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Gerry Adams got very tetchy last week when David Cameron claimed, “British resolve saw off the IRA’s assaults on our way of life”. According to Adams “this is a distortion of recent history. It also betrays a worrying ignorance on the part of a British premier of the dynamics which have propelled the Irish peace process for many years. The reality is that the IRA was never defeated and that again and again it was Irish republicans, including the IRA leadership, which took bold steps to bolster the peace process and to maintain positive political momentum”. Yada yada and blah blah, Mr Adams. The IRA was defeated. The terrorism of the Provisionals from 1970-1997 was about removing the British presence and footprint from Northern Ireland, emasculating unionism as a cultural and political force, eclipsing and replacing ‘old-style nationalism’ on both sides of the border and building a new, united Ireland. Well, it may have escaped his notice, but the IRA’s violence didn’t deliver any of that. Of course, he can’t admit that, anymore than he can admit that he was an integral part of the IRA’s war machine for decades. And because he can’t admit it – and nor can any of his comrades – they have fallen back on the absurd mantra that they were somehow bolsterers of a peace and reconciliation process. The back channel negotiations with successive British governments, the need to reinvent Adams as some sort of Mandela-like statesman, the decision to take part in a peace deal which was always going to leave Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom and Sinn Fein’s move into Stormont, were all part of a recognition that the IRA had no chance of delivering any sort of victory. You can dress that up anyway you like – but the IRA was defeated. Which is why Sinn Fein has spent the last 20 years or so trying to pretend that Irish unity is still inevitable by other means. On the eve of both the 1998 and 2003 Assembly elections Martin McGuinness was arguing, “it is our view that it can be accomplished over a short period. Gerry Adams has said 2016 and I think that is achievable”. Wrong again, guys. So up to the microphone came Declan Kearney to treat us to a mixture of the ‘unionist outreach’ and ‘national reconciliation’ strategy. All Sinn Fein wants, all it has ever really wanted, it seems, is for unionists to be welcomed, respected and accommodated within the entity known as ‘the new Ireland’. But since the strategy is dressed up as an, “it’s going to happen anyway, since demography is against you, so you may as well roll over and accept it now” invitation, it’s not really surprising that unionism has turned a deaf ear. And so, too, has a very significant section of soft nationalism (north and south), which clearly wants nothing to do with Sinn Fein’s vision of unity. Also, as their economic arguments for unity are examined and deconstructed, it looks like their figures have been put together by a blind monkey with a homemade abacus. Maybe that’s why Sinn Fein has spent months trying to appoint a new economics adviser! The ‘new Ireland’ they talk of has never existed, so most of their economic agenda is based on hope, guesswork, Mr Micawber’s dictum that “something will turn up,” Billy Bunter’s insistence that “there really is a cheque in the post” and, when all else fails, a begging bowl and bailout deal. The fact that Sinn Fein and Syriza are the sole members of a mutual admiration society tells you all you need to know. It wasn’t only Adams who was tetchy last week. MEP Matt Carthy responded to a deconstruction of their economic agenda with: “We are seeking a new, agreed and united Ireland that caters for the aspirations of all of us who share this island. We want to build a just, fair and equal Ireland.” I hate to break it to you, Matt, but a united Ireland could never cater for my aspirations. My identity is British. Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement SF supporters here can promote their Irish identity and work towards unity. In the event of a poll that removed NI from the UK how would you cater for my aspirations? Would you allow unionists – and there would still be a huge numbers of us – to promote partition and provide regular polling opportunities to test support for recreating Northern Ireland again? It seems to me that Sinn Fein is in a very difficult position at the moment. Twenty years ago they recognised that the IRA’s campaign wasn’t capable of delivering Irish unity. Indeed, I think they had recognised as much back in 1981, at the time of the “armalite, ballot paper” strategy. Comments made by senior members between 1994 and 2003 suggest that they really believed that a peace deal would – and pretty quickly – deliver unity. They don’t believe that anymore. So there they are, stuck with a Stormont they don’t want, as far away as ever from a united Ireland and trying to convince their core vote that their strategy really is more substantial than one of Baldrick’s “cunning plans”. My view remains that unity is unlikely anytime soon – and I really do mean a very, very long time. Sinn Fein will reach the same conclusion too, even if they don’t admit it publicly. What they’ll do at that point is anyone’s guess. |
Role: Controller Power Source: Arcane Key Abilities: Intelligence Armor Training: none Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, + others Bonus to Defense: + 2 Will Trained Skills: 4 Skill Modifiers: none Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + Constitution score Hit Points per Level Gained: 4 Healing Surges: 6 + Constitution modifier Arcane Implement Mastery: Wand of Accuracy (once per encounter as a free action, gain a +2 bonus to an attack roll; you must be wielding your wand) Ritual Casting Spellbook (when you begin the adventure, and after each extended rest, pick one of two daily spells – you can use that spell until you select again after an extended rest) Spells (Arcane Power) Your powers are called spells, since they are from the arcane power source. You usually have your wand (an implement) in your hand when you use your powers, but it’s not required. Cantrips Ghost Sound Wizard Cantrip With a wink, you create an illusory sound that emanates from somewhere close by. At-Will * Arcane, Illusion Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One object or unoccupied square Effect: You cause a sound as quiet as a whisper or as loud as a yelling or fighting creature to emanate from the target. You can produce nonvocal sounds such as the ringing of a sword blow, jingling armor, or scraping stone. If you whisper, you can whisper quietly enough that only creatures adjacent to the target can hear your words. Light Wizard Cantrip With a wave of your hand, you cause a bright light to appear on the tip of your staff, upon some other object, or in a nearby space. At-Will * Arcane Minor Action Ranged 5 Target: One object or unoccupied square Effect: You cause the target to shed bright light. The light fills the target’s square and all squares within 4 squares of it. The light lasts for 5 minutes. Putting out the light is a free action. Special: You can have only one light cantrip active at a time. If you create a new light, your previously cast light winks out. Mage Hand Wizard Cantrip You gesture toward an object nearby, and a spectral floating hand lifts the object into the air and moves it where you wish. At-Will * Arcane, Conjuration, Force Minor Action Ranged 5 Effect: You conjure a spectral, floating hand in an unoccupied square within range. The hand picks up, moves, or manipulates an adjacent object weighing 20 pounds or less and carries it up to 5 squares. If you are holding the object when you use this power, the hand can move the object into a pack, a pouch, a sheath, or a similar container and simultaneously move any one object carried or worn anywhere on your body into your hand. As a move action, you can move the hand up to 5 squares. As a free action, you can cause the hand to drop an object it is holding, and as a minor action, you can cause the hand to pick up or manipulate a different object. Sustain Minor: You can sustain the hand indefinitely. Special: You can create only one hand at a time. Cantrips Ghost Sounds Wizard Cantrip With a wink, you create an illusory sound that emanates from somewhere close by. At-Will * Arcane, Illusion Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One object or unoccupied square Effect: You case a sound as quiet as a whisper or as loud as a yelling or fighting creature to emanate from the target. You can produce nonvocal sounds such as the ringing of a sword blow, jingling armor, or scraping stone. If you whisper, you can whisper quietly enough that only creatures adjacent to the target can hear the words. Light Wizard Cantrip With a wave of your hand, you cause a bright light to appear on the tip of your staff, upon some other object, or in a nearby space. At-Will * Arcane Minor Action Ranged 5 Target: One object or unoccupied square Effect: You cause the target to shed bright light. The light fills the target’s square and all squares within 4 squares of it. The target lasts for 5 minutes. Putting out the light is a free action. Special: You can have only one light cantrip active at a time. If you create a new light, your previously cast light winks out. At Will Powers Magic Missile Wizard Attack 1 You launch a silvery bolt of force at an enemy. At-Will * Arcane, Force, Implement Standard Action Ranged 20 Target: One creature Attack: Int vs. Reflex Hit: 2d4 + Int force damage. Special: This power counts as a ranged basic attack. When a power allows you to make a ranged basic attack, you can use this power. Scorching Burst Wizard Attack 1 A vertical column of golden flames burns all within. At-Will * Arcane, Fire, Implement Standard Action Area burst 1 within 10 squares Target: Each creature in burst Attack: Int vs. Reflex Hit: 1d6 + Int fire damage. Ray of Frost Wizard Attack 1 A blisteringly cold ray of white frost streaks to your target. Encounter [At Will] * Arcane, Cold, Implement Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One creature Attack: Dex vs. Fortitude Hit: 1d6 + Dex cold damage, and the target is slowed until the end of your next turn. Encounter Powers Force Orb Wizard Attack 1 You hurl an orb of magical force at an enemy. It bursts against the target and throws off razor-sharp shards of force that cut nearby enemies to ribbons. Encounter * Arcane, Force, Implement Standard Action Ranged 20 Primary Target: One creature or object Attack: Int vs. Reflex Hit: 2d8 + Int force damage. Make a secondary attack. Secondary Target: Each enemy adjacent to the primary target Secondary Attack: Int vs. Reflex Hit: 1d10 + Int force damage. Burning Hands Wizard Attack 1 A fierce burst of flame erupts from your hands and scorches nearby foes. Encounter * Arcane, Fire, Implement Standard Action Close blast 5 Target: Each creature in blast Attack: Int vs Reflex Hit: 2d6 + int fire damage. Fire Shroud Wizard Attack 3 With a subtle gesture, you wreathe nearby enemies in flames. Encounter * Arcane, Fire, Implement Standard Action Close Burst 3 Target: Each enemy in burst Attack: +5 vs Fortitude Hit: 1d8 + Int fire damage, and ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends) Daily Powers Acid Arrow Wizard Attack 1 A shimmering arrow of green, glowing liquid streaks to your target and bursts in a spray of sizzling acid. Daily * Acid, Arcane, Implement Standard Action Ranged 20 Primary Target: One creature Attack: Int vs. Reflex Hit: 2d8 + Int acid damage, and ongoing 5 acid damage (save ends). Make a secondary attack. Secondary Target: Each creature adjacent to the primary target Secondary Attack: Int vs. Reflex Hit: 1d8 + Int acid damage, and ongoing 5 acid damage (save ends). Miss: Half damage, and ongoing 2 acid damage to primary target (save ends), and no secondary attack. Sleep Wizard Attack 1 You exert your will against your foes, seeking to overwhelm them with a tide of magical weariness. Daily * Arcane, Implement, Sleep Standard Action Area burst 2 within 20 squares Target: Each creature in burst Attack: Int vs. Will Hit: The target is slowed (save ends). If the target fails its first saving throw against this power, the target becomes unconscious (save ends). Miss: The target is slowed (save ends). Expeditious Retreat Wizard Utility 2 You form blurs as you hastily withdraw from the battlefield. Daily * Arcane Move Action Personal Effect: Shift up to twice your speed. Wizard Spells Dispel Magic Wizard Utility 6 You unleash a ray of crackling arcane energy that destroys a magical effect created by an opponent. Daily * Arcane Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One conjuration or zone Attack: Intelligence vs. the Will defense of the creator of the conjuration or the zone Hit: The conjuration or the zone is destroyed. All its effects end, including those that normally last until a target saves. Mirror Image Wizard Utility 10 Three duplicate images of you appear, imitating your actions perfectly and confusing your enemies. Daily * Arcane, Illusion Minor Action Personal Effect: Three duplicate images of yourself appear in your space, and you gain a +6 power bonus to AC. Each time an attack misses you, one of your duplicate images disappears and the bonus granted by this power decreases by 2. When the bonus reaches 0, all your images are gone and the power ends. Otherwise, the effect lasts for 1 hour. Resistance Wizard Utility 10 You make yourself or another creature in range resistant to a particular kind of damage. Daily * Arcane Minor Action Ranged 10 Target: You or one creature Effect: Against a particular damage type chosen by you, the target gains resistance equal to your level + your Intelligence modifier until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes. Choose the damage type from the following list: acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison, psychic, radiant, or thunder. Frostburn Wizard Attack 13 You whisper a word of elemental power and hurl a flaming ball of ice. Waves of fire and ice explode outward from the point of impact. Encounter * Arcane, Cold, Fire, Implement Standard Action Area burst 2 within 20 squares Target: Each creature in burst Attack: Intelligence vs. Fortitude Hit: 3d6 + Intelligence modifier cold and fire damage. Effect: This power’s area is difficult terrain until the end of your next turn. Any creature that starts its turn in the area takes 5 cold and fire damage. You can dismiss the effect as a minor action. Mesmeric Hold Wizard Attack 13 You immobilize your foes by commanding them to remain still. Encounter * Arcane, Charm, Implement, Psychic Standard Action Ranged 10 Targets: One, two, or three creatures Attack: Intelligence vs. Will, one attack per target Special: If you target only one creature with this power, you gain a +4 power bonus to the attack roll. Hit: 3d6 + Intelligence modifier psychic damage, and the target is immobilized until the end of your next turn. Wizard Spells Continued Prismatic Burst Wizard Attack 13 You lob a fist-sized orb of pulsating white light some distance away, blasting creatures in the area with rays of multicolored light. Encounter * Arcane, Implement, Radiant Standard Action Area burst 2 within 20 squares Target: Each creature in burst Attack: Intelligence vs. Will Hit: 3d6 + Intelligence modifier radiant damage, and the target is blinded until the end of your next turn. Thunderlance Wizard Attack 13 A thunderous pulse of concussive energy rolls from your hand, bowling over your enemies. Encounter * Arcane, Implement, Thunder Standard Action Close blast 5 Target: Each creature in blast Attack: Wisdom vs. Reflex Hit: 4d6 + Intelligence modifier thunder damage, and you push the target 4 squares. Bigby’s Grasping Hands Wizard Attack 15 Two hands of glowing golden force materialize, grab a couple of your foes, and slam them together. Daily * Arcane, Conjuration, Force, Implement Standard Action Ranged 10 Effect: You conjure two 5-foot tall hands of force, each one occupying 1 square within range. Each hand attacks one adjacent creature. A hand that is not grabbing a target can be moved and made to attack a new target within range as a move action. The hands last until the end of your next turn. Targets: One or two creatures Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex Hit: 2d10 + Intelligence modifier force damage, and the hand grabs the target. If the target attempts to escape, the hand uses your Fortitude or Reflex defense. Special: If the hands have each grabbed an enemy, you can slam the enemies into each other as a standard action dealing 2d10 + Intelligence modifier force damage to each grabbed target. After the attack, each hand returns to its original square with its grabbed target. Sustain Minor: The hands persist. Blast of Cold Wizard Attack 15 You create a tremendous blast of supernatural cold, freezing your enemies. Daily * Arcane, Cold, Implement Standard Action Close blast 5 Target: Each enemy in blast Attack: Intelligence vs. Reflex Hit: 6d6 + Intelligence modifier cold damage, and target is immobilized (save ends). Miss: Half damage, and the target is slowed (save ends). Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere Wizard Attack 15 You trap your enemy in a transparent, immobile globe of impenetrable force. Daily * Arcane, Conjuration, Force, Implement Standard Action Ranged 10 Target: One creature Attack: Intelligence vs Reflex Hit: You conjure a sphere of force that fills the target’s entire space until the end of your next turn. The target is immobilized and can’t attack anything outside its own space. Creatures outside the sphere can’t attack the target, and the sphere blocks objects and creatures attempting to pass through it. The sphere, though impenetrable, is not impervious to damage. Attacks against the sphere automatically hit, and it has 100 hit points. Sustain Minor: If your attack roll was successful, you can sustain the sphere. Miss: The target is immobilized (save ends). Special: Instead of attacking an enemy, you can put the sphere around yourself or a willing ally within range without making an attack roll. Prismatic Beams Wizard Attack 15 Scintillating beams of rainbow-colored light spring from your outstretched hand, affecting your foes in unpredictable ways. Daily * Arcane, Fire, Implement, Poison Standard Action Close burst 5 Target: Each enemy in burst Attack: Intelligence vs Fortitude, Reflex, Will Hit (Fortitude): If the attack hits the target’s Fortitude defense, the target takes 2d6 + Intelligence modifier poison damage, and ongoing 5 poison damage (save ends). Hit (Reflex): If the attack hits the target’s Reflex defense, the target takes 2d6 + Intelligence modifier fire damage, and ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends). Hit (Will): If the attack hits the target’s Will defense, the target is dazed (save ends). Special: You make only one attack per target, but compare that attack result against all three defenses. A target might be subject to any, all, or none of the effects depending on how many of its defenses were hit. The target must make a saving throw against each ongoing effect separately. Wall of Ice Wizard Attack 15 A wall of glittering, jagged ice appears at your command. Daily * Arcane, Cold, Conjuration, Implement Standard Action Area wall 12 within 10 squares Effect: You conjure a solid wall of contiguous squares filled with arcane ice. The wall can be up to 12 squares long and up to 6 squares high. Any creature that starts its turn adjacent to the wall takes 2d6 + Intelligence modifier cold damage. The wall blocks line of sight and prevents movement. No creature can enter a square containing the wall. Special: As a standard action, a creature can attack one square of the wall. Each square has 50 hit points. Any creature that makes a melee attack against the wall takes 2d6 cold damage. The wall has vulnerability 25 to fire. If the wall is not destroyed, it melts away after 1 hour. Displacement Wizard Utility 16 The recipient of this spell appears to be standing slightly to the left or right of his actual position, making it harder for enemies to kill him. Encounter * Arcane, Illusion Immediate Interrupt Ranged 5 Trigger: A ranged or a melee attack hits or one ally in range Effect: The attacker must reroll the attack roll. Fly Wizard Utility 16 You leap into the air and don’t look back. Daily * Arcane Standard Action Personal Effect: You gain a speed of fly 8 until the end of your next turn. Sustain Minor: You can sustain this power until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes. If you don’t sustain it, you float to the ground without taking falling damage. Greater Invisibility Wizard Utility 16 With a wave of your hand, you or another creature nearby fades away, becoming invisible Daily * Arcane, Illusion Standard Action Ranged 20 Target: You or one creature Effect: The target is invisible until the end of your next turn. If the target attacks, the target becomes visible. Sustain Minor: If the target is within range, you can sustain the effect. Other Wizard Information Burning Blizzard Heroic Tiers Feat Increases by 1 point all damage caused by cold and acid. Orb of imposition Arcane implement Mastery. Allows the wizard to control a power-item which allows her to extend the duration of her Ray of Frost. Wizard Paragon Paths Battle Mage “You think I’m just a simple scholar, my head buried amid my scrolls and books? Think again!” Prerequisite: Wizard class You didn’t leave behind the thrill of battle when you took up the mantle of wizard, so why should you stand back and let the fighters have all the fun? You have developed skills and techniques that have turned you into a true battle mage, ready to deal damage up close and personal or from afar, depending on the situation and how the mood strikes you. You have even learned of a technique for using arcane energy to temporarily stave off death—and you can’t wait to try it out in battle! Battle Mage Path Features Arcane Riposte (11th level): Imbued with magical might, your hands bristle with arcane energy in the heat of battle. When a creature provokes an opportunity attack from you, make an opportunity attack with one of your hands (Dexterity vs. AC). Choose cold, fire, force, or lightning. You deal 1d8 + Intelligence modifier damage of that type with this attack. Battle Mage Action (11th level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you also gain a +4 bonus to attack rolls until the start of your next turn. Battle Edge (16th level): When you first become bloodied in an encounter, you can use any at-will power you know as an immediate reaction. Wizard Epic Destiny Archmage As the Archmage, you lay claim to being the world’s preeminent wizard. Prerequisite: 21st-level wizard Your lifelong perusal of grimoires, librams, tomes, and spellbooks has finally revealed the foundation of reality to you: Spells are each tiny portions of a larger arcane truth. Every spell is part of some far superior working, evoking just a minuscule fraction of that ultimate formula. As you continue your studies, you advance your mastery of spells so much that they begin to infuse your flesh, granting you a facility in their use undreamed of by lesser practitioners. You are often called to use your knowledge to defend the world from supernormal threats. Seeking ever greater enlightenment and the magical power that accompanies it, you are at times tempted by questionable relics, morally suspect spells, and ancient artifacts. Your destiny remains yours to choose—will you be archmage or archfiend? Immortality, of a Sort Archmages are an idiosyncratic lot. There’s no telling what choices the preeminent wizard of the age will make when he has completed his destiny. The following section details a path several Archmages have walked, but your path might vary. Arcane Seclusion: When you complete your final quest, you retreat from the world to give your full time and attention to the study of the ultimate arcane formula, the Demispell, whose hyperplanar existence encompasses all the lesser spells there ever were or ever will be. To aid your study, you build a sanctum sanctorum. At your option, your retreat provides you complete seclusion, and thus could take the form of a tower lost somewhere in the Elemental Chaos. However, you might desire to retain a tie to the world, and thus build a sanctum with a connection to the world. In such a case, you might found a new order of mages for which you serve as the rarely seen High Wizard. Alternatively, you might found a school of magic, for which you serve as the rarely seen headmaster. Regardless of your retreat’s physical form or temporal connection, your contemplation of the arcanosphere persists. As the years flow onward, your study of the fundamental, deep structure of the cosmos removes you from the normal flow of time. Eventually your material shell fades as you merge into the Demispell itself. Thereafter, your name becomes tied to powerful spells and rituals used by lesser wizards. Archmage Features All Archmages have the following features. Spell Recall (21st level): At the beginning of each day, choose one daily spell that you know (and have prepared today, if you prepare spells). You can use that spell two times that day, rather than only once. Arcane Spirit (24th level): Once per day, when you die, you can detach your spirit from your body. In arcane spirit form, you heal to maximum hit points and gain the insubstantial and phasing qualities. You can cast encounter spells and at-will spells while in arcane spirit form, but you can’t cast daily spells, activate magic items, or perform rituals. If you die in arcane spirit form, you’re dead. At the end of the encounter, after a short rest, your arcane spirit rejoins your body, if your body is still present. Your current hit point total is unchanged, but you no longer experience the other benefits and drawbacks of being in arcane spirit form. If your body is missing, you will need other magic to return to life, but can continue adventuring in arcane spirit form if you like. Archspell (30th level): Your comprehension of the ultimate arcane formula and of the spells that constitute it reaches a new threshold. Choose one daily spell that you know. You can now cast that spell as an encounter spell (rather than as a daily spell). Archmage Power Shape Magic Archmage Utility 26 You reach into the ebb and flow of arcane energy and pluck a spell you have already used out of the invisible tide, instantly recalling it to memory. Daily Standard Action Personal Effect: You regain one arcane power you have already used. |
In the year 1288, Scotland established this day in history–Leap Year–and only this day, as one when a woman could propose marriage to a man. In the event he refused the proposal, the man was required to pay a fine. Historically, cultural norms have always dictated the unwritten rules of courtship. And until very recently, only men were deemed the appropriate party to propose marriage to a woman. But, it turns out, women have been complaining for centuries about how long it takes men to propose. According to legend, in 5th century Ireland, St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick about women having to wait so long for a man to propose. St. Patrick at once remedied the situation with a leap-year loophole. He declared 29 February, occurring every four years during a leap year, a day that women could propose to men. Scotland became the first to codify St. Patrick’s declaration into law in 1288. As Scots reasoned, the leap year day was put in place to fix a problem in the calendar. As such, it could also be used to fix a problem in an outdated and unfair set of cultural norms dictating courtship practices. According to the Scottish law, any man who declined a proposal in a leap year must pay a fine, ranging from a kiss to a pair of gloves to a silk dress to £100. The leap year legend spread and soon polite society was holding leap year balls and leap year dances, organised for women to ask men to dance and to ask for a man’s hand in marriage. In the US, the tradition evolved into Sadie Hawkins Day, named after the man-chasing character in the Al Capp cartoon strip Li’l Abner and held in November. Though the day is different than the original Scottish rendition, the practice is the same: women pursue men, for a date or for marriage. Thanks perhaps partly to the Scottish law of 1288, today many women need not wait for the leap year to propose to the man of their choice. Photo Credit: © Amoret Tanner / Alamy Photo Caption: A leap year postcard depicts a woman enticing a man into a mousetrap. |
By Anjana Menon WannaCry, unleashed on hundreds of countries, infected computers and blocked users from their own data, in a matter of hours. Its magnificence in scale was eclipsed by poor execution and low ransom fees — signs of a silly attack. WannaCry’s real lesson is the danger of countries stockpiling cyberweapons and the damage from its use, intentional or otherwise. Governments everywhere must know that the most crippling wars of the future will be in cyberspace, with no bloodletting. To limit damages, India must build robust counter-intelligence, including a highly capable cyber wing of global experts who are proactive rather than reactive. WannaCry has demonstrated how a theft at America’s National Security Agency (NSA) surfaced months later to attack a hospital system in Britain. The victim, the National Health Service( NHS), found several hospitals tuned out digitally, resulting in a wide patient shuffle to those that were unaffected. The ransomware had bugged an outdated operating system that hadn’t been plugged with the latest updates. Some blame for this must rest with the US government. It found a way into avulnerability in the affected Microsoft operating system, but issued warnings only after the exploit had been stolen by hackers and released online. As Microsoft put it, “It’s like having a Tomahawk missile stolen [from the US military].” This, then, was used to target those who were probably never the intended victims. Countries poor and rich know that cyberwarfare can cause huge losses or can be used to furtively embarrass establishments by hacking into and exposing classified information — the equivalent of a diplomatic put-down in the new order. As everything from utilities to stock markets squat online, the risk of cyberattacks becomes omnipresent and omnipotent. So, while the theft of cyberweapons will become commonplace, this risk won’t deter agencies such as the US Cyber Command from nurturing teams of cyber experts capable of launching online attacks on other countries. A Brookings Institution report estimates that some 100 countries are already building cyber military commands. In this climate, countries that lack their own cyber arsenal and intelligence will always be disadvantaged. As India expands digitally, the burden on this government will increase heavily to keep the data and transactions of a billion Indians secure — not just on computers, but the more ubiquitous mobile phone. That means making sure thousands of different agencies, offering everything from government services to selling goods, keep data secure on multiple operating systems. It’s not a light task. In 2007, Estonia, which invested heavily in digitising services, found itself throttled after it ignored warnings and removed a Russian memorial statue from the centre of town. Soon after, Estonia ground to a halt. Its citizens couldn’t even get news online, let alone access services. Though Russia never claimed responsibility for the attack, it gave the world a taste of how cyberwarfare could be used in lieu of military bullying. That was a decade ago. Trouble is, the next generation of cyberattacks will not be from a bunch of hackers in hoods. It will most likely be driven by machines, in which artificial intelligence (AI) and neural learning will be big players, for attack and defence. Research institutions have already demonstrated systems such as Ai Squared, an initiative led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which uses AI and analyst intuition to spot cyberattacks. Systems similar to these are the ones that India needs to have as part of its arsenal. Given India’s raw economic ambitions and troubled relations with some of its neighbours, it will always make for a target. Managing this situation needs a sophisticated approach. While India has avast pool of talented coders, it sharply lags behind the West on AI and neural learning. Infosys has unwittingly acknowledged this weakness by agreeing to set up innovation hubs in the US and hire 10,000 Americans to focus mostly on technologies of the future. So, the Indian government must now also think more like a big business, which wants to stay not just in the game but on top of it. For too long, the Indian administration has been bound to hiring only its citizens for top policy and administrative roles. It must now consider the limitations this poses. In the cyber-driven world, it may be better off hiring the best available global professionals to build systems for its cyber offensive. In the future, hostility will be borderless and reside online. Its only defence will be a high level of readiness that cuts across borders. The writer is CEO, Content Pixies |
Kabbalah : Golem: Shabti: Egyptian Egyptian myths about golem like creatures The rite of enchantment of the Egyptians are similar: historian Ibn Khaldun (1332-78) of an enchantment he saw performed in Moslem Egypt. "We saw with our eyes one of these magicians fashion the image of the person he desired to bewitch. The images were composed of materials whose properties bear a certain relation to the intention and design of the operator and which represent symbolically, for the purpose of uniting and of separating, the names and characteristics of him who must be the victim. The sorcerer then pronounces a few words over the image which he places before him and offers the real or symbolic representation of the person it is sought to bewitch. Then he blows with his breath and ejects from his mouth a portion of his saliva which has collected there while at the same time he vibrates the organs which serve to enunciate the letters of the formula (similar to formulae found in Indian prana vide theory). He then holds, above the symbolic image, a cord which he has brought for the purpose, and ties a knot in it to signify that he is acting with resolution or persistence and that he is making a pact with the demon who was his associate in the operation at the moment he spat and also to show that he is acting with the firm intention of consolidating the charm. To these preceedings and the these words is attached an evil spirit who, enveloped in spittle, comes forth from the mouth of the operator. Several evil spirits then come down from it and the result is that the magician causes to drop towards his victim the knot that he wishes." Egyptian tales about bringing objects to life The maker of statues who communicates the "breath of life" into a statue. (from "Shabtis, p. 4) Lucian, gives a story by Eucrates, in his dialog on lying, where Eu. relates how mere scraps of wood were to do all that the deceased could do in the underworld. The myth existsed in Greek times. "while I resided in Egypt, whither I was sent very young by my father for the purposes of study,... when we came to an inn, he would take the wooden bar of the door, or a broom, or the pestle of a mortor, put clothes on it, and speaking over it a magical formula, made it walk, and be taken by everybody for a man. The servent was to draw water for us, did the cooking, arranged the furniture, and showed itself in every respect an intelligent and active servant. then when Pancrates no longer needed it, by a second enchantment, it became a broom if it had been a broom, a pestle if it had been a pestle. One day hiding myself in a dark corner, I hard, unknown to him, the magic formula. It was a word of three syllables... The next day, when my Egyptian was occupied in the marketplace, I took the pestle, I dressed it, and pronounced the 3 magic syllables and ordered it to go and fetch water. It brought me an amphora full. "enogh," I said, "do not bring more water, become again a pestle." But it would not obey me, it continued bringing water, and filled the house. I knew not what to do. I feared Pancrates would be angry on his return, as he was when he did come home. |
wilee68 Member Posts: 33 Member Spyder Hammer sniper rifle Quote Select Post Select Post Deselect Post Deselect Post Link to Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Member Back to Top Post by wilee68 on Thanks everybody, I'm real happy the way it turned out. skullcandy - it does look a little awkward, and as I was putting it together I was a little worried about the back of the receiver being right where my thumb would go on a "classic" sniper set-up, but with the trigger so far forward, putting my thumb over the hose and remote plug, it actually feels really nice. chicago - not QUITE that old, but getting there!!! I've been involved in the game since '84 or so, and the mechanical part of the game has always been a big part of it for me. Worked at a couple paintball stores and built or modified everything I could get my hands on. I appreciate the compliment, and am real proud that I could contribute back. This project took me about three weeks once I got all the pieces together. |
AMD first started dishing out details on Carrizo, the successor to Kaveri, during the closing months of 2014. AMD is claiming that Carrizo, which is still built on Global Foundries’ 28nm Super High Performance (28SHP) process node like its predecessor, will nonetheless deliver huge advances in both performance and efficiency. When it was first announced, AMD detailed support for next generation Radeon Graphics (DX12, Mantle, and Dual Graphics support), H.265 decoding, full HSA 1.0 support, and ARM Trustzone compatibility. But perhaps one of the biggest advantages of Carrizo is the fact that the APU and Southbridge are now incorporated into the same die; not two separates dies built into the same package. This not only improves performance, but also allows the Southbridge to take advantage of the 28SHP process rather than older, more power-hungry 45nm or 65nm process nodes. In addition, the Excavator cores used in Carrizo have switched from a High Performance Library (HPL) to a High Density Library (HDL) design. As you can see in the diagram below (left half) this allows for a dramatic reduction in the die area taken up by the processing cores (23 percent reduction according to AMD). This allows for Carrizo to fit in 29 percent more transistors (3.1 billion versus 2.3 billion in Kaveri) in a die size that is only marginally larger (250mm2 for Carrizo versus 245mm2 for Kaveri). When all is said and done, AMD claims a 5 percent IPC boost (this comes mainly from doubling L1 data cache from 64KB to 128KB) and a 40 percent overall reduction in power usage. AMD has also worked its magic on the graphics core, achieving an 18 percent reduction in leakage that allows for a 20 percent reduction in power usage at the same clock frequency as the previous generation graphics core. AMD can also opt for a 10 percent clock frequency boost at the same power levels. Further efficiencies were found by optimizing voltage levels to prevent “droop”, also known as a transient drop in voltage. Since AMD is now able to compensate for voltage droops within nanoseconds, it can do so without [power] costly over-voltage measures, resulting in a 10 percent and 19 percent reduction in GPU and CPU power consumption respectively. Further power saving measures have been taken in the form of Adaptive Voltage and Frequency Scaling (AVFS). AVFS uses a combination of silicon speed, voltage, power, and temperature sensors to “enable each individual APU to adapt to its particular silicon characteristics, platform behavior, and operating environment.” AMD says that AVFS can contribute to an impressive 30 percent power savings. “As a part of our continued focus on building great products, the advanced power and performance optimizations we have designed into our upcoming ‘Carrizo’ APU will deliver the largest generational performance-per-watt gain ever for a mainstream AMD APU,” said AMD Corporate Fellow Sam Naffziger. “AMD has been pursuing Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) and proprietary power management technologies to make continued gains. The upcoming ’Carrizo’ APU takes a big step toward the AMD 25x20 energy efficiency goal and incorporates a wealth of new features that will be adopted across our full product line going forward.” AMD says that its Carrizo APUs will make their way into notebooks and low-power desktop computers during the first half of 2015. AMD is targeting "double digit" increases in both performance and battery life for notebooks, so we're definitely looking forward to see this APUs cross our test benches. |
A Former Hot Rod Magazine Project Car Gets Unburied After 11 Years Of Neglect. This is a shocking moment for me and for the diehard readers who recall this car and have asked for 11 years-with varying levels of deference or derision-if I will ever finish it. After all, it was my first car, I’ve now owned it for exactly 27 years, and in the ’90s it was a HOT ROD magazine project that got stuffed with a Dick Landy 484ci Hemi. Why would I abandon it? There was a time when I drove this car everywhere, starting when I bought it for $1,800-and it only had 82,000 miles on the clock-on April 15, 1983, before I even had a driver’s license. I was 15 years old. Effie, my paternal grandmother, promised to buy me a Honda ATC if I was able to maintain good grades in high school (after I’d been invited to no longer attend the private school I’d been in since kindergarten). I did, and managed to parlay the purchase into a car instead of a dirt toy-a car that would have horrified Effie had she seen it. I spent many days with my father driving to look at potential buys; I recall having investigated a Challenger T/A that was too expensive at $3,500, a Hemi ‘Cuda with a 440 in it and the Shaker scoop bonded to the top side of the hood, and a Plum Crazy ’70 340 Dart. I’d limited my choices to Mopars. I think that’s because I had a friend who let me drive his ’71 Duster Twister when I was 14, and because I was already a collector of old car magazines and was rapt when I saw those outrageous graphics on the cars and in those crazy ads for the Scat Pack and the Rapid Transit System. Mopars just had character. And I ended up buying what’s arguably the ugliest Mopar muscle car ever, a ’70 Dodge Super Bee. It has a face you grow to love. I sure did. I waxed that thing every single weekend for at least three years and wrenched on it nearly as often. It came to me with a 383 Magnum, a 727 TorqueFlite, and an 83/4 rear with 3.23 gears and a one-legger. The first thing I ever bought for it was a Mr. Gasket spun-aluminum velocity stack. It would not fit under the hood, but I put it on when the hood was open. It was perfect with the rest of the ’80s-style dress, but I got over it pretty quickly, turning my attentions to prowling the junkyards for speed parts. Those were the days when Holleys, aluminum intakes, and muscle cars were still at the Pick Your Part. The Recycler was a local free-ad publication (now just a website) I’d scour weekly, line by line, to find what I needed for cheap. That’s where I got a rearend pig with 4.10 gears. I drove the car for years, buzzing 3,500 rpm at 65 mph, and never thought twice about it. I broke the Bee often, and my father would always come get me with a station wagon and a chain to tow it home. I bet we dragged it 100 miles that way. In 1984, I rebuilt the 383 in high school auto shop using the dingle-ball-hone method. Instructor Mr. Quentin Swan, who as a Glendale reserve PD officer had knocked my head for driving without a license, recommended an old-school place that reground my cam to 3/4 race specs. I had finished getting the engine installed, but not running yet, and headed for home as a pedestrian when I was hit by a VW Rabbit. I spent 11 days in the hospital getting a titanium plate screwed to my left humerus, but my buddies ganged up to get the car finished and running by the time I made it home. That was very cool. When I was between 11th and 12th grades, the Super Bee ended up in a TV after-school special that was the first thing directed by Henry Winkler. My father had oddly become the show’s car coordinator (he was in the production end of the business when I was growing up), and several of my friends’ cars were in it. The story was a message against drinking and driving depicting hero swimmer Scott Baio excitedly buying my Super Bee from used car salesman Danny DeVito and then, predictably, wrecking it. During the filming, a guy named Tommy Swerdlow, making his acting debut, ran my car into a pole. That was a horrible day for me. Not only was my car smashed in the nose, but The Fonz shut me up for complaining too much about the actors driving around with the water falling out of the radiator. “Look, kid, I’ll buy you a new $%^#in’ motor,” he said. He did buy me a new $%^#in’ paintjob. I parted out one of the stunt cars to fix the damage, and the paintjob was done in a Glendale, California, shop then owned by a guy named Dwayne McKinney. He was no one to me at the time, but I now know him as a longtime Bonneville racer. I was 18, fresh out of high school, and working parts delivery for Burbank Dodge, when I used my powers of scrounging to build a 440 for the Bee (I remember buying a Street Dominator intake for $50 out of a guy’s trunk at the street races one night). Every dime of every paycheck went into the big-block as I followed a buildup recipe from Car Craft. I felt pride that the odometer turned 100,000 miles during the 440’s first huge burnout. It never went quicker than 13.30s on motor at the 2,900-foot elevation of the now-defunct Los Angeles County Raceway. In retrospect, that was piggy. I don’t know how quick it was on nitrous, but I sprayed a bunch of bottles through it. I also kept driving it every day, parking it outside, and generally running it into the ground. At the end of my first decade of ownership, the tongue was hanging out. Luckily, it had helped me get my job at HOT ROD magazine. When I interviewed there in 1991 (with both Editor Jeff Smith and Rod & Custom Editor Pat Ganahl), I was assigned a test story on common upgrades for Mopar B-Bodies. I used my Bee for photos, handed the story in, got the job, and reported to work as a feature editor on December 1, 1991. In 1993, publisher Harry Hibler asked me, “How’d you like a Hemi for the piece of $^&# Dodge of yours?” Mopar Performance was just getting ready to release the reproduction Hemi blocks, and the company wanted ink in HOT ROD. Hibler set me up with Larry Shepard at Mopar Performance and with legendary Mopar racer Dick Landy to build the engine. I was thrilled to be dealing with these guys whom I had read about since I was a kid. The Hemi buildup ensued, and I committed to prep the car to receive it. I added a rollcage, mini-tubbed it, reworked 100 percent of the suspension, restored the interior, and had it painted-all working my credit card into a balance that did not recover for something like 7 years. Little of that work showed up in the magazine, and the process took far too long. In fact, I’d been promoted to editor of 4-Wheel & Off-Road and was there for a year and a half by the time three stories appeared in HOT ROD. I dragged the car, uncorked, to the launch of the second Power Tour(r) in 1996. It hasn’t been seen in public since. As happens far too often, the project was stillborn. Landy was never really thrilled with how quick the car was, and neither was I. It bested a 10.60 at 128 mph at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, but it needed more work than I could afford. It sat until 1999, by which time I was the editor of Car Craft. I dragged out the car for a revamp in that magazine and penned a story called “Pros and Cons of a 10-Second Street Car” in the Nov. ’99 issue. The story resonated with many readers who may have been in the same situation after the Fastest Street Car craze of the ’90s: My car was too radical to be a street car and too slow to be a race car. That’s what led to the Super Bee’s long-term neglect. That and the fact that, right as work on it was supposed to start for Car Craft, I was moved to become the editor of Rod & Custom and then a year later, of HOT ROD. In that role, I have written about my Bee several times, but other projects, other passions, and other corporate time-eaters prevented me from doing anything with it. With the exception of a wash-up two years ago, the Mopar has been completely abandoned for 11 years. In that time, I’ve been sincerely humbled and not just a little surprised by how many readers have asked me to resurrect the car. It’s very odd to be out somewhere and have a complete stranger say, “Bring back the Super Bee!” A few months ago, I revealed to Rob Kinnan the real reason I’d never done it: I just wasn’t interested in it. I may have never said that out loud until then. Over the past year, Rob has told me a bunch of times, “You really need to do the Super Bee.” But, yeah, I simply didn’t care. So why now? Honest truth: desperation. We had a cover story planned for this issue that didn’t work out, and we needed a solution in the very last days before press time. We wanted to do a barn finds cover story, and I mentioned that I had a great photo of the Bee looking totally derelict in the garage where it had been for a decade-plus. That photo solved one problem, but we needed a story to go with it. You’re reading that story right now. Rob sort of rammed me into it: “You’re never going to fix that car unless you have to. This is a good reason to have to. Just do it.” So we did. Two weeks shy of my 27th anniversary with the Bee, we pumped up the tires, blew off the dust, dragged it to my house, and I touched it with a wrench for the first time since 1996. I’m conflicted about the plan for the car, as I have been anytime I’ve thought about it in recent history. Do I go all out and make it faster or tame it down so I can actually use it? In the end, I’m going for the latter, plus adding a nitrous shot to make sure it’s still quick. This car was built in the days when a 10-second street car was still considered pretty serious and when there was a lot of overkill to get there-like, in this case, a 41/2-inch exhaust, 5.13 Pro gears, and a rocket science fuel system. It also has some antiquated stuff, like an ancient-grind cam, a pinion snubber-based rear suspension, some unnecessary front suspension tweaks, and an intake manifold that was a compromise even when new. We’ll be able to improve all that stuff and probably still run mid-10s but not hate driving it to a cruise night. The process will start next month with dyno testing and parts swapping on the 484ci Hemi. Meanwhile, I’m thrashing to fix all the other items that have deteriorated due to neglect or that were never really right in the first place. The best part is, now that I’ve spent a few days handling it, sitting in it, cleaning it up, wrenching on it, and dreaming about the possibilities, I’m stoked to get it going. As odd as it may seem for me to say this considering the job I hold, I’m a little choked up at seeing the Super Bee on the cover of HOT ROD. That’s still a landmark to me. This is also the first time a photo of mine has run as the magazine’s main cover image. Thanks to you who’ve nagged me for this over the years and thanks to Kinnan for forcing me into it. It’s time to get this done. Magazine Coverage In truth, the Super Bee has not had much ink in the magazines, and what was done was in black and white. Here’s a guide to the stories where the car has been seen in the past: |
By Serena Gordon HealthDay Reporter SUNDAY, Oct. 16 (HealthDay News) -- In new guidelines released Sunday, the American Academy of Pediatrics has expanded the age range for the diagnosis and treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to children as young as 4 and as old as 18. For the youngest children, the academy is emphasizing the use of behavior treatments over medication in most cases. "I think the most significant changes are expanding the ages from preschool through adolescence. The original guidelines were from 6 to 12, because that's where the evidence was. We've been able to broaden the scope of the guidelines because there was more evidence available for preschoolers and adolescents," said the lead author of the new recommendations, Dr. Mark Wolraich, CMRI Shaun Walters Professor of Pediatrics and the Edith Kinney Gaylord Presidential Professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. Wolraich added that the new guidelines also give pediatricians advice on managing inattention or hyperactivity problems that don't quite meet the definition of ADHD. The new guidelines will be presented at the academy's annual meeting in Boston and will be published in the November issue of Pediatrics. More than 5 million children in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Children with the disorder show signs of inattentiveness, impulsivity and hyperactivity. They may be unable to pay attention in class, or may spend a lot of time fidgeting in their seats or talking nonstop. Although most kids may display this type of behavior at one time or another, it becomes a problem when it occurs most of the time, according to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. Treatment for ADHD may include medications or behavior therapy, or both. In fact, Wolraich said that "the combination of both medication and behavioral therapy is probably the best choice when possible." A recent study, published online on Sept. 28 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, found that the use of ADHD medication is on the rise, with 5 percent of American children now taking stimulant medications such as Ritalin or Adderall to treat the disorder. Those researchers suggested that the increase might be due to a greater recognition of ADHD as a chronic condition, leading to children staying on medications for longer periods. The new guidelines recommend that unless a child in the 4- to 6-year-old age group has a serious problem, that behavior therapy should be the first treatment tried. If necessary, medications can be added later. "Although there is less evidence [on outcomes for this age group], the hope is that starting treatment in preschool if a child has serious problems will lead to better outcomes," said Wolraich. Dr. Richard Gallagher, director of special projects at the Institute for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity and Behavior Disorders at the NYU Child Study Center in New York City, said, "Medications should be used very carefully. I'm admittedly biased since I primarily do behavioral work, but behavioral work does have its limits. If a child is getting into dangerous situations or presenting with problems interacting appropriately with peers and adults, medications can be very useful. When monitored carefully, medications are safe for the vast majority of kids." The guidelines also emphasize the need for pediatricians to recognize that ADHD is a chronic condition, and while treatments are available to control symptoms, there is no cure for the disorder. Wolraich said that one of the reasons the AAP expanded the age up to 18 is because there have been more studies showing that ADHD continues into late adolescence, and even into adulthood. "ADHD is a chronic condition. We can provide symptomatic treatment, but it doesn't cure the condition. Treatment has to be an ongoing process. Symptoms may change over time, and there needs to be consideration for change in treatment as a child develops," said Wolraich. "Kids usually stay on medications for about three years. For some, that's enough. It gives them time to become better at compensating for their deficits. But, for many kids, the need for treatment is ongoing," he added. Gallagher recommended that parents bring up any concerns they have about their child with their pediatrician. "This is a condition that can be recognized early," he said. More information To learn more about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, visit the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. |
Top House Lawmaker Joined by Other Republicans Promising to Undo 'Major Public Safety Issue' of Protecting LGBT Civil Rights Less than 24 hours after the Charlotte City Council passed a historic LGBT nondiscrimination ordinance by a strong margin, the State of North Carolina's top House lawmaker has vowed to nullify it. Republican House Speaker Tim Moore says the House will take steps "to correct this radical course," as the Charlotte Observer reports. Monday night, after more than three hours of testimony from over 140 speakers, Charlotte council members voted 7-4 to expand its nondiscrimination ordinance to LGBT people in areas of public accommodations. Even before the city council met, Republican Pat McCrory sent the city council an email warning them to not pass the legislation. Charlotte City Council has gone against all common sense & has created a major public safety issue. Full statement: pic.twitter.com/DpPGa0hW4v — Speaker Tim Moore (@NCHouseSpeaker) February 23, 2016 "I join my conservative colleagues and Gov. McCrory in exploring legislative intervention," Speaker Moore said. "The Charlotte City Council has gone against all common sense and has created a major public safety issue by opening all bathrooms and changing rooms to the general public." He claims the expanded nondiscrimination ordinance - which isn't nearly as comprehensive as some of the other 250 cities large ans small have enacted across the nation - would be "impossible to regulate as intended," and claims, falsely, that it "creates undue regulatory burdens on private businesses." Moore is far from the only lawmaker who wasted no time speaking out against the bill. RELATED: Benham Brothers: Passage Of Charlotte LGBT Protections Bill Will Allow Us To Become WNBA Stars "I oppose it and I feel like the General Assembly will pass a law reversing it. It's just inappropriate. I'm surprised and I'm disappointed," Republican Sen. David Curtis told the Lincoln Times-News. "I think it's just inappropriate. We have rules in our society and that's just one of the rules in our society. This liberal group is trying to redefine everything about our society. Gender and marriage, just the whole liberal agenda." And over in the NC House, Rep. Jason Saine said, "I believe Speaker Moore and Gov. McCrory have framed this issue correctly and will support legislative efforts to address this issue and restore common sense where absent." Not one state lawmaker opposed to the legislation has acknowledged that duly-elected lawmakers in Charlotte passed a law that is neither unconstitutional not one that violates any state or federal law, rule, or regulation, and that they are usurping the authority of Charlotte's government by promising to undo the ordinance. Image: Screenshot via YouTube See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected] |
In the first Congressional hearing into the financial crisis, the former CEO of the bankrupt Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, became the poster boy for Wall Street greed today as he defended the $484 million he received in salary, bonuses and stock options since 2000. "Is that fair?" asked committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) who pointed out Fuld owns a mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, an ocean front estate on Jupiter Island, Florida, a ski chalet in Idaho and a Manhattan apartment. Play "If you haven't discovered your role, you're the villain today," said Rep. John Mica (R-FL). Fuld said given the collapse of Lehman Brothers and its now worthless stock, his actual holdings were closer to $350 million. "That's still a lot of money," he told the hearing. Fuld said he took "full responsibility" for the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and "felt horrible" about it. But Fuld said he has yet to understand why the federal government helped to bail out the AIG insurance company and other investment banking firms, but did not do so a few days earlier to save Lehman Brothers. "Until the day they put me in the ground, I will wonder," Fuld told the Congressional panel, seeming to seethe with anger. "This is a pain that will stay with me the rest of my life." In his opening remarks, Waxman lambasted both Fuld and Lehman. Internal documents obtained by the committee, Waxman said, "portray a company in which there was no accountability for failure." Waxman cited an e-mail exchange among top Lehman executives. After someone sent an e-mail suggesting that Lehman's top management give up their bonuses, both Fuld and George H. Walker, a member of Lehman's executive committee and a cousin of President Bush, sent e-mails disagreeing with the suggestion. Walker, according to Waxman, replied by writing, "Sorry team. I'm not sure what's in the water at 605 Third Avenue today. … I'm embarrassed and I apologize." Waxman said that Fuld "mocked" the suggestion by adding, "Don't worry – they are only people who think about their own pockets." Waxman also cited a request submitted to Lehman's compensation committee four days before the firm filed for bankruptcy. The request, he said, recommended that the board give three departing executives over $20 million in "special payments." "In other words, even as Mr. Fuld was pleading with Secretary Paulson for a federal rescue, Lehman continued to squander millions on executive compensation," Waxman said. Richard Fuld Testifies Before Congress Despite warnings that "liquidity can disappear quite fast," Fuld "depleted Lehman's capital reserves by over $10 billion through year-end bonuses, stock buybacks, and dividend payments," Waxman said. Others at the hearing voiced their own concerns about compensation at Lehman. Nell Minow, the editor of the research firm, The Corporate Library, highlighted Fuld's compensation, which exceeded $70 million last year. "I think it is fair to say by any standard of measurement that this pay plan is as uncorrelated to performance as it is possible to be," she said. Minow also found fault with Lehman's corporate board. The Corporate Library grades the performance of corporate boards and last month, Minow said, the firm downgraded Lehman's board to an "F." "In this case, the board was too old, had served too long, was too out of touch with massive changes in the industry, had too little of their own net worth at risk, and was too compromised for rigorous independent oversight," she said. Prior to Fuld's testimony, Minow and several other experts testified before the committee on Lehman's bankruptcy and today's financial turmoil. Dr. Luigi Zingales, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago, said that Lehman's demise was a result of its aggressive use of leverage, or debt to finance investments, "in the context of a major financial crisis." It made Lehman especially vulnerable to insolvency, Zingales said. "Lehman did not find itself in that situation by accident; it was the unlucky draw of a consciously-made gamble," he said. Robert Wescott, the president of the economic analysis and public policy research firm Keybridge Research LLC, said that the root of the financial crisis, overall lay in "easy credit." Variable rate mortgages with low initial interest rates "gave many families an inflated sense of their capacity to afford housing," Wescott said. As a result, he said, housing prices began rising as high as 30 percent per year and "a housing frenzy developed." Debate of Mortgage Regulation "Many Americans developed unrealistic expectations and assumed that housing prices could only go up," he said. Meanwhile, the securitization of mortgages aggravated the situation – it allowed mortgage originators to make risky loans without concerns about the consequences. "Since the mortgage originator was no longer going to hold the mortgage to maturity, but rather was going to immediately sell it to a securities firm and collect its fee up front, it did not have a strong incentive to perform due diligence on the loan," Westcott said. Peter J. Wallison, a fellow in financial policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, said that the lack of regulation of government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played a major role in the crisis. Congress, he said, resisted reforming the regulation of the two companies "until it was too late." Wallison also cited a newspaper article that showed "the SEC's failure to devote sufficient resources to the regulation of the major investment banking firms." Weak regulation, Wallison said, "can be worse than none." Near the end of the hearing, after some two hours of questioning, Fuld stressed his personal feelings about Lehman's bankruptcy. "My employees, my shareholders, creditors, clients have taken a huge amount of pain and, again, not that everybody on this committee cares about this, but I wake up every single night thinking what I could I have done differently," he said. "I have searched myself every single night, and I come back to at the time ... I made those decisions, I made those decisions with the information that I had ... I can look right at you and say this is a pain that will stay with me for the rest of my life, regardless of what comes out of this committee." Waxman closed the hearing noting that he was dissatisfied with Fuld's testimony. "You took responsibility for the decisions you made in retrospect, you think you should have done some things different," he said, "but you don't seem to acknowledge that you did anything wrong." Click Here for the Investigative Homepage. |
I recently had the pleasure of pitching a very talented, well produced artist to major labels. Years ago I was a VP of a major label and have been in the business for decades. We all know that record sales have been taken over by streaming. Very few people are buying records anymore. So it’s tough these days to be a record label. Guest Post by Stephen Wrench on Musik and Film The artist I was pitching spent several hundred thousand dollars with the best producers and studios. The production is fabulous. The songs are great and so are the performances. With that, one would think that obtaining a major label would not be an issue. After pitching the album to about every major label, I started making calls to my contacts at the labels. Naturally my first question was “How did you like the music”? I was shocked at the answers I received. “Well I took a look at their social media numbers and they weren’t very good”. But how did you like the music? They never listened to it because their social media numbers were not good enough? So this is what music has come to a social media contest? Where would the greats be today if they were dependent upon social media numbers? Would we have ever heard Jimi Hendrix, Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones or Michael Jackson? Music is supposed to evoke emotion and not be just a number. Does a million you tube hits evoke emotion? Record labels’ sales may be in the toilet but maybe that is because they are concentrating on the wrong thing instead of the music. After all, it is all about the music and if the music is great and evokes emotion to make you laugh or cry, it is memorable and that’s what creates a great album, one that people actually buy.. Let’s get back to concentrating on making great music and the labels might sell some records again. |
So today I went to the post office to pick up a package containing my last couple of commissions from Nate Stockman, and when I opened it up I saw that there was an extra piece of art in the package with a note. The note said that Nate had thrown in a "little" something extra to thank me for all the times I've commissioned him. Well, if this is little, then I don't know big. Nate knows that I am a HUGE Legion fan and even though I was already a huge fan of Nate's as well, now I am an even huger one. This piece features the Legion at their Silver Age best. The Legion stories of that era are full of kooky adventures and tricky plots and I recommend everyone go check them out. Nate has the team looking full of enthusiasm and pure of heart, which is how they should look. Again, I can not thank Nate enough for this and every other piece of art he's sent my way. If you like this piece, then by all means go buy some of Nate's comics and/or commission him yourself. |
This post may contain referral/affiliate links. If you buy something, MSA may earn a commission. Read the full disclosure We have spoilers for the Fall 2016 FabFitFun box! Showing up now for selection FabFitFun Select members (annual subscribers): Nature or Things Coloring Book The Created Co. To-Go Coffee Mug What do you think of the spoilers? Which variants do want of the items? If you haven’t signed up for FabFitFun yet: For a limited time, use coupon code MSA10 to save $10 off your first box. Your subscription will start with the fall box. (This box is regularly $49.99 a quarter). Check out our FabFitFun reviews to see what you can expect from this quarterly subscription box. Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She’s been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox , and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have FabFitFun , and any box that features natural beauty products! |
Attempts to improve physics instruction suggest that there is a fundamental barrier to the human learning of physics. We argue that the new capabilities of artificial intelligence justify a reconsideration not of how we teach physics but to whom we teach physics. I. INTRODUCTION physics dates back at least to the nineteenth century, 1 100 years of attempts to transform physics education ,” Phys. Teach. 54, 523– 527 (2016). 1. Valerie K. Otero and David E. Meltzer, “,” Phys. Teach., 523–(2016). https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4967888 2 The introductory university physics project 1987–1995: What has it accomplished? ,” Am. J. Phys. 66, 124– 137 (1998). 2. Lawrence A. Coleman, Donald F. Holcomb, and John S. Rigden, “,” Am. J. Phys., 124–(1998). https://doi.org/10.1119/1.18830 Researchers have tried changing student motivation, 3 3. Priscilla Laws, “ Sweatshop physics ,” Phys. Tutor 22, 23– 27 (1997). 4 4. R. S. Tottle, “ Newton's laws: Do we really need three? ,” J. Phys. Simp. 78, 1– 4 (2012);R. S. Tottle, “ Kepler's laws: Do we really need three? ,” J. Phys. Simp. 92, 22– 26 (2014);R. S. Tottle, “ Thermodynamic laws: Do we really need three? ,” J. Phys. Simp. 93, 6– 12 (2015);R. S. Tottle, “ Priscilla laws: Do we really need one? ,” J. Phys. Simp. 94, 24– 40 (2016). materials more appealing to students, 5 5. Elmak Dermot and Alvin U. Flinn, “ A course in the physics of Facebook ,” Phys. Curric. 1, 1– 13 (2014). learning types and preparation. The typical difficulties posed by human characteristics have been discussed by Wynken et al., 6 6. Wallace Wynken, I. Blynken, and Tod Nodd, “ Expanding the use of pair instruction ,” Natl. J. Phys. 80, 376– 381 (2012). 1 7 7. J. Fast and A. Modest, “ Proposal ,” J. Stu. Clone 6, 21– 53 (1998). The struggle to teachdates back at least to the nineteenth century,and remains a losing fight.have tried changing student motivation,simplifying course content,and developing curricularmore appealing to students,but no significant improvement in student test scores has resulted. This lack of dramatic progress is universally ascribed to the wide variety of studenttypes and preparation. The typical difficulties posed by human characteristics have been discussed by Wynkenwhose results on “pair instruction” are presented in Fig.. Proposals to reduce statistical noise through student cloninghave run into the expected barriers. II. NEW APPROACH TO UNIVERSITY PHYSICS In this paper, we propose an innovative view of instruction in introductory physics, and a solution arising from this view. The focus is on “university physics,” the calculus-based physics introduction designed to bar from engineering careers students who might pose a danger in such careers. We start with the observation that the failure to improve instruction is, in itself, a very important insight. In an era with a spectacular progress in a wide variety of fields, the efforts of physicists have proved to be wanting in only two areas: quantum gravity and teaching. physicist Cromer. 8 8. Alan Cromer, Uncommon Sense ( Oxford U.P. , New York , 1993). physics is not a normal human activity. What sort of activity is university physics then? We first note that it is highly algorithmic. Students learn patterns of problem solving. At Crenshaw-Mellon University, 9 9. Currently Uber University. computer programs have been developed to recognize and solve the dry-sliding-friction-block-on-tilted-plane, ballistics, and pendulum problems that constitute almost all of university physics. The key to this may very well lie in the insights published in 1993 byCromer.He marshals historical data to bolster his argument thatis not a normal human activity. What sort of activity is universitythen? We first note that it is highly algorithmic. Students learn patterns of problem solving. At Crenshaw-Mellon University,in fact, simpleprograms have been developed to recognize and solve the dry-sliding-friction-block-on-tilted-plane, ballistics, and pendulum problems that constitute almost all of university As the next element of our argument, we note the nature of the typical university physics lecture. The instructor's laptop runs through a set of power point-style slides, while the students at their seats copy this information into their own laptops. The question arises as to the role of the student in this process. There seems, in fact, to be little or no role. computer neural networking in which computers are “trained” with a large number of training problems. In tests, the computers then show an apparent intelligence for solving similar new problems. A brief consideration will make clear to any instructor the parallel to teaching university physics. In particular, the students solve a large number of training problems (homework). But, unlike deeply learning computers, the students do not appear to improve with training. 10 10. T. Test, “ Searching for a signal ,” J. PER Stat. 128, 145– 623 (2012). Now, we come to the central question underlying our innovative view: Are we not teaching the wrong entities? “Deep learning” is a very modern version ofneural networking in whichare “trained” with a large number of training problems. In tests, thethen show an apparent intelligence for solving similar new problems. A brief consideration will make clear to any instructor the parallel to teaching universityIn particular, the students solve a large number of training problems (homework). But, unlike deeplythe students do not appear to improve with training. III. PILOT STUDY With the cooperation of Prof. T. Nodd, we were given data on student performance in the three sections of Faber College's fall 2015 university physics course. In that course, students were given 90 homework problems and took three exams, including the final exam, with a total of 13 problems. The homework problems were then given as “training” problems to a standard, publicly available, three layered deep-learning program, implemented on a high end desktop workstation. The deep learning program (which was enrolled in the course as D. Plurnur) was then given the problems on the course exams. The machine was given the same time, a total of 5 h, on the three exams, but finished early, needing only 17 ms. 4 such problems. After this extended training, D. Plurnur did perfectly on all the Faber exams, and achieved an almost perfect score on the Force Concept Inventory. 11,12 Force concept inventory ,” Phys. Teach. 30, 141– 158 (1992). 11. D. Hestenes, M. Wells, and G. Swackhamer, “,” Phys. Teach., 141–(1992). https://doi.org/10.1119/1.2343497 12. D. Plurnur argued that the one answer that was graded wrong was, in fact, correct. The disagreement is being studied. The performance of D. Plurnur was slightly better than that of the human students, though not by a statistically significant margin. The results of the next step, however, were much more encouraging. D. Plurnur was given all the problems in the text as training, along with every problem in two similar textbooks, and the complete set of problems from a publicly accessible compilation of 10such problems. After this extended training, D. Plurnur did perfectly on all the Faber exams, and achieved an almost perfect score on the Force Concept Inventory. We wanted to compare this performance with that of Faber students who had solved a large number of training problems, but no reward could be found that would persuade any of the Faber students to attempt more than 90 problems. IV. CONCLUSION Physics is the foundational science. Its disappearance from institutions of higher learning would presage the withering of all academic science and technology. It is important, therefore, that physics instruction continues, but its continuation is threatened. Two thirds of post-secondary institutions are supported by state legislatures, and these legislatures, justifiably, want accountability. As the word suggests, this means counting something, something like credit hours. They are not equipped to judge nor interested in judging the details of instruction, only in the efficiency with which credit hours are generated. As a boost to efficiency, no other innovation can compare to the shift from the human instructional client to the computing machine client. Very large numbers of instructional clients can be enrolled, and all will get the highest grade possible. Brick and mortar costs will be almost nonexistent, since remote training of computing machines has none of the issues that have been found in remote instruction of human students. There are countless secondary ways in which this shift will lighten the loads at our overburdened institutions. Protests will be unknown. Trigger warnings will be unnecessary, and, barring remarkable advances in artificial intelligence, sexual harassment will cease to be a problem. |
At the end of January we hopped on an extended Nashville Brew Bus trip to Asheville, NC. Normally, the Brew Bus does a 5 hour tour of 4 Nashville Breweries on Saturdays. It’s always a fun afternoon of exploring Nashville beer. Check them out if you’re visiting Music City! We had a three-day trip to Asheville, NC, AKA Beer City USA. It is a gorgeous small town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. However, it can stand toe-to-toe with beer cities many times its size. Recently, Western breweries like Sierra Nevada, Oskar Blue and New Belgium took notice of the area’s beer culture, natural beauty, recreational activities, pristine mountain water and easy access to East Coast markets. It’s expensive to ship Pale Ale from Chico, CA to New York City, and it’s not good for the planet either. Sierra Nevada has opened a massive state-of-the art brewery in Mills River, NC, about 15 minutes south of Asheville. They are primarily brewing their Pale Ale and Torpedo IPA in NC, but could brew any beer in the catalog. They built the brewery with room to grow. In the fermenting room, there are blank round spots in the ceiling awaiting new fermenter as demand grows. The onsite restaurant will open later this Spring, but the gift shop is open now. Book your tours in advance, they’re usually sold out. We hope you enjoy our pictures from the visit. |
Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has reacted to his bandmate Justin Chancellor stating that Tool are ‘90% there’ when it comes to the music on their new album. Reddit user Conrpnc recapped MetalSucks ‘ new podcast interview with Tool bassist Justin Chancellor. Reddit user Conrpnc recapped‘ new podcast interview with Tool bassist Justin Chancellor. Great interview. It’s short and Justin’s interview starts around the 12 min mark. I recommend a listen. For those at work I’ll paraphrase some of the major takeaways I got from it: He says they really reached a new level together on this tour. This statement mostly seems to relate to their interpersonal relationships in that they really enjoyed being around each other. He says they’re really ready to work on the album when they get back from the tour and just “bang it out”. He says they’re really ready to work on the album when they get back from the tour and just “bang it out”. He estimates 90% done in terms of writing and selecting material and putting things together creatively as would relate to the writing process (as mentioned elsewhere in this thread). He talks about how the process has changed for this album specifically in that they’ve never had so much material to work with before (presumably just due to the time they’ve taken) and that they are being really picky about what is going to go on the album. He talks about how important it is that they do something new and unique (for them). He stresses the importance of the band working as 4 people coming together and not having one person who is a conductor or ringleader in the creative process and how that contributes to the time it takes to get stuff done. He also was very forthcoming in that, as far as they are concerned, taking time from each other, giving each other space, and letting members pursue other projects, hobbies and lives (family) has contributed to the delay but was also an essential component of how they stay together as a band and not burn out on each other. This also applies to how when they reconvene to work on material it is new and fresh as they are coming back together as different people with unique experiences making the creative process less stale. He was genuinely flattered by compliments such as people covering they’re music. He would not be pressured into giving a release date or time frame for the new album. I would really caution against fans running wild with these statements. They were general reassurances that the band is getting along, is still working on new material and frankly will finish when they are happy with it and not a moment sooner. It was a great interview with positive news, but let’s stay level headed here. |
The night of July 19 in Cincinnati, Ohio, a University of Cincinnati police officer shot and killed an African-American man in his vehicle. Officers responding to the scene asked the officer what occurred and he responded that he had been dragged by the vehicle and was forced to fire upon the occupant. The officer, Ray Tensing, killed 43-year-old Samuel Dubose, and the incident would have been forgotten and probably filed as a legal killing if not for the body camera that the officer had been wearing at the time of the shooting. Upon reviewing the footage, it appears that Tensing was not dragged by Dubose’s car but appeared to panic and resort to deadly force. An investigation was quickly mounted and Tensing was fired from the force and is now facing a murder trial. The event itself sparked further investigation by the governor about how police were trained and hired statewide. This incident is not an isolated occasion. Across the country riots, protests, and killings are making headlines as attention is drawn to an apparent increase in police violence and brutality. With this increase, students, a group historically known for their political activism, have come together to protest these killings and the increase in police brutality over the past decade. These clashes have been covered by the media and more and more exposed on social media. Students, professors, and affiliates of colleges and universities across the country have experienced this violence firsthand. Just this year, Virginia Tech honor student Martese Johnson was thrown to the ground and severely injured on St. Patrick’s Day when an officer used unnecessary force to subdue the student and arrest him. This past January, police in Columbus, Ohio, responded to jubilant rejoicing as students and fans celebrated Ohio State’s National Championship win with all odds against them. The police used tear gas, pepper spray, and other non-lethal violent methods to disperse the crowd, but complaints were raised as to the necessity of the actions and the failure of the police to call for the crowd to disperse. Video footage of the incident and eyewitness accounts tell a story of revelers on the sidewalk being forced away from the campus district by heavily armed and armored police with little or no clear warning. Many have begun asking whether this is an actual increase in brutality or whether this is simply a phenomenon of social media. With so many big names like Ferguson and Baltimore bouncing around in the news nowadays, it would seem that every week there’s another fatal police shooting. This has been declared by some to be because of an increased wave of police violence and perhaps conspiracies of government control or declaration of martial law. Reputable news sources have been declaring that killings by the police are at a two decade high. So is any of this true? Yes and no. The problem with making sweeping claims like these is that they do not examine the problem in detail. According to data from the FBI, the number of deaths at the hands of police (termed justifiable homicide) is up and by a margin of 12 percent; that amounts to 44 more deaths per year nationwide by police since 1997. However, suggestions have been raised that the data brought forward by the FBI is strictly legalistic or even biased in favor of the police. Some watchdog groups are claiming that last year well over 1,000 people were killed by police. In 2013 alone, according to killedbythepolice.net, which activated in May of 2013, there were 748 people killed by the police in approximately eight months. Not only does the site report these incidents through users, but it is curated and links to media news sources are provided for anyone to look at. So the data is off and there is much more coverage of brutality with the advent of social media and smart phones. What’s the big deal? The big deal is the crushing power of fear that police wield intentionally or otherwise. These men and women unconsciously can crush resistance to overstepping their bounds by simply existing. The police’s presence is often enough to silence the most tenacious of protestors. As the slam poet Buddy Wakefield put it, “I’ve always resented the fact that when a cop drives by I feel paranoid instead of protected.” In some sense, we do live in a police state. The only problem is neither the people nor the police want that. For students, I encourage you to continue fighting against these problems. Your involvement means the world since your age group is largely politically sedentary. By acting out, students draw attention to issues. Just think back to the Vietnam War protests — many of the marchers were young college students who wanted to see a change in the world and they made it happen. When dealing with the police, be kind, be lawful, but be firm. You do have rights. Know them and exercise them. |
1912 Eighth Grade Examination for Bullitt County Schools This copy of the Eighth Grade Exam for Bullitt County Schools in 1912 was donated to the museum. We thought you might like to see what the test looked like more than a hundred years ago. Obviously it tested some things that were more relevant at that time than now, and it should not be used to compare student knowledge then and now. Note that there are several typesetting mistakes on the test including a mistake in the spelling list. The word "eneeavor" should be "endeavor." This version of the exam was probably a master version given out to the schools (note that the spelling words wouldn’t be written on a test.) The museum has been told that the exam was handed out in a scroll form (that is why the paper is long.) The typos would have been corrected simply by contacting the teachers and telling them to mark their copies accordingly, much like would be done today. And there might not be quite as many typos as you think; "Serbia" for example was indeed spelled "Servia" back then. Bullitt County Schools were mostly one-room schools in those days, scattered around the rural county. Students came together at the county courthouse once or twice a year to take this "Common Exam." It was apparently a big deal. The local newspaper urged students to do well, even urging seventh graders that it was not too early to start preparing. Some scholarships were provided to those who passed to go on to high school, which was also a big deal back then. In those days, high school was sometimes another county away and a rare thing for many farm children to be able to otherwise attend. And remember to smile a little while reading this exam. It has been great fun, as well as a challenge, to think about the questions, and to come up with answers for 1912 and for today. For example, it has been interesting to see disagreements on even the basics, such as what is a "cord," much less the actual answer to the question, or the much more controversial questions about government and about "who discovered...". Smile. We are all learning from this test. Our staff has put together possible answers on another page for your amusement. We have received a number of requests for hard copies of the test and our answers. If you prefer to obtain them this way, you may purchase them from the museum by printing the form located at this link, and mailing the form and a check for $10.00 made out to the Bullitt County History Museum to the following address: Bullitt County History Museum P.O. Box 206 Shepherdsville, Kentucky 40165 If you, the reader, have an interest in any particular part of our county history, and wish to contribute to this effort, use the form on our Contact Us page to send us your comments about this, or any Bullitt County History page. We welcome your comments and suggestions. If you feel that we have misspoken at any point, please feel free to point this out to us. |
Stephen Collins starred as Eric Camden, a Protestant minister and father of seven on the family drama “7th Heaven” (1996-2007). Speaking out for the first time about allegations that he sexually abused underage girls, Stephen Collins admitted to and apologized for abusing three different victims between 1973 and 1994 in a statement that will be published in People Magazine this week. “I deeply regret the mistakes I’ve made and any pain I caused these three women,” Collins wrote. “I admit to, apologize for, and take responsibility for what I did.” Specifically, Collins said he had exposed himself on two occasions to his first victim, a “pre-teen” girl, in 1973 when he was 25 years old. Months later, Collins said, when he was watching television alone with the girl, he moved her hand and caused her to touch him in appropriately. “It lasted less than a minute, during which there was no gratification,” Collins said. The actor, who played a lead role of the minister father on the popular television show “7th Heaven” during its 11 seasons, also admitted that he was in fact the voice heard on an audio tape that was released earlier this year in which he described one of those encounters. The recording, which were first reported by the gossip site TMZ in October, appears to contradict his statement in People Magazine. Collins said in his statement that on two other instances of abuse, in 1982 and in 1994, when he exposed himself to two other teen girls. He insists that both incidents lasted seconds and involved no physical contact. “I don’t say this to excuse what I did — it was inexcusable — but to clarify what actually happened,” he added. But in the recording, Collins describes several incidents with a single victim over the course of several years. “There were, I think, yes there were like three incidents over about three years,” Collins said. Earlier in the session, according to the recording, Collins told his then-wife Faye Grant that “she was 11 and then like 12 and 13.” It is unclear which victim Collins is referring to. Collins accuses his ex-wife Faye Grant of recording the audio tape of their marital therapy session in 2012. It was released in the midst of their acrimonious divorce proceedings. Grant has denied leaking the audio tape to the media. The actor said that the 1994 incident was a “wake-up” call that prompted him to begin a 20-year period of therapy. “And since that day in 1994, I have not had an impulse to act out in any such way,” Collins said. Collins said that he apologized directly to one of the victims, 15 years after the abuse. But he has not approached the other two women, one whom is in her 50s and the other in her 30s, out of concern that “being direct about such matters could actually make things worse for them by opening old wounds.” “With all my heart, I want them to know how sorry am and that I haven’t engaged in any such behavior for over twenty years,” Collins said. Collins claims he waited to acknowledge his abuse until after his divorce trial with Grant, which was originally scheduled for Nov. 12. But when that trial was postponed, he decided to speak up. “I didn’t feel I could wait any longer to speak up,” Collins said. After the audio tape emerged, two channels canceled plans to air re-runs of “7th Heaven,” and his talent agency severed ties. And both the Los Angeles Police Department and the New York Police Department said they were conducting investigations into the allegations after the secret recording emerged. In addition to authoring the People essay, which will be released in the magazine on Friday, Collins is sitting down with Yahoo’s Katie Couric for an interview that will air Friday on ABC’s “20/20.” That interview will also stream on Yahoo. |
Reality: Actually, it’s been a “real thing” longer than you’ve been alive. The term dates back something like a century ago (and was, even then, being used to refer to feminists). The only reason it was “supposed to be a joke” was because you and people like you desperately try to mock the concept in order to delegitimize it (and MRAs). In other words, you tried to turn it into a joke, and failed. Did you ever actually look up misandry in a dictionary? Did you not notice that the origin date is older than the modern MRM, much less tumblr, by decades? Did you notice that it includes contempt and prejudice against men? Do you know that many people seriously believe that lolmisandry tumblrfems actually hate men, including people who actually hate men themselves? Come to think of it, isn’t that exactly the same argument feminists often make for rape jokes? That they encourage actual rapists? Except that, wherps, Western society has generally viewed M>F rape as one of the worst crimes imaginable for longer than anyone on Earth has been alive, while “boys are stupid, throw rocks at them” is a bestselling piece of merchandise. Ironically, feminism’s efforts to suppress MRAs just keep bringing more attention to them. They’ve done more for the visibility of MRAs than MRAs have. |
Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr delivers a speech during a 2016 sermon at the Great Mosque of Kufa (AFP Photo/Haidar HAMDANI) Najaf (Iraq) (AFP) - Moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would be a declaration of war on Islam, influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said Tuesday. "Transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem would be a public and more-explicit-than-ever declaration of war against Islam," he said in a statement. In a break with previous administrations, new US President Donald Trump has pledged to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocate the US embassy there from Tel Aviv. Sadr, a firebrand Shiite cleric whose militia once fought US occupation forces in Iraq, called for the "formation of a special division to liberate Jerusalem were the decision to be implemented." Sadr said the Cairo-based Arab League as well as the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the world's main pan-Islamic body, should take a decisive stand on the issue or dissolve themselves. The Najaf-based cleric also called "for the immediate closure of the US embassy in Iraq" should Washington go ahead with its promised embassy transfer in Israel. Sadr supporters protesting against the lack of services and widespread corruption in the Iraqi state stormed the so-called "Green Zone" in Baghdad twice last year. The protesters entered the parliament buildings and the prime minister's office but did not attempt anything against the US embassy there, which is Washington's largest foreign mission. The United States works with Iraq on a range of issues, notably with military backing for the Iraqi offensive to retake large parts of the country seized by the Islamic State group. The final status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel considers Jerusalem -- including the eastern Palestinian sector it annexed in 1980 -- as its indivisible capital. The Palestinians want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state. The White House on Sunday appeared to play down suggestions that a move was imminent, with press secretary Sean Spicer saying: "We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject." |
The death toll in the mini truck-bus collision in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday has risen to 15. Twenty one people were also injured when a mini truck carrying a marriage party collided with a bus near Kandukur town in Prakasam district. Police said a mini truck carrying a marriage party coming from Kandukur hit the bus coming from the opposite direction. Fifteen people have been killed in the mishap after the bus caught fire in the mishap, Inspector of Police (Kandukur) M Lakshman said. The mini truck was carrying 40 passengers while there were no passengers on board in the bus. Fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the flames. The officer said the injured are being shifted to Kandukur, Ongole and Nellore districts for treatment. Andhra Pradesh transport minister Sidda Raghava Rao also reached the spot and is supervising the rescue operations. District Collector Sujatha Sarma also visited the mishap site. . Watch | 13 killed, 10 injured in Andhra Pradesh accident First Published: Oct 17, 2015 09:52 IST |
On the face of it, these should be heady times for American workers. U.S. unemployment is as low as it’s been in nearly two decades (3.9% as of July) and the nation’s private-sector employers have been adding jobs for 101 straight months – 19.5 million since the Great Recession-related cuts finally abated in early 2010, and 1.5 million just since the beginning of the year. But despite the strong labor market, wage growth has lagged economists’ expectations. In fact, despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And what wage gains there have been have mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers. The disconnect between the job market and workers’ paychecks has fueled much of the recent activism in states and cities around raising minimum wages, and it also has become a factor in at least some of this year’s congressional campaigns. Average hourly earnings for non-management private-sector workers in July were $22.65, up 3 cents from June and 2.7% above the average wage from a year earlier, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s in line with average wage growth over the past five years: Year-over-year growth has mostly ranged between 2% and 3% since the beginning of 2013. But in the years just before the 2007-08 financial collapse, average hourly earnings often increased by around 4% year-over-year. And during the high-inflation years of the 1970s and early 1980s, average wages commonly jumped 7%, 8% or even 9% year-over-year. After adjusting for inflation, however, today’s average hourly wage has just about the same purchasing power it did in 1978, following a long slide in the 1980s and early 1990s and bumpy, inconsistent growth since then. In fact, in real terms average hourly earnings peaked more than 45 years ago: The $4.03-an-hour rate recorded in January 1973 had the same purchasing power that $23.68 would today. A similar measure – the “usual weekly earnings” of employed, full-time wage and salary workers – tells much the same story, albeit over a shorter time period. In seasonally adjusted current dollars, median usual weekly earnings rose from $232 in the first quarter of 1979 (when the data series began) to $879 in the second quarter of this year, which might sound like a lot. But in real, inflation-adjusted terms, the median has barely budged over that period: That $232 in 1979 had the same purchasing power as $840 in today’s dollars. Meanwhile, wage gains have gone largely to the highest earners. Since 2000, usual weekly wages have risen 3% (in real terms) among workers in the lowest tenth of the earnings distribution and 4.3% among the lowest quarter. But among people in the top tenth of the distribution, real wages have risen a cumulative 15.7%, to $2,112 a week – nearly five times the usual weekly earnings of the bottom tenth ($426). Cash money isn’t the only way workers are compensated, of course – health insurance, retirement-account contributions, tuition reimbursement, transit subsidies and other benefits all can be part of the package. But wages and salaries are the biggest (about 70%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) and most visible component of employee compensation. Wage stagnation has been a subject of much economic analysis and commentary, though perhaps predictably there’s little agreement about what’s causing it (or, indeed, whether the BLS data adequately capture what’s going on). One theory is that rising benefit costs – particularly employer-provided health insurance – may be constraining employers’ ability or willingness to raise cash wages. According to BLS-generated compensation cost indices, total benefit costs for all civilian workers have risen an inflation-adjusted 22.5% since 2001 (when the data series began), versus 5.3% for wage and salary costs. Other factors that have been suggested include the continuing decline of labor unions; lagging educational attainment relative to other countries; noncompete clauses and other restrictions on job-switching; a large pool of potential workers who are outside the formally defined labor force, neither employed nor seeking work; and broad employment declines in manufacturing and production sectors and a consequent shift toward job growth in low-wage industries. Sluggish and uneven wage growth has been cited as a key factor behind widening income inequality in the United States. A recent Pew Research Center report, based on an analysis of household income data from the Census Bureau, found that in 2016 Americans in the top tenth of the income distribution earned 8.7 times as much as Americans in the bottom tenth ($109,578 versus $12,523). In 1970, when the analysis period began, the top tenth earned 6.9 times as much as the bottom tenth ($63,512 versus $9,212). Note: This is an update to a post originally published Oct. 9, 2014. Topics: Income Inequality, Work and Employment, Economics and Personal Finances, Income, National Economy |
WhatsSpy Public is an web-oriented application that tracks every move of whoever you like to follow. This application is setup as an Proof of Concept that Whatsapp is broken in terms of privacy. Once you’ve setup this application you can track users that you want to follow on Whatsapp. Once it’s running it keeps track of the following activities: Online/Offline status (even with privacy options set to “nobody”) Profile pictures Privacy settings Status messages I made this project for you to realise how broken the privacy options actually are. It just started out as experimenting with Whatsapp to build an Bot, but I was stunned when I realised someone could abuse this “online” feauture of Whatsapp to track anyone. I could just say this in like a blog article (like I tried but got marked as spam) that the privacy options are broken, but you wouldnt realise the impact it actually has. Requirements Shortlist requirements: Secondary Whatsapp account (phonenumber that doesn’t use Whatsapp) Rooted Android phone OR Jailbroken iPhone OR PHP knowledge Server/RPi that runs 24/7 Nginx or Apache with PHP with PDO (php5-pgsql installed) (you can’t host on simple webhoster, you need bash) Postgresql Notice secondary Whatsapp account. Once the tracker is started, you will not be able to recieve any messages over Whatsapp for this phonenumber. You can either try to register an non-Whatsapp used phonenumber WhatsSpy Public requires an. Once the tracker is started, you will not be able to recieve any messages over Whatsapp for this phonenumber. You can either try to register an non-Whatsapp used phonenumber with for example this script or just buy an 5 euro SIM Card and use this phonenumber for the tracker. For the tracker to work you need an secret which is retrieved from either your Phone or the register script mentioned above. In case of phone registration you need an jailbroken iPhone or rooted Android device in order to retrieve the secret. Jailbroken iPhone users: You can retrieve using this script. Rooted Android phones can use the following APK to retrieve the secret. In order to retrieve the scecret you need to follow these steps: Insert your (new) secondary SIM card in your phone and boot it up. Re-install Whatsapp on your phone and activate it using the new phonenumber. Use either the APK (Android) or the script (iPhone) to retrieve the WhatsApp secret. Write this secret down, which is required later. Insert your normal SIM card and re-install WhatsApp for normal use. Advertisements Like this: Like Loading... |
Former Conservative staffer Michael Sona has been found guilty of using misleading calls to send Guelph, Ont., voters to the wrong polling station the day of the 2011 federal election. Judge Gary Hearn of Ontario Superior Court said he is "fully satisfied" Sona at least aided or abetted those involved in what has become known as the robocalls scandal, though he added he believes Sona had help from one or more people. "The overheard conversations, Mr. Sona's inquiries of others, the matters set out in the agreed statement of facts and the disclosure in various conversations following May 2, 2011 are all factors that satisfy me beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Sona was involved with the creation and implementation of the scheme to direct voters to the wrong polling station on May 2, 2011," Hearn wrote in his verdict. Michael Sona, the only person charged over misleading robocalls in Guelph, Ont. in the 2011 federal election, has been found guilty of one charge under the Elections Act. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press) "Although the evidence indicates he did not likely act alone, he was party to the offence and, as noted previously, there will be a finding of guilt registered." Hearn found Sona, the only person charged in the case, guilty of one charge under the Elections Act. Sona will be back in court on Oct. 17 for a sentencing hearing, shortly after his 26th birthday. He faces a maximum penalty of a $5,000 fine, five years in prison, or both. Outside the court in Guelph, Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson said he was pleased with the verdict and the judge's reasons, but would not directly address Hearn's belief that Sona might not have acted alone. "We focus on one case at a time," Michaelson said when asked if he expected other trials. "I don't want to comment on what may or may not happen in the future." Michaelson also would not comment on whether the Crown would seek jail time for Sona. Sona's lawyer, Norm Boxall, was also asked about the judge's comment that others may have been involved in the scheme. He said the issue would "certainly" be raised at the sentencing hearing. Boxall said he and his client have not decided whether to appeal. "These are obviously difficult personal circumstances. It's extremely stressful for a young person," he said. The misleading robocalls, which went out to 6,000 voters in the southern Ontario city, were linked to a disposable cellphone registered under the pseudonym Pierre Poutine.It is illegal under the Elections Act to interfere with a voter's right to cast a ballot. Conservatives defend Guelph campaign The Conservative Party maintains it ran a "clean and ethical" campaign and was not involved in this plot. "Voter suppression is extremely serious and those responsible should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. That's why we reached out to Elections Canada when we heard of wrongdoing in Guelph and did all we could to assist them," Conservative Party spokesman Cory Hann said in a statement after the verdict. "We spend our campaigns identifying supporters and working hard to get them out to vote." Justice Minister Peter MacKay declined to comment on the verdict. "I really have nothing to add. There was an individual who was identified, charged, brought before the courts. There's really not much more I can say as attorney general," he said. Frank Valeriote, the Liberal MP who handily won re-election in Guelph despite the robocalls, shares the belief that the scheme was much wider than just one junior Tory staffer in a single riding. But he doubts anyone will ever be able to prove it. "I don't think we'll ever get to the bottom of it," Valeriote said in an interview. The masterminds of the scheme "choreographed this quite nicely so that Mr. Sona has taken the fall," Valeriote said. Moreover, he said the Conservative government has thwarted further investigation on this and other cases in future by refusing to give the elections commissioner the power he sought to compel witness testimony and access detailed robocall records. Craig Scott, NDP critic for democratic and parliamentary reform, also said he believes the scheme goes beyond Sona. "I don't honestly think that people are going to look at the conviction of one person for aiding and abetting and not retain the fact that he must be aiding and abetting other people," he said in an interview with CBC News. Sona had been under suspicion since his name surfaced soon after the first media reports surrounding the probe, though investigators didn't zero in on him until later. Sona worked for the Conservative candidate in Guelph at the time of the calls. The Conservative Party won the 2011 election, but Liberal incumbent Frank Valeriote held on to his Guelph seat. In an exchange with CBC News, Michael Sona said he was "fine." "Still trying to process this," he said. Before appearing in court this morning Sona tweeted a link to a video of the famous final gunfight scene from Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, with the comment "that feeling." |
On Nov. 16, 1974, astronomer Frank Drake dedicated a new observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, by sending humankind's first deliberate communication to extraterrestrials. The message, made up of 1,679 seemingly random zeros and ones, was shorter than the first four paragraphs of this article, but it still took three minutes to send. While the message began its voyage to the cosmos--a 24,000 year trip to M-13, a cluster of stars in the constellation Hercules, to be exact--visiting dignitaries listened over a loudspeaker while each bit played as a short, high-pitched tone. Some participants later said it brought tears to their eyes. Humans have debated the best ways to contact our interstellar neighbors for centuries. In 1820, German mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss proposed cutting an enormous right triangle into the Siberian pine forest, creating a monument to the Pythagorean theorem big enough to see from outer space. Twenty years later, Austrian astronomer Joseph von Littrow expanded on that idea, suggesting the excavation of huge trenches in the Sahara desert, which would be filled with kerosene and set ablaze. Flaming triangles, circles and squares would be a beacon to our solar neighbors, at least until the fire went out. Desmond Morris On Close Encounters Frank Drake On Ambiguity To a large extent, modern technologies have made these suggestions irrelevant. Since the 1920s, human radio and TV broadcasts have spammed the galaxy, and anyone listening has already gotten an earful. "In some sense, this is all academic, because we have been broadcasting to aliens for decades," says Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. "They're already watching Kate Smith and Kukla Fran and Howdy Doody." But what if we decided we wanted to send a message with intent, something that will say more about us than an episode of The Love Boat? What's the best way to create a message that will be received, understood and useful? The Arecibo broadcast represented one approach. Those 1,679 zeros and ones carried hidden meaning for any intelligent species who noticed that 1,679 is the product of two prime numbers, 73 and 23. Arrange the message in 73 rows of 23 numbers, and you get a picture painted in bits. (Click here to see the decoded Arecibo message.) It was a novel approach, but the message was hidden, and it depended on aliens making leaps of logic in order to decipher it. Arecibo wasn't the first time Drake pondered how to address an alien audience. In March 1972, a plaque he designed with legendary astronomer Carl Sagan was blasted into space on board the Pioneer 10 spacecraft. (Click here to see the Pioneer Plaque.) A few years later, Drake and Sagan would team up again on a much more ambitious project, attaching a gold-plated record full of music and photos onto the two Voyager probes. These efforts are notable because so few other attempts have been made to craft a message to alien civilizations. But as actual attempts at communication, the spacecraft fall flat. They're too small to notice and move too slowly. Far better to use a broadcast signal, which we can target at a specific star, and which moves at the speed of light. We could use the same radio frequencies as the Arecibo message, but why not do something a little more dramatic? The universe is pretty transparent to optical light--that's how we can see far away galaxies. If we used a bank of high-powered lasers, we could beam a high-bandwidth message across the cosmos. And we could do it with style. "One nice thing about light is that creatures develop eyes, and it would be possible to make optical radiation bright enough to see," says Paul Horowitz, a professor of physics at Harvard University. "That's an unmistakable signature. You look up, and there's a star, blinking in code, and the color's changing, too." Next comes the question of what the message should say. Drake says if he could do it again, he might convene an international committee of scientists, artists, politicians and religious figures to produce a holographic movie about life on Earth. Other researchers suggest that the best way to get an alien's attention is to send it a significant numeric pattern, perhaps prime numbers or the value of Pi. "Maybe the most fundamental way to initiate a message would be with mathematics," says Horowitz. "A lot of stuff will surely be understood by anybody, no matter what slime they're made out of, because its so basic." The mathematical approach has its critics. "You're not going to send the value of Pi," says Shostak. "If aliens sent us the value of Pi, wouldn't you be disappointed? You learned that in seventh grade." Instead, why not transmit everything we've got? "I would just send the entire contents of Google's servers," says Shostak. "To begin with, you don't have to worry about the fact that they dont speak English, because there's a lot of redundancy, so they'll learn it. And every subject is in there. Sure, there's a lot of pornography, but that's human stuff, too." Besides, it doesn't make sense to tease an alien civilization with just a "hello," considering that it could take millennia before we hear back from them. "It's like the Romans sent a message [to aliens] and we got the reply," says Shostak. "[The reply] was actually directed at Cicero, not at us. I just think that you would send as much info as the technology would allow on the assumption that you're not going to hear back." The discussion might seem academic. But many astronomers are confident they'll detect an extraterrestrial intelligence in the next few decades, and when that happens, we better have an official reply ready, or risk being drowned out by the public. "Once contact's been made, one of the first things that is going to happen is that everyone with a backyard antenna and the ability to wire up a transmitter is going to get online with their personal philosophies," says Shostak. "People will want to reply, and you can't stop them." This story was originally published in October 2005 as part of our special report on Communicating. Desmond Morris On Close Encounters Frank Drake On Ambiguity |
The long search is over for Uber’s chief operating officer. Former Orbitz CEO Barney Harford has formally accepted the position today. 1/ Thrilled to be joining @Uber as COO. Looking fwd to working w @dkhos again to help @Uber achieve its full potential https://t.co/gdnXJfFrjS — Barney Harford (@barneyh) December 20, 2017 In early March, former CEO Travis Kalanick disclosed he would be searching for someone to fill the position amidst allegations he had fostered a culture of sexism and achievement at any cost. The company continued to suffer a number of setbacks in the months following, including Kalanick’s resignation, a lawsuit from Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo and a Department of Justice investigation. In June, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm, Covington & Burling, recommended major management changes, advocating for a COO who would “act as a full partner” and run “day-to-day operations.” Harford, who also sits on airline company United’s board, had been working in an advisor capacity at Uber since October, spending the last few months learning how Uber works and how to improve operations. However, this is not the first time he’s worked with Uber’s new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Harford, who took on the role of CEO at Orbitz in 2009, later sold the company to Expedia in 2015 for $1.6 billion. Khosrowshahi was the CEO of Expedia. Harford was Expedia company president for Asia Pacific from 2004-2006. Harford will now report directly to Khosrowshahi in the new role, making him the second highest-ranking exec at Uber. However, the new appointment is a surprise. Khosrowshahi reportedly told employees when he took on the new role in September that he might not pick a new COO — later determining this role would be critical as Uber looks to stave off company losses, which grew to $1.5 billion last quarter. According to the company, Harford will be responsible for “global operations, marketing and customer support for both the ridesharing business as well as Uber Eats.” That’s one key exec in for Khosrowshahi, but Uber is still on the hunt for a chief financial officer to help shore up losses and turn the company profitable enough for a potential IPO in 2019. |
Mindful Eating Exercises How to Eat Mindfully The path to healthy body, and happy soul is based upon self-study,mindfulness, love and awareness. Understanding our relationship to eating cultivates a lot of insights and help us start living our highest potential. Mindfulness Exercises from Mindful Eating with Delicious Raw Vegan Recipes How to eat mindfully includes: 1. When you eat, just eat, do not do anything else We are all children that need nurturing, love and care. So give your inner child that nurturing and love, give yourself back the joy of preparing healthy and nutritious meals, joy of experiencing food without TV, reading, working, rush... do not read or watch news, do not answer your phone use this time to become conscious of the quality and quantity of food that you are taking 2. Create Daily Routine around your Food Create a daily routine that will inspire your body health, your mind and your spiritual development. Eat around the table. Eat at set times. Avoid snacking. Share your food with someone. It is more fun. 3. Practice Mindful Eating Regularly We do food every day so you can try, practice and re-experience mindfulness eating exercises, and work with your willpower, and food awareness every single day. 4. Savor and Enjoy your Food Preparation Become ‘mindful’ of your food. Your enjoyment will multiply and fulfillment will soon follow. Decorate your plate and enjoy the process of preparation. Experiment with new items, experiment with colours. 5. Eat after a short Meditation or Prayer Just before you take your first bite, sit in front of your food in a prayer. With this act you respect the food, the space around you, the people that made this food, and the silence. The meditation will make you face your animal instinct of HUNGER. Relax and enjoy the experience, enjoy the moment, be mindful of all around you and turn towards your food in peace. 6. Eat your Meal Consciously Eat slowly,lift your fork gradually and thoughtfully, and experience every movement fully. Chew your food properly. Try chewing for 30sec or 1min a bite. Be aware of your instinct to swallow. After finishing your meal, allow the feeling of gratitude to fill your mind. This wonderful nourishing meal is here to support you on your further journey. 7. Mindful Eating Exercises, Self-Love and Awareness Practicing mindful eating exercises, you will notice that the quality of food will replace the quantity, and that the awareness will become your guide and protector. With the awareness you will start respecting yourself. Bring the awareness into your drinking and eating habits. Drink Your Coffee Mindfully Create a Ritual from your Drinking Coffee Habit Prepare and drink your coffee with mindfulness. The Coffee Ritual is an ancient ritual coming from Africa. Coffee needs to be roasted, ground and freshly prepared. Buy the best quality organic fair-trade coffee. Prepare your coffee adding spices to it. My favourite spices are: cardamom, cinnemon, coriander. To sweeten you can use: carob, agave syrup or honey. Prepare your perfect cup of coffee mindfully and enjoy its taste fully. I also love to put into my coffee a drop of coconut oil. How to prepare Turkish Coffee in a Traditional Way. Cezve or Ibrik is a Turkish name for a traditional coffee-cooking pot made from copper loved throughout the Middle East. To make a Turkish cup of coffee you start with a very fine grind. This coffee is enjoyed in very small cups. Add water to the coffee pot: about 50 millilitres per cup of coffee Add sugar to taste Bring to a boil, remove from heat and add 1 ½ teaspoon of coffee per cup Boil coffee waiting for the mixture to start rising. Remove the coffee pot from the heat immediately after the first boil. Distribute the accumulated foam between the cups of coffee: this mixture is treasured dearly giving the coffee a special look and taste Allow remaining coffee powder to settle before serving into the cups. When you cook the Turkish Coffee be prepared that there will be some remaining coffee powder settled at the bottom of your cup. If your cups are white you can turn them around and read your destiny from the figures that are drawn within the mozaic of fine grid coffee. Remember: Less processed the coffee, better is the end results. Coffee is a source of antioxidants but one a day is just perfect. Mindful Eating with Delicious Raw Vegan Recipes Book It is our pleasure to launch our new Alchemy of Love Mindfulness Training book! The mindful eating exercises within the Alchemy of Love Mindfulness Training Book: Mindful Eating are designed to help you adopt healthy nutritional habits that empower your physical body. The mindfulness eating exercises will help you prioritise and enjoy food more. The book is designed with some delicious raw vegan recipes. To help you within your journey of mindful eating we have prepared for you: Mindful Eating: Mindful Eating Exercises with Delicious Raw Vegan Recipes Our experienced vegan chef Olivera Rosic adores experimenting and creating the most appetizing vegan dishes, delicious freshly squeezed juices and rich chocolate creams with raw coco. Her mind is always full of little cooking secrets of how to create adish that is truly unique. ISBN: 9789995754075 Format: e-book; Publisher: Artof4elements; Year: 2015; Size: 120pg 6x9” Price: only eur4.60 (Buy from Amazon) ISBN: 9789995754020 Format: Paperback (available through Amazon) Price: eur19 Choosing the vegetarian diet we work with millions of others to protect the rainforests, to prevent the huge suffering of farmed animals, and to reduce our-own energy consumption. When we say vegetarian we mean that: Vegetarian Benefits 10 miracle foods, fruits and veggies best for your nutrition. How to stay healthy tips! You just Read: How to Eat Mindfully AoL consciousness research These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. |
Uber Is Facing Big Challenges In China Uber faces some tough competition in China and various kinds of partnerships between their rivals are preventing it to expand further. China’s dominant ride-hailing app Didi Kuaidi has some powerful friends. One of them is Tancent, owner of the country’s most popular messaging app, WeChat. The service has more than 600 million active users, most of them Chinese residents, using the app to communicate with friends. A popular feature on it is to receive updates and coupons from many if their favorite domestic and foreign brands. However, Uber cannot be found on WeChat anymore. Suddenly its accounts began to disappear from the service on March 16th. In the following months Tencent began to ban or freeze all of Uber’s accounts on WeChat. Uber is spending huge amounts of money in China, telling its investors it is planning to spend $1 billion this present year. Even though this accounts for roughly half of the top 10 busiest cities by number of trips booked through the app, Didi Kuaidi is way ahead. The company apparently accounts for 78% of the country’s private car business. According to reports in the local media, Tancent was first blaming Uber’s issues on WeChat policy violations and later on technical glitches. Both Tancent and Didi Kuaidi declined to comment. Analyst Gene Cao explained that those companies are very sensitive on this and that “Tancent, particularly their WeChat business unit, is very conservative about publicly commenting on any WeChat strategy.” The loss of WeChat is a massive hit to Uber in China, as the service has become an important promotional tool for companies trying to reach wealthy Chinese. WeChat’s Chinese version had 8 million public accounts in late 2014, and before March, WeChat had become a very important part of how Uber communicated with passengers and drivers. Help from the Chinese government shouldn’t be expected as Beijing tends to side with local companies over foreign ones, and as a result the Silicon Valley’s app has suffered. But Uber is actually optimistic that Tancent will eventually back down: “I think as we continue to succeed, and it’s clear we’re in this for the long haul—we’ve got Chinese investors behind us; we’ve got partnerships with cities; we’re spending money in the local economy; local investors have an interest in our success—then we’ll get into more of a détente mode,” said Emil Michael, senior vice president for business at Uber. |
Epping Transmission Co., a subsidiary of Summit Midstream Partners that continues to clean up after nearly 3 million gallons of produced water leaked in 2015, got support Tuesday, Nov. 22, from a labor union that previously was critical of the company. A representative of the Laborers' International Union of North America testified during a Public Service Commission hearing that he supports the latest project from Summit Midstream because the company has adopted a new policy for selecting responsible contractors. "They are taking a step in the right direction in our eyes," said Evan Whiteford, who criticized the company the last time it was before the commission. "And we look forward to this project being a success." Epping Transmission Co. proposes to build a pipeline that could deliver 30,000 barrels of oil per day, with a maximum capacity of 70,000 barrels, to the Dakota Access Pipeline terminal near Epping, about 20 miles northeast of Williston. The $7 million project also would have a separate pipeline connection allowing it to deliver oil to the existing Divide Mainline Pipeline. Meadowlark Midstream, another subsidiary of Summit Midstream, continues to be under investigation by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and North Dakota regulators for the spill discovered in January 2015 north of Williston that contaminated Blacktail Creek and eventually the Little Muddy and Missouri rivers. The North Dakota Industrial Commission alleges the pipeline was leaking for more than three months before the spill was discovered. Remediation of the site is ongoing. The same pipeline system leaked again a year later, but that time staff recognized an anomaly with the pipeline within an hour and had the system shut down within a few hours, an indication that the company's pipeline monitoring system works, testified Zak Cobar, a vice president for Summit. In addition to around-the-clock pipeline monitoring, Summit said it has adopted a policy for hiring responsible contractors and requiring best practices. That policy would not technically apply to the Epping project because it is a smaller project and doesn't meet a cost threshold in the policy, said Megan Davis, a vice president and assistant general counsel. However, there is an expectation that the company comply with the spirit of the new policy, which Davis said is their intention. Commission Chairwoman Julie Fedorchak expressed concerns about winter construction and questioned why the company didn't apply for the project sooner to avoid installing the pipeline after the ground freezes, making it more difficult to properly preserve the topsoil. The company applied for the project in late August and can't begin construction until the commission issues a permit. "I'm not hearing a really compelling reason why you can't just start in March when you have better construction conditions for North Dakota and allow for more improved reclamation," Fedorchak said. Michael Smith, senior vice president for of corporate development, said the construction timeline is not finalized because the completion date for Dakota Access is unknown. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to review the easement for the Lake Oahe crossing north of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, where demonstrations have been active since Aug. 10. Smith said the project will take about four months to complete and the company would like to have it ready when Dakota Access becomes operational. The $3.8 billion, four-state pipeline, which was originally set to be in service at the end of this year, will transport oil to Patoka, Ill., where it can then be transported to Gulf Coast refineries. "They see it as one of the key outlets for Bakken crude production," Smith said of Dakota Access. "Our customers want as many options and flexibility as possible so they can realize the highest crude price available to them in North Dakota." The project is the sixth short pipeline to connect with Dakota Access that the commission has considered. Three have been constructed, one is under construction and another has been approved but construction is not expected to start until next spring. Commissioners requested additional information before they will make a decision on the Epping project, including detailed information about how the company would handle winter construction. "If it's ultimately going to be approved, I think there's going to be some pretty strict requirements to make sure that it is done successfully," Commissioner Randy Christmann said of winter construction. |
On the day Kashmir’s business community opposed implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) region in J&K, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said any move to oppose the new tax system was “anti-people”. “Those opposing the GST due to lack of knowledge will mean that consumers will have to pay double tax on inputs as well as the final product,” he told a press conference here. The Union Minister said reiterated that Jammu and Kashmir Assembly has full authority to take a call on implementation of the GST. “(But) non-implementation of the GST is anti-people,” he said. To question about the timeline for the GST implementation, Jaitley said: “We are in state of readiness”, and confirmed that July 1 would be the roll-out date for GST. He also allayed concerns surrounding the new tax regime, saying rates have not been hiked and insisted under the new system, either present rates were maintained or brought down. The State Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu termed the GST Council as “India's first federal institution,” saying the new tax regime “would pave way for cooperative federalism.” “The GST will bring major changes in fiscal and political side of India's federal structure because of which coercive federalism will pave way for cooperative and competitive federalism,” Drabu said, speaking at a roundtable of Finance Ministers here during the day. Touted as the biggest reform in indirect tax structure, the GST would introduce a single tax on supply of goods and services, right from the manufacturer to the consumer. Once GST comes into force, all central-and state-level taxes and levies on all goods and services would be absorbed within an integrated tax having two components: a central GST and a state GST. Drabu said the new tax regime has sown the seeds of lateral federalism by recognizing the new political, economic and social realities in India. He said the GST should be looked at more in terms of changing federal polity across the country. “The economic reforms ushered in 1991 didn't seek to consult the states. Now in 2017, with the GST being rolled out on July 1, every single state has been taken on board. This is one step which compliments other moves and changes the structure of Indian federalism,” he said. He said the GST will institutionalise tax collection and increase compliance tremendously, thereby making India a better and vibrant country. “While there may be issues of sovereignty and autonomy, the GST Council is India's first federal institution and we would like to see more moving ahead,” he said. The roundtable was also attended by the Finance Ministers of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kerala, Thomas Isaac and Karnataka. Welcoming them to Kashmir, Drabu said it is important to send out a signal to the rest of the country about the state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir. “There is a multi-layered reality to life in Jammu and Kashmir. While we have been dealing with the prevailing situation on one hand, it doesn't stop life here. We are witnessing economic history in making in this beautiful city of Srinagar in an incredible manner through pooling of sovereignties. Nothing can make us prouder,” he said. |
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. A plane that crashed onto a house in New York state, killing 50 people, dropped by 800 feet (245 metres) in five seconds, officials say. Air safety official Steve Chealander said the plane had fallen from 1,800ft to 1,000ft shortly before impact. He also said investigators had not found that there were "severe icing" conditions, which would have required pilots to fly the plane manually. The plane's autopilot was on until just before the crash, Mr Chealander said. Analysis of the plane's data recorders shows the crew noticed significant ice build-up on its wings before the crash. Mr Chealander, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), had earlier told the the Associated Press news agency that the NTSB recommended pilots disengage their craft's autopilot facility in icy conditions. The plane's de-icing system had been switched on before the crash Pilots using manual controls may be able to sense a problem sooner than the autopilot, he said. But in a press briefing on Sunday he said there was no evidence that the Continental Airlines pilot had done anything wrong. "The only restriction that they see - the manufacturer of this airplane - and that they write about is that disengage the autopilot in severe icing conditions," Mr Chealander said. "Thus far we haven't determined that it's severe icing so, so far we see that everything seemed to be normal in using the autopilot." Pitches and rolls The Bombardier Dash 8 was approaching Buffalo's airport when it crashed flat on the house in Clarence Center, a suburb of Buffalo, last Thursday. BOMBARDIER DASH 8 AIRCRAFT The Canadian-made Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 was delivered new last year Q400 is newest member of the Dash 8 family Twin-engine turboprop, mainly for short-haul flights First flown in 1998, entered commercial service in 2000 'The plane didn't sound normal' 9/11 widow among dead The pilots did not tell air traffic controllers of any problems during the flight, and a recording of communications appears normal until shortly before the crash. At that point, the crew are heard discussing snowy and misty conditions and asking for permission to descend. The crew then discussed "significant ice build-up" on the windshield and leading edge of the aircraft's wings, Mr Chealander said on Friday. The plane's de-icing system had been switched on before the crew talked about the ice, he said. Preliminary investigations suggested the plane was pointing away from the airport at which it was meant to land when it crashed. Analysis of the data recorders shows the plane made a series of severe pitches and rolls seconds before plunging into the house. The dead include 44 passengers, four crew and one off-duty pilot on board, and one person on the ground. The twin-prop Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft, operated by Colgan Air for Continental Airlines, was flying from Newark airport in New Jersey to Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version |
Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? The “Ready for Hilary” campaign has launched a not-very-subtle courtship of discontented Democrats, those leftish liberal activists who yearn for anybody but another Clinton. The not-yet candidate herself spoke to their concerns indirectly when she recently addressed the Silicon Valley Conference for Women. Clinton sketched out progressive goals for family-centered labor-market reforms. They were like love bombs for bleeding-heart liberals. Ad Policy Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress, the shadow think tank that speaks for Clinton-Obama politics, issued a more substantive agenda in a 161-page report from its self-appointed “Commission on Inclusive Prosperity.” The co-chair was Lawrence Summers, former Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and senior adviser to Obama. He performed an intellectual conversion equivalent to a double somersault in gymnastics. The new ideas were actually old ideas that progressive advocates have championed for decades to no avail. They were ignored or rejected by Summers himself and the two Democratic presidents he served. Never mind, the message is: Hillary gets it. She’s ready to confront the inequality thing. She will bring fresh ideas to the campaign on how to reverse the deterioration of middle-class American life. Her list includes everything from parental leave to care for newborn infants to equal pay for women and paid vacations for all working people. The CAP agenda, among many sound ideas, opts for stronger labor unions, worker ownership of corporations, faster growth and full employment, a reformed global trading system that for American working people will become a “race to the top” instead of the bottom. What’s not to like? But the Clinton seduction encountered a rocky start. In some progressive quarters, the shape-changing rhetoric inspired anger and abiding skepticism instead of applause. Many liberal advocates were reminded why they didn’t want Hillary in first place. Some saw a leopard changing spots into tiger stripes. Still, many policy activists were pleased that their agitation for Elizabeth Warren or other potential candidates was causing serious heartburn in establishment circles. The dissidents intend to do more. Summers was especially infuriating with his condescending remarks. He has a well-known talent for foot-in-mouth (recall his Harvard speech on why women don’t do well in science and engineering). On economic reform, he offered a warning: “It’s not enough to address upward mobility without addressing inequality. The challenge, though, is to address inequality without embracing the politics of envy.” “Envy” of the wealthy is a popular trope among the “1 percent” (remember Mitt Romney’s defense of his). In Summers’s case, he may have been thinking of his own grand windfall. A few weeks before his CAP report was issued, Summers hit the jackpot with the initial public offering for Lending Club. As a member of its board of directors, the Harvard economist had accumulated more one million shares in stock and options, priced at 70 cents each according to SEC filings. After the IPO, the stock was trading at $28 a share. Do the math. The professor reaped something like $28 million for his undoubtedly wise advice to Lending Club. Are you feeling a little envy? (I know I am.) It reminds one of what Elizabeth Warren often says: “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own.” The not-yet-announced candidate has a thing about money too. Hillary Clinton’s speech before the Silicon Valley women got a reported fee of $300,000 (the women each paid $245 to hear her). The Clinton family has been smart about raising money for their foundation—foreign interests contributed heavily while she was secretary of state. Her fundraisers are now in a nasty dogfight among themselves over who will get the credit and commissions for raising big bucks for her campaign. “Politics is a dirty business,” as my late friend Hunter S. Thompson used to say. In normal times, all these maneuvers could be ignored as inside baseball, the usual arguments over messaging that policy wonks and campaign junkies chew over in the run-up to a presidential election year. The masses of voters are not listening at this early stage and not even the intended audience. The insiders are testing out themes and policy proposals, polling the unwashed public on what sells, what upsets. The Clinton machine’s real target audience, I suspect, are the media pundits and political reporters who will cover the next campaign and inevitably shrink the terms of debate by reducing the substance to a handful of insipid, shorthand clichés. The expressions of what Hillary (maybe) thinks and says as a candidate are meant to assure big media that she truly is a progressive candidate and willing to get beyond the status quo. This pre-conditioning strategy might very well succeed, at least with the press if not with voters. The makeover has already begun in the establishment press. An op-ed columnist at The New York Times extolled the Larry Summers conversion to liberal economics as significant news headlined “Establishment Populism Rising.” If Clinton is repackaged as a pragmatic “populist,” then the press can cast Elizabeth Warren (not to mention Bernie Sanders and others) as a reckless bomb-thrower. Adjectives like “angry” and “strident” are already being attached to her name. But these are not normal times. The preliminary skirmishes are more meaningful this time because they reflect the profound crisis of identity that burdens the Democratic Party. What does the party really believe? Whose interests will the nominee truly fight for? Democrats lost their old soul long ago, as critics like myself repeatedly charged. The 2016 election could become the decisive moment that either transforms the party with an aggressively liberal economic agenda or clings to the past and the “corporate-friendly” straddle devised a generation ago by Bill Clinton’s New Democrats. Trouble is, the New Dems are now the Old Guard. Their center-right program—financial deregulation and “free market” globalization—has not only run out of gas but is rightly blamed for laying the groundwork for financial catastrophe. Yet the New Dem wing still holds the high ground, with big money and loyal supporters as well as Clinton clones populating the key governing positions. The labor-liberal insurgency has a weak bench because for a generation its promising young people were excluded from governing ranks—systematically screened out by both Clinton and Obama administrations—if they showed telltale signs of leaning leftward or embracing non-conformist ideas that resonate with the party’s New Deal values. By contrast, Republican regimes since Ronald Reagan have always made a point of appointing thousands of young right-wingers to second-level government posts as the training ground for long-term governance. Dems still invoke sentimental rhetoric from the New Deal era, but the practical reality is that the party’s economic policy makers went to school on Wall Street, either before or after their public service (sometimes both). The gut question is: Can we believe the warm and fuzzy reassurances from the Clinton camp? In politics, after all, it is possible for leopards to change their spots into stripes, and they are often congratulated when they do. On the other hand, it is also true some leopards will change back again after they win the election. I suspect we voters will be arguing this question of credibility right up to the 2016 election. I am impressed that some well-informed and much-admired economists on the left, like Larry Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute and Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, are congratulating Larry Summers for changing his views. I hope they are right. So why am I not convinced? Reading the CAP report on “inclusive prosperity,” I began to realize I had heard many of these new ideas long before. Then it hit me. Bill Clinton ran for president on some of the very same stuff back in 1992. His campaign theme in that election year was “Putting People First.” He spelled out his program in great detail, and it helped elect him, though he got less than a majority vote. Clinton explained he would devote major federal spending to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and broadening social guarantees. He promised to protect working people and organized labor who correctly saw their jobs and wages threatened by the new trade agreement called NAFTA. He would go after big-business subsidies and scandalous tax loopholes. Attacking the bloated compensation for corporate executives was the core example of what Clinton intended. What’s not to like? Within the first months, President Clinton reversed course or abandoned the meat of his promises. He passed NAFTA with Republican votes over labor’s opposition and cut a deal with Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to let the Fed command a slow-growth economy. Virtually all of the points made in the Summers report of 2015 could have been made twenty or twenty-five years ago when Bill Clinton was president. In fact, many of them were. Summers is careful to avoid the past, much less even hint at previous views that are now seen as blatantly wrong. Reading Larry Summers’s report elaborating on how to curb executive pay, I was reminded that Clinton actually did act on that promise. And failed. His solution was a flimsy Treasury rule that didn’t really achieve anything but allowed the fabulous explosion of stock options that has become an even larger scandal. When Democrats lost the House in the 1994 off-year election, the Clinton administration claimed it was because of their valiant but failed efforts to reform healthcare. The truer explanation was his betrayal of working people and other promises. The spirit and reform ideas Hillary Clinton and the Center for American Progress are now proposing would fit neatly with the old slogan of “Putting People First.” But maybe the new Clinton campaign banner should say: “This Time We Mean It.” Another source of my skepticism is the practical problem of which political constituencies Democrats must be prepared to abandon this time—working people or financial contributors. EPI’s Larry Mishel pointed out that if Hillary Clinton embraces the Larry Summers agenda this “puts her in a bind, you might say.” She would be going against Robert Rubin, the Clintons’ most influential advisor. The Goldman Sachs and Citigroup banker opened the Wall Street money spigot in 1992 by assuring bankers Bill Clinton’s presidency would be good for the country and especially good for bankers. Rubin kept his word. Backed up by Summers and Greenspan and of course Bill Clinton, Rubin sold the repeal of Glass-Steagall to Congress (only seven Democratic senators voted against it) then went to work at Citi for $40 million a year. Rubin, Summers and Greenspan brutally trashed Brooksley Born, the only federal regulator who was trying to rein in dangerous derivatives. Rubin arranged a bailout for Mexico’s default crisis that was really a bailout for the New York banks and brokerages that made all the bad loans. Would Hillary Clinton have the courage to turn on her principal mentor? It seems inconceivable. If she did, wouldn’t that turn off the money spigot? In a broader sense, the Democratic contest for 2016 is a dramatic collision between outsiders and insiders. The insurgents are rapidly gaining breadth and momentum, but the reigning New Dems are not going to surrender power gracefully. Political machines never do. Oddly enough, the outlines of this intramural struggle were explained to Elizabeth Warren quite bluntly by none other than Larry Summers. In the first year of the Obama presidency, Warren chaired the Congressional Oversight Panel on the banking bailouts. Summers was in the White House. He took Warren out to dinner and explained with breathtaking clarity how Washington really works. “Larry leaned back in his chair and he offered me some advice,” Warren wrote in her new memoir. ”I had a choice. I could be an insider or I could be an outsider. Outsiders can say whatever they want. But people on the inside don’t listen to them. Insiders, however, get lots of access and a chance to push their ideas. People—powerful people—listen to what they have to say. But insiders also understand one unbreakable rule. They don’t criticize other insiders.” Doesn’t that describe the Democrats’ dilemma in a nutshell? The policy elites gain access to the internal debate if only they don’t share things with outsiders, i.e., the people. Thus insulated and isolated, governing elites can’t understand why people are so distrusting and hostile to government. Insiders can’t even talk about real answers they know. Larry Summers’s cynicism is like a crippling disease that runs through the Washington apparatus. “I had been warned,” Elizabeth Warren wrote. Her exquisite reply to Summers was to tell this story about him in her book. That broke the Summers insider rule, big time. It puts him and other insiders on notice. She intends to do more talking to and for outsiders. We outsiders should honor her courage. That doesn’t necessarily change the long odds against challengers in 2016. Most players inside the Beltway are already assuming the Clinton nomination is a done deal. Many are either arranging to get on board or are sharpening their attack lines. The Republican Party has its own more visible identity crisis and internal rebellion (the subject for another occasion). But I wouldn’t bet against the outsiders. Not yet. Rapid change is swirling around politicians in both parties and it’s clear most of them don’t know what to make of it but they’re plenty nervous. These parallel discontents confirm for me that profound wounds and confusion are the shared condition across the nation, far more profound than the standard party differences. A young friend of mine with working-class sensibilities told me recently that the driving subtext for 2016 will be “anger.” A labor Democrat, he has a keen ear for popular attitudes, and he’s afraid this election could leave the country with a harsh right-winger as president—someone who can skillfully exploit confused and angry citizens by scapegoating the usual target groups. Democrats, at least most modern Dems, don’t do “anger” very well. It makes them uncomfortable. Most of them would rather talk “hope and change.” Democratic candidates tried to make “hope and change” their theme in 2014 but got shellacked. Their rhetoric was hopelessly at odds with the painful evidence in their own lives. That is often the problem with the standard party spiel. It’s top-heavy with cerebral abstractions—words like “inequality” or opaque economic statistics—but it’s short on gut-level wisdom. The rising of insurgents could swiftly create greater authenticity, because most of them are grounded in grassroots realities. They speak the language people can understand, they know well the local texture of anger. Their version of “hope and change” has believable punch to it. All I know for sure is this: if the Democratic party rejects the watershed potential of 2016 and sticks with the old guard’s way of thinking, they are only adding to their formidable burden for the 2016 election. American society is going to be put through some rough big changes in the years ahead. People know this in their guts, but they are confused and anxious and angry. They need some help understanding things; they need strong new ideas about repairing the damage and restoring hope. The question is whether the Democratic Party is up to this, whether it wants to be on board. |
Why? Because there isn’t exactly such a thing as a drug checkpoint. In City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, the Supreme Court found random drug checkpoints unconstitutional in 2000. Since then, police (particularly in the mid-west) have gotten into the habit of putting signs up warning drivers of upcoming drug checkpoints and then detaining and searching drivers who make illegal u-turns or desperately fling contraband from their vehicles. These checkpoint-like fake checkpoints serve as the functional equivalent of a checkpoint without violating the Court’s prohibition against checkpoints. We’ve received several emails about this practice over the past couple years and we’ve mentioned it in our presentations, but perhaps this is something that deserves more attention. The prodigious Drug WarRant blogger Peter Guither encountered one of these non-checkpoints over the Thanksgiving weekend, and had some very interesting observations. Most notably, the sign warning of an upcoming drug checkpoint was located shortly before a rest area exit ramp, the intended result being that drivers wishing to avoid the checkpoint would pull in. Peter did not stop, but observed officers in the rest area parking lot using dogs to sniff approaching vehicles. Peter theorizes, and I agree, that this practice may have been influenced by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Caballes v. Illinois, which held that police don’t need evidence to use drug-sniffing dogs during traffic stops. As practiced previously, the fake checkpoint tactic often took place on open stretches of highway, provoking illegal u-turns into oncoming traffic and the disposal of contraband onto the roadside. Discarded contraband not found by police could theoretically end up in the hands of children, or more likely, convicts on work detail. The high potential for collateral harm resulting from this tactic may have limited its implementation. The 2004 Caballes ruling, however, assured officers that courts would approve probable cause searches stemming from warrantless dog-sniffs. By steering alarmed motorists into a canine-infested rest area, police could circumvent the need to trigger traffic violations as a pretext for drug searches. Obviously, not everyone entering the rest area was motivated by the checkpoint warning, but Caballes doesn’t require particularized suspicion. Please warn your friends and family about these “drug checkpoint” signs, especially if they live in the mid-west. Keep driving and don’t look back is the best advice I can give. We’re likely to see more of this, and since the Court has not prohibited it, warning the public is our best defense. If you see a “drug checkpoint” sign in your area, please contact me at scott@flexyourrights.org. |
Trip Report May Day: Tahquitz - 61 pitches in 17 hours by by Josh Higgins Thursday June 14, 2012 2:14am Ben saw a woman who resembled the Wicked Witch of the West, or maybe Mary Poppins, riding a small tricycle in the night. Our bumper was barreling down at her at 60 miles per hour through the fog. May Day, May Day! He panicked, thinking I was about to run her over, but she dissipated into the mist as the bumper neared. Next, I saw us run over a snow-white rabbit, but there was no bump. I think that was only possibly a hallucination? After 1.5 miles of climbing, on May first, perhaps trying to drive home was not the best option. We pulled over for some sleep. We had just climbed all day at Tahquitz, the most classic of classic crags, in a seamless string of sends. For most of the day we soloed up to 5.6, and simul-climbed up to 5.9. We became more conservative on the last few routes as deep fatige set in. Our easiest route was frightful variation of the Trough, 5.2; our hardest was The Edge, 5.11a R. We set up rappels, and didn't walk off once. Total: 15 routes, 61 pitches, ~7500-8000' (1.5 miles), in 16h45 min. Those numbers summarize something, but to focus on numbers is to miss the point. We wanted to climb all of the classic climbs, and climb all day long. Bens expertise is big endurance days, and I have a lot of high-end technical climbing experience, so we made a great team. My friends had been climbing with Ben regularly, and I knew he had a great attitude. Im not much of a high-altitude/ice guy, so I proposed this little adventure to spend the day with a great new partner. We climbed from pre-dawn to post-dusk on Americas most historic crag, including almost all of the classic moderate gems. To make a perfect day even better, a layer of clouds above Los Angeles and the Inland Empire created a white sea below us all day long. The sunset on our second to last route of the day was just plain spectacular. Our beautiful sunset... Our beautiful sunset... Credit: Josh Higgins Ben Horton, our amazing photographer friend, shot some photos of the event. Erin and Lea also came out to cheer us on or maybe they just came to see us in tights? We were happy either way. Ben Horne invested in a pair of flashy red bandana-design tights just to impress the ladieshe thinks it worked! But, they left before he could get their phone numbers It was really nice to have three high energy friends come out to support us on such a huge endeavor. Horton focused his photography on The Edge. I psyched myself up for the climb with positive thoughts. The Edge, while not the hardest route ever, is definitely demanding in its own way! With three massive runouts on very sustained climbing up to 5.11a, it had my attention. I had a foot slip twice on lead, while in very bad spots, but my strategies to prevent lead falls, Compensate with core! worked perfectly and staved off imminent disaster. The wind was whipping, and I wore a thin bright yellow long-sleeve and funky tights because we cant take ourselves too seriously, and the yellow shirt would be great in the photos. It turned out to be much colder than expected, and I pretty much shivered my way up the route. The Edge. The Edge. Credit: Ben Horton (www.benhorton.biz) When it was Bens turn to follow, The Edge spit him off almost immediately. It took him a while to figure out this delicate and insecure style of climbing, but after learning on the first pitch, he got the hang of it and followed the direct 5.11 finish clean. Originally, we planned to climb the Edge and the Vampire, but after 20+ pitches, including the Edge, we realized climbing the Vampire would exhaust us too much and severely shorten the day. It was still early to midmorning, and we wanted to climb all day so we opted to keep the routes 5.9 or easier for the rest of the day. I really enjoyed feeling what it's like to get a second wind, then a third, then a fourth. Its been too long since Id experienced the dynamic of a team effort on something that big, how if you have a good partner anytime one is down on the objective the other is positive to counter it. It was fun to experience again, having heard Shay talk about it with regards to their recent Evolution Traverse in winter. Also, it was a true pleasure to climb with someone who made me feel like the negative one. Ben Zoom Horne is a true master of endless psyche! I only saw Ben get a little flustered once, and I think I giggled for 30 minutes at the cause. I pulled over a bulge on The Long Climb and found Bens upper third protruding from the Mummy Crack offwidth section of the climb. In his exhausted state, hed built a belay in the back of the squeeze chimney and was miserably wadded in there. Unable to progress, hed decided it would be faster to break the section into pitches and bring me up and let me lead the remaining offwidth. I climbed up to him laughing my ass off, grabbed the gear, and managed to thrash the outer part of the squeeze over him as he wadded his whole body into the back of the crack to give me room(insert more laughter here). Ben Horne stuffed in his awkward and hilarious belay stance on The Long Climb. Ben Horne stuffed in his awkward and hilarious belay stance on The Long Climb. Credit: Josh Higgins Late in the endeavor we soloed White Maidens Walkaway. For Ben, White Maidens Walkway was a highlight of the trip. He would add it to his previous list of Open Book, Fingertrip, El Camino Real and The Vampire as essential Tahquitz Its a very long route that maintains its high quality from start to finish with no 4th class pitches. At the same time, it was easy enough to solo in approach shoes (which gave our poor toes a break!). But by the last pitch, Bens soloing head was all used up, and pulling the last 5.3 slab move without sticky rubber was one of his greater mental efforts of the day. After that we chose to rope up for the remaining nine pitches we climbed; soloing is great when fresh, not such a good idea when mentally, and physically devastated. We didnt have any cut and dry plan for number of pitches, but 60 pitches was a low-end goal, 100 pitches the optimistic high-end goal. Two miles was also a number we threw around before we understood what we were talking about. We were not sure if we would climb all day long, a full 24 hours, or somewhere in between. But the essential goal was climbing till exhaustion on amazing rock. Our main inspiration and the source of some lesson learned that they passed on to us was Doug and Gregs all-night Tahquitz challenge last fall It was fascinating to see critical thinking and memory fail as the pitches fell. For example, we brought multiple tiblocs, but never used them once because we kept forgetting them in the packs every time we returned (which was often!). For Ben a highlight was timing the first climb (Fingertrip in 28 minutes) then never timing another climb all day, free from the shackles on the wristw#tch! Another definite highlight for us both was knowing when to pull the plug on the endeavor. The sun set, the wind picked way up, and we had to pitch out sections we were soloing 40 pitches before. Safety started to be a concern, so we knew we should call it. First time I've signed the register in over 10 years climbing there! First time I've signed the register in over 10 years climbing there! Credit: Josh Higgins Back safely at the car, Bens hallucination was about to start. After the hallucination, Ben started drifting off and started speaking complete gibberish. When I asked him questions, more gibberish followed. The amusement from that kept me awake for at least 30 minutes and got us half way home before we pulled over so we could both sleep. Ben missed the text, but Doug had texted us that if we executed the day properly, there is no way we should drive home after. Tahquitz pitches are long, almost always over 100, and physical , even at the lower grades. Our 61 pitches essentially doubled my previous biggest day on the rock; Ben had climbed ~50+ pitches in his life in all of his previous trips to Tahquitz. So 100 pitches at Tahquitz, even if they're "easy," aren't easy at all. 100 in 24 hours would be tough, I think maybe only doable for us if most everything were 5.9 and below and wed need to spend more time on the longer routes of the NW Recess with a proper rappel from that side to prevent us from beating up our feet. But, we got what we wanted: an amazing joyful day that worked us to completion. Beta for those attempting it in the future: put your packs right at the base of your rap lines. Use single rope rapsvery fast! We used two ropes to set up rappels on The Open Book and then moved them to The Trough. Simulclimb on something less than a 50m rope. Avoid slow/physical climbs late in the endeavour, like the Mummy Crack of the Long Climb. Have the second carry a cinch or grigri or other autolocking belay device so they can take up slack and belay when the leader moves slow when simuling. You can use Tiblocs at the cruxes to protect the leader from a follower fall at cruxes (though we were always forgetting ours at the packs). Know the crag very well, and ideally have done many of the climbs beforethis will make climbing faster and routefinding easier. Also, if you want to make it a full 24 hours, I think itd be best to sleep during the day and start in the dark in the evening so you dont have to finish in the dark. Its tough to keep the psyche when climbing well into the night after youve climbed the whole day and then some. In addition, its probably more dangerous. Thats why we called it at 9:45pm. Its hard to keep coherence and psyche high when exhausted in the dark. Summary: Josh Higgins and Ben Horne, May 1, 2012, Tahquitz. 15 routes, 61 pitches (29 solo, 23 simul, 9 pitched out). Time: 16h45 min. Distance: ~7500'-8000? (~ 4000' solo) Routes climbed in order: Fingertrip (simul) The Chauvenist (simul) Left Ski Track (solo) Right Ski Track (simul) The Edge (mix, solo and pitching it out) Mechanic's Route (simul) Open Book (simul) Jensen's Jaunt (solo) Fingertip Traverse (solo) Angel's Fright (solo) The Trough (down-solo) Wong to Long Climb to Whodunnit (solo, pitches, and simuling) White Maiden's Walkaway (solo in approach shoes since feet HURT) Frightful Variation to The Trough (simul) into Piton Pooper (pitched out) Dave's Deviation into Jam Crack (pitched it out) Well be back to attempt 100 pitches again. Due to my busy schedule from school, and Bens busy schedule running ultra-marathons, we didnt have many options on days we could attempt this. Heres a list of factors working against us that well mitigate next time to ensure success: *I worked til 9pm the night before, so we only had ~ 4 hours of sleep before attempting shenanigans like this. *I had a massive amount of studying I needed to do, and Ben had an appointment the next morning with his advisor, so we both had a mental disincentive to pull the plug early. Safety was the primary reason we stopped, but removing disincentive is important. I think we should definitely plan a whole rest day afterward so we have something to look forward to. *We had both run the La Jolla Half two days previously, and while Ben is an endurance monster that was the first time Id ever run that far and I did it in under 8 minute miles. Im sure there was residual fatigue. *We didnt have a good rappel setup for the north side of Tahquitz. We need to figure out better logistics for climbing those routes. As a result, we didnt get on the Larks or other easier routes that would have easily added many pitches. Thank you so much Lea, Erin, and especially Horton! Most importantly, you just cant do this stuff without a good partner worth their weight in gold: Ben Horne, thanks for showing me what a good attitude is all about! Josh Original Trip Report with more pictures and video at pullharder.org are POSTED HERE Ben saw a woman who resembled the Wicked Witch of the West, or maybe Mary Poppins, riding a small tricycle in the night. Our bumper was barreling down at her at 60 miles per hour through the fog. May Day, May Day!He panicked, thinking I was about to run her over, but she dissipated into the mist as the bumper neared. Next, I saw us run over a snow-white rabbit, but there was no bump. I think that was only possibly a hallucination? After 1.5 miles of climbing, on May first, perhaps trying to drive home was not the best option. We pulled over for some sleep.We had just climbed all day at Tahquitz, the most classic of classic crags, in a seamless string of sends. For most of the day we soloed up to 5.6, and simul-climbed up to 5.9. We became more conservative on the last few routes as deep fatige set in. Our easiest route was frightful variation of the Trough, 5.2; our hardest was The Edge, 5.11a R. We set up rappels, and didn't walk off once.Total: 15 routes, 61 pitches, ~7500-8000' (1.5 miles), in 16h45 min.Those numbers summarize something, but to focus on numbers is to miss the point. We wanted to climb all of the classic climbs, and climb all day long. Bens expertise is big endurance days, and I have a lot of high-end technical climbing experience, so we made a great team. My friends had been climbing with Ben regularly, and I knew he had a great attitude. Im not much of a high-altitude/ice guy, so I proposed this little adventure to spend the day with a great new partner.We climbed from pre-dawn to post-dusk on Americas most historic crag, including almost all of the classic moderate gems. To make a perfect day even better, a layer of clouds above Los Angeles and the Inland Empire created a white sea below us all day long. The sunset on our second to last route of the day was just plain spectacular.Ben Horton, our amazing photographer friend, shot some photos of the event. Erin and Lea also came out to cheer us on or maybe they just came to see us in tights? We were happy either way. Ben Horne invested in a pair of flashy red bandana-design tights just to impress the ladieshe thinks it worked! But, they left before he could get their phone numbers It was really nice to have three high energy friends come out to support us on such a huge endeavor.Horton focused his photography on The Edge. I psyched myself up for the climb with positive thoughts. The Edge, while not the hardest route ever, is definitely demanding in its own way! With three massive runouts on very sustained climbing up to 5.11a, it had my attention. I had a foot slip twice on lead, while in very bad spots, but my strategies to prevent lead falls, Compensate with core! worked perfectly and staved off imminent disaster. The wind was whipping, and I wore a thin bright yellow long-sleeve and funky tights because we cant take ourselves too seriously, and the yellow shirt would be great in the photos. It turned out to be much colder than expected, and I pretty much shivered my way up the route.When it was Bens turn to follow, The Edge spit him off almost immediately. It took him a while to figure out this delicate and insecure style of climbing, but after learning on the first pitch, he got the hang of it and followed the direct 5.11 finish clean.Originally, we planned to climb the Edge and the Vampire, but after 20+ pitches, including the Edge, we realized climbing the Vampire would exhaust us too much and severely shorten the day. It was still early to midmorning, and we wanted to climb all day so we opted to keep the routes 5.9 or easier for the rest of the day.I really enjoyed feeling what it's like to get a second wind, then a third, then a fourth. Its been too long since Id experienced the dynamic of a team effort on something that big, how if you have a good partner anytime one is down on the objective the other is positive to counter it. It was fun to experience again, having heard Shay talk about it with regards to their recent Evolution Traverse in winter. Also, it was a true pleasure to climb with someone who made me feel like the negative one. Ben Zoom Horne is a true master of endless psyche!I only saw Ben get a little flustered once, and I think I giggled for 30 minutes at the cause. I pulled over a bulge on The Long Climb and found Bens upper third protruding from the Mummy Crack offwidth section of the climb. In his exhausted state, hed built a belay in the back of the squeeze chimney and was miserably wadded in there. Unable to progress, hed decided it would be faster to break the section into pitches and bring me up and let me lead the remaining offwidth. I climbed up to him laughing my ass off, grabbed the gear, and managed to thrash the outer part of the squeeze over him as he wadded his whole body into the back of the crack to give me room(insert more laughter here).Late in the endeavor we soloed White Maidens Walkaway. For Ben, White Maidens Walkway was a highlight of the trip. He would add it to his previous list of Open Book, Fingertrip, El Camino Real and The Vampire as essential Tahquitz Its a very long route that maintains its high quality from start to finish with no 4th class pitches. At the same time, it was easy enough to solo in approach shoes (which gave our poor toes a break!). But by the last pitch, Bens soloing head was all used up, and pulling the last 5.3 slab move without sticky rubber was one of his greater mental efforts of the day. After that we chose to rope up for the remaining nine pitches we climbed; soloing is great when fresh, not such a good idea when mentally, and physically devastated.We didnt have any cut and dry plan for number of pitches, but 60 pitches was a low-end goal, 100 pitches the optimistic high-end goal. Two miles was also a number we threw around before we understood what we were talking about. We were not sure if we would climb all day long, a full 24 hours, or somewhere in between. But the essential goal was climbing till exhaustion on amazing rock. Our main inspiration and the source of some lesson learned that they passed on to us was Doug and Gregs all-night Tahquitz challenge last fall POSTED HERE It was fascinating to see critical thinking and memory fail as the pitches fell. For example, we brought multiple tiblocs, but never used them once because we kept forgetting them in the packs every time we returned (which was often!). For Ben a highlight was timing the first climb (Fingertrip in 28 minutes) then never timing another climb all day, free from the shackles on the wristw#tch! Another definite highlight for us both was knowing when to pull the plug on the endeavor. The sun set, the wind picked way up, and we had to pitch out sections we were soloing 40 pitches before. Safety started to be a concern, so we knew we should call it.Back safely at the car, Bens hallucination was about to start. After the hallucination, Ben started drifting off and started speaking complete gibberish. When I asked him questions, more gibberish followed. The amusement from that kept me awake for at least 30 minutes and got us half way home before we pulled over so we could both sleep. Ben missed the text, but Doug had texted us that if we executed the day properly, there is no way we should drive home after.Tahquitz pitches are long, almost always over 100, and physical , even at the lower grades. Our 61 pitches essentially doubled my previous biggest day on the rock; Ben had climbed ~50+ pitches in his life in all of his previous trips to Tahquitz. So 100 pitches at Tahquitz, even if they're "easy," aren't easy at all. 100 in 24 hours would be tough, I think maybe only doable for us if most everything were 5.9 and below and wed need to spend more time on the longer routes of the NW Recess with a proper rappel from that side to prevent us from beating up our feet. But, we got what we wanted: an amazing joyful day that worked us to completion.Beta for those attempting it in the future: put your packs right at the base of your rap lines. Use single rope rapsvery fast! We used two ropes to set up rappels on The Open Book and then moved them to The Trough. Simulclimb on something less than a 50m rope. Avoid slow/physical climbs late in the endeavour, like the Mummy Crack of the Long Climb. Have the second carry a cinch or grigri or other autolocking belay device so they can take up slack and belay when the leader moves slow when simuling. You can use Tiblocs at the cruxes to protect the leader from a follower fall at cruxes (though we were always forgetting ours at the packs). Know the crag very well, and ideally have done many of the climbs beforethis will make climbing faster and routefinding easier. Also, if you want to make it a full 24 hours, I think itd be best to sleep during the day and start in the dark in the evening so you dont have to finish in the dark. Its tough to keep the psyche when climbing well into the night after youve climbed the whole day and then some. In addition, its probably more dangerous. Thats why we called it at 9:45pm. Its hard to keep coherence and psyche high when exhausted in the dark.Summary:Josh Higgins and Ben Horne, May 1, 2012, Tahquitz.15 routes, 61 pitches (29 solo, 23 simul, 9 pitched out). Time: 16h45 min.Distance: ~7500'-8000? (~ 4000' solo)Routes climbed in order:Fingertrip (simul)The Chauvenist (simul)Left Ski Track (solo)Right Ski Track (simul)The Edge (mix, solo and pitching it out)Mechanic's Route (simul)Open Book (simul)Jensen's Jaunt (solo)Fingertip Traverse (solo)Angel's Fright (solo)The Trough (down-solo)Wong to Long Climb to Whodunnit (solo, pitches, and simuling)White Maiden's Walkaway (solo in approach shoes since feet HURT)Frightful Variation to The Trough (simul) into Piton Pooper (pitched out)Dave's Deviation into Jam Crack (pitched it out)Well be back to attempt 100 pitches again. Due to my busy schedule from school, and Bens busy schedule running ultra-marathons, we didnt have many options on days we could attempt this. Heres a list of factors working against us that well mitigate next time to ensure success:*I worked til 9pm the night before, so we only had ~ 4 hours of sleep before attempting shenanigans like this.*I had a massive amount of studying I needed to do, and Ben had an appointment the next morning with his advisor, so we both had a mental disincentive to pull the plug early. Safety was the primary reason we stopped, but removing disincentive is important. I think we should definitely plan a whole rest day afterward so we have something to look forward to.*We had both run the La Jolla Half two days previously, and while Ben is an endurance monster that was the first time Id ever run that far and I did it in under 8 minute miles. Im sure there was residual fatigue.*We didnt have a good rappel setup for the north side of Tahquitz. We need to figure out better logistics for climbing those routes. As a result, we didnt get on the Larks or other easier routes that would have easily added many pitches.Thank you so much Lea, Erin, and especially Horton! Most importantly, you just cant do this stuff without a good partner worth their weight in gold: Ben Horne, thanks for showing me what a good attitude is all about!Josh Trip Report Views: 4,375 Josh Higgins About the Author Josh Higgins is a trad climber from San Diego. Comments Did you like this Trip Report? Got something to say? Don't hold back... Comment on this Trip Report apogee climber Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy Jun 14, 2012 - 02:45am PT Holy shite. That's gnar! neversummer climber 30 mins. from suicide USA Jun 14, 2012 - 12:07pm PT Badass.... Mungeclimber Trad climber Nothing creative to say Jun 14, 2012 - 12:33pm PT sweet! Makes me want to go back and climb at Tahquitz and Suicide! thx! looking sketchy there... Social climber Lassitude 33 Jun 14, 2012 - 12:38pm PT Good job sounds like lots of fun. Tork climber Yosemite Jun 14, 2012 - 12:38pm PT Awesome! What a day! Truthdweller Trad climber San Diego, CA (stuck in Jersey) Jun 14, 2012 - 12:50pm PT You 40 yet Josh? Soulsurfer Trad climber San Diego, Ca Jun 14, 2012 - 01:04pm PT Nice job on that many pitches Josh. After 6 or 7 pitches up there I am ready for a beer! I think 90-100 pitches may very well be in your future with some good rest before hand and not having to do the 2 hr drive home afterward. Joe B Elcapinyoazz Social climber Joshua Tree Jun 14, 2012 - 01:42pm PT Nice one Josh. Vitaliy M. Mountain climber San Francisco Jun 14, 2012 - 01:47pm PT I have met Ben and must admit he is an animal. Seems like you are too, Josh. I rarely feel out of shape, but climbing with Ben certainly made me felt like that! Great job guys. Have fun in S America Ben! Tarbuster climber right here, right now Jun 14, 2012 - 08:14pm PT Yeah baby! 'Way to fill up the bucket. justthemaid climber Jim Henson's Basement Jun 15, 2012 - 12:27am PT Holy crap bump! gonzo chemist climber the east coast, for now. Jun 15, 2012 - 12:43am PT nice job guys! Josh, have you dome the classic trifecta--The Vampire, Valhalla, and and Insomnia--in a day? Not that many pitches, but it seems like it'd be a pretty awesome link-up... scaredycat Trad climber Berkeley,CA Jun 15, 2012 - 12:48am PT kind of cool! Josh Higgins Trad climber San Diego Author's Reply Jun 15, 2012 - 11:05am PT Gary, I'm 33 this year. I've got many years of playing hard left in me! Gonzo, for my redpoint of both Vampire and Valhalla I linked them up with a very good friend about 6-7 years ago. I've wanted to do that linkup with insomnia, but just haven't yet. Our theme for the day (a very hot day) was "Chasing shade in style!" Josh Did you like this Trip Report? Got something to say? Don't hold back... Comment on this Trip Report |
The monster class that Avery Johnson and Alabama were counting on in 2016 just might arrive a year later in 2017. The Crimson Tide's 2016 recruiting wasn't bad by any means, but the de-commitment of five-star shooting guard Terrance Ferguson -- who eventually ended up going pro in Australia -- certainly put a damper on things. With 2016 squarely in the rearview mirror, it looks like that monster class may come this recruiting cycle. Johnson and the Crimson Tide received huge news Thursday when in-state four-star prospects Herb Jones and Alex Reese both announced their commitments just days after official visiting Tuscaloosa together. Ranked No. 72 overall, Jones is a 6-foot-7 wing with huge upside. He's got a smooth looking jumper with range to beyond the three point line, he can put the ball on the floor and he looks like one of those guys that is just scratching at how good he can be. In many ways, he has some similarities to a young Joe Johnson. |
Make plans to be in the backcountry for these awe-inspiring night sky events this season. Backpackers always get the best stargazing spots. Whether it’s lying in a field with some of your best friends, curled up in a sleeping bag above an alpine lake, or gazing out through your rain fly-less tent, the unpolluted night sky is truly something to behold. Eight Must-See Night Sky Events in 2015 July 1: Convergence of Venus and Jupiter Two planets, one perfect view. Train your gaze to the west just after sunset to see these planets extremely close to one another. July 28/29: Delta Aquarids Meteor Shower While the entire meteor shower runs from July 12 to August 23, it peaks at the end of July, producing up to 20 meteors per hour. Catch it after midnight in the darkest spot you can find. August 12/13: Perseids Meteor Shower This popular annual shower produces nearly 60 meteors an hour at its peak, which this year falls during a thin crescent moon. Night owls will get the best views after midnight. August 29: The supermoon The first of three supermoon occurrences on the books for 2015 (the others are September 28 and October 27). ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website September 28: Total lunar eclipse (Blood Moon) The Earth will drift between the sun and the moon, with our planet's shadow casting an eerie red pall across the lunar surface. October 21/22: Orionids Meteor Shower This shower will produce about 20 meteors per hour during its peak. Meteors can appear anywhere, but keep an eye on the Orion constellation for the best odds. October 28: Convergence of Venus, Mars, and Jupiter The early bird gets the worm on this one: Look east just before sunrise to see the three planets forming a triangle. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website December 13/14: Geminids Meteor Shower Hardy winter campers will get a treat when this shower peaks, producing 120 multi-colored meteors per hour. Astronomy Apps There's a lot to know about the night sky and these smartphone apps are here to help. iOS: Star Walk 2: If you are looking for an app to show you what is what in the night sky, look no further than Star Walk 2. Point your phone at the sky and be amazed by the visual effects in the app. And if the quiet of the night is making you uncomfortable, the app comes equipped with a soundtrack. Just make sure anyone else you are with is fine with it. You can also look ahead in time to see what the night sky will be like later on that night or a few months ahead of you. The $2.99 at the app store is well worth it. SkyView Free: The app doesn’t require a data connection to function, making it ideal for off-the-grid stargazing. Aurora Forecast: Depending on where you live, you may be more interested in just seeing the stars. The Aurora Borealis is quiet and elusive as it hauntingly paints the night sky. Never miss a potential spotting again with Aurora Forecast. This app will keep you up-to-date on the latest solar activity so you are better prepared. And if you don’t feel like constantly monitoring the app, sign up for push notifications to alert you with potential sightings. Android: Sky Map: It doesn’t contain as many of the frills as some other astronomy apps, but Google’s Sky Map is free and simple to use. Just point your phone towards the area of the sky you are looking to identify stars, constellations and other features night sky. Star Chart: One of the coolest features in the app is the ability to time travel forward or backward to see what the night sky was in the past or will be in the future. The app itself is free, but if you are looking to invest a little more into your star-gazing hobby, there are plenty of cool features you can buy within the app. And if any iPhone users are jealous, no worries, it is available for your device as well. Aurora Notifier: Fear not Android users, there are plenty of aurora apps for you out there as well. Aurora notifier is a free app that displays current aurora activity. Set the Kp-Index Threshold to the appropriate level depending on where you are to receive alerts for potential aurora viewing opportunities. Choosing a Night Sky Viewing Spot Here are some helpful tips for choosing the perfect star-gazing spot. 1. Get away from lights. This one is a no-brainer, but you'll want to get as far away from big cities as possible. Light pollution can drown out all but the brightest of stars. 2. West is better than east. There are definitely some exceptions, like Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania, a certified gold-standard international dark sky park. But overall, your chances of seeing the full night sky will be much higher is the less-densely populated regions of the western United States. 3. Brave cooler nights. More often than not, the sky is clearer on a cold night than a hot one. The cooler air doesn’t trap as much moisture and cloud coverage can be significantly lower. 4. Pay attention to the moon. The moon is pretty awesome, but if you are hoping for a good stargazing experience, make sure you plan according to the phases of the moon. Try to go out during a new moon instead of when it's full. |
I hate to tell you this, but almost ever Milky Way shot you see uploaded has probably been Photoshopped/processed in some way. Post-processing is as much a part of astrophotography as taking the shot is. The two go hand in hand; however, there are an abundance of blogs out there on how to shoot Milky Way shots (such as this one from Lonely Speck), but relatively few on how to actually convert what you’ve captured on your sensor into those beautiful images you see other people uploading. So, this is my attempt to show you how I processed one of my photos. I’m using Lightroom 5.5 for all of my processing, but use whatever photo editing program you like – I’ll go through all the steps I used and why I make the decisions I do. HOWEVER, these are my choices and not yours – the best way to understand processing is to do it yourself, so that’s where we’ll start… RAW Power First up, if you’re not shooting in RAW then you need to start. There are some commentators emerging who are saying jpgs are more useful than RAW files, but the reality is, if you’re not shooting in RAW you won’t be able to do half the stuff I talk about here. Astrophotograph means RAW. But, maybe you don’t have a DSLR or you live in a light polluted area or, you just can’t be bothered standing in a freezing river in the middle of the night to take a selfie. To help you out, I’ve included the RAW file (in DNG format) here for you to play with. I took this photo last night on my Sony A7ii with a Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens. It was a single image shot at 14mm, f/2.8, 25 second exposure and ISO3200. Download the file and play with it. Muck around with it – it is yours under the creative commons license. I’d love to see how you interpret the same raw image, so post it back here as a comment or post it on my Facebook page – remember, YOU make the choices to come up with the result you want to see – you’re the artist now. Start at the Very End It seems odd, I know, but always start with what you want the image to look like in your mind. What colours/feel/emotion do you want your image to show? Imagine that final image and then work towards that goal. You may adjust that ideal image while your process, but you need a goal to aim for. For me, I wanted a clean blue/purple feel with a punchy Milky Way in the middle. Here’s a comparison between the original image and the final processed shot that I was aiming for. Lens Correction Once I’ve downloaded the images onto the computer and found a picture I want to process I always start by correcting the lens distortion. The automatic lens correction is always a good place to start, but you may still have to do some manual adjustments to eliminate the distortion from your lens. Of course, the amount of distortion depends on the lens you’re using – I shot this with a Samyang 14mm f/2.8 lens, so the lens correction makes a big difference to the edges of the image. Cropping and Composition I’ll admit, I made a mistake with this shot and didn’t make sure the gear was completely level before shooting – happens when you’re in a flowing river in the middle of the night, but a good chance to practice some cropping. I crop not only to straighten an image, but also to get the composition I want. So, adjust the image to suit your needs and focus in on the elements that suit you. Lightroom has a handy ruler tool that helps with leveling out a shot – you can draw the ruler across a flat horizon and it’ll adjust the image accordingly. I also used cropping as an opportunity to keep the river I was standing in as part of the bottom third and the stars to occupy the upper two thirds. White Balance I always tend to start with adjusting the white balance. For me, white balance has such a substantive effect on the whole feel of an image that it’s the first thing I adjust and build the rest of the processing around it. Doesn’t mean I can’t go back and adjust the white balance later, but it’s the first step. I always like to see what Lightroom thinks the WB should be by doing ‘Auto’ white balance. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don’t. In this case, I wanted something with a more blue feel than what Lightroom suggested, so adjusted the colours to suit my taste. Time to get Sliding Now, we start to get into the guts of post processing and where you really see the advantage of using RAW files. Without a RAW file you wouldn’t be able to get the fine adjustments from the various tone sliders available in most post processing software programs. I wish there was a hard and fast rule to say what you MUST do with the sliders, but there really isn’t. I started by sliding each slider to the maximums to see what they did and then found a balance that I liked. I personally don’t like the full on, highly sharpened and contrasted Milky Way shots – I prefer the flatter, more subtle shots, so I only adjusted the sliders a little. Here are the final choices I made for the tones. Embrace your Curves The Tone Curve is another way to get some real expression in your shots. As a basic overview, the top right controls the highlights and brighter tones while bottom left is for the darker tones. I’m really focusing on getting the stars to punch out with the tone curve, so I have gone with an S-shape curve. This means the highlights (such as stars) stand out as brighter while the darker tones (like space) are made darker, given you greater contrast between the two. As I said earlier, I prefer a slightly subtler effect, but the more aggressive you are with your S-shape tone curve the greater the contrast. NOISE!! Noise is all those flecks and discolouration that comes with shooting in dark conditions and with a high ISO. The higher the ISO, the lighter your image; BUT, as a result, you get noisier pictures. Noise is the bane of astrophotographers, especially those who can’t afford high quality glass or some of the hardcore camera bodies out there. I have a good, mid-range Full Frame camera in a Sony A7ii, so it handles noise pretty well, but I still like to eliminate as much as I can. The noise reduction tool in Lightroom is ‘ok’ but it does tend to smooth everything out a little too much, so I only use it sparingly. There are heaps of ways to reduce noise, such as image stacking, but for the purposes of this shot where multiple images wasn’t possible, I’ll just use the slider. There are two areas I like to focus on for noise reduction – what effect does the noise reduction slider have on the foreground (which I want to be nice and sharp) and what effect does it have on the stars (after all, that’s what I want to be the hero of the pic!). I settled on about 25% for noise reduction. You can see that the noise reduction does soften the image, so you can do some sharpening after the fact, if you want, but I’ll leave that alone for now. Colour Correction I spotted something in the shot that I hadn’t seen with the naked eye (or even seen on the camera until I started processing the shot) and that’s a faint whisp of green on the horizon. There was no real aurora activity that night (KP3) so it could be airglow or just the very faintest fleck of aurora. Anyway, I liked it and I want to see more of it. Lightroom gives you the option to selective adjust the hue, saturation and luminescence of each colour in the shot. Rather than making the WHOLE shot green, I just increased the saturation of the green tones in the image (which, in this shot, is only that space snot on the right, so nothing else is disturbed). I also want to give the shot a little more purple in the Milky Way without making the rest of the shot purple, too (which would be the case if you adjusted the white balance to add more magenta). When we know the stars are primarily the brighter elements in the shot you can selectively colour these with the ‘Split Toning’ tool. I chose a soft violet colour and added a touch of saturation. If you want more colour, then up the saturation and adjust slowly to get the feel you want. Equally, if you want to change the colour of the darker tones, you can do that with split toning – I tried that, but didn’t like the results so left that blank. The Gradient Tool The gradient tool is really good for getting smooth transitions in your processing. I’m not going to use it for much, but there is one area I need to fix up. The Sony A7ii sensor tends to give you this purpley tinge to the edges when shooting in low light. Wasn’t too much of an issue in the original shot BUT now I’ve added more puple into the shot and increased the exposure a bit in the tone adjustments this distortion is standing out too much for my liking. The way I’ve corrected this is by using gradient tool to desaturate the bottom of the picture and then slowly grade into normal saturation for the rest of the picture. By the time the Milky Way kicks in, we’re back to full saturation. The Brush So, this is where I start to wonder how far I should go with the processing. I really, really don’t like manually painting an image because it feels too fake. However, it is a common technique and I’m here to show you what’s available. Let’s start by using the brush tool on the stars. The whole image is looking a little ‘flat’ to me. I want it to punch more, so I’m using the brush tool to add more oomph to the stars by increasing the highlights more, upping the clarity and saturation and decreasing the exposure (to help the stars stand out from the dark background). I manually paint the entire starscape. Let’s see how it looks… Hmmm, it’s ok, but now the Milky Way feels a little washed out. So let’s use the brush tool to selectively enhance that central strip of stars. I try to make it punch by dropping the exposure of the Milky Way some more and also increasing the contrast. I also adjust the temperature and tint to give the Milky Way a little more selective colour. BUT, how do you do this without it looking garish? Well, this is how I do it. Start by using a large brush tool and making a straight line down the Milky Way – yeah, it looks awful! That’s ok, we’ll fix it up. Hold down alt and the brush tool changes from having a plus (+) sign to a minus (-) sign. Use a really large soft brush (Feather=100) and slowly dip into the Milky Way to soften the whole selection. I bounce my cursor all along the Milky Way to ‘dig’ away at what I initially selected. If you turn on the ‘Show Selected Mask Overlay’ you’ll be able to see what you are influencing with your brush tool – by using a soft brush to slowly inch away at an image you get a much more subtle selection and it doesn’t look as obvious as doing a big manual brush down the middle. Using a soft brush to eat away at your selection also means you’re able to get that blend between the Milky Way and the rest of the background stars. If the difference is too harsh when you turn off the mask then carry on slowly eating away at your mark with the anti-brush tool. After we’ve played with the brush tool on the stars and the Milky Way we can see the difference it has made to the picture. Again, the more you do, the more aggressive the look, but that’s not what I had in mind, so I’ve tried to avoid that. Final bit of brushing is for the river. It looks a little bland and still a little too purple for my liking. I’ve gone and used the brush tool to selectively choose the water and adjusted the temperature to be a bit blue, tint to be a bit more green and then desaturated the water. I also reduced the clarity to give it a smoother feel – after all, this was a rushing river, so let’s give it that smooth, flowing feeling. The Final Countdown What you realise very early on with post-processing is that getting an image about 90% towards your ideal image is relatively easy…it’s that final 10% that takes time. You find experienced photographers will dwell over an image for an age trying to get it ‘perfect’. There has to be a time to stop and reflect. Once I’ve done all the finer details, I like to stop for a while, switch off Lightroom and do something else for a while. Then, return to the image and see how it looks. See if there are any image-wide adjustments that are worth doing. Whether I like the overall feel of it or not. This usually leads me to make some final adjustments and then post the pic to await the literally handful of people who like it to say so, or, I dump all my work and start again. You can muck around with an image for ages and not achieve anything, so just let it go and try again. Trust me, the more you play and practice the techniques the better you get, so use it as a learning experience, rather than a failure. So, here’s the final comparison between the starting image (cropped and rotated to match) and my final image. Now, time to have a go yourself and see how you go! Don’t forget to download the RAW file and have a play! Feel free to comment with your processed image and ask any questions you have – I’ll do my best to answer them! Also, don’t forget to share this tutorial if you think it’d be useful to other budding astrophotographers. |
Share. Dystopian dreaming. Dystopian dreaming. SPOILER-FREE: The following review contains no substantial spoilers for any of the new episodes of Black Mirror. The fourth season of Black Mirror is shocking, twisted, amusing, melancholic, and occasionally – very occasionally – hopeful. It's also pretty great. Once again, each of its six episodes presents a standalone tale set in the near future, where some aspect of contemporary culture has been allowed to develop in a nightmarish way. In the past, the show has often drawn inspiration from technology – more specifically the way in which it distorts our social lives and daily interactions. Twitter, reality television, virtual reality: they’ve all provided jumping-off points for the show’s dystopian dreaming. A good Black Mirror episode has always felt not only feasible but depressingly inevitable. Black Mirror Season 4 Posters 5 IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 OF 05 01 OF 05 Black Mirror Season 4 Posters Download Image Captions ESC Season four turns its cynical gaze to dating apps, online gaming, and personalised surveillance tools. But some of the season’s very best episodes are less fixated on exploring the ethics of a single idea dramatically; more interestingly, they simply exist as stories set within Black Mirror’s warped reality. Episodes like Crocodile and Black Museum take advantage of previous entries, trading upon ideas we’ve encountered before – digitised consciousness is a recurring element in several of these tales – to make the storytelling more economical. Yes, bleak futuristic technology often lies at the heart of these stories – driving forward plot, enabling unique dramatic situations – but it’s not their sole focus. These episodes aren’t polemics coded up as drama; they’re compelling works of soft sci-fi first, ones that allow multiple interpretations. Crocodile, for instance, is a tense and harrowing thriller featuring a device can be used to access a person’s raw impressions of past events. Although originally developed by the police, these devices are now used by insurance brokers to check the validity of claims. While this device may create some of the episode's more interesting and tense scenes it never feels like the entire point of the story. Black Mirror Season 4 Gallery 9 IMAGES Fullscreen Image Artboard 3 Copy Artboard 3 ESC 01 OF 09 From Season 4 of Black Mirror. 01 OF 09 From Season 4 of Black Mirror. Black Mirror Season 4 Gallery Download Image Captions ESC As with Season 3 – the first to be made for Netflix – creator and writer Charlie Brooker uses the series to explore different tones, genres, and formats. Arkangel is a powerful coming-of-age drama that centres on a young woman growing up in a single-parent family. It takes places in a nondescript American town, and has the feel of an indie movie. USS Callister is part-comedic Star Trek pastiche, part-something much more sinister. Crocodile is a bleak psychological thriller set against the unforgiving landscape of Iceland. Metalhead is a beautifully shot black-and-white survival story, told almost entirely without dialogue. It’s an interesting curiosity, but probably the weakest of the bunch, as its thin plot barely stretches to cover its relative short 40-minute runtime. And then there’s Black Museum – well, Black Museum is just full-on, bonkers, portmanteau horror. Set in a roadside museum, which morbidly displays artefacts of gruesome crimes, it weaves together three darkly-comic stories with unhinged relish. It's definitely one of the best episodes. Exit Theatre Mode My favourite, however, was Hang the DJ – a melancholic modern love story. Its two lead characters use an advanced dating system that maps out every relationship for them, right down to how many hours you will spend together. The episode follows two characters as they wrestle with this inhuman approach to finding love. It’s bittersweet and unusually uplifting. Brooker again heads up writing duties, with help with a few collaborators, and has recruited an impressive group of collaborators – from talented and interesting directors, including Jodie Foster, John Hillcoat, and David Slade, to well-known actors Rosemarie Dewitt, Jesse Plemons, and Jimmi Simpson. Each episode of Black Mirror feels like a distinct production, rich with ideas and talent. |
Wednesday’s CNN Tonight had no chance of surpassing the hall of shame lunacy showcased the day before following the Trump rally calling out the President’s mental health. However, host Don Lemon briefly lashed out at people who called him out, spreading lies that critics should “know better” and not make “a political point” by saying Trump’s sanity is being questioned. “Yeah and I think that, you know, when — when people criticize and say, oh, they are questioning the President's sanity and all that, they know better. They're just — they’re doing it just, you know, just because to make a political point of some sort,” Lemon whined in a segment with faux Republican Mike Murphy and The Atlantic’s James Fallows. As a reminder, here’s a small snippet of what Lemon said about Trump on Tuesday: He's unhinged, it's embarrassing and I don't mean for us, the media because he went after us, but for the country. This is who we elected President of the United States. A man who is so petty that he has to go after people who he deems to be his enemy, like an imaginary friend of a six-year-old. His speech was without thought, it was without reason, it was devoid of facts, it was devoid of wisdom. There was no gravitas. There was no sanity. He was like a child blaming a sibling on something else....A man clearly wounded by the rational people who are abandoning him in droves, meaning those business people and the people in Washington now who are questioning his fitness for office and whether he is stable. A man backed into a corner it seems by circumstances beyond his control and beyond his understanding....This petty, this small, a person who's supposed to pull the country together? Murphy was supposed to be Lemon’s Yes Man, but he didn’t go along as he argued that he doesn’t “believe the crazy Trump theory” but rather he’s just “a narcissist” with “an impulse control problem.” This didn’t sit well with Lemon, who pushed back but also tried to not suggest Trump’s insane or mentally ill (as he did last night): LEMON: Yeah, but you know, when someone says unfit or — MURPHY: — but it's his crazy rhetoric has been worse than his actions which have been more rational. LEMON: But that’s what you — you’re smart. You know that when someone says — when people say unfit they don't necessarily mean crazy. They just mean unfit for the job. Fallows bolstered Lemon’s case about fitness by explaining that it means “being aware that every single second of your life, every utterance you put out, every word you say or don't say, every phrase has consequences around the world and in this country.” The problem is that this wasn’t the only accusation Lemon and his rowdy leftist friends like Maria Cardona, Symone Sanders, Brian Stelter, and Rick Wilson tried to do on Tuesday (along with CNN colleague Ana Navarro). As exhibited by the works of both this writer and Nicholas Fondacaro, CNN Tonight absolutely pushed the notion that Trump’s mental illness and instability have caused the American people to be “scared” about what might happen to them. <<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>> With that being an absurdly small Cliffnotes version of Tuesday night, Lemon then made the claim that those saying the President’s sanity has been questioned are partisans trying to score points. Lemon seemingly walked to Tuesday’s ledge throughout the show, but never went off. While speaking to foreign policy expert David Rohde, Lemon stood up for former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper following his clicks-bonanza interview fretting about Trump’s mental stability: DAVID ROHDE: Well, startling, frightening and everything else. He used another phrase, though, that — I don't — I don’t like the whole that he's crazy argument. I think he knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s being incredibly divisive for political reasons but something that Clapper said was that he’s — LEMON: Listen, listen. Before you go there, he did clarify and said he didn't mean crazy meaning mentally but he was just saying fit for office in his actions and whether he was prepared to do the job. Here’s the relevant transcript from August 23's CNN Tonight with Don Lemon: |
Get the Recipe Sparkling Sumac Lemonade In September, summer moves into fall around the edges of the day. The nights grow cooler, then the chill tiptoes into the corners of the dusks and dawns. As the days creep shorter, wild plants are changing, too. Ive been waiting for this time, scoping things out for months to try to guess at whether it will be a "good year" for wild fruit. But, like any farmer, I worry that with the weather being so cranky, what started out looking good may end up being a washout. I've been watching sumac closely for months. The crown jewel of this small tree or shrub are the burnished red fruit clusters held upright, resembling an Olympic torch. While there are several types of sumac, my favorite is the staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina, with branches that are covered with velvety fuzz like the horn of a stag. This year's torrential downpours washed away some of the potency of the fruit, leaving some brown clusters on top, but they're still red on the underside. So I scout for the more sheltered of the sunny, dry slopes on which sumac likes to grow. I grit my teeth in envy at the gorgeous but car fume-saturated sumac trees that line the highway medians—too much pollution for foraging. Instead, the neighboring farm lets me clip off fruit clusters from their sumac trees, but the farm manager anxiously rushes over to warn me that "those trees are the most poisonous plants in the country!" We tell him that poison sumac has white clusters and not red, and since that is the only part of the tree we are after, there is no chance of mistake. He still looks at us skeptically and shrugs—"Don't say I didn't warn you." In fact, many a sumac grove has been mistakenly knocked down in the belief that it is poisonous. We are secretly glad that they don't care to share in our treasured stash. The fruit yields a fine claret-colored spice and flavor that is deliciously tart and clean tasting. Plus sumac fruits are high in vitamin C, A ,and antioxidants. HARVEST To harvest, find the most brightly colored clusters and use the finger test. You may feel a slight stickiness from touching the red cluster, and when you lick your fingers you will taste the tartness. Clip off at the base of the clusters with pruning shears as early in the season as you can, and dry sumac before it succumbs to insects or mold. MAKING SUMAC SPICE Right after harvesting, you can use the clusters as-is by dipping them in room temperature water overnight or until the water turns red, or you can make it in to a spice that will last for at least a year. Where we live in the Mid-Atlantic region, it tends to be humid, so I need to dry the plant under the heat lamps above my stove or in a dehydrator overnight. Our regular home oven is not low enough for the 125-150°F gentle drying heat. After drying, I break up the clusters and toss the good ones in to a blender. The blender will separate the fruit from the sticks and seed, which I then push through a strainer. The mesh should be medium fine so that the fruit can go through but not the seeds and sticks. It's a fairly intensive process, but it's a great experience to see each step, from whole fruit to making your own spices. The spice will last more than a year stored in a cool, dry pantry. You can also substitute and find piles of the purple brown European Sumac, Rhus coriraria spice in outdoor markets in Paris, or from speciality grocery and spice stores in the States and online. In a side by side taste test I conducted with chefs as well as flavorists, they unanimously voted for the staghorn sumac, for color and its taste, which is cleaner and brighter. USES Sumac has long been used as a flavoring ingredient especially in the Middle East and Mediterranean. Sumac is most notably one of the distinguishing ingredients in za'atar , which is a combination of sumac with various herbs and spices. Traditionally, each family may have its own secret blend, but my own Foraged Flavor recipe for za'atar calls for equal amounts of sesame seeds, wild sumac, and thyme. Lebanese sprinkle za'atar on everything from flatbread to eggs, potato salad, and even lemony yogurt. My daughters top oatmeal and avocados with za'atar. We are on a za'atar jag. Rachel Ray uses za'atar as a rub to flavor a chicken Caesar salad and Israeli-born London chef Yotam Ottolenghi embraces sumac and za'atar throughout his many cookbooks: turkey and zucchini burgers with sumac sour cream, za'atar spiced beet dip with goat cheese and hazelnuts, fried beans, sorrel and sumac, and roast chicken with sumac, za'atar and lemon. With its citrusy notes, sumac also stands on its own and is most readily associated with savory dishes as a rub or seasoning on meat or fish like salmon a la Daniel Boulud. Kenji has a great recipe for sumac onions that can be scattered on a kale and chickpea salad. The onions take on a great lemony flavor. And finally, sumac imparts a great refreshing flavor as a syrup in desserts, jellies and drinks, like the sumac soda above. About the Author: Tama Matsuoka Wong is corporate lawyer turned professional forager who supplies wild plants to chefs in the New York City area and leads events across the country about the deliciousness of wild ingredients. Along with chef Eddy Leroux, she is the author of the cookbook Foraged Flavor: Finding Fabulous Ingredients in Your Backyard or Farmer's Market. But wait, there's more! Follow Serious Eats on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest! Get the Recipe Sparkling Sumac Lemonade View Recipe » This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy. |
Dozens of the game's leading players emerged on Monday night declaring it was "essential" that the NRL agree to give them a fixed share of the code's revenue in pay talks, saying they hoped their objectives could be achieved civilly. Daly Cherry-Evans, Aaron Woods, Trent Merrin, Josh Dugan and Corey Norman were among a generous turnout at Rugby League Players' Association annual general meeting at Sydney Olympic Park, while players from interstate also followed proceedings by video link. Genuine partners: RLPA board member James Maloney is taking a stand. Credit:Getty Images Melbourne and Test captain Cameron Smith was elected as the organisation's new general president, replacing Clint Newton, and the players emerged as a united front in seeking a fundamental change to the way in which the game's revenue is distributed. "The players want a fixed share of the revenue," Cronulla five-eighth and RLPA board member James Maloney said. "We want to all be incentivised to grow the game. If we're genuine partners in the game and we're getting a percentage of the revenue then it's in our best interests to grow the game and make it better. It's not about trying to get anything ridiculous and reasonable. It's just about getting value, I suppose, for what we contribute to the game." |
If the Wild want to bring Sam Bradford in to shout the traditional “Let’s play hockey!” before a game this season, he would fit right in. The Vikings’ new quarterback is a hockey fan and hopes at some point to attend some Wild games. At least one former NHL player wonders if Bradford could actually be playing in NHL games had he taken a different career path. While growing up in Oklahoma City, Bradford played hockey for six years until the age of 12. His last coach, when he was 11 and 12 with the Junior Blazers, was Mike McEwen, a defenseman who played in the NHL from 1976-88 and won three Stanley Cups with the New York Islanders. “If Sam stuck with hockey, I thought he had a real shot at playing in the NHL,” McEwen said Thursday. “He was a great playmaker. He could make passes and create plays you don’t see from many 11-year-olds.’’ Bradford, who played center, really enjoyed hockey, but he liked plenty of other sports, too, and because Oklahoma City wasn’t exactly a hotbed for hockey, it was difficult at times having to travel to tournaments. “It’s one of those sports that I really loved when I was younger,’’ said Bradford, acquired Sept. 3 from Philadelphia for first- and fourth-round draft picks. “The junior hockey in Oklahoma, though, isn’t that great, and so if I continued, it was one of those things I was probably going to have to move away, either up north or to Dallas to continue to play, and I wasn’t ready to give up football, basketball, golf and all those things I was playing besides hockey.” Related Articles Charley Walters: Twins’ latest signing shows they’re serious about winning AL Central Vikings awarded three compensatory picks in 2019 NFL Draft Vikings’ kicking woes are a top priority for new special-teams coordinator Football lifer Gary Kubiak thrilled to be ‘back in the foxhole’ with Vikings Vikings add two coaches to staff, promote another Bradford followed the NHL closely. “I used to get Don Cherry’s Rock’Em Sock’em tapes every year for Christmas,’’ he said. “I’d wear those out. I don’t know how it happened, but I was a huge Vancouver Canucks fan. Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, those were my guys back in the day. … I loved hockey when I was younger.’’ Now, Bradford has taken up residence in the State of Hockey. Could his background in the sport make him more popular here? “I think the only thing that will make him popular up there is if the Vikings win,’’ McEwen said with a laugh. “Other than that, though, who knows?’’ Nothing will endear a quarterback to Minnesota fans faster than beating the Packers, which Bradford helped the Vikings do in his debut last Sunday. He completed 22 of 31 passes for 286 yards and two touchdowns in a 17-14 victory at U.S. Bank Stadium. Bradford’s love for hockey began rather innocently. “I think it was just as simple as there was a rink in the area and I think he and his mother (Martha) were driving by one day and they stopped in and rented some skates,’’ said Bradford’s father, Kent Bradford. His parents began taking him to tournaments in Dallas and other places, with games often starting at crazy hours because ice time was precious. “I can remember playing 5 a.m. games,’’ said Kent Bradford. “They went to Albuquerque (N.M.) for a two-day tournament where they were playing games 24 hours around the clock. It was nuts. He wanted to play sports in school, and you can’t go to a hockey tournament every week. There isn’t enough time.’’ McEwen said Bradford was so busy with other sports he usually got to only one of the two practices the Junior Blazers had each week, and even missed some games. Still, he excelled when he was on the ice. “He was good,’’ McEwen said. “He was the captain. He was a good skater, he wasn’t a great skater. But he was just a great playmaker. He was a really good puck handler and pass handler. He could really see the ice. He could read a situation really well. He was a smart hockey player. I really think he could have been a pro.’’ Bradford is a pro, of course, just not in hockey. |
Erik S. Lesser / EPA for NBC News Dr. Hunter Johnson, a pathology resident at the Emory University School of Medicine, has helped at least four patients with C. difficile infections by giving them a dose of his stool. Fecal transplants have been shown to have a 90 percent success rate of curing the potentially deadly infection. An Emory University medical resident has taken the notion of donation to a whole new level, agreeing to provide stool samples for multiple patients who need life-saving procedures called fecal transplants. Dr. Hunter Johnson has aided at least four people in the past year by providing doses of his healthy feces -- yes, poop -- to help cure devastating bowel infections caused by a nasty germ known as C. difficile. “As you can imagine, it’s not the most glamorous thing,” says Johnson, 30, of Atlanta, who was recruited by his boss, Dr. Colleen Kraft. “It’s hard enough to get people to donate blood, but it’s much harder to get people to donate feces.” Kraft, an infectious disease specialist and clinical microbiologist at Emory, turned to Johnson and other medical residents last summer, when a gravely ill lung transplant patient came down with a C. diff infection as well. “Basically, we had been doing it using a family member or friend to donate and this patient didn’t have anyone who could help,” she said. That's where Johnson came in. The process worked, allowing the woman to recover from the bowel infection with the help of a stranger’s stool. Fecal transplants are rapidly becoming a treatment of choice for recurrent C. diff infections, which strike more than 336,000 people each year and are linked to 14,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Treatment. In the procedures, stool from a healthy patient is transplanted into the colon of a C. diff sufferer to restore the balance of bacteria. C. diff infections typically occur following heavy antibiotic use, when the drugs kill healthy bacteria in the gut, allowing toxic germs to flourish. Though they sound distasteful, fecal transplants have been racking up success rates as high as 90 percent or more. Sufferers say they recover swiftly after the transplants, returning to full health within a few days. “I’m telling you, I can’t say enough good things about this thing,” said Tom Wilson, 76, who received one of Johnson’s stool donations in March. Wilson, who was treated for a serious bowel condition called diverticulitis in 2006, developed a life-threatening case of C. diff last December and was severely ill for months. He tried a fecal transplant using a sample from a family member, but it wasn’t completely successful. When he fell ill again, doctors sent the real estate developer from Alpharetta, Ga., to Emory for help. He said the notion of accepting stool from a stranger didn’t faze him at all. “When you’re as sick as I have been, you’ll do anything to feel better,” said Wilson, who figures he’s nearly fully recovered. Johnson said he gets a sense of satisfaction from helping -- and from knowing he’s advancing knowledge about a new kind of therapy. He figures he’s a good donor because he’s young, fairly healthy, and is at low risk for infections. People with kids, for instance, wouldn’t be good choices because children bring home so many germs. “They don’t want you to be eating anything too crazy, not a lot of travel, no history of gastrointestinal illness,” he said. “We can’t have taken any drugs in the recent past. “Essentially, the best donor is someone who leads a pretty boring life," he added. In addition, a good donor has to have predictable bowel habits and be able to perform, as it were, on demand. Johnson typically donates on the morning of a patient’s transplant. “They want it to be relatively fresh,” he said. He provides the sample and then takes it to the lab, where it’s processed to be given to the patient. At Emory, they use a colonoscope to deliver the donation, though others use enemas or tubes that run through the nose and to the stomach. Kraft has conducted the transplants on a case-by-case basis with hospital approval. She plans to apply for a investigational new drug application that would essentially define Johnson's stool as a useful medication. Meanwhile, she and others who perform fecal transplants are waiting for the federal Food and Drug Administration to weigh in on regulation of the promising new therapy. Both Kraft and Johnson say they’re excited by the promise of fecal transplants to cure the misery of C. diff infections. “I became a physician to help people,” Johnson said. “To these patients, it’s a big deal.” Still, he acknowledges that not everyone finds his altruism so intriguing. “My wife is kind of tentatively grossed out by it,” he said. “It’s a little weird for her. But she realizes it’s a good thing.” Related stories: |
Fujairah Asia Power Company PJSC (“FAPCo”) was established on 23rd October 2007 as a Private Joint Stock Company within the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”). Sixty percent (60%) of the equity in the Company is held by the Fujairah Water and Electricity Company ("FWEC": a wholly owned subsidiary of ADWEA), with the remaining forty percent (40%) held by Fujairah F2 CV (“F2CV”) a Limited Partnership Company - in turn owned on a 50:50 basis by offshore subsidiaries of Engie and Marubeni Corporation (“MC”). A Shareholder’s Agreement between F2CV and FWEC governs the relationship between the shareholders, and provides the corporate structure for the management and operation of the affairs of the Company. F2CV signed a 20 year Power and Water Purchase Agreement (“PWPA”) with ADWEA on 19th July 2007, along with other supporting Project Documents. These documents were later “novated” to FAPCo and form the corporate as well as financing structure for development of a “green field” 2000 MW and 130 MIGD power and desalination facility (“Fujairah F2 Plant”) at a pre-selected site at Quidfa, Emirate of Fujairah, approximately 280 kms. east of the City of Abu Dhabi. |
Intelligence Success or Failure Sputnik and US Intelligence: The Warning Record Amy Ryan and Gary Keeley Editor’s Note: This article is a declassified, redacted version of an article published in the classified issue of the journal in September 2016. This version was prepared in concert with CIA’s official declassification and release of documents related to the Soviet Union’s launch of the first artificial earth satellite, Sputnik-1, 60 years ago. Those documents can be found at https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/collection/intelligence-warning-1957-launch-sputnik Introduction The soul-searching about US technological competence that enveloped the nation in the wake of the successful launching into space of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, by the Soviet Union (USSR) on 4 October 1957 came as a psychological shock to the American public and engendered a period of reflection that reshaped US priorities and scientific programs in the 1960s. Sputnik-1 was the first in a four-satellite program planned as the USSR’s contribution to the International Geophysical Year (IGY; July 1957 to December 1958). Sputnik (“traveling companion” in Russian) circled the earth every 100 minutes in an elliptical orbit of 215 kilometers (km) perigee and 939 km apogee. Slightly larger than a basketball, the satellite was an aluminum, 22-inch sphere packed with radio and telemetry equipment sprouting four long antennae. It weighed about 180 pounds and transmitted a periodic rhythmic signal—a “beep”—to ground controllers. Sputnik’s sudden appearance, in addition to raising questions about the standing of US technological competence, also brought to the fore the critical question of whether the USSR had or would shortly have an intercontinental ballistic missile capability. Once the Soviets paired the rockets with the atomic weapons they had developed unexpectedly quickly by 1949, the United States, it was thought, would be at a severe military disadvantage. Americans panicked, and accusations of “intelligence failure” and “missile gap” spread across the nation like a virus. That Sputnik’s ascent surprised the US public and press is now common knowledge, but not everyone in the United States was surprised. US intelligence, the military, and the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower not only were fully informed of Soviet planning to launch an earth satellite but also knew a Soviet satellite would probably achieve orbit no later than the end of 1957. For intelligence and administration officials, there was no surprise and no intelligence failure, but the Soviets achieved a political and propaganda triumph because Eisenhower had believed a rush into space was unwarranted and that a Soviet arrival there first would have little meaning. For Eisenhower, there was no “space race.” Download PDF for complete article. [PDF 743KB*] *Adobe® Reader® is needed to view Adobe PDF files. If you don't already have Adobe Reader installed, you may download the current version at www.adobe.com (opens in a new window). [external link disclaimer] All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed in this journal are those of the authors. Nothing in any of the articles should be construed as asserting or implying US government endorsement of their factual statements and interpretations. Articles by non-US government employees are copyrighted. |
Smoke rises in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike. The hostilities between Hamas and Israel entered their second month with more than 1,900 dead. Aug. 9, 2014 Smoke rises in Gaza City after an Israeli airstrike. The hostilities between Hamas and Israel entered their second month with more than 1,900 dead. Dusan Vranic/AP Talks to extend the three-day truce between Israel and Hamas were making little headway in Cairo. The 72-hour cease-fire, which took effect at 8 a.m. Tuesday, was agreed to late Monday by both Israel and Hamas following talks in Cairo. The 72-hour cease-fire, which took effect at 8 a.m. Tuesday, was agreed to late Monday by both Israel and Hamas following talks in Cairo. A three-day cease-fire that ended the round-the-clock carnage and terror in Gaza and southern Israel was holding Wednesday ahead of negotiations in Cairo on a longer-term truce and perhaps a broader deal for the ravaged Gaza Strip. Over the coming days, Egyptian mediators plan to shuttle between Palestinian and Israeli delegations to try to work out an agreement. U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, speaking in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., urged both sides to take advantage of the Gaza truce to move toward broader negotiations. Asked whether he supported Palestinian demands for a lifting of Israel’s blockade of Gaza, Kerry said: “What we want to do is support the Palestinians in their desire to improve their lives and to get food in and to open crossings and to reconstruct and have greater freedom.” But that must come “with a greater responsibility toward Israel, which means giving up rockets,” he said, referring to the barrages unleashed by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip. “No country can live with that condition, and the United States stands squarely behind Israel’s right to defend itself in those circumstances. Period.” Kerry said all this would come together only with a “bigger, broader approach to the underlying solution of two states” that would provide security for Israel and “a better life and greater freedoms for the Palestinians.” After nearly a month of grinding war, Gaza and southern Israel were experiencing something new: calm. Since the Egyptian-brokered cease-fire kicked in Tuesday morning at 8 a.m., there have been no rocket attacks or missile strikes. No tunnel infiltrations or shelled schools. But there have not been any celebrations or declarations of victory, either. Just a single, haunting question: If this war is truly over, how long until the next one begins? Cars and donkey carts loaded with household goods and mattresses filled the streets of Gaza on Wednesday and people lined up at banks to withdraw money, witnesses said. Hundreds of people went to inspect their flattened homes. Both Israel and Hamas went into the fight seeking to change the underlying dynamics of a situation that has produced three rounds of combat in less than six years while crippling the Gazan economy. But after 29 days of fighting that claimed nearly 2,000 lives, it is far from clear that either side has succeeded. That could mean the next round of battle kicks off in the coming few years, months or even days if both sides do not get enough of what they want during the negotiations beginning Wednesday in Cairo. Hamas leaders have repeatedly said they seek an opening of Gaza’s border crossings, the release of Palestinian prisoners and international assistance in rebuilding the territory’s shattered economy, among other demands. Israel wants a demilitarization of the strip and a promise of an end to the rocket fire. Israel on Tuesday withdrew its remaining ground forces from Gaza just ahead of the 72-hour truce’s start time as both sides fired their final barrages. An Israel Defense Forces spokesman, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, said Israel “would continue to maintain defensive positions from the air, from the coast and from the ground” just outside Gaza and that all would be prepared to return fire if the rocket strikes resume. By Israel’s own admission, Hamas still has at least several thousand rockets despite firing 3,300 and losing an additional 3,000 to Israeli attacks. Hamas has reserved the right to dip deeper into its arsenal if Israel fails to yield to the group’s demands. “They are still intact,” Mkhaimer Abusaada, a political-science professor at al-Azhar University in Gaza, said of Hamas. “They are not broken. They did not wave a white flag. It’s still a very strong resistance organization.” In some ways, Abusaada said, the group is even stronger than it was at the war’s start, despite enduring weeks of Israeli bombardment. Hamas has used its decades-long fight with Israel to rally support, and when the war began, the group was badly in need of it. Diplomatically isolated from Arab powers and facing a financial crunch from the closure of its smuggling tunnels, the group could not even afford to pay its 44,000 government employees. But the four-week war, in which Hamas launched rockets deeper into Israeli territory than ever before and used tunnels to carry out deadly infiltrations, has boosted the group’s image among many Palestinians. It has also brought the group’s leaders to the negotiating table, where they will be able to make their demands and possibly win economic concessions that are now needed even more desperately. “Now, Hamas is no longer isolated,” Abusaada said. “The Americans are negotiating with them indirectly. The Israelis are negotiating with them indirectly.” But the Israelis are deeply reluctant to give Hamas anything that could be perceived as a reward for its militancy, and they hope that Gaza residents will ultimately blame Hamas for a war that has left approximately 1,800 Palestinians dead with little to show for it. An Israeli military official said Tuesday that Hamas had been badly depleted by some 4,800 Israeli strikes on Gaza over the past month. The attacks destroyed hundreds of Hamas command centers and weapons facilities and killed about 900 militants, Israel’s military says. Troops also dismantled 32 tunnels, 14 of which connected directly to Israel. By contrast, the official said, Hamas failed to land its punches. “They can tell a narrative that they did damage to Israel, but really the damage is quite limited,” said the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. Still, there was little sense of triumph in Israel on Tuesday, and not only because many are still mourning 64 dead Israeli soldiers and three civilians. On Israel’s political left and right, there were apprehensions that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not use the conflict to try to create a new order in Gaza that does not involve recurring bouts of war. The cease-fire was greeted with scorn by hard-line members of Israel’s cabinet who want the government to topple Hamas and put Gaza under an international mandate. “This situation of limbo — no war, no peace — is the worst scenario for Israel,” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in an interview. “We can’t survive having another conflict every two or three years.” On the other side of Israel’s political spectrum, Labor Party leader Isaac Herzog said he, too, fears that the apparent end of this conflict could merely set the stage for the next. But he said Israel now has an opportunity to use the Cairo talks to empower the relatively moderate government of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and restore him to Gaza, seven years after his forces were routed from the territory by Hamas. Abbas’s government will lead the Palestinian delegation in Cairo, which will also include representatives of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group. “There’s a clear convergence of interests between Egypt, Jordan, the Gulf states, Israel and the Palestinian Authority in recognizing that we need to combat terrorism and move toward peace,” Herzog said. That’s also a U.S. goal, and Washington has sought ways to shore up Abbas’s credibility as the leader of all Palestinians. Economic or practical improvements for Gazans are one likely way to do that if Israel agrees and Hamas cedes greater control to its longtime rival. The United States would be expected to be a major donor and facilitator, but large questions remain about how economic development can coexist with security measures to partly demilitarize Gaza and prevent Hamas from re-arming. Israeli officials expressed skepticism Tuesday that the talks could succeed in delivering much more than a fragile and temporary truce. Hamas remains the de facto power in Gaza, they said, and the group has no interest in changing that. “A whole different relationship could be built, but the chances of that happening are not all that great,” said an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record. The official said the one major difference between these talks and the Cairo-based negotiations that ended the last war between Israel and Hamas is that Egypt has a new government that is much more hostile to the Palestinian group. While Hamas was able to use tunnels beneath the Egyptian border to smuggle in weapons after the 2012 fight ended, that will be more difficult now that Egypt’s military-backed government has effectively shut the tunnels down. “That may be the game-changer,” the official said. “If there is one.” Raghavan reported from Gaza City. Deane reported from Rome. Orly Halpern in Jerusalem and Islam Abdel Karim in Gaza City contributed to this report. |
Acer is preparing two or three tablets to launch in the first half of this year, one of its managers announced on Monday. Acer's long-term goal is to phase out netbooks and replace them with a line of tablet computers, at least one of which will have a seven-inch screen. Taiwan sales manager Lu Bing-Hsian said that the tablets will run Android OS—though he neglected to say which version—on Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors. The screen sizes will top out at ten inches. Lu also claims the tablets will go where no tablet coming to market has gone before—to a quad-core architecture, which Lu says will make them run faster than laptops running Windows. More cores will certainly make for better multitasking, a coveted feature on tablets, but we can't imagine this will do much for their battery life. Still, it will be a distinguishing feature for Acer devices among the glut of tablets arriving on the market this year. Acer's last tablet effort constituted little more than a trip and fall—a 12-inch version priced at under $1,000 that sold less than 300 units a month before being pulled in July. The company's president indicated that this wouldn't be the last we'd see of Acer in the tablet market, though the company made no indication of its interests at the tablet-fest that was CES two weeks ago. In the meantime, according to Lu, Acer will continue to make simpler netbook models in fewer numbers than recent years until their tablets are ready to take over. |
I was in kindergarten when I first became consciously aware that I might be different from other boys. During recess my classmates split into two groups. The boys were all football players, and the girls were all cheerleaders. I didn't feel like I belonged to either group, so I sat on the sidelines watching the other children play. My non-participation really bothered one of the girls, who came up to me and demanded, "Why aren't you playing football with the boys?" I thought for a second, then said, "Somebody has to be the audience." Thus began my lifelong role as observer of the strange customs of my classmates, for whom the rules never seemed confusing or absurd. This self-exclusion continued through junior high. In seventh grade my coach/history "teacher" had us help prepare for a banquet going on that night. We were borrowing spare tables from a church down the street. He instructed all the boys to get into a truck to load up the tables and all the girls to stay in the cafeteria and line up chairs. I walked up to him, confused, and asked him where I should go. I remember how disgusted he looked when he told me to get in the truck with the rest of the boys. But I didn't feel like one of them. I remember feeling like I was too dainty and fragile to be lifting tables. I ended up just holding the door for the "real" guys. Anything typically associated with masculinity gave me anxiety. I couldn't even say words like "strong" or "muscles" or "spit," because they seemed so vulgar. I wasn't the only one confused. From a young age, adults and children alike would approach me and ask the dreaded question, "Are you a boy or a girl?" This question became a constant refrain during my childhood, coming from strangers in supermarkets, at school, in line at the bank. My mother would be mortified, and, sensing her discomfort, I learned to be embarrassed by proxy. People always want to fit you into a certain category, and when you don't fit neatly, it makes them uncomfortable. Often I was just mistaken for a girl. The androgynous haircut I maintained through most of my childhood didn't help matters, nor did my high-pitched voice that refused to change until I'd nearly graduated. Moreover, I was small, with delicate features. Pretty. I'd overhear men say "She's cute," only to be corrected by someone who knew me. When a waitress would ask my mom, "What will she have?" my mom would always say, "He'll have..." stressing the "he." But often the waitress wouldn't get the hint. Anytime I stood with my hand on my hip or drank with my pinkie sticking out, my mom would correct me. I didn't understand what I was doing wrong, or why it bothered her so much. But from a young age it was reinforced that I couldn't be myself, that the natural me wasn't acceptable somehow. So I did my best to build a persona that was acceptable. I got perfect grades. I never misbehaved. I never drank or smoked or said bad words. I never experimented with drugs or did the things that kids usually do, just to prove that I was good, that I had value. I excelled at everything except in winning my parents' approval. No matter how hard I tried, I could never do things right. Even if they didn't say it, I could feel it. When I joined the drama club instead of the baseball team, when I played my Cyndi Lauper albums, when I'd do my best Tina Turner impersonation to "Private Dancer," it was clear that I wasn't the child they'd expected. By the time I was in high school, the question, for the most part, had changed. It had now become, "Are you gay?" Horrified, I'd always answer, "No!" Being very sheltered as a child, I didn't know exactly what being gay meant, but I inferred that it wasn't something you should be. I was never confused about my sexuality. I knew from an early age that I was attracted to men and not women, but how I fit into the world around me was a constant source of perplexion. Now I look like a man. My features have become more masculine. I have a well-defined jaw, usually covered in stubble; a receding hairline; a muscular, man's body; a hairy chest. When people see me, there is no longer any doubt how to categorize me. But even when sex is established, questions remain. Gay people are no different from straight people. There's still the need to classify, to pin one another down, to know where you stand: straight-acting or flamboyant, butch or femme, top or bottom. There's still an expectation that you should fit neatly into one category. |
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