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Leftie Germans for … Merkel? Picture this. You’re a left-leaning German in Berlin — or Bremen, or Hamburg, or perhaps even Tübingen. Maybe you normally vote Green Party; perhaps the Social Democratic Party. One day, you stop into your local REWE, Lidl, or Edeka, bundled in your Jack Wolfskin coat and inexplicable urban hiking boots. While recycling your plastic bottles for a discount on your groceries, you see a friend who is also leaning left, who asks you who you’re supporting in the elections. You look around, making sure none of your Green Party pals can see you. “Merkel,” you say in a hushed tone. She looks around, then blushes. “Me, too.” You and your hypothetical German friend are not alone. You’re two of many Germans who are secretly — or not so secretly — hoping that Angela Merkel survives 2017 as German chancellor. According to Der Tagesspiegel on Thursday, 20 percent of Germans are considering voting for the center-right CDU/CSU for the first time in this year’s elections. Why? For 19.1 percent of Green Party and 11 percent of SDP voters considering the switch, the reason is the woman known as Mutti. With a center-left SDP that many think has no chance of winning even by forming a coalition, a rising far-right, a populist far-left, and identity as the central issue for German politics and people, for many, Merkel is not one more choice. She’s the only choice. Left-leaning Germans aren’t running down the street proclaiming their allegiance to a woman whose party they’ve long opposed. Raphael Peter, a young German in Marburg, says that even though he considers Merkel “the one chance we have,” he still won’t vote for her, though he understands why other left-leaning voters would. “Many are disappointed with the Social Democrats, the Green Party is caught up in discussions on how to react, the Liberal Party is trying to reinvent themselves, and the Left Party is torn apart to some extent,” he explained to Foreign Policy. But he still isn’t sure how he, as a left-leaning German, should vote. And Milena Brechenmacher, who lives in Berlin, says that people “do not necessarily want their friends to know that they are considering voting for Merkel simply because she is a good politician and the only one with a real chance of winning the elections.” It’s in informal conversations, political observers say, left-of-center voters let slip that they might or would or could or will support Merkel. And, as Der Tagesspiegel makes clear, many would. In part, this is because they can root for Merkel — and even for her party, the CDU — and still be true to their leftist roots. As Cornelius Adebahr of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted, the kind of coalition politics so common in Germany’s parliamentary system makes it easy for some voters to justify supporting Merkel on certain issues, even while staying true to their parties. “Their – not so secret – hope is that their party would form a government with the CDU after the elections,” he said. Indeed, the chance for a coalition — and the structure of the German political system — is one reason that Merkel has gained support from the center left. Some voters see her as having moved the party more to the middle. And while that means she’s facing the threat of defection from the Christian Social Union — Bavaria’s variant of the CDU, more conservative and arguably nativist than the CDU — it also means she’s made the CDU a more palatable option for those who couldn’t imagine voting for it 10 years ago. Her stance on accepting refugees — against plenty of domestic opposition from the right — has helped attract some votes from the left. “Left-leaning people welcomed Merkel’s attitude towards the refugees in late 2015,” Brechenmacher explained. “They were also surprised of finding themselves on the same side as Merkel on this issue.” Arun Frey, a graduate student, said, “I definitely think her progressive attitude towards immigration is drawing a fair bit of votes from the center left.” The irony is that on refugees, Merkel toughened her welcoming stance fairly quickly. That means that people on both ends of the political spectrum are reacting to something — her supposed openness to refugees — “that’s not really reality,” said New America fellow Yascha Mounk. None of which is to say that all the voters on the left are looking to Merkel for salvation: There are left-leaning voters outside of the Green Party and SPD who will not vote for Merkel, secretly or openly or in any other way. Far-left parties like DIE LINKE veer toward the populist, illiberal part of the spectrum and compete with the far-right AfD for votes. For people like Brechenmacher and Frey, that’s fueled fears that left and far-left parties could band together and defeat Merkel. All the more reason, they say, to be pulling — whether quietly or quite proudly — for Mutti to prevail. Photo credit: Jochen Zick – Pool/Getty Images |
Feeling bored with your long hair? Need something fresher for your look and performance? Well, cutting your hair into a short style can be a great idea for you. Feel the difference with simple hair which no longer needs an extra treatment. Short hair also can make you prettier and a give a casual look all the time. Before you change your hair, you better check this article with various images of short hair for women to find the best references for your new hair and look. Images of Short Hair for Women 1. Ravishing Comb-Over With the texture of a comb over, this type of classic short haircut has turned into the modern haircut. Now, the style of a ravishing comb-over is diagonal and also takes the top of your hair from one side to the other in strands of thinner and broader. All parts of your hair is blown over a round comb and lifted to add more volume to your hair. This hairdo looks sassy and simple sexy with a stylish casual feel. 2. Texture and Many Lengths Subtle layering turns this smooth short haircut into outstanding texture and vanilla light sculpture. Elegant looks are created by shorter hair on the upper part of your head. The idea of trendy and fun are given by thin sections which run down the front stretching diagonally. 3. Feminine Short Haircut This feminine short haircut is also known as the pixie haircut which turns into a fashionable and feminine short cut with no pointy peaks but with lots of lift in the roots. The feisty approach is still retained while slightly deconstructed and more motion. 4. Blending the ears This style includes smooth blonde lengths changed into an elegant connection partially over the eyes of the models while the face frames and hides the nape. You can get some glosses for a shine effect. 5. Garbo Bob The hairdo of Greta Garbo becomes one of the many images of short hair styles for women. Sophistication and simplicity come along with a highly and flirty seductive look. This elegant hairdo is a graduated neck that accentuates soft volume and full effect of your hair. 6. Rhapsody in Red The ingeniously texture of face framing and crafted layers is energizing with the harmonious roundness of your short haircut. The layers which are longer in the front are textured and thinned to care for the side of your face with most of the weight above your ears. 7. Short Length Changeling This short length changeling is one of other images of short hair for women. This hairdo can create casual sophistication by its slightly layered bob (blown out and straight variation). The asymmetrical fringe creates beautiful face framing. A smooth and some feathering curve on the opposite side also creates the beauty of face framing. 8. Sleek A-Line Bob with Bangs Sleek A-Line Bob with Bangs is another classic hairdo which has become modern today. This classic A-line bob with a modern texture uses a blade to soften the ends of your hair. Good luck finding the perfect short hairstyle! |
Like cows to the slaughter in the media abattoir Updated It was one of those 4 Corners programs that everyone was talking about next morning, even though rather few people could actually stomach watching it the night before. I did watch it, from beginning to end - and even as I found myself revolted by the barbarity of the treatment meted out to the cattle ('Australian cattle', we kept being told, as though that made it infinitely worse than if they'd been mere Indonesian moo-cows), I also found myself fascinated by the insouciance of the abattoir workers. Here was this tall blond white lady recording everything on a video-camera - the beatings, the head-bashings, the hacking at throats, the whole gruesome rigmarole - and nobody turned a hair. Even when a steer broke its leg, and a slaughterman beat it, and stuck his fingers in its eyes and nose to goad it to get up, no one asked Lynn White of Animals Australia to turn off her camera. And when, weeks later, a full ABC crew turned up - four Europeans, including that Sarah Ferguson (as rugby league supporters around Australia have learned to call her) - they were able to breeze into three out of the four abattoirs they approached with remarkably little fuss; to interview a meat-worker who explained how he wouldn't like to stun the cattle first, that would be irreligious; to compile the footage that showed that what Lynn White had filmed was no mere aberration. In most places, they had no difficulty in gaining access 'through the front door', the program's producer told me. Only in Medan, where weeks earlier Lynn White had filmed an animal being tortured for half an hour, did the 4 Corners team find itself blocked. As Sarah Ferguson told us in the program: It's clear from what they are saying that the whole issue of animal welfare related to Australian animals has become very controversial in the last few weeks. They are agitated and they want us to leave. 'Well, and about bloody time', you can imagine some PR flak at Livestock Australia muttering in fury. You can be sure that now, as the Australian slaughterhouse experts rush back into the Indonesian abattoirs for more 'intensive training', they're trying to bash into Indonesian skulls (to coin a horribly appropriate metaphor) at least two messages. First, for gawd's sake treat the animals with a modicum of decency. Imagine that they can feel like you and me. Or we'll all be out of a job. And second, if you see a white woman with a camera hovering around - in fact if you see any bloody one with a camera within a bull's roar of the abattoir (to coin another), tell them to take a running jump. But don't, ever, let them inside the doors. Both of which messages would penetrate said skulls with some difficulty. With what truth I cannot say, we're told that hunter-gatherer societies revere and respect the wildlife they prey upon: it's part of the 'noble savage' myth faithfully reproduced in the movie Avatar. To nomadic pastoralists, from the Masai in Africa to Mongolian herdsman, their animals are their wealth. They may not treat their cattle as pets, but they know they're sentient creatures, and you seldom see wanton cruelty. But I have to say that most peasant societies I've encountered have seemed to me to regard animals as mere tools and foodstuffs. The casual cruelty of poor farmers around the world to their fellow creatures - their oxen, their chickens, their donkeys, their dogs - has often repelled my squeamish, first-world feelings. They seem to be immune to the notion that these creatures are capable of pain, and stress, and terror. Whereas wealthy, city-living Australians seldom see a live animal except their dogs and cats, the occasional horse and a flying fox screeching in the trees. We are sentimental about animals in a way earthier societies can barely comprehend. If that's one gulf between the sensibility of the Indonesian meat-workers in the 4 Corners program and those watching it in Australia, there's another just as wide. These people have never heard of PR. Since they could not credit that anyone might be revolted by the way they treated the cattle they were slaughtering, how were they to understand that the camera was a hostile witness, and that it would soon be giving testimony to a neighbouring nation; that it could endanger their income, their livelihood, and even the reputation of their country and their religion? That is a gulf indeed. You don't get to film abattoirs in Australia. For media lawyers, one of the most celebrated High Court cases is called Lenah Game Meats vs ABC - a case in which an abattoir in Tasmania tried to prevent The 7.30 Report from showing footage of the slaughter of possums filmed, without permission, by an activist group (though not, in that case, Animals Australia). In the end, the abattoir failed and the footage was shown. But try approaching any abattoir through the front door, especially if you're a 4 Corners crew. You've got Buckleys. Never mind abattoirs, what about coal mines? A few years ago I reported on the effort to produce clean coal. It was an honest attempt to portray the current state of the technology. The Minerals Council was suspicious, but prepared to help. But would any coal company in the whole of Australia allow us into an open-cut mine to get footage of the stuff it was all about? No way. I reported on peak oil. Could I persuade a single oil company in Australia to let us film on a drilling rig? No chance. (A Texas-based drilling company called Noble was a lot more accommodating. It flew us in its own helicopter from Galveston to one of its rigs far out in the Gulf of Mexico, and we all scored a Noble baseball cap as well.) But even in the US, home of the brave and land of the free, it's tough to get permission to film in a shopping mall. "Our customers come here to shop," one PR flak told me none too politely in Orlando, Florida, where I was vainly trying to get some pictures of real people for an election story, "not to see themselves on TV. Sir." Any working journalist - especially if they work in television - will tell you the same thing. In the past 20 years, the armies of media minders have swelled, and the number of times anyone says 'yes' has diminished. So much safer to say 'no', and buy some ads. It's a lesson those abattoir workers and their managers are surely in the process of learning. I'm not laying bets on how long it will be before Australian cattle are humanely slaughtered in Indonesian abattoirs. But I am prepared to bet on this: next time the intrepid Lynn White comes knocking on the abattoir door, with her little video camera in hand, she'll find she's less than welcome. Jonathan Holmes is the presenter of ABC TV's Media Watch. Topics: television-broadcasting, information-and-communication, broadcasting, rural, livestock, livestock-welfare, australia, indonesia First posted |
Karl Schroeder is one of the best of the current generation of hard science fiction writers. He’s also an accomplished futurist who works for the design firm Idea Couture. In his new novel Lockstep, he presents the idea of a civilization that uses synchronized cryonics to maintain a thriving interplanetary society without the need for faster-than-light travel. This far future civilization has also replaced their entire legal system with all-knowing AIs. But we won’t have to wait thousands of years for technology to start replacing lawyers. “We’re headed there in about six months in terms of contract law,” says Karl Schroeder in Episode 106 of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “So if I’m claiming in Lockstep that at some point legal apparatus might be replaced by computerized systems, I’m only barely avoiding being out of date.” Schroeder points to efforts like the Ethereum project, which uses block chains—the technology behind bitcoin—to create smart contracts. Such contracts live online, beyond the control of any single entity, and anyone can check their operating parameters at any time. “It’s a kind of automaton,” says Schroeder. “It will follow the rules that have been laid down for it to the letter. It will never cheat.” Listen to our complete interview with Karl Schroeder in Episode 106 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). Then stick around after the interview as guest geeks D.E. Wittkower and Ashley Shew join host David Barr Kirtley to discuss Ender’s Game and Philosophy. Karl Schroeder on why a lot of sci-fi is impossible: “Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, these are great stories. They only suffer from one problem—they’re all impossible. As far as we know, Einstein discovered a rule that’s ironclad across the cosmos—you cannot travel faster than light. If you cannot travel faster than light, then all of these stories become fantasies … It’s all very well to say that [FTL] could be invented, and in fact I will freely admit that we don’t know that it can’t be invented. You can’t prove that faster-than-light travel will never be invented, but you also can’t prove that Santa Claus doesn’t exist … And you can spend the rest of your life dreaming and wishing that faster-than-light travel could be invented—and I certainly think we should try to see if it can be—or you can actually get the same results that you would get from faster-than-light travel by other means.” Karl Schroeder on backing up human civilization: “Because the Lockstep’s always there, it’s developed into a kind of backup for human civilization. Some catastrophe will happen—rogue AIs become godlike and devour everything, or human civilizations fight wars and blow up each other’s planets, and everyone gets knocked back to the Stone Age. And then the Lockstep wakes up, they look around, and say, ‘Oh, it happened again,’ and they send their people in and they rebuild the civilization. And over tens of thousands of years this happens repeatedly, and they’re always there to pick up the pieces. So they literally do a backup and restore on human civilization repeatedly. One of the reasons they can do this is because they’re so insignificant as far as everyone else is concerned. They’re in suspended animation nearly all the time, and they’re in these places that no one else wants to go to, these little worlds between the stars, so no one has any incentive to go after them.” Karl Schroeder on reconciling AI with creating a civilization: “I encountered a problem—and I’ve encountered this with most of my books, actually—which Frank Herbert encountered when he was writing Dune, which of course is that he wanted to have a particular kind of civilization, but that civilization would be essentially ridiculous or impossible if AIs and robots existed, so in the case of Dune he used the ‘Butlerian Jihad,’ this holy war to destroy AIs … Basically a political reason why there would not be AIs in that particular universe. I did something similar with the technology in Lockstep … Even though technology advances spectacularly quickly around them, [the Lockstep] just basically draws a line in the sand and says, ‘If you’re going to live here, you’re going to live this way.’ The robot economy itself is essentially based on Rome. Rather than having hundreds of slaves, each person in the Lockstep has a number of robots. It’s illegal for corporations to own robots—they can only own single-purpose machines … So what people do is they send their robots out as a workforce—essentially as their slaves—to do their work for them, and they reap the profits.” From our panel on Ender’s Game and Philosophy: D.E. Wittkower: “I think [Peter Wiggin] is the worst person, and in some sense that’s not his fault. He kind of got a bad draw in terms of moral character. And what he does with that is actually really praiseworthy. It actually gets us into another weird issue in Kantian moral theory, where for Kant what’s morally praiseworthy is when you do the right thing because it’s the right thing. And so somebody who is just all smiles and sweetness and light, and just instinctually stops to help others because that’s what you do, is not actually terribly morally praiseworthy. Somebody who’s morally praiseworthy—for Kant—is somebody whose instincts are to be cruel and miserly, and who cares for others because it’s the right thing to do, rather than because it’s just instinctual … In saying Peter is the worst person, at the same time we might want to call him really morally praiseworthy, because not just [the consequences of his actions] are the best, but what he does with his horrible moral instincts is really transformative of himself ultimately, too.” Ashley Shew: “I am made so angry in knowing about [Orson Scott Card’s] hate. I wish I had never known any of that … After reading [his books] I was really high on the idea that if you could love another that you don’t know, if you could know them, then you’re forced to love them. So Ender gets to know the hive queen and can’t help but love her and help her. I mean, Card has it all wrapped together—love, hate, war, peace, reconciliation. The idea of the Speaker for the Dead is that if you can tell a person’s life story as it happened, with all of the horrible parts included as well, that you can understand them and you are forced to love that person. I mean, this is part of what makes up all of Orson Scott Card’s novels in the Enderverse, the idea that knowledge is love. Forget this ‘children at war’ thing, the Ender books are about love and understanding and acceptance, and you can encounter something completely foreign to yourself, a true Other, and once you understand it, the love is there. That Orson Scott Card could be so hateful at all just makes no sense. If he reads his own books I think he’ll understand better what I mean here.” |
This article is about the Japanese conglomerate. For other uses, see Sony (disambiguation) Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社, Sonī Kabushiki Kaisha, SOH-nee, stylized as SONY) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo.[7][1] Its diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming, entertainment and financial services.[8] The company owns the largest music entertainment business in the world,[9] the largest video game console business and one of the largest video game publishing businesses, and is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets, and a leading player in the film and television entertainment industry.[10][better source needed] Sony was ranked 97th on the 2018 Fortune Global 500 list.[11] Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group (ソニー・グループ, Sonī Gurūpu), which is engaged in business through its four operating components: electronics (AV, IT & communication products, semiconductors, video games, network services and medical business), motion pictures (movies and TV shows), music (record labels and music publishing) and financial services (banking and insurance).[12][13][14] These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. The group consists of Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures, Sony Mobile, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Financial Holdings, and others. Sony is among the semiconductor sales leaders[15] and since 2015, the fifth-largest television manufacturer in the world after Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, TCL and Hisense.[16] The company's current slogan is Be Moved. Their former slogans were The One and Only (1979–1982), It's a Sony (1982–2006), like.no.other (2006–2009),[17] make.believe (2009– 2013) and BE MOVED (2013–present).[18] Sony has a weak tie to the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) corporate group, the successor to the Mitsui group.[19] History [ edit ] Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo [ edit ] Sony began in the wake of World War II. In 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a department store building in Tokyo. The company started with a capital of ¥190,000[20] and a total of eight employees.[21] In May 1946, Ibuka was joined by Akio Morita to establish a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (東京通信工業, Tōkyō Tsūshin Kōgyō)[22][23] (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation). The company built Japan's first tape recorder, called the Type-G.[22] In 1958, the company changed its name to "Sony".[24] Name [ edit ] When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a romanized name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials, TTK. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK.[22] The company occasionally used the acronym "Totsuko" in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was "Tokyo Teletech" until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name.[25] The name "Sony" was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words: one was the Latin word "sonus", which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was "sonny", a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a young boy.[10] In 1950s Japan, "sonny boys" was a loan word in Japanese, which connoted smart and presentable young men, which Sony founders Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka considered themselves to be.[10] The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955 but the company name did not change to Sony until January 1958.[26] At the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition: TTK's principal bank at the time, Mitsui, had strong feelings about the name. They pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company name tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Bank's chairman gave their approval.[22] Globalization [ edit ] Sony TR-730 transistor radio made in Japan circa 1960 According to Schiffer, Sony's TR-63 radio "cracked open the U.S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics." By the mid-1950s, American teens had begun buying portable transistor radios in huge numbers, helping to propel the fledgling industry from an estimated 100,000 units in 1955 to 5 million units by the end of 1968.[citation needed] Sony co-founder Akio Morita founded Sony Corporation of America in 1960.[21] In the process, he was struck by the mobility of employees between American companies, which was unheard of in Japan at that time.[21] When he returned to Japan, he encouraged experienced, middle-aged employees of other companies to reevaluate their careers and consider joining Sony.[21] The company filled many positions in this manner, and inspired other Japanese companies to do the same.[21] Moreover, Sony played a major role in the development of Japan as a powerful exporter during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.[27] It also helped to significantly improve American perceptions of "made in Japan" products.[28] Known for its production quality, Sony was able to charge above-market prices for its consumer electronics and resisted lowering prices.[28] In 1971, Masaru Ibuka handed the position of president over to his co-founder Akio Morita. Sony began a life insurance company in 1979, one of its many peripheral businesses. Amid a global recession in the early 1980s, electronics sales dropped and the company was forced to cut prices.[28] Sony's profits fell sharply. "It's over for Sony," one analyst concluded. "The company's best days are behind it."[28] Around that time, Norio Ohga took up the role of president. He encouraged the development of the Compact Disc in the 1970s and 1980s, and of the PlayStation in the early 1990s. Ohga went on to purchase CBS Records in 1988 and Columbia Pictures in 1989, greatly expanding Sony's media presence. Ohga would succeed Morita as chief executive officer in 1989.[29][citation needed] Under the vision of co-founder Akio Morita[30] and his successors, the company had aggressively expanded into new businesses.[27] Part of its motivation for doing so was the pursuit of "convergence," linking film, music and digital electronics via the Internet.[27] This expansion proved unrewarding and unprofitable,[27] threatening Sony's ability to charge a premium on its products[30] as well as its brand name.[30] In 2005, Howard Stringer replaced Nobuyuki Idei as chief executive officer, marking the first time that a foreigner had run a major Japanese electronics firm. Stringer helped to reinvigorate the company's struggling media businesses, encouraging blockbusters such as Spider-Man while cutting 9,000 jobs.[27] He hoped to sell off peripheral business and focus the company again on electronics.[30] Furthermore, he aimed to increase cooperation between business units,[30] which he described as "silos" operating in isolation from one another.[31] In a bid to provide a unified brand for its global operations, Sony introduced a slogan known as "make.believe" in 2009.[29][citation needed] Despite some successes, the company faced continued struggles in the mid- to late-2000s.[27] In 2012, Kazuo Hirai was promoted to president and CEO, replacing Stringer. Shortly thereafter, Hirai outlined his company-wide initiative, named "One Sony" to revive Sony from years of financial losses and bureaucratic management structure, which proved difficult for former CEO Stringer to accomplish, partly due to differences in business culture and native languages between Stringer and some of Sony's Japanese divisions and subsidiaries. Hirai outlined three major areas of focus for Sony's electronics business, which include imaging technology, gaming and mobile technology, as well as a focus on reducing the major losses from the television business.[32] In February 2014, Sony announced the sale of its Vaio PC division to a new corporation owned by investment fund Japan Industrial Partners and spinning its TV division into its own corporation as to make it more nimble to turn the unit around from past losses totaling $7.8 billion over a decade.[33] Later that month, they announced that they would be closing 20 stores.[34] In April, the company announced that they would be selling 9.5 million shares in Square Enix (roughly 8.2 percent of the game company's total shares) in a deal worth approximately $48 million.[35] In May 2014 the company announced it was forming two joint ventures with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group to manufacture and market Sony's PlayStation games consoles and associated software in China.[36] It was reported in December of 2016 by multiple news outlets that Sony was considering restructuring its U.S. operations by merging its TV & film business, Sony Pictures Entertainment, with its gaming business, Sony Interactive Entertainment. According to the reports, such a restructuring would have placed Sony Pictures under Sony Interactive's CEO, Andrew House, though House wouldn't have taken over day-to-day operations of the film studio.[37][38][39] According to one report, Sony was set to make a final decision on the possibility of the merger of the TV, film, & gaming businesses by the end of its fiscal year in March of the following year (2017).[37] Formats and technologies [ edit ] Sony has historically been notable for creating its own in-house standards for new recording and storage technologies, instead of adopting those of other manufacturers and standards bodies. Sony (either alone or with partners) has introduced several of the most popular recording formats, including the floppy disk, Compact Disc and Blu-ray Disc. Video recording [ edit ] A rare Japanese market Betamax TV/VCR combo, the Model SL-MV1. The company launched the Betamax videocassette recording format in 1975.[40] Sony was involved in the videotape format war of the early 1980s, when they were marketing the Betamax system for video cassette recorders against the VHS format developed by JVC.[41] In the end, VHS gained critical mass in the marketbase and became the worldwide standard for consumer VCRs.[41] Betamax is, for all practical purposes, an obsolete format. Sony's professional-oriented component video format called Betacam, which was derived from Betamax, was used until 2016 when Sony announced it was stopping production of all remaining 1/2-inch video tape recorders and players, including the Digital Betacam format.[42] In 1985, Sony launched their Handycam products and the Video8 format.[43] Video8 and the follow-on hi-band Hi8 format became popular in the consumer camcorder market. In 1987 Sony launched the 4 mm DAT or Digital Audio Tape as a new digital audio tape standard.[44] Audio recording [ edit ] First Sony Walkman TPS-L2 from 1979. In 1979, the Walkman brand was introduced, in the form of the world's first portable music player using the compact cassette format.[45] Sony introduced the MiniDisc format in 1992 as an alternative to Philips DCC or Digital Compact Cassette and as a successor to the compact cassette.[46] Since the introduction of MiniDisc, Sony has attempted to promote its own audio compression technologies under the ATRAC brand, against the more widely used MP3. Until late 2004, Sony's Network Walkman line of digital portable music players did not support the MP3 standard natively. In 2004, Sony built upon the MiniDisc format by releasing Hi-MD. Hi-MD allows the playback and recording of audio on newly introduced 1 GB Hi-MD discs in addition to playback and recording on regular MiniDiscs. In addition to saving audio on the discs, Hi-MD allows the storage of computer files such as documents, videos and photos. Audio encoding [ edit ] In 1993, Sony challenged the industry standard Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format with a newer and more advanced proprietary motion picture digital audio format called SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound).[47] This format employed eight channels (7.1) of audio opposed to just six used in Dolby Digital 5.1 at the time.[47] Ultimately, SDDS has been vastly overshadowed by the preferred DTS (Digital Theatre System) and Dolby Digital standards in the motion picture industry. SDDS was solely developed for use in the theatre circuit; Sony never intended to develop a home theatre version of SDDS.[48][49] Sony and Philips jointly developed the Sony-Philips digital interface format (S/PDIF) and the high-fidelity audio system SACD. The latter became entrenched in a format war with DVD-Audio. Neither gained a major foothold with the general public. CDs were preferred by consumers because of the ubiquitous presence of CD drives in consumer devices until the early 2000s when the iPod and streaming services became available.[50] Optical storage [ edit ] Front side of a Sony 200GB Blu-ray disc. In 1983, Sony followed their counterpart Philips to the compact disc (CD). In addition to developing consumer-based recording media, after the launch of the CD Sony began development of commercially based recording media. In 1986 they launched Write-Once optical discs (WO) and in 1988 launched Magneto-optical discs which were around 125MB size for the specific use of archival data storage.[51] In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products. In the early 1990s, two high-density optical storage standards were being developed: one was the MultiMedia Compact Disc (MMCD), backed by Philips and Sony, and the other was the Super Density disc (SD), supported by Toshiba and many others. Philips and Sony abandoned their MMCD format and agreed upon Toshiba's SD format with only one modification. The unified disc format was called DVD and was introduced in 1997. Sony was one of the leading developers of the Blu-ray optical disc format, the newest standard for disc-based content delivery. The first Blu-ray players became commercially available in 2006. The format emerged as the standard for HD media over the competing format, Toshiba's HD DVD, after a two-year-long high-definition optical disc format war. Disk storage [ edit ] In 1983, Sony introduced 90 mm micro diskettes (better known as 3.5-inch (89 mm) floppy disks), which it had developed at a time when there were 4" floppy disks, and a lot of variations from different companies, to replace the then on-going 5.25" floppy disks. Sony had great success and the format became dominant. 3.5" floppy disks gradually became obsolete as they were replaced by current media formats.[52][48][citation needed] Flash memory [ edit ] Sony launched in 1998, their Memory Stick format, flash memory cards for use in Sony lines of digital cameras and portable music players. It has seen little support outside of Sony's own products, with Secure Digital cards (SD) commanding considerably greater popularity. Sony has made updates to the Memory Stick format with Memory Stick Duo and Memory Stick Micro. Business units [ edit ] Sony offers products in a variety of product lines around the world.[53] Sony has developed a music playing robot called Rolly, dog-shaped robots called AIBO and a humanoid robot called QRIO. As of 1 April 2016, Sony is organized into the following business segments: Mobile Communications (MC), Game & Network Services (G&NS), Imaging Products & Solutions (IP&S), Home Entertainment & Sound (HE&S), Semiconductors, Components, Pictures, Music, Financial Services and All Other.[54] The network and medical businesses are included in the G&NS and IP&S, respectively.[55] Electronics [ edit ] Sony Corporation [ edit ] Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group. It primarily conducts strategic business planning of the group, research and development (R&D), planning, designing and marketing for electronics products. Its subsidiaries such as Sony Global Manufacturing & Operations Corporation (SGMO; 4 plants in Japan), Sony Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (7 plants in Japan), Sony Storage Media and Devices Corporation, Sony Energy Devices Corporation and its subsidiaries outside Japan (Brazil, China, UK (Wales), India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Ireland and United States) are responsible for manufacturing as well as product engineering (SGMO[clarification needed] is also responsible for customer service operations). In 2012, Sony rolled most of its consumer content services (including video, music and gaming) into the Sony Entertainment Network. Audio [ edit ] Sony produced the world's first portable music player, the Walkman in 1979. This line fostered a fundamental change in music listening habits by allowing people to carry music with them and listen to music through lightweight headphones. Walkman originally referred to portable audio cassette players. The company now uses the Walkman brand to market its portable audio and video players as well as a line of former Sony Ericsson mobile phones. Sony utilized a related brand, Discman, to refer to its CD players. It dropped this name in the late 1990s. Computing [ edit ] Sony produced computers (MSX home computers and NEWS workstations) during the 1980s. The company withdrew from the computer business around 1990. Sony entered again into the global computer market under the new VAIO brand, began in 1996. Short for "Video Audio Integrated Operation", the line was the first computer brand to highlight visual-audio features.[31] Sony faced considerable controversy when some of its laptop batteries exploded and caught fire in 2006, resulting in the largest computer-related recall to that point in history.[56][57][58] In a bid to join the tablet computer market, the company launched its Sony Tablet line of Android tablets in 2011. Since 2012, Sony's Android products have been marketed under the Xperia brand used for its smartphones.[59] On 4 February 2014, Sony announced that it would sell its VAIO PC business due to poor sales[60] and Japanese company Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) will purchase the VAIO brand, with the deal finalized by the end of March 2014.[61] Sony maintains a minority stake in the new, independent company. Photography and videography [ edit ] Sony offers a wide range of digital cameras. Point-and-shoot models adopt the Cyber-shot name, while digital single-lens reflex models are branded using Alpha. The first Cyber-shot was introduced in 1996. At the time, digital cameras were a relative novelty. Sony's market share of the digital camera market fell from a high of 20% to 9% by 2005.[31] Sony entered the market for digital single-lens reflex cameras in 2006 when it acquired the camera business of Konica Minolta. Sony rebranded the company's line of cameras as its Alpha line. Sony is the world's third largest manufacturer of the cameras, behind Canon and Nikon respectively. There are also a variety of Camcorders which are manufactured by Sony. Video [ edit ] In 1968, Sony introduced the Trinitron brand name for its lines of aperture grille cathode ray tube televisions and (later) computer monitors. Sony stopped production of Trinitron for most markets, but continued producing sets for markets such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and China. Sony discontinued its series of Trinitron computer monitors in 2005. The company discontinued the last Trinitron-based television set in the US in early 2007. The end of Trinitron marked the end of Sony's analog television sets and monitors. Sony used the LCD WEGA name for its LCD TVs until summer 2005. The company then introduced the BRAVIA name. BRAVIA is an in house brand owned by Sony which produces high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors, home cinemas and the BRAVIA home theatre range. All Sony high-definition flat-panel LCD televisions in North America have carried the logo for BRAVIA since 2005. Sony is the third-largest maker of televisions in the world.[62] As of 2012 , Sony's television business has been unprofitable for eight years.[62] In December 2011, Sony agreed to sell all stake in an LCD joint venture with Samsung Electronics for about $940 million.[63] On 28 March 2012, Sony Corporation and Sharp Corporation announced that they have agreed to further amend the joint venture agreement originally executed by the parties in July 2009, as amended in April 2011, for the establishment and operation of Sharp Display Products Corporation ("SDP"), a joint venture to produce and sell large-sized LCD panels and modules.[64] On 9 November 2015, Sony announced that they are going to stop producing Betamax Tapes in March 2016.[65] Sony also sells a range of DVD players. It has shifted its focus in recent years to promoting the Blu-ray format, including discs and players. Semiconductor and components [ edit ] Sony produces a wide range of semiconductors and electronic components including image sensors (Exmor), image processor (BIONZ), laser diodes, system LSIs, mixed-signal LSIs, OLED panels, etc. The company has a strong presence in the image sensor market. Sony-manufactured CMOS image sensors are widely used in digital cameras, tablet computers and smartphones. In April 2018, Sony announced to join the market for satellite communications and develop laser communication products for small satellites. Sony wants to use its heritage with optical disc technology used in products like CD players and plans to start initial tests in collaboration with JAXA in 2018.[66] Medical-related business [ edit ] Sony has targeted medical, healthcare and biotechnology business as a growth sector in the future. The company acquired iCyt Mission Technology, Inc. (renamed Sony Biotechnology Inc. in 2012), a manufacture of flow cytometers, in 2010 and Micronics, Inc., a developer of microfluidics-based diagnostic tools, in 2011. In 2012, Sony announced that it will acquire all shares of So-net Entertainment Corporation, which is the majority shareholder of M3, Inc., an operator of portal sites (m3.com, MR-kun, MDLinx and MEDI:GATE) for healthcare professionals. On 28 September 2012, Olympus and Sony announced that the two companies will establish a joint venture to develop new surgical endoscopes with 4K resolution (or higher) and 3D capability.[67] Sony Olympus Medical Solutions Inc. (Sony 51%, Olympus 49%) was established on 16 April 2013.[68] On 28 February 2014, Sony, M3 and Illumina established a joint venture called P5, Inc. to provide a genome analysis service for research institutions and enterprises in Japan.[69] Sony Mobile Communications [ edit ] Xperia , the product device name for a range of smartphones from Sony. Sony Mobile Communications Inc. (formerly Sony Ericsson) is a multinational mobile phone manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation. In 2001, Sony entered into a joint venture with Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson, forming Sony Ericsson.[70] Initial sales were rocky, and the company posted losses in 2001 and 2002. However, SMC reached a profit in 2003. Sony Ericsson distinguished itself with multimedia-capable mobile phones, which included features such as cameras. These were unusual for the time. Despite their innovations, SMC faced intense competition from Apple's iPhone which released in 2007. From 2008 to 2010, amid a global recession, SMC slashed its workforce by several thousand. Sony acquired Ericsson's share of the venture in 2012 for over US$1 billion.[70] In 2009, SMC was the fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world (after Nokia, Samsung and LG).[71] By 2010, its market share had fallen to sixth place.[72] Sony Mobile Communications now focuses exclusively on the smartphone market under the Xperia name. In 2015, Sony released Xperia Z5 Premium in Canada following US and Europe.[73] In the year 2013, Sony contributed to around two percent of the mobile phone market with 37 million mobile phones sold.[74] Sony Interactive Entertainment [ edit ] Sony Interactive Entertainment (formerly Sony Computer Entertainment) is best known for producing the popular line of PlayStation consoles. The line grew out of a failed partnership with Nintendo. Originally, Nintendo requested Sony to develop an add-on for its console that would play Compact Discs. In 1991 Sony announced the add-on, as well as a dedicated console known as the "Play Station". However, a disagreement over software licensing for the console caused the partnership to fall through. Sony then continued the project independently. Launched in 1994, the first PlayStation gained 61% of global console sales and broke Nintendo's long-standing lead in the market.[75] Sony followed up with the PlayStation 2 in 2000, which was even more successful. The console has become the most successful of all time, selling over 150 million units as of 2011 . Sony released the PlayStation 3, a high-definition console, in 2006. It was the first console to use the Blu-ray format, and was considerably more expensive than competitors Xbox 360 and Wii due to a Cell processor.[31] Early on, poor sales performance resulted in significant losses for the company, pushing it to sell the console at a loss.[76] The PlayStation 3 sold generally more poorly than its competitors in the early years of its release but managed to overtake the Xbox 360 in global sales later on.[77] It later introduced the PlayStation Move, an accessory that allows players to control video games using motion gestures. The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all time. Sony extended the brand to the portable games market in 2004 with the PlayStation Portable (PSP). The console has sold reasonably, but has taken a second place to a rival handheld, the Nintendo DS. Sony developed the Universal Media Disc (UMD) optical disc medium for use on the PlayStation Portable. Early on, the format was used for movies, but it has since lost major studio support. Sony released a disc-less version of its PlayStation Portable, the PSP Go, in 2009. The company went on to release its second portable video game system, PlayStation Vita, in 2011 and 2012. Sony launched its fourth console, the PlayStation 4, on 15 November 2013, which as of 31 December 2017 has sold 73.6 million units globally.[78] On 18 March 2014, at GDC, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida announced their new virtual reality technology dubbed Project Morpheus, and later named PlayStation VR, for PlayStation 4. The headset brought VR gaming and non-gaming software to the company's console. According to a report released by Houston-based patent consulting firm LexInnova in May 2015, Sony is leading the virtual reality patent race. According to the firm's analysis of nearly 12,000 patents or patent applications, Sony has 366 virtual reality patents or patent applications.[79] PlayStation VR was released worldwide on 13 October 2016.[80] Electric vehicles and batteries [ edit ] In 2014, Sony participated within NRG Energy eVgo Ready for Electric Vehicle (REV) program, for EV charging parking lots.[81] Sony is in the business of electric vehicle lithium-ion batteries.[82][83][84] IT giants such as Google (driverless car) and Apple (iCar/Project Titan) are working on electric vehicles and self driving cars, competing with Tesla; Sony is entering into this field by investing $842,000 in the ZMP company.[85][86] On 28 July 2016, Sony announced that the company will sell its battery business to Murata Manufacturing.[87] Entertainment [ edit ] Sony Entertainment has three divisions: Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Sony USA also previously owned and operated Sony Trans Com: a technology business that provided in-flight entertainment programming as well as video and audio playback equipment for the airline industry. Sony had purchased the business from Sundstrand Corp. in 1989 and subsequently sold it to Rockwell Collins in 2000.[88][89] Sony Pictures Entertainment [ edit ] Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (SPE) is the television and film production/distribution unit of Sony. With 12.5% box office market share in 2011, the company was ranked third among movie studios.[90] Its group sales in 2010 were US$7.2 billion.[13][91] The company has produced many notable movie franchises, including Spider-Man, The Karate Kid and Men in Black. It has also produced the popular television game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Sony entered the television and film production market when it acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment in 1989 for $3.4 billion. Columbia lives on in the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of SPE which in turn owns Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures among other film production and distribution companies such as Screen Gems, Sony Pictures Classics, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. SPE's television division is known as Sony Pictures Television. The main entrance to the Sony Pictures Entertainment studio lot in Culver City For the first several years of its existence, Sony Pictures Entertainment performed poorly, leading many to suspect the company would sell off the division.[92] Sony Pictures Entertainment encountered controversy in the early 2000s. In July 2000, a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation created a fictitious film critic, David Manning, who gave consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures that generally received poor reviews amongst real critics.[93] Sony later pulled the ads, suspended Manning's creator and his supervisor and paid fines to the state of Connecticut[94] and to fans who saw the reviewed films in the US.[95] In 2006 Sony started using ARccOS Protection on some of their film DVDs, but later issued a recall.[96] In late 2014, Sony Pictures became the target of a hack attack from a clandestine group called Guardians of Peace, weeks before releasing the anti-North Korean comedy film The Interview.[97] Sony Music Entertainment [ edit ] Sony Music Entertainment (also known as SME or Sony Music) is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big three" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony. In one of its largest-ever acquisitions, Sony purchased CBS Record Group in 1988 for US$2 billion.[98] In the process, Sony partnered and gained the rights to the ATV catalogue of Michael Jackson, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the most successful entertainer of all time. The acquisition of CBS Records provided the foundation for the formation of Sony Music Entertainment, which Sony established in 1991. In 2004, Sony entered into a joint venture with Bertelsmann AG, merging Sony Music Entertainment with Bertelsmann Music Group to create Sony BMG. In 2005, Sony BMG faced a copy protection scandal, because its music CDs had installed malware on users' computers that was posing a security risk to affected customers.[99] In 2007, the company acquired Famous Music for US$370 million, gaining the rights to the catalogues of Eminem and Akon, among others. Sony bought out Bertelsmann's share in the company and formed a new Sony Music Entertainment in 2008. Since then, the company has undergone management changes. In January 1988, Sony acquired CBS Records and the 50% of CBS/Sony Group. In March 1988, four wholly owned subsidiaries were folded into CBS/Sony Group and the company was renamed as Sony Music Entertainment Japan Sony purchased digital music recognition company Gracenote for US$260 million in 2008.[100] Tribune Media Company acquired Gracenote from Sony in 2014 for $170 million.[101] Sony/ATV Music Publishing [ edit ] Besides its record label, Sony operates other music businesses. In 1995, Sony merged its publisher with Michael Jackson's ATV Music Publishing, forming Sony/ATV Music Publishing. At the time, the publishing company was the second largest of its kind in the world. The company owns the publishing rights to over 4 million compositions, including The Beatles' Lennon-McCartney catalogue, Bob Dylan, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, and Taylor Swift. In 2012, Sony/ATV then acquired a majority stake in EMI Music Publishing, making them the world's largest music publishing company.[102] As of 2016, Sony owns all of Sony/ATV.[103] Finance [ edit ] Japan Headquarters of Sony Financial Holdings in Tokyo Financial services [ edit ] Sony Financial Holdings is a holding company for Sony's financial services business. It owns and oversees the operation of Sony Life (in Japan and the Philippines), Sony Assurance, Sony Bank and Sony Bank Securities. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Sony Financial accounts for half of Sony's global earnings.[104] The unit proved the most profitable of Sony's businesses in fiscal year 2006, earning $1.7 billion in profit.[30] Sony Financial's low fees have aided the unit's popularity while threatening Sony's premium brand name.[30] Mobile payments [ edit ] Sony wants to contend with Apple and Samsung on mobile payments in Asia. Sony plans to use its contact-less payment technology to make ground in the public transportation industry across Asia. The system, known as FeliCa, relies on two forms of technologies to make it viable, either chips embedded in smartphones or plastic cards with chips embedded in them. Sony plans to implement this technology in train systems in Indonesia as early as Spring 2016.[105] Corporate information [ edit ] Shareholders [ edit ] Sony is a kabushiki gaisha registered to the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan and the New York Stock Exchange for overseas trading. As of 30 September 2017, there are 484,812 shareholders and 1,264,649,260 shares issued.[106] Most of these shares are held by foreign institutions and investors. Finances [ edit ] Sony is one of Japan's largest corporations by revenue. It had revenues of ¥6.493 trillion in 2012. It also maintains large reserves of cash, with ¥895 billion on hand as of 2012. In May 2012, Sony shares were valued at about $15 billion.[107] The company was immensely profitable throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, in part because of the success of its new PlayStation line. The company encountered financial difficulty in the mid- to late-2000s due to a number of factors: the global financial crisis, increased competition for PlayStation, and the devastating Japanese earthquake of 2011. The company faced three consecutive years of losses leading up to 2011.[108] While noting the negative effects of intervening circumstances such as natural disasters and fluctuating currency exchange rates,[108] the Financial Times criticized the company for its "lack of resilience" and "inability to gauge the economy."[108] The newspaper voiced skepticism about Sony's revitalization efforts, given a lack of tangible results.[108] In September 2000 Sony had a market capitalization of $100 billion; but by December 2011 it had plunged to $18 billion, reflecting falling prospects for Sony but also reflecting grossly inflated share prices of the 'dot.com' years.[109] Net worth, as measured by stockholder equity, has steadily grown from $17.9 billion in March 2002 to $35.6 billion through December 2011.[110] Earnings yield (inverse of the price to earnings ratio) has never been more than 5% and usually much less; thus Sony has always traded in over-priced ranges with the exception of the 2009 market bottom. On 9 December 2008, Sony Corporation announced that it would be cutting 8,000 jobs, dropping 8,000 contractors and reducing its global manufacturing sites by 10% to save $1.1 billion per year.[111] In April 2012, Sony announced that it would reduce its workforce by 10,000 (6% of its employee base) as part of CEO Hirai's effort to get the company back into the black. This came after a loss of 520 billion yen (roughly US$6.36 billion) for fiscal 2012, the worst since the company was founded. Accumulation loss for the past four years was 919.32 billion-yen.[112][113] Sony planned to increase its marketing expenses by 30% in 2012.[114] 1,000 of the jobs cut come from the company's mobile phone unit's workforce. 700 jobs will be cut in the 2012–2013 fiscal year and the remaining 300 in the following fiscal year.[115] Sony's 2009 sales and distribution by geographical region[116] Geographic region Total sales (yen in millions) Japan 1,873,219 United States 2,512,345 Europe 2,307,658 Other areas 2,041,270 In January 2013, Sony announced it was selling its US headquarters building for $1.1 billion to a consortium led by real estate developer The Chetrit Group.[117] On 28 January 2014, Moody's Investors Services dropped Sony's credit rating to Ba1—"judged to have speculative elements and a significant credit risk"—saying that the company's "profitability is likely to remain weak and volatile."[118] On 6 February 2014, Sony announced it would trim as many as 5,000 jobs as it attempts to sell its PC business and focus on mobile and tablets.[119] In 2014,[120] Sony South Africa closed its TV, Hi-Fi and camera divisions[121] with the purpose of reconsidering its local distribution model and, in 2017, it returned[122][123] facilitated by Premium Brand Distributors (Pty) Ltd. Environmental record [ edit ] In November 2011, Sony was ranked 9th (jointly with Panasonic) in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics.[124] This chart grades major electronics companies on their environmental work. The company scored 3.6/10, incurring a penalty point for comments it has made in opposition to energy efficiency standards in California. It also risks a further penalty point in future editions for being a member of trade associations that have commented against energy efficiency standards.[125] Together with Philips, Sony receives the highest score for energy policy advocacy after calling on the EU to adopt an unconditional 30% reduction target for greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Meanwhile, it receives full marks for the efficiency of its products.[125] In June 2007, Sony ranked 14th on the Greenpeace guide.[126] Sony fell from its earlier 11th-place ranking due to Greenpeace's claims that Sony had double standards in their waste policies.[127] As of May 2018 Greenpeace's 2017 Guide to Greener Electronics rated Sony approximately in the middle among electronics manufacturers with a grade of D+.[128] Since 1976, Sony has had an Environmental Conference.[129] Sony's policies address their effects on global warming, the environment, and resources. They are taking steps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that they put out as well as regulating the products they get from their suppliers in a process that they call "green procurement".[130] Sony has said that they have signed on to have about 75 percent of their Sony Building running on geothermal power. The "Sony Take Back Recycling Program" allow consumers to recycle the electronics products that they buy from Sony by taking them to eCycle (Recycling) drop-off points around the U.S. The company has also developed a biobattery that runs on sugars and carbohydrates that works similarly to the way living creatures work. This is the most powerful small biobattery to date.[131] In 2000, Sony faced criticism for a document entitled "NGO Strategy" that was leaked to the press. The document involved the company's surveillance of environmental activists in an attempt to plan how to counter their movements. It specifically mentioned environmental groups that were trying to pass laws that held electronics-producing companies responsible for the cleanup of the toxic chemicals contained in their merchandise.[132] Community engagement [ edit ] EYE SEE project [ edit ] Sony Corporation is actively involved in the EYE SEE project conducted by UNICEF. EYE SEE digital photography workshops have been run for children in Argentina, Tunisia, Mali, South Africa, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Rwanda, Liberia and Pakistan.[133][134] South Africa Mobile Library Project [ edit ] Sony assists The South Africa Primary Education Support Initiative (SAPESI) through financial donations and children book donations to the South Africa Mobile Library Project.[135] The Sony Canada Charitable Foundation [ edit ] The Sony Canada Charitable Foundation (SCCF) is a non-profit organization which supports three key charities; the Make-A-Wish Canada, the United Way of Canada and the EarthDay and ECOKIDS program. Sony Foundation and You Can [ edit ] After the 2011 Queensland floods and Victorian bushfires, Sony Music released benefit albums with money raised going to the Sony Foundation.[136] You Can is the youth cancer program of Sony Foundation.[137] Open Planet Ideas Crowdsourcing Project [ edit ] Sony launched its Open Planet Ideas Crowdsourcing Project, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund and the design group, IDEO.[138] On the occasion of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Sony partnered with streetfootballworld and launched the Street Football Stadium Project to support football-based educational programmes in local communities across Latin America and Brazil.[139] More than 25 Street Stadiums were developed since the project's inception.[140] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] |
Democratic rising star lamented ‘assault on our deepest values’ in strongly worded speech that alluded to Trump’s spat with NFL Kamala Harris, a rising star within the Democratic party who is being closely watched as a possible presidential candidate in 2020, delivered a powerful riposte from the altar to Donald Trump on Sunday, accusing him of waging “an assault on our deepest values”. Speaking in a historically charged venue, the First Congregational Church of Atlanta, one of the oldest African American churches in the US founded in 1867 by freed slaves, the California senator gave a blunt account of the problems facing the nation. “Racism is real in this country,” she said, “sexism is real in this country, homophobia is real … antisemitism is real.” The Democratic party needs fresh faces | Lucia Graves Read more She also lamented what she called a “systematic attempt to suppress the vote in America”, citing court rulings that found that “they” – a clear though implicit reference to Republicans – “target African Americans with almost surgical precision”. Harris, who in January took up the US Senate seat vacated by Barbara Boxer, went on to criticise the vilification and scapegoating of undocumented migrants, the plight of Puerto Ricans in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and the move by the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to “re-escalate the failed war on drugs”. But she also made a strong bid to reclaim the concept of patriotism and love of country for the progressive movement. Though she did not mention Trump by name, she invoked the president when she said that “there are forces of hate and division trying to tear us apart”. “Americans have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said. Her kind of patriotism, Harris said, was to believe in the country’s ideals and fight for them. “When we fight for the ideals behind the constitution of the United States,” she said, “that is the very definition of being a patriot.” Again, Harris did not refer directly to the ongoing spat between Trump and NFL players who have been protesting racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem. But her purpose was plain. Puerto Rico: Trump spat with San Juan mayor escalates as all sides double down Read more “When we sing The Star-Spangled Banner, we rightly think of brave men and women who defend the freedom of those they may never meet … We also think about those marching in the streets who demand the ideals of that flag represent them too.” Harris, 52, began her eye-catching career in public service as a prosecutor, working as district attorney of San Francisco and then attorney general of California from 2010. In eight months in the Senate she has made a mark. Playing to the left, she backed Bernie Sanders in his plan for “Medicare for all” healthcare reform. Forging bipartisan credentials, she teamed up with the Kentucky Republican senator Rand Paul to introduce legislation to help people put behind bars because they cannot afford bail. The First Congregational Church has a long history of hosting sermons and addresses by prominent black leaders. Booker T Washington, a leader of former slaves in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, spoke there. In recent years, Calvin Butts and Bernice King, the youngest child of Martin Luther King, have spoken at the church. |
“Web design is 95% typography.” – Oliver Reichenstein “Typography is not ‘picking a cool font.'” – Jeff Croft “Typography is … about shaping text for optimal reading experience.” – Oliver Reichenstein --ADVERTISEMENT-- Over the last few months, I’ve spent more time than I intended on exploring the whole idea of fonts and typography for the Web. (My friend, typography expert Simon Pascal Klein, writes, “The former is a stylized set of glyphs of characters,” while “the other [is] the whole art of creating type and setting it into the written word.” For more clarification and illumination, consult Jon Tan and Mark Simonson.) In the process, I’ve been considering the idea of font stacks – using the well-known font-family CSS property – to list as many different fonts as possible in order to optimize the web site experience for a maximum number of users. What About User Preferences? There’s a strong argument for leaving well enough alone, and simply specifying serif or sans serif fonts, thus letting the user’s own settings determine the font display. I can understand this philosophy, but personally I prefer exerting more control over the display of my sites. Fonts matter more than we may realize; they’re as important a choice in determining the visual impact and informational flow of a web page as the color scheme or the navigation layout. And as a designer (even an admitted amateur), I’m unable to leave these crucial elements to whatever settings a user may have. Different Categories of Fonts Of course, there are more distinctions among typefaces than just the presence of a serif. The traditional categories, especially for web use, are: serif, sans serif, monospace, cursive/script, and decorative or “fantasy” fonts, which are useful primarily in snazzy graphic creations. Daniel Mall has a useful list of categories for his typeface collection, including pixel (the really little guys), symbol (Wingdings), and blackletter (used in medieval manuscripts and heavy metal bands). I list these because a lot of very capable web designers are simply unaware of what exists beyond serif, sans serif, and monospace. In fact, this is how I also viewed typography for years, until I came to understand that the more you learn about typography as a designer, the more informed choices you can make, and the better your sites will be. Rather than an afterthought, your typographical decisions should be at the forefront of your design, navigation, and structural choices in any site you design. The difference good typography makes in a site are often subtle, but equally profound. Expanding Your Typographic Options The idea behind creating recommended font stacks is simple: since most web designers don’t know a great deal about font selection and typography for the Web, and have far too much on their plates to spend the time needed to learn, they need a one-stop shop of font stacks that provides a wide variety for all platforms – Windows, Mac and Linux. Additionally, those designers who do understand enough about typography may feel like their creativity is limited by the restrictions of the standard “web safe” set of fonts. Using font stacks is one possible way of increasing a designer’s options. The font stacks listed here are grouped together by the universal font that forms the base of that stack. A designer can therefore decide on a typographical look for their site, grab the appropriate font stack, and tweak it to suit their needs. I hope that readers use this as a springboard for their own typographical research and experimentation, developing their own stacks to suit themselves and the needs of their site users. Introducing the Stacks Eight font stacks are listed, combining Windows, Mac, Linux, and Adobe fonts in groups that are relatively similar among themselves. Each stack takes the following format: exact font, nearest alternative, platform-wide alternative(s), universal (cross-platform) choice(s), generic A second structure is also listed – one that will often conflict with the first structure: Windows fonts, Mac fonts, Linux fonts, universal, generic In this article I’ve listed three serif stacks, four sans serif stacks, and a monospace stack. Of course, the idea that these might be definitive is laughable, the title of this article notwithstanding. They are merely a starting point for experimentation. I’m happy to update this article with changes if there’s a strong enough argument to do so, and welcome your feedback in the comments. Here are the font stacks as they currently stand. Copy and paste as you will. The Times New Roman-based serif stack: font-family: Cambria, "Hoefler Text", Utopia, "Liberation Serif", "Nimbus Roman No9 L Regular", Times, "Times New Roman", serif; A modern Georgia-based serif stack: font-family: Constantia, "Lucida Bright", Lucidabright, "Lucida Serif", Lucida, "DejaVu Serif", "Bitstream Vera Serif", "Liberation Serif", Georgia, serif; Go to page: 1 | 2 | 3 |
Simply unmounting a filesystem is not the ideal way to remove an external USB/firewire/SATA drive in Linux. This tutorial explains why and gives a solution. Backstory About a year ago I bought an external SATA drive for backups. My normal usage consisted of: Power on and connect the drive mount /media/backup Run my backup script umount /media/backup Power off and unplug the drive This seemed to work pretty well–at the very least, I wasn’t losing data–except the drive made a strange sound when I powered it off. It wasn’t a normal drive spin down sound; it was louder and shorter. So, I googled for authoritative instructions on using external drives with Linux. While most sources suggest doing exactly what I did, it’s not ideal. It turns out that most cheap external USB/SATA/firewire enclosures don’t properly issue a stop command to the drive when you flick the power switch. Instead, the power switch simply cuts power to the drive, which forces the drive to do an emergency head retract. If you think that sounds bad, you’re right. Emergency retracts aren’t going to brick your drive immediately, but if they occur regularly they’re putting a lot of unnecessary wear and tear on the drive. In fact, some drives monitor how often this happens with S.M.A.R.T. attribute 192. (Check Wikipedia’s S.M.A.R.T. page for a comprehensive list of attributes) Solution The solution is to spin down the drive via software before turning it off and unplugging it. The best way to do this is with a utility called scsiadd. This program can add and remove drives to Linux’s SCSI subsystem. Additionally, with fairly modern kernels, removing a device will issue a stop command, which is exactly what we’re looking for. Run: $ sudo scsiadd -p which should print something like: Attached devices: Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: ATA Model: SAMSUNG HD300LJ Rev: ZT10 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 Host: scsi4 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: LITE-ON Model: DVDRW LH-20A1L Rev: BL05 Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 05 Host: scsi5 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: ATA Model: WDC WD10EACS-00Z Rev: 01.0 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 Identify the drive you want to remove and then issue: $ sudo scsiadd -r host channel id lun substituting the corresponding values from the scsiadd -p output. For example, if I wanted to remove “WDC WD10EACS-00Z”, I would run: $ sudo scsiadd -r 5 0 0 0 If everything works, scsiadd should print: Attached devices: Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: ATA Model: SAMSUNG HD300LJ Rev: ZT10 Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 Host: scsi4 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00 Vendor: LITE-ON Model: DVDRW LH-20A1L Rev: BL05 Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 05 You can double-check the end of dmesg. You should see: [608188.235216] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Synchronizing SCSI cache [608188.235362] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Stopping disk [608188.794296] ata6.00: disabled At this point, the drive is removed from Linux’s SCSI subsystem and it should not be spinning. It’s safe to unplug and turn off. Using scsiadd directly can be inconvenient because it requires looking up the host, channel, id, and lun of the drive. I wrote a short script that will take a normal Linux device file like /dev/sdb, figure out the correct arguments to scsiadd, and run scsiadd -r. I use this script in my larger backup script. #!/bin/sh if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then echo "Usage: $0 <device>" exit 1 fi if ! which lsscsi >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo "Error: lsscsi not installed"; exit 1 fi if ! which scsiadd >/dev/null 2>&1; then echo "Error: scsiadd not installed" exit 1 fi device=`lsscsi | grep $1` if [ -z "$device" ]; then echo "Error: could not find device: $1" exit 1 fi hcil=`echo $device | awk \ '{split(substr($0, 2, 7),a,":"); print a[1], a[2], a[3], a[4]}'` scsiadd -r $hcil It does require the lsscsi command to be present on the system. |
Wikipedia has rejected all requests to take down or alter content since it began tracking in July 2012, the Wikimedia Foundation’s first transparency report reveals. As outlined in the report, which spans the period between July 2012 and June 2014, three kinds of requests are often made to Wikimedia regarding the online encyclopaedia’s content: requests for user information, requests relating to copyright law and requests to remove or alter content. Speaking at a press conference in central London today, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, Lila Tretikov, said: “Transparency is one of our fundamental, core values – it is an essential part of our mission. Every year we receive requests to hand over user information, to alter or to remove content on Wikimedia projects. Today, we are releasing our first ever transparency report.” Of the requests for user information, Wikimedia only complied 14.3 per cent of the time. This has been attributed to both the company’s commitment to user privacy and the fact that Wikipedia rarely collects such data from its editors and writers in the first place. The Foundation responded 41.4 per cent of the time to Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown requests, and has not responded to any requests to remove or alter content. The latter is by far the most common kind of demand with over 300 requests received over the two-year period. Commenting on the lack of legal action taken when such demands are received, Geoff Brigham, General Council, said: “Our community is extremely interested in doing the right thing.” According to the report, most disputes regarding content are resolved by users without legal intervention. The site was recently affected by the EU’s “right to be forgotten” ruling, with certain pages set to be erased from Google search results following five notices sent to Wikimedia. In the transparency report, the company also reiterated its anti-censorship stance, writing: “The Wikimedia projects are yours, not ours. People just like you from around the world write, upload, edit, and curate all of the content. "Therefore, we believe users should decide what belongs on Wikimedia projects whenever legally possible,” it states. |
Habs Schedule: 2015-16 Breakdown The National Hockey League and it's member clubs released their schedules in late June for the 2015-16 season. The season will begin on October 7th with 4 games which include Montreal vs. Toronto, New York Rangers vs. Chicago, Vancouver vs. Calgary, and San Jose vs. Los Angeles. Other special dates include the Winter Classic which will feature the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins renewing their rivalry on New Year's Day at Gillette Stadium - Home of the New England Patriots. The 2015-16 season will feature two Stadium Series games. The first one will take place at TCF Bank Stadium at the University of Minnesota which will host the Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks on February 21st. Less than a week later, on February 27th the Colorado Avalanche will host the Detroit Red Wings at Coors Field, known for hosting the Colorado Rockies Major League Baseball club. The 61st edition of the National Hockey League All-Star Game will be held in Tennessee for the first time on January 31st at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Click HERE to view the rest of the 2015-16 National Hockey League regular season schedule. Click HERE to view the 2015-16 Montreal Canadiens regular season schedule. Below, All About The Habs breaks down the 2015-16 regular season for Montreal. The Habs will play 82 regular season games with the following structure: Games vs. divisional opponents: 30 (4 or 5 per team) Games vs. non-divisional, conference opponents: 24 (3 per team) Games vs. Western Conference opponents: 28 (2 per team) Home and Away Games by Month October Home: 4 (NYR, DET, STL, TOR) Away: 8 (TOR, BOS, OTT, PIT, BUF, VAN, EDM, CGY) November Home: 9 (WPG, OTT, NYI, BOS, COL, VAN, ARI, NYI, NJ) Away: 4 (PIT, NYI, NYR, NJ) December Home: 6 (CBJ, WAS, BOS, OTT, SJ, LA) Away: 8 (CAR, DET, DAL, NSH, MIN, WSH, TBL, FLA) January Home: 5 (NJ, PIT, CHI, BOS, CBJ) Away: 6 (BOS, PHI, STL, CHI, TOR, CBJ) February Home: 7 (BUF, EDM, CAR, TBL, PHI, NSH, TOR) Away: 6 (PHI, BUF, ARI, COL, WSH, SJ) March Home: 8 (DAL, BUF, MIN, FLA, CGY, ANA, NYR, DET) Away: 7 (ANA, LA, WPG, BUF, OTT, DET, TBL) April Home: 2 (FLA, TBL) Away: 2 (FLA, CAR) Strength of Schedule by Month The graph above displays the average 2014-15 point percentage of opponents per month. Point percentage is calculated by the number of points a team had (Wins + Overtime Losses + Shootout Losses) divided into the maximum number of points a team can earn (164). For example, last season the Montreal Canadiens had earned 110 out of a possible 164, so their point percentage last season was .670%. Based on records last season, the easiest month for the Habs this season should be February. The month of February will see Montreal face Buffalo twice, Edmonton, Arizona, Carolina, Toronto, and several other bottom teams from last year. But as we all remember, facing easy teams does not guarantee a win as displayed from their 1-2-1 record against the last place Buffalo Sabres last season. But December is a different story. The Habs will find themselves on the ice against teams that earned over a .600% last season seven times in 14 games. Exactly half of them. The average 2014-15 point percentage of December opponents will be a season high .582%. Rivalries vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Wed, Oct. 7 / 2015 - 7pm (AWAY) Sat, Oct. 24 / 2015 - 7pm (HOME) Sat, Jan. 23 / 2016 - 7pm (AWAY) vs. Boston Bruins Sat, Feb. 27 / 2016 - 7pm (HOME) Sat, Oct. 10 / 2015 - 7pm (AWAY) Sat, Nov. 7 / 2015 - 7pm (HOME) Wed, Dec. 9 / 2015 - 7:30pm (HOME) Fri, Jan. 1 / 2016 - 1pm (AWAY) vs. Ottawa Senators Tue, Jan. 19 / 2016 - 7:30pm (HOME) Sun, Oct. 11 / 2015 - 7pm (AWAY) Tue, Nov. 3 / 2015 - 7:30pm (HOME) Sat, Dec. 12 / 2015 - 7pm (HOME) Sat, Mar. 19 / 2016 - 7pm (AWAY) Other Games to Watch Season Opener - vs. Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday, October 7th / 2015 - 7:00pm Home Opener - vs. New York Rangers Thursday, October 15th / 2015 - 7:30pm 2016 Winter Classic vs. Boston Bruins at Gillette Stadium Friday, January 1st / 2016 - 1:00pm vs. 2015 Stanley Cup Champions - Chicago Blackhawks Thursday, January 14th / 2016 - 7:30pm Sunday, January 17th / 2016 - 7:00pm vs. Brandon Prust - Vancouver Canucks Tuesday, October 27th / 2015 - 10:00pm Monday, November 16th / 2015 - 7:30pm 300th Game vs. Buffalo Sabres Friday, February 12th / 2016 - 7:00pm vs. Connor McDavid (Edmonton Oilers) & Jack Eichel (Buffalo Sabres) BUFFALO: Friday, October 23rd / 2015 - 7:00pm EDMONTON: Thursday, October 29th / 2015 - 9:00pm BUFFALO: Wednesday, February 3rd / 2016 - 7:00pm EDMONTON: Saturday, February 6th / 2016 - 2:00pm BUFFALO: Friday, February 12th / 2016 - 7:00pm BUFFALO: Thursday, March 10th / 2016 - 7:30pm BUFFALO: Wednesday, March 16th / 2016 - 7:00pm Number of Games by Day Mondays: 7 (2014-15: 7) Tuesdays: 18 (2014-15: 19) Wednesdays: 10 (2014-15: 6) Thursdays: 13 (2014-15: 17) Fridays: 7 (2014-15: 5) Saturdays: 21 (2014-15: 22) Sundays: 6 (2014-15: 6) |
Capital Gate Capital Gate, the iconic leaning building in Abu Dhabi, reached halfway point. The building, designed by international architects RMJM, will lean 18 degrees westward, 14 degrees more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. To make this possible, the central core of the building slants in the opposite direction to the lean of the structure, and it straightening as it grows. It sits on top of a 7-foot-deep concrete base with a dense mesh of reinforced steel. The steel exoskeleton known as the diagrid sits above an extensive distribution of 490 piles that have been drilled 100 feet underground to accommodate the gravitational, wind and seismic pressures caused by the lean of the building. A gigantic internal atrium, including a tea lounge and swimming pool suspended 263 feet above the ground, has been constructed on the 17th and 18th floors, the halfway point of the 35-story, 525-foot tall tower. Capital Gate will house Abu Dhabi’s first Hyatt hotel – Hyatt at Capital Centre, a presidential-style luxury, 5-star hotel and will provide 200 hotel rooms for Abu Dhabi and will serve ADNEC’s (Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company) visitors and exhibitors as well as international business and leisure travelers. Via Arch Daily |
Advisory Public release Updated Version CVE(s) Title XSA-293 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-292 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-291 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-290 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-289 2019-01-21 12:00 2019-01-21 17:32 3 none (yet) assigned Cache-load gadgets exploitable with L1TF XSA-288 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-287 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-285 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-284 2019-03-05 12:00 none (yet) assigned (Prereleased, but embargoed) XSA-283 2019-02-22 17:42 2019-02-22 17:42 2 none (yet) assigned Withdrawn Xen Security Advisory number XSA-282 2018-11-06 18:40 2019-01-08 16:43 2 CVE-2018-19967 guest use of HLE constructs may lock up host XSA-280 2018-11-20 12:00 2019-01-08 16:43 3 CVE-2018-19966 Fix for XSA-240 conflicts with shadow paging XSA-279 2018-11-20 12:00 2019-01-08 16:43 3 CVE-2018-19965 x86: DoS from attempting to use INVPCID with a non-canonical addresses XSA-278 2018-10-24 21:11 2018-11-01 11:10 2 CVE-2018-18883 x86: Nested VT-x usable even when disabled XSA-277 2018-11-20 12:00 2019-01-08 16:43 3 CVE-2018-19964 x86: incorrect error handling for guest p2m page removals XSA-276 2018-11-20 12:00 2019-01-08 16:43 3 CVE-2018-19963 resource accounting issues in x86 IOREQ server handling XSA-275 2018-11-20 12:00 2019-01-08 16:43 3 CVE-2018-19961 CVE-2018-19962 insufficient TLB flushing / improper large page mappings with AMD IOMMUs XSA-274 2018-07-25 16:39 2018-08-15 16:09 3 CVE-2018-14678 Linux: Uninitialized state in x86 PV failsafe callback path XSA-273 2018-08-14 17:15 2018-08-14 17:15 1 CVE-2018-3620 CVE-2018-3646 L1 Terminal Fault speculative side channel XSA-272 2018-08-14 17:00 2018-08-20 09:46 3 CVE-2018-15470 oxenstored does not apply quota-maxentity XSA-271 2018-08-14 17:00 2018-08-14 17:17 2 CVE-2018-14007 XAPI HTTP directory traversal XSA-270 2018-08-14 17:00 2018-08-20 09:46 3 CVE-2018-15471 Linux netback driver OOB access in hash handling XSA-269 2018-08-14 17:00 2018-08-20 09:46 3 CVE-2018-15468 x86: Incorrect MSR_DEBUGCTL handling lets guests enable BTS XSA-268 2018-08-14 17:00 2018-08-20 09:46 3 CVE-2018-15469 Use of v2 grant tables may cause crash on ARM XSA-267 2018-06-13 20:23 2018-06-13 20:23 3 CVE-2018-3665 Speculative register leakage from lazy FPU context switching XSA-266 2018-06-27 20:06 2018-06-27 20:06 3 CVE-2018-12892 libxl fails to honour readonly flag on HVM emulated SCSI disks XSA-265 2018-06-27 20:06 2018-06-27 20:06 3 CVE-2018-12893 x86: #DB exception safety check can be triggered by a guest XSA-264 2018-06-27 20:06 2018-06-27 20:06 3 CVE-2018-12891 preemption checks bypassed in x86 PV MM handling XSA-263 2018-05-21 16:52 2018-05-21 16:52 1 CVE-2018-3639 Speculative Store Bypass XSA-262 2018-05-08 16:45 2018-05-11 10:13 3 CVE-2018-10981 qemu may drive Xen into unbounded loop XSA-261 2018-05-08 16:45 2018-05-11 10:13 3 CVE-2018-10982 x86 vHPET interrupt injection errors XSA-260 2018-05-08 16:45 2018-05-08 16:45 2 CVE-2018-8897 x86: mishandling of debug exceptions XSA-259 2018-04-25 12:00 2018-04-30 13:14 3 CVE-2018-10471 x86: PV guest may crash Xen with XPTI XSA-258 2018-04-25 12:00 2018-04-30 13:14 3 CVE-2018-10472 Information leak via crafted user-supplied CDROM XSA-256 2018-02-27 11:57 2018-03-01 13:15 3 CVE-2018-7542 x86 PVH guest without LAPIC may DoS the host XSA-255 2018-02-27 11:57 2018-03-01 13:15 4 CVE-2018-7541 grant table v2 -> v1 transition may crash Xen XSA-254 2018-01-03 22:29 2018-02-23 19:35 12 CVE-2017-5753 CVE-2017-5715 CVE-2017-5754 Information leak via side effects of speculative execution XSA-253 2018-01-04 12:00 2018-01-06 15:24 3 CVE-2018-5244 x86: memory leak with MSR emulation XSA-252 2018-02-27 11:57 2018-03-01 13:15 3 CVE-2018-7540 DoS via non-preemptable L3/L4 pagetable freeing XSA-251 2017-12-12 11:35 2018-01-06 16:14 3 CVE-2017-17565 improper bug check in x86 log-dirty handling XSA-250 2017-12-12 11:35 2018-01-06 16:14 3 CVE-2017-17564 improper x86 shadow mode refcount error handling XSA-249 2017-12-12 11:35 2018-01-06 16:14 3 CVE-2017-17563 broken x86 shadow mode refcount overflow check XSA-248 2017-12-12 11:35 2018-01-06 16:14 3 CVE-2017-17566 x86 PV guests may gain access to internally used pages XSA-247 2017-11-28 11:58 2017-11-30 11:59 3 CVE-2017-17045 Missing p2m error checking in PoD code XSA-246 2017-11-28 11:58 2017-11-30 11:59 3 CVE-2017-17044 x86: infinite loop due to missing PoD error checking XSA-245 2017-09-28 17:26 2017-11-30 11:59 2 CVE-2017-17046 ARM: Some memory not scrubbed at boot XSA-244 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-10-18 12:08 3 CVE-2017-15594 x86: Incorrect handling of IST settings during CPU hotplug XSA-243 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-11-15 17:13 5 CVE-2017-15592 x86: Incorrect handling of self-linear shadow mappings with translated guests XSA-242 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-10-18 12:08 3 CVE-2017-15593 page type reference leak on x86 XSA-241 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-10-18 12:08 4 CVE-2017-15588 Stale TLB entry due to page type release race XSA-240 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-12-11 18:15 6 CVE-2017-15595 Unlimited recursion in linear pagetable de-typing XSA-239 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-10-18 12:08 3 CVE-2017-15589 hypervisor stack leak in x86 I/O intercept code XSA-238 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-12-06 10:59 3 CVE-2017-15591 DMOP map/unmap missing argument checks XSA-237 2017-10-12 12:00 2017-10-18 12:08 3 CVE-2017-15590 multiple MSI mapping issues on x86 XSA-236 2017-10-24 12:00 2017-10-24 13:55 3 CVE-2017-15597 pin count / page reference race in grant table code XSA-235 2017-08-23 15:16 2017-10-18 12:08 2 CVE-2017-15596 add-to-physmap error paths fail to release lock on ARM XSA-234 2017-09-12 12:00 2017-09-12 12:03 3 CVE-2017-14319 insufficient grant unmapping checks for x86 PV guests XSA-233 2017-09-12 12:00 2017-09-12 12:03 3 CVE-2017-14317 cxenstored: Race in domain cleanup XSA-232 2017-09-12 12:00 2017-09-12 12:03 4 CVE-2017-14318 Missing check for grant table XSA-231 2017-09-12 12:00 2017-09-12 12:03 3 CVE-2017-14316 Missing NUMA node parameter verification XSA-230 2017-08-15 12:00 2017-08-15 13:47 3 CVE-2017-12855 grant_table: possibly premature clearing of GTF_writing / GTF_reading XSA-229 2017-08-15 12:00 2017-08-15 12:04 3 CVE-2017-12134 linux: Fix Xen block IO merge-ability calculation XSA-228 2017-08-15 12:00 2017-08-15 12:04 3 CVE-2017-12136 grant_table: Race conditions with maptrack free list handling XSA-227 2017-08-15 12:00 2017-08-15 12:04 3 CVE-2017-12137 x86: PV privilege escalation via map_grant_ref XSA-226 2017-08-15 12:00 2017-08-29 12:03 7 CVE-2017-12135 multiple problems with transitive grants XSA-225 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 3 CVE-2017-10923 arm: vgic: Out-of-bound access when sending SGIs XSA-224 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 5 CVE-2017-10920 CVE-2017-10921 CVE-2017-10922 grant table operations mishandle reference counts XSA-223 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 3 CVE-2017-10919 ARM guest disabling interrupt may crash Xen XSA-222 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 3 CVE-2017-10918 stale P2M mappings due to insufficient error checking XSA-221 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 3 CVE-2017-10917 NULL pointer deref in event channel poll XSA-220 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 3 CVE-2017-10916 x86: PKRU and BND* leakage between vCPU-s XSA-219 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 3 CVE-2017-10915 x86: insufficient reference counts during shadow emulation XSA-218 2017-06-20 12:00 2017-07-07 13:52 5 CVE-2017-10913 CVE-2017-10914 Races in the grant table unmap code XSA-217 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 3 CVE-2017-10912 page transfer may allow PV guest to elevate privilege XSA-216 2017-06-20 11:58 2017-07-07 13:52 5 CVE-2017-10911 blkif responses leak backend stack data XSA-215 2017-05-02 11:18 2017-05-12 10:44 3 CVE-2017-8905 possible memory corruption via failsafe callback XSA-214 2017-05-02 11:18 2017-05-12 10:44 3 CVE-2017-8904 grant transfer allows PV guest to elevate privileges XSA-213 2017-05-02 11:18 2017-05-12 10:44 3 CVE-2017-8903 x86: 64bit PV guest breakout via pagetable use-after-mode-change XSA-212 2017-04-04 12:00 2017-04-04 12:37 3 CVE-2017-7228 x86: broken check in memory_exchange() permits PV guest breakout XSA-211 2017-03-14 11:58 2017-03-14 11:58 2 CVE-2016-9603 Cirrus VGA Heap overflow via display refresh XSA-210 2017-02-23 16:28 2017-02-23 16:28 1 none (yet) assigned arm: memory corruption when freeing p2m pages XSA-209 2017-02-21 10:42 2017-02-23 15:52 4 CVE-2017-2620 cirrus_bitblt_cputovideo does not check if memory region is safe XSA-208 2017-02-10 12:43 2017-02-13 18:13 2 CVE-2017-2615 oob access in cirrus bitblt copy XSA-207 2017-02-15 12:00 2017-02-15 12:05 2 none (yet) assigned memory leak when destroying guest without PT devices XSA-206 2017-03-28 12:00 2017-03-29 15:05 9 none (yet) assigned xenstore denial of service via repeated update XSA-205 2017-02-13 14:23 - - Unused Xen Security Advisory number XSA-204 2016-12-19 15:36 2016-12-19 17:04 2 CVE-2016-10013 x86: Mishandling of SYSCALL singlestep during emulation XSA-203 2016-12-21 12:00 2016-12-21 12:01 3 CVE-2016-10025 x86: missing NULL pointer check in VMFUNC emulation XSA-202 2016-12-21 12:00 2016-12-21 12:01 3 CVE-2016-10024 x86 PV guests may be able to mask interrupts XSA-201 2016-11-29 14:48 2016-12-07 10:32 2 CVE-2016-9815 CVE-2016-9816 CVE-2016-9817 CVE-2016-9818 ARM guests may induce host asynchronous abort XSA-200 2016-12-13 12:00 2016-12-13 13:07 3 CVE-2016-9932 x86 CMPXCHG8B emulation fails to ignore operand size override XSA-199 2016-12-06 12:00 2016-12-06 12:11 3 CVE-2016-9637 qemu ioport array overflow XSA-198 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9379 CVE-2016-9380 delimiter injection vulnerabilities in pygrub XSA-197 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9381 qemu incautious about shared ring processing XSA-196 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9377 CVE-2016-9378 x86 software interrupt injection mis-handled XSA-195 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9383 x86 64-bit bit test instruction emulation broken XSA-194 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9384 guest 32-bit ELF symbol table load leaking host data XSA-193 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9385 x86 segment base write emulation lacking canonical address checks XSA-192 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9382 x86 task switch to VM86 mode mis-handled XSA-191 2016-11-22 12:00 2016-11-22 12:00 3 CVE-2016-9386 x86 null segments not always treated as unusable XSA-190 2016-10-04 12:00 2016-10-04 12:50 5 CVE-2016-7777 CR0.TS and CR0.EM not always honored for x86 HVM guests XSA-189 2016-09-21 09:46 - - Unused Xen Security Advisory number XSA-188 2016-09-08 12:00 2016-09-08 12:00 3 CVE-2016-7154 use after free in FIFO event channel code XSA-187 2016-09-08 12:00 2016-09-08 12:04 3 CVE-2016-7094 x86 HVM: Overflow of sh_ctxt->seg_reg[] XSA-186 2016-09-08 12:00 2016-09-08 12:00 4 CVE-2016-7093 x86: Mishandling of instruction pointer truncation during emulation XSA-185 2016-09-08 12:00 2016-09-08 12:00 3 CVE-2016-7092 x86: Disallow L3 recursive pagetable for 32-bit PV guests XSA-184 2016-07-27 15:00 2016-07-27 16:06 2 CVE-2016-5403 virtio: unbounded memory allocation issue XSA-183 2016-07-26 11:32 2016-07-26 11:32 5 CVE-2016-6259 x86: Missing SMAP whitelisting in 32-bit exception / event delivery XSA-182 2016-07-26 11:32 2016-07-26 11:32 3 CVE-2016-6258 x86: Privilege escalation in PV guests XSA-181 2016-06-03 09:47 2016-06-03 13:55 2 CVE-2016-5242 arm: Host crash caused by VMID exhaustion XSA-180 2016-05-23 17:09 2016-05-23 17:09 1 CVE-2014-3672 Unrestricted qemu logging XSA-179 2016-05-09 11:48 2016-05-10 11:23 5 CVE-2016-3710 CVE-2016-3712 QEMU: Banked access to VGA memory (VBE) uses inconsistent bounds checks XSA-178 2016-06-02 12:00 2016-06-06 16:55 4 CVE-2016-4963 Unsanitised driver domain input in libxl device handling XSA-177 2016-05-24 12:21 - - Unused Xen Security Advisory number XSA-176 2016-05-17 10:54 2016-05-17 10:54 3 CVE-2016-4480 x86 software guest page walk PS bit handling flaw XSA-175 2016-06-02 12:00 2016-06-06 16:55 6 CVE-2016-4962 Unsanitised guest input in libxl device handling code XSA-174 2016-04-14 12:00 2016-04-14 13:03 3 CVE-2016-3961 hugetlbfs use may crash PV Linux guests XSA-173 2016-04-18 12:00 2016-04-18 13:31 3 CVE-2016-3960 x86 shadow pagetables: address width overflow XSA-172 2016-03-24 16:26 2016-03-24 16:26 3 CVE-2016-3158 CVE-2016-3159 broken AMD FPU FIP/FDP/FOP leak workaround XSA-171 2016-03-16 19:00 2016-03-16 19:03 4 CVE-2016-3157 I/O port access privilege escalation in x86-64 Linux XSA-170 2016-02-17 12:00 2016-02-17 12:25 3 CVE-2016-2271 VMX: guest user mode may crash guest with non-canonical RIP XSA-169 2015-12-21 11:12 2015-12-22 18:46 2 CVE-2015-8615 x86: unintentional logging upon guest changing callback method XSA-168 2016-01-20 12:00 2016-01-20 12:08 3 CVE-2016-1571 VMX: intercept issue with INVLPG on non-canonical address XSA-167 2016-01-20 12:00 2016-01-20 12:08 4 CVE-2016-1570 PV superpage functionality missing sanity checks XSA-166 2015-12-17 12:00 2015-12-17 12:38 2 none (yet) assigned ioreq handling possibly susceptible to multiple read issue XSA-165 2015-12-17 12:00 2015-12-17 12:38 3 CVE-2015-8555 information leak in legacy x86 FPU/XMM initialization XSA-164 2015-12-17 12:00 2015-12-17 12:38 3 CVE-2015-8554 qemu-dm buffer overrun in MSI-X handling XSA-163 2015-11-24 17:12 2015-11-24 17:12 1 none (yet) assigned virtual PMU is unsupported XSA-162 2015-11-30 06:00 2015-11-30 10:54 2 CVE-2015-7504 heap buffer overflow vulnerability in pcnet emulator XSA-161 2015-11-25 15:29 2015-11-25 15:29 2 none (yet) assigned WITHDRAWN: missing XSETBV intercept privilege check on AMD SVM XSA-160 2015-12-08 11:29 2015-12-08 11:29 3 CVE-2015-8341 libxl leak of pv kernel and initrd on error XSA-159 2015-12-08 11:29 2015-12-08 11:29 4 CVE-2015-8339 CVE-2015-8340 XENMEM_exchange error handling issues XSA-158 2015-12-08 11:29 2015-12-10 13:55 4 CVE-2015-8338 long running memory operations on ARM XSA-157 2015-12-17 12:00 2015-12-17 12:38 3 CVE-2015-8551 CVE-2015-8552 Linux pciback missing sanity checks leading to crash XSA-156 2015-11-10 00:01 2015-11-10 00:07 2 CVE-2015-5307 CVE-2015-8104 x86: CPU lockup during exception delivery XSA-155 2015-12-17 12:00 2015-12-17 13:36 6 CVE-2015-8550 paravirtualized drivers incautious about shared memory contents XSA-154 2016-02-17 12:00 2016-02-17 12:25 3 CVE-2016-2270 x86: inconsistent cachability flags on guest mappings XSA-153 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 3 CVE-2015-7972 x86: populate-on-demand balloon size inaccuracy can crash guests XSA-152 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 3 CVE-2015-7971 x86: some pmu and profiling hypercalls log without rate limiting XSA-151 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 3 CVE-2015-7969 x86: leak of per-domain profiling-related vcpu pointer array XSA-150 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 5 CVE-2015-7970 x86: Long latency populate-on-demand operation is not preemptible XSA-149 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 3 CVE-2015-7969 leak of main per-domain vcpu pointer array XSA-148 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 4 CVE-2015-7835 x86: Uncontrolled creation of large page mappings by PV guests XSA-147 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 3 CVE-2015-7814 arm: Race between domain destruction and memory allocation decrease XSA-146 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 3 CVE-2015-7813 arm: various unimplemented hypercalls log without rate limiting XSA-145 2015-10-29 11:59 2015-10-29 11:59 3 CVE-2015-7812 arm: Host crash when preempting a multicall XSA-144 2015-10-14 12:03 - - Unused Xen Security Advisory number XSA-143 2015-10-14 12:03 - - Unused Xen Security Advisory number XSA-142 2015-09-22 10:00 2015-09-22 15:15 2 CVE-2015-7311 libxl fails to honour readonly flag on disks with qemu-xen XSA-141 2015-09-01 12:00 2015-09-01 13:18 3 CVE-2015-6654 printk is not rate-limited in xenmem_add_to_physmap_one XSA-140 2015-08-03 12:00 2015-08-03 12:37 2 CVE-2015-5165 QEMU leak of uninitialized heap memory in rtl8139 device model XSA-139 2015-08-03 12:00 2015-08-03 12:37 2 CVE-2015-5166 Use after free in QEMU/Xen block unplug protocol XSA-138 2015-07-27 12:00 2015-07-27 12:03 2 CVE-2015-5154 QEMU heap overflow flaw while processing certain ATAPI commands. XSA-137 2015-07-07 12:00 2015-07-07 12:25 3 CVE-2015-3259 xl command line config handling stack overflow XSA-136 2015-06-11 12:00 2015-06-11 12:28 3 CVE-2015-4164 vulnerability in the iret hypercall handler XSA-135 2015-06-10 13:10 2015-06-10 13:10 3 CVE-2015-3209 Heap overflow in QEMU PCNET controller, allowing guest->host escape XSA-134 2015-06-11 12:00 2015-06-11 12:28 3 CVE-2015-4163 GNTTABOP_swap_grant_ref operation misbehavior XSA-133 2015-05-13 11:15 2015-05-13 11:15 2 CVE-2015-3456 Privilege escalation via emulated floppy disk drive XSA-132 2015-04-20 17:10 2015-04-22 13:20 2 CVE-2015-3340 Information leak through XEN_DOMCTL_gettscinfo XSA-131 2015-06-02 12:00 2015-06-02 14:02 3 CVE-2015-4106 Unmediated PCI register access in qemu XSA-130 2015-06-02 12:00 2015-06-02 14:02 2 CVE-2015-4105 Guest triggerable qemu MSI-X pass-through error messages XSA-129 2015-06-02 12:00 2015-06-02 14:02 2 CVE-2015-4104 PCI MSI mask bits inadvertently exposed to guests XSA-128 2015-06-02 12:00 2015-06-02 14:02 2 CVE-2015-4103 Potential unintended writes to host MSI message data field via qemu XSA-127 2015-03-31 12:00 2015-03-31 12:09 2 CVE-2015-2751 Certain domctl operations may be abused to lock up the host XSA-126 2015-03-31 12:00 2015-03-31 12:09 3 CVE-2015-2756 Unmediated PCI command register access in qemu XSA-125 2015-03-31 12:00 2015-03-31 12:09 3 CVE-2015-2752 Long latency MMIO mapping operations are not preemptible XSA-124 2015-03-10 12:00 2015-03-10 12:00 2 none (yet) assigned Non-standard PCI device functionality may render pass-through insecure XSA-123 2015-03-10 12:00 2015-03-10 12:00 4 CVE-2015-2151 Hypervisor memory corruption due to x86 emulator flaw XSA-122 2015-03-05 12:00 2015-03-05 12:18 3 CVE-2015-2045 Information leak through version information hypercall XSA-121 2015-03-05 12:00 2015-03-05 12:18 3 CVE-2015-2044 Information leak via internal x86 system device emulation XSA-120 2015-03-10 12:00 2015-03-31 16:13 5 CVE-2015-2150 Non-maskable interrupts triggerable by guests XSA-119 2015-03-12 12:00 2015-03-12 13:32 3 CVE-2015-2152 HVM qemu unexpectedly enabling emulated VGA graphics backends XSA-118 2015-01-29 11:14 2015-02-25 11:14 2 CVE-2015-1563 arm: vgic: incorrect rate limiting of guest triggered logging XSA-117 2015-02-12 12:00 2015-02-12 17:41 2 CVE-2015-0268 arm: vgic-v2: GICD_SGIR is not properly emulated XSA-116 2015-01-06 12:00 2015-01-06 12:40 3 CVE-2015-0361 xen crash due to use after free on hvm guest teardown XSA-114 2014-12-08 12:00 2014-12-08 12:08 3 CVE-2014-9065 CVE-2014-9066 p2m lock starvation XSA-113 2014-11-20 16:26 2014-11-21 12:25 2 CVE-2014-9030 Guest effectable page reference leak in MMU_MACHPHYS_UPDATE handling XSA-112 2014-11-27 11:25 2014-11-27 11:25 5 CVE-2014-8867 Insufficient bounding of "REP MOVS" to MMIO emulated inside the hypervisor XSA-111 2014-11-27 11:25 2014-11-27 11:25 3 CVE-2014-8866 Excessive checking in compatibility mode hypercall argument translation XSA-110 2014-11-18 12:00 2014-11-18 12:23 3 CVE-2014-8595 Missing privilege level checks in x86 emulation of far branches XSA-109 2014-11-18 12:00 2015-01-20 18:14 4 CVE-2014-8594 Insufficient restrictions on certain MMU update hypercalls XSA-108 2014-10-01 12:00 2014-10-01 12:02 4 CVE-2014-7188 Improper MSR range used for x2APIC emulation XSA-107 2014-09-09 12:30 2014-09-11 10:07 2 CVE-2014-6268 Mishandling of uninitialised FIFO-based event channel control blocks XSA-106 2014-09-23 12:00 2014-09-24 10:29 3 CVE-2014-7156 Missing privilege level checks in x86 emulation of software interrupts XSA-105 2014-09-23 12:00 2014-09-24 10:29 3 CVE-2014-7155 Missing privilege level checks in x86 HLT, LGDT, LIDT, and LMSW emulation XSA-104 2014-09-23 12:00 2014-09-24 10:29 3 CVE-2014-7154 Race condition in HVMOP_track_dirty_vram XSA-103 2014-08-12 12:00 2014-08-12 13:02 3 CVE-2014-5148 Flaw in handling unknown system register access from 64-bit userspace on ARM XSA-102 2014-08-12 12:00 2014-08-12 13:02 3 CVE-2014-5147 Flaws in handling traps from 32-bit userspace on 64-bit ARM XSA-101 2014-06-25 12:00 2014-06-30 14:22 3 CVE-2014-4022 information leak via gnttab_setup_table on ARM XSA-100 2014-06-17 11:44 2014-06-17 11:44 3 CVE-2014-4021 Hypervisor heap contents leaked to guests XSA-99 2014-06-17 11:44 2014-06-17 11:44 2 none (yet) assigned unexpected pitfall in xenaccess API XSA-98 2014-06-04 12:00 2015-03-13 15:59 5 CVE-2014-3969 insufficient permissions checks accessing guest memory on ARM XSA-97 2014-08-12 12:00 2014-08-12 13:02 3 CVE-2014-5146 CVE-2014-5149 Long latency virtual-mmu operations are not preemptible XSA-96 2014-06-03 12:00 2014-06-04 16:03 3 CVE-2014-3967 CVE-2014-3968 Vulnerabilities in HVM MSI injection XSA-95 2014-05-14 10:44 2014-05-16 10:34 3 CVE-2014-3714 CVE-2014-3715 CVE-2014-3716 CVE-2014-3717 input handling vulnerabilities loading guest kernel on ARM XSA-94 2014-04-23 13:05 2014-04-23 15:12 2 CVE-2014-2986 ARM hypervisor crash on guest interrupt controller access XSA-93 2014-04-22 15:05 2014-04-23 10:19 2 CVE-2014-2915 Hardware features unintentionally exposed to guests on ARM XSA-92 2014-04-29 08:50 2014-05-01 10:52 3 CVE-2014-3124 HVMOP_set_mem_type allows invalid P2M entries to be created XSA-91 2014-04-30 09:52 2014-05-01 10:52 3 CVE-2014-3125 Hardware timer context is not properly context switched on ARM XSA-90 2014-03-24 13:00 2014-04-02 11:49 2 CVE-2014-2580 Linux netback crash trying to disable due to malformed packet XSA-89 2014-03-25 12:00 2014-04-02 11:45 3 CVE-2014-2599 HVMOP_set_mem_access is not preemptible XSA-88 2014-02-12 12:00 2014-02-12 17:04 3 CVE-2014-1950 use-after-free in xc_cpupool_getinfo() under memory pressure XSA-87 2014-01-23 17:38 2014-01-24 15:37 2 CVE-2014-1666 PHYSDEVOP_{prepare,release}_msix exposed to unprivileged guests XSA-86 2014-02-06 12:00 2014-02-10 11:25 3 CVE-2014-1896 libvchan failure handling malicious ring indexes XSA-85 2014-02-06 12:00 2014-02-10 11:25 3 CVE-2014-1895 Off-by-one error in FLASK_AVC_CACHESTAT hypercall XSA-84 2014-02-06 12:00 2014-02-10 11:29 3 CVE-2014-1891 CVE-2014-1892 CVE-2014-1893 CVE-2014-1894 integer overflow in several XSM/Flask hypercalls XSA-83 2014-01-23 12:00 2014-01-23 14:26 3 CVE-2014-1642 Out-of-memory condition yielding memory corruption during IRQ setup XSA-82 2013-12-02 17:13 2014-02-19 16:54 4 CVE-2013-6885 Guest triggerable AMD CPU erratum may cause host hang XSA-81 2013-11-27 13:21 - - Unused Xen Security Advisory number XSA-80 2013-12-10 12:00 2013-12-10 12:58 3 CVE-2013-6400 IOMMU TLB flushing may be inadvertently suppressed XSA-79 2013-11-27 13:20 - - Unused Xen Security Advisory number XSA-78 2013-11-20 17:08 2013-11-21 11:32 2 CVE-2013-6375 Insufficient TLB flushing in VT-d (iommu) code XSA-77 2013-12-10 12:00 2013-12-10 12:58 3 none (yet) assigned Disaggregated domain management security status XSA-76 2013-11-26 12:00 2013-11-26 17:02 3 CVE-2013-4554 Hypercalls exposed to privilege rings 1 and 2 of HVM guests XSA-75 2013-11-08 16:20 2013-11-11 11:42 2 CVE-2013-4551 Host crash due to guest VMX instruction execution XSA-74 2013-11-26 12:00 2013-11-26 17:02 3 CVE-2013-4553 Lock order reversal between page_alloc_lock and mm_rwlock XSA-73 2013-11-01 15:07 2013-11-04 13:15 3 CVE-2013-4494 Lock order reversal between page allocation and grant table locks XSA-72 2013-10-29 12:00 2013-10-29 15:39 3 CVE-2013-4416 ocaml xenstored mishandles oversized message replies XSA-71 2013-10-10 12:00 2013-10-10 12:28 2 CVE-2013-4375 qemu disk backend (qdisk) resource leak XSA-70 2013-10-10 12:00 2013-10-10 12:22 2 CVE-2013-4371 use-after-free in libxl_list_cpupool under memory pressure XSA-69 2013-10-10 12:00 2013-10-10 12:22 2 CVE-2013-4370 misplaced free in ocaml xc_vcpu_getaffinity stub XSA-68 2013-10-10 12:00 2013-10-10 12:22 2 CVE-2013-4369 possible null dereference when parsing vif ratelimiting info XSA-67 2013-10-10 12:00 2013-10-10 12:22 2 CVE-2013-4368 Information leak through outs instruction emulation XSA-66 2013-09-30 10:04 2013-09-30 10:04 3 CVE-2013-4361 Information leak through fbld instruction emulation XSA-65 2013-10-02 15:00 2013-10-02 16:23 2 CVE-2013-4344 qemu SCSI REPORT LUNS buffer overflow XSA-64 2013-09-30 10:04 2013-09-30 10:04 3 CVE-2013-4356 Memory accessible by 64-bit PV guests under live migration XSA-63 2013-09-30 10:04 2013-09-30 10:04 3 CVE-2013-4355 Information leaks through I/O instruction emulation XSA-62 2013-09-24 12:00 2013-09-25 08:23 2 CVE-2013-1442 Information leak on AVX and/or LWP capable CPUs XSA-61 2013-09-10 10:56 2013-09-11 12:13 2 CVE-2013-4329 libxl partially sets up HVM passthrough even with disabled iommu XSA-60 2013-07-19 12:00 2014-02-19 16:54 6 CVE-2013-2212 Excessive time to disable caching with HVM guests with PCI passthrough XSA-59 2013-08-20 12:00 2013-08-20 12:07 4 CVE-2013-3495 Intel VT-d Interrupt Remapping engines can be evaded by native NMI interrupts XSA-58 2013-06-26 12:00 2013-06-26 13:18 2 CVE-2013-1432 Page reference counting error due to XSA-45/CVE-2013-1918 fixes XSA-57 2013-06-20 12:00 2013-06-26 10:37 4 CVE-2013-2211 libxl allows guest write access to sensitive console related xenstore keys XSA-56 2013-05-17 12:00 2013-05-17 15:44 2 CVE-2013-2072 Buffer overflow in xencontrol Python bindings affecting xend XSA-55 2013-06-03 16:18 2013-06-20 10:26 5 CVE-2013-2194 CVE-2013-2195 CVE-2013-2196 Multiple vulnerabilities in libelf PV kernel handling XSA-54 2013-06-03 12:00 2014-06-03 12:23 4 CVE-2013-2078 Hypervisor crash due to missing exception recovery on XSETBV XSA-53 2013-06-03 12:00 2013-06-03 16:18 3 CVE-2013-2077 Hypervisor crash due to missing exception recovery on XRSTOR XSA-52 2013-06-03 12:00 2013-06-03 16:18 3 CVE-2013-2076 Information leak on XSAVE/XRSTOR capable AMD CPUs XSA-51 2013-05-06 15:00 2013-05-06 21:18 2 CVE-2013-2007 qemu guest agent (qga) insecure file permissions XSA-50 2013-04-18 15:16 2013-04-18 15:16 1 CVE-2013-1964 grant table hypercall acquire/release imbalance XSA-49 2013-05-02 12:00 2013-05-02 14:27 2 CVE-2013-1952 VT-d interrupt remapping source validation flaw for bridges XSA-48 2013-04-15 15:00 2013-04-15 15:00 2 CVE-2013-1922 qemu-nbd format-guessing due to missing format specification XSA-47 2013-04-04 17:54 2013-04-04 17:54 1 CVE-2013-1920 Potential use of freed memory in event channel operations XSA-46 2013-04-18 12:00 2013-04-18 13:35 3 CVE-2013-1919 Several access permission issues with IRQs for unprivileged guests XSA-45 2013-05-02 12:00 2013-05-02 13:54 2 CVE-2013-1918 Several long latency operations are not preemptible XSA-44 2013-04-18 12:00 2013-04-18 13:50 3 CVE-2013-1917 Xen PV DoS vulnerability with SYSENTER XSA-43 2013-02-05 12:00 2013-02-05 12:59 2 CVE-2013-0231 Linux pciback DoS via not rate limited log messages. XSA-42 2013-02-12 12:00 2013-02-13 16:49 2 CVE-2013-0228 Linux kernel hits general protection if %ds is corrupt for 32-bit PVOPS. XSA-41 2013-01-16 14:50 2013-01-17 12:17 2 CVE-2012-6075 qemu (e1000 device driver): Buffer overflow when processing large packets XSA-40 2013-01-16 14:50 2013-01-16 14:50 1 CVE-2013-0190 Linux stack corruption in xen_failsafe_callback for 32bit PVOPS guests. XSA-39 2013-02-05 12:00 2013-02-05 12:59 2 CVE-2013-0216 CVE-2013-0217 Linux netback DoS via malicious guest ring. XSA-38 2013-02-05 12:00 2013-02-15 11:40 3 CVE-2013-0215 oxenstored incorrect handling of certain Xenbus ring states XSA-37 2013-01-04 16:00 2013-01-04 16:00 1 CVE-2013-0154 Hypervisor crash due to incorrect ASSERT (debug build only) XSA-36 2013-02-05 12:00 2013-02-21 11:05 4 CVE-2013-0153 interrupt remap entries shared and old ones not cleared on AMD IOMMUs XSA-35 2013-01-22 11:49 2013-01-23 18:28 4 CVE-2013-0152 Nested HVM exposes host to being driven out of memory by guest XSA-34 2013-01-22 11:49 2013-01-22 11:49 2 CVE-2013-0151 nested virtualization on 32-bit exposes host crash XSA-33 2013-01-08 12:00 2013-01-11 17:10 3 CVE-2012-5634 VT-d interrupt remapping source validation flaw XSA-32 2012-12-03 17:51 2012-12-03 17:51 4 CVE-2012-5525 several hypercalls do not validate input GFNs XSA-31 2012-12-03 17:51 2012-12-03 17:51 3 CVE-2012-5515 Several memory hypercall operations allow invalid extent order values XSA-30 2012-12-03 17:51 2012-12-03 17:51 4 CVE-2012-5514 Broken error handling in guest_physmap_mark_populate_on_demand() XSA-29 2012-12-03 17:51 2012-12-03 17:51 3 CVE-2012-5513 XENMEM_exchange may overwrite hypervisor memory XSA-28 2012-12-03 17:51 2012-12-03 17:51 3 CVE-2012-5512 HVMOP_get_mem_access crash / HVMOP_set_mem_access information leak XSA-27 2012-12-03 17:51 2013-01-17 12:17 5 CVE-2012-5511 CVE-2012-6333 several HVM operations do not validate the range of their inputs |
At the beginning of the year I wrote an article which explored the details and function of quick change axles, which can be found here: BIKE TECH – QUICK CHANGE WHEELS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. I was able to spend a bit of time up close with the 2017 Endurance World Championship winner Yamaha GMT94 and I wanted to continue to uncover the details of quick change wheel systems but also look at some other details the bikes are equipped with to deal with endurance racing. Front Axle: In the previous article I covered how a quick release axle and rotating front fender mounts are required for a quick change wheel system. Here we can see how GMT94 have approached the design: – Quick change axle: For the quick change axle there is a typical threaded insert in the fork on the left hand side, retained by the axle pinch joint in the fork drop-out, which replaces the need for a nut. On the right hand side there is a bushing in which the axle slides through. At this point I have not yet figured out how (or if) the RH fork is retained to the axle. Typically the axle pinch joint on the RH side would join the axle to the fork to ensure good front end stiffness without adding any side load to the fork leg, but this would not work for quick release axle. Also present are the usual pull cups to allow for easy tool centering and aid in pulling the axle out. – Rotational fender mount: To move the calipers outwards and allow the wheel to be removed GMT94’s Yamaha R1 has rotational front fender mounts, as seen on all other quick change systems. They have utilised additional structures to support the fender, like Honda Endurance Racing’s CBR, which then mount to both the inner fork tubes and below the fork drop-outs. The mounts are also spring loaded which allows the calipers to automatically spring out of the way once the wheel has moved forward enough for the calipers to clear the discs. When the axle is threaded it ensures the drop-outs are aligned and doesn’t allow the caliper to drag on the brake discs. I also noticed these small tabs with what looks like a rubber pad on the inside. I believe these are to protect the rim when the mechanic pushes the calipers in during a fast pit-stop to align them with the disc. It may also position the caliper in approximately the correct position for quicker alignment. Rear Axle: For a quick change system at the rear, as covered in the previous article, only basic modifications to the rear axle are required. Here I’ve also looked at GMT94’s quick release sprocket system. – Quick change axle: The axle has been flipped around to be inserted from the right hand side, and the nut has been replaced by a threaded “axle” which is used to mount the sprocket; more on this next. Pull cups on the rear, just like on the front. I like the convenient handles on the axle position adjusters for easy adjustment. The caliper bracket must be bolted to the swing-arm from the inside to allow it to stay in place even when the axle is removed. – Quick release sprocket: I’ve called this a quick release sprocket for lack of a better name, but it’s actually a system that allows the sprocket to be fixed to the swing-arm, while the wheel can be easily removed. The sprocket carrier is bolted to the swing-arm using the outer hub / “axle” and nut in the above right picture, and it stays with the swing-arm during rear wheel changes. This means that the mechanics don’t have to deal with the chain during wheel swaps for faster pit-stops. For the sprocket to engage the wheel there is a quick release joint between the two. On the wheel there is a ‘flower’ shaped tool as the male-side in the joint. On the sprocket carrier there is a half-formed female version of this tool (yellow and red coloured part in the left photo) that engages with the one on the wheel. The half cup allows the wheel to be easily removed and inserted to the sprocket carrier. The axle slot on the left-hand side has most likely be increased in size to allow for this double axle setup, where the rear axle threads into the sprocket hub. This means that during rear wheel changes it is only the wheel and tire that are changed, while the sprocket and rear caliper remain attached to the swing-arm. Details: – Quick release everything: The great theme along the entire bike is quick release joints. Dry-break front and rear brake lines. All the coolant, vent and oil lines are quick release. – Protection: As the picture above shows GMT94 does mount a lot of bike protection parts; here some GBRacing engine case covers. During an extended endurance race the chances of a crash become relatively high and so it’s vital to ensure that the bike can continue in any unfortunate event and get back to the pits for repair. Crash bobbins and swing-arm protection. They also have the usual frame and swing-arm covers in carbon fibre. Additionally they’ve also fitted a lower chain guard to improve chain protection and also life. Additional protection comes in the form of structure for the front bodywork and special guards for the forks as steering stops. – Other details: LED lights. One-way bleeder valves for easier and faster bleeding of the brake system. Also notice the remote brake lever adjuster which extends to the left handle bar. This is to adjust lever position on the fly as pads wear out and the stiffness of the brake system changes during long stints. And finally, on the oil fill there is what looks to be a sensor either for oil level or temperature. This is all I could unearth from arguably one of the most performing and successful endurance bikes in the world, and I’m sure there is still much to learn from it. |
Three Sisters of Haworth – a graphic story I have two interests that rarely get reflected on this blog. I collect/sell vintage prints (on a small scale) and I’m a fan of the world of speech bubbles (cartoons and graphic art). So I was delighted when my love of these collided with my love of things Victorian and I got my hands on a 1950s graphic story about the Brontes. Readers, I scanned them. I have two sets (4 vintage prints) available for sale (via Etsy), they come mounted. Hoping to set up my own website for my prints and graphic art in due course. I also have a history/print Twitter account. So here it is, Three Sisters of Haworth. The true story of the Brontes, who wrote some of our finest literature. Enjoy. BELOW: The Bronte Family on Pinterest (via The Long Victorian) Advertisements |
Senator Just in the past three weeks, McCain has mixed up Iraq and Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan, and even football's Packers and Steelers. Ironically, the errors have been concentrated in what should be his area of expertise - foreign affairs. McCain will turn 72 the day after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) accepts his party's nomination for president, calling new attention to the sensitive issue of McCain's advanced age, three days before the start of his own convention. The McCain campaign says Obama has had plenty of flubs of his own, including a reference to "57 states" and a string of misstated place names during the primaries that Republicans gleefully sent around as YouTubes. But the mistakes raise a serious, if uncomfortable question: Are the gaffes the result of his age? And what could that mean in the Oval Office? Voters, thinking about their own relatives, can be expected to scrutinize McCain's debate performances for signs of slippage. Every voter has a parent, grandparent or a friend whose mental acuity slipped as they grew older. It happens at different times for different people - and there is ample evidence many in their 70s are sharp and fit as ever. There is also ample evidence others do start to slip at that age. In McCain's case, his medical records, public appearances and travel schedule have suggested he remains at the top of his game. But his liberal critics have been pouncing on every misstatement as a sign that he's an old man. Already, late-night comics have made McCain's age an almost nightly topic, with CBS's David Letterman getting a laugh just about any time he says the word "McCain" and "nap" in the same sentence. Last week, McCain tried to defuse the issue by pretending to doze off during an appearance with NBC's Conan O'Brien. Republicans would like to make the case that McCain is seasoned and Obama is a callow newcomer to the public stage. But that'll be harder if he keeps up the verbal slips, which make it easier for comedians and critics to pile on. "FIRST GAFFE OF OBAMA TRIP......GOES TO MCCAIN," blared Monday afternoon's banner headline on the left-leaning Huffington Post, accompanied by a photo of McCain appearing to slap his forehead. That referred to an ABCNews.com posting asserting that McCain appeared to "confuse Iraq and Afghanistan, in a "Good Morning America" interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer, who asked whether the "the situation in Afghanistan is precarious and urgent." McCain responded: "I'm afraid it's a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq/Pakistan border," McCain said. The ABC posting added: "Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border. Afghanistan and Pakistan do." Unfortunately for McCain, that wasn't an isolated slip. Among the other lapses: -"Somalia" for "Sudan" - As recounted in a reporter's pool report from McCain's Straight Talk Express bus on June 30, the senator said while discussing Darfur, a region of Sudan: "How can we bring pressure on the government of Somalia?" Senior adviser Mark Salter corrected him: "Sudan." -"Germany" for "Russia" - A YouTube clip from last year memorializes McCain referring to Vladimir Putin of Russia - following a trip to Germany - as "President Putin of Germany." -This spring, McCain said troops in Iraq were "down to pre-surge levels" when in fact there were 20,000 more troops than when the surge policy began. -Also this spring, McCain twice appeared to mistake Sunnis and Shiites, two branches of Islam that split violently. -In Phoenix earlier this month, McCain referred to "Czechoslovakia," which has been divided since Jan. 1, 1993, into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He also referred to Czechoslovakia during a debate in November and a radio show in April. -In perhaps the most curious incident, McCain said earlier this month that as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, he had tried to confuse his captors by giving the names of Pittsburgh Steelers starting players when asked to identify his squadron mates. McCain has told the story many times over the years - but had always referred correctly to the names he gave as members of the Green Bay Packers. By Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen |
Poland will waive fees charged to Belarusian citizens for processing travel visas beginning next week. The Polish Foreign Ministry described the move Wednesday as "an expression of solidarity with the people of Belarus" and pro-democracy movements active during Belarus' presidential elections last week. In a statement Wednesday, the Polish ministry said it reserved the right to prevent Belarusian officials "responsible for organizing the recent wave of repression against civil society" from entering Polish territory. Poland and a host of other Western nations have criticized the government of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for its violent post-election crackdown on opposition supporters and journalists. Some 600 people, including several opposition presidential candidates and about 20 journalists were arrested after riot police broke up protests against the reelection of President Lukashenko. According to Agence France Presse, the editor of the Belarusian independent weekly Nasha Niva said security police in Minsk raided the paper's offices Wednesday and carted off 12 computers, along with memory cards and disks. Separately, the opposition website Charter 97 quotes a Justice Ministry statement warning that "certain [defense] lawyers" are guilty of "gross violations"of their professional code of ethics for commenting publicly on the crackdown and on the health conditions of their jailed clients. Some information for this report was provided by AFP. |
This is in some respects a follow up to my previous post in that it has been triggered by our internal project in Ruby. When working in Ruby I consciously lean towards integration tests. Sinatra and Sequel make this really easy as using rack-test and running against an in-memory SQLite database it is easy to simulate a full conversation of HTTP requests and they run reasonably quickly too. How does this relate to learning a new language? When writing anything in a new language you will make mistakes. You are likely to structure your application poorly. At a minimum you will find there is a much better way of achieving the same result. If you have based your work on unit tests you will have a straight-jacket tying your to your code making the effort to heavily refactor it much greater than it needs to be. Tests will need to be moved, rewritten, thrown away and renamed. However, when you use integration tests you are only verifying the behaviour of the whole system not its moving parts. This means you can replace the internals of your application entirely and your integration tests will not need to be changed and will ensure you have a system that still behaves the same as it did before. Am I saying that you should never use unit tests in a new language? Of course not. However, you should chose the right level of test to match your level of understanding. Once your application’s structure has ossified it makes sense to exercise the complex parts directly through unit tests. The second you make that shift to using using tests you are setting your structure in stone so you want to make sure that does not happen before it has to. |
Florida State University offers a variety of dining options to students in its Union. For many years, alcohol was not served at any of these establishment. Then came Chili’s. Home of 2 for 1 Margarita’s and draft beers, chips and salsa, and Southwestern egg rolls, Chili’s offered students a chance to fuel up on food and drink before class. Don’t take our word for it - the students launched a petition to retain Chili’s on campus. Reasons for signing I like getting blitzed between my classes [Name Redacted], Tallahassee, FL Apr 19, 2017 Triple dippers man... [Name Redacted], Weston, FL Apr 19, 2017 Don't you dare take Chili's away [Name Redacted], Jacksonville, FL Apr 19, 2017 Chili’s not only helped students get blitzed between classes, but also fueled the winning years of Jimbo Fisher’s FSU career: Fisher was 78-17 with one national title in the 7 years Chili’s was on campus. After Chili’s closed? Fisher is 5-6 with constant tracking of all aircraft with any tenuous connection to Texas A&M University. Jimbo Fisher missed the 2 for 1 Margarita’s. Without the pungent combination of watered down sour mix and well tequila, the magic ran out in Tallahassee. Fisher is now running out of Tallahassee, following the scent of Margarita filled Tex-Mex establishments all the way to College Station. Unfortunately for Fisher and Texas A&M fans, there is no Chili’s on campus. |
In recent weeks, a Townhall.com article from June 2014 has resurfaced. I read the article based on its title—5 Truths You’re Not Allowed To Say About Gays In America—and have decided to give it a once-over here on the blog. While the article is now twenty months old, many of the themes it covers are very much at the forefront of current debates over LGBTQ rights. Further, the article’s entire approach seems to me emblematic of hew rhetorics opponents of gay rights have used in recent years. These rhetorics are an attempt at a “softer, gentler” approach to opposing gay rights—an approach that fails miserably but must be addressed if only to be thoroughly refuted. The author, John Hawkins, begins his article as follows: It’s hard to have an honest conversation about gay issues because liberals treat anything other than outright celebration of all things gay as “hate.” That doesn’t leave people much room to discuss a complicated issue that involves real human beings who often have to deal with a lot of challenges because of their sexual orientation. How sad for Hawkins that saying bigoted things about gay people is no longer socially acceptable! How hard it must be to be anti-gay in this day and age! I mean only three decades ago you could print stuff like this with a straight face, and today you can’t even equate gay people with pedophiles without people getting all upset! Now, watch how different this rhetoric is: If you’re a compassionate person, you have to feel some sympathy when you talk to people who are closeted because they’re afraid that their relatives won’t accept them or someone who feels isolated and alone because his sexual orientation makes it impossible for him to have a romantic relationship with 98% of the population. Life is hard for most of us — and if you know people who are gay, chances are you recognize that it’s even harder for them. Yet and still, you can’t deny reality because there may be a few people who don’t want to hear it. Sure, you don’t want to unnecessarily create pain in people’s lives, but ultimately, nothing creates more misery than abandoning common sense because the obvious truth might hurt someone’s feelings. This is what bigotry looks like in the mid-2010s. It’s couched in love, and even in compassion, but beyond that veneer it’s comprised of the same arguments and same concerns that have been rehashed for decades—the claim that being gay is a choice, that converting people back to being straight is a worthy goal, that gay people have lives that are less fulfilling, and that gay people are a threat to children. It’s not the content that has changed, it’s the packaging—and that distinction matters. And now let’s get into the meat of the post: 1) You can’t change your gender: Have you ever heard of Body Integrity Identity Disorder? Long story short, there are people out there who believe they’re “supposed to” have less limbs. Maybe they want to get rid of an arm or a leg. The “problem” these people run into is that surgeons consider it unethical to remove a healthy, functioning body part and refuse to saw off their limbs. Instead, they just refer these people to a psychologist. That seems to make sense, doesn’t it? Yet, when we have people who want to mutilate themselves to “change their sex,” we don’t treat that as a mental disorder. Instead, we take it seriously. So seriously in fact, we have 9 year olds getting hormone treatments so they can pretend to be another gender. If a client went to a doctor and said he thought he was a cow, we wouldn’t send him to a surgeon to get horns and udders attached. Yet, you can no more change your sex than you can change into a cow. Even if you have a “sex change,” your sex hasn’t actually changed. A man who mutilates himself to look like a woman, still isn’t female. He can’t have a child. Very few men are going to knowingly date a man who’s surgically mutilated himself to look like a woman. This is a terrible, horrible thing we’re doing as a society to these mentally ill people. Instead of getting them the mental help they need, we’re catering to their pathology. It’s cruel, it’s wrong, and a more compassionate society wouldn’t wallow so deeply in political correctness that we’d allow people to do this to themselves. Note that bigots are still bigots, they just start their posts with platitudes to how difficult it must be to be a closeted gay person, how hard life must be for them. Without, you know, the circumspection to realize that they are the reason there are closeted gay people. And frankly, that may be the most frustrating part of this. This entire section on trans people drips of an unfamiliarity with the issues that is likely born of life in an echo chamber. Look, we know that 40% of transgender people attempt suicide. We also know that transition decreases this number—by a lot. We know that transition decreases dysphoria and improves mental health, but Hawkins throws all of this away by insisting that “you can’t change your gender” and that the compassionate thing to do—somehow—is to tell trans people they’re mentally ill and need “help.” And just what does this help look like, one wonders. Perhaps it looks something like gay conversion therapy? The sad thing is that Hawkins probably thinks he is actually being compassionate. What about the nine-year-old girl Hawkins mentions? I followed the link he offered and I used this thing called google, and guess what? The child in question isn’t scheduled to start hormone therapy until she’s 15, and won’t have gender reassignment surgery until she’s 18. Yes, she’s starting hormone blockers at age 9. But you know what? There is a big difference between hormone blockers (which temporarily suppress puberty by preventing the release of testosterone or estrogen) and hormone therapy (which involves taking cross-gender hormones, i.e. testosterone or estrogen). But you know what? The internet is full of articles on conservative news sites stating that the nine-year-old in question was starting hormone therapy when in fact the video they linked to as proof stated that she was starting hormone blockers. Nice fact checking there—and again with the echo chamber. And now the next point: 2) Some people do choose to be gay: Most Americans tend to believe that people who are gay either choose it OR are born that way. However, the evidence suggests that there tends to more of a range of sexual behavior for people who are gay. Some people are clearly “born” gay and have always been attracted to the same sex just like most heterosexuals are only interested in contact with the opposite sex. However, there are also people who are more sexually ambiguous and some of them CHOOSE to be gay. It appears that Hawkins has never heard the term “bisexual. The bi-erasure here is perhaps the most extreme I have ever seen. And it’s not over. If you want to see an actual example of that, here’s an excerpt of an interview I did with lesbian talk show host, Tammy Bruce. John Hawkins: Let me ask a related question to this because I thought this was kind of fascinating because it’s so different from what you often hear. In the book, you were talking about how you came to decide that you wanted to be a lesbian and you pretty much framed it in those terms. It was a choice. You were attracted to men and women and you chose to — you just liked women better — would you say that’s common or…. Tammy Bruce: Well, it’s difficult to say because it’s so politically incorrect to ask these questions. It’s one of the reasons why ‘ and I’ve made that discussion in the epilogue ‘ so that…parents (could allow) their children (to read) at their discretion. …There is such a variety, at least within the community itself, …about why women identify as lesbians, but even what that means. There are a number of women who identify as lesbians, some of them, somewhat well-known, have regular liaisons with men. …There are some women in the community that you could get to know…who’ve experienced violence at the hands of men and have turned to women for that reason. There are other women who say that they’ve been gay since they’ve been born and that, of course, is also politically incorrect to question or to ask them how or why they know that. All of this, and still no acknowledgement that bisexual people exist. Hawkins even mentions a woman who was “attracted to men and women” and yet still he can’t get wrap his head around the existence of bisexual people. It sounds like Hawkins’ real beef here is with whom who are sexually attracted to both men and women choosing to identify as lesbians rather than as bisexual—or at least, I’d think that was his beef if I actually thought he knew bisexuality was a thing. But then, Hawkins isn’t the only one to use the existence of bisexuality as a supposed “proof” that gay people can change, when in fact that it is nothing of the sort. Again I’m sensing the echo chamber, and again I get the feeling that Hawkins actually thinks he’s making a big reveal here—and in the process being more truthful and compassionate than those on the other side of the issue. If that doesn’t convince you, then ask yourself why so many “gay” Americans end up with kids? In the US, around 37% of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people have a child, about 60% of which are biological. In other words, there are a lot of “gay” Americans having enough straight sex at some point in their lives to produce a kid. Again, it’s clear that there are also people who are “born that way,” but there are an awful lot of gay Americans who don’t fall into that category. First, I have a lesbian friend who has a biological son conceived via sperm donor. She came out as a lesbian in college and has never had sex with a man, and yet she fits within Hawkins’ percentages above. But second, is Hawkins aware that many gay people enter straight marriages in the vain hope that it will “cure” them, have biological children, and then realize they can’t live a lie? And third, once again, what about bisexual people? Hawkins seems to be lumping them in with gay and lesbian individuals, but their having children with members of the opposite sex presents no contradiction to their sexual orientation. But let’s humor Hawkins for a moment. Let’s imagine that people do choose to be gay. Let’s imagine, in fact, that anyone can choose whether to be straight, bisexual, gay/lesbian, and so on. Why, in this hypothetical world, would we insist that everyone choose to be straight? Why not let people choose their own sexual orientation and leave it at that? What possible reason can there be for deciding other people’s sexual orientation for them? This is a point where we can push “compassionate” bigots, forcing them to reveal the raw bigotry undergirding their positions. 3) Conversion therapy is a good thing if people want it: Let me say it as clearly as I can: No gay American should be pressured, harassed or involuntarily forced to go to therapy to try to treat their gayness. That sounds more like brainwashing than therapy and it’s not something that should be going on in this country. On the other hand, if someone who’s gay WANTS to be treated, why should he be stopped from seeing a therapist? Granted, it would probably be futile for someone who has been attracted to the same sex since birth to try to change his orientation via counseling, but as we’ve already noted, not everyone is in that boat. There are plenty of “gay” Americans who also feel some attraction to the opposite sex. What’s wrong with letting them get therapy if they want it and think it will make them happier? As a psychology major, I can tell you that I’ve read numerous old psychology books that matter-of-factly mention therapists successfully treating homosexual patients who then went on to date, marry, and have children. Does that mean it worked for every patient? Of course, not. No treatment works for everyone. But, would it work for some people who want treatment? Apparently, it does. So, why should this even be a political issue? Because it makes some gay people who don’t believe they can change or don’t want to change uncomfortable? Because it might mean they have to tell some hopeful relative that, no, that therapy isn’t for them? That’s certainly not a conversation anyone would want to have, but it’s morally wrong to deny therapy to people who might benefit from it because it makes other people uncomfortable. Look, no one is talking about banning a consenting adult from talking to another consenting adult. If you want to go talk to someone you call a “therapist” about how to stop your same-sex attractions, fine. It’s a free country. What we’re talking about are two things, really—first, gay conversion therapy for minors, which is inherently coercive, and second, whether therapists can offer a discredited form of junk therapy as therapy and retain their licenses. This sort of elision—acting as though banning conversion therapy for minors is somehow the same thing as banning consenting adults speaking with other consensual adults about their sexuality—is common in these sorts of conversations—and is something we can call out. And notice, again, the bi-erasure. Hawkins mentions “old psychology books” that speak “matter-of-factly” about successful conversions of gay individuals to straight lifestyles. Look, Exodus International, a ministry that set out to “cure” gay people, folded a few years ago because it didn’t work. Can bisexual people choose to settle down with someone of the opposite sex? Absolutely! But people with only same-sex attractions can’t be “cured”—something even Hawkins admits. But you know what? Bisexual people who settle down with someone of the opposite sex are not cured gay people. In fact, they are still bisexual people. 4) Gay bullies have become commonplace in America: The biggest jerks you will ever run across are people who feel entitled to act like creeps because they believe they’re victims. A lot of gay Americans have had bad experiences with people who’ve treated them poorly because they’re gay. It’s unfair, it’s wrong, and it’s something that shouldn’t happen. Unfortunately, a small subset of gay, liberal Americans wear their victimhood as a badge and believe it entitles them to oppress people who haven’t hurt them in any way. The whole idea that an unwilling Christian baker or photographer should be forced to bake a cake or take pictures at a gay wedding is fascistic. It’s similarly despicable to try to get people fired for opposing gay marriage. The people doing these things aren’t victims or crusading for civil rights; they’re just run-of-the-mill ***holes who happen to be waving a rainbow flag. Ohhhh this is such a perfect moment for this video! Looking carefully, though, this doesn’t appear to actually be what Hawkins is getting at here. His actual argument appears to be not that gay people can be assholes just like anyone else but hater that if you’re a gay person and you expect businesses to serve you the same way they would anyone else, you’re a fascistic jerk. This seems to be the main thrust of Hawkins’ argument here—that gay people who don’t want to be discriminated against are assholes. That leaves me curious. Were black people who didn’t want to be discriminated against assholes too? Why is it an asshole thing to expect to be served like anyone else, but not an asshole thing to deny service based on someone’s sexual orientation? Someone’s priorities seem slightly askew. Hawkins says it’s “despicable” to try to get someone fired for being against marriage equality while seemingly unaware that we live in a nation where, in many areas of the country, people are actually be fired simply for being gay. In fact, we live in a country where an increasing number of Christian colleges are demanding the right to actively discriminate against LGBTQ students while receiving federal funds—and getting this right, too. But Hawkins is concerned that someone might be fired for being a bigot? Okay then. Those priorities are interesting, to say the least—but they’re also something that can be called out. 5) Gay scoutmasters would be more likely to molest Boy Scouts: There’s a lot of back and forth on whether gay men are more likely to be pedophiles than heterosexuals, but in the end, it really doesn’t matter very much when it comes to the Scouts. Why is that? Because a teenager in the Boy Scouts shouldn’t be spending a lot of alone time out in the woods with someone who could potentially be attracted to him. This is so basic we don’t even think about it when teen girls are involved. If a thirty year old, strapping male P.E. teacher took a group of 15 year old cheerleaders out in the woods, their parents would GO INSANE. Incidentally, they’d be right to be upset. Similarly, a gay man has no business being in the woods with a bunch of teenage boys. In fact, if the Boy Scouts ever allowed gay Scoutmasters in their organization, it would kill them as dead as Disco because most parents don’t want their child spending a lot of alone time with an adult who could be sexually attracted to him. In fact, that is so obvious it’s clear that the people pushing this idea the hardest are primarily concerned with destroying the Boy Scouts, not enabling “gay rights.” No man of any sexual orientation has any business taking a group of teenage boys into the woods alone. Look, my daughter is in Girl Scouts. She’s a Daisy Scout, and is in a troop with half a dozen other kindergarten and first graders. They meet after school. A couple of weeks ago her troop leader was going to be half an hour late to one of their meetings, and I was tapped to step in and help out even though the other leader could have easily handled half a dozen girls for half an hour. I was asked to come in because they have a rule that you always have to have two adults. Not one, two. This two-adult policy is considered best practices for protecting children against sexual abuse in clubs and groups that involve children. If Boy Scouts doesn’t have a policy like this, they desperately need to adopt one. After all, without accountability measures in place, what’s to prevent a Jerry Sandusky—who was straight-married, by the way—from becoming a troop leader and sexually abusing the boys in his care? Oh wait, google to the rescue! It turns out Boy Scouts does have this policy! It’s listed under “Scouting’s Barriers to Abuse“: Two-deep leadership on all outings required. A minimum of two registered adult leaders, or one registered leader and a participating Scout’s parent, or another adult is required for all trips and outings. One of these adults must be 21 years of age or older. And actually, they have a whole list of prevention measures, including things like this: No youth may share a tent with an adult or a person of the opposite sex other than a family member, guardian, or authorized nonrelative adult. Assigning youth members more than two years apart in age to sleep in the same tent should be avoided unless the youth are relatives. Maybe if we spent more time putting policies in place to prevent sexual abuse and less time portraying gay people as the threat, our children would be safer. Actually, scratch that maybe, because there’s no maybe about it. A focus on gay men—or trans women—as inherently a threat gets in the way of our ability to recognize actual threats. It’s one of the reasons churches so frequently overlook abuse—if someone pulls off a good godly image, they’re given a free pass, and no one sees any reason to create policies that focus on accountability and abuse prevention. It’s the image of the gay man as a threat that is the actual threat to our children, not the gay man. Also? Boy Scouts now allows for gay scoutmasters (though it leaves that decision up to the individual troop), and as far as I can see nothing has imploded. But what really struck me upon reading Hawkins’ article were his desperate attempts to portray himself as not at all anti-gay. Not at all! Hawkins began his article by expressing concern for how difficult it must be to be a closeted gay person, or an out gay person looking for a partner (these are apparently hard to find), and then he went on to argue that being gay is frequently a choice, that gay conversion therapy should be defended, that gay people who expect to not be discriminated against are bullies, and that it would be totes dangerous to allow gay people to be Boy Scout scoutmasters. NOPE. There is so much noping going on over here right now. Still, this is the direction in which anti-gay rhetoric appears to be going. It’s the world of people who totally don’t hate gay people, but you know, children just need a mother and a father. It’s an expression of concern and compassion that masks a “just the facts” bigotry no less painful for its deceptive sugar coating. It’s a world where Focus on the Family can publish a resource titled “Responding in Love to an Adult Gay Child” that encourages parents to state their “concerns about the morality, health risks and potential dangers involved with the gay lifestyle.” It’s the future of anti-gay bigotry. |
Excerpt of the book “Let’s Take Back our Space”: ‘Female’ and ‘Male’ Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures by Marianne Wex (Frauenliteraturverlag Hermine Fees, 1979). Regular readers of the Funambulist will have probably noticed the recent recurrence of articles dedicated to questions of body. This finds an explanation in the nature of my current research for an upcoming book that French publisher D-Fiction was kind enough to propose as a project. This book will explore the political relationships a body develops with design (more on that soon). For once, this article will be more graphic than discursive since the visual power unfolded by German artist Marianne Wex‘s 1979 book, “Let’s Take Back our Space”: ‘Female’ and ‘Male’ Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures, speaks for itself. I also recommend reading Andi Zeisler’s 2012 article for Bitch Magazine about Wex’s work. In the late 1970s, Wex took more than 6,000 photographs of bodies in the street and established an inventory based on the context in which the photographs have been taken and dividing men from women on each side of a virtual line that cuts the totality of the book into two parts. The contrast between genders is graphically striking between the comfortable positions of the male body that clearly attempts to occupy as much space as it is physically possible, while female bodies, on the contrary, — particularly in the presence of male counterparts as Wex points out — adopt positions that minimizes their occupation. Understood in the logic of a unique occupation for each body that exists (the scheme of the radical-necessity of occupying one and only space at a given moment, and that this space can be occupied only by one body at a time), Wex’s photographs provides us with a clear demonstration that the male body adopts a colonial attitude in the optimization of the space it can physically occupy — and therefore prevents another body to occupy it too — whereas the female body adopts a self-restraining attitude in its reduction to the minimum of space that it can physically occupy. In terms of visibility, and if we go back to the image of the body as a topological surface (see past article), we can also say that the female bodies on these numerous photographs present a surface folded in such a way that minimizes its appearance, while male bodies, on the contrary expands this surface in a maximization of the visible area — Wex notes that the only time she saw an iconography with female bodies adopting the same positions, it was always addressed to a male audience and a sexual objectification of the female body. A brief look at these recent photographs in Swedish collective transportation (referred in Zeisler’s article) is enough to understand it. As the title of this book implies, Wex attributes such a dichotomy of body language to Western societies’ patriarchal structures that captures a body and places it within normative processes early on in life. The second part of the book is shared between an experimentation that consists in asking female and male bodies to adopt successively the archetypical female and male positions observed in the first part, and a historical-anthropological study of sculptures of ancient civilizations (Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Medieval European) in order to attempt to distinguish similar gendered patterns in past patriarchal cultures. All following images are excerpt of the book “Let’s Take Back our Space”: ‘Female’ and ‘Male’ Body Language as a Result of Patriarchal Structures by Marianne Wex (Frauenliteraturverlag Hermine Fees, 1979). PART 1: Inventory PART 2: Experimentation PART 2: Historical-Anthropological Study |
Like it? Share it! Thanks! According to Rivals.com, Alabama has offered a scholarship to a four star power forward from Saginaw, Mich. named Jordan Hare. Would Bama fans have a problem with it if he accepted? Who knows. But we think it’s safe to say that Auburn basketball fans would not give a damn right now were we to be recruiting a four star named Bryant Denny. Actually, we might. But a football player named Coleman Coliseum would probably be OK. [ HT @epzilla ] … Keep Reading: * Gabe Wright calls out Nick Fairley with “Nick Who?” hat * An Open Letter to the 2011 Auburn Recruiting Class * Josh Bynes terrifies young children at Mobile Auburn Club fundraiser * Former Auburn cheerleader competing in new season of ‘Survivor’ * Three-hour delay turns flight to Phoenix into Auburn pep rally * ‘Cammy Koozie’s’ fund family’s trip to Glendale * An interview with Auburn YouTube sensation Chris Lowe * “Alabama Polytechnic is the best…” for Eugene Sledge in HBO’s The Pacific * The Ron Swanson Pyramid of Auburn * The Auburn plaque in 1984′s Tank Follow us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. |
Last night, as polls were closing during the Illinois primary, the official Senator Bernie Sanders for president Twitter account tweeted a blurry photo that constituted a direct, if fair, attack at Secretary Hillary Clinton. The tweet just reads, “Seen in Chicago.” The photo is of a fake campaign bumper sticker for a nonexistent campaign between Clinton and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who was previously a close adviser to President Bill Clinton and the 23rd White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama. It’s quite a dig: Emanuel, as Chicago mayor, has not just been incredibly disliked but appears to have also worked to cover up the police shooting of unarmed black teenager Laquan McDonald. The footage leaked, as footage always does, showing police shoot the 17-year-old 16 times as he slowly turned around and tried to retreat. Emanuel’s unpopularity—just a 27 percent approval rating, according to the Chicago Tribune—made both Sanders and Clinton turn their Chicago campaigning into Emanuel feinting. Clinton distanced herself from Emanuel after the McDonald footage surfaced, in such a pointed way that it looked like a snub: She didn’t see him at all on her latest campaign visit to Chicago, strategically keeping her connections with him, whatever they are, as opaque as possible. Sanders, by contrast, tried to make the primary a referendum on Chicago’s mayor, proudly announcing that Emanuel had not endorsed him. Advertisement: Hence that tweet, with that particular sticker in the photo, tying together Clinton and Emanuel in the most politically intimate way possible. Sanders’ rhetoric has “increasingly sharpened” in the last few weeks, as he’s gotten personal and negative while campaigning in Chicago in a way that he had specifically pledged not to just weeks prior. The tweet stands out in a way little else on his campaign feed does. There are only two other previous Rahm Emanuel attacks on his Twitter account, and they are about teachers, banks, and that oft-repeated non-endorsement line. It’s a gloves-come-off moment; a streak of nastiness in what has otherwise been an impeccably civil campaign, barring a few missteps. Even the way that photo got tweeted is a bit unsavory: The photo was taken by Chicago Tribune writer Alison Bowen, who tweeted that she was not consulted or credited when the Sanders campaign decided to claim it. And it is the clearest self-indictment of the Sanders campaign, one that is in major trouble today after a four-state loss against Hillary Clinton, who also won a slim majority of votes in Missouri even as Sanders took more delegates. Last week, an unexpected win in Michigan proved that Bernie Sanders still had momentum. This week, it’s much harder to make that case. Sanders had the best possible shot in Chicago, a city full of young people, progressive ideals, and Democratic organizing; it is no coincidence that Donald Trump’s now-infamous shuttered rally was shut down there, courtesy of the city’s organized progressive grassroots resistance. Those protestors claimed allegiance to Sanders. As it happens, whatever appeal Sanders had in Chicago wasn’t enough appeal. But in the final hours of plausible Illinois victory, it appears that the Sanders campaign was willing to stick it to Hillary’s campaign however they could, with whatever last-ditch desperate measures they could find. In doing so, it compromised on its beliefs for the sake of practical gains—which is literally the entire thrust of its argument against Hillary Clinton, the summation of Sanders’ repeated calls for a political revolution. And his supporters’, too: Where Sanders’ name, at a Clinton rally, will get polite, forbearing applause, Clinton’s at a Sanders rally gets jeers and boos. Clinton is paving the way for eventual reconciliation with a political partner. Sanders is sowing a resentment that could have devastating general electorate consequences. I’ve no issue with Sanders’ ideology, or even with his campaign's tactics. I do realize that this is just a tweet. Getting things done, in politics, is usually a dirty game; the presidency is not a position of outside agitation, it is the center of the establishment. It appears that Sanders has finally begun to embrace that. |
Despite a difficult campaign, the conditions are right for the talented goalkeeper to leave Ligue 1 and take the step up to the English top flight LLORIS' LYON YEARS | LIGUE 1 PERFORMANCE *Source: Ligue de Football Professionnel Season Games Conceded Saves Booked Sent off 2008-2009 35 27 119 1 0 2009-2010 36 33 155 1 0 2010-2011 37 40 143 0 0 2011-2012 36 48 146 0 1 Total 144 148 563 2 1 Follow Robin Bairner on By Robin Bairner | French Football EditorOlympique Lyonnais are set to suffer another major blow to their credibility as one of France's outstanding forces as goalkeeper Hugo Lloris prepares to leave the club this summer, with a number of suitors harbouring hopes of securing his signature.The 25-year-old has been linked with Arsenal, but it would appear Tottenham are in pole position to sign the talented goalkeeper, who has finally decided that it is time to move on from Ligue 1 after seven years in the division."Lloris told me that he would like to leave if he has an opportunity to play for one of the five biggest European sides," Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas recently lamented to the club's official website, having seen off previous interest from the likes of Manchester United last summer.Spurs do not fall into the 'top five' echelon, but they are sufficiently strong to tempt the goalkeeper away from faltering Lyon for his first spell abroad, although they have yet to meet his current club's asking price of €20 million.Lloris' big move away should end a difficult period in his career. Over the last 12 months, the goalkeeper has turned out for club and country a total of 62 times, but found himself rather unjustly criticised in both roles.Lyon are not the force they once were in domestic football. Aulas is in the midst of a long-term restructuring of the club, attempting to shift the focus away from big-money signings and back to youth due to a worsening financial position. Long gone are the glory days of Florent Malouda, Sonny Anderson and Juninho.OL might have been ranked third behind Sochaux and Rennes for the strength of their academy recently, yet the budget cuts have inevitably made for a weaker first XI.Lloris has been the main victim, left hopelessly over-exposed by a fragile defence over the course of the previous campaign. In league football, he was beaten 51 times as Les Gones finished fourth, a tally unheard of since the Rhone club conceded on 77 occasions as they were relegated from the top flight in 1982-83.An even more damning statistic is that every other regular Ligue 1 goalkeeper last season, including those of the relegated sides, kept more clean sheets than the France No.1.Given this backdrop, he admitted it was a "great vote of confidence" from erstwhile national team coach Laurent Blanc that he was given the captaincy for Euro 2012. It was a controversial move in any case. Not only is goalkeeper Lloris far removed from the thick of the action, he is considered to be a rather introverted character.Spontaneous bursts of passion have been shown from the custodian in the past, most notably when his OL side incredibly lost a 2-0 lead against Nice in second-half stoppage time. The goalkeeper was caught on camera as he turned the air blue, attacking Aly Cissokho's lack of passion in particular."You did not respect this shirt. We were scared s***less, and we're fed up with it," he exploded.Lloris could not unite France this summer, though, and fingers were pointed at him for showing a lack of leadership. Les Bleus disintegrated, and a lack of respect for their on-field general was evident, with Jeremy Menez said to have told the shot-stopper "Go and f*** yourself," during the 2-0 quarter-final defeat against Spain.Lloris should not be judged on such issues. He has long established himself as a goalkeeper of the highest standard, and he should not be held to account for his failure to be a natural leader.Hailing from a privileged background, he was an outstanding young tennis player, but elected to focus on football, breaking into the senior side of his hometown club, Nice, for the first time as a 19-year-old. Having worked his way through the grades at international level, much was expected of the youngster, and he would shine despite a heavy burden of expectation.In the summer of 2008, he was ready for his first big move. AC Milan were considered to be favourites for his signature, while Tottenham already had an interest, but it was Lyon who successfully moved to sign the prodigy, investing €8.5m in the player.It has been the failure to excel of many of OL's big-money moves around this time that has triggered their present-day cut backs. While the likes of Jean Makoun and John Mensah, who cost over €20m combined, flopped spectacularly, Lloris proved more than a sound acquisition.Blessed with great reflexes and agility, the goalkeeper grew in confidence quickly at Stade Gerland. He may be a typically quiet character away from the field, but on it he is competitive and self-assured, and this was a vital asset to succeeding so quickly with France's dominant force at the time.A lack of handling ability from crosses has been cited in the past as a weakness, but this is a fallacy. Lloris is flawed coming for centres, but this is due to his decision making rather than his catching. At times he can gamble too much, attempting to gather crosses that are not his to be taken, yet behind imposing centre-backs this is not nearly such an issue.In his career plan, a switch to Tottenham probably was not on his agenda at the age of 25, but it is testament to the fresh draw of Spurs (as well as the fall of Lyon) that they can now move for such a talent. Few goalkeepers in Europe have the spectacular abilities of Lloris, who still has much time to move to one of the continent's most storied clubs. He would prove a wise long-term investment for the London side. |
× Help center to open in Hartford for families displaced by hurricanes HARTFORD — Families from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands who’ve been displaced by the recent hurricanes will soon be able to find free assistance in Hartford. The new Help Center for Our Caribbean Friends is scheduled to open on Nov. 1. The Capitol Region Education Council has donated space for the hurricane relief center, located at the former Two Rivers High School at 15 Van Dyke Avenue. Displaced families and children relocating to the Hartford area will have access social services, job search assistance, educational resources, transportation and supplies. Organizers say the goal is to help people start their news lives in Connecticut as quickly as possible. The center will initially be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
Seddique Mateen says of his attendance ‘it’s a Democratic party, so everyone can join’ as Clinton campaign states he was not invited as a guest The father of the man who killed 49 people in a gay Orlando nightclub in June has endorsed Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, appearing behind Clinton at a rally in Kissimmee, Florida, last night. “Hillary Clinton is good for United States versus Donald Trump, who has no solutions,” Seddique Mateen, father of deceased shooter Omar Mateen, told WPTV. Of his attendance at the rally, Mateen said: “It’s a Democratic party, so everyone can join.” The Clinton campaign has issued a short statement stating that Mateen was not invited to the Kissimmee event, despite his proximity to the candidate. “The rally was a 3,000-person, open-door event for the public,” the campaign said. “This individual wasn’t invited as a guest and the campaign was unaware of his attendance until after the event.” Clinton began the rally in Kissimmee by paying tribute to those killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting in June. “I know how many people, families, loved ones and friends are still grieving, and we will be with you as you rebuild your lives,” Clinton said. |
Arsene Wenger believes Tuesday’s clash with Monaco gives Arsenal an opportunity to fix their first-leg mistakes. The Gunners were trailing 2-0 in the Champions League last 16 before Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain pulled one back, but Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco struck minutes later to restore Monaco’s two-goal advantage. It was a disappointing night at Emirates Stadium but Wenger insists Arsenal have learnt their lessons ahead of the second leg. "In football, you get the chance to come back, so let’s just give everything to do it" Arsene Wenger “We knew that we were impatient, threw ourselves forward too much and that we lost our composure,” he said. “We got it wrong in the first game. What you want in life is the chance to put it right. We have the opportunity to put it right and after, no matter what, we will be ready to give everything to do it. “We are in a position where today Monaco is favourite. We can go there and create something special. I believe that we will have the desire to do it and give absolutely everything to do it. “I’d prefer to be 3-0 up but we have no choice. We have to put it right. Sometimes in life, you make a big mistake, and there’s no comeback, no way you get the chance to put it right again. In football, you can do it, so let’s just give everything to do it.” |
US stocks began quietly but picked up momentum as the day progressed (AFP Photo/Daniel Sorabji) New York (AFP) - Wall Street investors were back in rally mode Tuesday, pushing the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to new records and lifting the dollar against the euro on renewed optimism about US President Donald Trump's policies. The buoyant spirt, which also lifted the Dow back to within striking distance of the 20,000-point milestone, came on a muted day for other leading markets. The London bourse was flat and the pound was pressured after a British court ruled that Britain's government must win parliament's approval before beginning formal Brexit negotiations. US stocks began quietly but picked up momentum as the day progressed. Trump met with leading US automakers and took action to advance two major pipeline projects that had been blocked by former president Barack Obama. Meanwhile, House speaker Paul Ryan signaled support for public works spending, telling reporters he wants an infrastructure package "as expansive as possible." The gains were more in line with the market's bullishness in the six weeks after election, in contrast to recent weeks when US stocks have stagnated. Analysts were generally wary of Trump's inauguration address, which emphasized an "America First" agenda and revived fears of trade protectionism, backed up by his first executive orders Monday. Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank said until now it seemed like backing away from trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership "were the big priorities and investors were sort of disappointed with that." "Investors finally got a lot of what they were looking for," he said. Meanwhile the pound slipped after the UK Supreme Court's verdict requiring legislative approval for Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan. However, analysts said the move was probably not a significant obstacle to May. By 2200 GMT, the pound was back to flat against the US dollar. Stock markets in Paris and Frankfurt posted modest gains, but the Nikkei dropped 0.6 percent on worries about US protectionism. Among individual stocks, TransCanada, backer of the Keystone XL pipeline, and Energy Transfer, the driving force of the Dakota Access Pipeline, each rose about 3.5 percent after Trump signed executive orders to paved the way for both projects. DuPont and Dow each gained about 4.5 percent as DuPont reported better-than-expected earnings and pushed back the time-frame for completing a merger of the chemical giants. DuPont executives told analysts they were working with regulators on a divestiture package to win approval for the deal. Verizon slumped 4.4 percent after it reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and said it was pushing back the target date for its $4.8 billion acquisition of core Yahoo assets following a pair of large data hack breach disclosures by Yahoo. In London, shares in EasyJet slumped nearly nine percent after the no-frills airline said it expects full-year profits to suffer a bigger-than-expected hit from a soft pound. British telecom and TV group BT plunged 20 percent after the company warned that its profits would take a much larger hit than expected from accounting irregularities in Italy. - Key figures near 2200 GMT - New York - Dow: UP 0.6 percent at 19,912.71 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.7 percent at 2,280.07 (close) New York - Nasday: UP 0.8 percent at 5,600.96 (close) London - FTSE 100: DOWN less than 0.1 percent at 7,150.34 (close) Frankfurt - DAX 30: UP 0.4 percent at 11,594.94 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.2 percent at 4,830.03 (close) EURO STOXX 50: UP 0.2 percent at 3,279.45 Tokyo - Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 18,787.99 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.2 percent at 3,142.55 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng: UP 0.2 percent at 22,949.86 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0732 from $1.0761 Pound/dollar: FLAT at $1.2521 Dollar/yen: UP at 113.81 yen from 112.84 yen Oil - West Texas Intermediate: UP 43 cents at $53.18 per barrel Oil - Brent North Sea: UP 57 cents at $55.44 per barrel |
Use and Storage of Peroxide-Forming Solvents The solvents most commonly used in the laboratory solvents, such as diethyl ether, tetrahydrofuran, cyclohexene, glycol ethers, decalin and 2-propanol are shown in Group B of the previous section. These compounds produce organic peroxides that are significantly less volatile than the solvent in which they are formed, as a result, evaporative concentration or distillation can produce dangerous levels of peroxides. In fact, most Group B solvents are sufficiently volatile that multiple openings of a single container can result in significant and dangerous peroxide concentration. The next section contains a list of key aspects to consider when handling peroxide-forming solvents. General Handling Considerations for Peroxidizeable Solvents: All peroxide-forming solvents should be checked for the presence of any peroxides prior to distillation or evaporation. Solvents containing low levels of free radical scavengers such as BHT should be used whenever the presence of the stabilizing species does not interfere with intended application. Uninhibited materials should be stored with care and frequently checked for peroxide formation. Peroxide-forming solvents should be purchased in limited quantities and older material in inventory should be preferentially selected for use. Materials should be stored away from light and heat with tightly secured caps and labeled with dates of receipt and opening. Periodic testing to detect peroxides should be performed and recorded on previously opened material. For more information, it is recommended that the reader review the articles referenced below by Kelly2 and/or Clark3 Peroxide Detection A variety of methods are available to test for the presence of peroxides in organic solvents with the two most common tests described below. At present, 100 ppm is widely used as a general control point with respect to minimum hazardous peroxide concentration in a solvent, however, this value lacks scientific validation and is likely too liberal or conservative depending on the solvent in question and intended application.2 If there are visible crystals, visible precipitate or an oily viscous layer present in the material, these are visual indicators of dangerous high peroxide levels, immediately contact your company's EH&S (Environmental, Health and Safety) department or its equivalent, to manage this hazardous situation and to dispose of this material. Quantofix® Peroxide Test Strips (Product Nos. Z249254 and Z101680) In the presence of hydrogen peroxide the test paper turns blue. Quantofix® Peroxide test sticks can also be used for the determination of peracetic acid and other organic and inorganic hydroperoxides. To test for hydroperoxides in organic solvents, the test zone is wetted with one drop of water after evaporation of the solvent. Interferences: In the pH range of 2-9, the accuracy of the determination is independent of the pH of the test solution. Buffer strongly acidic solutions with sodium acetate and adjust alkaline solutions to about pH 5-7 with citric acid. Falsely positive results can only be caused by strong oxidizing agents. Storage: Avoid exposing the sticks to sunlight and moisture. Store unopened packs in refrigerator (+2 °C to +8 °C). Opened packs: store container in a cool and dry place. Potassium Iodide Indicator Add 0.5-1.0 ml of the sample solvent to an equal volume of glacial acetic acid containing about 0.1 g of sodium iodide or potassium iodide crystals. A yellow color indicates iodine formation via iodide oxidation by sample peroxide; a brown color indicates high concentration. A blank determination should be made particularly when color development is faint since iodide/acetic acid mixtures will, over time, turn a yellow - brown color due to air oxidation. A more sensitive variation of the above method adds one drop of a saturated, aqueous starch solution to the sample solution. Starch and iodine combine to form a bright blue complex that is more easily visualized than the yellow color generated by iodine alone. Dark blue solution color would be indicative of high peroxide concentrations. References Jackson, H.L., McCormack, W.B., Rondestvedt, C.S., Smeltz, K.C., and Viele, I.E. Control of Peroxidizable Compounds, J. Chem. Educ., 1970, 46 (3), A175. Kelly, R.J, Review of Safety Guidelines for Peroxidizable Organic Compounds, Chemical Health and Safety, 1996, 3 (5), 28-36. Clark, D.E., Peroxides and Peroxide - Forming Compounds, Chemical Health and Safety, 2001, 8 (5), 12-21. |
Two known NSA assets infiltrated in the Bitcoin community - Gavin Andresen and Mike Hearn - have joined forces to push a hastily concocted privacy nightmare/scamcoin, which they call Bitcoin-XT. It is currently completely irrelevant, owing to an absolute lack of financial, economical, technical or social support. This is a bet that it will stay irrelevant throughout the next twelve months. Therefore : If, at any and all times prior to August 1st, 2016, Bitcoin-XT continues to have no full nodes on the network (half dollar AWS instances & similar don't count) ; or if no two consecutive blocks with a version number equal to 536870919 are mined before August 1st, 2016 ; or if less than 750 blocks with a version number equal to 536870919 are mined before August 1st, 2016 ; or if no contiguous set of one thousand blocks mined prior to August 1st, 2016 contains at least 3/4 blocks with a version number equal to 536870919 ; or if no block with a total size over 1000000 bytes is mined prior to August 1st, 2016 ; or if such a block is mined yet it does not have a version number equal to equal to 536870919 ; or, if after such a block is mined, the difficulty on the Bitcoin-XT alt-chain at any point falls under half the difficulty on the Bitcoin network ; or, if after such a block is mined, the XT-scamcoins trade for more than two to the Bitcoin then this bet resolves as Yes. Otherwise this bet resolves as No. |
Info This is archived material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website. It may contain outdated information and links may no longer function. Twitter Facebook Share FBI Releases 2012 Hate Crime Statistics Washington, D.C. WASHINGTON, DC—According to statistics released today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 5,796 criminal incidents involving 6,718 offenses were reported in 2012 as being motivated by a bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or physical or mental disability. The statistics, published by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program in Hate Crime Statistics, 2012, provide data about the offenses, victims, offenders, and locations of the bias-motivated incidents reported by law enforcement agencies throughout the nation. Due to the unique nature of hate crime, however, the UCR Program does not estimate offenses for the jurisdictions of agencies that do not submit reports. Hate Crime Statistics, 2012, includes the following information: There were 5,790 single-bias incidents. Of these, 48.3 percent were motivated by racial bias, 19.6 percent were motivated by sexual-orientation bias, 19.0 percent were motivated by religious bias, and 11.5 percent were motivated by ethnicity/national origin bias. Bias against disabilities accounted for 1.6 percent of single-bias incidents. There were six multiple-bias hate crime incidents reported in 2012. Of the 3,968 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against persons in 2012, simple assaults accounted for 39.6 percent, intimidation accounted for 37.5 percent, and aggravated assault for 21.5 percent. Ten murders and 15 forcible rapes were reported as hate crimes. There were 2,547 hate crime offenses classified as crimes against property. The majority of these (74.8 percent) were acts of destruction/damage/ vandalism. Robbery, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, and other offenses accounted for the remaining 25.2 percent of crimes against property. Of the 5,331 known offenders, 54.6 percent were white and 23.3 percent were black. The race was unknown for 11.5 percent, and other races accounted for the remaining known offenders. Most hate crime incidents (32.6 percent) occurred in or near homes. Over 18 percent (18.3) occurred on highways, roads, alleys, or streets; 8.3 percent occurred at schools or colleges; 5.7 percent happened at parking or drop lots or garages; and 4.1 percent took place in churches, synagogues, temples, or mosques. The location was considered other or unknown for 12.8 percent of hate crime incidents. The remainder of hate crime incidents took place at other specified or multiple locations. - Hate Crime Statistics, 2012 - Related fbi.gov story Twitter Facebook Share |
During the Democratic presidential debate tonight, Sen. Bernie Sanders said the unemployment rates among black youths is at 51 percent and that Hispanic youth unemployment is at 36 percent. These figures are totally off. The real unemployment figures, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, put unemployment rates at 20.7 percent among black youths and 12.7 among Hispanic youths. Sanders is getting his numbers from the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank with a tendency to do math rather creatively. These inflated unemployment rates only look at minority youths who are not college educated. They also count those who were working part-time as unemployed to arrive at that higher figure. While Sander’s estimate of unemployment rates is hyper-inflated, to say the least, black unemployment rates are still staggeringly higher than overall youth unemployment rate of 12.7 percent. Sanders does have a point that black youths are having a harder time finding work, but to say that half are unemployed is pure fiction. |
Executives from the world’s biggest technology companies including Google, Apple and Twitter have met with President Obama and called on the US to “move aggressively” to reform the National Security Agency’s (NSA) controversial surveillance operations. The heads of 15 companies attended a two-hour meeting with Mr Obama and his vice-president Joe Biden in which they are understood to have to expressed concern that the NSA’s wide-ranging surveillance activities had undermined the trust of their users. “This was an opportunity for the President to hear from CEOs directly as we near completion of our review of signals intelligence programs, building on the feedback we’ve received from the private sector in recent weeks and months,” the White House said in a statement. “The President made clear his belief in an open, free, and innovative internet and listened to the group’s concerns and recommendations, and made clear that we will consider their input as well as the input of other outside stakeholders as we finalise our review of signals intelligence programs.” Join Independent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month Those present at the meeting included newly appointed Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook, Marissa Mayer, the chief executive of Yahoo, and Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman. Senior representatives from Comcast, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Netflix were also present. The move came a day after a federal judge ruled that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the NSA most likely ran counter to the US constitution and labelled the technology “Orwellian”. |
Materials that can clean up the environment and improve efficiency of industrial processes are always in demand. So prospects are promising for a new material that can do this in three ways: it strips sulphur from fuel, removes mercury from polluted water, and separates gases in industrial processes. The material is an aerogel – a gel from which the liquid component has been removed to leave gas-filled voids. Aerogels have the lowest density of any known solid-state material. While typically aerogels are composed of silicon or aluminium oxides, Mercouri Kanatzidis‘s team at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has been experimenting with “chalcogels”. These are aerogels composed of “chalcogenides” such as sulphides and selenides, linked by platinum atoms. Less expensive Now the team has begun investigating the properties of chalcogels in which cobalt or nickel has replaced the far more expensive platinum. The chalcogels are formed by mixing the reactants in a container filled with formamide until a gel forms, then freeze-drying the gel to remove the solvent molecules and allow air molecules to replace them. Advertisement Chalcogels have a huge surface area. This makes them especially suitable for use as catalysts, or to bind molecules in order to remove them from a solution. When Kanatzidis’s team placed a 10-milligram sample of chalcogel into 10 millilitres of mercury-contaminated water, the mercury concentration fell from 755 parts per million to 0.1 ppm within 48 hours. “The explanation is the strong affinity of mercury ions for sulphur atoms,” says Kanatzidis. “Mercury ions entering the chalcogel structure face a surface of sulphur atoms and bind to it strongly.” The team also tested the new gel’s ability to bind to CO 2 or hydrogen gas. At -15 °C and atmospheric pressure, 1 litre of chalcogel can hold 108 litres of CO 2 . At -196 °C – the temperature of liquid nitrogen – the material switched its affinity to hydrogen, with 1 litre of gel holding 155 litres of the gas. Sulphur scrubber Unfortunately, the gels are not suitable for carbon capture and storage or storing hydrogen. Despite their low density “they are too heavy” for these applications, Kanatzidis says. One possible environmentally beneficial application for the new materials is as catalysts to remove sulphur from fossil fuels. Cobalt and nickel-rich catalysts are already known to bind to sulphur in crude oil. This was one reason the team chose these metals to make their new chalcogels. At a typical reaction temperature of 370 °C, the chalcogels performed twice as well as conventional sulphur-removing catalysts. This could be important, as environmental legislation continues to put limits on the sulphur content of fuel, says the team. “These are still preliminary results, and we have not done all the experiments needed to fully assess this,” Kanatzidis says. But compared with existing catalysts, “our results showed 100 per cent improvement”. Journal reference: Nature Chemistry (DOI: 10.1038/nchem.208) |
Chief executives usually have big egos. Ursula Burns, though, is handing bragging rights to the billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn. Ms. Burns, the Xerox chief executive, says Mr. Icahn was not involved in the board’s decision to split the company in two, which was announced on Friday. But he is getting board seats at one offshoot while Ms. Burns, unusually, has not yet grabbed any role in the new structure. Mr. Icahn agitated for the split and revealed a stake in Xerox last November. Ms. Burns told investors the previous month that the board was seriously considering strategic options for the company. Xerox suffers from shrinking sales in its photocopying and printing business, known as document technology, and from a steady decline in its stock price since late 2014. Ms. Burns does have one problem relating to the new plan. Her defining bet in 2009, the same year she took the helm at Xerox, was to buy Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion. This so-called business-process outsourcing operation – managing often paper-based administrative tasks for companies in health care, finance and other sectors – is now being separated again. |
With the season five premiere of Game of Thrones just six days away, you can take a walk on the lighter side today with Sesame Street's latest parody, "Game of Chairs." Grover Bluejoy leads a musical game of chairs in which Cersei Lannister, Joffrey Baratheon, Daenerys Targaryen and Robb Stark compete for the Iron Throne. You might call it the Nine-Iron Throne, since it's made of golf clubs and golf balls. But Bluejoy doesn't quite know what he's doing — "the monster is blue and full of errors," says Melisandre — so Ned Stark ends up doing most of the explaining. Along the way, we learn how to count to three. Earlier this year, Sesame Street took on another for-adults-only TV show, House of Cards, in the style of the Three Little Pigs fable. Game of Thrones season five premieres this Sunday, April 12, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. You can read our spoiler-free thoughts on the season's first four episodes right now. |
Hugh Jackman is in negotiations to star in Lionsgate’s movie version of Homer’s “The Odyssey.” The studio announced in April that it had set “The Odyssey” with “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson attached. CEO Jon Feltheimer disclosed in May that the deal with Lawrence was for more than one movie. Lawrence took over directing duties on the final three “Hunger Games” movies (including the upcoming “Mockingjay — Part 2”) after Gary Ross exited following the first film. Jacobson has also produced all four films through her Color Force producing banner. Peter Craig, who co-wrote the two “Mockingjay” films, is penning the script for “The Odyssey.” “The Odyssey” is believed to have been composed by Homer in the 8th century B.C. It centers on Odysseus and his journey home after the fall of Troy while his wife Penelope fights off suitors. Lionsgate has not set a release date for “The Odyssey.” Jackman will be seen next as Blackbeard in Warner Bros.’ “Pan.” He is represented by WME, Lou Coulson Associates and Sloane, Offer, Weber and Dern. The news was first reported by The Wrap. |
Bill Kristol says that the Orlando terrorist attack “helps” Donald Trump “if he uses it wisely” because Obama has been unwilling to be “serious” about the threat. Appearing on NewmaxTV with Steve Malzberg on Monday, Kristol, an ardent “NeverTrumper” said that in light of the Orlando terrorist attack, “I suspect an event like this may end up helping Trump just because people will say, ‘Look, one side is kind of oblivious to the threat or just doesn’t want to see it because of political correctness.'” (RELATED: Trump: Hillary Can’t ‘Claim To Be A Friend Of The Gay Community’ With Her Immigration Policy [VIDEO]) “The other side, Trump in this case is kind of scattershot, demagogic even in response to the threat but at least he sort of knows there’s a threat and maybe he will get people around him who have a more nuanced idea of how to implement some sensible policies,” Kristol said. (RELATED: Trump Says He Will Suspend Immigration From Countries With History Of Terrorism) Later, Kristol argued, “I think people are underestimating Trump’s chances in this election. If you look at Clinton, you look at Trump, Trump has got many, many deficiencies (I don’t think he should be president) but I got to say, you just look at him, and you think, you can see how people will talk themselves into voting for Trump.” “One reason [people] are underestimating [Trump] is they look at these races; pundits do, and they look at it in a very static way, they don’t realize things like this, this terrorist attack happen, that helps Trump.” WATCH: “Obama’s sort of unwillingness to be serious about the threat has helped create the market, as it were for Trump and people are willing to forgive some of the demagogy and kind of irresponsibility, I would say of Trump because at least he seems to be aware of the problem and aware of the threat.” Kristol later said that looking at it “objectively” the Orlando terrorist attack “helps Trump if he uses it wisely.” Follow Steve on Twitter and Facebook |
Photos: 5,100 pounds of marijuana found in secret bunker along Texas-Mexico border Officials are investigating after they found 5,100 pounds of marijuana Aug. 22, 2016 hidden in an underground bunker in Starr County on the Texas-Mexico Border. Officials are investigating after they found 5,100 pounds of marijuana Aug. 22, 2016 hidden in an underground bunker in Starr County on the Texas-Mexico Border. Photo: Courtesy/229th Judicial District Attorney Photo: Courtesy/229th Judicial District Attorney Image 1 of / 58 Caption Close Photos: 5,100 pounds of marijuana found in secret bunker along Texas-Mexico border 1 / 58 Back to Gallery Officials are investigating after they found 5,100 pounds of marijuana on Aug. 22 hidden in an underground bunker in Starr County on the Texas-Mexico Border. RELATED: $838K buys you a nuclear bunker for you and 234 of your closest friends Starr County HIDTA Task Force, in conjunction with U.S. Border Patrol among others, executed a search warrant about two miles north of U.S. Highway 83 on San Julian Road. That is where they found 725 bundles of marijuana totaling 5,108 pounds, according to the 229th Judicial District Attorney's Facebook page. RELATED: 10 charged in synthetic marijuana ring in Austin At this time, the investigation is ongoing. kbradshaw@express-news.net Twitter: @kbrad5 |
VANCOUVER, Canada — Now that the group stage matches and venues are set following the FIFA Women’s World Cup Draw, the real work begins as all 24 teams train and prepare for the group stage and beyond. John Herdman has his team working through a rigorous final week of training on the West Coast before a holiday break. China, New Zealand, and the Netherlands will all offer different challenges, tactics and strategies that Canada will have to overcome if they hope to succeed in Group A. Women’s soccer is continuously growing all over the world, and teams are developing and getting much more stronger. Erin McLeod is pleased to see growth in the sport and she is excited about the draw Canada has been given. “I was really happy with the draw,” the 31-year-old goalkeeper said. “Every single one of those teams is a tough team. If you look at the stats we’re ranked higher than they are, but at the same time the women’s game especially in the last couple of years it’s really been evolving especially in all of those countries. We are going to continue to prepare for worst case scenarios and whatever they’re going to throw at us. I think we are excited for every single match.” [JOHAL: Herdman relishing chance to play old team, New Zealand, at World Cup] Under the guidance of Herdman and his coaching staff, Canada has never lost to China, New Zealand or the Netherlands. Canada has compiled a 5-0-0 record and a clean sheet in all of those contests, outscoring their future Group A opponents by a combined 6-0 in those five matches. A surprised Melissa Tancredi hopes she and her teammates can use these statistics as motivation. “I didn’t even know that stat, that’s an impressive stat,” she said. “I think that’s a stat that we use and that we build upon. That’s huge for our confidence and that’s the goal, really. I don’t think we want any goals against in the first round and it’s for sure our goal to score probably double that. Hopefully that’s what’s going to come out of it.” The general opinion is that Canada earned a pretty good draw. On paper Group A is not as tough as Group D looks, but not as soft as Group B or C appear. As the highest ranked team in Group A, Canada (No. 8 in the world) are the clear favorites to finish first ahead of China (14), New Zealand (19) and the Netherlands (15). The hosts should comfortably place first, but most of the players who will help determine the outcome aren’t getting too ahead of themselves. Once the matches arrive, McLeod is going to take an all familiar approach. “No, I would never say comfortably,” she said of Canada’s chances. “We are never a team that’s arrogant or getting ahead of ourselves. We are most successful when we process and take it one game at a time.” [LAULETTA: Looking at World Cup hopes of all 24 teams | Groups, schedule] Defender Rhian Wilkinson echoes those same sentiments because Canada will be pushed and given everything their opponent has to offer. As a host country, teams will no doubt be gunning to knock off Canada. “Saying we’re going to comfortably win it would be a little arrogant,” Wilkinson said. “I think they are very strong teams and they’ll push us to the very end. We are planning on coming out first in our group, but I don’t think it will be easy.” Never one to shy away with her opinion, Tancredi is looking forward to a physical battle with the Kiwis on June 11 in Edmonton, Alberta. Tancredi isn’t as worried about the amount of effort taking a tall toll on Canada. Her confidence is as strong as ever as she discusses the draw. “I’m really excited about that draw, I think their all strong opponents,” she said. “But I don’t think they’re going to be too taxing for us moving onto the next round, but they are all different. I think the New Zealand game will be very physical which is nice. Overall I’m excited and happy with it.” The 32-year-old striker has been hobbled with a nagging calf injury which she sustained in November before Canada played a pair of matches in Los Angeles. Despite not being able to train with her teammates, Tancredi is always up for a tough challenge no matter the opponent or degree of difficulty. Canada can’t have the mentality that winning Group A will be anywhere close to easy or a walk in the park. On any day any women’s soccer team can be beaten. In the Brasilia Tournament last December, Canada underestimated a Chilean side and fell 1-0 in a shocking result. Wilkinson already knows that Canada must be fully prepared at this World Cup. “We’ve played all three teams on numerous occasions and what I remember is all of them fight until the very end,” she said. “If we go into these games thinking it’s going to be easy coming out number one in our group we’re going to have a horrible awakening I believe.” China has a strong defensive front, and a compact organizational game plan that teams always struggle to break down. However, China is not the same force in women’s football that they use to be. The Netherlands are a terrific, up-and-coming team that can score when they want. New Zealand will present a tactical challenge for Herdman because he knows his former side so well. Which one of these teams poses the biggest threat for Canada? Tancredi believes it’s the team she picked to end up in Group A and that’s why she jumped for joy when they were revealed right off the hop. “To be honest it’s hard to say. China has the block which is very hard to play against,” Tancredi said. “I would say New Zealand in my opinion would give us the hardest challenge. It’s going to be physical, they’re big, they’re fast, they’re a very transitional based team. It’s going to be a tough one.” The young age and inexperience of Canada’s back four will certainly be tested early on in the tournament. The speed and youth of the Netherlands, with 18-year-old Vivianne Miedema, could be troublesome and catch an older veteran Canadian side off guard. Tancredi admits Canada will have to be cautions defensively when they take on the Orange Wave. “I think the Netherlands is going to be a tough one for our back six,” the forward says. “They are very speedy upfront, a lot of true goalscorers like you said. It’s just going to be us being diligent with our defensive roles and being able to take responsibility when it comes to defending behind the ball, and attacking in transition. We know that their back-line isn’t the strongest we are going to face.” UEFA teams are often considered some of the best in the sport. A strong World Cup qualifying group for the Netherlands hasn’t gone unnoticed by Wilkinson, who maintains that all three opponents will be tough no matter what federation they are from. “Holland’s come out of a very strong European group and we know they have a young player that’s score goals for fun right now,” Wilkinson said. “New Zealand are always a struggle. We know there is a lot of history with John. I really think all three teams are going to be tough.” |
Have you heard of students in law school and medical school racking up over $100,000 (or much more) in school loan debt? It is now not that uncommon for students exiting undergraduate school to graduate with student loan debts of $50,000 or higher. And many of these graduating students have no shot of making more than $10.00 an hour for the time being. New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is showing that student debt continued to grow and the United States is on its way to having $1 trillion in student loan debt. The latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit shows that student loan debt reported on consumer credit reports reached a whopping $904 billion during the first quarter of 2012. Here is the worst part of it: that was up by $30 billion from the fourth quarter of 2011. If this 3.4% stays static, student debt will hit $1 trillion by the end of 2012. There is something else to consider… Student loan delinquencies are likely to understate actual delinquency rates. The reason is that almost half of these loans are currently in deferment or in grace periods, which means that they are temporarily not in the repayment cycle. If you use the data provided in March by the New York Fed, it is implied that loans in the repayment cycle have delinquency rates which are roughly twice as high. The total amount of loans is based on a random sample of people on a national basis from the credit bureau of Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX). Fair Isaac Corporation (NYSE: FICO) had a lower figure back in January, but it projected that student loans will be the next casualty of a sluggish economy. In late May, SLM Corp. (NASDAQ: SLM), or Sallie Mae, reported that the average college graduate who borrows presently faces approximately $25,000 in student debt. The only good news in the total report is that consumer deleveraging continued as total US indebtedness fell by 0.9% or $100 billion down to $11.44 trillion in the first quarter of 2011. The peak in household debt was hit in the third quarter of 2008, but since that time the total student loan debt has grown by $293 billion… other forms of debt fell by a total of $1.53 trillion. The New York Fed showed that the total student loan debt has grown exponentially since 2003 and that growth has been by a whopping $663 billion. The caveat is that some student loan debt back in 2003 and 2004 may have been undercounted. Student loan debt passed up credit card debt as the second highest form of consumer debt in the second quarter of 2010. As loan balances are rising, delinquency rates are heading higher as well. The delinquencies reported as 90+ days delinquent have risen from 6.13% back in the first quarter of 2003 up to 8.69% as of the first quarter of 2012. The peak in the 90+ days delinquent was 9.17% in Q3-2010. These delinquency rates remain higher than that of mortgages, auto loans and home equity lines of credit. Credit card balances were $679 billion, down 21.6% from the $866 billion peak in Q4-2008. In another ongoing concern, some $1.06 trillion of consumer debt is currently delinquent and of that some $796 billion is listed as ‘seriously delinquent.’ As far as how this $904 billion in Q1-2012 (or a projected $1 trillion after Q4-2012) compares to overall figures, here is what the CIA World Factbook shows for 2011 (projected): GDP was projected at $15.04 trillion GDP per capita was $48,100 Government revenues were $2.264 trillion Government expenditures were $3.604 trillion JON C. OGG |
I am thoroughly upset, and ashamed that you could stoop so low as to mute out the word God in anything you televise…I for one will not watch your channel anymore…I will pass this on to all my friends and family… Can you believe that? You can cuss and everything else on TV but can’t say God anymore. What is going on in the world these days? Those are two of the more, um, muted reactions to the Hallmark Channel‘s muting the word “God” in its airing of the movie It Could Happen To You. As is their wont, Christians felt slighted and marginalized. REALLY HALLMARK!!!! BLEEPING OUT THE WORD GOD!!!! HAVE WE FORGOTTEN THAT YOU USED TO BE A CHRISTIAN NETWORK!!! WTH!!! HOW ABOUT NOT OFFENDING CHRISTIANS!!!! Did the cable channel, the home of endless “family-friendly and inspirational” fare, including two months of Christmas programming starting in early November, really deny the Almighty? A spokesperson for Hallmark says no. It was precisely because they respect Christianity so much that the program managers silenced the soundtrack at every throwaway mention of God: the word God was omitted as staying on the side of caution to not offend, as our Standard & Practices department categorized it as God was being used in vain.” Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. The hair-trigger sensitivity of much of Hallmark’s Christian viewership is all the more puzzling because the company and its greeting-card-producing parent have a history of trying never to cause even the slightest possible offense. Last October, Hallmark Cards released a Christmas ornament with the text “Don we now our fun apparel.” The original phrase in the popular “Deck the Halls” carol is “Don we now our gay apparel.” When pressed for an explanation, the company said that it didn’t want to “leave our intent open to misinterpretation.” (Thanks to Skeptophilia for the link) |
A Sevierville man injured during an arrest in Blount County earlier this week has died, the family's attorney confirmed Thursday afternoon. His family previously told 10News they believed the deputy used excessive force while trying to arrest Anthony Edwards early Monday morning. "Our Firm is currently conducting an investigation into this young man's encounter with law enforcement which has ultimately resulted in his unfortunate death," attorney Troy L. Bowlin, II said in a statement. Bowlin said Edwards was pronounced brain dead on Wednesday and the family has worked to ensure his desire to have his organs donated was successful. PREVIOUS: Man seriously injured during scuffle while being taken into custody in Blount County "The family is deeply saddened by the loss of their, son, father, friend, and brother and we are all confident that our investigation will conclude what truly transpired between Mr. Edwards and the Blount County Sheriff’s Office on this unforgettable summer night," Bowlin added. Sign up for Take 10, the WBIR lunchtime newsletter Thank You Something went wrong. Get the news you need to know, plus weather and something to make you smile, every weekday in your inbox! Thank you for signing up for the Take 10 Newsletter Please try again later. Submit It was near the intersection of Winchester Drive and Patterson Road in northeast Blount County where Anthony Edwards and his friend were walking, around 1 a.m. Monday. A Blount County Sheriff's Office spokesperson said officials received and responded to a call about suspicious people in that area. When Deputy Jerry Burns arrived on the scene, according to the BCSO, he stopped and questioned the two men. "When asked, Edwards gave Deputy Burns a false name and date of birth," a BCSO release said. "As Deputy Burns attempted to pat Edwards down for safety, he fled." Burns chased him, and tried - unsuccessfully - to use a TASER on Edwards. When the deputy finally managed to catch Edwards, according to the release, Edwards "continued to fight and kicked another deputy, striking him in the groin." "Deputy Burns took Edwards to the ground, and as they came down, Edwards hit his head on the pavement," the BCSO release said. The deputies then noticed Edwards was having trouble breathing, and he was taken by LIFESTAR helicopter to UT Medical Center, where his family took photos of his injuries. 25-year-old Anthony Edwards, of Sevierville, was seriously injured during an arrest by a Blount County sheriff's deputy. (Photos courtesy: Nikki Eldridge) Family members weren't available for an on-camera interview Tuesday but told 10News, "We are not here to question whether he was guilty or innocent. Or ran or stood still." "We are just wanting to let people know that we are now waiting for his heart to stop beating because there was too much force used when he was arrested," family spokesperson Nikki Eldridge said. Edwards had a warrant out for his arrest, according to the Blount County Sheriff's Office, for probation violation on charges of domestic violence and vandalism in Sevier County. The BCSO is currently reviewing video of the incident. The office declined 10News' request for an on-camera interview Tuesday, saying, "the evidence will speak for itself." None of the BCSO deputies involved are currently suspended, a spokesperson said. They continue to work their regular shifts. |
A Nebraska woman who put a 3-year-old Chicken McNugget up for auction on eBay has netted $8,100 for her local church. Last month, the Sideshow told you about Rebekah Speight and the piece of fried fast food she says resembles George Washington. Speight said at the time she was selling the McNugget to help raise money for a youth camp run by her church, the Family Worship Center, in Sioux City, Iowa. The nugget sale was originally only expected to be a small contribution to the worship center's ultimate fundraising goal of $15,000. When we first reported the story, the McNugget was locked in relative obscurity, with a then-leading bid of just over $100. By the time the auction finished, its page had been viewed more than 40,000 times and received 71 bids on its way to $8,100. The auction was temporarily pulled offline because it violated eBay's rules against selling expired food products. However, the site quickly reinstated the auction, telling Speight in an email that eBay was "willing to make exceptions to help your cause." After Speight's auction went viral, it became clear that people were just as excited, if not more, about helping the fundraising effort as acquiring the presidential piece of chicken. Speight herself appealed to potential bidders, writing on the auction site that, "by bidding on this rare 'President George Washington Chicken McNugget' … not only will you have an opportunity to be the new owner of this rare find, but you will be investing in the lives of children." The auction has even inspired some other sellers trying to cash in on the mini-phenomenon. One seller is offering a George Washington Chicken McNugget magnet for your consideration. After first reporting on the auction, I received hundreds of emails from Sideshow readers who chimed in with their own thoughts on who they saw in the nugget's visage. Reader Kara wrote, "If you turn the nugget upside down, it looks more like an old man wearing a beret. You can even see his ear!" Several other readers wrote in to say they saw a different iconic American figure, that of Uncle Sam. And a man named Andrew wrote in to observe, "The Chicken McNugget looks more like a profile of the Jigsaw mask from the 'SAW' movies." Other popular Yahoo! News stories: • Scott Hunt wants to help you prepare for doomsday • Escaped penguin outracing Tokyo authorities in bid for freedom • 3-year-old girl recovering after swallowing 37 high-powered magnets |
It's been a war of words between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, so far... But what would happen if things turned nastier and they gave those orders? What happens if they drop the bombs? 0:54 A SOUTH Korean parliamentary audit committee has been warned of a potentially deadly clouds of radioactive gas and dust. That’s the worst-case scenario presented overnight by the chief of South Korea’s national weather agency — Nam Jae-cheol. “Based on our analysis of satellite imagery, we judge that there is a hollow space, which measures about 60 to 100 meters, at the bottom of Mount Mantap in the Punggye-ri site,” he said. “So, should another nuke test occur, there is the possibility (of collapse).” According to the Yonhap news service, troubled parliamentarians asked: “Is there a risk of radiation?” Nam replied: “Should it sink, there is a possibility.” SHAKEN TO THE CORE Fears about the state of Mount Mantap in North Korea’s northeast were first raised by nuclear weapons analysts in the days and weeks following Kim Jong-un’s most recent underground test in September — by far the biggest yet. He declared it to have been a thermonuclear device, representing a significant step forward in the power and scope of his nuclear weapons program. EXPLORE MORE: Mountain may be at risk of collapse But international nuclear test monitors have detected a series of three-to-four small earthquakes emanating from the Punggye-ri test site (at Mount Mantap) in the days and weeks since. These, they say, are likely caused by subsidence. Essentially, the mountain is beginning to fall into the cavities left behind after the nuclear blast vaporised surrounding rock. It’s a fear being repeated by Chinese experts, reports the South China Morning Post. Researchers at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics have reportedly warned North Korea of an impending implosion at Punggye-ri — just 100km east of the border with China. It follows earlier reports of Chinese experts fearing a fracture of Mount Mantap releasing clouds of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Mount Mantap has been the site of the past five out of six of North Korean underground nuclear tests. These have been conducted at one test site under the mountain, via what is called the North Portal. DELVE DEEPER: Mountain collapse may lead to above-ground nuclear test Analysis of satellite photo and sensor data shows the mountain has undergone widespread surface disturbances, particularly from the most recent test. HEART OF THE MOUNTAIN Earlier this month North Korea think-tank 38 North published details of the state of Mount Mantap. It points out such subsidence events were common at the US Nevada Test Site and warns Punggye-ri is not likely to be abandoned any time soon. “Even in the face of what has been dubbed ‘Tired Mountain Syndrome,’ abandonment of the site for nuclear testing should not be expected,” the report reads. RELATED: WARNO — ‘prepare missile strike against North Korea’ order issued “Such historical precedent, combined with the presence of two other, as yet unused tunnel complexes within the test site, leads us to conclude that there is no valid reason to assume that the Punggye-ri test site is unable to contain additional underground nuclear tests.” Post-nuclear test tremors at Mt. Mantap are not unexpected, given the yield of #DPRK's last nuke test. But that doesn't mean the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site will be abandoned. https://t.co/rNsIVD6vfN — 38 North (@38NorthNK) October 17, 2017 The report says speculation that the post-test earthquake-like events were structural collapses or cave-ins remains unconfirmed. “Nonetheless, based on the severity of the initial blast, the post-test tremors, and the extent of observable surface disturbances, we have to assume that there must have been substantial damage to the existing tunnel network under Mt. Mantap,” the report reads. EXPLORE MORE: US, South Korea, Japan practice missile shoot-down drill “If North Korea were to attempt to continue testing under this mountain (such as, in the area more to the eastern side), then we would expect to see new tunnelling in the future near the North Portal, still under Mt. Mantap. “A lack of new tunnelling in this area would provide evidence that this mountain has been abandoned for future testing. However, complete abandonment of the test site as a whole remains unlikely.” |
Editor’s note: WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange, who has been in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, was under house arrest at a British estate in 2011 when he received a special visitor: Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. Now Assange has a new book out, “When Google Met WikiLeaks,” that in part is about the meeting. Below is one of the chapters, “Censorship Is Always Cause for Celebration,” reprinted here with the permission of OR Books, publisher of the book, which is available exclusively from OR Books and is copyrighted by Julian Assange. The chapter consists of the transcript of a conversation among Assange, Schmidt and three associates of Schmidt’s — Scott Malcomson, a book editor, writer and onetime member of the U.S. Department of State; Jared Cohen, a Google executive and a former member of the State Department; and Lisa Shields, a vice president of the Council on Foreign Relations. Click here to see an open letter to Google from Truthdig Publisher Zuade Kaufman concerning censorship. Readers may purchase the book for 20 percent off if they enter the code TRUTHDIG at checkout. Click here to buy. — SM: I am just wondering, on the human side of this—you have such experience of the world that you described earlier. I had three hours’ sleep, so forgive me if I don’t remember exactly what you said, but the combination of technical and altruistic people, and what amounts to a kind of subculture that you’ve been involved in for some fifteen years now. So you know how that subculture works. And that subculture needs to either stay the same or expand in order to do the work that you are describing. And so, since our book is about ten years away— JA: It has dramatically expanded. SM: What are the patterns there in terms of the people part rather than the technical part? JA: That’s the most optimistic thing that is happening—the radicalization of internet-educated youth. People who are receiving their values from the internet and then, as they find them to be compatible, echoing them back. The echo back is now so strong that it drowns the original statements completely. The people that I’ve dealt with from the 1960s’ radicals who helped liberate Greece and fight Salazar in Portugal, they say that this moment in time is the most similar there has been to what happened in that period of liberation movements. 219 [See numbered footnotes at the end of the excerpt.] SM: Do you see it scaling differently than it did in the sixties? JA: I wasn’t alive in the 1960s, but as far as I can tell, in the West—because there are certain regions of the world I am unaware of—their statement is true. The political education of apolitical technical people is extraordinary. Young people are going from apolitical to political. It is a very, very interesting transition to see. SM: This is your world. Why do you think that took place? JA: Fast communication; critical mass of young people; newer generation; and then some catalyzing events. The attack on WikiLeaks was a catalyzing event, and our success in defending against this attack was a catalyzing event. Do you remember the PGP case, the grand jury with Zimmermann? 220 ES: He had a lot of fun with that. JA: I wrote half a book on that. It was never published, because my co-writer went and had children. [LS spills water all over her note-taking laptop. JA quickly grabs her laptop and turns it upside down.] LS: Oh no, ha-ha-ha-ha! ES: Ha-ha-ha! JC: Why do I feel that has happened before? LS: That was really funny. SM: So much for the historical record! JA: As I said, multiple copies! [Laughter] ES: Why don’t you save whatever you were doing? SM: Get it into the name tree before everything goes wrong. LS: Did you see how fast he was? It was like an impulse. JC: Yeah, I almost feel like you were there before the computer even got water on it. ES: Computers are important in our line of work. [Laughter] LS: That was sweet, thank you. Go right ahead. SM: But young people aren’t inherently good. And I say that as a father and with regret. [Laughter] JA: Oh no, I think that actually . . . Well, I’ve read Lord of the Flies and I went to thirty different schools, so I’ve seen plenty of Lord of the Flies situations. 221 But no, I think that the instincts human beings have are actually much better than the societies that we have. ES: Than the governments, basically. JA: I am not going to say governments. The whole structure of society. The economic structure. People learn that simple altruistic acts don’t pay off, and they see that some people who act in nonaltruistic ways end up getting Porsches, and it tends to pull them in that direction. I thought about this a while ago when I saw this fantastic video that came out of Stanford in 1971 on nuclear synthesis of DNA. 222 Have you seen it? SM: No. JA: It’s on YouTube. It’s a wonderful thing. It’s explaining nuclear synthesis through interpretive dance. There are, like, 130 Stanford students out there in the middle of a sports field pretending to be DNA: a whole bunch pretending to be a ribosomal subunit, all wearing the hippy clothes of the day. But they were actually all very bright people. It was a very good bit of education; it is not that it was cool and unusual—rather it was extremely instructive, and before computer animation it was the best representation of how a ribosomal unit behaves. Could you see Stanford doing that now? Absolutely impossible. Stanford is far too conservative to do that now, even though it was extremely effective. You can bet that everyone who was in that dance remembers exactly how nuclear synthesis occurs, because they all had to remember their parts. And I remember it having seen it. The period of peak earnings for the average wage in the United States was, what, 1977? 223 Then certain things happened. Those people who were altruistic and not too concerned about finances and fiscalization simply lost power relative to those people who were more concerned about finances and fiscalization, who worked their way up in the system. Certain behaviors were disincentivized and others were potentiated. That is primarily, I believe, as a result of the technology that enables fiscalization. So, fast bank transfers, the IRS being able to account for lots of people—it sucks people into a very rigid fiscalized structure. 224 You can have a lot of political “change” in the United States, but will it really change that much? Will it change the amount of money in someone’s bank account? Will it change contracts? Will it void contracts that already exist? And contracts on contracts? And contracts on contracts on contracts? Not really. So I say that free speech in many Western places is free not as a result of liberal circumstances but rather as a result of such intense fiscalization that it doesn’t matter what you say. The dominant elite doesn’t have to be scared of what people think, because a change in political view is not going to change whether they own their company or not; it is not going to change whether they own a piece of land or not. But China is still a political society, although it is rapidly heading toward a fiscalized society. And other societies, like Egypt, are still heavily politicized. Their rulers really do need to be concerned about what people think, so they expend proportionate efforts on controlling freedom of speech. But I think young people actually innately have fairly good values. Of course it’s a spectrum, but they have fairly good values most of the time and they want to demonstrate them to other people, and you can see this when people first go to university. They become hardened as a result of certain things having a payoff and other things not having a payoff.SM: But let me tease out some of this. It sounds like you’ve got a view of the globe with certain societies where the impact of technology is relatively slight, certain societies where politically the impact of technology could be quite great, and certain societies where it would be a sort of middling way. And you would put China into, I guess, the middling category. Since our book is all about technology and social transformation ten years down the line, what’s the globe that you see given the structure you are describing? JA: I am not sure about the impact on China. It is still a political society, so the impact could be very great. I often say that censorship is always cause for celebration. It is always an opportunity because it reveals fear of reform. It means that the power position is so weak that you have got to care what people think. JC: That’s an interesting argument. ES: This is a very interesting argument. SM: It’s like you find the sensitive documents by watching them hunt. JA: Exactly. So when the Chinese expend all this energy on censoring in novel ways, do we say that it is a complete waste of time and energy, or do they have a whole bunch of experience managing the country and understand that it matters what people think? I say it’s much more reasonable to interpret it as meaning that the different actors within China who are able to control that censorship system understand correctly that their power position is weak and they need to be careful what people think. So they have to censor. SM: So the state is rational, at least in its repression. JA: I’m always worried when talking about the state because it’s all individuals acting in their own perceived interest. This group or that group. SM: Fair enough. JA: Take the people who work as censors at the Ministry of Public Security in China. Why do they censor, and what do they censor first? I’ll tell you what they censor first—they censor the thing that someone in the Politburo might see! That’s what they censor first. They are not actually concerned about darknets. 225 JC: Sorry, about? JA: They are not concerned about darknets because their bosses can’t see what is on the darknet, and so they can’t be blamed for not censoring it. We had this fantastic case here in the UK where we published a whole bunch of classified documents from the UK military. Then later on we did a preemptive FOI, which we do occasionally on various governments where we can. 226 We did it on the UK Ministry of Defense to see whether they were doing some investigation in response, so we could better protect our sources. At first they did not give us the documents. We appealed, and got back a bunch. They showed that someone in the MoD had spotted that there was a whole lot of UK military documents on our website about their surveillance program, and another two-thousand-page leak from them about how to stop things leaking, which stated that the number one threat to the UK military was investigative journalists. 227 So that had gone to some counterintelligence person, and they had said, “Oh my god, there are hundreds of pages, and it is about all sorts of countries and it just keeps going, it’s endless, it’s endless!!!!!” Five exclamation marks. That was the discovery phase; now the “what is to be done” phase. BT has the contracts for the MoD. 228 They told BT to censor us from them. So everyone in the UK MoD could no longer read what was on WikiLeaks. Problem solved! ES: Interesting. JA: Their generals and their bosses could no longer see that we had MoD stuff on WikiLeaks. Now there are no more complaints, and their problem is solved. Understandings like this might be quite advantageous to use in some of these systems. If you understand that bureaucratic structures always have this sort of thing going on, that means darknets are going to have a pretty easy time of it, until they are so big that they are not darknets anymore. SM: That’s really, really interesting. You mentioned investigative journalism. You’ve had a lot of experience with journalism by now, in many different respects. How do you see the kind of freeing of information that you were describing earlier, as fitting into journalistic processes, if at all? Or is it replacing it? JA: No, it is more how these journalistic processes fit into something that is much bigger. The much bigger thing is that we as human beings shepherd and create our intellectual history as a civilization. And it is that intellectual history on the shelf that we can pull off the shelf to do stuff, and to avoid doing the dumb things again, because somebody already did the dumb thing and wrote about their experience and we don’t need to do it again. There are several different processes that are creating that record, and other processes where people are trying to destroy bits of that record, and others that are trying to prevent people from putting things into that record in the first place. We all live off that intellectual record. So what we want to do is get as much into the record, prevent as much as possible being deleted from the record, and then make the record as searchable as possible. ES: But one consequence of this view is that actors will find the generation of very large amounts of misinformation strategic for them. JA: Yes. This is another type of censorship that I have thought about but don’t speak so much about, which is censorship through complexity. ES: Right. Too complicated.JA: And that is basically the offshore financial sector. Censorship through complexity. Censorship of what? Censorship of political outrage. With enough political outrage there is law reform and if there’s law reform you can’t do it anymore. So why is it that all these careful tax-structuring arrangements are so complex? They may be perfectly legal, but why are they so goddamn complex? Well, because the ones that weren’t complex were understood, and the ones that were understood were regulated, so you’re only left with the things that are incredibly complex. SM: More noise, less signal kind of thing. JA: Yes, exactly. ES: But how in the future will people deal with the fact that the incentive to publish information that is misleading, wrong, manipulative, is very high? Furthermore, you can’t figure out who the bad publisher was as well as the good, because there’s anonymity in the system. JA: First we must understand that the way it is right now is very bad. A journalist for the Nation, Greg Mitchell, who has also written about us, wrote a book about the mainstream media called So Wrong for So Long. 229 And that title is basically it. Yes we have these heroic moments with Watergate and so on, but actually, come on, the press has never been very good. It has always been very bad. Fine journalists are an exception to the rule. When you are involved in something yourself, like I am with WikiLeaks, and you know every facet of it, you look to see what is reported about it in the mainstream press and you see naked lie after naked lie. You know that the journalist knows it’s a lie; it is not a simple mistake. Then people repeat lies and so on. The condition of the mainstream press nowadays is so appalling I don’t think it can be reformed. I don’t think that is possible. I think it has to be eliminated, and replaced with something that’s better. SM: Which does seem to be happening! JA: Yes, and I have been pushing this idea of scientific journalism—that things must be precisely cited with the original source, and as much of the information as possible should be put in the public domain so that people can look at it, just like in science so that you can test to see whether the conclusion follows from the experimental data. 230 Otherwise the journalist probably just made it up. In fact, that is what happens all the time: people just make it up. They make it up to such a degree that we are led to war. Most wars in the twentieth century started as a result of lies amplified and spread by the mainstream press. And you may say, “Well that is a horrible circumstance; it is terrible that all these wars start with lies.” And I say no, this is a tremendous opportunity, because it means that populations basically don’t like wars and they have to be lied into it. That means we can be “truthed” into peace. That is cause for great hope. But this question of how you distinguish truthful publishers from untruthful publishers is a reputational business. What I would like to see is the introduction to journalism of that part of the reputational business, as in science, that asks, “Where is your data?” If you’re not providing your data why the hell should I take this seriously? Now that we can publish on the internet, now that there is physically room for the data, it should be there. Newspapers don’t have physical room for the primary source; now that there is physical room for the primary source we should create a standard that it should be there. People can deviate from this standard, but if they deviate from the standard and can’t be bothered to provide us with the primary source data then why should we pay any attention to what they are writing? They are not treating the reader with respect. I guess the issue of reputation is an important issue, actually. How do things have a reputation? Part of the way that they have a reputation is through a series of citations. Something happens, someone else says something about it, someone else says something about that, and so on. This is a series of citations as information flows from one person to another. For that to be strong you need a strong naming system, where what you are relying on is not some startup website that disappears tomorrow, or one that is modifying information because a company doesn’t like it, or one that has been sued out of existence. That, I think, would help with reputation. Complexity is harder. I think that is a big problem. When things become open they tend to become more complex because people start hiding what they are doing—their bad behavior—through complexity. An example is bureaucratic doublespeak. Things get bureaucratized and everything becomes mealymouthed. That’s a cost of openness. In the offshore sector you see incredible complexity in the layers of things happening so they become impenetrable. Of course cryptography is an intellectual system that has specialized in making things as complex as possible. Those things are hard to attack. On the other hand, complex systems are also hard to use. Bureaucracies and internal communication systems that are full of weasel words and ass covering are inefficient internal communication systems. Similarly, those tremendously complex offshore structuring arrangements are actually inefficient. Maybe you’re ahead when the tax regime is high, but if the tax regime is 3 percent, you’re not going to be ahead at all; you’re going to be choked by the complexity. SM: Well, if they weren’t inefficient then everybody would have their money offshore, Julian. JA: Yes, that’s right.SM: I meant that as a joke, but it’s probably true. JA: No, that’s true. There’s a battle between all of these things going on. I don’t see a difference between government and big corporations and small corporations. This is all one continuum; these are all systems that are trying to get as much power as possible. A general is trying to get as much power for his section of the army, and so on. They advertise, they produce something that they claim is a product, people buy it, people don’t buy it, they complexify in order to hide the flaws in their product, and they spin. So I don’t see a big difference between government and nongovernment actors in that way. There is one theoretical difference concerning the ability to deploy coercive force, but even there we see that well-connected corporations are able to tap into the government or courts and are consequently able to deploy coercive force by sending police to do debt requisition or kick employees out of the office. * * * Footnotes: 219. Authoritarian conservative António de Oliveira Salazar was the prime minister and de facto dictator of Portugal from 1932 until 1968. His Estado Novo government survived him until 1974, when it was overthrown by a leftist military coup, and democracy was restored. After a coup d’état in 1967, Greece was ruled by a US-backed military junta known as the “Regime of the Colonels,” which was overthrown by a democratic uprising, also in 1974. This was a significant time for southern Europe. The Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, died just a year later, in 1975, handing over power to King Juan Carlos I, who facilitated the restoration of Spanish democracy. The period is covered in depth by WikiLeaks’ Kissinger Cables. See www.wikileaks.org/plusd 220. In 1991, when Phil Zimmermann released PGP, cryptography programs were classified as munitions under US federal law and could not be exported. Because PGP was on the internet, and someone outside the US had downloaded the program, Zimmermann was considered to have exported his program. Consequently, he was under investigation for three years by a US federal grand jury. During the 1990s the NSA and FBI were behind a campaign to stop the spread of cryptography that became known as the “cryptowars” (for more on the cryptowars, see footnote 236, page 135). After the statute of limitations had expired, Zimmermann subsequently admitted to having intentionally uploaded PGP to the internet as an attempt to spread cryptography before it could be banned. 221. Lord of the Flies is a novel by William Golding about a group of school-boys marooned on a desert island, revealing the darker side of human nature as societal restraints break down. William Golding, Lord of the Flies (Faber and Faber, 1954). 222. “Protein synthesis: an epic on the cellular level,” Stanford University Department of Chemistry, 1971. Available on YouTube at youtu.be/u9dhO0iCLww 223. Depending on how you crunch the numbers, the peak male median income was at some point in the mid- to late 1970s. See page 50 of Carmen DeNavas-Walt, Bernadette D. Proctor, and Jessica C. Smith, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012,” US Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, US Census Bureau, September 2013, is.gd/xJ9wPV See also Katie Sanders, “Time’s Rana Foroohar says median male worker hasn’t seen a raise in 30 years,” PolitiFact, 15 January 2014, archive.today/u6q5b 224. “IRS” is the Internal Revenue Service, the US government agency responsible for tax collection. 225. A group of computers connected over the internet where each computer only knows the addresses of a few others participating in the larger darknet network. A darknet is difficult for a government to censor, but on the other hand a darknet is also comparatively difficult to access. I2P is an example of a darknet: www.i2p2.de 226. “FOI” stands for “freedom of information” request, a request for information that is legally available from a public body in countries with a Freedom of Information law. 227. “UK Ministry of Defence continually monitors WikiLeaks: eight reports into classified UK leaks, 29 Sep 2009,” WikiLeaks, 30 September 2009, archive.today/6pMbw 228. BT, formerly British Telecom, is the largest telecommunications company in the UK and one of the largest in the world. 229. Greg Mitchell, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed on Iraq (Union Square Press, 2008). 230. There is more discussion of this idea in Raffi Khatchadourian, “No Secrets: Julian Assange’s mission for total transparency,” New Yorker, 7 June 2010, archive.today/zZYqJ |
Though the Los Angeles Kings remain in prime position to capture a playoff spot, there's reason to be nervous as they're still on the outside looking in with the season winding down. The suddenly goal-challenged Kings look to avoid a third straight loss and fourth in five games Monday night, facing the New Jersey Devils in the opener of a road-heavy stretch to close out their schedule. Los Angeles (34-23-14) is two points behind Calgary for the third Pacific Division playoff spot and four out of the final Western Conference wild-card berth held by Winnipeg, but it holds a game in hand on both clubs. However, the Kings have gone 5-5-2 in their last 12, falling out of playoff position and leaving their hopes of defending their championship in jeopardy. ''It's not a given that you get into the playoffs. You've got to work for it,'' captain Dustin Brown said after a 4-1 home loss to Vancouver on Saturday. ''We've struggled at times this year, but our confidence and our belief hasn't wavered. We're still in control of our own destiny. We play a lot of these teams that we're battling with for a playoff spot, and people expect us to be there. But we have to earn it." A lack of offense has been a major reason for the slump. Los Angeles has totaled five goals in its past four games after scoring at least four in all but one of the previous five contests. The Kings were outshot 42-26 by the Canucks - 16-8 in the third period, when Vancouver scored three times - after outshooting their previous eight opponents. ''The bottom line is, we can't win with one goal,'' said forward Marian Gaborik, who opened the scoring 24 seconds into the game. ''We had a lot of chances to put the game away, but we just didn't capitalize. We've got to score more goals without sacrificing our defense. So we need to play the right way - put some pucks on net and create some chances.'' Desperate for scoring, Los Angeles recalled veteran Mike Richards from its AHL affiliate Sunday, two months after his high-profile demotion. The center recorded 14 points in 16 games with Manchester, one less than he had in 47 games before being sent down. The Kings have been very good away from home recently, going 7-2-1 in the last 10, and they'll need to continue to be if they want to make the playoffs. Los Angeles is opening a five-game trip and plays eight of its final 11 on the road. The Kings play again Tuesday against the New York Rangers and face the Islanders on Thursday - two of the top contenders in the East. They swept the three New York City metropolitan area teams in a four-day stretch last season while posting two shutouts. New Jersey (31-30-11) has little chance to make the postseason, but it defeated Los Angeles 5-3 on Jan. 14 for its second straight win in the series and fourth in five meetings. Cory Schneider made 23 saves, giving him a 4-1-0 mark and 1.39 goals-against average in five career matchups. Schneider, expected to start Monday, has gone 2-1-1 with a 0.99 GAA in his last four starts overall. He stopped 27 of 29 shots but the Devils had their three-game winning streak snapped in a 3-0 loss to the visiting Islanders on Saturday. Despite a 10-4-2 mark in the last 16 games, New Jersey still faces a double-digit point deficit in the wild-card race and needs to pass four teams. ''I think it's that time of year where you're going to get a team's best,'' forward Stephen Gionta said. ''We knew coming in that (the Islanders) were going to be a little desperate, having lost four in a row. ... It's a frustrating and disappointing loss.'' |
You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters Message: * A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: http://wr.al/18mJ2 — A Raleigh woman who has been stuck in Honduras after being found innocent on drug charges had her passport returned Wednesday and is back in the United States. Amanda LaRoque, 51, had been checking out houses in Roatan, an island off the Honduran coast, and was heading back to the U.S. when she was arrested at the airport late last month. She was carrying a "can safe," a fake Arizona Iced Tea can used by tourists to hide money and jewelry while on the beach, and airport security asked to examine it. When they found the can was empty, they cut into the lining and found a substance authorities believed was cocaine. On Friday, the substance tested negative for narcotics, and she was released from jail. LaRoque's attorney filed paperwork to have her passport returned around 4 p.m. Friday, but the Honduran district attorney had to sign for her to leave the country. That district attorney was on vacation and did not return until today. LaRoque landed in Houston Wednesday afternoon and was expected to land at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport just after midnight. "I just want to see her get off the plane and know she's back here in Raleigh," said LaRoque's mother, Barbara Levy. She describes the ordeal as a horror story. "I still can't relax. I am still worried," Levy said. LaRoque said she is thankful to those that helped her through her time in Honduras. "To all of the locals who have been so extremely helpful to me, and so many of them have come by to say goodbye and give me hugs," she said. "It's just really sad this whole thing happened." |
Nearly a year after a brawl off-campus landed former Washington State defensive lineman Robert Barber in hot water with the school and eventually the law, a jury returns their verdict. The Daily Evergreen reports a Whitman County jury found Barber not guilty on a second-degree assault charge in court today. The jury also had the option of finding him guilty of fourth degree assault, a count they also found Barber not guilty of. Prosecutors decided in February to charge Barber with second-degree assault, nearly seven months after the alleged incident took place at an off-campus party. Barber’s exoneration at trial follows a lengthy and very public battle with the school following his expulsion by the Student Conduct Board for his connection to the case. A Whitman County judge decided to stay Barber’s expulsion in November. T.J. Fehoko, who was also reportedly involved in the brawl, was not charged but is no longer with the team. Another student faced a misdemeanor charge as a result but no word on whether their case has been resolved. UPDATE: Head coach Mike Leach has commented on Barber’s exoneration. |
On March 21, the rusty-patched bumble bee, Bombus affinis, officially became the first bumble bee listed for protection under the Endangered Species Act. This designation recognizes this important pollinator’s precarious position in the face of multiple threats to its survival. It also provides some of the tools necessary to begin to reverse its decline. We must take action now to prevent the extinction of the rusty-patched and other imperiled bumble bees and foster native pollinators to maintain agricultural productivity and healthy ecosystems. While federal regulations will provide some protection for this species, there are steps you can take in your own community to support the survival of these bees. Bumble bees like the rusty-patched bumble bee are crucial for gardens, orchards, prairies, woodlands, and wetlands. They transfer pollen from flower to flower in many plant species, resulting in the production of fruits and seeds. In turn, we and other animals rely on plants, fruits and seeds for our survival and health. Bumble bees are especially efficient at pollinating vegetables like tomatoes and peppers, as well as many commercially important fruits. Over the last two decades, the rusty-patched bumble bee has disappeared from most of its original range, and its remaining populations are small. The major threats to this and other pollinators include habitat loss, disease and pathogens, pesticides, and a changing climate. Unlike honeybees, bumble bees do not store honey, making them more susceptible to gaps in availability of flowers and extreme weather events. The rusty-patched bumble bee only exists in small populations in a few areas of the upper Midwest. It is still found in southern Wisconsin, including at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum, where our restored prairies, savannas, and woodlands provide the diverse native plant habitat they need to survive. The Arboretum invites visitors to observe and learn about bumble bees, and we train students and volunteers to help monitor them. The landscapes maintained by the Arboretum help us learn how to restore and enhance pollinator habitat. Homeowners, community members, school gardeners, farmers—everyone—can help protect the rusty-patched bumble bee and other native pollinators. Even if you live outside of its range, these actions will help support your local bees and other pollinators. Most importantly, plant a wide variety of native plants that provide continuous blooms throughout the season. Consult the Xerces Society, Pollinator Partnership, or local experts to learn which native species will support pollinators. Plant masses of flowers close together in gardens and yards to help attract bees. Encourage neighbors to plant pollinator-friendly wildflowers or gardens to create a larger network of pollinator habitat. Avoid using pesticides, especially systemic insecticides that persist throughout the plant or in soils. Check that plants and seeds purchased from nurseries are not pre-treated with systemic insecticides. Farmers and rural landowners can include pollinator habitat to encourage crop pollination and maintain healthy ecosystems. Improve pollinator habitat in hedgerows, uncultivated edges, roadsides, and on recreational or conservation land. You can also provide places for bumble bees to nest, while making sure not to disturb nests that you find. Bumble bee colonies are often underground, or in compost, rock walls, hollow logs and under bunch grasses. Nests are occupied for only a year. Unlike ground-nesting yellow jacket wasps, bumble bees have small colonies and are rarely aggressive. Make a habit of photographing and monitoring bumble bees and other pollinators. You can submit your photos to Bumble Bee Watch to help track both rare and common bumble bees. Get involved in local gardening and conservation groups to carry out pollinator protection plans. These practices will support the rusty-patched and other bumble bees where they live, support other species, provide agricultural benefits, and give us a more complete picture of our essential pollinators. As spring arrives and the bumble bee flight season begins, you can help maintain these bees as crucial links in our food supply and healthy landscapes. |
Andake INFLATABLE TRAVEL PILLOW brings to the outdoors some of the added comfort of home. Our pillow is designed for camping, hammocks, hunting, hiking, vacations, office working, wheelchair car driving, lying on couch or bed reading or taking a nap or bench. Without no back pain while long time sitting or long distance driving or Sleep peacefully while laying your head on our comfortable flocking fabric covered top and wake fully refreshed. Our pillow is simply the best out there. To inflate, gently squeeze the valve's root in a few breaths. Manually add or remove air to your desired firmness. To deflate the pillow, also squeeze the valve's root to let air out and fold up into our BONUS carrying case. Our inflatable pillow was designed with the traveler in mind. We understand the need to have lightweight and compact traveling gear. Every inch of space counts, and that is why we have provided a sturdy and compact carrying case so that your pillow can be stored safely and securely while you are out enjoying your activities. We at Andake stand behind everything we sell Our goal is to make your travel and activities as pleasant and comfortable as possible. |
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