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Packers guard Lane Taylor has looked like a different player in training camp. Credit: Mark Hoffman By of the Green Bay — It might have been Lane Taylor's darkest hour. It also could prove to be the turning point of his career. Taylor, the Green Bay Packers' third-year backup guard, has been a mini-revelation four practices into training camp. He looks like a different player. Why? Taylor goes back to that Sunday night game in New Orleans when he got his butt kicked in the 44-23 shellacking and then resolved to get it in gear. "I was terrible," the amiable Taylor admitted Monday. "I know I can play better than that. That's been the motivation for this." The Packers were so thin in the offensive line a year ago that JC Tretter basically became the No. 1 reserve at five positions over the final 10 games even though he was a liability everywhere except center. The depth behind one of the NFL's finest starting groups has a chance to improve markedly with Tretter at center, a healthy Don Barclay at tackle and a shaped-up Taylor at guard. Taylor, 6 foot 3 inches and 320 pounds, has had the chance to start at left guard the last few days with Josh Sitton taking it easy. It's probably safe to say that this small window of football is the best he has ever played. "You can just see it in him," said defensive end Datone Jones, the first-round pick in the rookie class of 2013 that included Taylor as a free agent. "His whole body is better. "He's playing more aggressive. His mind is playing faster. He's playing harder." Taylor is off to a 6-0-1 record in two days of one-on-one pass rushing. Previously, his records in the drill were 16-13-2 in 2013 and 9-5-2 in '14. On Monday, Taylor anchored up for a triumph against bull-rushing Mike Daniels, who "my rookie year was truckin' me," remembered Taylor. In other turns, he has pancaked rookie Christian Ringo and handled a nasty spin move by Bruce Gaston. "I really got after it this off-season in the weight room and on the field," Taylor said. "I guess it's showing up out there." Taylor, a four-year starter at right guard at Oklahoma State, didn't earn a roster berth as a rookie by slacking off. To the contrary, his try-hard, physical approach probably won him the final interior job over Patrick Lewis, who started four games for Seattle last season and is competing to start at center this year. But Taylor readily acknowledged that it wasn't until this winter and spring that he began to work like a true pro. "I put in a lot more hours this year," he said. "I know how to attack my workout. Hit it hard. Lift more weights. I'm 320, same as last year, but my body fat is down." Taylor confined his workouts to the Packers' facility, where he says strength coach Mark Lovat "got me right." Interspersed with the strength and on-field work were film sessions in which the New Orleans tape was reviewed. T.J. Lang was lost with an ankle injury after five plays, and Taylor was sent in at right guard. In 63 snaps, he was charged with three of the team's seven "bad" runs. His pass protection was more competitive, but he still allowed two pressures. "He can't play," one personnel man said not long after watching Taylor's performance. "He was stepping and not getting his second foot down. In pass pro he was always grabbing with his hands." Tyrunn Walker, a backup defensive tackle now in Detroit, and starter Akiem Hicks did all the damage against Taylor. Walker blew up Taylor on a failed fourth-and-1 run by Eddie Lacy. Taylor came to play the next week and was better in a nine-play stint against Chicago. After playing merely 14 snaps as a rookie, he had 128 in 2014. Some might have told Taylor to forget New Orleans, given that the venue was one of the loudest in the league and he had almost no reps in practice with the No. 1 offense. "Yeah, it was a little tough," he said. "It was the first time I ever got thrown in." Taylor stopped well short of using the Superdome and circumstances as an excuse. Rather, he used the bad night as inspiration. "The New Orleans game opened my eyes and showed how far I need to go," he said. "I realized it's my third year, and it's time. "I learned a lot from that game. I definitely built from that game. It was good for me. I got thrown in the fire and I got the experience." Factors why Taylor wasn't drafted would be short arms (31¾ inches) and marginal athleticism. His 5.36-second 40-yard dash, 24½-inch vertical jump and 8-0 broad jump don't fit the athletic ideal for an NFL guard. His saving grace is strength (31 reps on the bench press), large hands (103/8), toughness and durability. Taylor's spot amid the cherry-wood cubicles in the Packers' plush locker room once belonged to Charles Woodson. No two players could be less alike, but at long last Taylor has seen for himself one of the reasons why Woodson was a superstar. "A lot of it is just playing with confidence," he said, a realization offered by most successful pro football players. "I'm playing with a lot more confidence." |
CONCORD — Two Concord roommates are seeking an explanation as to why a police officer shot their aging cocker spaniel during a neighborhood search for a suspicious person last week. Zach Grimm and Dave Biller say Kirby, a 13-year-old cocker spaniel, is recovering from a gunshot wound to the shoulder after barking at an officer in the backyard of their home in the 2000 block of Weaver Court on June 17. But a week after the incident, the two say they have received no explanation from police about why officers were in their yard. Worse, they said, they have not received an apology from the department. “It’s obviously pretty upsetting,” said Grimm, 29, who said the dog has been in his family for about 10 years. “The officer who shot at him, after it was over he just sort of had this goofy look on his face, almost like a smirk, and then he left. No explanation, no apology or anything.” Police were in the area around 4:30 p.m. after reports that a person posing as a door-to-door salesman was looking into backyards, according to Concord police Lt. Bill Roche said. In the course of the search, officers entered the backyard of the residence and were confronted by the 29-pound, reddish-brown dog. Accounts of what happened next vary. Grimm and Biller say that Kirby simply barked at the officer “like any dog protecting its home,” Grimm said. Concord police contend that the dog was aggressive enough that the officer perceived a threat and fired once only after a warning was given. Police would not name the officer who shot the dog but did say that he has previous experience with the city’s animal control unit. “The officer determined that the dog was posing enough of a threat that he fired a single round to stop the dog,” Roche said. The department had no other comment. Police did not find the suspicious person. Grimm and Biller said Kirby has been recovering steadily since the incident. The bullet fragmented as it entered the dog’s body and a piece of it remains lodged by the spine, Biller said. “But the wounds are healing, so we think he’s going to make it,” Biller said. “I can’t believe he’s alive, to be honest with you,” Grimm said. “I think he’s trying to figure out what happened to him. He was just doing his thing, protecting his home.” Contact Rick Hurd at 925-945-4789 and follow him at Twitter.com/3rdERH. |
The Swiss Space Office (SSO) manages the national space program of Switzerland.[1] The SSO is part of the State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation. The leader of the SSO is Renato Krpoun.[2] Switzerland is a founding member of the European Space Agency, and has actively participated in European space development since 1960. The Swiss Space Office opened in 1998 The role of the SSO expanded to cover all aspects of space policy in 2000, when the new national constitution came into force.[3] According to Jane's, the SSO is "the administrative unit charged with planning and implementing Swiss space policy", which was defined by the Swiss Federal Council.[4][dead link] The SSO office in Bern includes the Federal Commission for Space Affairs (CFAS), and the Interdepartmental Coordination Committee for Space Affairs (IKAR).[1] Claude Nicollier is a Swiss Astronaut and has been on several missions with the United States space program in the 1990s and is also a member of the European Astronaut Corps. By 2007 he had retired from Swiss space missions to become a professor at EPFL.[5][dead link] Switzerland's Marc Bertschi became the head of the ESA launcher program in 2007.[6] Claude Nicollier performs maintenance on STS-46 in 1992 Areas of focus [ edit ] Earth Observation Space Industry / Technology Space Navigation Space Science Human Spaceflight, Exploration and Microgravity Launchers Education Activities Manned space missions [ edit ] U.S.-Swiss Space Shuttle missions: Swiss space technology [ edit ] After elaborate testing, the Swiss Omega Speedmaster Professional watch became certified for NASA space missions in 1965 and was used by the first people on the moon Selected examples of Swiss contributions to space exploration and technology.[7] Offices [ edit ] Headquarters, CFAS, and IKAR: Bern Delegation to the European Space Agency: Paris Delegation to ESA at the European Union: Brussels Budget [ edit ] In 2006, Switzerland contributed CHF 140 million ($142 million) or around 3.4% to ESA's budget.[8] In 2005, the Swiss space industry's turnover was CHF 170 million.[8] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] |
Orlando City SC begins a stretch of eight games with a home match against the Colorado Rapids. 90'+: Rivas gets taken down outside the left part of Colorado's box. Free kick coming.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 They don't come any easier than that! #VamosOrlando pic.twitter.com/Hi8XWEtp0L — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) April 29, 2017 90'+: GOAL. Kaka scores easily on the rebound. Larin bounced it off the right post 1st.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 90': Ball was cleared, and Kaka leads the counter.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 90': Corner coming from the left after the deflection on that shot for Colorado.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 87': Corner from the left coming. Kaka will take it.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 86': Sutter really doing well to help City maintain possession late.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 84': SUBSTITUTION. Luis Gil comes on for Cristian Higuita.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 80′: Free kick for City coming from the left. It’s about 5 yards outside the box. Kaka on the ball.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 79′: SUBSTITUTION. Shkelzen Gashi comes on for Kevin Doyle.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 74′: YELLOW. Tommy Redding gets the booking for a foul in City’s 3rd.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 That had some pop behind it. Dirty, dirty, dirty. What a golazo from 🚀 pic.twitter.com/dqECCov0qZ — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) April 29, 2017 70′: GOAL. Carlos Rivas fires away from the top-left part of the box. That was an absolute 🚀.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 68′ | What a sequence from Sutter and Will Johnson to find the head of a Cyle… 0-0 | #ORLvCOL pic.twitter.com/RrNujAak3U — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) April 29, 2017 69′: SHOT. Larin gets a head on the ball serviced by Will Johnson. MacMath uses 1 hand to deflect it. What an effort.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 66′ | Oh Captain… Kaka comes inches from blowing the lid off the building. 0-0 | #ORLvCOL pic.twitter.com/LJ5KvdELOv — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) April 29, 2017 66′: SHOT. Kaka lets the ball drop in front of him, takes a touch and fires 1 toward goal. It goes JUST to the right.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 64′: Corner from the left coming for City. Right in front of the Wall.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 Crowd really getting into it now since Kaka entered the game.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 61′: Cross into Larin bounces off the Canadian, falls Rivas, who just misses it with his foot. Foul was called, though.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 61′: Kaka sneaks a ball in behind Colorado’s back-line to Rivas, who centers it, but no one is there.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 59′ | Orlando City substitution: Giles off for Carlos and Kaka is on for MPG. 0-0 | #ORLvCOL pic.twitter.com/yptGWvFYa9 — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) April 29, 2017 59′: SUBSTITUTION. Carlos Rivas comes on for Giles Barnes. Kaka comes on for MPG.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 58′: Spector fouls, and the ensuing free kick results in a goal kick.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 58′: SUBSTITUTION. Dominique Badji comes on for Alan Gordon.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 55′: Larin falls to the ground w/ no foul call, and Higuita gets the foul called on him. Crowd is not happy.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 52′: CB Jared Watts just drops to the ground as a pass rolls past him out of bounds. Team huddles around him.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 52′: CB Bobby Burling just drops to the ground as a pass rolls past him out of bounds. Team huddles around him.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 49′: Corner from the right coming for Colorado.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 47′: Rivas has joined Kaka in warm-ups.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 3 yellow cards b/w both teams so far this game. MPG has 1, Doyle and Azira have 1 for Colorado.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 HALFTIME: @OrlandoCitySC 0, @ColoradoRapids 0. City is not without its chances this match so far, playing w/ good energy.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 45’+: Nocerino strikes one from the top of the box, but it flies into the stands.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 45’+: Higuita barely gets off a shot from the top of the box, but it gets deflected.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 45′: Alan Gordon goes down after Spector got an incidental hit on his face. Spector and Gordon shake hands afterward.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 42′: The 3rd corner went too far past the far post, and it’s a goal kick for Colorado.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 42′: On the rebound, Sutter inserts it back in. It’s deflected for another corner from the left.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 41′: And another one. This time it’s punched away.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 40′: Corner from the left coming for City. Will Johnson will kick it.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 38′: Ref calls for the corner after Bendik seemingly kept it inbounds. Corner from the right coming.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 37′: Mohammed Saeid limps off the pitch, favoring his right leg.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 36′: YELLOW. MPG gets booked this time after the foul at midfield. Colorado’s Marlon Hairston takes exception to the foul.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 35′: YELLOW. Higuita goes down, and Michael Azira gets booked.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 33′: Group of players warming up, including Rivas, Aja, Servando. No Kaka, though.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 31′: SHOT. Donny Toia tries to strike it from the top-left part of the box, but it goes high over the goal.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 30′: Corner from the right coming for Orlando. MPG will take it. The ball just rolled into the corner flag.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 It’s all tied up at 1-1 in North Carolina. Meanwhile, the Pride even things up in North Carolina. Camila gets off a beautiful strike across her body.#NCvORL #NWSL https://t.co/gtBH1ik72N — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 26′: Barnes goes high for the ball and does not land on his feet. Ref helps him up, and he looks alright. Holding his hip.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 21′: Cross by Will Johnson into Colorado’s box is well defended. The look was going to a cutting Cyle Larin.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 20′: YELLOW. Kevin Doyle shoves Sutter down near the right sideline. Free kick coming.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 15′: SHOT. MPG’s stabs gets the ball to Johnson at the top of the box. His one-timer goes wide left.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 12′: Sutter crosses one into Larin into Colorado’s box, but it goes just too far in front. Goal kick coming.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 10′: Cyle Larin charged MacMath, and he almost deflected it on the clear.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 This is the first corner of the match. 6′: Corner from the right coming. Sutter headed it into Larin, who tried to pass it back, but it was deflected.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 4′: Barnes chips one over his head, leading Cyle toward goal. His volley attempt goes wide left.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 2′ | A Giles Barnes cross finds Nocerino around the penalty spot and the Italian almost gives City the lead. 0-0 | #ORLvCOL pic.twitter.com/W1NbEjKJ0X — Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) April 29, 2017 2′: SHOT. Good chance by Nocerino on the one-timer. He got the pass from inside the box by Barnes.#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 I thoroughly enjoyed that national anthem. Perhaps the best so far this season in Orlando City Stadium?#ORLvCOL #OCSC — New Day Review (@NewDayReview) April 29, 2017 Colorado will be without starting goalkeeper Tim Howard, who is serving a three-game suspension. The Rapids will also be without defender Kortne Ford, who is serving a one-game suspension. For Jason Kreis and his team, they’re not focused on the Howard loss. Here’s what Kreis had to say during training this week. It just doesn’t affect it too much, right? We don’t do a whole lot of talking about the goalkeepers, to be honest. Those are the guys that are just there to stop the very last play. So, we prepare the same exact way. And here’s what right-back Scott Sutter had to say. No, I wouldn’t have thought so. We all know how good a keeper he is. He’s definitely a player they’re gonna miss, but we just need to make sure that we play our game. We’re playing at home, and I think we should really try and show the confidence level that we have at the moment with the four wins at home. So, it doesn’t really matter who’s in goal. We just need to play our game, and, obviously, we go out there to win. Here’s a neat note about midfielder Cristian Higuita. As soon as he heard that Jason Kreis would be the new head coach in Orlando, the Colombian began watching film on Kreis’ past teams and the diamond formation. Well I did it because I noticed that I could be one of the players. I know we have players like Servando [Carrasco] and Antonio [Nocerino] that they play more as a No. 6, that it’s a little bit more defensive, and I knew I was capable of going forward and also defending. So I knew that was a possibility for me. So I was preparing myself to be able to take that role, and I’m glad I’m doing it well right now. Center-back Seb Hines, on the other hand, played a full 45 minutes in the 0-0 draw against Saint Louis on Thursday. It was his first time playing in the new stadium. One injured player who still has not returned to the playing squad is right-back Rafael Ramos. The 22-year-old was supposed to dress and play against Saint Louis FC with Orlando City B but experienced some tightness in his hamstring the day before and did not dress. Here’s another quick read on that. Check out our quick read on Jason Kreis’ and Cyle Larin’s approach to last-place Colorado. In short, they’re not taking this team lightly. Colombian striker Carlos Rivas will start the match on the bench today. ICYMI, here’s a picture of him with his son Dylan during training this week. Cristian Higuita is in the starting lineup. He popped his shoulder out of its socket in the 2-1 win in New York City. Here’s what he had to say about the injury and his status. I feel fine. I had an issue with my shoulder, but I’m recovering fine. I hope to continue contributing to the squad this weekend. I don’t wish that to anyone. It did hurt a lot. And I actually wanted to continue. They put it back in, and I wanted to continue playing, but Coach made the decision because I wasn’t 100 percent. Coach made the decision of taking me out the game, but I’m fine now. Midfielder Ricardo Kaká is on the bench to start the match. Here’s what head coach Jason Kreis had to say about his progress during training this week. Ricky looks pretty good so far. He’s really been very limited in a number of sessions he’s been available for, and that’s why the decision was made last week that he wasn’t included in the group. He was only included in two full sessions in the two days before the game. There was not enough work to know whether or not he was ready to go into the New York City game and take that kind of risk we weren’t willing to do. So, this week, with another—he trained Monday, the day after the match, with the group that trained then, and he trained today fully, and he’ll train tomorrow, then Friday, and we believe that that should put him in a better position for this weekend. It’s 90 degrees here in Orlando today. In Commerce City, Colorado, where the Colorado Rapids play their home games, it’s 31 degrees. We’ll see if the weather plays a factor in today’s match. |
Introduction I’ve always wanted to be able to send a tab from an iOS web browser to a Mac web browser. Despite the existence of browser features like Safari’s iCloud Tabs and Google Chrome’s Tab Syncing, or even services like Instapaper or Pocket, I wanted a way to “send and forget” a browser tab from an iOS device to a Mac for future reference, then close the tab on my iOS device without giving it another thought. When Workflow for iOS launched in December 2014, I knew that I could use it to implement this idea. The system described below should work with any iOS browser that uses the standard iOS share sheet, as well as any Mac browser on the receiving end. I’ve tested this system with different combinations of Chrome and Safari on both sides, and it works great in all cases. I will not go into step-by-step detail for configuring Workflow or Hazel, so if you’re new to either of them, you should download them and experiment with them before continuing. How It Works This is how the system works from end to end, which should give you some context before you start configuring things: On iOS, a Workflow Action Extension that accepts URLs is invoked through the browser’s share sheet. The workflow prompts for a Mac to send the tab to, and then saves the URL in a text file, located in a Dropbox folder corresponding to the chosen Mac. A Hazel rule on the chosen Mac continuously monitors that same Dropbox folder for changes. If a new file is detected in the folder, the rule reads its contents (the URL), and opens that URL in your Mac browser of choice. The rule then deletes the file since it is no longer needed. Prerequisites Workflow must be installed on all iOS devices you want to send tabs from. Dropbox and Hazel must be installed on all Macs that will receive sent tabs. Configure Dropbox Make a list of all Macs you want to be able to send tabs to. My Macs are named after characters from the television show Archer, so my list looks like this: archer cheryl malory If you aren’t weird enough to name your computers, your list might include things like “MacBook Pro” and “iMac”. Create a new folder anywhere in your Dropbox called “Send Tab” or anything else that works for you, and then create subfolders inside it for each Mac on your list. My directory structure looks like this: $ tree ~/Dropbox/App\ Databases/Workflow/Send\ Tab /Users/Josh/Dropbox/App Databases/Workflow/Send Tab ├── archer ├── cheryl └── malory 3 directories, 0 files Configure Hazel on your Macs The Hazel rule shown below should be configured for each Mac on your list. On each Mac, the rule should be configured to monitor the corresponding Dropbox subfolder that you created for that Mac. You can change "Google Chrome" to any browser you want, and you can opt to use different browsers on different Macs if you wish. Make sure that the browser you choose is inside your Mac’s /Applications folder, that you type the browser’s name exactly as it appears there, and that the browser’s name is quoted, as shown. For your copying-and-pasting convenience, here’s the script that is embedded in the Hazel rule: url=`cat "$1"` open -a "Google Chrome.app" "$url" rm -f "$1" Configure Workflow on your iOS Devices The Workflow workflow (not a typo!) shown below should be configured on each iOS device you want to send tabs from. This workflow is an Action Extension workflow that is configured to accept URLs. For convenience, you can install the workflow by visiting this link on your iOS device instead of reconstructing it manually. If you’re curious, here’s what the workflow looks like: You’ll need to customize the list of Macs, as well as the “Destination Path” in the “Save to Dropbox” action. A key point is that the Destination Path ends with a variable that corresponds to the selected Mac. For reference, my Destination Path looks like this, although it doesn’t all fit on the screen in the Workflow app: App Databases/Workflow/Send Tab/<computer> . This means that the Macs in the workflow’s list need to match their corresponding subfolder names in Dropbox. The Finish Line Now that you’ve finished configuring Hazel and Workflow, you should be able to send browser tabs from your iOS device(s) to your Mac(s), like this: Closing Thoughts As of this writing, Hazel and Dropbox don’t always work together on OS X Yosemite. If Workflow is adding files to your Dropbox but the Hazel rule never triggers on its own/only works when run manually, try this workaround I that discovered through experimentation: Create a folder somewhere outside Dropbox on your Mac, configure the Hazel rule to watch it. Then, symlink that folder into your Dropbox folder, in a location that it will appear as that Mac’s “send tab” subfolder (to match the iOS workflow.) Here’s an example of how to set up the workaround: $ ln -s ~/path/to/the/real/folder/cheryl ~/Dropbox/App\ Databases/Workflow/Send\ Tab/cheryl Allowing Hazel to watch the non-Dropbox folder allows Hazel’s automatic rule triggering to work, while still allowing Dropbox syncing to work via the symbolic link. If you’re obsessed with sending tabs between devices like me, you might enjoy these two relevant free utilities: CloudyTabs, which is a Mac menu bar application that simply lists iCloud tabs across all devices. It’s useful if you like using Safari on your iOS devices and a different browser on the Mac. Chrome2ChromeV2, which allows you to send tabs between Google Chrome sessions on any computer, as long as you’ve signed into Chrome with a Google account on the desired computers. Updated on January 28, 2015: Updated the Hazel rule embedded script and associated screenshot to use and be compatible with bash — which is the default for most users — instead of zsh. |
The Lowdown on GMOs: According to Science Distrust of GMOs has increased in recent years from initiatives to label, ban, or warn the public. The Lowdown on GMOs features contributions by public scientists, authors, farmers, science writers and journalists answering the hard questions with elegance, ease, and evidence. This is a book for those who want to know what the evidence says and the implications of our actions regarding GMOs. More Public distrust of GMOs has increased in recent years. The animosity is everywhere; from initiatives popping up left, right, and center to label'em, ban'em, or warn the public. The media overplays the reports and plays into the deft game of extrapolating far beyond what the science says as well as ignoring expert opinion on what the science actually implies. The Lowdown on GMOs: According to Science is THE book on GMOs intended to counter the rampant fallacious thinking and destructive activism permeating the biotech discussion based on little more than anecdote and ideology. Featuring the writings of public scientists, plant pathologists, renowned authors, farmers, science writers, professors, and journalists, they answer the hard questions asked of GMOs with elegance, ease, and evidence. This is a book for those who want to know what the science actually says, where the evidence actually leads and the potential implications radiating from our actions. "It's hard to find this level of quality discussion on this topic around the internet, where murky misinforming fear-mongers overwhelm the discussions." ~ Mary Mangan, PhD, President and co-founder of OpenHelix LLC |
Mayor Bill de Blasio (photo: Ed Reed, Mayor's Office) Mayor Bill de Blasio often says he doesn’t put much stock in public opinion polls; he believes they’re about as accurate as weather predictions. When asked, he didn’t express much concern after a Quinnipiac University poll released August 1 showed that 51 percent of New York City voters don’t think he deserves to be re-elected in 2017. But even if de Blasio didn’t care, his critics and potential opponents surely did, and are likely buoyed in their belief that there is a way to beat an incumbent Democrat who has been arguably the most progressive mayor in the city’s history and overseen dropping crime, growing jobs, and a record tourism. As polls show de Blasio’s relative weakness, some voices have grown louder calling for his ouster, and potential opponents weigh jumping into the race, one key question is the best path to defeating him. In an overwhelmingly Democratic city that saw 20 years of Republican dominance of the mayoralty before his election, it’s not immediately clear where de Blasio is most vulnerable. As can be expected, political consultants are divided on the prospect of de Blasio’s re-election. Republican consultants believe he can be beaten if an opponent uses the right strategy, aptly highlighting the mayor’s weaknesses, while many Democrats are certain the chances of that are negligible at best. “[De Blasio’s opponents] need to make it a referendum on his competence and his management,” said Evan Siegfried, a Republican strategist. “That includes Democrats, especially in the primaries.” “An incompetent mayor can lose,” he added. It is the competence argument that is already being made by the loudest voice to thus far openly declare intention to defeat de Blasio in 2017 - that of consultant Bradley Tusk, who ran former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s third successful mayoral campaign, in 2009. Tusk has said, though, that he believes the most likely path to defeating de Blasio in 2017 is through the Democratic primary. He’s currently waging a public relations campaign to damage the mayor while he attempts to recruit the strongest candidate possible. As Tusk and others, even Republicans, acknowledge, the voter registration numbers don’t lie. They also see that while de Blasio’s approval rating is low, he still has fairly strong support among Democrats, especially African-Americans. In order to beat de Blasio, “Republicans and independents will have to appeal to disaffected Democrats and have to bring in pretty much every constituency,” said Siegfried. “Bill de Blasio is absolutely beatable only if you run a good and strong campaign with a solid candidate...They should aim to peel off the pork from where de Blasio is strong, particularly the African-American community.” On the Republican end, there are already a few candidates who’ve indicated they may run against the mayor, including Queens City Council Member Eric Ulrich; billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, who lost in the 2013 Republican primary; real estate developer Paul Massey; and former professional football player and Harlem pastor Michel Faulkner. The latter two have officially declared their runs. Republican campaign consultant Jessica Proud of The November Team, who is working for Massey’s campaign, believes there is a path to victory against the incumbent mayor. “Clearly de Blasio has not been able to inspire the confidence of voters,” she said. “He has not shown himself to be a good manager of the city.” Proud said Massey’s appeal is that he’s not a politician. “He’s not an ideologue, his approach would be one of good management,” she said, with an implicit nod toward a Bloomberg-esque technocrat and citing Massey’s top priorities in the campaign: public safety and quality of life issues, housing, and improving city schools. The management issue is a common refrain and relates directly to competence. Even though crime is down, Republican consultants point to polls that show the perception of crime remains skewed. Many people believe other quality of life issues, like street cleanliness, are getting worse even if there is evidence to the contrary. The Quinnipiac poll released August 1 showed that 49 percent of New York City voters disapproved of how the mayor is handling crime, compared to 42 percent who approved. George Arzt, a Democratic consultant, said, “[De Blasio is] vulnerable to a challenge but not from a Republican.” He said that contenders like Massey or Catsimatidis don’t have the same level of resources as Bloomberg did, and that they definitely don’t have the political skills or organization. “There were circumstances that cannot be duplicated as we see now,” he said of Bloomberg’s election as a Republican candidate. “It’s doubtful that anyone even with money can make a go of it.” Another Democratic strategist, Hank Sheinkopf, said a Republican candidate could only be elected if the city were to undergo a serious crisis, say a crime wave, massive corruption, or another recession. De Blasio's administration and campaign allies are being investigated on multiple fronts by state and federal law enforcement officials - the results of those investigations could shift political dynamics drastically, of course. Short of major indictments, Sheinkopf did point out early indicators of problems -- certain crimes have increased, like rape, but overall the crime rate is at historic lows; school test scores may be improving but the schools are underperforming in general; violence in the city’s jails; and future budget deficits despite the city being flush with cash. Even with those considerations, Sheinkopf said, “A fusion candidate will have a better chance,” referring to a candidate who runs on multiple party lines. “They have the Republican line and other lines which makes it easier for people to vote for them.” An effective Republican challenger would have to draw crossover votes from traditionally Democratic voting sections of the population, as Siegfried also suggested and any Republican candidate or consultant must understand. Democrats’ immense voter registration advantage is simply a reality that all involved in New York City political campaigns must recognize. However, one caveat to the voter registration numbers are the voter turnout numbers, which are often quite low. If a certain candidate, incumbent or otherwise, can motivate more people to vote in a significant mass, an election can be swung. As of April 1, there are more than 4 million active registered voters in the city, of which 2.75 million are Democrats and only 414,478 are Republicans. However, that advantage isn’t necessarily borne out by history, a fact pointed to by Steven Romalewski, director of the mapping service at the Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center. In an interview with Gotham Gazette, Romalewski said, “The enrollment advantage doesn’t necessarily tell you much. It matters less than personality of the candidates and the issues. If everyone turned out to vote who is registered to vote and voted the party line, a Democrat would win. But that doesn’t always happen.” Romalewski noted that a 2013 general election analysis showed that in certain districts, de Blasio received fewer Democratic votes than the total votes cast by registered Democrats, indicating that some may have voted for his Republican opponent, Joe Lhota. In other districts, de Blasio received more votes than the total Democratic votes cast, meaning he had support from outside the Democratic party as well. There were six major qualified parties and 14 minor parties on the general election ballot, with de Blasio holding the Democratic and Working Families Party lines. The city also has nearly 800,000 unaffiliated voters, often called “independents,” which adds another facet to the Democrat-Republican enrollment imbalance. “In 2017, I think the same kind of analysis holds,” Romalewski said in an email. “If none or just a small number of Democrats vote for de Blasio's opponent, he'll do ok. But if his challenger can persuade enough Dems to "defect," he'll be in trouble.” But de Blasio’s great strength, as Romalewski pointed out, is that he “not only did well and much better than the prior three Democratic candidates [for mayor] but also did well in areas where Bloomberg did well. He kinda combined the traditional Democratic base -- Black and Hispanic areas -- with liberal white areas.” De Blasio won a dominant 73 percent of the general election vote against Lhota in 2013. Critics point to the fact that only 26 percent of registered voters cast ballots in that election, which indicates some combination of apathy, recognition that de Blasio had a huge polling advantage heading toward Election Day, and limited enthusiasm for Lhota from Republicans and independents. A Republican would have to have a “cache” of progressive politics combined with the skills of a good manager, Romalewski said, to cut into de Blasio’s voter base. “The conventional wisdom is that it’s unlikely [de Blasio will] have effective challengers,” he said. Most observers assume that the mayor will only face a stiff challenge in the Democratic primary, due to the aforementioned factors and no obvious other big name Republican or independent waiting in the wings. And a tough Democratic primary is only possible, some say, if a single strong candidate runs against de Blasio instead of multiple candidates who could split the anti-de Blasio vote. “If two or three Democrats challenge the mayor, he’s going to win,” said Bill Cunningham, managing director at DKC and former communications director for Bloomberg. “If only one runs, there’s a chance to coalesce the people who view [de Blasio] unfavorably and give them a place to go vote.” One other path some experts float would be for a strong African-American candidate to enter the race - someone like Congressional Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, for example - who would chip away at de Blasio’s deep African-American base, and one strong white candidate - someone like Comptroller Scott Stringer - who could pick up as many other disaffected Democrats as possible. Cunningham said for a competitive race, “You need a message, a messenger and you need to be able to deliver that to the public. There’s no mystery to what the recipe is. The trick is finding a candidate who is intelligent and can campaign effectively and has the money to deliver the message to the voters.” Bloomberg had those qualities, he pointed out, but the current crop of contenders don’t. Along with Stringer, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. is currently seen as the other most likely Democratic challenger to the mayor. When asked about potential opponents, de Blasio has repeatedly said he’s ready to take on all comers, at times mentioning the pillars of his term: universal pre-kindergarten, affordable housing, and low crime. At one point last year de Blasio discussed his "record of achievement" and said of potential 2017 opponents, "come one, come all." A spokesperson for de Blasio’s campaign, Dan Levitan, emailed a statement about the prospects for 2017, saying, “Crime just hit another all-time low, jobs are at record highs, the City is building and preserving affordable housing at a record pace, while graduation rates and test scores continue to improve. That is Mayor de Blasio's record and that is what next year's election will be about.” Even Tusk, who is arguably de Blasio’s most vocal opponent right now, acknowledges that he’ll be hard pressed to find a candidate who fits the bill of a Democrat with appeal among Republican voters. He recently indicated to the New York Times that a successful candidate could run on a third-party line in the general even if they lost the Democratic primary; or a candidate could possibly skip the Democratic primary altogether and run on an independent line. As CUNY’s Romalewski notes, in the 2009 general, Bloomberg did well in areas where he consistently won votes in the prior two elections -- much of Queens, the Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Downtown Manhattan, South Brooklyn, and almost all of Staten Island. His Democratic opponent at the time, Bill Thompson, made it a close race, losing by less than five points. Thompson, who is black, won large blocks in Southeast Queens, Central Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Bronx. Unfortunately for him, though, turnout wasn’t as high in these areas as he needed for a victory. De Blasio upended the pattern in 2013, pulling votes from constituencies that voted for both Bloomberg and Thompson in ‘09. Romalewski’s analysis of the 2013 election also notes areas de Blasio lost to Lhota, including the traditionally Republican-leaning Upper East Side, Middle Village and other areas in northeast Queens, a few orthodox Jewish communities in Southern Brooklyn, and most of Staten Island. In general, these areas were dominated by white New Yorkers who have been increasingly critical of de Blasio. The mayor overwhelmingly won communities dominated by African-Americans and Hispanics, who continue to support him. The Quinnipiac poll noted as much, finding that in hypothetical match-ups whites largely favored Comptroller Scott Stringer and former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn over de Blasio, who maintained huge margins among African-Americans and Hispanics. (The poll did not include possible Republican candidates.) In terms of approval rating, 63 percent of black voters and 50 percent of Hispanic voters approve of de Blasio’s handling of the job, while only 25 percent of white voters felt the same. The Democrat-Republican divide is even greater, with 55 percent of Democrats giving de Blasio a thumbs up and only 9 percent of Republicans doing so. Among independents, 30 percent approved of the mayor. On Tusk’s “NYC Deserves Better” podcast, Democratic consultant and pollster Jefrey Pollock pointed out that despite the mayor’s weakening numbers, he has enough support among African-Americans and Hispanics for a strong showing in the Democratic primary. Pollock noted, and Tusk reiterated, that popular adage that almost every political expert and consultant says of the mayoral race -- “You can’t beat somebody with nobody.” Pollock said independent groups support an opponent of de Blasio, if an effective one were to emerge. “That is the great challenge,” Tusk said. |
Story highlights Mazie Hirono: Hawaii is a state, and Sessions' comments on US judge there reveal prejudice Administration sees diversity as weakness, but Hawaii is a reminder it's wrong, she says Mazie Hirono, a Democrat, is a US senator from Hawaii. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers. (CNN) Jeff Sessions, the attorney general of the United States, appears to need a reminder: Hawaii was granted statehood in 1959. I'm happy to tell him where I was when Hawaii became a state. I was in sixth grade at Koko Head Elementary School in Honolulu, and was chosen to pin the 50th star on the American flag in front of my teachers and classmates at a special assembly to celebrate statehood. Like my fellow citizens in Hawaii, I am a proud American. Mazie Hirono This is why Sessions' ignorant comments about US District Judge Derrick Watson from Hawaii were so insulting and prejudiced. In a discussion of President Donald Trump's executive order that banned travelers from several Muslim-majority countries -- an order that Watson blocked -- Sessions told an interviewer, "I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power." I would never criticize a judge just because he or she presides in another state, including Alabama. Sessions' Alabamans would be outraged if I did. Yet that's exactly what the attorney general did. Read More |
Ramona Shelburne looks at the Lakers' future with Magic Johnson coming aboard and not having the best history with team co-owner Jim Buss. (1:50) THE CALL CAME in from a number Magic Johnson didn't recognize, so he sent it to voicemail. He'd been in meetings all morning with his new, old team. In the first few hours since the team announced Magic had been hired as a special advisor to Lakers co-owner Jeanie Buss, he'd met with her, the younger Buss brothers, Joey and Jesse, general manager Mitch Kupchak and dozens of team staffers. Magic's phone had been buzzing the whole time. But the point of this day was to show up at the Lakers offices and be present, let everyone see him again and start wrapping his head around the monumental job of resurrecting the franchise he'd led to glory as a player. Besides, most of the calls were congratulations from friends and old teammates -- the sort of short, pithy "way to go" texts and voicemails that can be answered or acknowledged in a few days. But after Magic listened to this particular voicemail, he knew it demanded a quick reply. It was Lakers co-owner and executive vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss, and he wanted to know the same thing the rest of the basketball world did: What's next? What's next for Buss, mentored and authorized by his late father, longtime Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, to run basketball operations? What's next for Kupchak, the Lakers' day-to-day decision-maker since 2000? And what's next for Magic? Was he there to advise Jeanie? Or to start running the organization like he once ran a fast break? In recent years, Magic's criticism of Jim Buss has been direct and withering. In the past, he has called for him to relinquish power, criticized his decisions to hire Mike Brown and Mike D'Antoni, ripped him for failing to land marquee superstars. (Of course, he also once suggested that trading for Dwight Howard and Steve Nash should put Buss in the running for Executive of the Year.) But overall, Magic has been highly critical of the Lakers' front office. So when Jim Buss called Johnson last Thursday, naturally, he wanted to know his intentions. Magic told Jim he was there to help, that he stood by his criticisms from the past but hoped they could move forward without that baggage. The answer and Johnson's tone disarmed Buss. It was as close to a détente as the two men, both 57 years old, had reached in years. Buss agreed and asked to schedule a meeting after the All-Star break where he and general manager Mitch Kupchak could explain their decision-making over the past few seasons. "I'm taking Magic at face value, that he's here to help," Jim Buss told ESPN. "He's one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Who wouldn't value his opinion? I'm excited to work with Magic for years to come." WHETHER THEIR ACCOMMODATING attitudes represent a lasting peace or a temporary cease-fire, Jim Buss, in particular, has plenty of incentive to make the relationship work: his own self-imposed deadline. During the chaotic 2013-14 season, Jim made a surprising promise at a meeting with his five siblings. It had been a year since their father's death. Kobe Bryant had suffered two consecutive season-ending injuries. Coach Mike D'Antoni was still trying to coax as much as he could out of the talent the Lakers had left after Howard's free-agent defection and Pau Gasol's disillusionment. There was tremendous external pressure on Jim and Jeanie to bring back former coach Phil Jackson, who was on the verge of leaving the franchise for good to join the New York Knicks. But it was just one year into a plan the Buss kids knew their father had badly wanted to work. It was too soon to even judge how it was working. So Jim asked for more time to get the franchise headed back in the right direction. "I was laying myself on the line by saying, if this doesn't work in three to four years, if we're not back on the top -- and the definition of top means contending for the Western Conference, contending for a championship -- then I will step down, because that means I have failed," Jim Buss revealed in a 2013 Los Angeles Times article. "I don't know if you can fire yourself if you own the team ... but what I would say is I'd walk away, and you guys figure out who's going to run basketball operations, because I obviously couldn't do the job. "There's no question in my mind we will accomplish success. I'm not worried about putting myself on the line." The clock has been ticking ever since Jim made that statement. But when exactly does the buzzer sound? Jeanie Buss has stated publicly that she has the authority to hold her brother to his word -- and she has said previously that the deadline arrives this year. But when Jim Buss says he's excited to work with Magic for years to come, that doesn't sound like a man who intends to step down anytime soon. Jeanie Buss and Magic Johnson, shown with Dr. Buss in 2011, have been close since Johnson joined the Lakers as a rookie. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images TO FULLY APPRECIATE the drama of the moment, you must first try to understand the depth of Johnson's 38-year relationship with the Lakers' organization and the Buss family. Magic Johnson was 19 when Dr. Buss drafted him No. 1 overall in 1979, just a few months after he'd purchased the team from Jack Kent Cooke. Jeanie Buss was there to greet him on the day he was introduced to the city he'd soon rule. She was just 17 at the time, and they were both a little nervous at the size of the stage. It all worked out, of course. Magic owned the Los Angeles sports scene for decades and is still one of the city's most beloved figures. It was in those first few years, when he would come over to Dr. Buss' house to play pool or ride with the family to Southern California football home games, that his bond with the family, especially with Jeanie, became so close. At Dr. Buss' funeral in 2013, Magic referred to him as a "second father." Jim Buss is Jeanie's older brother and the closest to her in age. They've never been especially close. But family is family, and in this case, family is ownership, too. And it was always very clear that their father wanted this arrangement -- Jeanie runs the business side of the Lakers, and Jim the basketball side -- to be part of his legacy. So what Jeanie Buss decides what to do with her brother, with the Lakers on the verge of a fourth straight trip to the lottery, isn't merely a personnel decision or business decision. It's a deeply personal one. From the moment Magic had dinner with her at a Lakers home game three weeks ago to discuss his new role, he became Jeanie Buss' 6-foot-9 bronze-plated Hall of Fame shield for what comes next. If his role is diminished, will Jim Buss dig in and fight back? A protracted legal battle could be emotionally and materially draining, and it could have a debilitating effect on the Lakers' ability to operate during the NBA draft and the free-agent signing period this summer. No decisions will be made in a rush. In their conversation this week, Magic told Jim Buss that he was there to help, but stopped short of engaging in the larger conversation about the future. Magic says he wants to hear how Buss and Kupchak explain their decision-making on draft picks, free agents and trades -- both the moves they've made and the moves not made. He wants their side of the story. Johnson is fond of Kupchak, but determined to make an honest assessment of his performance. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images ALTHOUGH MAGIC IS said to be personally fond of Kupchak, who joined the Lakers' front office in 1986, about halfway through Magic's playing career, he's also determined to make an honest evaluation of the general manager's performance and abilities in today's NBA. According to sources close to the situation, Magic has already heard from agents and executives from other teams that Kupchak's deliberate style can be frustrating to deal with and has probably cost the Lakers in free agency in recent years, missing out on a list of names that includes Isaiah Thomas, Kent Bazemore, Kyle Lowry, Ed Davis, Trevor Ariza, Pau Gasol and Eric Gordon. Thomas, now an MVP candidate and two-time All Star with the Boston Celtics, told Grantland's Zach Lowe in 2014, "I always envisioned myself playing with the Lakers," but they were "waiting on Carmelo [Anthony] and other moves." So Thomas took a new four-year, $28 million deal with the Phoenix Suns (via a sign-and-trade with the Sacramento Kings). The same year, the Lakers expressed interest in Lowry but told him they preferred to wait on Anthony before making their best offer to him. Lowry ended up re-signing with the Toronto Raptors while the Lakers were waiting on Anthony, who ultimately chose to stay in New York. The following summer, Bazemore signed with Atlanta and Davis signed with Portland while the Lakers fruitlessly pursued LaMarcus Aldridge, Greg Monroe and DeAndre Jordan. The Lakers had traded Steve Blake for Bazemore because they believed he had potential if given an opportunity. They were right, but instead of being rewarded for their faith and investment, Bazemore took the Hawks' offer while the Lakers prioritized other high-profile free agents. In a cruel twist, the Lakers actually outbid Atlanta for Bazemore when he became a free agent again in 2016, but he chose to be loyal and stay with the Hawks, where he'd flourished the past few seasons. In both cases, the Lakers' talent evaluation of the players was spot on, but they couldn't retain their own players and essentially lost them for nothing. Meanwhile, Ariza, who had an interest in returning to his hometown and the city he won an NBA title with in 2009, ended up signing a four-year, $32 million deal with the Houston Rockets, where he is now thriving under former Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni. Part of the reason the Lakers missed out on those cases is a philosophical decision to prioritize superstar free agents above all else. But another read is that the Lakers aren't moving at the speed NBA business is now being conducted. Said one player agent, who has dealt with Kupchak on several contracts, "He's the only GM in the league who won't engage at all before 9:01 p.m. [PT] on the first night of free agency. Then when he calls to express interest, there's no stickiness to it." That speaks to Kupchak's integrity, as contact with an agent or player is considered tampering before the opening of free agency, but it also speaks, according to sources, to a lack of savvy. There are ways of gathering information on free agents without trampling the rules, so that a team doesn't begin the process far behind everyone else. Luol Deng's signing was underwhelming for most Lakers fans -- and some staff. AP Photo/Ron Jenkins ON JULY 1, 2016, after being outmaneuvered in recent years, the Lakers decided to strike quickly by agreeing to terms on a combined $136 million over the next four years with 30-year-old Timofey Mozgov and 31-year-old Luol Deng. According to sources, Kupchak was reluctant to allow Mozgov to be tempted by other offers, giving him a four-year, $64 million deal just minutes after free agency began. Deng heard offers from other teams, but sources indicated he had no other offers that extended beyond three seasons. The Lakers gave him four years and $72 million. For years, Jeanie Buss and Lakers fans had waited for the franchise to clear the kind of salary-cap space it needed to bring in superstar free agents, particularly in the wake of Bryant's retirement. For years, the fans had hung their hopes on the lure of Los Angeles and Showtime. Suddenly, within the first 32 hours of free agency, Kupchak and the Lakers had committed most of the salary-cap space the team needed going forward to sign two role players in their early 30s. While Deng and Mozgov have been good mentors and veteran presences for the Lakers' younger players, from a performance standpoint the moves have been underwhelming. Deng is 144th in Real Plus-Minus, and Mozgov is 396th, while the Lakers stand at 18-36. This week, the Lakers took the embarrassing step of benching Mozgov and Deng in favor of starting rookie Brandon Ingram and third-year man Tarik Black. And that's the real issue: It's not the 2016-17 season that the Lakers should be worried about. Rather, it's how the Mozgov and Deng contracts affect future seasons. The Lakers' three recent lottery picks -- Julius Randle, D'Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram -- will soon become eligible for lucrative extensions, starting with Randle this summer (then Russell in 2018 and Ingram in 2019). With a bit of maneuvering this offseason, the Lakers should have enough salary-cap space to pursue a superstar, someone like Blake Griffin or Gordon Hayward. But once the Lakers spend the estimated $20-31 million they'll have in salary-cap room this summer or next, the extensions they'll need to start giving to Randle, Russell and Ingram, combined with the four-year commitments they've made to Mozgov and Deng, will effectively tie up their financial flexibility until 2021. As the trade deadline approaches, we'll hear more about the possibility of moving starting shooting guard Nick Young and super-sub Louis Williams. Of course, the Lakers will listen to any and all offers for Mozgov and Deng, though they shouldn't expect to hear any unless they are willing to package them with one of their younger players such as Ivica Zubac, Larry Nance Jr. or one of the three former lottery picks. But with so much of the Laker's money already committed, its windows of opportunity are small -- the franchise needs to strike free-agent gold this summer or next summer, basically. That's one reason Jeanie Buss feels a new sense of urgency, and why she brought Magic in to help now. AS THE LEAD on business affairs, Jeanie Buss does largely stay away from the on-court product. She has said publicly that she often learns of the team's basketball decisions via news reports or texts from her brother. Sources said Kupchak rarely, if ever, communicates with Jeanie Buss, believing he reports only to her brother. That funnel effect has essentially given Kupchak incredible power over decision-making, with only one boss to hold him accountable for successes and failures. But there have been occasions when his failures become Jeanie's. Because she manages the team's corporate partnerships, like with television partner Spectrum Cable, she is the one managing the fallout from the team's four-year downturn on the court and underwhelming free-agent signing, even though she has very little control over the basketball operations staff. While she has never directly asked her brother and Kupchak to consult with her on the decisions being made on basketball matters, in 2014, after the Lakers ran out of players during a game against the Cavaliers, she pointedly asked Kupchak if there was any other support she could give so that didn't happen again. The game was an embarrassment for the Lakers and the NBA. The Lakers had allowed Steve Nash to play the night before, knowing he'd be unavailable on the second night of a back-to-back, while concurrently deciding not to sign Manny Harris for the rest of the season after his second 10-day contract expired. The Lakers ended up with only four eligible, healthy players for the final 3:32 of the game when Chris Kaman fouled out and Jordan Farmar and Nick Young left with injuries. Video of Kaman lying down on an empty bench with a towel over his face went viral. The next day, Jeanie Buss found herself dealing with the fallout from both corporate partners and league officials. When she saw Kupchak at the Lakers' facility that day, she couldn't help but ask the leading question about her support. The lack of communication -- and, more so, trust -- has at times been crippling for the Lakers. Even if a coach or front office staffer wanted to loop Jeanie Buss on basketball matters, there was a risk Kupchak or Jim Buss would see that as betraying their confidence and loyalty. Her solution is to install Johnson in a role to help bridge these divides. There is speculation around the league about what Johnson will do in his new role. Al Goldis/AP Photo IT STARTS HERE as the Feb. 23 trade deadline approaches, when Magic is expected to play a part in the Lakers' decision-making process. But he's not the general manager. He's at the senior level, hired to advise, not to get down in the weeds plotting out maneuvers. The expectation, according to sources close to the situation, is that he will stay at that level beyond this season. In the short term, he'll be a voice alongside Kupchak and Buss. But in the coming months, he's expected to help Jeanie Buss decide whether to revamp the basketball operations leadership team. Around the league, there is widespread interest and speculation about what comes after that. Will the Lakers approach another team to get permission to make a Godfather offer to a big-name GM such as RC Buford, Masai Ujiri or Bob Myers? Is there a dynamic assistant GM out there -- such as OKC's Troy Weaver or Michael Winger, Boston's Mike Zarren, Orlando's Scott Perry or Golden State's Travis Schlenk -- who could become the next Buford, Ujiri or Myers? Perhaps Magic and Jeanie Buss will decide his presence is enough to fix the operational inefficiencies that have led to the decaying relationship between the business and basketball halves of the Lakers' mind. For now, neither party is tipping his or her hand. They're just returning each other's calls, and figuring out how to talk to each other again. |
We have been running this particular feature on Thursdays, but because of the Canucks schedule this week, we’re dishing out the goods a day early. It has been another busy week – and I’m not just saying that so that you keep reading! – as every league is playing and reaching the quarter mark of their schedules. Sample sizes are starting to get large enough to get a good idea of where certain individuals sit. I also managed to do a bit of deeper analysis of Comets’ players this week, which you’ll hopefully enjoy. As always, follow me @nuckprospects on Twitter for the latest in prospect news and feed free to send me any feedback on anything prospect related you wish me to cover. Without further ado.. Utica Games Thursday’s game Utica started this week off the same way as always, with another loss. This time the final score was 0-4 for Lake Erie and much like the score the game was not even close. Shots were 42 – 21 for Lake Erie with Eriksson making 38 of 42 saves. Stuart and Jensen lead the team each with 4 SOG. David Booth was quiet on the game with a -1 but he did manage 2 SOG. The Comets went 0 for 5 on the PP and 3 for 5 on the PK. DeFazio received 10 minute game misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct. – Utica’s Game Report – AHLs Box Score Friday’s Game Things finally changed for the Comets as they earned their first win of the year! On Friday night the Comets faced Lake Erie for back to back games and were able to walk away with two points and their first franchise victory. The final score was 3-2 and the shots were 28-24 for the Comets. Goals were scored by Mallet, Mullen and Stuart. Stuart had 5 SOG, Jensen had 4 SOG. Booth was much more active in this game, he only had 1 SOG but he did get an assist on the Mullen goal on the PP. Eriksson made 22 of 24 saves. The PP went 1 for 5 and the P K went 2 for 2. – Utica Game Report – AHL’s Box score Sunday’s Game After their first win the Comets travelled to Hamilton where they won a second game and now have the franchises first Win Streak! The final score was 3 – 1 with shots 32 – 30 for the Comets. Goals were scored by Hamill, Grenier and Stuart. Stuart and Jensen again led the team with SOG with 5 and 4 respectively. Booth also had 3 SOG. Eriksson made 29 of 30 saves. The PP was 0 for 2 but the PK was 3 for 3. Let’s hope the Comets continue playing this way. – Utica Game Report – AHL’s Box Score Players Performance Players stats who have played at least one game with the Comets, (X) indicates not currently on the active roster, so far are: # Player Pos Age GP G A PTS PPG SOG Sh/G +/- PIM SH% 23 Pascal Pelletier C 30 8 2 8 10 1.25 10 1.25 2 10 20 28 Alexandre Grenier R 21 12 3 6 9 0.75 21 1.75 3 17 14.3 78 Benn Ferriero R 26 12 4 4 8 0.67 36 3.00 -8 2 11.1 9 Zach Hamill C 24 12 3 5 8 0.67 18 1.50 -5 6 16.7 10 Colin Stuart L 31 10 4 0 4 0.40 39 3.90 -3 8 10.3 26 Frank Corrado D 20 12 2 2 4 0.33 19 1.58 -1 6 10.5 24 Brandon DeFazio F 24 12 1 3 4 0.33 17 1.42 1 29 5.9 4 Yann Sauve D 23 10 0 4 4 0.40 20 2.00 -8 12 0 14 Patrick Mullen D 27 10 2 1 3 0.30 19 1.90 -4 0 10.5 7 Henrik Tommernes D 23 12 2 1 3 0.25 20 1.67 -7 0 10 40 Peter Andersson D 22 11 1 2 3 0.27 6 0.55 -1 4 16.7 20 Zac Dalpe (X) C 23 6 0 3 3 0.50 14 2.33 -6 2 0 25 Darren Archibald (X) L 23 4 1 1 2 0.50 10 2.50 0 22 10 19 Kellan Lain C 24 12 0 2 2 0.17 14 1.17 0 46 0 27 Alex Mallet C 21 7 1 0 1 0.14 8 1.14 -3 2 12.5 42 David Booth (X) L 28 3 0 1 1 0.33 6 2.00 -1 0 0 17 Nicklas Jensen C 20 6 0 1 1 0.17 22 3.67 -3 0 0 3 Alex Biega D 25 12 0 1 1 0.08 9 0.75 -4 19 0 6 Sacha Guimond (X) D 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0 0 22 David Pacan (X) R 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -1 0 0 2 Adam Polasek (X) D 22 2 0 0 0 0.00 1 0.50 0 2 0 18 Mitch Wahl (X) C 23 2 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -1 2 0 15 Jeremy Welsh (X) F 25 2 0 0 0 0.00 5 2.50 -2 0 0 8 Alex Friesen F 22 3 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0 0 29 Kent Huskins L 34 3 0 0 0 0.00 5 1.67 1 0 0 44 Brayden Irwin (X) F 26 5 0 0 0 0.00 0 0.00 -2 0 0 21 Ludwig Blomstrand (X) L 20 6 0 0 0 0.00 5 0.83 0 0 0 12 David Marshall R 28 9 0 0 0 0.00 8 0.89 -4 9 0 16 Kelsey Wilson (X) L 27 9 0 0 0 0.00 2 0.22 -3 9 0 Goalies so far: # Goalies GP Mins W L SL SO GA GAA SVS SV% 30 Joacim Eriksson 9 544:30:00 2 6 1 0 29 3.2 247 0.895 35 Joe Cannata 3 178:06:00 0 3 0 0 11 3.71 67 0.859 I also went through all the games and looked at who was on the ice for each even strength and all situations goals to see see who has been involved in the goals for and against. Below is the Gf% and EvGf% for all Comets who have been on the ice for at least one goal. Name Gf Ga EvGf EvGa Ev Gf % Gf % Pacan (X) 0 0 1 0 1.00 1.00 Huskins 0 0 3 1 0.75 0.75 Archibald 2 1 3 2 0.60 0.63 DeFazio 0 1 6 4 0.60 0.55 Grenier 4 1 6 4 0.60 0.67 Pelletier 3 3 9 6 0.60 0.57 Corrado 4 4 7 6 0.54 0.52 Welsh (X) 0 1 1 1 0.50 0.33 Andersson 1 3 7 8 0.47 0.42 Hamill 2 3 6 8 0.43 0.42 Biega 1 6 6 9 0.40 0.32 Lain 0 1 2 3 0.40 0.33 Stuart 4 6 5 9 0.36 0.38 Tommernes 4 2 3 6 0.33 0.47 Mullen 4 1 3 7 0.30 0.47 Dalpe (X) 3 5 3 8 0.27 0.32 Ferriero 6 3 4 11 0.27 0.42 Jensen 2 0 1 3 0.25 0.50 Mallet 0 0 1 3 0.25 0.25 Sauve 4 7 3 11 0.21 0.28 Booth (X) 1 1 0 1 0.00 0.33 Marshall 0 0 0 3 0.00 0.00 Wilson (X) 0 0 0 2 0.00 0.00 Transactions: Reassigned: Polasek back to Kalamazoo. In two games with Utica he has 1 SOG and 2 PIM. Released from PTO: Brayden Irwin. Played 5 games, 0 pts, -2 and 0 SOG. Released from PTO : Mitch Wahl. Played 2 games, 0 pts, 0 SOG, -1 and 2PIM. Released from PTO: Kelsey Wilson. Played 9 games, 0 pts, 2 SOG, -3 and 9 PIM. Reassigned: Archibald has been returned to Utica after 8 games with the NHL. Recalled: Booth has been recalled to the NHL. Played 3 games, 1 Pt, 6 SOG, -1 and 0 PIM. Other: Currently the Comets are in 15th place with 6 points (2-8-1-1). They have been out-scored 26 to 41 (-15), and have been outshot 336 to 355 (-19). They are controlling 48.63% (acknowledging score effects) of the shots with an on ice shooting percentage of 7.8% and a save percentage of 88.2. A simple version of PDO puts them at 96% which is a slight improvement over last week as their goaltending has looked better with two wins. Their PP is currently at 16.67% (20th place) and their PK is 76.47% (28th place). The Comets will be playing twice this upcoming week. Both games will be in Utica, on Friday they will play the Rochester Americans and then on Saturday they will play their first game against the Texas Stars. Booth has played fairly well in his three games down with the Comets. He has been given plenty of ice time, and special teams time, perfect for his condition stint. So far the Comets have yet to win a game without him. While his box score numbers weren’t as high as some of the other leaders on the team, Booth continues to be actively involved in the game. Jensen is the opposite, he’s leading the team in SOG/G with 3.67 but he not been able to find the back of the net yet. I would think when the puck luck starts to swing his way he will start racking up the points. Looking at the Goals For % table there are some interesting things. We do have to remember this is a small sample size as it’s only been 12 games. The top players such as Archibald and Pelletier, their numbers meet the eye test. Corrado is doing well. Grenier is also doing well, he’s improved a lot this year and not too many people are talking about him. Lain has been quiet on this table, despite lots of playing time, it reflects his more defensive role. Scoring is good, but preventing a lot of goals is good too. Stuart hasn’t done as well as his points are reflecting and Ferriero is just terrible. I think I looked at 8 games before he was even on the ice for a goal for. Welsh and Archibald might be fixutres up in the NHL in the near future. They continue to float around 50% Fenwick and Corsi despite playing more defensive minutes. They are looking better than Sestito and Dalpe despite playing less time a game. It should be noted, as Pass it to Bulis wrote earlier, Archibald’s on ice PDO is 111.4, he’s been on the ice for 4 goals for, and only one against. It is likely our perception of him might change as these numbers start to even out. Keep track of their statistics on ExtraSkater.com. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Archibald recalled back to the NHL again later this season. OHL McEneny has not played a game since last week due to a concussion. That’s an injury you never want to see a player sustain because you can never tell just how badly, or for how long, it will affect them. The Ranger’s Report detail that McEneny was hit in the head by Guelph’s Robby Fabbri at the end of October. Fabbri was suspended for 10 games and is eligible to return November 29. The Guelph Mercury and Yahoo’s Buzzing the Net cover this a bit more in detail. Earlier reports suggest he should be back in play soon. Cassels has been a bit of a surprise this year in his sudden point production. I have been noting this every week and right now he is producing more PPG than Horvat and Shinkaruk (but I bet this will even out over a larger sample size). This last week has been a bit quieter for him, it would be hard to top a four goal night, but he is still producing at a nice clip. Gaunce has been suspended for one game for his kneeing major in his last game on Sunday. He will be eligible to return on Saturday. In the OHL the Oshawa Generals are 1st in the East with 33 points while Belleville is 10th with 12 points. In the West London is 4th with 26 points and Kitchener is 9th with 11 Points. Don’t forget to watch the Quest for the Cup with Bo Horvat and the London Knights on Sportsnet. You can watch the first episode online. Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Bo Horvat C 3 1 5 6 2.00 4 2 Brendan Gaunce C 3 2 2 4 1.33 0 7 Cole Cassels C 3 0 1 1 0.33 -3 2 Jordan Subban D 3 0 2 2 0.67 2 6 Evan McEneny D 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 Miles Liberati D 3 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 And so far this year the stats of these players are: Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Bo Horvat C 16 8 15 23 1.44 10 16 Brendan Gaunce C 18 10 12 22 1.22 -4 23 Cole Cassels C 21 12 16 28 1.33 3 37 Jordan Subban D 19 1 12 13 0.68 0 22 Evan McEneny D 11 1 3 4 0.36 -9 17 Miles Liberati D 19 1 2 3 0.16 3 18 WHL In the WHL things are a bit quieter. Cederholm remains quiet on the score sheet while Shinkaruk has returned from his injury. In his 3 games back he has scored 1G and 1A. Both Portland and Medicine Hat are ranked first in their respective conferences with 34 and 31 points respectively. Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Hunter Shinkaruk L 3 1 1 2 0.67 -3 6 Anton Cederholm D 4 0 0 0 0.00 2 2 And so far this season the players stats in the WHL are: Name Position GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Hunter Shinkaruk L 10 5 7 12 1.20 0 18 Anton Cederholm D 21 1 7 8 0.38 15 30 NCAA University of Maine men won and lost a game again. Ben Hutton conitnues to look strong with 3-2-5 Pts through 9 games and maintaining 3 SOG/G. The Badgers have not played a game in the last week but will play another two this weekend. Penn State played 1 game this week picking up a victory against Sacred Heart, but Williamson did not play. Penn State has another two games this weekend. Yale will be playing Sacred Heart this weekend, and played two game last week, a win and a tie against Princeton and Quinnipac. McNally still has not played yet and may return to play next weekend. Harvard is currently 2-3-1 and has two games this weekend at Quinnipac and Princeton. Name Position School GP G A P PPG +/- S S/G PIM Ben Hutton D Umaine 9 3 2 5 0.56 -5 27 3.00 0 Joseph LaBate F Uwisconsin 6 3 3 6 1.00 -3 19 3.17 0 Mike Williamson D Penn State 4 1 1 2 0.50 2 6 1.50 9 Matthew Beattie F Yale 5 2 0 2 0.40 1 11 2.20 0 Patrick McNally D Harvard 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 ECHL/CHL Kalamazoo played one game this week and it was sure eventful. The K-Wings eventually lost 5-6 to Cincinnati. Blain got his first goal of the year as well as 17 PIM for fighting, and a game misconduct. The K-Wings will play again twice this weekend. In St Charles lost and won a game against Tulsa. They will be playing against on Friday and Saturday night. Corbeil has not been looking good in the CHL, he has been relegated to back up as of late, and he has been pulled in the few recent game he has started in. It’s a small sample, but the numbers are not looking good for him. Gwinnett Gladiators are continuing to be successful with the addition of Sasha Guimond. The Gladiators have now won 2 of 3 in the last week; over the next week they will be playing four times. It’s too bad it didnt work out for him in Utica, he can continue to produce down in the ECHL. ECHL Position Team GP G A P PPG +/- SOG S/G PIM Blain D K-Wings 7 1 2 3 0.43 0 13 1.86 28 Pacan RW K-Wings 7 1 2 3 0.43 4 13 1.86 2 Polasek D K-Wings 3 1 0 1 0.33 1 2 0.67 2 Blomstrand F K-Wings 5 2 1 3 0.60 -3 14 2.80 2 Anthony F CHL St Charles 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 Guimond D Gwinnett 5 1 1 2 0.40 -2 18 3.60 2 And Corbeil’s stats are: Goalies Position Team GP Min GA GAA W L OTL SV SV% Corbeil G CHL St Charles 6 236 21 5.35 0 2 1 103 0.831 Europe For the Canucks prospects in Europe, Anton Rodin has taken a break from the SHL to play in the Euro Hockey Tour for Team Sweden. He played three games but did not record a point. Name Position Team Age GP G A P PPG +/- PIM Anton Rodin W SHL Brynas 22 20 5 12 17 0.85 -1 16 Ronald Kenins LW Swiss ZSC 22 18 5 8 13 0.72 8 8 Other: Some extra reading for you. |
"One may wonder exactly what underlies this relentless pursuit of a mirage, given that there is just about zero support outside the cabinet," said Landfeldt. "Surely it is no longer a matter of believing that the policy would benefit the general public." The government is preparing to introduce legislation forcing ISPs to block a blacklist of websites that have been "refused classification" (RC) by government bureaucrats. After intense criticism of the policy, including that "refused classification" included innocuous and politically sensitive material, Senator Conroy announced just before the election that his policy would be delayed until a review of RC classification guidelines could be conducted by state and territory censorship ministers. This effectively means any internet filtering legislation will be delayed until next year, by which time the Greens will hold the balance of power in the Senate. The Greens have already said they would oppose the legislation, as has the Opposition. But before it gets to the Senate the legislation would need to pass the House of Representatives, meaning Labor would need the support of Greens MP Adam Bandt and the independents Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter. Wilkie, Windsor and Katter could not be reached for comment but a spokesman for Oakeshott said he was against the filter. In fact, last year Oakeshott helped a teenage campaigner in his electorate with a petition arguing the filter should be scrapped. "It is not the government's role to be a net nanny. It is the role of every single household," Oakeshott told the Port Macquarie News at the time. Senator Ludlam said in a phone interview that he wanted the review of RC guidelines to still go ahead but the government should drop the internet filtering policy altogether. "It [the RC review] was quite transparently a political stalling tactic but that didn't make it a bad idea," he said. "[The filter] is just a complete waste of chamber time. It's a waste of public servants' time who for the next 10 months are going to be progressing a mandatory filter proposal that has no chance of passing either house of parliament now." Senator Ludlam said Senator Conroy should "get past this fixation" with the filter and turn his attention to other looming issues such as net neutrality and the Attorney-General's data retention proposal. The data retention proposal is being pushed by the Australian Federal Police and could see all web browsing history of Australian internet users logged for law enforcement to access. A wide range of experts on the internet and child protection have long argued that a mandatory filter would be ineffective as it was easy to bypass, would not capture even a small percentage of the nasty content on the web and would give parents a false sense of security. The big ISPs, including Optus, Telstra and iPrimus, have already pledged to block child-abuse websites voluntarily. This narrower, voluntary approach has long been advocated by internet experts and brings Australia into line with other countries such as Britain. The Opposition pledged to bring back free voluntary PC-based internet filters for families, which existed under the Howard government but were scrapped by Senator Conroy to make way for his mandatory ISP-level filter. "Recent OECD reports tell us the investment and quality of our higher education system is falling behind other developed countries; with the ludicrous house prices Australians can no longer move out of home, etc," said Landfeldt. "There is no shortage of important issues and challenges for the government to focus on." Despite the intense opposition, Senator Conroy is pushing ahead with the filter and has revealed "a suite of transparency measures to accompany the policy and ensure people can have faith in the RC content list", a spokeswoman said. "The government does not support Refused Classification material being available on the internet. This material includes child sexual abuse imagery, bestiality, sexual violence and detailed instruction in crime," she said. |
Hamilton, Ont. – Ontario University Athletics announced today that the Queen's University football team will forfeit the results of their first two games in the 2014 regular season due to the participation of an ineligible player. The eligibility violation was verified today and Queen's immediately reported it to the CIS and OUA. The cause was academic ineligibility of a single player. The violation is categorized as a Level 2 infraction in the CIS eligibility policies and results in a series of automatic sanctions, including a forfeiture of league games in which the player participated, monetary fines, probation, a comprehensive review and the possibility of other discretionary sanctions. "We are profoundly disappointed for our team, our student-athletes and program staff," says Leslie Dal Cin, Director, Athletics & Recreation, Queen's University. "We regret very much that this has happened, and the impact it will have on our team. We are committed to supporting the team moving forward and complying with the sanctions as defined by the CIS and OUA." The team's win against Windsor on Sept. 1st will be removed and will now stand as a loss with the score of 1-0. The Sept. 6 game score in Queen's loss against Ottawa (30-37) stands. All team and player statistics remain in place with the exception of the ineligible player who will not be able to play for the rest of the season. Queen's postseason eligibility is not affected. "This is a very unfortunate situation, and the players are obviously disappointed," says Head Coach Pat Sheahan. "But we stand together as a team and we will put this behind us and focus on the games ahead." Queen's Athletics & Recreation continually checks the eligibility of 1,000 athletes each year and has done so for more than 15 years with no previous eligibility infractions. The Vice-Provost and Dean of Student Affairs has initiated a review of the Department's eligibility processes. Director, Athletics & Recreation, Leslie Dal Cin will be available to the media Sept. 10 between 6:00-7:00pm by phone. Please contact Shawn MacDonald to coordinate an interview. Head coach Pat Sheahan will be available to the media on Thursday, September 11 to discuss the upcoming Queen's Football game against the Western Mustangs. The availability will take place beginning at noon in the Alumni Lounge at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (284 Earl St.) on Queen's campus. Media inquiries: Shawn MacDonald Sports Information Officer 613.533.6000 x 36990 |
In Florence, it can be exceedingly difficult to find a taxi. This is unsurprising, given that Italy allows its taxi drivers to control the number of taxis on the streets of Italian cities. To them, there's a fixed pie of revenue, and allowing more taxis would merely ensure every driver a smaller slice. The notion that more taxis might lead to more business, and more employment for taxi drivers, and more convenience for shoppers, and therefore more money being spent in Florence's economy, never enters their heads. They aren't terribly interested in the benefits of competition. Similarly, Canadian retailers want to make damned sure their privileged access to Canadian consumers remains undisturbed by competition from outside the country. And, like the Italian taxi drivers, they're counting on government to ensure that. If a Canadian buys something worth more than $20 Cdn from a U.S. website, a federal customs agent will intercept it, open it, delay it, add federal and provincial sales taxes, and, depending on the origin of the merchandise, perhaps pile on some duty charges. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) There is a hot fight going on at the moment in Ottawa over Canada's so-called de minimis level – the threshold below which goods can enter the country tax- and duty-free. Since 1985, it has been $20 Cdn, the most restrictive level in the developed world. It might as well be zero. By contrast, the de minimis level in the United States, our largest trading partner and a nation with which we nominally have free trade, is $800 US. That means an American consumer can order an expensive piece of clothing from Canada, or anywhere else in the world, and expect it to sail unimpeded through U.S. Customs and arrive a few days later, without a cent added to the purchase price. But for anyone living on this side of the world's longest undefended economic barrier … sorry, border ... the prices on American and other foreign websites are just imaginary. If a Canadian orders something priced at $100, it's entirely possible the actual cost will be double that or more once taxes, duty, and parasitic customs broker fees are tacked on. Pros and cons The Retail Council of Canada, which represents Canadian merchants, is anxious to preserve that state of affairs. The council actually makes a compelling argument about fairness. Canadian retailers must impose 13 per cent in federal-provincial sales tax on any purchase, so why should businesses based outside Canada have the huge advantage of shipping into Canada tax-free? The council's opponents, a coalition of American and Canadian businesses and e-commerce players, have a pretty compelling reply. First of all, there is no consistency at the Canadian border. Make a quick shopping trip to an American border town, and you will be charged only sales tax on your return, or just waved on through with no charge at all, if customs agents are busy. There are fewer charges for Canadians who actually cross the border to shop in the U.S. (John Fitzhugh/Associated Press) If you've been out of the country 24 hours, you can bring back $200 worth of goods without paying anything. If you've been gone 48 hours, the limit goes up to $800. (The Retail Council issued dire warnings about changes to those limits when they were raised in 2012, too.) Furthermore, they argue, while couriers like FedEx observe the letter of the law, turning all shipments over to customs brokers and passing on taxes and fees to the customer, Canada Post often simply ignores the rules, because following them is too much expense and fuss. Then there's the fact that the government actually loses money collecting taxes and duties on smaller purchases. A study published by the C.D. Howe Institute last spring concluded that by not raising the de minimis level to, say, $80, Ottawa is effectively spending about $166 million to collect $39 million in revenue. Which means the government is actually paying to discourage cross-border commerce. That affects not only consumers, but Canadian businesses that order supplies from the States. It makes the border more sclerotic, and navigating the rules an expensive pain. Finance Minister Bill Morneau will ultimately decide whether to raise the de minimis. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press) Ultimately, any decision on raising de minimis is up to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, who at the moment is making a big show of consulting and listening to "stakeholders." The American-led business coalition, knowing there is no chance of raising the Canadian de minimis to match the $800 American level, is now lobbying for $200. Upside for consumers But an Ottawa insider with extensive government experience in fiscal matters says the government has no interest in raising the threshold for now. It would "create a tax hemorrhage, and build in a bias to go online instead of buying retail. It would cause a shift in (Canadian) consumer behaviour, and nobody knows how to model that. Nobody can predict the revenue consequences … What's the upside, other than the obvious one for the consumer?" A very Canadian question, that one. In the U.S., where consumer spending drives the entire economy, that would be the upside. A worker gathers items for delivery from the massive warehouse floor at Amazon's distribution centre in Phoenix. (REUTERS) Besides which, isn't everyone moving to online shopping? Aren't governments encouraging it, as a means of growth? eBay Canada, a major player that lobbies on its own, seems to have lowered its de minimis target to $80. Free traders in the Liberal caucus seem more comfortable with that figure. But the Canadian Retail Council wants the current $20 engraved in iron, in perpetuity, and is maximizing pressure on members of Parliament. "We need to stand firmly against this threat," it told its members in a recent communiqué. Says Conservative MP Dan Elbas, who sits on the Commons finance committee: "I think it needs a lot more study. I've been getting a tonne of emails from constituents" on the issue. 15,000 signatures The American-led coalition has put up a website asking the Canadian public to support a $200 de minimis, and has managed to gather more than 15,000 signatures on an e-petition to Parliament. It has also commissioned a poll suggesting 58 per cent of Canadians favour such an increase. But really, Canada's consumers are notoriously supine, and the coalition hasn't generated much of an uproar. Meaning that if the protectionist door is indeed ever opened, it will likely be only by the thinnest of cracks. This, as the song says, is not America. |
Scientists from Harvard University claim that mysterious radio signals detected in outer space are likely to originate from an advanced alien civilization. A “fast radio burst” (FRB 150215) was detected on February 15, 2015 by the Parkes Telescope In Australia – and scientists say they have no idea where it came from. Thesun.co.uk reports: Harvard researchers have suggested that these fast radio bursts (FRB) are caused by alien space travel or advanced alien technology. But according to a study recent study published by Cornell University, scientists are no closer to settling the debate. “The burst was followed-up with 11 telescopes to search for radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray and neutrino emission. “Neither transient nor variable emission was found to be associated with the burst and no repeat pulses have been observed in 17.25 hours of observing,” writes Astronomer Emily Patroff in a study published by Cornell University. To put it simply, the signal discovery is the equivalent of hearing a loud bang and then turning around and finding nothing. Stargazers are left without any clues and have no idea of the direction the sound came from. Since the first discovery in 2007, FRBs have left scientists scratching their heads. All we know is that they originate from outside of our own galaxy and that one of the 22 signals repeats. There’s theories that the bursts come from massive neutron stars emitting huge rays, called pulsars. But there’s hope that it could be alien life trying to get in contact. Alien hunters at the Search for Extraterrestrials Institute (Seti) have been listening for communications for more than a year. The project is backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Dr Stephen Hawking. SETI hopes that by keeping an ear out for radio signals, life forms may get in touch. |
Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates, who is also the richest man in the world with a net worth of $75 billion per Forbes, is excited to work with another billionaire Donald Trump, and his new administration. Continue Reading Below “I don’t have a crystal ball,” he told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo. “But we have the opportunity to talk about U.S. leadership.” Especially when it comes to the U.S. government’s support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization he said. “How we continue that type of outreach and how it helps our security that we are helping those countries to be healthy and be stable,” he said. “There will be some great conversations and be some ideas about new investments that can be made.” More From Gates on FBN Bill Gates on the benefits of automation replacing labor The Gates Foundation recently joined a new $460 million global coalition to prevent epidemics. He said the focus will be on rapidly developing vaccines. Advertisement “The good news is,” he said “science has these RNA, DNA-type vaccines that you might literally in a period of months be able to create something new instead of the many years that it takes now.” 1.5 million children die each year globally from vaccine preventable diseases, according to the foundation which notes on its website that it is boosting access to immunization in 73 of the world’s poorest countries. |
× Wastewater overflows into Lake Washington; officials warn to avoid contact SEATTLE — Residents are encouraged to avoid contact with Lake Washington water near the site of a wastewater overflow that occurred Sunday afternoon. An undetermined quantity of wastewater flowed into the lake for about 20 minutes near the South Mercer Pump Station. The pump station is located at the intersection of E. Mercer Way and SE 72nd Street on Mercer Island. King County officials said the overflow from the pump station was caused by a mechanical problem during Sunday’s power outage. The issue was fixed shortly after it was reported, and the station is now operating normally. Officials said they will notify health and regulatory agencies of the spill, sample water quality and post signs warning people to avoid contact with the water over the next several days. |
It was a noble idea, in theory. The Federal Election Commission undertook an unprecedented experiment in democracy on Wednesday: It held an open-microphone hearing and invited any and all members of the public to come in unannounced and make their opinions known to the six commissioners. In practice, however, the experiment turned the FEC hearing room into something of a karaoke bar. A few of the public “witnesses” could carry a tune, but overall it was much like being stuck with strangers who had consumed too much and were singing “Summer Nights,” “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Off-key. Over and over. There was the Ron Paul intern who read a Bible verse for the commissioners. “May I remind the commission that money itself is not the issue?” he testified. “The problem is, as the Bible states in 1 Timothy 6:10, the love of money is the root of all evil.” There was the man from the Tea Party Patriots who was concerned that the FEC was attempting to regulate everything, including “what we buy at restaurants, how much water we use even in the shower,” cholesterol and toasters. Also on hand were a witness introduced as “Ms. Boring” and a political science professor from St. Mary’s College who apparently made the hearing a class field trip, for she was followed at the witness table by three St. Mary’s students. “Hi. Good morning. I’m James Campbell. I just want to say how cool it is to be speaking before you,” one young man told the commissioners. “I just moved to D.C. less than a month ago, and here I am speaking for the Federal” — he chuckled — “Election Committee, so that’s pretty cool.” “We’re so glad to have you,” replied Chairwoman Ann Ravel. The most gripping performance was turned in by a woman whose fiance died, she said, because of an antipsychotic drug that was on the market because of “dark money” in politics. “He lost 20 pounds in one month, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, had confusions, delusions, paranoid delusions, hallucinations, hopelessness and despair — and when I say hopelessness and despair, it was as if he was in the pit of hell facing Satan himself,” she testified. “His blue eyes turned black. He had nosebleeds.” “Thank you for your moving testimony,” Ravel said. Democrats had forced the idea of the open hearing as a way for the masses to show their disgust with how the wealthy are buying our elections. Republican commissioners had resisted the session, and some 32,000 public comments before Wednesday’s session were running 3-to-1 in favor of tighter campaign finance regulations. But even the Democratic commissioners didn’t seem to have anticipated how the hearing would turn out. The first several witnesses to line up were indeed opposed to the 1 percent purchasing elections. “We were carpet-bombed with negative ads,” said Glenn Conway of North Carolina. “The whole thing was sickening.” A man identified by only one name, “Sai,” complained that if you ask a 501(c)(4) where its contributions came from it “tells you to piss off.” Commissioner Caroline Hunter grimaced. But then came several witnesses worried that the FEC would try to regulate Facebook, YouTube and the like. Ravel assured them that there were no such plans. (Even if there were, the FEC is so toothless at the moment that it can’t regulate much of anything.) This semi-constructive dialogue deteriorated quickly. A woman with a heavy accent gave a difficult-to-follow homily about “fairness, freedom, justice, peace, humanity, productivity” and seemingly unrelated things. “To help you understand the social problem as I have identified,” she said, “I’ve given you six attachments, including my candidate statements. I have run for public office from local to federal since 1994, including U.S. Senate.” A man who identified himself as a D.C. lawyer warned that “the United States is rapidly descending into a Koch brothers plutocracy!” The woman who had just testified about the antipsychotic drug applauded. Next was Republican former congressman Ernest Istook, representing the Tea Party Patriots, who delivered a conspiratorial speech that wandered from health insurance to school lunches to electric bills. “Can you wrap up please?” Ravel asked. After Istook finally finished, the D.C. lawyer began to taunt him. “AstroTurf!” he said. “Started by the Koch brothers!” “You don’t even know what you’re talking about,” Istook retorted. “You’re with Sarah Palin, you psycho!” the lawyer said before storming from the room. The hearing stood in recess. Twitter: @Milbank Read more from Dana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. |
Photo: Shutterstock When it comes to fitness and weight loss, we’re a society of do-ers. You’ve got the ultramarathoners, the uber-vegans, the cleansers, the Crossfitters, the Weight Watchers and the calorie-counters, all punishing themselves in a Herculean quest for a fitter physique. Diets are tough! Workouts are tough! And if your journey’s not marked by blood, sweat and tears, you’re probably doing it wrong. Or so the diet and fitness industry would have you believe. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Not only does weight loss not have to be hard work—it can actually be no work at all. These seven simple tweaks, based on new research by Eat This, Not That!, can help even the laziest of weight-loss seekers drop serious pounds without lifting a finger. So stay in your PJs, throw on some cartoons, and feel smug about your slim-slacker status, while the rest of the suckers slave away on the treadmill. And in the meantime, let Eat This, Not That! be your total guide to weight loss, and start by snacking right with our 50 Best Snack Foods In America! Slacker Slim-Down #1 Water down your weight Are you really hungry, or are you actually just thirsty? A study in the journal Physiology & Behavior suggests that 60 percent of the time we respond to thirst, it’s by eating, instead of drinking. Even if you’re not hankering for a thirst-quencher, preloading meals with plain ol’ calorie-free water can shave hundreds of calories from your daily intake. A study published in the journal Obesity found that people who drank two cups of water before eating consumed 75 to 90 fewer calories over the course of a meal than they would otherwise. This may simply be because water is filling, but researchers note the added H20 may well be displacing calories otherwise spent on calorie-laden beverages. (By the way, not all liquids are created equal: Drinking cola is an H2No. Read our stunning report that reveals how Diet Soda Makes You Fat!) Slacker Slim-Down #2 Eat like the Japanese Hara hachi bu is a Japanese expression that means “Eat until 80% full,” which, if you put the advice to practice at every meal, translates roughly to a 300 calorie-per-day saving for the average American. Here’s how it works: It can take up to 30 minutes for the body to register satiety signals, according to research, so eating until you’re almost full, then waiting a while before you order dessert, might slash your total calorie intake dramatically. Want to really ramp up your Asian-inspired weight loss? Learn how to use chopsticks. According to a restaurant study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, healthy-weight customers were nearly 3 times more likely to use chopsticks than obese customers. Slacker Slim-Down #3 Have a snack—later About two-thirds of adults snack at least twice a day, according to a study by the U.S Department of Agriculture—a habit researchers associate with accumulation of belly fat. But you don’t have to go snackless to snack less. Just watch the clock. A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that mid-morning snackers tended to consume more throughout the day than afternoon snackers. Afternoon snacking, on the other hand, was associated with a slightly higher intake of filling-fiber and fruits and vegetables. Procrastinate—and win! AND: Strip away belly fat and lose up to 16 pounds in just 14 days—while eating the foods you love. Be among the first to try the new Zero Belly Diet, by Eat This, Not That! author David Zinczenko. Slacker Slim-Down #4 Throw on some jeans Forget the suit and tie, leave the heels at home, and take advantage of every casual Friday. A study by The American Council on Exercise suggests casual clothing, as opposed to conventional business attire, can increase physical activity levels in our daily routines. Participants in the study took an additional 491 steps, and burned 25 more calories, on days they wore denim than when wearing traditional suit wear. That may sound trivial, but the calories add up: Researchers say keeping it casual just once a week could slash 6,250 calories over the course of the year—enough to offset the average annual weight gain (0.4 to 1.8 pounds) experienced by most Americans. |
New Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto wants ties with Canada to be a priority in the country's foreign policy, rather than the on-again, off-again interest of two countries distracted by relations with the United States, Mexico's ambassador says. Ambassador Francisco Suarez Davila arrived in Ottawa a week ago with a mandate to pursue a new deepening of relations between the two countries – not just for dealing with the U.S., but also as direct trading partners, and potential diplomatic allies on the world stage. "I think I have arrived at a very opportune time. The political stars are aligned," Mr. Suarez said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. "That's the indication I have received from President Pena, to go beyond the rhetoric to really establish that Canada is a priority for Mexico's foreign policy. It's a real priority: Canada, itself, apart from the North American [regional dynamic]." Story continues below advertisement It is a simple but important signal in Canada-Mexico relations: that the two countries should see each other as important for more than just what that means in dealing with the United States. They have been trade partners in the North American Free Trade Agreement since 1993, and from time to time expressed a desire for stronger ties. But the interest has blown hot and cold. Both countries' perspectives on North America are, of course, dominated by relations with the U.S. "It's a fact of life that we have this big elephant in between. It's there. But we don't at all like the idea of an off and on approach," Mr. Suarez said. "Sort of, you know, oh now Mexico is important, but until that time, no, it's more important for us just to have a relationship with the United States." The "political stars" that Mr. Suarez refers to is that changes in both capitals are coming at the same time as Ottawa tries to re-focus Canadian foreign policy around major emerging markets, and Mr. Pena is signalling new interest in Canada. Mr. Suarez, an economist who has served as Mexico's envoy to the International Monetary Fund and to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, noted the two countries are already important to each other in economic terms, as each other's third-largest trading partners. He noted that Mexico and Canada joined together to fight protectionist U.S. meat-labelling rules, known by the acronym COOL, by challenging them at the World Trade Organization, winning a decision from a trade tribunal. "We acted together with the WTO. We've got the decision. And we're ready to act, taking possible reprisals if they don't fulfill the WTO. Common vision and common action," Mr. Suarez said. He said that Mexico and Canada can strike a similar alliance in 12-nation talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to ensure that the talks stay focused on economics and trade, and that it is not used by the U.S. to jockey with China for political influence. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Within North America, Canada and Mexico have common interests in integrating the continent's three economies, by pushing for better-aligned infrastructure – notably railways and oil-and-gas pipelines – across the continent. That, and cheap energy – from the U.S. shale-gas revolution, and extensive oil and gas in both Canada and Mexico, can lead to a revival of North American manufacturing if it's combined with integrated infrastructure and better transportation costs, he argues, leading to "the re-industrialization of these countries." For many in the United States and Canada, however, the question is whether it is Mexico, with lower labour costs, that will benefit primarily from a revival of North American manufacturing. American auto manufacturers and Canadian companies like Bombardier have built plants in Mexico to take advantage of lower wages. But Mr. Suarez argues that's a short-sighted argument. Mexico, with a young population, can offer a labour force to the U.S. and Canada, but also a market with a middle class of 50 million people. And Canadians can benefit when their companies manufacture in Mexico, he argues. "You developed Bombardier as a very successful enterprise in Canada," he said. "They are building airplane parts [in Mexico]. Those airplane parts are sent to Canada, and they integrate the Bombardier full units here. But at a cost where they can where the Bombardier planes can compete better with the Brazilian planes, or whatever." Editor's note: A earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This version is now correct. |
In May 2012, the law school at George Mason University hosted a forum billed as a “vibrant discussion” about Internet search competition. Many of the major players in the field were there — regulators from the Federal Trade Commission, federal and state prosecutors, top congressional staffers. What the guests had not been told was that the day-long academic conference was in large part the work of Google, which maneuvered behind the scenes with GMU’s Law & Economics Center to put on the event. At the time, the company was under FTC investigation over concerns about the dominance of its famed search engine, a case that threatened Google’s core business. In the weeks leading up to the GMU event, Google executives suggested potential speakers and guests, sending the center’s staff a detailed spreadsheet listing members of Congress, FTC commissioners, and senior officials with the Justice Department and state attorney general’s offices. “If you haven’t sent out the invites yet, please use the attached spreadsheet, which contains updated info,” Google legal assistant Yang Zhang wrote to Henry Butler, executive director of the law center, according to internal e-mails obtained by The Washington Post through a public records request. “If you’ve sent out the invites, would it be possible to add a few more?” Butler replied, “We’re on it!” On the day of the conference, leading technology and legal experts forcefully rejected the need for the government to take action against Google, making their arguments before some of the very regulators who would help determine its fate. The company helped put on two similar conferences at GMU around the time of the 18-month investigation, part of a broad strategy to shape the external debate around the probe, which found that Google’s search practices did not merit legal action. The behind-the-scenes machinations demonstrate how Google — once a lobbying weakling — has come to master a new method of operating in modern-day Washington, where spending on traditional lobbying is rivaled by other, less visible forms of influence. (Read the e-mails between Google and GMU officials) That system includes financing sympathetic research at universities and think tanks, investing in nonprofit advocacy groups across the political spectrum and funding pro-business coalitions cast as public-interest projects. The rise of Google as a top-tier Washington player fully captures the arc of change in the influence business. Nine years ago, the company opened a one-man lobbying shop, disdainful of the capital’s pay-to-play culture. Since then, Google has soared to near the top of the city’s lobbying ranks, placing second only to General Electric in corporate lobbying expenditures in 2012 and fifth place in 2013. The company gives money to nearly 140 business trade groups, advocacy organizations and think tanks, according to a Post analysis of voluntary disclosures by the company, which, like many corporations, does not reveal the size of its donations. That’s double the number of groups Google funded four years ago. This summer, Google will move to a new Capitol Hill office, doubling its Washington space to 55,000 square feet — roughly the size of the White House. Google’s increasingly muscular Washington presence matches its expanded needs and ambitions as it has fended off a series of executive- and legislative-branch threats to regulate its activities and well-funded challenges by its corporate rivals. Today, Google is working to preserve its rights to collect consumer data — and shield it from the government — amid a backlash over revelations that the National Security Agency tapped Internet companies as part of its surveillance programs. And it markets cloud storage and other services to federal departments, including intelligence agencies and the Pentagon. “Technology issues are a big — and growing — part of policy debates in Washington, and it is important for us to be part of that discussion,” said Susan Molinari, a Republican former congresswoman from New York who works as Google’s top lobbyist. “We aim to help policymakers understand Google’s business and the work we do to keep the Internet open and spur economic opportunity.” Molinari added, “We support associations and third parties across the political spectrum who help us get the word out — even if we don’t agree with them on 100 percent of issues.” Susan Molinari, a Republican former congresswoman from New York, works as Google’s top lobbyist in Washington. (Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Elle) As Google’s lobbying efforts have matured, the company has worked to broaden its appeal on both sides of the aisle. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt is a well-known backer of President Obama and advises the White House. Google’s lobbying corps — now numbering more than 100 — is split equally, like its campaign donations, among Democrats and Republicans. Google executives have fostered a new dialogue between Republicans and Silicon Valley, giving money to conservative groups such as Heritage Action for America and the Federalist Society. While also supporting groups on the left, Google has flown conservative activists to California for visits to its Mountain View campus and a stay at the Four Seasons Hotel. The company has also pioneered new and unexpected ways to influence decision-makers, harnessing its vast reach. It has befriended key lawmakers in both parties by offering free training sessions to Capitol Hill staffers and campaign operatives on how to use Google products that can help target voters. Through a program for charities, Google donates in-kind advertising, customized YouTube channels and Web site analytics to think tanks that are allied with the company’s policy goals. Google “fellows” — young lawyers, writers and thinkers paid by the company — populate elite think tanks such as the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the New America Foundation. To critics, Google’s investments have effectively shifted the national discussion away from Internet policy questions that could affect the company’s business practices. Groups that might ordinarily challenge the policies and practices of a major corporation are holding their fire, those critics say. “Google’s influence in Washington has chilled a necessary and overdue policy discussion about the impact of the Internet’s largest firm on the future of the Internet,” said Marc Rotenberg, a Georgetown University law professor who runs the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a watchdog and research organization. Some with deep ties to the company say that Google’s embrace of aggressive lobbying was a necessary concession to the realities of Washington. “I don’t fault Google for playing that game, in which big companies use their money to buy advocates and allies,” said Andrew McLaughlin, who served as Google’s first director of global public policy in Washington. “Given where the company is today, the fiduciary duty it has to shareholders and the way Washington works, it’s a rational judgment.” Google goes to lunch An early sign of Google’s new Washington attitude came in September 2011, when executives paid a visit to the Heritage Foundation, the stalwart conservative think tank that has long served as an intellectual hub on the right, to attend a weekly lunch for conservative bloggers. The session took place at a critical juncture for the company. Days earlier, Schmidt had endured a rare and unnerving appearance on Capitol Hill, where he was lectured by a Republican senator who accused the company of skewing search results to benefit its own products and hurt competitors. The FTC antitrust inquiry was underway. And, in what Google saw as a direct threat to the open Internet, major lobbies such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Motion Picture Association of America were mounting a legislative campaign to place restrictions on the sale of pirated music and movies. The effort was getting bipartisan traction in the House and the Senate. Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt testifies before a Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee in September 2011. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Inside Google’s Washington headquarters, a handful of lobbyists were crafting what they called the “Republican strategy” to defeat the legislation. Their approach: build conservative opposition based on the right’s distaste for regulation. They also seized on an obscure provision that they told Republicans would be a boon for trial lawyers, a Democratic constituency. As the campaign took shape, there was a building sense within the company that it needed to beef up its firepower on the Hill. That fall, Google’s first Washington lobbyist, a computer scientist and lawyer named Alan Davidson, a Democrat, would announce his resignation, replaced a few months later by the former GOP lawmaker, Molinari. In their visit to Heritage that day, Google officials were eager to make new friends. Their challenge was instantly clear. “In 2008, your CEO campaigned for Barack Obama,” said Mike Gonzalez, Heritage’s vice president for communications, according to a video of the event. “. . . As a company, you’re really identified with this administration from the beginning. And you come here and you’re like a mix of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek.” Adam Kovacevich, then a member of Google’s policy team, responded by stressing the company’s interest in building new alliances. “One of the things we’ve recognized is that no company can get anything done in Washington without partnerships on both sides of the aisle,” he said. He noted the recent hiring of Lee Carosi Dunn, one of several former top aides to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) brought on by the company. Dunn, addressing the audience, promised “a lot of reach-out to Republicans.” “I think it’s another lesson young companies that come to Washington learn — you can’t put all your marbles in one basket,” Dunn said. Referring to the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, Dunn added: “Look, even Bill Kristol was walking around wearing Google glasses. We’re making strides!” The Google-Heritage relationship soon blossomed — with benefits for both. A few weeks after the blogger session, Heritage researcher James L. Gattuso penned a critique of the antitrust investigation into Google, praising the company as “an American success story.” That winter, Heritage joined the chorus of groups weighing in against the anti-piracy legislation. As the bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act, appeared to gain steam in the GOP-led House, Gattuso wrote a piece warning of “unintended negative consequences for the operation of the Internet and free speech.” The legislation, he said, could disrupt the growth of technology. Gattuso said he came to his position independently and was not lobbied by Google. After Gattuso’s piece went live, Heritage Action, the think tank’s sister advocacy organization, quickly turned the argument into a political rallying cry. In terms aimed at tea party conservatives, the group cast the bill as “another government power grab.” In mid-January 2012, Heritage Action designated the legislation a “key vote” it would factor into its congressional race endorsement decisions — heightening the pressure on Republicans. The next day, leading Internet sites, including Wikipedia, went dark as part of an online blackout protesting the bills. Google turned its iconic home page into a political platform for the first time, urging users to sign a petition against the legislation. Seven million people added their names, and many of them added their e-mails, creating a valuable activist list for Google to mobilize then and in later fights. As congressional offices were flooded with phone calls and e-mail protests, support for the legislation crumbled. Within days, both the House and Senate versions of the bill were shelved and Hill veterans were left marveling at the ability of Google and its allies to muster such a massive retail response. For Google and Heritage, the legislative victory was the beginning of a close relationship. A few months later, Google Ideas and the Heritage Foundation co-hosted an event focused on the role the Internet could play in modernizing Cuba, featuring Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Google Ideas director Jared Cohen. The following year, a new name popped up on Google’s list of groups it supports financially: Heritage Action. GMU conferences Facing a broad and potentially damaging FTC probe, Google found an eager and willing ally in George Mason University’s Law & Economics Center. The center is among the academic programs at universities such as Harvard and Stanford that have benefited from Google’s largesse. For the past several years, the free-market-oriented law center has received an annual donation from the company, a grant that totaled $350,000 last year, according to the school. Google’s relationship with the law center proved helpful in the summer of 2011 as speculation mounted that the FTC was going to launch an antitrust investigation of the tech giant. The company’s rivals, including Microsoft and Yelp, were aggressively pressing arguments that Google was exploiting its dominance in the search business. On June 16, 2011, Google and the law center put on the first of three academic conferences at the GMU law school’s Arlington County campus, all focusing on Internet search competition. It was eight days before the company announced it had received formal notification it was under FTC investigation. Google was listed as a co-sponsor of the day-long forum, but some participants were still struck by the number of speakers who took a skeptical view of the need for antitrust enforcement against the company, according to people in attendance. The keynote address was by Google engineer Mark Paskin, who delivered a lunchtime speech titled “Engineering Search.” A few days later, Christopher Adams, an economist in the FTC’s antitrust division who later worked on the Google investigation, e-mailed Butler, the law center’s director, to thank him for putting on the conference. “I think it was one of the best policy conferences that I’ve been too [sic],” Adams wrote, praising Paskin’s talk as “excellent.” Adams declined to comment for this article, referring questions to the FTC press office. FTC spokesman Justin Cole said the agency’s staffers “are required to adhere to established federal government ethics rules and guidelines. Attendance and participation in the 2011 and 2012 GMU conferences by our staff adhered to these guidelines.” As the agency’s investigation stretched into its second year, the staff and professors at GMU’s law center were in regular contact with Google executives, who supplied them with the company’s arguments against antitrust action and helped them get favorable op-ed pieces published, according to the documents obtained by The Post. The school and Google staffers worked to organize a second academic conference focused on search. This time, however, Google’s involvement was not publicly disclosed. Months before the event, Zhang, the Google legal assistant, e-mailed Chrysanthos Dellarocas, a professor in the Information Systems Department at Boston University’s School of Management, to suggest he participate. Dellarocas had received $60,000 in 2011 from Google to study the impact of social networks on search. “We’d love for you . . . to submit and present this paper, if you are interested and willing,” she wrote. When GMU officials later told Dellarocas they were planning to have him participate from the audience, he responded that he was under the impression from “the folks at Google who have funded our research” that they wanted him to showcase his work at the event. He said he wanted “to be in compliance with our sponsor’s expectations.” Dellarocas, who had a schedule conflict and ultimately did not attend, told The Post that while Google occasionally checked on his progress, the company did not have any sway over his research. “At no point did they have any interference with the substance of my work,” he said. Even as Google executives peppered the GMU staff with suggestions of speakers and guests to invite to the event, the company asked the school not to broadcast its involvement. “It may seem like Google is overwhelming the conference,” Zhang fretted in an e-mail to the center’s administrative coordinator, Jeffrey Smith, after reviewing the confirmed list of attendees a few weeks before the event. She asked Smith to mention “only a few Googlers.” Smith was reassuring. “We will certainly limit who we announce publicly from Google,” he replied. A strong contingent of FTC economists and lawyers were on hand for the May 16, 2012, session, whose largely pro-Google tone took some participants aback. “By my count, out of about 20 panelists and speakers, there were 31 / 2 of us who thought the FTC might have a case,” said Allen Grunes, a former government antitrust lawyer who served on a panel and described the conference as “Google boot camp.” Grunes said he was not aware of Google’s role organizing the event until informed of it by a Post reporter. Daniel D. Polsby, dean of GMU’s School of Law, which houses the center, said that while Google provided suggestions, the agenda and speakers were determined by university staffers. “I think it would misrepresent this conference to suggest that it was a Google event,” he said, adding that the law center discloses on its Web site the support it gets from Google and other corporations. Google declined to comment about the conferences. In January 2013, after an investigation that spanned more than a year and a half, the FTC settled the case with Google, which agreed to give its rivals more access to patents and make it easier for advertisers to use other ad platforms. But when it came to the charges that Google biased its search results to promote its own products, the five FTC commissioners all voted to close the investigation, saying there was no evidence the company’s practices were harming consumers. Jon Leibowitz, then the chairman of the agency, said in an interview that the FTC was not affected by Google’s campaign, noting that the company’s rivals were waging a parallel effort on the other side. “It didn’t bother me that a lot of people were building events around the possibility of the FTC investigation,” said Leibowitz, who has since left the FTC. “That’s sort of life in the big city, and both sides were doing it.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) discusses the U.S. economy in a March speech at a Jack Kemp Foundation forum at Google’s Washington offices. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/For The Washington Post) Attendees listen to Rubio’s speech. While also supporting groups on the left, Google has courted conservative groups and lawmakers in recent years. (T.J. Kirkpatrick/For The Washington Post) NSA fallout On a February night this year, Schmidt sat down with a Washington audience far friendlier than the panel of senators who had grilled him nearly three years earlier. Addressing a dinner of journalists and scholars at the libertarian Cato Institute, Schmidt received applause and lots of head-nodding as he declared, “We will not collaborate with the NSA.” Cato was not always in sync with Google’s policy agenda. In previous years, the think tank’s bloggers and scholars had been sharply critical of the company’s support for government rules limiting the ways providers such as Comcast and Verizon could charge for Internet services. But, like many institutions in Washington, Cato has since found common ground with Google. And the think tank has benefited from the company’s investments, receiving $480,000 worth of in-kind “ad words” from Google last year, according to people familiar with the donation. Schmidt’s message to Cato that night in February reflected the current focus of Google’s energy — containing the fallout from revelations by NSA leaker Edward Snowden. As the public’s outrage has grown, the tech giant has tried to keep the focus on limiting government surveillance, not on the data collection done by private companies. A White House review of those issues is expected to be released this coming week. A campaign against government spying, meanwhile, is in high gear, drawing together some unexpected bedfellows. The American Civil Liberties Union, Heritage Action, Americans for Tax Reform and the Center for Democracy & Technology have formed a coalition calling for the government to obtain a probable-cause warrant before getting access to e-mails and other electronic data. The coalition, Digital 4th, is funded by Google. Alice Crites contributed to this report. |
Claude Émile Jean-Baptiste Litre is a fictional character created in 1978 by Kenneth Woolner of the University of Waterloo to justify the use of a capital L to denote litres. The International System of Units usually only permits the use of a capital letter when a unit is named after a person.[1] It is often difficult to distinguish between the character "l" and the digit "1" in certain fonts or handwriting, and therefore both the lower-case (l) and the upper-case (L) are allowed as the first letter in litre. The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology now recommends the use of the uppercase letter L,[2] a practice that is also widely followed in Canada and Australia. Woolner perpetrated the April Fools' Day hoax in the April 1978 issue of "CHEM 13 News", a newsletter concerned with chemistry for school teachers. According to the hoax, Claude Litre was born on 12 February 1716, the son of a manufacturer of wine bottles. During Litre's extremely distinguished fictional scientific career, he purportedly proposed a unit of volume measurement that was incorporated into the International System of Units after his death in 1778. The hoax was mistakenly printed as fact in the IUPAC journal Chemistry International, and subsequently retracted.[3] |
On a 32-acre (13 ha) site in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a radically new type of metropolis is taking shape. Mcity, as it is called, is a place where transportation consists solely of robotic vehicles that steer themselves without a human at the wheel. The driverless cars must navigate several miles of an urban street grid—complete with traffic lights, intersections, bike lanes, pedestrian crosswalks, and tunnels—and rely upon software, wireless communications, and sensor technology to get to and from their destinations while avoiding collisions with pedestrians and other robotic vehicles. Granted, Mcity is just a simulation; the buildings are just facades, and the inhabitants who unexpectedly step off curbs are just mechanized mannequins. “It’s pretty minimalistic,” admits Jonathan Levine, a University of Michigan professor of architecture and urban planning. “You wouldn’t mistake it for a movie set, let alone a real city.” But even so, researchers at the university’s Mobility Transformation Center have designed the facility to offer a realistic test of how driverless cars might function amid the daunting complexity of a dense urban environment. It is preparation for a future that is fast approaching. According to a study released in April by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), major automakers such as General Motors are already rushing to add gadgetry that would give cars some ability to pilot themselves in low-speed, stop-and-start traffic-jam conditions or in single lanes on highways, or even to find parking spaces and pull into them without human help. Meanwhile, they and others—including technology giant Google—have been working to develop “level four” automation, in which cars are capable of taking over all the critical functions from human drivers. BCG predicts that the first fully autonomous passenger vehicles will hit the market by 2025, enabling humans to sit back and relax while a robotic chauffeur drives them to their destination—and returns later to pick them up at the curb. That could be the starting date of a revolution that many observers think could alter the urban landscape as profoundly as the electric streetcar and the Interstate Highway System once did. “I think it’s going to be the most important transformational change in 100 years,” says Randall K. Rowe, chairman of Green Courte Partners, an Illinois-based private equity real estate investment firm. “It’s going to change the way we get around, the way we transport goods, and how we look at land use.” Experts in a variety of fields—from technology to architecture and real estate—believe that driverless cars will be just the start of the revolution. They will combine with other advances in automated transportation, ranging from self-driving buses and trucks, to robotic motorcycles and small drone aircraft that someday may deliver packages, and, in combination, altering practically everything, including commuting patterns, the price of land, the mix of land uses, and even the design and construction of buildings. A Boost to Walkable Urbanism Not everyone, however, is eagerly anticipating a driverless future. Some worry, for instance, that robotic cars will not be safe. But autonomous vehicle advocates point to Google’s experience, in which its experimental vehicles have traveled 1.7 million miles (2.7 million km) on regular roads, with just 11 minor accidents—all of which were caused by human drivers in other cars, according to an article by program director Chris Urmson. A 2013 report by the Eno Center for Transportation, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank, predicted that driverless vehicles would make roads dramatically safer by eliminating the human factors that cause 93 percent of crashes. “A human has two eyes,” says former San Jose, California, director of transportation Hans Larsen, who has studied the technology and its applications. “A vehicle will have 20 sensors. It can detect pedestrians and puppy dogs. It can see in the dark. It doesn’t get tired or drive drunk.” A 2014 RAND Corporation report pointed to another potential problem cited by critics of driverless cars: Because they will free people to use their commuting time to work, watch movies, or even exercise in the back of a driverless vehicle, RAND predicted that they might encourage people to live farther out from urban cores and commute longer distances, thus greatly increasing both sprawl and congestion. That view is shared by skeptics such as former Vancouver city planner Brent Toderian. “It’s entirely possible that driverless cars will do more harm than good,” he says. “If they’re privately owned and you can summon them to pick you up and drop you off and then go park someplace, that actually will result in more trips on the streets, and more congestion—unlike things such as transit, walking, and bicycling.” But proponents say that cities will benefit if driverless technology leads a transition away from ownership to a shared model. They envision something akin to a robotic version of Uber, which would allow city dwellers to use smartphones to summon cars from a driverless fleet that continually circulates throughout the city, or which waits on the periphery of neighborhoods. Carlo Ratti, an architect and engineer who is director of SENSEable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), says studies indicate that sharing of driverless vehicles could result in “a city in which everyone can travel on demand with just one-fifth of the number of cars in use today.” That, in turn, would mean shorter travel times, less congestion, and a smaller environmental impact. Some people also envision urban cores in which only driverless vehicles would be allowed. Larsen says getting rid of distracted, impatient human drivers in favor of robots would further walkable urbanism. “You’ll be able to move around with more confidence on foot or on a bike,” he says. “And if you have to go out of the neighborhood, you can just call up a car.” Costa Samaras, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, envisions autonomous vehicle zones in dense urban cores that allow drop-offs between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and then convert to pedestrian-only thoroughfares until evening. Such zones would not necessarily need bollards to block traffic, since the rules could be transmitted to cars electronically, he says. Others say that driverless transportation could also make the flow of goods and services into and within urban neighborhoods faster and more efficient. Samaras envisions the development of motorcycle-sized robotic pods, made of lightweight plastic or carbon fiber, that could deliver packages, reducing the need for bulky, cumbersome United Parcel Service and FedEx trucks. Others envision repurposing shared-car fleets as delivery vehicles at night, when they are in less demand, or having shops outfitted to handle automated pickups of products, so that people could send driverless vehicles to pick up their pharmacy prescriptions or dry cleaning. Marcus Martinez, an architect with the Houston-based design firm Alloybuild, envisions aerial drones, similar to the experimental robotic copter for which Amazon is seeking a patent, making deliveries to windows on the upper floors of high rises. “If people are worried that the packages might be dropped, areas vertically associated with the drop-off could be landscaped, so that nobody could walk under them,” he says. Larsen cautions, however, that driverless deliveries could exacerbate congestion. “We don’t want this to turn into a system that somebody uses to order a cupcake from a store five blocks away,” he says. Some regulation will be needed, he says. Repurposed Parking Space Perhaps the most profound effect of driverless vehicles would be to drastically reduce the need for parking structures and surface lots, which today take up a third of land inside cities, according to Rowe. Some of the garages and underground structures could be converted into storage spaces for urban dwellers who live in micro units, while the unneeded surface lots would be available for commercial or residential development or green space. “You could solve the affordable housing problem,” Rowe says. “Right now, the value of land is so high that it’s too costly to create [affordable housing]. But suddenly, you’d have all this land that you could take back and repurpose.” If city governments can be persuaded to ease parking requirements for developers as a result of shifting to driverless vehicles, the cost of erecting buildings could be reduced by more than 20 percent, says Stephen Conschafter, a Washington, D.C.–based urban planner and master-plan designer. The result could be an urban construction boom—and more room for a wider mix of uses. “Repurposing parking is likely to increase the quantity as well as the variety of people and businesses in the urban core,” predicts Issi Romem, an economist for BuildZoom, a San Francisco construction database startup. “Greater scale and variety could, in turn, make the place more attractive to a large group of people who crave a walkable urban lifestyle, boosting residential demand.” “Right now, parking is a huge drag on developers’ creativity,” Levine explains. “It’s a big drag on mixed use because it separates people from land uses.” In addition, he says that a switch to shared driverless vehicles—in which transportation would become a variable, per-trip expense rather than a fixed investment—would change the economics in a way that would encourage people to stay closer to home and shop locally—and add dining and entertainment to their shopping experience. Changes in Building The transition to robotic vehicles also could profoundly influence architects, developers, builders, and urban planners, allowing them to reimagine everything from the structures they build to the flow and function of streets and spaces around them. Since driverless cars would be pulling up to the curb to let off passengers, coming up with a way to speed up that process will be critical for preventing traffic jams in front of buildings. John Eddy, chairman of the North and South American infrastructure practice for the global design and engineering firm Arup, envisions ground floors becoming more porous, with numerous entrances on every side of the building. If lightweight, minimalist robotic pod-vehicles ever become commonplace, Eddy envisions an even more exotic solution—drive-in entrances equipped with car-sized elevators that haul passengers to their floor, and then ride back down to the street and drive off. “It would be ideal, since they don’t have to park the car in the building,” he explains. At the same time, robotics might enable the construction of trickier, more flamboyant buildings. Carnegie Mellon University urban designer Mitchell Sipus envisions office or residential towers being fashioned from three-dimensional printed parts and assembled by aerial drones equipped with robotic arms. “There are things you can design now but can’t construct, because they’re too difficult or expensive,” he says. “But drones may make that possible.” The streets around those structures also could be transformed by automated vehicles. Alloybuild’s Martinez, along with his colleague Amna Ansari, have created a demonstration project called Shuffle City, which reimagines car-centric Houston reshaped into a matrix of more compact “urban cells” connected by rings of roadways for driverless vehicles. Heavy, thick road surfaces may become unnecessary, he says, because vehicles would be made of lighter composite materials; crash avoidance technology would reduce or eliminate the need for a lot of steel reinforcement in the vehicles. Traffic lights also could become a thing of the past, with the advent of smart intersections such as MIT’s experimental DriveWAVE, which would manage the flow of networked vehicles so that they slip past one another without coming to a stop. Driverless vehicles’ ability to detect and avoid pedestrians could allow planners to redesign urban streets to be more suitable for walking and more aesthetically pleasing. “Instead of blacktop, you could have a more European style, with cobblestones,” Conschafter says. Rowe suggests a more exotic possibility: Because robotic cars could be networked to move efficiently in smaller spaces, “they don’t really even have to be above ground at all,” he says. “You might be able to put the roads underground, and then take the street surface and turn it completely into walkable, human-scale urbanity. You could put in more green space, and create a closer connection to nature, with pocket parks, outdoor recreation space, and other things that would help make the densification of cities more pleasant.” Experts describe such visions for a driverless future with an important caveat: They say it is critical for urban governments to work with developers and technologists to make sure that zoning and other regulations are revamped to allow for optimal benefits from innovation. “Parking requirements, for example, won’t change automatically,” Levine says. “When it gets to city councils, there may be a lot of political opposition, from constituencies who still favor the old lower-density development that promotes driving.” Given the decades-long life cycle of buildings, Rowe hopes to see governments provide incentives for developers to start preparing now for the driverless future. One such idea, for instance, would be for regulators to ease parking requirements slightly if a developer designs parking structures or lots so that they can be more easily converted to other uses, rather than for maximal capacity. “None of us really knows how fast this change is going to come about,” he explains. “But we need to be ready for it.” Patrick J. Kiger is a Washington, D.C.–area journalist, blogger, and author. |
A graduate student and his team of researchers have turned the chemistry world on its ear by becoming the first ever to prove that tiny interlocked molecules can function inside solid materials, laying the important groundwork for the future creation of molecular machines. “Until now, this has only ever been done in solution,” explained Chemistry & Biochemistry PhD student Nick Vukotic, lead author on a front page article recently published in the June issue of the journal Nature Chemistry. “We’re the first ones to put this into a solid state material.” This schematic shows how the various elements assemble themselves into mechanically interlocked molecules. The material Vukotic is referring to is UWDM-1, or University of Windsor Dynamic Material, a powdery substance that the team made which contains rotaxane molecules and binuclear copper centers. The rotaxane molecules, which resemble a wheel around the outside of an axle, were synthesised in their lab. The group found that heating of these rotaxane molecules with a copper source resulted in the formation of a crystalline material which contained structured arrangement of the rotaxane molecules, spaced out by the binuclear copper centers. “Basically, they self-assemble in to this arrangement,” said Vukotic, who works under the tutelage of chemistry professor Steve Loeb. Other team members include professor Rob Schurko, and post-doctoral fellows Kristopher Harris and Kelong Zhu. Heating the material causes the wheels to rapidly rotate around the axles, while cooling the material causes the wheels to stop, he said. The entire process can’t be viewed with a microscope, so the motion was confirmed in Dr. Schurko’s lab using a process called nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. “You can actually measure the motion and you can do it unambiguously by placing an isotopic tag on the ring,” explained Dr. Harris, who helped oversee that verification process. Although the team admits their findings are still very much a proof of principle, they insist that molecules in solid materials can be manipulated to form switches and machines. This could be extremely significant and could find future applications in the fields of computer storage, data transfer or controlling the electronic properties of materials at the molecular level. “Important metal organic frameworks like this are typically named after the university in which they were created,” Vukotic said of the material’s name. “It also emphasizes that this material is a prototype for other dynamic materials to come.” Since the Nature Chemistry article appeared, a number of leading chemistry publications around the world have been reporting on the team’s findings, Dr. Loeb said. “It’s a starting point,” said Loeb, who first imagined the concept about 10 years ago. “It’s a blueprint, but it’s the first demonstration of motion in a solid state. Normally when you make a new material you’re done. You can’t reorient molecules in a solid state.” |
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has found herself on the ropes after a disastrous series of failures during the Freddie Gray trials, but she’s apparently not ready to give up on her efforts to put police officers in jail. She’s hitting the media circuit defending her new series of “reform” proposals which are described as efforts to hold law enforcement more accountable and bolster relations between police and the community. There’s no question that there are serious opportunities for improvement in that area, but a couple of her proposals are drawing justifiable skepticism. In one measure which would take effect under her plans, police would be severely limited or completely barred from opting for a bench trial rather than a full hearing before a jury. (CBS Local, Baltimore) Baltimore City State’s Attorney is calling for major changes in investigations of police misconduct… Mosby wants the power to limit officers from choosing bench trials–after the strategy proved successful for the officers she charged in Freddie Gray’s death. It’s one of several changes the state’s attorney is asking for in police misconduct cases. Gray’s death is still having a huge impact on the state’s attorney, but critics say getting the reforms she wants will be difficult. Mosby signaled Thursday, she’s willing to fight for them. And there’s more beyond just that. Amazingly, Mosby would like to equip her own office’s investigators with the tools and weapons of cops and allow them to make arrests themselves. She says the police department should not be investigating its own officers and wants an independent investigative team that includes a member of the civilian review board and a member of her office. She also wants to give her own investigators police powers. “Such powers include the ability to issue warrants, make arrests, and carry firearms,” said Mosby. She wants to hand out guns, body armor, handcuffs and warrants to a group of lawyers? And excuse me if I appear to be jumping to conclusions here, but I somehow doubt she’s sending the State’s Attorney Office investigators out there to track down rapists and murderers. Clearly she wants them to be able to march out onto the streets and begin arresting cops. When was the last time you saw a police officer charged with misconduct run from the law? This has the smell of a juicy media photo-op far more than any needed enhancement to law enforcement arrest protocols. In an interview with Afro, Mosby defended her plans from the immediate criticism they received. When asked about the criticism against changing the process for bench trials in Maryland, Mosby said, “We’re already doing this federally. The fact of the matter is that people keep asking ‘how are you taking away defendant’s rights to a bench trial?’ The question should be ‘why are we taking the community’s right to be a part of the criminal justice system.” When pressed on why the average citizen would be in favor of this change Mosby asserted, that as an official elected by the community, “…the state has a right as well, to go and put cases before the community. The community has the right to be a part of the criminal justice system and so if you want to waive your constitutional right then we should have a say just like they do federally.” Pardon my saying, but that’s not even remotely the reality of bench trials. When it comes to “rights” in this case, they all fall on the side of the defendant, be they a police officer or a gang leader accused of murder. They have the right to a trial by a jury of their peers. That doesn’t mean that they are required to have one. The citizens are entitled to know that a trial was held and justice was served. The decision as to whether or not one wishes a trial by jury is made by the defendant. And when a police officer is facing a court case where the potential jury pool has been overwhelmingly tainted by media coverage of the event in question, it’s understandable that they might want to leave it in the hands of a professional jurist. The idea that the option of a bench trial should be removed is not only legally dubious, but an insult to the entire judiciary. This was a position staked out quickly by the Fraternal Order of Police. (Emphasis added) Fraternal Order of Police President Gene Ryan, in a statement, said, “Mrs. Mosby takes the position that a criminal defendant, police or citizen, should not have the right to request a bench trial to determine their guilt or innocence, when criminal charges are placed against them. Mrs. Mosby points to the inability to convict any officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. Every judge in the State of Maryland, and particularly those Judges assigned to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, should be offended at this position because what Mrs. Mosby is saying is that she does not believe that Judges who hear cases, non-jury, would do so in a fair and impartial manner nor can they render a verdict solely based on evidence presented. What Mrs. Mosby is doing is questioning the integrity of every Judge in the State of Maryland particularly those Judges in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.” It’s been clear for some time that many municipal police departments are in need of improvements, both in their best practices and community relations. A lot of work is being done on that front, including the widespread mandatory use of body cameras and a return to foot patrols where the cops can really get to know the people on their beat who they are assigned to serve and protect. But what Mosby is suggesting doesn’t sound like process improvements. It smacks of retribution following her embarrassing performance during the Freddie Gray trials. |
Published 15.08.2018 16:14 GMT+11 | Author Adam Steiss The dates and matchups for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games ice hockey events have been set with the release of both the men’s and women’s tournament schedules. Click below to access the full schedule for both tournaments: MEN’S ICE HOCKEY SCHEDULE WOMEN’S ICE HOCKEY SCHEDULE The Winter Olympic Games, to be held in PyeongChang, South Korea, officially kicks off with the Opening Ceremony on 9th February. The men’s and women’s tournament games will be split up between the newly-constructed Gangneung Hockey Centre, which can hold up ot 10,000 spectators, and the 6,000 capacity Kwandong Hockey Centre. Click here to access the PyeongChang 2018 ticket platform The Gangneung arena will host the majority of the men’s hockey games, as well as both gold medal games. Kwandong arena will house all the women’s games with the exception of the semi-finals and the final. Women’s Ice Hockey Event The puck drops on the first ice hockey game at PyeongChang 2018 on 10 February, with a women’s game between Japan and Sweden, set for 16:40 local time (GMT+9) at the Kwandong Hockey Centre. Tournament hosts Korea follow up with an evening game against Switzerland at 21:10. 2014 gold medallist Canada’s women’s national team will play its first game on 11 February, taking on Russia. They will close out the preliminary round against their perennial rivals the United States on 15 February. Team USA will come into the Olympic tournament as the favourites, having won every IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship since losing to Canada in a thrilling overtime gold medal final at Sochi 2014. The women’s gold medal game is scheduled for 22 February at 13:10 at the Guangneung Hockey Centre. The bronze medal game happens the day before at 16:40 in Kwandong. Men’s Ice Hockey Event The men’s tournament will open a few days after the women’s event, beginning on 14 February with two Group B matchups: Slovakia versus Russia and USA versus Slovenia, both happening at 21:10 in the Gangneung and Kwandong Hockey Centres respectively. 2014 bronze medallists Finland take on Germany on Day 2 of the men’s tournament. Korea’s men’s national team, which along with the women’s team will make its first-ever appearance on Olympic ice, faces the Czech Republic in its tournament opener on the same day. Team Canada, also defending champions in the men’s category, opens the men’s event against Switzerland. 2017 IIHf Ice Hockey World Champions Sweden get their Olympic campaign started on the same day with a Group C game against Norway. As in past Olympics, the Games will close out with the men’s tournament gold medal game, taking on the final day of competition on 25 February at 13:10 local time, preceded by the bronze medal game the day before at 21:10. Back to Overview |
ISLAMABAD: A team of the Federal Investigation Agency's cyber crime unit entered local IT company Axact's Islamabad and Karachi offices on Tuesday and collected manuals, records and computers as evidence in the ongoing investigation of a global fake degrees scam. TV reports quoted FIA Deputy Director Tahir Tanveer as saying that the Axact offices in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have been sealed and that around 22 employees of the IT company were taken into custody by the Islamabad investigating team. Kamran Ataullah, a deputy director at the Federal Investigation Agency in Karachi, said the investigation would not be limited to the contents of the Times article. “We’ve issued a letter to them, and we’re looking for details of their database, employees, what websites and equipment they’re using,” he said while talking to NYT. Meanwhile, a team of the FIA's corporate crime unit also visited Axact’s Karachi offices and questioned their employees, DawnNews quoted FIA sources as saying. No one has been arrested or taken into custody at the Karachi office as yet, they added. Employees, particularly IT employees, were not allowed to leave the office premises during the investigations. FIA officers swooped on the Karachi headquarters of the company, seizing equipment and records and expelling employees from the building, a member of the raiding party told on the condition of anonymity. State Department reacts to Axact fiasco US State Department, while reacting to allegations levelled against Axact in a New York Times article, said it had made no agreement on document attestation with the said company, DawnNews reported. The state department said it keeps providing relevant information on its website to protect citizens from scams. It further added that investigations on the company’s practices are currently underway in Pakistan. Earlier, action against Axact kicked off after Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan ordered an inquiry into a story published by The New York Times that claimed the company was issuing fake degrees as part of a massive, global scam. An interior ministry spokesman said Nisar had directed the FIA to submit a report after a thorough investigation. The minister in his directive also said that the FIA was to determine whether the contents of the NYT story were true and whether the company was involved in any illegal business which may bring a "bad name" to Pakistan. FIA corporate crime circle has issued notice to summon Axact’s chief Shoaib Ahmed Shaikh on Thursday, DawnNews reported. The officials have also asked the company authorities to present their registration certificate, tax return details and the details of degrees issued so far, it added. The detailed NYT report titled "Fake Diplomas, Real Cash: Pakistani Company Axact Reaps Millions" and written by New York Times Pakistan bureau chief Declan Walsh outlined how Axact — referred to as a "secretive Pakistani software company" — allegedly earned millions of dollars from scams involving fake degrees, non-existent online universities and manipulation of customers. According to the report, Axact created a series of fake websites involving “professors” and students who it said were in fact paid actors. An FIA official who did not wish to be named said that the allegations raised by the newspaper if proven true would be punishable by seven years in prison under Pakistan's Electronic Transaction Ordinance. Senate takes notice The NYT report was also referred to the concerned house committee of the Senate by Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani for investigation. "A story has been published in the newspapers attributed to Pakistan, and Shoaib Ahmad Shaikh of BOL network has every right to clarify," opposition leader in Senate, Aitzaz Ahsan, said. Aitzaz added that this was a serious matter because a Pakistani company had allegedly been issuing fake degrees, according to newspaper reports. "What's the reason that we Pakistanis are such experts in forgery? The matter has to go to the house committee," Aitzaz said. The Senate chairman, after hearing the matter, observed that the issue raised was of importance. He referred the matter to the concerned house committee and ordered an investigation. Axact's response In the statement on its website, Axact did not directly respond to the allegations but instead accused domestic media rivals of colluding with the New York Times to plant a slanderous story in order to harm its business interests. The response also alleged that Declan Walsh had devised a "one-sided story" without taking any input from the company. Axact uploaded a detailed legal notice sent to NYT. The company also sent a legal notice to local blogging website Pak Tea House, which caused a buzz on social media. NYT also ran a short report on the Pak Tea House legal notice titled, "Axact, Fake Diploma Company, Threatens Pakistani Bloggers Who Laugh at Its Expense". Axact and its CEO, Shoaib Ahmad Shaikh, did not respond to requests from Dawn.com for comment |
Because it took me a long time to "come out" even to myself, I missed my chance to stop puberty by a good ten years. A lot of damage has been done that can't be undone. There are both subtle things and big things -- shoulder width, arm width, hand and foot size, height, facial hair, and a penis large enough to cause unfortunate bulges. Estrogen pills and testosterone blockers are great for getting rid of body hair (not facial hair), but you don't assume every dude with smooth legs is a woman. And for a newly transitioning person, every shade of stubble is like a punch to the gonads -- which, by the way, we aren't super comfortable with either. Continue Reading Below Advertisement That creates a very real fear of not being able to "pass." That's made more difficult by the habits we've built up all our lives. It took me a long time to get used to my new name, and I felt like a liar for months when I introduced myself as "Christina." Sometimes when I'd meet someone new who I liked, I'd introduce myself by my very masculine birth name -- half out of nervousness, half out of habit. DAJ/amana images/Getty Images "Sorry for the confusion. Bricksmasher McBeardsmith died a long time ago." Most of the work I've had since coming out involves dealing with customers, over the phone and face-to-face. This means being constantly misgendered, thanks to the lack of clarity in the phone line and my relative inexperience at sounding like a girl. Yeah, your voice stays the same -- some people are as good at faking the voice of another gender as Hugh Laurie is at pretending to be American, but transitioning doesn't come with acting classes. Continue Reading Below Advertisement But eventually, I stopped feeling like a liar when I told people my name was Christina; now it feels like I'm lying when I use my old male name. At first it was weird going out in public -- and it still is, because I still have thousands of dollars of electrolysis to pay for -- but nowhere near as bad as when I would do so dressed and acting as a guy. Walking around in the sun in a sundress is literally worth living for, because it feels so goddamn right. The words that always play across my mind are "I feel so free." Jupiterimages/Stockbyte/Getty Images "FUCK PANTS!" Continue Reading Below Advertisement That's something I had never experienced before without the aid of drugs. But now I can look at myself in the mirror and like what I see most of the time. If that doesn't sound like much to you, well, that's the point. People like me have to travel a long road just to get to a point most of you take for granted. And many of us never make it at all. When not being distracted by her new female bits, Christina Hitchens likes making video games, talking to friends, and working on her autobiography. You can check out her utterly incomplete blog at http://thebigideacollider.weebly.com, or you can email her. Robert Evans runs the personal experience section of Cracked. Find him here on Twitter. For more insider perspectives, check out 6 Awful Lessons I Learned Transitioning From Female To Male and 5 Shocking Realities Of Being Transgender The Media Ignores. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and YouTube, where you can catch all our video content such as If Bullies Were Honest and other videos you won't see on the site! Have a story to share with Cracked? Email us here. |
Police are searching for a man accused of impersonating a Philadelphia firefighter at a Popeye's restaurant and stealing over $470. (Published Tuesday, June 14, 2016) Police are searching for a man who they say impersonated a firefighter and then stole money from a Philadelphia Popeyes Chicken restaurant. The unidentified man walked into the Popeyes on 314 West Lehigh Avenue back on June 10 at 6 p.m., according to investigators. The man allegedly told the manager he was a fireman from Ladder 1 and had to change out the restaurant’s fire extinguishers. Police say the manager got approval from the general manager and the suspect was granted permission to update the extinguishers. The suspect then gave the manager two invoices for a total of $476 and received the money, according to investigators. The suspect told the manager he had to get tools from his vehicles, police said. He then allegedly left the restaurant and never returned. Police released surveillance video of the suspect. He’s described as a stocky man standing 5-foot-10 in his mid-40s. He was last seen wearing a black polo shirt and faded blue jeans. If you have any information on the suspect, please call 215-686-8477. |
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump added one more accusation against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton: “inappropriately” getting the debate questions. Trump’s tweet with the latest allegation comes the day after the final presidential debate in which he refused to commit to the outcome of the Nov. 8 election. Why didn't Hillary Clinton announce that she was inappropriately given the debate questions - she secretly used them! Crooked Hillary. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2016 Less than two hours after sending the tweet, the real estate mogul told a rally in Ohio that he would accept the results of the election — if he wins. Advertisement “I would like to promise and pledge . . . that I will totally accept the results of this great and historic presidential election if I win.” Get Today in Politics in your inbox: A digest of the top political stories from the Globe, sent to your inbox Monday-Friday. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Trump later said in the rally that he would accept a clear result but reserves the right to contest a questionable outcome. Trump’s comments about the election results during the debate were blasted by politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Governor Charlie Baker and Libertarian vice presidential candidate Bill Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts. Weld called the debate remarks “the death knell for [Trump’s] candidacy.” Senator John McCain of Arizona, a top Republican who withdrew his support of Trump earlier this month, said he conceded defeat “without reluctance” in 2008 when then-Senator Barack Obama won the presidential election. McCain said the loser has always congratulated the winner, calling the person “my president.” “That’s not just the Republican way or the Democratic way. It’s the American way. This election must not be any different,” McCain said in a statement. Advertisement Trump and his supporters have been making unsubstantiated claims that the election is rigged, putting officials on the defense weeks before most voters head to the polls. Civil rights activists have called some of the accusations a thinly veiled racist attack. Material from the Associated Press was included in this report. Nicole Hernandez can be reached at nicole.hernandez@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @NRHSJax |
The New York Public Library, as well as the Queens Library and the Brooklyn Public Library, will begin renting out 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to residents later this month, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. A press release provided to Ars by the New York Public library noted that the New York and Brooklyn Public Libraries will rent out the hotspots for six months to a year to residents who don't have broadband and who are enrolled in library programs and adult learning programs. The Queens Library will lend the mobile hotspots from five of its libraries to anyone with a library card. The hotspots will be provided by Sprint. A New York Public Library spokesperson told Ars via e-mail that people who borrow the hotspots will need "to sign an 'acceptable use agreement'" as required by Sprint. "It essentially states that the user will not do anything illegal with the Wi-Fi (such as illegally download movies)," the spokesperson said. In addition, renters of the hotspots will be afforded the same privacy protections they would have if they had purchased the hotspot themselves. The announcement is yet another front in New York City's efforts to bring Internet access to all of its residents. Earlier this month, the city announced that it will roll out a new communications network called LinkNYC, which will turn old payphones into kiosks that offer "up to gigabit speeds." Those 10,000 kiosks will be funded by advertisements surrounding them and will offer free domestic calls as well. Still, the LinkNYC plan has been criticized for falling short in serving all of the residents of New York City equitably, especially given that the kiosks will be placed far enough apart in many poorer neighborhoods that residents will see gaps in being able to connect. The hotspot rental plan through the public library system will be a step forward in filling those gaps and closing the digital divide that exists between poor and wealthier families. (That is to say, wealthier residents will not be able to just check out a hotspot and go work in the park.) Currently, computers at the city's public libraries are packed. “At every branch you walk into, every computer is being used all the time,” Anthony Marx, president of the New York Public Library, told The Wall Street Journal. “As more and more of what the library offers moves online, it became obvious that there was a problem.” In a press release e-mailed to Ars, the New York Public Library said the funding for the program came from a $500,000 donation from a coalition of nonprofits, as well as a $1 million donation from Google. The New York Public Library ran a six-month pilot of the hotspot rental program this summer. During the pilot program, the library conducted a survey that found that 55 percent of its patrons using the Internet and computers in its branches did not have broadband access at home. Of those patrons using the free Internet in the library who reported making $25,000 or less each year, 65 percent said that they did not have Internet access at home. As part of the launch, Google is also providing 500 free Chromebooks to be distributed to children and teens enrolled in library programs. |
“My first reaction when Dale Vince took over was, fantastic news,” said Tim Barnard, the chairman of the Forest Green Rovers Supporters’ Trust. “Finally, someone with the financial clout to take the club on to the next level. It’s no skin off a fan’s nose if the chairman wants to spend his money to put solar panels on the roof.” But by February 2011, Vince and Ecotricity’s plans began to directly affect fans. Weeks after banning red meat from the players’ diets for what it said were “health and performance reasons,” the club announced that it would also eliminate red meat at the concession stands at Forest Green’s New Lawn stadium. Out went the traditional meat pies, burgers and sausages that are staples in a British fan’s game-day diet; in came vegetarian items like wraps with pumpkin hummus, grated beets and grated carrots; polenta chips with chili and thyme; and falafel. “There was a die-hard group that missed their Bovril and their sausage rolls,” said Phil Butterworth, a supporter of the club for 18 years. “But that’s long past now, and I would say 95 percent of the fans are completely behind what Dale is trying to do.” Forest Green finished just above the relegation places in Vince and Ecotricity’s first season in charge, but their investment helped the club steady itself. After three straight 10th-place finishes, the team has a chance to be promoted to the ranks of full-time professionals. At the same time, developments continue to make the club as green as possible. The south grandstand at the stadium now features 170 solar panels and LED lighting, and a water-harvesting system on the stadium roof feeds an organic playing surface that is maintained without man-made chemicals or pesticides. The grass is cut by a so-called mowbot: a solar-powered, GPS-guided device that not only saves the club’s grounds workers time, but sends them text messages if it runs into trouble. It also produces an organic mulch that helps fertilize the grass. |
It is never too early to participate in a Fantasy Football Mock Draft. Even in the month of April. In fact, it is always very helpful to complete a set of mocks that are based solely on last year’s returning players. It allows for greater clarity after the NFL draft, and can identify which returning players will have competition to maintain their starting positions. The best place to draft from in the first mock of the 2017? The first position, of course. (This mock was completed at FantasyPros and was 12 team, Point Per Reception (PPR), three wide receiver format with five bench spots. All data taken from PlayerProfiler.com) 2017 Fantasy Football PPR Mock Draft: Position No. 1 Round 1 1 E. Elliott RB Dallas 2 D. Johnson RB Arizona 3 L. Bell RB Pittsburgh 4 A. Brown WR Pittsburgh 5 O. Beckham WR NY Giants 6 T.Y. Hilton WR Indianapolis 7 D. Freeman RB Atlanta 8 J. Jones WR Atlanta 9 A.J. Green WR Cincinnati 10 L. McCoy RB Buffalo 11 M. Evans WR Tampa Bay 12 M. Gordon RB San Diego PICK: Ezekiel Elliott, Dallas Reaction: In a PPR format, most analysts would take David Johnson at the top spot. I prefer the security of Ezekiel Elliott with the Cowboys massive offensive line, especially with 37-year-old Carson Palmer serving as target practice behind the 25th ranked pass blocking Arizona offensive line. If Palmer goes down, Johnson will be much less effective. While Elliott brings risk as well, he provides the absolute safest floor. Just remember to always pair running backs with their respective handcuff, in this case Alfred Morris or Darren McFadden. The “big three” running backs go in order here, but Le’Veon Bell is always risky because of injury and off the field issues. T.Y. Hilton at number six overall? No thank you. It’s amazing how underrated Devonta Freeman is every year, but in PPR he is gold. A.J. Green has earned the injury-prone tag, but usually produces when healthy. Mike Evans is too low here. In PPR formats, he should go no lower than sixth. Round 2 13 J. Howard RB Chicago 14 D. Bryant WR Dallas 15 L. Miller RB Houston 16 J. Ajayi RB Miami 17 D. Murray RB Tennessee 18 J. Nelson WR Green Bay 19 M. Thomas WR New Orleans 20 R. Gronkowski TE New England 21 T. Gurley RB Los Angeles 22 D. Hopkins WR Houston 23 M. Ingram RB New Orleans 24 A. Cooper WR Oakland PICK: Amari Cooper, Oakland Reaction: Selecting two running backs in a row is not advised in a three wide receiver format. Amari Cooper was best available receiver and could break away from Michael Crabtree‘s 30 year old shadow this season. The running back drop off is massive after this round, so it is difficult to adhere to a full-fledged zero running back blueprint. Selecting Rob Gronkowski in round two is the kiss of death: don’t do it. How can DeAndre Hopkins go this early with Tom Savage as his current quarterback? Even if the Texans draft Deshaun Watson, his 45 mph throw velocity doesn’t inspire a Hopkins’ bounce back season. Very happy with Cooper in the last spot, as he is potentially the second best receiver in this round. Round 3 25 S. Ware RB Kansas City 26 A. Jeffery WR Philadelphia 27 K. Allen WR Los Angeles Chargers 28 D. Baldwin WR Seattle 29 D. Thomas WR Denver 30 B. Cooks WR New England 31 T. Montgomery RB Green Bay 32 J. Edelman WR New England 33 S. Watkins WR Buffalo 34 D. Adams WR Green Bay 35 A. Robinson WR Jacksonville 36 T. Kelce TE Kansas City PICK: Spencer Ware, Kansas City Reaction: Really thought for a long time before making this pick. Ware is a better PPR running back then most people realize. He had 33 receptions in 14 games, and finished sixth among all running backs with 447 receiving yards. After Jamaal Charles’ release, Ware is the definitive goal line running back in a run first offense. There are a ton of wide receiver question marks in this round. Will Alshon Jeffery produce and stay healthy in Philadelphia? Does Brandin Cooks get better or worse after leaving Drew Brees and a domed offense? Demaryius Thomas can catch it, but who will be throwing it? The other option would have been Sammy Watkins, who should have a big year with Tyrod Taylor now that he is completely healthy. Round 4 37 J. Landry WR Miami 38 C. Hyde RB San Francisco 39 T. Brady QB New England 40 R. Kelley RB Washington 41 E. Sanders WR Denver 42 G. Tate WR Detroit 43 B. Powell RB New York Jets 44 T. Pryor WR Washington 45 T. Coleman RB Atlanta 46 J. Reed TE Washington 47 L. Fitzgerald WR Arizona 48 M. Crabtree WR Oakland PICK: Michael Crabtree, Oakland Reaction: The running back position gets incredibly thin here, so grabbing the 11th best fantasy wide receiver in 2016 is a round three steal. Both Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper finished in the top 14 wide receivers last season and all signs point to an even better Raiders offense in 2017. Crabtree’s 79th percentile Agility Score and 70th percentile Catch Radius equate to quarterback Derek Carr‘s favorite Red Zone target. Bilal Powell in the fourth round is fantasy football insanity regardless of the scoring format. Three Washington players were drafted in this round which means somebody will be very wrong. Tom Brady is wonderful, but taking a quarterback this early is a mistake. He would have to reproduce his 2007 season (4,806 yards, 50 touchdowns, eight interceptions) to justify that pick. Round 5 49 R. Matthews WR Tennessee 50 A. Rodgers QB Green Bay 51 C.J. Anderson RB Denver 52 D. Walker TE Tennessee 53 E. Lacy RB Seattle 54 G. Olsen TE Carolina 55 J. Crowder WR Washington 56 D. Brees QB New Orleans 57 S. Diggs WR Minnesota 58 D. Moncrief WR Indianapolis 59 A. Luck QB Indianapolis 60 T. Hill WR Kansas City PICK: Rishard Matthews, Tennessee Reaction: Despite totaling 98 receiving yards in his first three games last season, Rishard Matthews finished as the 12th best fantasy wide receiver. With Kendall Wright signing in Chicago and the Titans failing to sign a wide receiver in free agency, Matthews has the potential for an even better 2017. This completes my wide receiver corps (Cooper, Crabtree, Matthews) with a players who ranked seventh among all wide receivers with 12 Red Zone Targets. The quarterbacks fly off the board in the fifth round with Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, and Andrew Luck all getting selected. Still impossible to justify taking a tight end in this round, and Tyreek Hill could either be great or just another Cordarrelle Patterson. Round 6 61 M. Ryan QB Atlanta 62 T. Eifert TE Cincinnati 63 E. Decker WR New York Jets 64 E. Ebron TE Detroit 65 I. Crowell RB Cleveland 66 B. Roethlisberger QB Pittsburgh 67 L. Blount RB New England 68 R. Burkhead RB Cincinnati 69 K. Cousins QB Washington 70 R. Wilson QB Seattle 71 C. Meredith WR Chicago 72 D. Woodhead RB Baltimore PICK: Danny Woodhead, Baltimore Reaction: Needed a backup running back and was thrilled to get Danny Woodhead in the sixth round. He is just one year removed from a 13th overall positional finish is standard scoring leagues. In a PPR format he is fantasy gold. Baltimore’s running back situation is currently muddled, and wherever Woodhead has gone he has produced. Picking a tight end in this round is fine, but not Eric Ebron (most receptions in a season is 61) or the touchdown dependent Tyler Eifert. Always wait until later to draft a quarterback, but Russell Wilson as the fourth quarterback selected in this round is great value. Round 7 73 M. Bennett TE Green Bay 74 D. Lewis RB New England 75 B. Marshall WR New York Giants 76 P. Garcon WR San Francisco 77 M. Mariota QB Tennessee 78 C. Newton QB Carolina 79 Z. Ertz TE Philadelphia 80 T. Riddick RB Detroit 81 D. Prescott QB Dallas 82 J. Graham TE Seattle 83 G. Bernard RB Cincinnati 84 K. Benjamin WR Carolina PICK: Martellus Bennett, Green Bay Reaction: The debate was between the tight end and the quarterback position. Eight quarterbacks were selected before my pick, and having Bennett tethered to Aaron Rodgers was simply too good to pass up. Rodgers has never had a tight end with a 90 reception season on his resume like Bennett. Always a fast starter, it is easy to envision multiple top five tight end weeks during the early games of 2017. This is where the pass-catching running backs flew off the draft board. Dion Lewis, Theo Riddick, and Giovani Bernard all have 60 plus catch ability, but almost as equally high bust opportunity. Example? Over the past three seasons, Bernard has 15 games of 10 or more fantasy points and 24 games of less than 10 fantasy points. If you can’t figure out when to play him, why waste a draft pick? Round 8 85 D. Jackson WR Tampa Bay 86 J. Stewart RB Carolina 87 L. Murray RB Minnesota 88 A. Peterson RB Free Agent 89 K. Rudolph TE Minnesota 90 D. Martin RB Tampa Bay 91 F. Gore RB Indianapolis 92 C.J. Prosise RB Seattle 93 K. Dixon RB Baltimore 94 J. Charles RB Free Agent 95 C. Brate TE Tampa Bay 96 J. Matthews WR Philadelphia PICK: Jordan Matthews, Philadelphia Reaction: This was my steal of the draft. Jordan Matthews enters his fourth NFL season averaging 75 receptions and 6.3 touchdowns per season. In a Philadelphia offense loaded with weapons, he should feast in the slot (Y) receiver role. Many running backs were drafted in this round, but all with major question marks. Frank Gore will be 34 years old and Adrian Peterson still has not been signed. Jonathan Stewart seems to be the safest among this group, but keep your eye on Carolina at the NFL draft in late April. Wanted to handcuff Danny Woodhead with Kenneth Dixon, but Matthews is a great consolation prize. Round 9 97 A. Abdullah RB Detroit 98 W. Snead WR New Orleans 99 K. White WR Chicago 100 T. Rawls RB Seattle 101 M. Forte RB New York Jets 102 D. Johnson RB Cleveland 103 E. Rogers WR Pittsburgh 104 J. Hill RB Cincinnati 105 J. McKinnon RB Minnesota 106 C. Coleman WR Cleveland 107 P. Perkins RB New York Giants 108 W. Smallwood RB Philadelphia PICK: Ameer Abdullah, Detroit Reaction: I fully admit I’m a bit of an Abdullah truther, but his workout metrics are just incredible. He has a 98th percentile Burst Score and Agility Score, as well as 81st percentile Bench Press (24 reps of 225). The Lions have an explosive offense, play on turf, and Abdullah possesses incredible elusiveness. He has the potential to be even more explosive than Theo Riddick. How far has Jeremy Hill fallen? In a PPR league his ceiling is capped, but with Rex Burkhead now in New England he could still fall in the end zone. Stay away from Paul Perkins. Shane Vereen, Shaun Draughn, and Orleans Darkwa are all better running backs. Perkins is fool’s gold. Matt Forte will be close to 32 years old when the season starts, but is the most talented player in this round by a landslide. Round 10 109 T. Williams WR Los Angeles Chargers 110 R. Cobb WR Green Bay 111 M. Mitchell WR New England 112 J. Maclin WR Kansas City 113 A. Thielen WR Minnesota 114 C. Sims RB Tampa Bay 115 S. Shepard WR New York Giants 116 B. Perriman WR Baltimore 117 K. Britt WR Cleveland 118 D. Henry RB Tennessee 119 J. Brown WR Arizona 120 M. Stafford QB Detroit PICK: Matthew Stafford, Detroit Reaction: Getting a quarterback who has averaged 635 pass attempts over the last six seasons in the tenth round is a steal in any format. To prove how important it is to wait on quarterback, Derek Carr and Philip Rivers were selected in Round 11. The argument against Zero RB is bolstered here with Tyrell Williams, Randall Cobb, and Jeremy Maclin all available in a PPR format. Isn’t it so easy to see Derrick Henry starting by mid-season? DeMarco Murray has been way too healthy over the past three seasons (one game missed). Biggest upside wide receiver in this round? Baltimore’s Breshad Perriman who is currently their second best receiver behind soon to be 31-year-old Mike Wallace. Round 11 & 12 121 T. Lockett WR Seattle 122 D. Sproles RB Philadelphia 123 D. Parker WR Miami 124 W. Fuller WR Houston 125 M. Gillislee RB Buffalo 126 Z. Zenner RB Detroit 127 M. Jones WR Detroit 128 H. Henry TE Los Angeles Chargers 129 R. Anderson WR New York Jets 130 J. White RB New England 131 D. Washington RB Oakland 132 C. Thompson RB Washington 133 K. Stills WR Miami 134 J. Doyle TE Indianapolis 135 J. Doctson WR Washington 136 P. Rivers QB Los Angeles Chargers 137 S. Vereen RB New York Giants 138 Z. Miller TE Chicago 139 D. Carr QB Oakland 140 J. Winston QB Tampa Bay 141 J. Rodgers RB Tampa Bay 142 T. Taylor QB Buffalo 143 A. Gates TE Los Angeles Chargers 144 A. Morris RB Dallas Cowboys PICKS: Tyler Lockett, Seattle; Alfred Morris, Dallas Reaction: Most of these are lottery tickets, and I am hoping we were all simply one year off on Tyler Lockett. Hunter Henry and Antonio Gates are still available in rounds 11 and 12, so how can anyone justify drafting Zach Ertz in Round Seven? A bevy of quarterbacks are still available, which makes me question my Stafford selection. Handcuffing Ezekiel Elliott was a must, so getting Alfred Morris here brought a huge sigh of relief. Round 13 & 14 145 Jacksonville Defense 146 Denver Defense 147 Houston Defense 148 Seattle Defense 149 Kansas City Defense 150 Minnesota Defense 151 Arizona Defense 152 New England Defense 153 Los Angeles Rams Defense 154 Carolina Defense 155 Baltimore Defense 156 San Diego Defense 157 J. Tucker K Baltimore 158 B. Walsh K Seattle 159 S. Gostkowski K New England 160 M. Crosby K Buffalo 161 S. Hauschka K Buffalo 162 C. Catanzaro K New York Jets 163 M. Bryant K Atlanta 164 D. Bailey K Dallas 165 B. McManus K Denver 166 C. Santos K Kansas City 167 A. Vinatieri K Indianapolis 168 G. Gano K Carolina Summary Having a top three fantasy draft pick forces a first round running back selection. As long as they are handcuffed, each of those running backs have an extremely high seasonal floor. The running back position thins out quickly after Spencer Ware, so it difficult to project an orthodox zero running back draft strategy. There are some strong team backfields available in the mid to late rounds, but the NFL draft will provide true clarity for teams such as Detroit, Baltimore, and Jacksonville. There exists a ton of wide receiver value in the middle rounds. Players like Jeremy Maclin, Randall Cobb, and Willie Snead were all available after the eighth round. My biggest mistake was taking Martellus Bennett in round seven. Tight end remains an optimal late round selection again this season. With a nucleus of Ezekiel Elliott, Spencer Ware, Amari Cooper, Michael Crabtree, and Matthew Stafford, this was certainly a solid first PPR mock draft. |
When Jon Hamm was performing Don Draper’s emotional final call with Peggy Olson on Mad Men‘s series final, Elisabeth Moss was trying to deal with her cats. On Late Night with Seth Meyers, Moss explained that it was typically mandated that both actors in phone call scenes be present, even when only one side of the call is being shot. But because Jon Hamm was in Big Sur, Moss was actually on the phone with him. So while Hamm was performing Don’s breakdown, she was in bed. “I was in my pajamas with coffee and like my cats on the phone with Jon playing Don,” she said. “He’s like crying and I’m like trying to get the cats to be quiet.” The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now It was “odd,” according to Moss, but also “really moving and wonderful.” Contact us at editors@time.com. |
All four who resigned were opponents of deposed President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year rule, and protesters demanded that the new cabinet be purged of the old guard that served Mr Ben Ali. Clashes broke out in central Tunis around the same time the resignations were announced. Riot police in shielded helmets pummeled a protester to the ground with batons and boot kicks as other officers fired off tear gas grenades to disperse a crowd of several hundred demonstrators. A month of unrest has devastasted the Mediterranean nation's tourist industry. Thousands of tourists have been evacuated. Anouar Ben Gueddour, the Junior Minister for Transportation and Equipment, said that he had resigned along with Houssine Dimassi, the labour minister, and minister without portfolio Abdeljelil Bedoui. The three ministers are all members of a top labor union, the UGTT, which is not a party but is a movement that acts like a lobby and has a big nationwide base to mobilize people around the country. The group's supporters staged the protest in central Tunis on Tuesday, calling for a general strike, constitutional changes and the release of all imprisoned union leaders. Mustapha Ben Jaafar, the health minister, of the FDLT opposition party also resigned, party member Hedi Raddaoui told The AP. Tunisia's interim leaders have sought to stabilise the country after riots, looting and an apparent settling-of-scores after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday. It was not immediately clear if the resignations could bring down the government, which has 40 full and junion ministers. Mohamed Ghannouchi, who has been prime minister since 1999, claimed that his announcement on Monday to include ministers from Ben Ali's guard in the new government was needed "because we need them in this phase." Tunisia has entered "an era of liberty," Mr Ghannouchi said in an interview with France's Europe-1 radio posted on its website. "Give us a chance so that we can put in place this ambitious program of reform." He insisted the ministers chosen "have clean hands, in addition to great competence," suggesting that experienced officials are needed along with opposition leaders in a caretaker government to guide the country before free elections are held in coming months. The protests that forced out Ben Ali began last month after an educated but unemployed 26-year-old man set himself on fire when police confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling without a permit. The desperate act hit a nerve, sparking copycat suicides and focused anger against the regime into a widespread revolt. Public protests spread over years of state repression, corruption, and a shortage of jobs for many educated young adults. The government announced Monday that 78 civilians have died in the month of unrest. Reports of self-immolations surfaced in Egypt, Mauritania and Algeria on Monday, in apparent imitation of the Tunisian events. |
Scala: Working with Predicates I love me some Scala. Actually, since it’s now my day job, I love it all the time. It combines the short, expressiveness that I prized in Python with a rich library base (thanks Java) and the compiler checking that I have come to depend upon in a statically typed language. I don’t care what some people say. I recognize that the language is not without it’s flaws. One could say that there’s a bit of missing language extentions, particularly with predicates. What do I mean by that? Is there not implicit support baked into the language such that they generalize any A => Boolean? Certainly. However, I have a problem when I see methods like List‘s ::filter and ::filterNot. The former makes sense, the later highlights the absence of fundamental building blocks which can be seen directly in the name. That is, we’re missing a “Not” helper predicate function: case class Not [ A ](func: A => Boolean ) extends ( A => Boolean ){ def apply(arg0: A ) = !func(arg0) } If it were that simple a fix and if that were all that was missing then it would be easy to suggest and have put into the next version of Scala. Of course we’d also need to have 22 versions of “Not” for each of the 22 versions of Function but that’s a debate for another day. Suffice to say, Scala needs explicit predicate support. It needs more than just a “Not,” it needs easy to read and maintain logic combinators, and it needs support for the basic building blocks that can be used to form higher order predicate logic. Using other accepted Predicates libraries would not give us the power and flexibility needed. Adding Predicate Expressions That’s exactly what I did with my Predicates library. One of the goals of this small library was to add some simple syntactic support for composing predicate functions in a descriptive and concise manner. Specifically I wanted to be able to say “greater than 4 but less than 10” or “greater than zero or even but not both” in almost plain English. I write expressions equivalent to that all the time with ::filter and ::exists statements: myList.filter(x => x > 4 && x < 10 ) For small phrases, it’s not that difficult. The only extra boilerplate that’s added is the designation “x =>” to indicate that we’re forming an anonymous function. Unfortunately, if I want to reuse, extend or maintain that logic I have to use even more boilerplate. Sometimes, if the logic is severe enough, I need to splice it into several methods which might or might not be attached to traits/class hierarchies. While good coding style, this added verbosity leaves a bad taste in my mouth. What I’d really like to do is have operators which apply to the expressions themselves and not the evaluation of the expressions. The result of these operators would be functions themselves, preserving the composable nature we first started with. To say this another way, an “or” which turns two predicate objects into a third, distinct predicate object that represents a logical or between the first two predicates. As long as each of the precursor objects was built upon an immutable, referentially transparent foundation the resulting compound predicate expression would be safe to use in any environment. This is what was added to each Predicate variant within the Predicates library. The Predicate member functions work as factory methods to generate new Predicates based upon the current Predicate and a Predicate argument. While similar in concept to composition between functions, there is no guarantee that each composed Predicate is even evaluated. There are 22 of Predicate variants, much akin to how Scala chose to have 22 Function variants, each equiped with the following methods: and => pred1(…) && pred2(…) } andNot => pred1(…) && !pred2(…) nand => !pred1(…) || !pred2(…) or => pred1(…) || pred2(…) orNot => pred1(…) || !pred2(…) nor => !(pred1(…) || pred2(…)) xor => if(pred1(…) !pred2(…) else pred2(…) xnor => And as I said before, each of these functions returns another Predicate (which is really just another function.) In practice using these member functions looks something like this: case class LessThen (x: Int ) extends Function [ Int , Boolean ]{ def apply(arg: Int ) = arg < x } case class Modulo (x: Int , group: Int ) extends Function [ Int , Boolean ]{ def apply(arg: Int ) = (arg % x) == group } case class GreaterThanEqual (x: Int ) extends Function [ Int , Boolean ]{ def apply(arg: Int ) = arg >= x } val myList = List(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) myList.filter( LessThan (7) and GreaterThanEqual (4)) myList.filter( Modulo (4,2) or Modulo (3,0) or Modulo (5,1) ) with Predicates being able to be chained together to form more complicated logical expressions. Using Implicit Conversions to Avoid Pollution In object oriented programming, if I had some difficult logic which I wanted to pass around or call associated with a single class from a particular hierarchy I could either add it as a companion class which adhered to the single responsibility philosophy or tack it onto the object itself. The later was generally discouraged unless it needed access to private state or we were using delegation. That said, if several functions were needed the companion class’ interface might grow and become a helper class (and boy did some people love to grow them.) As the libraries and code base matured, combining predicate expressions became a hideously complex, dangerous and blame ridden process. In short, the code often became a maintenance nightmare. I want to state for the record this wasn’t an innate problem of imperative or object oriented programming but rather how people were allowed to program in it. While OO-design has the strategy pattern, it is only as good as it is enforced. My implementation of Predicates, yielding to a somewhat imperative flair (the factory methods are instance methods,) does not protect against misuse. Some people argue that Scala isn’t functional enough, that it doesn’t enforce immutability and in some ways this is true. It’s an unfortunate side-effect (love puns) of being backwards compatible with Java. I wanted to avoid the kinds of problems I faced previously with a strictly OO-code base in as general a way as possible. The implicit conversion hid the transformed class behind a restricted interface, a la an adapter pattern, much like Scala does with anonymous functions. I reasoned whatever crud might be added to a class would be hidden by this interface and thus would not pollute the predicate. Add to this the ability to compose functions to create different types of predicates from an initial predicate and we gained a rather large leg up on bad code production. Functional composition has got to be one of the best things Scala stole from functional programming. What Else? There was only one other thing to add to the “predicates” portion of this library, an “is” function. The idea for this function was stolen from Data.Function.Predicate of Haskell. At first I created all 22 versions with the same exact signature of Haskell’s “is” but then I realized Scala’s eager evaluation caused a type mismatch that couldn’t easily be overcome without added boilerplate. Since “is” was designed with reducing boilerplate while at the same time increasing readability the simple solution was to create an implicit conversion to an anonymous class with a single “is” method accepting a predicate. Thus written it could be used as follows: myStringList.filter(_.length is LessThan(0)) which is very readable and maps an anonymous function of type A => B to A => Boolean. The downside is that it creates a new object at each invocation. Future Work Conditional functions are hard to design well yet at the same time are the bedrock of computational logic gates. Partial Functions can be used to create predicated logic but in a non-transparent manner to the outside observer. There’s an ::orElse function for a reason (a good one too) which is used more for case coverage rather than case completeness. In fact, the existence of the ::lift member function showcases that a “catch all” logic path is not required unlike the standard “if-else” statement. Hence, PartialFunction is not a good choice for predicated applications. After I fleshed out some simple logic composition functions to work with Predicates I wanted to add a structure for composing more complicated predicated expressions. That is, a function which included a predicate to control flow which was both composable and extendable. Adding in conditional support for predicated application such that a Predicate expression controlled the program flow: case class ApplyEither [ A , B ](pred: Predicate [ A ], thatTrue: A => B , thatFalse: A => B ) extends ( A => B ){ def apply(arg0: A ) = if (pred(arg0)) thatTrue(arg0) else thatFalse(arg0) } was easy following a very simple imperative model. Expanding upon that to composition: case class ComposeEither [ A , B , C ](pred: Predicate [ B ], that: A => B , thatTrue: B => C , thatFalse: B => C ) extends ( A => C ){ def apply(arg0: A ) ={ val out = that(arg0) if (pred(out)) thatTrue(out) else thatFalse(out) } } also proved to be easy. It was so easy, I wrote more scripts to generate the code for 22 versions of an “ApplyIf,” “ApplyEither,” “ComposeIf,” “ComposeEither,” “AndThenIf,” and “AndThenEither.” Then I expanded on the code I had written so that they all extended the same trait, thus allowing one to be used within another. There was only one big problem with it all, it created an inflexible structure that couldn’t be traversed easily without expanding upon the interface of the various predicated function classes. The question “what are all values down all potential paths” required a new method. The question “what function did I use” required yet another. And so on and so on until the interface of every class began to look like the dreaded helper class. This was a classic example of the expression problem. The right approach, in hindsight, was to create a tree like structure to express computation tree logic. Something that held the arrangement of the functions and predicates and was accompanied by distinctly separate set of functions to traverse that tree. I say in hindsight because I first created all the classes and then deleted them after I started feeling the pain of all the different questions I couldn’t answer without tacking on yet another method. This is something coming in the future. Personally I’d like to wait for a proper implementation of an HList that doesn’t suffer from type erasure or require experimental compiler flags but in the mean time. Miles Sabin has already proved it can be done with his incredible library Shapeless. Now all I need to do is wait for the compiler changes it requires to go mainstream. 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In a letter from CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who has been serving a prison sentence in a federal correctional facility in Loretto, Pennsylvania for over a year, he recounts how he had a medical emergency in the prison and received virtually none of the appropriate care or treatment that a person should typically receive. The medical emergency also apparently stemmed from a “Physician’s Assistant” (PA) prescribing him a medication for his diabetes that only made his condition worse. Firedoglake has been publishing “Letters from Loretto” by Kiriakou, who was the first member of the CIA to publicly acknowledge that torture was official US policy under the George W. Bush administration. He was convicted in October 2012 after he pled guilty to violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA) when he confirmed the name of an officer involved in the CIA’s Rendition, Detention and Interrogation (RDI) program to a reporter. He was sentenced in January 2013, and reported to prison on February 28, 2013. According to the letter from Kiriakou written on September 3, he had a “routine quarterly blood test” in early August because he has Type 2 diabetes. He was never informed by any person in the prison of the results of the test, however, days later, he was called to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription with the pharmacist on duty. Kiriakou recalls the following exchange: “What is this?” I asked. “Glyburide,” he said, as though that should mean something to me. “What’s it for?” “Diabetes,” he said. Growing worried, I asked, “Do I have a problem?” “I don’t know,” he said. “Your PA called it in. He’ll put you on call-out.” Only insulin-dependent diabetics are allowed to have testing meters so I had no idea what my blood sugar numbers were. I took the pills back to my room. Kiriakou understood he was to take one pill each day with food. Yet, on the second day, around 2:00 am, he “woke up covered in sweat.” “I got down off my bunk, got my bearings, and then went to my locker for a cookie. I figured my blood sugar had dropped, and I felt better almost immediately. I drank some water and went back to bed,” he recalls. He took his third Glyburide and slept the entire night, however, when he woke up in the morning around 7:00 am, he was soaked in sweat again and lowered himself from his bunk into a chair. “For a minute, I thought I was going to throw up. It passed so I got up to wash my face. The bathroom is about 100 feet from my cubicle, and I started to make my way up there,” Kiriakou shares. “After a few steps, I started to get dizzy. I heard somebody say, ‘John! Are you okay?’ I mumbled, ‘I’m not sure what’s happening.’ A friend and fellow prisoner, Wahid, who was a pharmacist on the street, said, ‘Your blood sugar is crashing. Sit down.'” Kiriakou says Wahid ran to get a Coke. He took two sips of the Coke and then “everything went gray.” He passed out on the floor. When he woke up 15 minutes later, he was in a wheelchair in the medical unit. He was helped on to a table for examination and a nurse took his blood pressure, which was 88 over 60. The nurse asked him what medications he was taking. Kiriakou told the nurse he was taking Glyburide and, according to Kiriakou, the nurse then suggested he was not taking it the way he was supposed to take it. Kiriakou insisted he was taking it properly and taken “three pills in three days.” The nurse continued and suggested he had passed out because he was dehydrated. Kiriakou asked if he would get an IV. The nurse answered, “We don’t do that.” The nurse did an EKG to see if he had a heart attack. “The EKG was normal.” Kiriakou continued to insist that what happened was caused by the Glyburide. His blood was tested, and it was at 135, when it should normally be between 70 and 100. “I told him that I had had two sips of Coke, which would account for the higher level, but he went back to the dehydration diagnosis,” Kiriakou further recalls. Ultimately, he was sent back to his unit and told to “take it easy for the day.” He did not see a doctor or a Physician’s Assistant and, three weeks later, he had yet to see a medical professional. WebMD.com, a website where physicians and journalists provide health information, lists the side effects of Glyburide. One of them is “low blood sugar.” “This may occur if you do not consume enough calories from food or if you do unusually heavy exercise,” WebMD.com indicates. “Symptoms of low blood sugar include sudden sweating, shaking, fast heartbeat, hunger, blurred vision, dizziness or tingling hands/feet,” which would seem to corroborate Kiriakou’s self-diagnosis. Kiriakou spoke with his father-in-law, a physician and former pharmacist in Cincinnati. He told Kiriakou to stop taking the Glyburide. It is supposed to be a last resort before a diabetic goes on insulin. It also can apparently ruin the pancreas and can cause heart failure. So, Kiriakou threw out all of the Glyburide he had and stopped taking it before it wound up killing him. Despite the “scare,” Kiriakou recognizes this is part of the “Bureau of Prisons experience.” It is a problem in federal prisons all over the country where prisons ignore prisoners’ medical problems hoping they will go away or that they will be released and their issues will become someone else’s problem. From the letter: This abominable denial of medical care has been largely ignored by the US media. It has not, however, been ignored by everybody. According to Prison Legal News, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) refused to extradite suspected terrorist Haroon Rashid Aswat from the United Kingdom to the United States “on the ground that his mental and physical health would face significant deterioration in the more hostile US prison system.” (Aswat v. United Kingodm, ECHR Case No. 17299/12.) The ECHR ruled that, “In light of the medical evidence before it, there was a real risk that Mr. Aswat’s extradition to the USA, a country to which he has no ties, and to a different, and potentially hostile prison environment, would result in a significant deterioration in his mental and physical health.” Most notably, the ECHR found that “such deterioration would be capable of amounting to treatment in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.” I wish we had a court like that. Kiriakou has less than 150 days until he is released from prison on February 3, 2015. One of the first things he plans to do is see a doctor, who is not only capable but also willing to provide him with proper medical care. <br /> <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1300757/letter-from-loretto-john-kiriakou-september-3-2014.pdf”>Letter from Loretto – John Kiriakou (September 3, 2014) (PDF)</a><br /> <br /> <a href=”http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1300757/letter-from-loretto-john-kiriakou-september-3-2014.txt”>Letter from Loretto – John Kiriakou (September 3, 2014) (Text)</a><br /> Hello again from the Federal “Correctional” Institution at Loretto, PA. I had a scare a few weeks ago that I wanted to tell you about because it’s so typical of the BOP experience. By way of background, I have Type 2 diabetes, although I’m not insulin dependent. A month ago, I had a routine quarterly blood test. I have no idea what, if anything, that blood test revealed, as my Physician’s Assistant (PA) never put me on call-out to inform me. (A “call-out” is a scheduled appointment.) A few days later, I was put on call-out, but to the Pharmacy, not the PA. I went to the appointment and the pharmacist handed me a bottle of pills. “What is this?” I asked. “Glyburide,” he said, as though that should mean something to me. “What’s it for?” “Diabetes,” he said. Growing worried, I asked, “Do I have a problem?” “I don’t know,” he said. “Your PA called it in. He’ll put you on call-out.” Only insulin-dependent diabetics are allowed to have testing meters so I had no idea what my blood sugar numbers were. I took the pills back to my room. The instructions on the bottle were to take a pill a day with food. That’s what I did. At 2:00 am on the second day, I woke up covered in sweat. I got down off my bunk, got my bearings, and then went to my locker for a cookie. I figured my blood sugar had dropped, and I felt better almost immediately. I drank some water and went back to bed. I felt fine the next morning. That evening with dinner I took the third Glyburide. I went to bed at 11:00pm and slept through the night. I woke up at 7:00am, again soaked in sweat, and lowered myself on to a chair. For a minute, I thought I was going to throw up. It passed so I got up to wash my face. The bathroom is about 100 feet from my cubicle, and I started to make my way up there. After a few steps, I started to get dizzy. I heard somebody say, “John! Are you okay?” I mumbled, “I’m not sure what’s happening.” A friend and fellow prisoner, Wahid, who was a pharmacist on the street, said, “Your blood sugar is crashing. Sit down.” I sat down on the concrete floor while Wahid ran and got a Coke. I took two sips then everything went gray and I passed out on the floor. I woke up 15 minutes later in a wheelchair in the medical unit. A nurse helped me on to an examination table and took my blood pressure. 88 over 60. He took it a second time. 88 over 60. He asked what medications I was taking. I told him about the Glyburide. He suggested, rather directly, that “perhaps you’re not taking it the way you’re supposed to.” I assured him that I was and that I had only taken three pills in three days. The nurse then suggested that I passed out because I was dehydrated. “Okay,” I said. “Are you going to give me an IV?” “No,” he said. “We don’t do that here. Let’s do an EKG to make sure you didn’t have a heart attack.” The EKG was normal. I told the nurse that I was a certain this was a case of low blood sugar because of the Glyburide. He tested my blood, which was 135. (Normal testing levels should be between 70 and 100.) I told him that I had had two sips of Coke, which would account for the higher level, but he went back to the dehydration diagnosis. He took my blood pressure twice more: 90 over 60 then 90 over 70. The nurse told me to sit in a chair in the hall, and when the regularly-scheduled move was called at 8:25am, I should go back to my unit and “take it easy for the day.” I never saw a doctor. I never saw a PA. That was three weeks ago, and I still have not seen a medical professional. I’ve mentioned before that my father-in-law is a highly-respected physician (and former pharmacist) in Cincinnati. I called him immediately. STOP THE GLYBURIDE, he said. Glyburide is a medication meant as a last resort before diabetics go on insulin. I’m not at that stage, he said. And, besides, Glyburide can ruin the pancreas. That’s why so many physicians refuse to prescribe it. He added if I continue the Glyburide I could expect to go into heart failure. I tossed it all. Interestingly, on the day I wrote this Letter from Loretto, I received an electronic message that my refill of Glyburide was ready. I feel fine now. I use a friend’s blood sugar meter to test my blood each morning, and it’s been between “normal” and slightly elevated. What happened to me is minor compare to what happens to other prisoners, systematically, across the BOP. Ask any federal prisoner anywhere in America about medical care and he’ll tell you the same thing: The BOP generally ignores prisoners’ medical problems, hoping they’ll either go away or that the prisoner will be released and will become someone else’s problem. This isn’t just John Kiriakou talking. This is a documented policy in every BOP facility in America. I have a friend who was sentenced to two years in prison for having an illegal poker machine in his bar. He suffers from Hepatitis C, and, as soon as he got to Loretto, he told the medical unit about his condition. He said he needed treatment. “We’ll think about it” was the response. He asked repeatedly over the next 18 months for treatment. He was ignored. Finally, two WEEKS before his release, he was called to medical. They would give him the treatment, they said, if he would agree to forego his halfway house and home confinement time. In other words, “We’ll treat you, but you have to stay in prison.” He declined. (The BOP now can cover itself by saying that they wanted to treat him, but he refused.) They knew he would decline. That was the plan from the beginning. That night he called his wife to tell her what had happened. He was upset and angry, and his language reflected that. The next morning he was thrown into solitary, where he remained until his release. Judy White is a contributor to OpEdNews, a fantastic website that frequently covers BOP malfeasance. Her husband, Gary White, is a former Jefferson County, Alabama commissioner, who was caught up in the Karl Rove-instigated political case involving former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Gary White is serving 10 years in a federal prison in Forrest City, Arkansas. Judy White recently told OpEdNews about the experience of one of her husband’s friends at FCI Forrest City. Here’s what she said: “Today we are very concerned about Dave, one of Gary’s fellow prisoners in Forrest City. Dave is 71 years old and should have already been released to a halfway house. For the past two years, Dave has sought medical treatment because of blood in his urine. As his condition has become dramatically worse and Dave has become much sicker, his medical needs and efforts to obtain treatment have been consistently ignored or denied by prison employees. The BOP routinely and purposely withholds treatment then releases sick prisoners to get whatever help they can get on their own. Dave’s medical needs became even more urgent when he began passing blood clots, along with lots of blood.” “Dave understood that he was in serious trouble and that prison employees live by their unofficial motto: We Don’t Care! So he begged to be taken to the hospital. Denied, and told to go back to his housing unit, Dave had no choice but to take a stand. He told the prison employees he was not leaving medical and that he had to be taken to the hospital. Eventually, Dave was taken to the hospital, where it was quickly and easily determined that he had multiple tumors and needed emergency medical intervention and surgery. The emergency room physician told Dave that if he had ot gotten to the hospital he would have been in the newspaper. In the obituaries. “Want to guess what happened next? Nothing. Dave was taken from the hospital back to the prison, where he remains today, without surgery and without a plan to save his life.” This abominable denial of medical care has been largely ignored by the US media. It has not, however, been ignored by everybody. According to Prison Legal News, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) refused to extradite suspected terrorist Haroon Rashid Aswat from the United Kingdom to the United States “on the ground that his mental and physical health would face significant deterioration in the more hostile US prison system.” (Aswat v. United Kingodm, ECHR Case No. 17299/12.) The ECHR ruled that, “In light of the medical evidence before it, there was a real risk that Mr. Aswat’s extradition to the USA, a country to which he has no ties, and to a different, and potentially hostile prison environment, would result in a significant deterioration in his mental and physical health.” Most notably, the ECHR found that “such deterioration would be capable of amounting to treatment in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment.” I wish we had a court like that. I have less than 150 days to go until my release February 3, 2015. The first thin I’m going to do is to go see my doctor. I’m one of the lucky ones. An update: A new guy moved in across the hall from me last week. [WITHHELD] is a heroin dealer who sold tainted junk to a friend, resulting in the friend’s death. [WITHHELD] got 20 years in prison and was given a “Greatest Severity” security classification, the same as mine. [WITHHELD] appealed the classification, just like I did, arguing that he is not a threat to society and hsould be in a minimum-security camp. This week he won his appeal. His security classification was downgraded to “high” and he will be transferred to camp soon. Meanwhile, I am far more dangerous than a drug-dealing murderer, and I’ll remain behind the barbed wire fence. That’s how our “Justice” Department works. To learn more about my case, please visit www.defendjohnk.com. Best regards, John |
When Americans see a picture of President Obama in his office, on the phone or in some other function, the natural conclusion is that it was taken by a member of the press, that it captured the president’s real day-to-day duties. Neither is true very often, according to The Daily Caller. As if Obama’s “imperial presidency” needed any more substantiation, The Associated Press’ photography director, Santiago Lyon, outed the Obama regime for refusing press photographers access to the White House and instead routinely handing over images taken privately by his own photographers. Lyon called the material “propaganda” at the AP Media Editors national convention on Oct. 30, The Daily Caller reported, adding: “The AP has only been permitted to photograph the president alone in the Oval Office on two occasions–both in his first term –and has never been allowed to photograph the president with his staff in the office.” AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said the practice is commonplace because, quite simply, the media is accepting it and using the photos. Carroll advised members of the media attending the conference to “stop using the White House’s preferred photos in their own stories,” The Daily Caller reported. Propaganda photos come in lock-step with another practice coming to light recently — Obama’s closed meetings with hand-picked journalists whose names are not disclosed. “We don’t provide lists of participants,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said, according to Politico. Americans are left to wonder if Washington is the scene of some movie, staged and scripted from the desk of a Hollywood progressive, where real journalism is excluded in favor of a carefully crafted propaganda machine. [poll id=”133″] |
Watch above: Recent deaths in Saskatoon have been linked to the Hells Angels following police raids across western Canada this week. Wendy Winiewski tells us 14 people face drug charges and the investigation is far from over. SASKATOON – Fake Oxycontin is among the variety of drugs seized in raids at a number of locations Wednesday morning in Saskatchewan and Alberta on Wednesday morning. Three recent deaths in Saskatoon have been linked to fake Oxycontin along with others in western Canada. READ MORE: Saskatoon overdose death may be linked to fake Oxycontin Over 100 Saskatoon and RCMP officers raided 18 properties including the Hells Angels clubhouse in Saskatoon. The raids come after an organized crime investigation named “Project Forseti” that started in November 2013. Fourteen people, either members of or affiliated to two outlaw motorcycle gangs – the Hells Angels and Fallen Saints – have been charged. The group made their first court appearance in Saskatoon provincial court Thursday morning. Along with 3,358 fake oxycontin pills (fentanyl), 5.4 kilos of meth, 2.6 kilos of cocaine, 107 grams of heroin, 145 pounds of marijuana, 456 dilaudid pills and 454 grams of hash were also seized. The estimated value is $8-million dollars. READ MORE: Alarm sounded after 2 Saskatoon deaths linked to fake Oxycontin Police also seized 200 firearms, including some that are prohibited or restricted, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, four ballistic vests, a conducted energy weapon, around $100,000 in currency and seven vehicles. Watch below: Fake Oxycontin is among the variety of drugs with a street value of $8 million seized in raids at a number of locations Wednesday morning in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Investigators have determined the pills seized are of the same chemical composition as the ones responsible for the three recent deaths in Saskatoon. “This investigation clearly demonstrates there are individuals who are determined to bring harm into our communities,” said Det. Insp. Jerome Engele from Saskatoon Police Service. Watch below: Three recent deaths in Saskatoon have been linked to fake Oxycontin along with others in western Canada. A search in B.C. on Jan. 6, 2015 resulted in the seizure of two pill presses and several kilograms of pre-mixed powders. Officials say the presses are industrial level machines commonly associated with the production of fake oxycontin and ecstasy. “We can see by the pill press and quantity of illegal drugs and other materials seized, this was not an amateur operation,” said Engele. READ MORE: RCMP warn of counterfeit Oxycontin circulating in Edmonton area The group, scheduled to appear in Saskatoon provincial court on Thursday morning, are facing dozens of charges including drug trafficking, weapons offences, assault and proceeds of crime. Police say the investigation is still active and that additional charges and arrest warrants are expected in the coming weeks. “I can tell you more people will be arrested,” stated Engele. READ MORE: Police conduct multiple raids in Saskatchewan, Alberta Here is a list of the people arrested and charges laid: John Fekete from Saskatoon Trafficking in a controlled substance (cannabis) Possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 Carl Trobak from Saskatoon Trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) Possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000 Justin Smith from Saskatoon Trafficking in a controlled substance 3 counts of trafficking in a controlled substance (fentanyl) 3 counts of trafficking in a controlled substance (heroin) Conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance (cocaine) Trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) 3 counts of possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 5 counts of failure to comply with conditions Aggravated assault Weapon Trafficking Daryl Nagy of Saskatoon Trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) 2 counts of possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 Possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000 Trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) Bradley Carl Mann from Martensville, Sask: Conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance (cocaine) Trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) Possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 Terry Eide from Calgary Trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) Trafficking in a controlled substance (fentanyl) Possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 Rob Allen from Saskatoon 2 counts of trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) Ryan Hillman from Saskatoon 3 counts of conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance (cannabis) Trafficking in a controlled substance (cannabis) Aggravated assault Mark Michael Nowakowski from Saskatoon Aggravated assault Christopher Keith Lester from Saskatoon 2 counts of conspiracy to traffic in a controlled substance (cannabis) Layne Joseph James Boorman Aggravated assault Armand Hounjet from Melfort, Sask. Weapon trafficking 2 counts of possess a firearm dangerous to the public peace 2 counts of illegally transfer a firearm Transport a firearm in a careless manner Store a firearm in an unsafe manner Aggravated assault Trafficking of controlled substance (cannabis) Travis Matthew Miles from Saskatoon Possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking (methamphetamine) Thai Duong Tran from Vancouver Trafficking in a controlled substance (cocaine) Trafficking in a controlled substance (fentanyl) Trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine) Possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000 Raid locations in Saskatoon: The following are the addresses of locations searched in Saskatoon: 900 block Glacier Shores 100 block Rajput Way 2500 block 37th Street West 100 block Silverwood Road 1100 block Avenue Q South 1900 block 11th Street West 100 block 110th Street East 300 block Cockburn Crescent 100 block Brown Crescent 400 block Dickey Crescent Other locations: Star City, Sask. – 1 residence Melfort, Sask. – 1 business Nipawin, Sask. – 1 business Warman, Sask. – 2 residences Red Deer, Alta. – 2 residences Calgary – 1 vehicle |
Yesterday was a big day here at Funtober – and we aren’t just talking about the keg tapping at Oktoberfest in Munich, saying goodbye to the last Saturday of “official” Summer or the cooler weather here in the Philadelphia area that signals the start of fall. At around 11 AM EST yesterday, we had our 4 millionth visitor. That’s right – since Funtober started five years ago we have now welcomed slightly over 4 million people to our website. We’re extremely appreciative of everyone’s support and patronage! When we are grinding away on Oktoberfest and Halloween in the middle of February, it’s moments like this one that keep us going. It has been a few years since we have done a sweepstakes giveaway to thank you for your support. So we headed over to Target to grab a few pumpkin products for ourselves and a heap of tasty treats to send to one lucky Funtober guest. We just kept adding things to the cart – as you can see from the photo we got quite a few items! Here’s what you get: A box of pumpkin spice Oreos, pumpkin spice rolls, Kellogg’s Pumpkin Spice Crunch, Ghirardelli pumpkin spice caramel milk chocolate, Quaker pumpkin spice instant oatmeal, and Kellogg’s Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts. You also get baking materials – a can of Libby’s pumpkin, a Betty Crocker Pumpkin Bar mix, Duncan Hines pumpkin spice cupcakes, and Krusteaz Pumpkin Spice Muffin Mix. Wash it down with a package of pumpkin spice coffee and keep open packages fresh with the included Halloween wood clips. [fsb-social-bar facebook=”true” twitter=”true” static=”true”] The contest opens at 5 PM EST and will close next Sunday (Sept 25th) at 11:59 PM PST. Enter to win using the widget below: Funtober Fall Pumpkin Giveaway If you have questions, just ask! And if you want us to do more giveaways of fall products, please let us know! |
Paul George speaks with Israel Gutierrez about his 27-point effort in the second half, part of a 33-point game, to give the Pacers a 100-90 win over the Raptors. (1:37) TORONTO -- This is my opportunity. This is my team. That's not a catchy a slogan written on a billboard off the highway. That's Indiana Pacers All-Star forward Paul George's personal mindset. It's a mindset he developed after watching some of his other teammates step to the forefront to lead the Pacers during their rise through the Eastern Conference a couple of years ago. It's also a mindset George didn’t know he would have again during his long road back from a broken leg suffered almost two years ago while playing for Team USA. But there George was Saturday afternoon, darting in passing lanes to steal passes and making clutch baskets and assists in the second half as the Pacers took the air out of the Toronto Raptors and their fans in the Air Canada Center in their 100-90 Game 1 playoff victory. "Awesome," Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. "The biggest reason we won. Paul's shot-making at the end of the game was spectacular. It's been a long road for him in terms of actually getting back on the court. Before his injury, we were in the conference finals. I think this is an exciting day for him to get back to playoff basketball." George, who missed 76 games during the 2014-15 season while recovering from his broken leg, scored 27 of his 33 points in the second half when the Pacers overcame a two-point halftime deficit. He also had six assists and four rebounds to become the first Pacer since Jalen Rose in the 2000 NBA Finals to have at least 30 points and five assists in a playoff victory. George would be lying if he told you he knew he would have a performance like this in the playoffs again. He had hoped it would happen, but there were days he even questioned himself while he battled to get back on the court. Vogel gave George "love, support, friendship" and "kicks in the butt at times" throughout his recovery. "Some days I felt great, felt like I could have started that night," George said. "Some days I wanted to throw it all in, let Mother Nature heal it without doing any work. It was a little bit of both. I had great people around me. Put everything in their hands and trusted myself." Paul George outplayed DeMar DeRozan on both ends of the floor in the second half of Game 1 of their playoff series. John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports Saturday was George's first playoff game since Game 6 of the 2014 Eastern Conference finals against the Miami Heat. Gone were David West, Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson. It was George's turn to step to the forefront and lead the way after the Pacers missed the playoffs last season. "To be out of the playoffs last year and not being able to help my team get there, that was probably the biggest burden on me immediately after I got hurt, I'm not going to be able to get this group to the playoffs," George said. The pressure was there in the first half Saturday when he was just 2-of-9 from the field. George had assistant video coordinator Jhared Simpson slice up eight-second clips from the first half so that he could see how he needed to slow down and let the game come to him rather than force the issue. George brought life to the Pacers in the third quarter when he scored 17 points by going 6-of-7 from the field, including 3-of-3 on 3-pointers, when they outscored the Raptors by five to take a three-point lead into the fourth quarter. George had four of his six assists in the final quarter. "I was searching for someone to stop Paul George," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "I thought our normal rotation was a little skewed, just adding that extra player in there, but at the end it was searching for someone to stop Paul George. It wasn't really fair to put DeMarre [Carroll] in there after he got going and then try and turn the water off." What can't go unnoticed is that George showed why he's one of the NBA's best two-way players when he harassed and frustrated Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan into 5-of-19 shooting. "You don't see the best players in the NBA shying away from wanting to score and do what it takes offensively and then defend the other team's best scoring threat on the other end of the court," Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard said. "Paul embraces taking on that role." It's scary to think that George said he's still not physically where he was at before the injury. Saturday showed that he's on his way to getting there, though. The Pacers will need more of that from him if they expect to win the series. "[George is] not a one-dimensional player," Pacers point guard George Hill said. "He plays on both ends of the floor. As much as he can kill you on the offensive end, he can be disruptive on the defensive end. Any time he's playing like that, where he's giving you everything on the defensive and offensive end, we're a very special team." |
First a Pilot Project with 500 Homes “Smart grid” is the new big thing in the world of green, and despite some fuzziness on the definition of what a smart grid actually is, an update to our energy grid to make it “smarter” and more efficient is definitely overdue. The city of Amsterdam is the latest to join the party with a new pilot program that will be managed by IBM and Cisco, along with the Dutch utility Nuon. 500 homes will be outfitted with energy management systems, including smart meters and energy monitors. It is expected that the lucky people part of the pilot program will save on energy costs and reduce their CO2 emissions by “at least 14 percent.” This should help Amsterdam reach its goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2025. IBM writes: Through this project, IBM and Cisco aim to demonstrate how intelligence throughout the electrical grid can dramatically reduce outages and faults, improve responsiveness, handle current and future demand, increase efficiency and manage costs. [...] “Giving the citizens of Amsterdam more information and better control over their energy use will cut down on costs and consumption as well as reduce their overall impact on the environment,” said Marthin de Beer, senior vice president of Cisco’s Emerging Technologies Group. “Innovative cities like Amsterdam recognize the opportunity in using the standards-based intelligent communications network as a platform for economic development, better city management and improved quality of life for citizens. With this pilot, we hope to demonstrate how smart and connected communities can be more energy conscious and more green.” Make Energy Consumption Something Visible That’s definitely the key thing; empower people by giving them more information to make better informed choices. To most people, energy consumption is invisible, and it is not always clear how their actions have an impact. They think about energy only when times come to pay their bills, and even then it’s not quite clear how that energy is used. But give people clear information on the current electricity rate (if time-of-use pricing is implemented, and it should since it helps smooth down peaks, reducing the need for new power plants to be built) and which appliances in their homes are using the most energy, you create a feedback loop that nudges people in the right direction. It’s the same principle as the LCD screens showing MPG in hybrid cars; they teach people how to drive more efficiently. There’s no reason the same can’t happen with home energy use. Everybody wants a lower electricity bill, and most people would like to do something good for the environment. Just give them the tools… Via Treehugger |
Immutable.js is an awesome library for creating Immutable collections of data, hugely popular for React/Redux development, but not blessed with great documentation. Struggle no more, with this first in a series of in-depth tutorials, complete with live coding examples. What is Immutable.js? Immutable.js (or just Immutable from now on) is a library for creating collections of data, which, once created, cannot be changed. These collections are modelled on JavaScript’s Array , Map and Set objects, but with the significant difference that all methods to add, delete or update data in a collection do not mutate (i.e. change) the collection being acted upon. For example, Immutable’s push() method, which adds an item of data to an Immutable List , actually adds the item to a new copy of the List, leaving the original List collection completely unchanged. To see this, the following shows a standard JavaScript Array’s push() method acting on (and mutating) the array itself: // Standard mutating JavaScript Array push const collection = ['ironMan']; collection.push('captainAmerica'); // Output: collection; In contrast, the Immutable equivalent shows the original List completely unchanged: // Immutable.js non-mutating List.push const collection = Immutable.List.of('ironMan'); collection.push('captainAmerica'); // Output: collection; In this example, collection's push() method makes a copy of collection and pushes the new item onto the copy, leaving collection itself completely unchanged. To see the result of the push() method, we need to assign a new variable to it, as push returns the copy. // Immutable.js non-mutating List.push const collection = Immutable.List.of('ironMan'); const newCollection = collection.push('captainAmerica'); // Output: newCollection; Getting your head around Immutable collections Immutable lets us create complex objects comprising such things as JavaScript objects, arrays, or even nested arrays of objects with arrays, with each complex object acting as an unchanging value. However, this is difficult to picture, as we’re so used to JavaScript objects containing properties with constantly changing values. Think of a user object, for example, containing properties such as username , emailAddress , age , etc. These values could change at any time. With Immutable collections, however, the values of such properties can never change. How do you visualise this, let alone act on it? There are two ways that might help make this concept more concrete. Think of Immutable data as a value An immutable collection should be thought of as a value, such as a number. A number never changes. The number 7, for example, is always 7. If you add 1 to 7 you get a new value (i.e. 8 – you knew that, right?!), but that doesn’t change 7 itself – it’s still 7. Going back to our collection examples above, an Immutable collection is no different from a number. We can add an item to our collection, but that doesn’t change the original collection itself. Indeed, we can think of the collection’s push() method, which adds an item to an existing collection, as being equivalent to an addition operation on a number, which adds a new value to an existing number. In both cases, the original value – the collection and the number – are left completely unchanged, and a new value is returned. This is the essence of Immutable data. Think of Immutable data as representing the state of data Another way to think of an Immutable collection is to think of it as the state of its data at the specific point in time that the collection was created. Whenever we query that collection, we always get the state of its data that existed at its moment of creation. We might move on in time, but the collection itself never does. So whenever we query a collection to retrieve its data, we’re not saying to the collection “give me your data now”, we’re actually saying “give me your data as it existed when you (i.e. the collection) were first created.” It’s the difference between asking “Who is the President of the United States right now” – which obviously depends on when you ask the question – and “Who was the President of the United States on August 13th 2016” – which is a fact that will never change. Accordingly, any operation you perform on the data within an Immutable collection (e.g. add or remove an item) will change the state of that data at a later point in time, but the state of the data as it existed before the operation remains unchanged. What you’re left with after the operation is two collections – the first represents the state of the data before the operation, and the second represents the state of the data after the operation. The following example may help to clarify this: // state1 = the original state of the data at the time of // its creation: time 0 const state1_time0 = Immutable.List.of('ironMan'); // state2 = the new state of the data at a later time (time 1) // i.e. after a push operation has been performed const state2_time1 = state1_time0.push('captainAmerica'); // state1_time0 never changes, as it always reflects the state // of the data at time 0 state1_time0; How to perform operations on Immutable collections We’ve seen how to think of Immutable data; now we need to know how to operate on it. Immutable is a powerful library for manipulating our collections of data in a safe, immutable way (the clue’s in the title!). But it’s not a small library, and has many edge cases that can trap the unwary. Because of this, performing operations on Immutable collections is not something that can be explained easily in a single blog post. Well, not in a short blog post anyway! So here’s a collection of in-depth blog posts, each focused on one part of the Immutable API. Enjoy 🙂 P.S. I originally concluded this post with a bit of a rant about the quality of Immutable’s documentation and its reliance on auto-generated docs, which have few examples and API signatures written in TypeScript. However, I clearly offended a few people in the Open Source Community, which was never my intent, so I’ve removed the rant. The current issues some people face regarding the documentation (and what I was complaining about) can be found here, here, here, and here (and doubtless other places as well!). |
The Senate on Wednesday failed to advance debate on a bill to return to lower interest rates on federal student loans for another year -- effectively failing on a bill that simply kicked the can down the road for a year. Last week, interest rates on federal student loans doubled from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Both Democrats and Republicans say they are in favor of lower rates, but they disagree over whether or not to tie the interest rate to financial markets. The measure taken up Wednesday would have returned rates on newly-issued loans back to 3.4 percent for another year. The Senate needed 60 votes to proceed with the bill, but it only received 51 votes. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday that a number of senators from both parties met that morning to try to hash out a compromise. If the rate isn't fixed, it will impact the seven million people who will take out a loan this year. According to CBS News analyst Mellody Hobson, a higher rate could have a noticeable impact on the economy. Debt takes a toll in various ways; for instance, someone with student loan debt is 36 percent less likely to own a home. A bill passed in the Republican-led House would peg rates to the U.S. Treasury borrowing cost, plus 2.5 percent. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects could save the government $3.7 billion over 10 years. Congressional Democrats, however, object to filling government coffers with money from students, pointing out that students would likely pay higher and higher rates under the GOP plan. Ahead of Wednesday's vote, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., slammed the Senate for its failure to move any plan forward. "To an outside observer, this should have been an easy, bipartisan slam dunk," he said on the Senate floor. "The proposals put forward by President Obama and congressional Republicans have been striking similar. Yet here we are after the July 4th deadline and Senate Democrats are still blocking bipartisan student loan reform." |
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore and incumbent Sen. Luther Strange are headed to a Sept. 26 runoff in Alabama’s Republican Senate primary after finishing atop the field in Tuesday’s election, according to a projection from The Associated Press. The other major candidate, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, finished third in the race for the seat vacated earlier this year by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. State law calls for a runoff if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote. Moore, the “Ten Commandments judge” beloved by his Christian conservative supporters, is famous for having been removed twice from his position on Alabama’s Supreme Court. “This election, ladies and gentleman, is not over,” Moore told supporters Tuesday night. “There’s much left to do. I’m running to make a difference in Washington. And those in Washington are scared.” Strange, the state’s former attorney general and a favorite of the establishment, was temporarily appointed to the seat in April after Sessions joined the Trump administration. He has benefited from an endorsement from President Trump -- and millions spent on his behalf by a super PAC linked to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Speaking to supporters after the election was called, Strange thanked Trump, telling the story of how the president let him know he would be endorsing him. “The reason he did that is he cares about our state and he knows that I’m the person in this race who is going to help him make this country great again,” Strange said. Brooks, a conservative House member who favors strict immigration policies, enjoyed the support of conservatives like Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity. He announced during his election night speech that he planned to run for re-election to his Huntsville congressional seat in 2018. Other Republicans in the GOP race included state Sen. Trip Pittman and Christian Coalition leader Randy Brinson. Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney under the Clinton administration who was endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden, won the Democratic nomination. Jones defeated Robert Kennedy, Jr., a Navy veteran. Alabama hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in more than 20 years. The rollicking GOP primary began with Strange's appointment by then-Gov. Robert Bentley, who later resigned in the cloud of a scandal. While Strange has said he did Bentley no favors, his challengers have taken repeated swipes at him for seeking an appointment from the governor when Strange, as attorney general, was in charge of an investigation. During the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Brooks supported Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, something his opponents have used against him. A super PAC with ties to McConnell, the Senate Leadership Fund, has been running television ads of Brooks’ past critical comments about Trump. The Senate Leadership Fund has also run ads against Moore. “We congratulate Big Luther Strange for closing the gap in the final week and positioning himself well for the runoff,” Steven Law of the Senate Leadership Fund said in a statement. “We are proud to have strongly supported President Trump’s number-one ally in this race, and we believe the president’s support will be decisive as we head into the next phase of this campaign, which Senator Strange will win in September.” Meanwhile, Brooks worked to tie Strange to the Republican establishment and McConnell, whom he pledged not vote for as Republican majority leader. After the September runoff, the general election will be held Dec. 12. Fox News’ Joe Weber and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
@physicalscience said: Hooray, this complaint again.. Please tell us, oh programmer god, what sacred languages are in your holy pantheon... Calling Js, PHP, or Ruby a language able to produce production quality code is one reason I sort of hate the internet @physicalscience said: @sbarre said: Okay well first lets talk about type safety...something I think would be pretty important to large projects. Look, JS was made in a week and it was meant for making websites look pretty. I know V8 made it sort of legit with nodeJs and all that but it is still garbage. PhP is again another garbage web scripting language that when ballooned out into a large project makes bringing on new people hard as fuck and management of legacy code a pain in the ass. Ruby, though, I mean come on there is a reason twitter had to do a huge overhaul. Look I am no programmer snob, although I am ALLL ABOUT THAT SCALA, but certain languages are meant to serve a certain purpose and it is super annoying to deal with people trying to make JS the only language we use. Jesus Christ my friend over at IBM had to like jump mountains to convince people to at least convert to Typescript. Okay also I have been thinking about this and I have another rant about JS. Last year I was working for a company and a buddy of mine got brought on to work on a project dealing with data visualization... all written in JS using nodeJS. The entire project was fucking tens of thousands of lines long and nearly unreadable. He started off writing some tests to get familiar with the project and found this object being passed around all over the place, which was initially a request object passed into some callback. He sees this thing everywhere and has no idea why so he prints out the entire contents of the object which turns out to be like a fuck ton of random shit because other devs on the project had just been putting random shit that they needed into the object and using it because they were lazy. It ended up making the code nearly untestable. This is the main problem with JS, everything is an object with no type and once you have a team on a project it is super easy to make it super unmanageable and basically from the start it is untestable. Another reason: Engineering 101 - the more code you have, the more likely its broken somewhere. Vanilla js is nothing and to get a project working you are most likely going to grab a million dependencies to get basic functionality. All those dependencies now better work 100% so your shit doesn't break. Too bad this happens though and fucking breaks everything It really honestly is a language that has a good use case but for some reason has assholes trying to shove it all over the place where it just doesn't work. Oh yea also it's a fucking single threaded asynchronous language so you know, fuck that. Anyone who has dealt with JS in a in depth way will shiver at the pyramid of hell, because at some point you are going to have callbacks on callbacks for so long you will have to scroll the page horizontal to see where it ends. |
INDIANAPOLIS — Chris Ballard never formally met head coach Chuck Pagano before Ballard interviewed for the Colts’ vacant general manager post in January. The only interaction between the two through that process was a quick phone call. So once Ballard decided to take Indy’s offer, he knew exactly where to go next. “I just remember accepting the job from Mr. Irsay and saying to him, ‘I gotta go visit with Chuck,’” Ballard said, after a steamy morning practice at the team’s facility. “I needed to make him feel comfortable about what we had in front of us, make sure that he knew I was going to give him and the staff every chance to succeed.” Ballard, like the rest of us, knew the history in the building. And that reinforced what the newly-minted personnel boss already believed—that a GM’s relationship with the head coach is as important as any within an NFL franchise. This, of course, is where Pagano’s five-year partnership with ex-GM Ryan Grigson crumbled. There was squabbling and finger-pointing, and then an early 2016 reconciliation just when things seemed darkest. But an 8-8 season followed and led to Grigson’s ouster, which left Pagano in the precarious spot of being the coach a new GM inherited. There most certainly was baggage here. But Ballard didn’t feel the need to address it with Pagano. Instead, he went to the head coach’s office looking to get off on the right foot. Two hours later, Ballard left having felt that was accomplished. “I said, ‘Listen, we can say all the things we want to say, but the only thing that builds trust is time,’” Ballard continued. “We’ve just both have to work, and respect each other’s jobs. He has to respect what personnel does and I’m gonna respect what coaching does, and make sure we have a bunch of honest conversations along the way to make sure we build the relationship the right way.” Chuck Pagano is entering his sixth season as the Colts head coach. Zach Bolinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images In this week’s Game Plan, we’ll have more on the NFL’s important move to full-time officials; an explanation from Packers tight end/personality Martellus Bennett; a look at the offseason’s offensive line crisis bleeding into camp; why Chicago burnt out Jay Cutler and Miami could rejuvenate him; and how Matthew Stafford is just the latest looking to prove that nearing 30 is almost irrelevant for quarterbacks. But we start in Indy, where the Colts are in reset mode. It’s been 30 months since they were blown out by New England in the AFC title game. The pair of 8-8 seasons that followed completely changed the paradigm for Irsay’s franchise. They aren’t necessarily rebuilding. But what’s happening here seems closer to that than it does the doorstep of the Super Bowl. And that could certainly make people uncomfortable—with some new, and some old mixed together on the football side—in a place that’s dealt with its share of awkwardness over the past few years. Which is why both Ballard and Pagano knew what had to happen. So far, so good. “There wasn’t one of those a-ha moments like, ‘This is gonna be phenomenal,’” Pagano told me. “I can tell you six, seven months down the road from when he was hired that he’s brought this building together, he’s brought personnel and coaching together, he’s unified everybody and the culture. It’s us. We’re all here working for one reason and one reason only and that’s to win, and get ourselves back in a position to get in the playoffs and do what they’ve done here forever. “It takes time to build that relationship. It takes time to build trust.” Both guys know it’s the wins and losses that will test it. There’s no fast-forwarding that part. But the differences in the team’s makeup are certainly visible to the head coach, and a sign of how the two are working together: • Pagano himself says it: “We had to get younger and bigger and faster.” The size difference is most notable in the front seven. Free agents Johnathan Hankins and Al Woods and rookie Grover Stewart make three additions on the D-line topping 325 pounds. Jabaal Sheard and John Simon are stout on the edges. The Colts won’t be as easily bullied. • To that end, Pagano took note of how Ballard has been stringent in sticking to prescribed physical parameters, something that can be seen in the Kansas City teams he helped build. “When we met, we (as coaches) said, ‘Here’s the measureables, here’s the job description for the 3-technique, the nose, whatever, so they can go out and find out those guys,” Pagano said. It’s shown up in the athleticism of the draft class, with safety Malik Hooker, corner Quincy Wilson, running back Marlon Mack and Stewart all looking ready to play. • In the aftermath of the player-acquisition phase of the process, Pagano could see the vision come to life: “Tough. Smart. Competitive. They’re going to have the tangible things that you can see on tape—height, weight, speed. Football character. Guys that love to compete. Guys that love the game.” It helped that Ballard had background in Pagano’s defense, since Pagano and Chiefs defensive coordinator Bob Sutton both coached for Rex Ryan. Learning offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski’s scheme, and what he wanted in each player, was a little tougher. But mostly, it just took time, as Ballard explains, “In draft meetings, we sat together for a whole week and just went through players. Tell me how this player fits. Can he play in our scheme? Do you have a role with him?” It wasn’t always perfect, but Ballard learned from watching John Dorsey and Andy Reid work together in Kansas City (despite how that ended), and Pagano had his ideal in having seen how John Harbaugh and Ozzie Newsome put it together in Baltimore, which Pagano calls “the blueprint.” And it all came back to a pretty simple concept—the evaluators are picking players for the coaches. “Making sure that I understood what they wanted in a player, that’s always the most difficult thing,” Ballard says. “You’re not bringing players in for your ego. You’re bringing them in so the coaches can be successful. You match what they want. … You can’t just shove players down coaches’ throats. There has to be a level of agreement from both sides. And then when there’s a disagreement, we put the tape on.” “It was about us,” Pagano adds. “It was about the organization. It wasn’t about two sides—coaching and personnel. We’re one. It was easy.” Now, getting the team back to where it was during the Bill Polian years won’t be easy, and you don’t have to look far to see recognition of that. As I understand it, Andrew Luck’s been dealing with pain in his throwing shoulder for more than two years, and his surgery was about getting that right for the next decade. So the Colts are going to take their time with Luck. He might be ready for Week 1. He might not. But they’re going to be cautious as can be in getting him back. There’s confidence the organizational arrow is again pointing up, but also acknowledgement it’ll take some time, which means it makes no sense to rush the QB. And that makes the approach here similar to one Ballard told Pagano they should take in relationship-building—allowing time to forge the partnership. “You’re not going to always agree on everything. You have to be willing to listen, you have to be willing to grow,” Pagano said. “It’s not ‘this for that.’ It’s communication, and it’s talking, talking, talking. It’s face-to-face. It’s nothing else. You spend time, you develop those relationships, and they just get stronger. I’m not the man I want to be, but I’m sure glad I’m not the man I used to be. That’s my mantra. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Even through the midst of all of it, Ryan did a phenomenal job. We won a lot of games. We shared a ton of great moments together. Forty-nine wins, three playoff wins, some great comebacks, what he did in my absence when I was gone in 2012. Lot of great moments. So I’ve got no regrets. All you can do is look back and say, ‘OK, how can I get better?’” By the looks of it, he and Ballard have spent the past few months figuring that out. FIRST AND 10 Rookie safety Jamal Adams has been turning some heads at the Jets training camp. Alan Schaefer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images 1. Forget the wins and losses, and forget the quarterbacks. The Jets just needed to add young talent to the roster after taking it down to the studs in February and March. So good news then. Early returns indicate that’s just what they did in drafting safeties Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye inside the Top 40 picks. 2. The Jaguars’ chances to improve, as it would be with a Tom Coughlin/Doug Marrone operation, are going to run right through the lines of scrimmage. The offensive line is, of course, dependent on Cam Robinson coming through at left tackle. The defensive line, on the other hand, has shown plenty of progress, particularly with Yannick Ngakoue and Michael Bennett flashing early in camp. 3. Carolina’s coaches insisted that Kelvin Benjamin would be just fine when rumblings about the fourth-year star’s weight were boiling over. It’s easier to believe them after Benjamin spent the first quarter Thursday night boxing out the Texans’ secondary. 4. A list of running backs who had a higher APY (average per year) than Devonta Freeman will on his new five-year, $41.25 million deal: Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Steven Jackson, DeAngelo Williams, Arian Foster, Marshawn Lynch. Freeman is the highest paid back right now. But he’s not closest to highest paid ever at his position. And that’s sort of weird, but indicative of the running back market. 5. There will be a lot of attention on offensive rookies John Ross and Joe Mixon when the Bengals open their season in a month. Here’s another name to watch: Tyler Boyd. Early in camp, the second-year receiver – who was close a lot last year – looks like he’s ready to break through after a respectable 54-catch rookie year. 6. Speaking of the Bengals, I’d be surprised if they move AJ McCarron for anything short of a blow-em-away deal. Cincinnati could have had a second-round pick for him this offseason, and chose to keep him, with the logic being if they deal him, they’ll have to spend a pick to replace him. And if they just keep him and let him walk in 2018, they’ll get a comp pick back anyway. 7. Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said this week that Le’Veon Bell isn’t helping himself holding out, and maybe that’s true. But other people I know in that building, based on how Bell handled last year’s suspension, aren’t too worried. They’ve seen him be away and come back ready to go. They trust he can do it again. 8. Keep tabs on Titans’ second-year Clydesdale Derrick Henry. Along with DeMarco Murray, the team now feels it has two legitimate starting running backs on roster, given the camp that the former Heisman Trophy winner Henry is having. 9. Vince Wilfork probably doesn’t have a real shot at the Hall of Fame, and maybe he shouldn’t. But that he’s in the conversation shows that sometimes stats shouldn’t mean much. He had a total (!) of 16.0 sacks over his 13 years in the NFL. And he had a better career than a lot of players who have posted that many sacks in a single season. 10. Speaking of the Hall of Fame, now that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is in, it’s worth wondering if Jimmy Johnson will get into the team’s ring of honor. I’d bet it happens before too long. FOUR DOWNS Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images 1. Will full-time officials make a difference? On Wednesday, the NFLRA ratified the implementation of full-time officials that the league had sought for quite some time. And the referee’s union did it thanks to two pretty significant concessions that should at least help the NFL avoid the pool of qualified officials thinning out: 1) An official can’t be compelled to go full-time; and 2) Full-time officials can maintain outside employment, provided the NFL remains that official’s primary employer. The concern from the jump with going to full-time officials was that many of the most qualified guys were also the most accomplished off the field, and, as such, the most likely to leave officiating if they were forced to focus completely on football. As it was negotiated, those officials can now either say “no” if they’re recruited to go full-time or keep their toe in another pool if they want to do it. To me, that’s a sensible solution to give the NFL the dedicated group it wanted while making sure the larger group is as strong as possible. Some more details from the agreement? The set-up—ensuring that each field position is represented among the 21-24 full-timers and no more than five come from any one spot—should give the league a wide range of perspectives from game action. And to be sure of it, those employed will have to engage at the league level. The full-timers will be at meetings for the competition committee, general managers advisory committee, coaches’ subcommittee and player safety advisory panel. They’ll also be at the league office once a month, work OTAs and minicamps, help mentor new officials, participate in college and high school officiating clinics, scout lower-level officials, work at least one game day with Alberto Riveron and Co. on Park Ave., do video review work, and keep a constant dialogue with the league office. That’s just in case you were wondering how they’ll fill all the time. “In-season, there isn’t a whole more that guys can do other than what they’re required to do to get ready for the next—studying video, looking at tendencies and all that,” said NFLRA executive director Scott Green. “The big difference for them will be during the dark period (designated time off for all part-timers that runs from the end of the season until May 15).” So what difference will you be able to see? As I wrote Wednesday, the league hopes that, through improved communication, the immediate affect will be more consistency from crew to crew. We’ll see if that much is visible. 2. The NFL’s offensive line crisis. What have I noticed in a week-and-a-half at training camps with nine teams? How the offensive line storyline of this offseason (a bad draft class leading to the overpayment of a mediocre free-agent group) has carried right over into the dog days of summer. To refresh, eight free-agent linemen (none of them was Anthony Munoz) got $9 million or more per year in free agency, which was in anticipation of the aforementioned lackluster college crop. How lackluster? Well, for the first time in 12 years, no offensive linemen went in the first 10 picks of the draft; and for the first time ever (yes, I went all the way back to 1936, through 82 drafts), no offensive linemen went in the top 15. The first one off the board was 25-year-old Utah tackle Garrett Bolles, to Denver at 20. So two Sundays ago, I was in Minnesota. And while the focus has been in their offensive backfield, the Vikings believe their hopes hinge on a line rebuilt around newcomers Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers. (Reiff was on the shelf that afternoon). Last Thursday, I was in Indianapolis, where Ballard decided to stand pat up front, and hope for development with the young players Grigson brought in, knowing that it’ll need to be better whenever Luck, and his surgically repaired throwing shoulder, are fully functional again. On Thursday afternoon, I shot down to Cincy, where the Bengals are optimistic they can bounce back—so long as young tackles Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher grow into their roles. And I swung through Detroit on Monday, where the Lions were trying to figure out how to replace injured sophomore left tackle Taylor Decker. And they aren’t the only ones with a lot of uncertainty up front. Seattle. Houston. The Rams. The Jets. The Chargers. Denver. Carolina. And so on. The winter and spring seemed to signal a crisis in developing young offensive linemen in the era of the college spread. From what I’ve seen so far, this fall might well confirm it. 3. The sense in signing Jay Cutler. So what makes the Dolphins think that 2016 wasn’t an aberration for Cutler? Well, for one, the then-Bears quarterback was never right last year, and Miami knows it. While his thumb injury first made news after Chicago’s Week 2 loss to the Eagles, he actually initially hurt it in the team’s Week 1 loss to the Texans, and he was still dealing with when he tried to come back in midseason. After that, there was another factor—how the Bears’ instability started to wear him down. Cutler was smart enough to see a bad situation when he was in one, and he had a string of those over eight seasons as a Bear. In that time, the franchise cycled through three head coaches, three general managers, six offensive coordinators, five different leading receivers and countless offensive line combinations. That’s not making an excuse for Cutler, who certainly could have fought through all of it better. It’s just an explanation of why Miami might be a better fit. Those close to Cutler say he believes the Dolphins offense is the most talented group he’s had since his early years in Denver. If you take that, and combine it with Cutler’s affection for Miami coach Adam Gase—he had his best Chicago season in Gase’s scheme and there’s a relationship there going back a decade—you can see where there’s at least guarded optimism that this one will be a little different for the 34-year-old veteran going into Year 12. 4. Martellus Bennett explains. Last week, Packers tight end Martellus Bennett sub-tweeted this at Jets rookie Jamal Adams, after Adams said he “would die on the field” if it was his choice: Look football is great but I ain't dying for this shit. Lol. — Martellus Bennett (@MartysaurusRex) July 31, 2017 So I figured I’d ask Bennett about it, and my first question was whether his feelings on Adams’ comments related back to the Boston University CTE study, which is what Adams was referencing. He said it wasn’t. “The study was skewed,” Bennett said. “There were variables in the study that weren’t 100 percent either.” What was it about then? “Find a higher purpose in life,” he continued. “For them, they’re young. But I mean, look, football’s gonna end. It’s inevitable. If you’re lucky, it’s three-and-a-half years, that’s the average. Football’s gonna end. One day, everyone has to retire. You’re gonna have to stop playing, stop coaching, it’s going to end. But life is going to continue after football. … “For me, it just messes up the message for the younger kids growing up, to think that it’s on the level where you have to die to perform on a high level, to be good at something. It’s not true. It’s not true at all. It’s misinformation – us being on the platform we’re on, we can’t say s--- like that. Only one percent of kids from college go to the NFL. There are so many great opportunities. No longer do you have to dribble a ball or catch a ball to be great, those days are gone. There are multiple options for you to be successful. If you want to be a football player, great, you can be a good football player, you can be a great football player, you can still have a life. Football’s not the end-all, be-all. This isn’t a career, it’s a job. A career is something you can do for a lifetime. You can’t do this for a lifetime. … Think the owner would die for the team? No, they’re gonna sell the team and continue with their life. I just think, I don’t know, for me the logic and thinking is very immature. There’s just room for growth.” Bennett is nothing if not interesting. It’s good to see here he’s taking an interest in where younger players are headed. TRAINING CAMP LESSON FOR THIS WEEK Matt Stafford worked with independent quarterback coaches in the offseason to fine-tune his mechanics and mental approach. Paul Sancya/AP These days, it seems like every quarterback has had his own version of a swing coach from the time he could grip a football. Matthew Stafford had one when he was a kid, too. The guy’s name was John Stafford. And after those first few lessons from dad, Matt would just rely on the coaches for whatever team he was on, eschewing the outside help that so many guys seek out now. “I was 8, and my dad was teaching me in the front yard,” Stafford said. “I felt like I threw the ball pretty well. My dad understood the mechanics of throwing and got me into a pretty good spot.” It’s hard to argue much with the results. Stafford won a state title in high school, started three seasons in the SEC, became the No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, and has made two Pro Bowls. And yet, 20 years later at 28 years old, he headed back to the well that his dad dug for him when he was in elementary school. Over the last few months, Stafford made trips to Orange County to visit with Adam Dedeaux and Tom House—who work with nearly half the starting quarterbacks in the NFL—and try to take his game to the next level. Which is where we find our training camp lesson: Closing in on 30 years old used to matter for a quarterback, and it still does, but in a much better way. In today’s NFL, players at that position are actually getting better after 30. Four of the league’s top five in passer rating last year were in their 30s, and four of the last six Super Bowls were won by quarterbacks in their 30s. Lions coach Jim Caldwell doesn’t think that’s a coincidence, either. In fact, as he sees it, his quarterback’s growth last year is proof that he gets it the same way that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning did when they were around his age. “It’s a natural progression,” Caldwell said. “I always talk about that window between the fifth year and the eighth year. What kind of climb are they making? Are they climbing? If they’re climbing, you can tell you have somebody special and that’s what he’s doing at this point in time. He’s always been a fine leader, he’s just started to get a little more vocal, he takes a little more ownership of things, runs the show. “He’s always done all the little things to get better. That’s the thing about him now, he’s looking at the fine details of every single little thing that we do, and trying to find a way to improve it.” And if he needed motivation to take it to the next level, last year gave it to him. Stafford got off to a red-hot start, and his passer rating was 100.5 through three quarters of the season. A dislocated middle finger on his throwing hand caused his play to plummet in December, but having the taste of how far he could push his game (coordinator Jim Bob Cooter has helped) pushed Stafford to find new solutions. One of those happened to come in the form of Dedeaux and House, who came at the recommendation of, among others, Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan. “At a certain point of your career, you think you’re playing a high level and you’re just trying to find every little thing you can that could possibly make you better,” Stafford said. “I wasn’t going out there 100 percent dead set on, Hey, this is what I’m gonna do. I was going there on a see-what-they’re-about basis. And I liked what I heard and saw, some of that stuff comes really naturally for me, and some of it I have to work extremely hard to get to. “But it’s nothing the average fan is going to be able to see. It’s a lot of little, tiny tweaks, and then there’s a whole off-the-field side of it that’s a positive too.” Stafford didn’t want to get into too much detail—he did say the off-field part focuses on self-evaluation—but he affirmed he’s seen a difference. Whether it works, in the end, remains to be seen. But just the act of making the effort to fine-tune everything is something that bodes well for Stafford’s longevity, if for no other reason than it’s how it’s worked for a number of other quarterbacks of this generation. “As you gain experience in this league, you keep finding ways to challenge yourself mentally,” Stafford said. “That’s one of the ways, just to be as detail oriented as you can possibly be. … I’m always looking for ways to get better, and this was an opportunity.” The Lions believe a healthy Stafford could easily pick up where the injury knocked him off last year, and show all that progress he made was sustainable. Which is to say they’re pretty sure that monster contract they’re about to give him will be worth it. Recent history could bring some comfort there too. • Question or comment? Email us at talkback@themmqb.com. |
Paul Pogba's father has claimed the Juventus midfielder "wants to play in a better league." Pogba is currently on international duty with France at Euro 2016, but that hasn't stopped speculation that he could be on his way out of Turin for good. Both Manchester United and Real Madrid have made contact over the 23-year-old's availability, with the La Liga side said to be his preferred destination. "Sign for Real Madrid? Interesting, yes," Fassou Antoine Pogba told TV station Cuatro, in quotes reported by AS. "What we want is that he plays in a better league "He will decide on which team he wishes to play and we are considering that now." Pogba's next appearance could be for France when they take on Iceland in Sunday's Euro 2016 quarterfinal. Follow @ESPNFC on Twitter to keep up with the latest football updates. |
I won’t be able to write this article without including my favorite bicycle pun, so I might as well get it over with. One person says, “There’s a new bikeway in downtown St. Paul.” The second person responds, “What’s a bikeway?” “About 20 pounds …” OK, so there’s a new bikeway in downtown St. Paul! Keen observers of the downtown landscape will have noticed summertime construction on Jackson Street, one block East of Robert. On Thursday the city released the plans, name, and logo for newly christened Capital City Bikeway, and now you can ride a bicycle on the newly paved asphalt to your heart’s content. (Note that is capital with an ‘A’.) Though it doesn’t get you very far right now, the bikeway lays out an ambitious vision for downtown streets, where if you use your rose-colored imagination, it’s possible to glimpse a streetscape revolution. The new bikeway’s innovative features make it the first Dutch-style urban trail in the state, or maybe the country — and reveal a future where downtown St. Paul might transform from an unbikeable barrier into a hub of trails from all corners of the city. Not your usual bike lane One frustration for beginning bicyclists is that bike infrastructure comes in all shapes and sizes. As bicycling has evolved in U.S. cities, there has been a lack of consensus about what kinds of designs meet the needs of the most people. Should you build bike lanes, side paths, bike boulevards, separated lanes, or all of the above? (There’s even a school of bicycling that has long advocated for building nothing at all; all you need is training and the right attitude.) The Jackson segment of the Capital City Bikeway, which will be completed next year, puts a new option on the table. More than anything it looks most like the kind of curb-separated side path you might see in Copenhagen, which would be a new idea for an American city. (Minneapolis’ upcoming Washington Avenue project might resemble this treatment, or the extensive downtown bike trail in Indianapolis.) Full disclosure: I served on the Citizens Advisory Committee that helped to shape the plans, designs, and route of the bikeway. (I also wrote my doctoral dissertation on bike planning … so you’re probably lucky this article is as short as it is!) “The planning tries to do two things: to create better spaces in downtown, and to overcome some barriers that keep people from getting into and out of downtown on a bike,” explained Reuben Collins, an engineer in the city’s Public Works Department. The sticky wicket for bike planning has always been figuring out a way to build separated lanes in urban areas. Preference surveys suggest most riders prefer “sidepath” style bike trails like the ones you might see along both sides of the Mississippi River. But separated trails are difficult in complex urban places, and most planners reserve these more expensive designs for routes with few intersections, such as next to parks or water. But bringing a bike-trail-like design into a downtown puts St. Paul on the cutting edge of bike planning for once. “The biggest difference that people will see is that this is essentially a trail in a downtown setting,” said Reuben Collins. “There aren’t really any examples of that in the metro or even nationwide. Typically in downtowns you’re more likely to see on-street bike lanes or protected lanes with flexible bollards. But this is one of the first elevated two-way protected trails through a downtown.” In bike planning, the devil is in the details. And the Capital City Bikeway takes the time to focus on things like way-finding and intersection treatment. Formerly, Jackson Street had two lanes of one-way through traffic with two lanes of on-street parking. The new design takes half of the parking and turns it into a curb-protected bike lane, adding in landscaping, signage, a new logo, and bicycle-specific signals at intersections. Planners are careful to emphasize that the bikeway isn’t just about bicycles, but is aimed at improving the sidewalk for everyone. “The entire design of Jackson is more of a placemaking effort than an effort to simply move bikes,” Collins explained. “A lot of effort went into the aesthetics of the corridor and to capture a different crowd of bicyclists than you might find in bike lanes.” First part of a yet unfunded plan First, the bad news. This week’s opening ceremony celebration is only for a small part of the future bikeway, the stretch from the Mississippi River and the Sam Morgan Trail up to 7th Place. (The rest of the North-South Jackson connection will be built next construction season, reaching University Avenue and the start of the regional Gateway Trail that runs all the way to Stillwater.) Courtesy of the City of St. Paul Planned bike routes The city was able to accomplish this dramatic reconfiguration because Jackson Street was slated for an already-expensive reconstruction, where even the curbs and sidewalks were being rebuilt. (During the construction a lot of other work took place as well, such as replacing century-old sewers and other below-ground utilities.) “The idea for the bikeway came up in a couple of different places,” Mayor Chris Coleman told me this week. “There was our work around street vitality, the 8-80 plan that put $27 million into a fund to create more walkable, bikeable spaces on our streets. And we did a lot of work putting together the St. Paul bicycle plan that has been long time coming, looking at a holistic citywide bike network that navigates through downtown.” The Jackson Street project was expensive, eating up a huge part of the dedicated 8-80 funding. But it’s a mistake to think that the bikeway was the big driver of costs; according to the city, the street had to be reconstructed anyway, and designing the pavement and concrete with a different audience in mind was relatively easy to do once the street was already torn up. In the meantime, the rest of the plan is in search of funding. “This segment will be completed in next year, in 2017,” Coleman explained. “And then obviously these plans require identifying resources and building the system out as quickly as we can.” Part of the plan released this week includes some interim treatments that might make some bike connections while St. Paul searches for street reconstruction money. These might include swapping parking for bollard-protected lanes, or restriping a few street connections, urban bike hacks that are a priority for the city’s bicycling advocates. “I’m looking forward to the bikeway,” said Mike Sonn, co-chair of the St. Paul bicycle Coalition, who worked hard to push for the adoption of the citywide bike plan last year. “Once completed, I foresee a lot of demand for the extension and completion of the full loop. I hope the city is ready to expedite a temporary protected loop as it gathers funding to permanently complete it.” (Personally, I’m enthusiastic about the potential to double the size of the bikeway with the proposal to turn Fourth Street into an east-west bike/ped street, as early as next year. Similarly, the interim treatment proposal for 10th Street would offer an invaluable connection to get bicyclists safely to and from Summit Avenue.) The downtown gray zone Compared to mostly flat Minneapolis, bicycling in St. Paul poses some obvious topographical challenges. It doesn’t really matter which direction you are coming from — east, west, north and south — bicyclists have to negotiate some kind of hill, and some of them can be quite hefty! MinnPost photo by Bill Lindeke Downtown St. Paul might look close, but it’s very hard to bike there. “Downtown is one of the biggest challenges,” Reuben Collins said. “When we created the bike plan, we heard over and over from people that they don’t feel comfortable riding bikes in downtown.” Eventually the bikeway seeks to reverse that dynamic, connecting downtown to bike lanes and trails up the hills in all directions. And even the first Jackson Street let might provide some relief and prove popular for St. Paul cyclists of all stripes. “I’m most excited about the idea that Jackson Street, on its own, makes this critical connection between the Sam Morgan and Gateway trails,” Collins said. “For many years, the Gateway trail ended in this area underneath a freeway. After this project, that trail will be continuous all the way to the river.” St. Paul has long lagged Minneapolis when it comes to bicycling. Topography aside, the downtown dead zone, where bike lanes disappear, has been one big reason why. Along with the much-needed connection, the even bigger promise of today’s announcement was that the future of downtown St. Paul might tie the city’s fragmented bike network together for the first time. For many of the city’s long-struggling bicyclists, and for downtown street life, it would make a world of difference. |
DAYTON, Nev. (MyNews4.com & KRNV) -- Students from are angry about the temporary leave of their teacher, Ms. Elizabeth Clausen. She assigned them a controversial and asked them to form opinions about how it represents our nation's history. "The way that everyone is looking at this situation, they don't know the context of what's going on and they don't know that we're just forming our own opinion, we're not being told what to think," said Cameron George, one of Ms. Clausen's students. The HR Director for the said that they will conduct interviews from everyone involved and investigate the motives behind this picture. "Nobody's listening to what the juniors have to say," said Felicia Dukek, another student of Ms. Clausen. "We're the ones that are in the class everyday, we're the ones that took that final and then... parents' opinions are irrelevant...They have nothing to do with it." The district asked Clausen not to speak out about the assignment. As of right now, the students don't know when, or if, their teacher will return. "She's a good teacher, she knows how to get us involved and I didn't know teaching was a crime," said Dylan Torgerson, a student of Ms. Clausen. The students have created a hashtag for their teacher (#FREECLAUSEN) that has been trending on social media. |
All India Radio (AIR) Director General Fayyaz Sheheryar on Saturday announced that the government-owned broadcaster will have its services on Amazon’s Echo Dot in the next three-to-six months’ time. Advertising Amazon Echo (shortened and referred to as Echo) is a brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon.com. The devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal service Alexa, which responds to the name “Alexa”. “AIR is working to provide Virtual Private Network which will provide seamless broadcasting service to any part of the country,” Sheheryar said on the eve of Public Service Broadcasting Day here in Meghalaya. Informing that websites of AIR are developed which will have all stations across India incorporated, Sheheryar said: “Mobile app of All India Radio is being developed to utilise the existing platforms with over 20 live streaming channels. AIR is also looking forward to introducing HD radio in the coming days.” Congratulating Prasar Bharati on celebrating its 20th anniversary, he said: “AIR is the largest news-gathering and disseminating apparatus in the world. The sheer enormity of its output is mind-boggling.” The Director General said AIR news bulletins, current affair programmes and other genres of programmes, broadcast both in general and special audience segments, have been strengthening the country’s democratic fabric. Advertising “AIR, in keeping with modern trends in the broadcasters of repute, is serving its effective tools of radio plus the social media platform which has an amazing following and a quick public response speciality that attracts Indians, Indians abroad and non-Indians with a deep interest in Indian affairs.” |
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