennials under capitalism - from the tolls of a managed childhood under the shadow of economic and environmental precarity, to the grim realities of adulthood under neoliberal rule and corporate exploitation - and hopes for the revolutionary potential of a generation with no other choice. Malcolm is author of Kids These Days: Human Capital and the Making of Millennials from Little, Brown and Company. |
Tears rolled down my face as I came across an article written 2 years ago. A veteran pediatric nurse took her own life several months after administering a fatal overdose of an electrolyte to an infant. After investigations and undisclosed reasons, the hospital terminated the nurse’s employment after 27 years of service and dedication to the profession she truly loved. To further satisfy the state licensing disciplinary actions, she agreed to pay a fine and undergo a 4-year probationary period. She would be supervised at any future nursing job when she gave medication. She even successfully completed a course to qualify as a flight nurse. Yet countless efforts did not produce any job offers, increasing her despair and isolation. A friend said, “She cried for weeks. Not just because she lost her job; she lost a child.” No one knows all the details that led to the nurse taking her own life. The reality is, the healthcare industry, I believe, is not set up to provide personal, psychological, and social support to the “second victim” of medication errors. The first victims are the patients who were harmed and their families. Nurses are the providers of care and support for patients. But who supports and advocates for nurses? Nursing, as noble as this profession may be, can also be a lion’s den. When mistakes happen, we are urged to “write it up,” appear in front of a committee, get judged, and God only knows what else. Then, labeled as “incompetent,” an unseen force can immediately make the second victim even terrified to go back to work, adding to the feeling of desolation. My heart goes out to the family of the child. I am a mother, and I cannot even imagine or do not want to imagine how it would make me feel. I don’t even have words to describe it right now as I write. My only hope is that the family was able to and continues to find the strength to overcome their tragedy. My heart also goes out to my fellow nurse who must have felt so alone — the emotions she went through, and the heartbreaking decision she made. After all the years of dedication to nursing, no one was able to provide her with accessible and effective support when she needed it most. As the culture of patient safety continue to be a focus in the healthcare scene, the culture of isolation and abandonment of the second victims need to stop. Nurses are morally and ethically obligated to provide care for patients regardless of their social status. We are also equally obligated to protect and nurture our fellow nurses who become the second victims. Supporting each other is vital while we maneuver through this highly stressful profession we chose to dedicate our lives to. We can achieve this by giving fair judgment to second victims and realizing that their intentions are good. They deserve respect and should not be ostracized for human imperfection. Instead, we should understand the psychological impact of medical errors to all the victims involved. In doing so, we can make referrals to professional support services uniquely tailored to this kind of situation. Finally, in order to avoid future occurrences of fatal errors, we need to realize that there is a potential for growth. We can start by learning from our mistakes and watching out for each other’s safety. Chiqui Raveloski is a Filipino nurse practicing in the USA. She currently works as an ER Nurse Case Manager while still doing bedside nursing in a telemetry unit. She blogs about her Filipino culture, personal nursing experiences, and life as a type 1 diabetic for 40+ years at http://www.bahalananurseblog.com. |
I was a wayward kid who grew up on the literary side of life, treating math and science as if they were pustules from the plague. So it’s a little strange how I’ve ended up now—someone who dances daily with triple integrals, Fourier transforms, and that crown jewel of mathematics, Euler’s equation. It’s hard to believe I’ve flipped from a virtually congenital math-phobe to a professor of engineering. One day, one of my students asked me how I did it—how I changed my brain. I wanted to answer Hell—with lots of difficulty! After all, I’d flunked my way through elementary, middle, and high school math and science. In fact, I didn’t start studying remedial math until I left the Army at age 26. If there were a textbook example of the potential for adult neural plasticity, I’d be Exhibit A. Learning math and then science as an adult gave me passage into the empowering world of engineering. But these hard-won, adult-age changes in my brain have also given me an insider’s perspective on the neuroplasticity that underlies adult learning. Fortunately, my doctoral training in systems engineering—tying together the big picture of different STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) disciplines—and then my later research and writing focusing on how humans think have helped me make sense of recent advances in neuroscience and cognitive psychology related to learning. In the years since I received my doctorate, thousands of students have swept through my classrooms—students who have been reared in elementary school and high school to believe that understanding math through active discussion is the talisman of learning. If you can explain what you’ve learned to others, perhaps drawing them a picture, the thinking goes, you must understand it. Japan has become seen as a much-admired and emulated exemplar of these active, “understanding-centered” teaching methods. But what’s often missing from the discussion is the rest of the story: Japan is also home of the Kumon method of teaching mathematics, which emphasizes memorization, repetition, and rote learning hand-in-hand with developing the child’s mastery over the material. This intense afterschool program, and others like it, is embraced by millions of parents in Japan and around the world who supplement their child’s participatory education with plenty of practice, repetition, and yes, intelligently designed rote learning, to allow them to gain hard-won fluency with the material. Also in Psychology The Anatomy of Charisma By Adam Piore For weeks I had been researching what science has to say about the power of charisma. Why do some people so clearly have it and others don’t? Why do we fall so easily under its influence? Charismatics can make us...READ MORE Teachers can inadvertently set their students up for failure as those students blunder in illusions of competence. In the United States, the emphasis on understanding sometimes seems to have replaced rather than complemented older teaching methods that scientists are—and have been—telling us work with the brain’s natural process to learn complex subjects like math and science. The latest wave in educational reform in mathematics involves the Common Core—an attempt to set strong, uniform standards across the U.S., although critics are weighing in to say the standards fail by comparison with high-achieving countries. At least superficially, the standards seem to show a sensible perspective. They propose that in mathematics, students should gain equal facility in conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and application. The devil, of course, lies in the details of implementation. In the current educational climate, memorization and repetition in the STEM disciplines (as opposed to in the study of language or music), are often seen as demeaning and a waste of time for students and teachers alike. Many teachers have long been taught that conceptual understanding in STEM trumps everything else. And indeed, it’s easier for teachers to induce students to discuss a mathematical subject (which, if done properly, can do much to help promote understanding) than it is for that teacher to tediously grade math homework. What this all means is that, despite the fact that procedural skills and fluency, along with application, are supposed to be given equal emphasis with conceptual understanding, all too often it doesn’t happen. Imparting a conceptual understanding reigns supreme—especially during precious class time. The problem with focusing relentlessly on understanding is that math and science students can often grasp essentials of an important idea, but this understanding can quickly slip away without consolidation through practice and repetition. Worse, students often believe they understand something when, in fact, they don’t. By championing the importance of understanding, teachers can inadvertently set their students up for failure as those students blunder in illusions of competence. As one (failing) engineering student recently told me: “I just don’t see how I could have done so poorly. I understood it when you taught it in class.” My student may have thought he’d understood it at the time, and perhaps he did, but he’d never practiced using the concept to truly internalize it. He had not developed any kind of procedural fluency or ability to apply what he thought he understood. There is an interesting connection between learning math and science, and learning a sport. When you learn how to swing a golf club, you perfect that swing from lots of repetition over a period of years. Your body knows what to do from a single thought—one chunk—instead of having to recall all the complex steps involved in hitting a ball. In the same way, once you understand why you do something in math and science, you don’t have to keep re-explaining the how to yourself every time you do it. It’s not necessary to go around with 25 marbles in your pocket and lay out 5 rows of 5 marbles again and again so that you get that 5 x 5 = 25. At some point, you just know it fluently from memory. You memorize the idea that you simply add exponents—those little superscript numbers—when multiplying numbers that have the same base (104 x 105 = 109). If you use the procedure a lot, by doing many different types of problems, you will find that you understand both the why and the how behind the procedure very well indeed. The greater understanding results from the fact that your mind constructed the patterns of meaning. Continually focusing on understanding itself actually gets in the way. I learned these things about math and the process of learning not in the K-12 classroom but in the course of my life, as a kid who grew up reading Madeleine L’Engle and Dostoyevsky, who went on to study language at one of the world’s leading language institutes, and then to make the dramatic shift to become a professor of engineering. As a young woman with a yen for learning language and no money or skills to speak of, I couldn’t afford to go to college (college loans weren’t then in the picture). So I launched directly from high school into the Army. I had loved learning new languages in high school, and the Army seemed to be a place where people could actually get paid for their language study, even as they attended the top-ranked Defense Language Institute—a place that had made language- learning a science. I chose Russian because it was very different from English, but not so difficult that I could study it for a lifetime only to perhaps gain the fluency of a 4-year-old. Besides, the Iron Curtain was mysteriously appealing—could I somehow use my knowledge of Russian to peer behind it? After leaving the service, I became a translator for the Russians on Soviet trawlers on the Bering Sea. Working for the Russians was fun and engrossing—but it was also a superficially glamorous form of migrant work. You go to sea during fishing season, make a decent salary while getting drunk all the time, then go back to port when the season’s over and hope they’ll rehire you next year. There was pretty much only one other alternative for a Russian language speaker—working for the National Security Agency. (My Army contacts kept pointing me that way, but it wasn’t for me.) I began to realize that while knowing another language was nice, it was also a skill with limited opportunities and potential. People weren’t pounding down my door looking for my Russian declension abilities. Unless, that is, I was willing to put up with seasickness and sporadic malnutrition out on stinking trawlers in the middle of the Bering Sea. I couldn’t help but reflect back on the West Point-trained engineers I’d worked with in the Army. Their mathematically and scientifically based approach to problem-solving was clearly useful for the real world—far more useful than my youthful misadventures with math had been able to imagine. So, at age 26, as I was leaving the Army and casting about for fresh opportunities, it occurred to me: If I really wanted to try something new, why not tackle something that could open a whole world of new perspectives for me? Something like engineering? That meant I would be trying to learn another very different language—the language of calculus. You go to sea during fishing season, make a decent salary while getting drunk all the time, then go back to port when the season’s over. With my poor understanding of even the simplest math, my post-Army retraining efforts began with not-for-credit remedial algebra and trigonometry. This was way below mathematical ground zero for most college students. Trying to reprogram my brain sometimes seemed like a ridiculous idea—especially when I looked at the fresh young faces of my younger classmates and realized that many of them had already dropped their hard math and science classes—and here I was heading right for them. But in my case, from my experience becoming fluent in Russian as an adult, I suspected—or maybe I just hoped—that there might be aspects to language learning that I might apply to learning in math and science. What I had done in learning Russian was to emphasize not just understanding of the language, but fluency. Fluency of something whole like a language requires a kind of familiarity that only repeated and varied interaction with the parts can develop. Where my language classmates had often been content to concentrate on simply understanding Russian they heard or read, I instead tried to gain an internalized, deep-rooted fluency with the words and language structure. I wouldn’t just be satisfied to know that понимать meant “to understand.” I’d practice with the verb—putting it through its paces by conjugating it repeatedly with all sorts of tenses, and then moving on to putting it into sentences, and then finally to understanding not only when to use this form of the verb, but also when not to use it. I practiced recalling all these aspects and variations quickly. After all, through practice, you can understand and translate dozens—even thousands— of words in another language. But if you aren’t fluent, when someone throws a bunch of words at you quickly, as with normal speaking (which always sounds horrifically fast when you’re learning a new language), you have no idea what they’re actually saying, even though technically you understand all the component words and structure. And you certainly can’t speak quickly enough yourself for native speakers to find it enjoyable to listen to you. This approach—which focused on fluency instead of simple understanding—put me at the top of the class. And I didn’t realize it then, but this approach to learning language had given me an intuitive understanding of a fundamental core of learning and the development of expertise—chunking. Chunking was originally conceptualized in the groundbreaking work of Herbert Simon in his analysis of chess—chunks were envisioned as the varying neural counterparts of different chess patterns. Gradually, neuroscientists came to realize that experts such as chess grand masters are experts because they have stored thousands of chunks of knowledge about their area of expertise in their long-term memory. Chess masters, for example, can recall tens of thousands of different chess patterns. Whatever the discipline, experts can call up to consciousness one or several of these well-knit-together, chunked neural subroutines to analyze and react to a new learning situation. This level of true understanding, and ability to use that understanding in new situations, comes only with the kind of rigor and familiarity that repetition, memorization, and practice can foster. As studies of chess masters, emergency room physicians, and fighter pilots have shown, in times of critical stress, conscious analysis of a situation is replaced by quick, subconscious processing as these experts rapidly draw on their deeply ingrained repertoire of neural subroutines—chunks. At some point, self-consciously “understanding” why you do what you do just slows you down and interrupts flow, resulting in worse decisions. When I felt intuitively that there might be a connection between learning a new language and learning mathematics, I was right. Day-by-day, sustained practice of Russian fired and wired together my neural circuits, and I gradually began to knit together chunks of Slavic insight that I could call into working memory with ease. By interleaving my learning—in other words, practicing so that I knew not only when to use that word, but when not to use it, or to use a different variant of it—I was actually using the same approaches that expert practitioners use to learn in math and science. When learning math and engineering as an adult, I began by using the same strategy I’d used to learn language. I’d look at an equation, to take a very simple example, Newton’s second law of f = ma. I practiced feeling what each of the letters meant—f for force was a push, m for mass was a kind of weighty resistance to my push, and a was the exhilarating feeling of acceleration. (The equivalent in Russian was learning to physically sound out the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet.) I memorized the equation so I could carry it around with me in my head and play with it. If m and a were big numbers, what did that do to f when I pushed it through the equation? If f was big and a was small, what did that do to m? How did the units match on each side? Playing with the equation was like conjugating a verb. I was beginning to intuit that the sparse outlines of the equation were like a metaphorical poem, with all sorts of beautiful symbolic representations embedded within it. Although I wouldn’t have put it that way at the time, the truth was that to learn math and science well, I had to slowly, day by day, build solid neural “chunked” subroutines—such as surrounding the simple equation f = ma—that I could easily call to mind from long term memory, much as I’d done with Russian. Time after time, professors in mathematics and the sciences have told me that building well-ingrained chunks of expertise through practice and repetition was absolutely vital to their success. Understanding doesn’t build fluency; instead, fluency builds understanding. In fact, I believe that true understanding of a complex subject comes only from fluency. In other words, in science and math education in particular, it’s easy to slip into teaching methods that emphasize understanding and that avoid the sometimes painful repetition and practice that underlie fluency. I learned Russian not just by understanding it—understanding, after all, is facile, and can easily slip away. (What did that word понимать mean?) I learned Russian by gaining fluency through practice, repetition, and rote learning—but rote learning that emphasized the ability to think flexibly and quickly. I learned math and science by applying precisely those same ideas. Language, math, and science, as with almost all areas of human expertise, draw on the same reservoir of brain mechanisms. As I forayed into a new life, becoming an electrical engineer and, eventually, a professor of engineering, I left the Russian language behind. But 25 years after I’d last raised an inebriated glass on the Soviet trawlers, my family and I decided to take the trans-Siberian railway across Russia. Although I was excited to take the long-dreamed-of trip, I was also worried. I’d barely uttered a word of Russian in all that time. What if I’d lost it all? What had those years of gaining fluency really bought me? Sure enough, when we first got on the train, I spoke Russian like a 2-year-old. I’d grasp for words, my declensions and conjugations were all wrong, and my formerly near-perfect accent sounded dreadful. But the foundation was there, and day by day, my Russian improved. And even with my rudimentary Russian, I could handle the day-to-day needs of our traveling. Soon, tour guides were coming to me for help translating for the other passengers. When we finally arrived in Moscow, we hopped in a taxi. The driver, I soon discovered, was intent on ripping us off—heading directly the wrong way and trapping us in a logjam of cars, where he expected us ignorant foreigners to quietly acquiesce to an unnecessary extra hour of meter time. Suddenly, Russian words I hadn’t spoken for decades flew from my mouth. I hadn’t even consciously known I knew those words. Underneath it all, when it was needed, the fluency was there—and it quickly got us out of trouble (and into another taxi). Fluency allows understanding to become embedded, emerging when needed. As I look today at the shortage of science and math majors in this country, and our current trend in how we teach people to learn, and as I reflect on my own pathway, knowing what I know now about the brain, it occurs to me that we can do better. As parents and teachers, we can use simple, accessible methods for deepening understanding and making it useful and flexible. We can encourage others and ourselves to try new disciplines that we thought were too hard—math, dance, physics, language, chemistry, music—opening new worlds for ourselves and others. As I discovered, having a basic, deep-seated fluency in math and science—not just an “understanding,” is critical. It opens doors for many of life’s most intriguing jobs. Looking back, I realize that I didn’t have to just blindly follow my initial inclinations and passions. The “fluency” part of me that loved literature and language was also the same part of me that ultimately fell in love with math and science—and transformed and enriched my life. Barbara Oakley is a professor of engineering at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, and the author of, most recently, A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). She is also co-instructor, with Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute, of one of the world’s largest online courses, “Learning How to Learn,” with Coursera. This article was originally published in our “Big Bangs” issue in September, 2014. |
This article is an excerpt from Atomic Habits, my New York Times bestselling book. In 1993, a bank in Abbotsford, Canada, hired a twenty-three-year-old stockbroker named Trent Dyrsmid. Abbotsford was a relatively small suburb, tucked away in the shadow of nearby Vancouver, where most of the big business deals were being made. Given the location, and the fact that Dyrsmid was a rookie, nobody expected too much of him. But he made brisk progress thanks to a simple daily habit. The Paper Clip Strategy Dyrsmid began each morning with two jars on his desk. One was filled with 120 paper clips. The other was empty. As soon as he settled in each day, he would make a sales call. Immediately after, he would move one paper clip from the full jar to the empty jar and the process would begin again. “Every morning I would start with 120 paper clips in one jar and I would keep dialing the phone until I had moved them all to the second jar,” he told me.1 Within eighteen months, Dyrsmid was bringing in $5 million to the firm. By age twenty-four, he was making $75,000 per year—the equivalent of $125,000 today. Not long after, he landed a six-figure job with another company. Good Habits That Stick vs. Habits That Fail When I asked Dyrsmid about the details of his habit, he simply said, “I would start calling at 8 a.m. every day. I never looked at stock quotes or analyst research. I also never read the newspaper for the entire time. If the news was really important, it would find me from other ways.” Trent Dyrsmid’s story is evidence of a simple truth: Success is often a result of committing to the fundamentals over and over again. 2 Compare Trent’s results to where you and I often find ourselves. We want to be consistent with our workouts, but struggle to make it into the gym. We know we should write more Thank You notes or eat healthier meals or read more books, but can’t seem to find the motivation to get it done. We’d like to achieve our goals, but still procrastinate on them. What makes the difference? Why do some good habits stick while others fail? Why did Trent’s paper clip strategy work so well and what can we learn from it? The Power of a Visual Cue I believe the “Paper Clip Strategy” works particularly well because it creates a visual trigger that can help motivate you to perform a habit with more consistency. I’ve heard from readers who have employed it in a variety of ways. One woman shifted a hairpin from one container to another whenever she wrote a page of her book. Another man moved a marble from one bin to the next after each set of push-ups. Making progress is satisfying, and visual measures—like moving paperclips or hairpins or marbles—provide clear evidence of your progress. As a result, they reinforce your behavior and add little bit of immediate satisfaction to any activity. Here are a few reasons visual cues work well for building new good habits… Visual cues remind you to start a behavior. We often lie to ourselves about our ability to remember to perform a new habit. (“I’m going to start eating healthier. For real this time.”) A few days later, however, the motivation fades and the busyness of life begins to take over again. Hoping you will simply remember to do a new habit is usually a recipe for failure. This is why a visual stimulus, like a bin full of paper clips, can be so useful. It is much easier to stick with good habits when your environment nudges you in the right direction. Visual cues display your progress on a behavior. Everyone knows consistency is an essential component of success, but few people actually measure how consistent they are in real life. The Paper Clip Strategy avoids that pitfall because it is a built-in measuring system. One look at your paper clips and you immediately have a measure of your progress. Visual cues can have an additive effect on motivation. As the visual evidence of your progress mounts, it is natural to become more motivated to continue the habit. The more paperclips you place in the bin, the more motivated you will become to finish the task. There are a variety of popular behavioral economics studies that refer to this as the Endowed Progress Effect, which essentially says we place more value on things once we have them. In other words, the more paper clips you move to the “Completed” bin, the more valuable completing the habit becomes to you. 3 Visual cues can be used to drive short-term and long-term motivation. The Paper Clip Strategy can provide daily motivation, but you start from scratch each day. However, another type of visual cue, like the “Don’t Break the Chain” Calendar that I described in my article on the Seinfeld Strategy can be used to showcase your consistency over longer periods of time. By stacking these two methods together, you can create a set of visual cues that motivate and measure your habits over the short-run and the long-run. Creating Your Own Paper Clip Strategy There are all sorts of ways to use the paper clip strategy for your own goals. Hoping to do 100 pushups each day? Start with 10 paper clips and move one over each time you drop down and do a set of 10 throughout the day. Need to send 25 sales emails every day? Start with 25 paper clips and toss one to the other side each time you press Send. Want to drink 8 glasses of water each day? Start with 8 paper clips and slide one over each time you finish a glass. Not sure if you’re taking your medication three times per day? Set 3 paper clips out and flip one into the bin each time you swallow your pills. Best of all, the entire strategy will cost you less than $10. Grab a box of standard paper clips (here is a cheap set). Get two standard paper clip holders (here you go). Pick your habit and start moving those bad boys from one side to the other. Trent Dyrsmid decided that success in his field came down to one core task: making more sales calls. He discovered that mastering the fundamentals is what makes the difference. The same is true for your goals. There is no secret sauce. There is no magic bullet. Good habits are the magic bullet. This article is an excerpt from Chapter 16 of my New York Times bestselling book Atomic Habits. Read more here. |
Nero were invited to make their debut in Radio 1’s Live Lounge today, and they seized the opportunity with all four hands, smashing out a fantastic band-orientated version of their new single Promises, as well as one of the best covers of the year in the form of Friendly Fires‘ comeback single Live Those Days Tonight. Their performance of Promises is something you can expect to hear more of in the future if you attend one of their live shows, as they are looking to move over to using more traditional live instruments (Guitars, Drums etc.). It’s so good that I probably prefer it over their studio version. Their cover of Live Those Days Tonight is also fantastic and it’s probably one of the best Live Lounge covers I have heard in a long time – it just clicks with their style of music. Enjoy both tracks below. Nero – Promises (Live @ Radio 1’s Live Lounge) Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Nero – Live Those Days Tonight (Friendly Fires Cover @ Radio 1’s Live Lounge) Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. |
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