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There comes a time in all of our lives when we will experience the loss of a loved one. Upon that loss, we will probably go through what is commonly known as the Five Stages of Grief; denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It is a hard time. For me, I have found that when I finish a particularly brilliant book or series I experience similar feelings of grief. I’m emotionally exhausted, bereft, and feeling upset that there are no more books to come. My favourite characters are gone, forever. There is nothing so contrived as the Five Stages of Literary Grief; I don’t deny the book is ended or get angry, or any of those tropes. But I think there can still be a benefit from talking about the experience. That’s what I’ll be doing here upon finally having completed Steven Erikson’s masterpiece, ‘The Malazan Book of the Fallen’. Caveat: I am well aware there are more books coming, and there are even more books coming from his partner in the series, Ian C Esselmont. There is something distressing in that moment when you flip onto the last page, seeing how the text doesn’t reach to the bottom of the page and, more often than not these days, seeing a different font-size alerting you to the fact you have finished the series. It’s bad enough with a trilogy. Finishing Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series I was left wanting more. So what hope did I have reaching the concluding pages of a series which had run into ten thick, thick books? Closing the back cover down on the end of ‘The Crippled God’ was surreal. Finishing the Malazan Book of the Fallen was a different experience for me. It was like that moment after Lord of the Rings when it all became apparent just how different this particular piece of fiction was. It became apparent that there is a need for a label beyond fiction so that we can categorise what we’ve just experienced. Schindler’s List is not the same movie as Bad Boys, despite their respective merits. The latter is done for entertainment, the former is done to educate; to tap into a different part of the human mind and prod the sedentary thought process of a lazy population. Steven Erikson sets you up for that feeling at the very beginning. In the Preface to the Gardens of the Moon redux, he writes thus: "In writing Gardens, I quickly discovered that ‘back story’ was going to be a problem no matter how far back I went. And I realized that, unless I spoon-fed my potential readers (something I refused to do, having railed often enough at writers of fantasy epics treating us readers as if we were idiots), unless I ‘simplified’, unless I slipped down into the well-worn tracks of what’s gone before, I was going to leave readers floundering. And not just readers, but editors, publishers, agents…" Start reading ‘Gardens of the Moon’ and you’re already lost. Who are the Malazan’s? How’d they get to Pale and, hang on, where’s Pale?! What’s a High Fist and why does he only have Onearm? And what on earth – if Earth it be – is Burn’s Sleep? This was history. Fiction unlike anything we’d ever encountered. Sure, Glen Cook had gone before and done something similar, and decades earlier than that J. R. R. Tolkien had come along and given us a complete world, languages and archaeology included. But Erikson went that one step further. He took what he’d learnt from both Cook and Tolkien, and then ran with it, bringing along moral inquisitiveness and a mirror to humanity as he went. So what happens when you finish all of that? The same thing that should happen when you finish reading an account of the Battle of the Somme, or the African-American Civil Rights Movement. You should have learned something. You should be changed! There must be a shift in your perception of reality, at least a portion of it. Fair enough; maybe Erikson’s work doesn’t touch on every aspect of the human condition – and certainly not the fragility of life that Glen Cook reflects in his ‘Black Company’ series – but Erikson sure as hell brings you close to the edge of what it means to be human, and then leaps across the gap and shows you everything in full relief. How does it make you feel, really, to consider the sheer frequency with which we set to killing one another over something so trivial as where our imaginary border-line is placed? What is your reaction to the death of children left to fend for themselves? Without a doubt, this is a fantasy novel and, as a result, has taken these examples to the extreme. But, then you have to start thinking … how far are we from the extreme? How are the wars depicted in the Malazan Book of the Fallen at all different from those we have fought ourselves? In what manner is The Snake different to the thousands of children left starving and defenceless throughout Africa and Asia? Close a novel. Bring that back cover to rest for the last time on top of near a thousand pages of story. Breathe in. If you aren’t thinking, if you aren’t one-hundred percent focused on what you have learned, then you’ve missed the point entirely. |
The team at the Washington Post had a clever idea when looking at the Gallup numbers that came out a week ago. … Gallup released a 50-state study of the most and least religious states in the country. We took the data … and overlaid it with the 2012 presidential election results. Here‘s what we found. The 19 most religious states — ranked by Gallup as those who identify as “very religious” — all went for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in 2012. On the other end of the (religious) spectrum, the opposite is true. President Obama won the 14 least religious states in the country. He averaged 61 percent of the vote in those places; if you take out the District of Columbia, which Obama won with 91(!) percent, the president averaged 59 percent in the remaining 13 states. Simply put: If you are attending religious services every week, you are very likely to vote for the Republican candidate for president in 2016. If you never go to any sort of religious service, you are going to be for the Democrat. The predictive power of religiosity in U.S. politics is uncanny. Even though I don’t particularly identify with either party (to put it mildly), the greatest discrimination against non-believers, and the most shameless assertions of Christian privilege, come from GOP extremists. So as an atheist, I welcome the Post‘s findings. We know that the United States is growing less religious year by year. It seems to me that politically, one of two things will happen: The GOP tames or ousts its most obstreperous God botherers, or the party will continue to lose elections like it’s going out of style. Either outcome would be a net win for non-believers. (Image via Shutterstock) |
America's Predicament From: Tigger <Obamacus_Tyrannicus@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:27:41 -0700 (PDT) America's PredicamentBy Vasko KohlmayerAmerica's public debt recently exceeded 13 trillion. This is more than90 percent of the country's GDP.Public debts of more than 60 percent of GDP are considered unhealthy.Public debts above 90 percent of GDP cause severe disruptions in thecountry's financial framework and the economy at large.According to the Obama administration, America's public debt willexceed 100 percent of GDP in the next fiscal year. History shows thatmost countries whose debt exceeds this mark are rarely able to controlit. This level of indebtedness usually leads to currency debasement.There are a few historical examples whereby countries were able tocontain debts of more than 100 percent of GDP. But in those instances,the debts were almost always contracted as a result of extraordinaryone-time expenditures, usually war.America's debt, on the other hand, is a result of decades ofstructural deficits. This means that we have grown accustomed tospending more than we can afford. If we want to solve our debtproblem, we must slash spending and start running surpluses. Theproblem is that it may prove impossible to break the spending habit.Our government is like a drug addict who cannot quit because the dopeis too easy to get. Bonds are the dope of the American government. Butthe price of the dope will eventually rise, since low bond yields willnot persist forever. When this happens, the addict will go intoseizures. But he will not lie down and sweat it out. He will go on arampage to get his fix. He will loot people's retirement accounts; hewill confiscate their gold. Things will turn ugly.It has long been impossible to cut anything in Washington. Everyproposal for a reduction is met with hysteria from some specialinterest. The hysteria is then amplified by the media. There iswailing, there are tears. The final appeal is always made for thechildren. It always works. They will suffer, goes the refrain. Whatcan politicians do? They back out while the rent-seekers lick theirchops. In the meantime, the debt just keeps growing.Many people thought Barack Obama would save America from its troubles.Unfortunately, they were wrong. When it comes to America's finances,the president is doing exactly the wrong thing. We are headed towardan abyss, and instead of braking, he has slammed down the accelerator.He is behaving like a perfect madman. And like Emperor Nero, Barackfiddles while the Treasury burns.Paul McCartney thinks Obama is a very smart man. The president,however, does not seem to realize that one cannot borrow his way outof debt. Not even the American federal government can do that. TheAmerican government has more leeway than the rest, because the dollaris the world's reserve currency. But no one can defy the laws offinance forever. When the day of reckoning finally arrives, the dollarwill collapse.It would be wrong to think that America's debt problem has been causedObama. Obama is not the root cause. He is merely a symptom. He couldnot do what he is doing if the ground had not been preparedbeforehand. This was done by the decades of fiscal recklessness. Theproblem began long before Barry Soetoro started attending a madrassahin Indonesia.Both parties are responsible. Do you still remember who started usdown the never-ending road to bailoutville? That president even calledhimself a conservative. He was a good man, but he left a mess behind.He went about his saving work in the wrong way. He should never havetried to save capitalism from itself. Instead, he should have tried tosave capitalism from government.Like Bush, Obama does not mean any harm. He is convinced that what heis doing is good and right. He is just badly misguided -- too bad somany people fell for his pretty words. They thought Barack was a greatleader, and they said he would lead us toward better days. Thoseprophets were wrong. Barack is leading us toward disaster. JohnMcCain, however, would not have done much better; he would also bebailing out right and left. We have a problem in this country: Neitherof the two major parties is any good.Sir Paul told us that Barack knows what a library is. That's good.Barack should visit one and check out a book called Economics in OneLesson by Henry Hazlitt. Beautifully written and full of common sense,it is the best introduction to economics one can find. An averageperson can get through it in a few hours. Since Barack is so smart, hecan do it even faster. If he read it and took it to heart, we wouldall be better off.We should all read this book. It could help to set us straight. Weconservatives have lost our way. We like to think of ourselves asheirs to the founders' legacy of limited government, but most of us donot realize what that implies. The founders' America had no Departmentof Education or Department of Commerce or Department of Labor orDepartment of Housing and Urban Development. In had almost none oftoday's countless federal departments, agencies, and boards that wastemoney and make our lives miserable. The founders' America had noincome tax or corporate tax. The founders' America had no centralbank. In the founders' America, the dollar was backed by preciousmetals. That is what limited government looks like.The idea that we should go back to this kind of government wouldscandalize many present-day conservatives. They say things have movedon, and we need more government now. This is a lie straight fromstatism's darkest pit. Too bad so many of us have fallen for it. Todaywe are reaping the fruit of that error: an oppressive government,debts that cannot be paid, a rapacious political class, adisintegrating currency, and a smug president who makes bad thingsworse. |
Hanan al-Hroub, who works with children exposed to violence, wins prize at ceremony featuring tributes from Prince William, the Pope and Bill Clinton The Duke of Cambridge has paid tribute to the “incredible work” of the teaching profession as a Nobel-style award worth $1m was handed to a teacher from Palestine. Hanan al-Hroub, who works with children who have grown up exposed to violence, was given the second annual Global Teacher prize at a star-studded ceremony in Dubai. Looking delighted as she was handed the award, Hroub said: “I did it, I won!” London maths teacher on shortlist for million dollar teaching prize Read more In his video link, Prince William said he had been taught by “some of the best teachers in the world”. “I know what an incredible teacher can mean to a child,” he said. “A good teacher holds the power to influence, inspire and shape a young person’s life for the better. They represent the key to real change in this world.” The prince added: “Teachers are also uniquely placed to recognise and support the most vulnerable and troubled children in our society, reaching young people early on in their education and providing them with the extra support they need and giving them the best possible chance in life. This is an incredible responsibility.” He offered his congratulations to the 10 finalists, including the UK maths teacher Colin Hegarty, and to teachers everywhere, saying: “Thank you for all your incredible work.” The winner was announced by Pope Francis via video message. “I would like to congratulate the teacher Hanan al-Hroub for winning this prestigious prize due to the importance that she gave to the ‘playing’ part in the education of the children,” he said. In her acceptance speech, given in Arabic, she said: “I am proud to be a Palestinian female teacher standing on this stage. I accept this as a win for all teachers in general and Palestinian teachers in particular. “Each day, the role of the teacher is reinforced and its importance confirmed as the world questions what future we want for our children.” Speaking after the ceremony, Hegarty, who has created more than 1,000 maths videos explaining the subject to children said: “I’m not disappointed at all. I spent an hour with Hanan earlier and she is an amazing, inspirational woman. The right person won, without question.” “It’s been an unbelievable experience,” he added. “To be able to tell your story, as small as it may be in the grand scheme of things, is great. It’s been great to be able to talk about maths.” The world's best teacher lives in rural Maine and doesn't care about test scores Read more Hroub grew up in the Bethlehem refugee camp, and was regularly exposed to violence. She went into primary education after her own children were left traumatised from witnessing a shooting on their way home from school. Hroub promotes the slogan “no to violence” and uses a specialist approach with children that she developed herself, and has written about in her book, We Play We Learn. It involves developing trusting, respectful and affectionate relationships, encouraging youngsters to work together and rewarding positive behaviour. She is planning to spend the money on helping students and teachers around the world to help them progress in their education and careers. The star-studded ceremony included tributes from the actors Matthew McConaughey and Salma Hayek, as well as a number of politicians. The former US president Bill Clinton addressed the 10 candidates in a video message, saying: “You don’t hear it often enough, but your work is truly heroic.” This year’s finalists were drawn from around the world, including the UK, Pakistan, Kenya, Palestine, the US, Japan, Finland, Australia and India. The winner receives $1m (£706,000) and will be asked to serve as a global ambassador for the Varkey Foundation, attending events and speaking about their work. But they are also required to remain working as a classroom teacher for at least five years as a condition of winning the award. |
SANAA (Reuters) - A senior leader of al Qaeda in Yemen has criticized beheadings by Islamic State (IS) fighters as un-Islamic, and said his own group had banned such acts. IS, an offshoot of the al Qaeda network, has carved out territory in Syria and Iraq with military victories over government troops and former Islamist allies and violence against civilians. Its fighters sometimes film their beheadings of prisoners and post the footage online. “There is no doubt that some of our brothers have been influenced by scenes of beheadings which have proliferated lately,” Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), said in video posted on Twitter, without referring to Islamic State by name. “These are scenes which we do not accept and we strongly reject,” he added. “Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him and upon his family, has ordered us to be kind in everything, even in killing, and it is not part of kindness to film beheadings and slayings and publish them in public, where sons and daughters of those killed can see,” he added in Arabic. “These are some of the ugliest matters.” AQAP, seen by the United States as one of the most active branches of the network established by Osama bin Laden, has been attacking Yemeni security forces, government facilities and Western targets in the Arabian Peninsula country. The United States has in turn killed AQAP leaders and members with drone strikes, in attacks that have sometimes killed civilians. Ansi said such U.S. strikes were “increasing Muslims’ sympathy for us”. “With the martyrs, hearts grow more filled with hate and rancor against America. The drone strikes have turned our call from a narrow one into a popular one,” he said. The veteran AQAP leader, who is said to have worked with bin Laden in Afghanistan, said his group had banned beheadings after recent incidents in which members of the group were shown using knives to behead government soldiers in eastern Yemen and at least one Shi’ite Muslim Houthi fighter in the center of the country. Asked about the beheadings and the shooting of medics at a Yemeni Defence Ministry hospital in December last year, film of which appeared online, Ansi said: “Beheadings are limited and individual acts and we will prevent them being repeated.” “But the wrong that happened during the blessed operation on the Defence Ministry in Sanaa, the mujahideen have apologized for it and have shown that they did not order that and that this is not their ordinary method in fighting,” he added, blaming an individual for what happened. |
Translated by Steve Goode, with brief notes by Lasha Darkmoon Disclaimer. We have no idea if this article is genuine or not. Let the reader decide. We received it in an email from John Kaminski who in turn got it from his correspondent Raymond Goodwin. Goodwin heads his widely circulated email “Psychotic Plan for White Genocide — Rape Rightwing Women And Breed Mixed Kids, Says French Doctor.” The advice to rape White women apparently comes from a French Jew named Thierry Lecoquierre, a medical doctor from Le Havre in Upper Normandy. It was apparently published in a Jewish-run publication called Nouve L’obs. I apologize in advance if this article turns out to be a fake. My trusted correspondent Felix Dean, a veteran poster on the Darkmoon site under another name, advises me to post it “without hesitation.” So I accept his challenge. (LD) From Raymond Goodwin’s introduction: A Jewish-run publication in France publishes a doctor’s article calling for the rape and forcible impregnation of White nationalist French girls. This is war, white men and women. You must awaken, because the perpetrators of European genocide will use the vilest means. Soviet propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg called for this same thing, inflaming the brutes of the Red Army to rape and kill German girls, and they did exactly that. Two million women and little girls were raped, many to death, at the hands of these foul creatures, the evil of whom cannot be spoken in human tongue. This same vile pornographic sadism lives on in the wicked man below, whose very eyes betray the evil that lies within. God help us! Retour des Croisades! Battre! Battre! pour les femmes de France, pour les femmes de l’Europe!” Lecoquierre is featured on the left Rape “right-wing” females to create “multicolored descendants”, says French Doctor by Steve Goode In the blog section of French media outlet, Nouve L’obs, a doctor wrote that any woman who votes for Front National (French anti-mass immigration party) has a “reptilian brain” and should be raped and impregnated to produce “multicolored descendants.” Thierry Lecoquierre, a Medical Doctor from Le Havre in Upper Normandy, has been reported to the Council of Doctors for his article, which has now been deleted from the website. His article titled “Impregnate the female of the National Front” says this: Right wing women do not appear less mammal than other women, even if they have a bigger than average reptilian brain. As any woman, it is subject to hormonal moods. With a feature that ethnology confirms to us: she gets especially wet for rough men. These female FN sympathizers certainly offer us a means to beat them. As each right-wing female appreciates the military and the macho and loathes feminist ideas, let’s play her game. Let’s take her at her own game, let’s take her and f*** her. Since they give us the recipes for crossbreeding their pale race, use it against her side. Let’s sexually overcome these stupid right wing females, for the survival of a smiling humanity. Because they are stupid and easily tricked, like game going to the hunter, things should be easier. Let’s create a curly descent (not German mind you!) let’s curlify this “other-hating” frightened France.” Refusing the advances of family planning, every pregnancy will result in a little half-breed or a mongrel, an artist that tomorrow she will eventually like. Blacks, Negroes, gooks, Jews, leftists, gypsies, disabled, Freemasons and even my gay friends in solidarity: bring up your hard d**ks! Let our consciences sleep under the pillow, and jump on the right-wing pussies offered — unfortunately sometimes pretty! Hail to a vast altruistic copulation! Provide multicolored descendants to the sinking country of France. With one goal: kill right-wing poison in the egg. As of yet, there has been no reaction from French authorities to this shockingly anti-White article. While most anti-Whites prefer to take a more subtle approach using code words like “diversity”, Lecoquierre is very blatant in saying what he wants: White genocide in France. THE CALL TO RAPE WHITE WOMEN “Blacks, Negroes, gooks, Jews . . . bring up your hard d**ks! . . . kill this right-wing poison in the egg!” Source LD: The same article in the original French can be read here. I have checked to see if the obscenities in the English version correspond to the French slang in the original. They do. Thus the English phrase “bring up your hard d**ks” seems a fair enough translation of the French “Haut les queues!” — “Up with your d**ks!” The word “queue” in French has many different meanings, including “tail” and “penis”. (See here) In case you think no Jew would recklessly call for the mass rape of White women, think again. Stalin’s propaganda minister, the Jew Ilya Ehrenberg, openly called for the mass rape of German women in WWII. This led to the rape and torture of 2 million German women under the most horrendous circumstances. Here is another prominent Jew calling for the mass rape, mutilation and burning alive of White women and children. (LD) |
We're deeply suspicious of the word 'consumerism'; it's become a stick with which to beat the modern world. Yet consumerism doesn’t have to be stupid. At its best, what the word refers to is a love of the fruits of the earth, a delight in human ingenuity and an appreciation of the vast achievements of organised labour and trade. This picture takes us to an instructive time when abundance was new and not to be taken for granted. The picture knows it was hard to get that lobster. They were still amazed - as we should be - that the world can be controlled enough to have lobster in a lemon-butter dressing and pigeon pie; that you can get many varieties of cheese. They knew that marshes had to be drained and cattle fed through the winter; and they were impressed that lemons could reach a northern table: perhaps these very fruits were carried by donkey from the Neapolitan hills down to the harbour, onto leaky wooden ships that braved storms and struggled with unreliable winds. They knew how hard this all was, and how astonishing that human beings could do this. They felt the beauty of trade and understood how easily it could be disrupted by blockades or war. Every pleasure of the table was sending money around Europe - a force for peace and prosperity. The picture remembers all this effort, and celebrates it. We are so afraid of greed that we forget how honourable the love of material things can be. In 1644 homage was still paid to the nobility of commerce; a concept that boredom and guilt make less accessible to us. Perhaps we can learn from this picture. A good response to consumerism mightn’t be to sacrifice these pleasures and live without lobster and lemons, but to appreciate what really needs to go into providing them. Our desire to have luxury cheaply is the real problem - to care only for the low price. If the route to your table were dignified and ethical at every stage, a lemon would of course cost more. But maybe then we’d stop taking lemons for granted and our appreciation of their zest would be all the keener. |
Today I’m going to be looking at a heavy weight in the DFH line up, the 1997 release Immort Ale. This was the first hint we got from DFH that there were big things on the horizon (as well as the first glimpse of all the maple syrup to come) as the beer clocks in at a substantial 11%ABV and is packed with all kinds of flavors. I don’t really have much of a lead in for this one, so let’s just taste. Dogfish Head’s Immort Ale, 12oz bottle, $16.99 a 4-pack. THEM: Immort is classified as an American Strong Ale. It is brewed with maple syrup, peat-smoked barley, juniper berries and vanilla. It is then fermented to 11%ABV with a combination of English and Belgian yeasts and then aged in oak tanks. It finishes out at 50IBUs with a non-specified hop. ME: Wow. This beer pours dark, but if you hold it up to the light it’s sporting a nice, deep, ruby red color. The carbonation and lacing are nice, considering the head fades pretty rapidly to just an island of bubbles on the top. The nose (oh, the nose) is an amazing combination of dark sweetness that comes across as maple, caramel malt and perhaps a touch of brown sugar thrown into the mix. There’s also a hint of wood/smoke to be had, as well as a subtle fruitiness that for lack of a better word I’ll describe as raisony. The flavor is really where the smoke shins through. The other aromas translate over to the flavor, but they’re in a supporting roll here as it’s the smoke that’s the main player. There’s a sweetness to this beer as you’d expect from all that dark, sugary stuff but it’s not cloying. In fact there’s a little smack of it after the finish (which doesn’t have any a strong hop bitterness) but not so much that it’s overwhelming by the end of the glass. Speaking of end of the glass, towards the end I found the Juniper berries peaking through. Not too aggressively, which is good because they’re not one of my favorite flavors. If you take the time to climb into this glass to see what it’s all about, I think you’ll really appreciate the complexity that’s going on. But if you were just drinking it to drink it, you might be a tad overwhelmed if you’re not a fan of smoke. Then again, if you love smoke, there probably isn’t enough. But then it would really drowned out the rest of what’s going on in the beer. This is a beer all about seasons. On a hot summers day, don’t open it. But if it’s a chilly autumn night or a cold winter’s afternoon, Immort is definitely your glass of beer. Which is pretty funny as Immort tends to be brewed in the spring, to coincide with the harvest season for maple syrup. I’m giving this a SIX-PACK. It’s big and it’s deep, and definitely deserves a place in your fridge. But it’s not a beer that you need a ton of (especially if you consider the $$). And although I’m not normally one for aging beers, this is one that might be fun to save a bottle until next years first snow. You never know what you might have. Time for another beer. Advertisements Share this: Twitter Print Facebook Email Google Tumblr Pinterest Reddit Like this: Like Loading... |
Public schools in the Northern Territory already provide value-building and there is no place for chaplains permanently on their grounds, the main body that represents families of those schools says. President of the Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO) Peter Garrigan told the ABC public schools risked becoming recruiting grounds for Christian groups under the federal government's plan. "When you put those people into a school you can't expect them not to proselytise, because that is their background, and therefore they are going to want to convert," Mr Garrigan said. He said NT government schools already had a very strong values based sytem with their students without chaplains and there was no place for religious figures permanently on their grounds. "It would be my advice that the money should be spent elsewhere," he said. Under plans outlined in the federal budget the government will spend $245m to be spent on chaplains in public schools, but funding under the program will no longer be allowed to be spent on secular counsellors or psychologists. "The mix of students that you have got in the Territory, provides a wealth of value-building, acceptance, the building of community that happens when your child is attending such a multicultural classroom is beyond calculation," Mr Garrigan said. "You can't look at it from a very focused Christian background when that is the role of the parent, or the parents, to ensure that their child gets the religious or moral upbringing that they want them to have, not the school or not the chaplaincy program as such," he said. Mr Garrigan said nearly all chaplains in Australia were Christian, and he agreed with the concerns of a talkback caller who questioned how Muslim children who needed counselling would be able to seek help under the new plans. Christian groups who had chaplains in schools in Victoria and Queensland have claimed strong success in gathering young children into the fold, he said. Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne has defended the decision to strip funding for counsellors and social workers from the school chaplaincy program, saying their inclusion was the responsibility of the states and territories. A call to the Catholic Education Office in Darwin seeking information on whether they would be seek to install priests in public schools was not immediately returned. |
Already making plans to move following a terrifying Bloomberg report earlier this week which said that China had ordered a ban to be put in place against all personal VPNs by February 1st, 2018? Well, not so fast! China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has told The Paper that, in fact, it has not sent out any orders to the country’s telecommunications providers regarding a forthcoming personal VPN ban, calling the Bloomberg piece — which cited anonymous insiders — “false.” Instead, the ministry simply pointed to a directive that it issued this January that cracked down on companies using unauthorized VPNs to conduct business. The new rules declared that all cable and VPN services must obtain prior government approval before being used for business activities that go across China’s borders. While these regulations may sound a bit scary, they are not targeted at personal VPNs. Rumors about forthcoming VPN bans are a regular fact of life for foreigners living in China that still never fail to cause a stir. However, many saw reports of this ban to be more plausible than most as China has recently stepped up efforts to safeguard its “cyber sovereignty” and strengthen its “Great Firewall.” For example, earlier this month, popular VPN service, GreenVPN, notified its users that it was being forced to shut down after “receiving a notice from regulatory departments.” But, at least for now, expats can apparently rest easy… well, maybe not too easy. |
Paul McGann has said that he still has hopes of returning to Doctor Who. The actor took part in Doctor Who's 50th anniversary celebration last year by appearing in the mini-episode 'The Night of the Doctor'. McGann later said it was a "real privilege" to play The Doctor again, and has now revealed that he would be open to reprising the role. He told Yahoo: "If the same thing were to happen again and [showrunner Steven] Moffat were to say, 'Would you come back and do it and I'll write it?' "Why wouldn't I want to do it? If it's going to be that quality, why wouldn't you want to do it?" McGann added that the focus of the series should remain on Peter Capaldi, who plays the latest incarnation of the Time Lord. The actor said: "There's always all kinds of rumours. Doctor Who is like a rumour mill, isn't it? 'Yeah, McGann is gonna do this, Matt is gonna do that, there's going to be a spin-off, blah blah blah'. Of course it's all bollocks because it's Moffat who decides what they're going to do next. "And of course, now you've got a new Doctor in Peter Capaldi - I think it's only fair that he gets a decent run on his own without any distractions so he gets his feet under the table." Capaldi's first full series of Doctor Who will air on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US in late 2014. |
Jeff Janis may have a chance to become the Packers’ No. 3 wide receiver, but he must first prove he can cut down mistakes running routes. Credit: Mike De Sisti SHARE Poll Does Jeff Janis have a chance to become the Packers’ No. 3 receiver? Yes No vote View Results Yes: 65% No: 35% Total Responses: 1218 By , On the first play of the Green Bay Packers' team drills Thursday — the very first play — Aaron Rodgers' throw to Jeff Janis was intercepted. The pass was behind Janis, which gave cornerback LaDarius Gunter the angle on the ball. But judging by Rodgers' reaction, Janis ran a bad route. Uh-oh. Or not. Yeah, the guy who couldn't get on the field last year because of poor route running apparently ran another bad route Thursday. What's up with that? Is he still not getting this? And if you want to know why it matters so much, Gunter's interception would have been a touchdown. That can be the difference between winning and losing a game. But this is exactly what the off-season is for. The Packers should be throwing to Janis again and again to see his mistakes and whether he learns. They can't treat him like they don't trust him, as they did last year. They need to let him botch a play and go back to him for more. Maybe they'll find out he's just not good enough, at least to fit into their top-four receiving rotation. But the bet here is if they push him, if they force-feed him and don't bench or ignore him after a mistake, he'll beat out Davante Adams for their No. 3 receiving job and add an element of speed their offense needs. Janis has almost every advantage on Adams physically. He's 2 inches taller (6 feet 2⅞ to Adams' 6-0⅞) and a little bigger (219 pounds to 215). He's significantly faster (4.42-second electronic time at the 2014 NFL scouting combine to Adams' 4.56 seconds) and outperformed him on all combine tests save the vertical jump (Adams' 39½ inches to Janis' 37½). The difference is, Adams went to a college (Fresno State) with a sophisticated passing game and caught 233 passes in two seasons there. Janis faced lesser players (Division II Saginaw Valley State), and though he put up good four-year numbers he basically ran only two routes: post and go. So for all his physical talents, Janis came into the league with limitations. Some are still there. But just imagine the difference for Randall Cobb and new tight end Jared Cook to have a second deep threat outside with Jordy Nelson. Adams isn't that guy. When the Packers drafted Adams in the second round in 2014, they thought he'd make plays downfield by jumping over defensive backs. His low average-per-catch as a rookie (11.7 yards on 38 catches) and again last season (9.7 yards on 50 catches) suggest otherwise. With Nelson back from an ACL tear, I'm sure Rodgers can put up plenty of points with a possession receiver as his No. 3. But for the Packers to be a truly dynamic offense, and to threaten even the best defenses they'll face, they'll need more speed on the field. You have to think general manager Ted Thompson drafted fifth-round rookie Trevor Davis (4.42-second 40) with exactly that in mind. I can't say for sure whether Janis will be that guy. Only two off-season practices have been open to media. The interception was the lone throw to him that I saw Thursday in 11-on-11. That's not much to go on. Maybe he's a good special-teams player and that's it. But last year he did enough in the three games in which injuries forced him onto the field (San Diego, at Minnesota and in the playoffs at Arizona) to think he'll make plays that Adams can't. Janis wasn't in the locker room after Thursday's OTA practice, so I didn't get the chance to talk to him about the interception in practice, or what he's been doing to improve as a route runner. But Nelson was around. Nelson developed slowly as a 2008 second-round pick, though still much faster than Janis. He said it took until training camp his third season to feel like he'd made a breakthrough with Rodgers. "It takes reps," Nelson said. "For everyone. That's going to be all in practice and in the film room. There are questions that get asked in the film room, and the way you answer those makes a difference. And the way you practice on a daily basis makes a difference. It's all about reps, and it's reps with Aaron, not just reps on the field. Every rep counts, but reps with Aaron weigh more." I'm sure there's a hint of what's been hindering Janis in there. Always be prepared for meetings. Treat practice snaps like a game. But it works both ways. The Packers last year kept playing Adams and throwing him the ball even when the results weren't there. He got chance after chance after chance. Janis has physical talent that Adams doesn't. Will they give him the same benefit of the doubt now? Pete Dougherty is a columnist for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. |
OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada — A bill that would add gender identity to the list of classes protected from discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act cleared a Senate committee on Monday. The measure will now head to the Senate for a third reading, and the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Grant Mitchell, is hopeful the bill will pass. Mitchell said last month that he had confirmation from 16 Conservative senators that they will vote in favor of the bill. “But you don’t know until you actually get there. If all 16 voted with us, then it would pass. It would be a little bit close, but it would pass,” Mitchell said. The bill was approved in the House of Commons on March 20 by a vote of 149 to 137, and was opposed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A final vote on the bill is expected by the end of this month. If passed, it will require royal assent before becoming law. The granting of royal assent is the method by which Her Majesty, Elizabeth II, formally approves an act of Canada’s Parliament. This is granted less ceremonially by a letter of patent to the Governor-General who merely signs the bill. This Story Filed Under |
Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email DAVID Cameron is pressing ahead with plans to force an independence referendum ahead of Alex Salmond’s 2014 poll. In a move that will add to tension between Westminster and Holyrood, the PM plans to amend the Scotland Bill to force the SNP to ask the “in or out” question within 18 months of the Bill being passed. Scotland Office Ministers in Whitehall are frustrated over the lack of progress at two negotiation meetings with Salmond this month and are now ready to step up the argument for a one-question referendum “sooner rather than later”. According to a timetable set out by the Scotland Office, an indy poll could be held in 2013. Scotland Office Minister David Mundell insisted last night that they would not be the first to blink in the constitutional stand-off. He said: “We can’t back down. We would rather agree the referendum through conciliation but if that doesn’t work in the short term, then we have to keep all options open.” Cameron has offered to transfer powers to hold a constitutional referendum to Holyrood to prevent the issue being delayed in the courts by a legal challenge. But in return for new powers for Holyrood, he wants a single-question poll instead of Salmond’s multi-option preference. |
Inmates are threatening to stage another hunger strike at the Toronto South Detention Centre to protest what they say are increasingly routine lockdowns, according to a corrections union official. Being reguarly locked down inside cells like this one in the Toronto South Detention Centre sparked an inmate hunger strike last week, which might resume this week, according to a corrections union official. ( Bernard Weil / Toronto Star ) Last week, inmates refused meals for three days in an effort to call attention to the situation. In a phone interview, inmate and strike organizer Jordan Brown said there have been 111 lockdowns since he arrived at the west-end superjail in February. “I think that dogs with the Humane Society have more freedom than we’re getting in this jail,” he said. The total number of lockdowns across Ontario’s provincial jails have more than tripled since 2009, rising from 259 to 900 last year. Inmates at Toronto South, in particular, have complained about being frequently confined to their 12-by-8-foot cell, without access to showers, yard time or visits from family or lawyers. A lockdown can last a few hours or drag on for days. Article Continued Below After negotiations with prison staff, the inmates put their hunger strike on hold Friday, said Monte Vieselmeyer, corrections division chair of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. But they plan to resume the strike if nothing is done about their concerns. In addition to the issue of routine lockdowns, the prisoners’ concerns include not having enough TV time and water leaking from the showers, making floors dangerously slippery. “They basically stated that if nothing was rectified (this) week, they would return to their hunger strike,” Vieselmeyer said. The number of lockdowns cited by Brown could not be confirmed by the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, because the ministry only tracks lockdowns due to staffing shortages, not security reasons, according to a spokesperson for the ministry. Staffing shortages can result from a number of causes including “vacation leaves, sick calls or other types of leave,” the spokesperson added. Three days into the hunger strike, Brown said he and the other inmates were starting to feel the effect of going days without eating. “I’m feeling fatigued. . . I’ve had no food, just water,” Brown said Thursday. “We’re willing to go as far as it takes . . . Something has to be done about this situation.” Toronto South was billed as a model, state-of-the-art maximum-security facility when it opened in January 2014, to replace the Don Jail and the Toronto West Detention Centre. Article Continued Below But since last January, Ontario’s ombudsman has received 50 complaints about lockdowns there — about three times more than at any other jail in the province. “I’ve been in eight other institutions,” Brown said. “In terms of lockdowns, this is by far the worst.” Toronto defence lawyer Karen McArthur has represented clients who have spent time inside the jail. She said they describe a situation that’s unacceptable and inhumane. “Generally four out of seven days in a week, two men are locked in a cell and they slide your meals through,” she said. “You don’t get out to shower, you can’t use the phone . . . you can’t get a change of clothes, you can’t exercise . . . Nothing.” Figures provided by the ministry show Toronto South was on partial or full lockdown due to staff absences for 52 days between Jan. 1 and June 31 this year. Numbers for July and August were unavailable. Prisons across Ontario often have to declare lockdowns because of staffing shortages, Vieselmeyer noted. “When they’re locked down it makes our jobs that much more difficult,” he said. “We’ve seen an escalation on the numbers of assaults on our staff and offenders. “If this isn’t dealt with, and there are further hunger strikes connected with this issue, it’s going to be a much bigger problem for front-line staff.” In a statement emailed to the Star, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services confirmed that the prisoners had refused to eat. “While working to transform our correctional system, our top priority is always the safety and security of both staff and inmates within our correctional facilities and lockdowns are necessary at times to keep both staff and inmates safe,” the statement said. With files from Geoffrey Vendeville |
John Abeel III (born between 1732 and 1746–February 18, 1836),[2] known as Gaiänt'wakê (Gyantwachia - ″the planter″) or Kaiiontwa'kon (Kaintwakon - "By What One Plants") in the Seneca language and thus generally known as Cornplanter, was a Seneca war chief and diplomat of the Wolf clan. As a chief warrior, Cornplanter fought in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War. In both wars, the Seneca and three other Iroquois nations were allied with the British. After the war Cornplanter led negotiations with the United States and was a signatory of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784). He helped gain Iroquois neutrality during the Northwest Indian War. In the postwar years, Cornplanter worked to learn more about European-American ways and invited Quakers to establish schools in Seneca territory. Disillusioned by his people's poor reaction to European-American society, he had the schools closed and followed his half-brother Handsome Lake's movement returning to the traditional Seneca way and religion. The United States government granted him about 1500 acres of former Seneca territory in Pennsylvania in 1796 for "him and his heirs forever", which became known as the Cornplanter Tract. Still occupied by his descendants and holding his and many of their graves, the tract was planned by the federal government to be flooded as the site of a man-made reservoir after 1965 by completion of the Kinzua Dam on the Allegheny River. The remains of Cornplanter, his descendants, and an 1866 monument to him were relocated. Most of the remaining residents were forced to relocate to the Allegany Reservation of the federally recognized Seneca Nation of New York; they lost much of their fertile farmland. Early life [ edit ] Cornplanter was born between 1732 and 1746 at Canawaugus (now in the Town of Caledonia) on the Genesee River in present-day New York State. He was the son of a Seneca woman, Gah-hon-no-neh (She Who Goes to the River), and a Dutch trader, Johannes "John" Abeel II.[3] The Dutch had settled in the area generations before, and Cornplanter's father, an Albany fur trader, was part of an established family. The Abeel family name was sometimes Gaelicized to O'Bail, O'Beal and Abeele. John Abeel II (1722–1794) was connected to the Schuyler family, leaders in business and politics. The grandfather after whom he was named, Johannes Abeel I (1667-1711), was a trader and merchant who built up links with the indigenous people along his trade routes, and who served as the second mayor of Albany, later the capital of New York. The younger John Abeel was a gunsmith and was gladly accepted into the Indian community to repair their guns. Cornplanter was raised by his mother among the Seneca. His Seneca name, Gaiänt'wakê (often spelled Gyantwachia), means "the planter," and another variation, Kaintwakon, means "by what one plants." As the Seneca and other Iroquois nations had a matrilineal system of kinship, Cornplanter was considered a member of his mother's clan, the Wolf Clan, which included many leaders in the relations between settlers and Indians, and gained his status from them.[4] Males of the Wolf clan had a traditional function as war chiefs. War chief [ edit ] Cornplanter first became known as war chief of the Seneca when they allied with the French against the English during the French and Indian War (part of the Seven Years' War between the European nations). He was present at Braddock's defeat.[5] During the American Revolution, both Cornplanter and his uncle, Chief Guyasutha, wanted the Iroquois nations to remain neutral.[citation needed] He believed the Iroquois should stay out of the white man's war. "War is war," he told other Iroquois. "Death is death. A fight is a hard business."[citation needed] Both the British and the American Patriots had urged the Iroquois nations to stay neutral.[dubious – discuss] Both sides initially told Indians that there was no need for their involvement. When the fighting between the Colonists and the British heated up, however; both sides tried to recruit the Iroquois as allies. The British offered large amounts of goods, specifically rum and other goods, and built on their long trading relationship. The Iroquois League met together at Oswego in July 1777, to vote on their decision. Although Guysutha and Cornplanter voted for neutrality, when the majority of chiefs voted to side with the British, they both honored the majority decision. Because of the status of the Seneca as war chiefs among the Iroquois, most of the Iroquois Confederacy followed suit. Still, bands often made their own decisions as the people were highly decentralized. The Iroquois named Sayenqueraghta and Cornplanter as war chiefs of the four nations that allied with the British: the Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga and Cayuga. Cornplanter joined forces with the Loyalist Lt. Colonel John Butler and his rangers at the 1778 Battle of Wyoming Valley in present-day Pennsylvania. They killed many settlers and destroyed their properties, in what the rebel Americans called the Wyoming Massacre. Fighting on the frontier was fierce. Patriot forces under Colonel Thomas Hartley burned the Seneca village of Tioga. In reprisal, Cornplanter and Mohawk war chief Joseph Brant participated in the 1778 Loyalist-Iroquois attacks led by Captain Walter Butler and Butler's Rangers in Cherry Valley, New York. The Americans called these events the Cherry Valley Massacre. During this offensive many unarmed patriot civilians were killed or captured. During this campaign, Cornplanter's men happened to capture his father Johannes Abeel after burning his house. Cornplanter, who had once gone as a young man to see Abeel, recognized him and offered apology. He invited Abeel to return with the Seneca or to go back to his white family. When his father chose the latter, Cornplanter had Seneca warriors accompany him in safety.[citation needed] After the victories of the Loyalist and Iroquois forces, commander-in-chief General George Washington commissioned Major General John Sullivan to invade Six Nation territory throughout New York and destroy Iroquois villages. At the Battle of Newtown, Sullivan defeated Iroquois and British troops. But Sullivan and his army of 5,000 men caused greater damage in their scorched earth campaign. They methodically destroyed Iroquois villages, farms, stored crops and animals between May and September 1779 throughout the Iroquois homeland (upstate and western New York).[6] Cornplanter, along with Brant, Old Smoke, and Lt. Colonel John Butler, fought a desperate delaying action in order to allow the escape of many refugees, both Native and non-Native, who went to Canada. Surviving Iroquois suffered terribly during the following months in what they called "the winter of the deep snow." Many froze or starved to death. Cornplanter and Seneca warriors continued to fight with the British against the Patriots, hoping to expel the colonists from their territory. Post-Revolutionary War years [ edit ] With Britain's final defeat in the war, Cornplanter recognized the need for a positive diplomatic relationship with the fledgling government of what the Iroquois called the "Thirteen Fires." He became a negotiator in disputes between the new "Americans" and the Seneca, as well as other indigenous tribes. He was a signatory of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), although this treaty was never ratified by the Iroquois. He also participated in later meetings with both presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.[4] After the American Revolution, Native Americans west of the Allegheny Mountains mounted a resistance to the European-American settlers in the Northwest Indian War in Ohio and Indiana, hoping to repulse the Americans. Cornplanter kept the Iroquois neutral in this conflict. In addition, he tried to negotiate with the Shawnee on behalf of the U.S. In 1790, Cornplanter and his brother Half-Town (also a chief) traveled to Philadelphia to meet with President George Washington and Pennsylvania Governor Thomas Mifflin; they were protesting the current treatment of their people. Cornplanter and Half-Town extracted an agreement from Washington and Mifflin to protect Iroquois land.[7] Cornplanter made many trips to the cities to strengthen relationships and talk with those who were interested in his people. He tried to learn the ways of the European Americans, as he saw it necessary for future relations between the Haudenosaunee and Americans. He was impressed by the beliefs and practice of the Quakers. He invited them to educate his son and develop schools in Seneca territory. He and his half-brother, the religious leader Handsome Lake, strongly opposed the use of liquor among the Seneca. During the War of 1812, Cornplanter supported the American cause, convincing his people to do so as well. At one point he offered to bring two hundred warriors to assist the U.S., but his offer was refused. He allowed Quakers into his village to help the Seneca learn new skills when they could no longer rely on hunting or the fur trade as a way of life. He also encouraged men to join the women working in the fields to help increase their farming economy. Quaker Run was developed as one of the first white settlements in Western New York; it is now abandoned and part of Allegany State Park. Eventually, Cornplanter became disillusioned with his relationship with the Americans. To help fight the drunkenness and despair suffered by many Indians, his half-brother Handsome Lake preached that the Iroquois must return to the traditional way of life and take part in religious ceremonies. Cornplanter felt his people were poorly treated by the Americans. He heeded Handsome Lake's prophecy that they should return to tradition and turn away from assimilation to white ways. He burned his military uniform, broke his sword, and destroyed his medals. He closed the schools but did not completely break relations with the Quakers; he retained a relationship of love and respect with them. Cornplanter also occasionally expressed his disdain for white men; upon taking a short ride on the first steamboat to navigate the upper Allegheny River, Cornplanter, while generally impressed with the boat, quipped that "white men will do anything to avoid using their muscles."[8] Cornplanter Tract [ edit ] In gratitude for his assistance to the state, the federal government gave Cornplanter a grant of 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) in Pennsylvania in 1796 along the western bank of the Allegheny River (about three miles (5 km) below the southern boundary of New York state), allotting it to him and his heirs "forever".[4] By 1798, 400 Seneca lived on the land, which was called the Cornplanter Tract or Cornplanter Grant (Cayuga: Gyonǫhsade:gęh [9]). In 1821 Warren County, Pennsylvania tried to force Cornplanter to pay taxes for his land, which he protested on the basis that the land had been "granted" to him by the U.S. government. After much talk, the state finally agreed that the Cornplanter Tract was exempt. Family [ edit ] Cornplanter was a younger half-brother to Handsome Lake (Sganyadai:yo, ca. 1735-1815), a Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois. He was uncle to Governor Blacksnake (Thaonawyuthe, ca. 1760-1859),[10] a Seneca war chief. Like Cornplanter, Thaonawyuthe had an exceptionally long life for a man of his times. Cornplanter married and had children. His son Henry Abeel (spelled Henry Abeele in federal documents) was an interpreter present at the Treaty of Canandaigua negotiations. In the winter of 1790, Cornplanter spent a year in Pennsylvania, during which he attended several Quaker gatherings. He was not converted by these gatherings, but he was impressed enough to send Henry and his other children to the Quaker school the following year. This sparked a continuing relationship between Cornplanter and the Quaker community. Cornplanter's descendants typically used the last name Abeel (or variants thereof) during his lifetime. By the 20th century they had generally begun using the surname Cornplanter and continued to be prominent members of the Seneca community. Much of the Abeel/Cornplanter family died as a result of the 1918 flu pandemic.[11] Artist Jesse Cornplanter was his last known direct descendant (1889–1957).[12] Cornplanter Monument [ edit ] Cornplanter died on his Tract in 1836. He requested a grave with no marker. In 1866 the State of Pennsylvania installed a monument over his grave, "believed to be first monument erected in honor of a Native American in the United States."[13] Hon. James Ross Snowden of Philadelphia gave the dedicatory address, saying in part: He was a dauntless warrior and wisest statesman of his nation, the patriarch of this tribe and the peacemaker of his race. He was a model man from nature’s mould. Truth, temperance, justice and humanity, never had a nobler incarnation or more earnest and consistent advocate then he. As we loved him personally, and revere the nobel, manly character he bore, we erect this tribute to his memory, that those who live after us may know and imitate his virtues.[13] Relocation of Cornplanter's cemetery after Kinzua Dam construction [ edit ] In 1965, the new federal Kinzua Dam at Warren, Pennsylvania was completed, soon permanently flooding all but a small corner of the Cornplanter Tract, as it created the Allegheny Reservoir for flood control.[14] Cornplanter's grave, including the Cornplanter Monument, was subsequently moved to higher ground, at the Riverview-Corydon Cemetery, located in Elk Township, Warren County, Pennsylvania.[15][16] "The grounds are located west of the north central Pennsylvania town of Bradford just about 100 yards from the New York state line. The cemetery contains what are believed to be the remains of Cornplanter", and some 300 of his descendants and followers.[17] This property has eroded over the years, threatening the preservation of this important cemetery. The Seneca are reminded of their losses due to this damage.[18] In 2009 the state made plans to try to protect the cemetery.[19] The State of Pennsylvania erected an honorary marker at the site in 1966, after the original Cornplanter Tract was being submerged.[4] Most of the Seneca were relocated to lands in the Allegany Reservation in New York. Legacy [ edit ] Biographies [ edit ] Novel [ edit ] Harold Thomas Beck (2001). Cornplanter Chronicles. Mountain Laurel Pub. Corp. ISBN 9781929382019 . [29] |
CD Projekt have announced a title for their crazy-exciting cyberpunk RPG, based on the pen-and-paper game, er, Cyberpunk. That was set in 2020, a piddly eight years from now, but the Witcher devs' upcoming epic will take place around fifty years later, which is probably why they've decided to name it Cyberpunk 2077. While they were at it, CDP also set up a Cyberpunk blog , and revealed a few more details about the game. As Rock Paper, Shotgun reports , the game's going to centred around the aptly named Night City (well, aptly named if you only go there at night), with locations including "the legendary Afterlife joint" and "the nostalgic Forlorn Hope". I'll be honest, those names mean nothing - Cyberpunk players, feel free to illuminate me in the comments. With no screenshots or gameplay videos accompanying the announcement, that's pretty much all we have to go on at the moment, but we're going to be keeping at least two eyes on the blog, where the developers - and Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith - have already weighed in with some interesting thoughts about the game. If you didn't fully grasp the new title, or you'd rather it was explained in video form, you're in luck: |
A woman found naked with severe burns, hiding in a bush at an apartment complex in Kissimmee is now suspected of arson and attempted murder. Thursday afternoon Alberto Rosario was on his way to a friend's home at the Polo South Apartments when he saw a naked woman pop out of a bush. "She was saying, 'Help me! Help me!' Then she said don't call the cops. Then I saw all the burns all over her and I knew something happened so I just called the ambulance," Rosario said. Investigators said the burned woman is 32-year-old Giodenny Castillo-Ricardo. Just 14 hours before popping out of the bush, Castillo-Ricardo allegedly doused a home in the Venetian Bay Villages in gasoline. It all happened at 2:35 a.m. Thursday morning. The only person inside heard an explosion and jumped out of the second story window to survive the fire. Police believe Castillo-Ricardo intended to harm the family of three who lived in the home. No one else was inside the home at the time of the fire. When the rest of the family came home they recognized a set of car keys and a phone left outside, and told investigators those belong to a family member’s girlfriend, Castillo-Ricardo. She was arrested in May for domestic violence. Now investigators are trying to retrace Castillo-Ricardo's steps to see if someone helped her or if she hid naked in the nearby woods or the bushes for 14 hours. "It's pretty scary. You walk in your backyard and you see someone lying like that," said Dawn Turner, who lives in the Pollo South Apartment Complex. Although this was the first time Castillo-Ricardo was caught and arrested for arson, investigators now believe she may be connect to another fire. In May a separate fire on Spitfire Avenue was reported. That home belongs to one of Castillo-Ricardo's former co-workers. Kissimmee Police is now investigating to see if that fire was also started by Castillo-Ricardo. Castillo-Ricardo was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center where she was treated for her burns. She is being held there without bond. |
- The operator of the Port of Oakland's second-largest terminal filed for bankruptcy on Monday less than two weeks after it suddenly announced ceasing operations about seven years into a 50-year lease. Ports America announced on Jan. 19 it would wind down operations at the port's Outer Harbor terminal over the next 90 days, saying it wanted to concentrate on other West Coast ports. But in court filings today as Ports America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company said it has been operating at a loss for years in Oakland and is expecting to have difficulty immediately paying its utility bills as it winds down its operations, estimated to be about $221,500 per month. For now, Ports America remains in the facility, still owes rent to the port and there is cleanup that needs to be done before it leaves Outer Harbor for good on March 31, Zampa said. The Port of Oakland has been left suddenly redirecting cargo from Outer Harbor to the port's other four terminals. While they have the capacity to absorb the excess cargo they will need to make some efficiency improvements to avoid backups, port spokesman Michael Zampa said today. "We're still moving very aggressively to redirect all the ships and containers to other terminals in the port," Zampa said. "The goal as we've said all along is that no ships and no cargo leave Oakland." Whether Ports America's bankruptcy petition would negatively impact that process was not immediately clear, but port officials said they were "disappointed" and that it indicates a lack of cooperation in the transition on the part of Ports America. "We've been negotiating with them in good faith for a smooth orderly transition that protects the interests of shipping lines, cargo owners and others who depend on the terminal," port executive director Chris Lytle said in a statement. "It's a shame they've taken this step." Ports America had signed a 50-year lease to operate on the 208-acre facility early in 2009. Most leases at the Port of Oakland last for only 10 or 15 years, but Ports America signed the exceptionally long lease while promising to make improvements to the terminal's infrastructure. Zampa said the port is now actively looking for a partner who would help modernize equipment at the terminal. "There was not investment to the degree required to keep that facility up to date or as modern as it could be," Zampa said. "Work needs to be done there and we're looking for a partner who's willing to participate in that." Zampa said the port has been making good progress in negotiations with potential partners and is open to a wide variety of uses for the land beyond cargo container shipping. The port hopes to announce a new tenant soon, though future tenants may rent only part of the large property. |
Story highlights Eight other suspected colleagues were arrested in June Suspected leader of cell taken into custody in Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Morocco coast Suspects have sent fighters into Syria, court order says The alleged leader of an Islamic militant cell in Spain who escaped arrest in June when eight of his suspected colleagues were detained has been taken into custody, the Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday. The suspect, Yassin Ahmed Laarbi, a Spaniard, was arrested Monday in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Morocco's north coast, where the eight other suspects also were detained on June 21, an Interior Ministry statement said. The suspected cell was "a structure based in Spain, with connections in Morocco, Belgium, Turkey and Syria, dedicated to radicalizing, recruiting and sending mujahedeen (fighters) to Syria with the aim of conducting jihad and achieving martyrdom," according to a court order issued in June In that order, Judge Ismael Moreno of Spain's National Court ruled that the eight suspected Islamic militants should remain in prison on preliminary charges alleging membership in a terrorist group. The group has connections to the Jabhat al-Nusra front, described as an active al Qaeda group in and around Syria, and to the Iraq Islamic State in Iraq, but "there are increasing references to carrying out jihad at home," the judge warned at the time, referring to potential attacks in Spain. The eight suspects sent at least 12 Spanish or Moroccan males, from both Ceuta and Morocco, to fight in Syria, the judge wrote. At least five died in suicide attacks in Syria that caused numerous casualties. One of the males was a minor; it was not immediately clear if he was among those who had died. Some of the eight suspects intended to go to Syria, the judge added. Monday's Interior Ministry statement said that Laarbi also "was a candidate to join up with those terrorist groups in Syria." He was not at his home June 21 when the other suspects were arrested, the statement said. The judge's order in June identified the suspected leader as Spaniard Karin Abdeselam Mohamed, 39. But the Interior Ministry statement on Monday said Laarbi was the "suspected maximum leader" of the cell. Spanish police in June said the suspected cell was based in Ceuta and in the nearby Moroccan city of Fnideq. Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain that borders Morocco. |
Mr. Reid, who is embroiled in a difficult re-election battle in Nevada and a bruising legislative fight over health care on Capitol Hill, had already been fighting speculation that he might step down. Republicans sharply criticized him for the comments, but there were no indications that his Democratic allies would abandon him. While Mr. Obama has acknowledged that his race has played a role in his rapid national rise, he has long sought to prevent race from being a distraction to his political campaigns and his agenda. The White House swiftly issued a statement, aides said, in an effort to keep the controversy from interfering with a final push on health care legislation and from setting back one of the party’s leaders in the mid-term elections. The call from Mr. Reid was the latest in a string of apologies Mr. Obama has accepted over the years, underscoring the sometimes uneasy evolution of race and politics in America. Three years ago, then-Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware told the New York Observer that Mr. Obama was “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” Photo Mr. Obama accepted Mr. Biden’s apology and more than a year later selected him as the Democratic vice presidential nominee. The relationship between the president and Mr. Reid has been strong since Mr. Obama arrived in Washington as a senator in 2005. One year later, Mr. Reid encouraged Mr. Obama to think about running for president. The comments by Mr. Reid were contained in the book written by the political journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. He made the remark to the authors in the context of praising Mr. Obama’s political skills. An aide to Mr. Reid said the comments about how he believed the country would accept Mr. Obama, whose father was black and mother was white, were not intended for use in the book. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. In Washington and in Nevada, the exchange set off something of a political furor for Mr. Reid. One adviser said that Mr. Reid’s aggressive response was an attempt to avoid the fate of a recent Republican majority leader, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi , who stepped down after making a racially tinged remark in 2002. In contrast to Mr. Reid’s endorsement of a black candidate, Mr. Lott appeared to endorse the long-past segregationist candidacy of Strom Thurmond . The National Republican Senatorial Committee on Saturday circulated comments that Mr. Reid made during the Lott controversy. Mr. Reid said at the time: “If you tell ethnic jokes in the back room, it’s that much easier to say ethnic things publicly. I’ve always practiced how I play.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina , the No. 3 Democrat in the House, was among the black leaders who received a call from Mr. Reid. Mr. Clyburn said that Mr. Reid should be judged on the merits of his record to respond to diversity and to advance the president’s agenda. “I am one of those who wish to one day live in a color-blind nation,” Mr. Clyburn said. “But the fact is that none of us do today.” The Rev. Al Sharpton of New York offered his support for Mr. Reid after receiving a telephone call from him. He said that while Mr. Reid “did not select the best word choice in this instance,” the comments should not distract Congress or the White House. The remark from Mr. Reid is one of several items in the book that present new assertions from the 2008 presidential campaign. |
JEFF Kennett has made a grovelling apology after blasting the ABC over claims it failed to approach Channel 7 for a report about a cadet journalist who was walked from the office after being accused of bullying. A phone recording by 27-year-old cadet Amy Taeuber broadcast on the ABC’s 7:30 Report, showed the young worker was immediately asked to leave the building by Human Resources (HR) after being presented with allegations she had bullied a fellow staff member. Mr Kennett, who is on the Seven West Media board, this morning apologised for his Twitter outburst which slammed the ABC for not seeking comment. “I apologise. I have now been informed ABC contacted 7 Mon afternoon, just before your deadline,” he said. “My comment of no contact incorrect and for that I apologise.” Yet he stood by claims the report was “unbalanced”. media_camera Sophie and Amy Taeuber were reportedly both fired from Channel Seven and now run their own PR company. Pics: Supplied. Channel 7 said yesterday Amy was fired due to a “breach of contract” rather than other allegations. “We reject the completely the claim we do not act fairly and supportively at all times with members of our staff,” a spokesperson told News Corp Australia. It said Ms Taeuber cadet was fired “many weeks afterwards following meetings and discussions when the former employee was represented by two successive firms of lawyers and the union.” “It is untrue to say that she was not represented,” the company said. Ms Tauber last night thanked members of the public for “overwhelming support” on the issue. She tweeted: “Thank you to everyone for the overwhelming support. It means the world. To those that have emailed — I will try to get back to you all.” The former cadet at Seven News in Adelaide also tweeted a picture of herself with high-profile journalist Tracey Spicer at a Women in Media event on Tuesday night. So lovely to see the amazing @TraceySpicer again. A true inspiration to all women in the media 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/4MoDfr9eID — Amy Taeuber (@amytaeuber) September 26, 2017 In the audio — made by Ms Taeuber to protect her legal rights — a HR representative can be heard telling Chief of Staff Lesley Johns to leave the call despite her protest that was “disappointing”. A male news director remains present while Ms Taeuber is presented with a letter detailing bullying allegations and told she will have her phone and ID pass stripped from her immediately. “We find that instead of wiping phones from Seven’s IT access it’s just easier for us just to relieve people from their phones,” the HR manager tells the cadet. “Is this actually for real?” she asks. “Absolutely” the HR manager says in reply before Ms Taeuber reads the allegations against her and asks for details over who made them. “I would like to know who has made these allegations ... they’re completely absurd. Oh my goodness is this real?” “I’ve worked so hard to get this job and I know people are just trying to get rid of me now and it’s just really upsetting,” Ms Taeuber said, according to 7:30. “I don’t really deserve any of this for standing up and having a problem with someone calling me a lesbian.” She is offered the chance to “pick up her handbag and go” but said she would not like to return to her desk because “it’s quite humiliating.” “This is disgusting. I’ve done nothing wrong I’ve not done any of this and I’m requesting to have the statement of the person who made these allegations,” she said. “I am being bullied in this workplace and you guys are doing nothing and you guys are in on this bullying now because this is just absurd,” she said. media_camera The Taeuber triplets — Amy, Sophie, Kate — are moving on from the Seven saga and starting a doco series where they try fad diets. Pictured at Nutrition Republic at Plant 4 Bowden. Picture: Tom Huntley The Media, Entertainment Arts Alliance Union said it was “concerned and deeply frustrated” that media companies treat sexual harassment allegations “with contempt”. “This was certainly the case in the matter involving a now former Seven Network cadet journalist in Adelaide, whose case highlights the timely need for senior media executives — who are predominantly men — to take direct responsibility for ensuring the toxic culture that allows sexual harassment to be perpetuated, that protects perpetrators and that fails to protect the most vulnerable employees, is stamped out for good,” it said. The Committee of Women in Media Victoria expressed their support publicly, saying harassment of female journalists and a reluctance to address the issue is “all too common” in Australia. “Seven Network’s decision to escalate the harassment by allegedly undermining the complainant suggests a troubling corporate culture. We would like to comment Ms Taeuber for speaking out in defence of her rights,” the group said. Ms Taeuber, a triplet, now runs a company with her sisters Sophie and Kate called the PR Bible. |
Via John Murphy, MAJOR STOCK INDEXES ENTER CORRECTION TERRITORY... After suffering the worst start to a new year in history, the U.S. stock market has entered correction territory which is defined by a drop of 10% from its old high. The charts pretty much speak for themselves. All three major stock indexes fell to three month lows in heavy trading. The next downside target is the two lows formed in August and late September. What the indexes do from there will determine whether the current downturn is just a correction or something more serious. Unfortunately, some portions of the market have already broken those support levels. SMALL AND MIDCAPS BREAK SUPPORT... Relative weakness in small and midsize stocks gave early warnings in December that the yearend rally was mainly a large cap affair and too narrow to continue. That situation has gotten a lot worse since then. Charts 4 and 5 show the Russell 2000 Small Cap and the S&P 400 Mid Cap indexes falling below their 2015 lows. That puts them at the lowest level since October 2014. That's another important test for them and the rest of the market. TRANSPORTS ENTER BEAR MARKET TERRITORY... Chart 6 shows the Dow Jones Transportation Average falling to the lowest level in two years. It has lost -25% from its late 2014 high which puts it into bear market territory. What's surprising is that the transports haven't gotten any help from plunging energy prices. That may carry bad news for Dow Theorists who link the direction of the transports with the Dow Industrials. It may carry good news for the Dow Utilities, however, which are showing more resilience. Chart 7 shows the Dow Utilities holding up a lot better than everything else. It was the only market sector to register a gain during the week. Its relative strength line (top of chart) is rising as well. Since utilities are considered bond proxies, their relative strength large reflects the recent rotation out of stocks and into bonds. BOND/STOCK RATIO FAVORS BONDS... As usually happens when stocks fall, bond prices are rising. That's especially true of longer-dated Treasury bonds. The green line in Chart 8 is a ratio of the 7-10 Year Treasury Bond ishares divided by the S&P 500 SPDRs. The ratio spiked last August when stocks tumbled. The ratio has spiked again to the highest level in three months. Bond prices are also benefitting from the deflationary impact from falling commodity prices. Two other assets attracting safe haven buying are gold and the Japanese yen. Some measures of foreign stocks (both developed and emerging) have already fallen to 52-week lows. That doesn't bode well for U.S. stocks which are now in the riskiest position since the bull market started seven years ago. |
Due to the potential economic and gameplay advantages of access to the QA server, QA Bug Forums, and Release Instructions prior to a Release we are no longer going to make those exclusive to Dev+. Starting with next release (Release 45) access to the QA server, QA Bug Forums and early drafts of the Release Instructions will be available to ALL paying backers regardless of level. This will put everyone on a level playing field and remove any potential advantages. Please accept our sincere apologies that our previous policy has allowed some players to gain advantage over others. This was entirely our fault and we hope to avoid this kind of advantage from taking place in the future. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on this matter and alerted us to the problem so that we could change our policy. NOTE: Dev+ Forums and access to them will remain unchanged. Only access to the QA servers (and associated bug forums) is changing. Click to expand... |
First asylum seekers could be told of status within weeks, says leaked document on Nauru government letterhead Asylum seekers detained on Nauru who are found to be refugees will be given a five-year working visa for Nauru, a leaked document obtained by Guardian Australia says. The first decisions are due to be handed down in a few weeks’ time. Guardian Australia also understands that a week-long water shortage at the Australian immigration detention centre on the island has resulted in blocked toilets and no showers for the hundreds of children, families and pregnant women detained there. Flooding from rainfall has also prevented some contractors entering the family compound in the past few days. The first group of asylum seekers to be given the chance of settling in Nauru will be informed of their status “in the coming weeks”, says the document, which bears the Nauruan government’s coat of arms. Screenshot of the refugee resettlement document bearing the Nauru government coat of arms. Photograph: Guardian A batch of determinations, affecting at least 60 people each time, will then be made on a monthly basis. This detail was announced by the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, earlier in April. The document states that asylum seekers who are deemed to be refugees will be “settled in Nauru for a period of up to five years”. It also informs asylum seekers that they can “still decide to return home at any time”. However, refugees will also be warned that if they break any Nauruan law while awaiting their determination they will be considered “not of good character” and potentially denied settlement. Significantly this includes “any protest activity”. “Even if you are found to be a refugee you may not be settled in the Nauru community if you are not of good character,” the document warns. If they are found to be a refugee, a detainee will be assigned a “settlement caseworker” to help them find accommodation, and with health, education and cultural orientation services, the document says. The Nauruan government is promising to help refugees start small businesses. Several locations are being prepared in Nauru for the resettlement of refugees, Guardian Australia understands. Asylum seekers who are found to not be refugees will be able to appeal the decision, although no legal representation will be provided. A spokesman for Morrison's office said water supply had been affected by a water pump going out of service. "The issue has now been resolved and water supply delivery to Nauru facilities are back in place. At no stage did the centre run out of water." A Nauru source said water shortages had plagued the detention centre for a week. “The water has completely cut out,” the source said. While asylum seekers have had access to drinking water, they have been unable to shower, or wash clothes. Flooding in places was said to be "at knee height", preventing some staff from entering the facility. Earlier in April a dengue fever outbreak among staff and asylum seekers resulted in more criticism that the detention centre was not a safe place to hold detainees. Since then Guardian Australia has revealed serious allegations that security staff have assaulted asylum-seeker children in the camp, and that an unexploded second world war bomb had been found in the camp housing families. |
A rickshaw driver sentenced to 13 years in jail for violently raping a woman in a laneway close to a city nightclub has appealed his sentence. A rickshaw driver sentenced to 13 years in jail for violently raping a woman in a laneway close to a city nightclub has appealed his sentence. Rickshaw driver who left severely injured woman in Dublin laneway after raping her appeals sentence as victim faces more surgery Brazilian Rafael Tiso (31), with a previous address in Offaly Road, Cabra, has instructed his legal team to appeal the severity of his prison term. Notice of his appeal comes as the victim of the attack continues to recover from her ordeal. It is understood she is due to undergo more surgery on the injuries she sustained during the attack. Tiso's appeal will come before the Court of Appeal next year. Last November, the Central Criminal Court heard how the 24-year-old victim was left with horrific injuries following the attack. If she decides to have children in the future, she will not be able to give birth naturally, the court heard. Rapist Rafael Tiso (31) Captured Tiso, who was working as a rickshaw driver in the Harcourt Street area, was captured on CCTV leaving a nightclub with the intoxicated victim and walking with her down a side street before going into a lane with her. He left the lane 40 minutes later and returned to drink in the same bar. A passer-by heard a moaning noise and discovered the woman lying on the ground between a truck and a car. Gardai were alerted and the woman was taken to hospital. Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy said the injuries caused to the victim were appalling. She has been advised that she should not give birth naturally in the future and she may also suffer complications at menopause. In her victim impact statement the woman described it as like being in "an episode of a horror series". She said she sometimes felt as if she was in a nightmare and tried not to think about what happened. Fight She said she would like to "delete that day" and described "a daily fight between going forward or making a martyr of myself". Tiso, who was living in rented accommodation at Offaly Road, Cabra, pleaded guilty at the Central Criminal Court to rape, oral rape, aggravated sexual assault and assault causing harm to the woman at Montague Lane, Dublin, on January 18. He had no previous convictions and has been in custody since his arrest. The judge said it was a violent and callous crime perpetrated on a vulnerable young woman. She said the victim's impact report showed how the attack would affect her for the rest of her life. She suspended the final year of a 14-year sentence on condition that Tiso leave the country on his release for a period of 10 years. Online Editors |
As a critically-acclaimed box-office hit with a rich mythology, The Witch would seem ripe for the sequel treatment. But the horror film’s writer-director Robert Eggers says he has no intention of turning his tale of a tormented Puritan family — which has so far grossed more than $16 million at the domestic box office — into a franchise. “I think I’m stealing the words from another director I cannot place, but if I wanted to know what happens after the last shot of the film, I would have made a longer movie,” the filmmaker told EW Radio’s Entertainment Weirdly show, earlier today. Instead, Eggers has a number of other projects in various stages of development, including a miniseries about Russian “mad monk” Rasputin, a reimagining of F.W. Murnau’s 1922 vampire classic Nosferatu, and a medieval epic called The Knight. “I’ve been working on this medieval knight thing for over a year now,” he said. So, what’s the delay? “It’s one thing to know how to build a goat shed. Building a castle? There’s a lot more parts for me to understand.” You can hear an excerpt from Eggers’ Entertainment Weirdly interview, below. |
Prime minister Mark Rutte has made it clear that the right-wing Liberal VVD will not govern with the anti-Islam PVV after the general election. ‘The chance is not 0.1%, but zero,’ Rutte told tv current affairs show Buitenhof on Sunday. All the other main parties had already categorically ruled out an alliance with the PVV, as had several senior VVD members. Opinion polls indicate the PVV may emerge as the biggest party after the March general election and would therefore take the lead in putting together a new coalition. Geert Wilders immediately went on the offensive against ‘the arrogance of power’ on Sunday. He called on his voters to show what they feel ‘of this policy of exclusion and castigation’ on March 15’. The VVD’s position towards the PVV has been a subject of internal discussion for years, the Volkskrant pointed out on Monday. Fewer Moroccans Rutte said after Wilders’ ‘fewer Moroccans’ chant in March 2014 that cooperation with him was impossible as long as the PVV leader did not withdraw the remarks. Health minister Edith Schippers has said she felt it was unwise to exclude parties automatically and VVD stalwart Hans Wiegel said in a column in De Telegraaf on Saturday that he was not in favour of boycotting the PVV. Rutte gave three reasons for his decision: the breakdown of the cooperation between the parties during Rutte’s first government, the PVV’s socio-economic course (‘further to the left than SP’) and principled objections to statements made by Wilders regarding Moroccans and the judiciary. ‘That does not mean that we exclude the PVV’s voters,’ said Rutte. ‘There are many people who feel that politicians no longer represent them, who are very concerned about the country. The people who vote for the PVV are decent people. I want to talk to them, I want to show that Wilders is not the leader to solve the problems’. The Volkskrant points out that by expressly excluding the PVV, Rutte has been able to head off sustained accusations from the PvdA and GroenLinks in particular that he is creating the possibility of a government with Wilders. |
Brainstorming. The ability to be creative and solve problems. I don’t care what your interests are, we all brainstorm in certain situations. We might be mulling over a mathematical proof, or planning a sneak attack in Call of Duty 4, or thinking of something to say to the girl who works at Starbucks – but all that counts, to me, as a form of brainstorming. We are most likely to brainstorm when we have a clear goal in mind. That’s the point. We want to get from Point A to Point B, but we don’t know how, so we have to first think about it for a little bit. Within this thought process we may reflect on past events, imagine future ones, or argue with other voices in our head telling us, “Are you sure this is going to work?” or “You’re crazy!” Whether we brainstorm in groups or in solitude, brainstorming is a constant battle of ideas. Neuroscientist Mark Beeman claims that, while an everyday thought like what to eat for lunch may involve millions of neurons, an insight might only be tens of thousands. It might be that we are having creative thoughts all of the time, but they aren’t being listened to because they are largely happening underneath the surface, competing for our awareness. When you enter other minds into the picture, like during a business meeting, the brainstorming process becomes even more dynamic. Not only do we have different neurons competing in an individual mind, but we also now have full ideas being verbalized, grabbing more of our attention, and synthesizing with other ideas. The creative process can be chaotic, especially if we don’t have a methodological way of sifting through new thoughts and ideas, or letting other voices be heard. Setting some guidelines can be a good first start. Tips for brainstorming in a business or organizational setting – Start off with 3-5 minutes of quiet writing time so each member can first brainstorm individually. – Have each member write down their ideas anonymously in order to limit social pressures that might hinder creative thought. – After, collect all the ideas in a hat, pull one, and spend some time discussing it as a group. – Encourage politeness and open-mindedness throughout the whole session. – Allow members to write down new ideas during discussion. – For extended meetings, make sure to include snacks and bathroom breaks. People that don’t have their physical needs met won’t be able to think as efficiently. – Don’t ignore the environment of the meeting. Choose something with vibrant and lively colors, but nothing too distracting. Remember that you are trying to build a system where creative chaos can flourish, but also later be processed into something practical and useful. This requires a constant shifting of perspectives, both as a dreamer, and also as a critic and a realist. Once you begin scrutinizing these ideas, you can begin connecting, and as your visions begin to synthesize you might be getting closer and closer to that Eureka moment. Most creative processes follow a similar pattern, but the form and context they take place in can be very different, so we don’t often think of them as comparable. This time instead of business I’m going to list some guidelines for a music band (notice the similarities and differences): Tips for brainstorming in a music band – First ask each musician to warm up, go over scales, stretch, etc… – Musicians think with their instruments, so after warming up the best way to brainstorm is through jamming. – Give each musician a chance to start an idea, a riff, or a pattern, and then have the other musicians build around it. – Read each other’s emotions and attitudes. Ask, “What is trying to be communicated?” – Play off others and build an energy around the sound. – Speak out when you hear something you like. – Give helpful critiques when you hear something that can be improved. In both scenarios you want to let everyone’s individuality be expressed, and then you want to try and integrate that into a more cohesive whole. That is what it means when people have creative chemistry. [adsense_id=”1″] Where Good Ideas Come From Science author Steven Johnson spoke at a TED conference earlier this year about “Where Good Ideas Come From.” His theories come from an “environmental perspective,” meaning that good ideas rarely come from a single mind, but instead are likely to formulate when minds come together and exchange ideas in the right setting. Most ideas, Johnson claims, take a long time to evolve. They remain dormant until our hunches combine with other hunches, and finally a full idea emerges. He says that the great driver of technology and science is our connectivity, and inventions like cellphones and the internet have become the primary engine of innovation. Watch a great cartoon presentation of his lecture here: His new book, “Where Good Ideas Come From” is coming out October 5th of this year! You can pre-order it here (or buy it depending on when you a reading this). Individual minds and creative pairs According to a recent article at Slate.com, there seems to be a debate among creative experts between what is more likely: the lone genius, or creative fusion when we work in pairs or in groups. In a way this is a false dichotomy. Only individuals think, but their thoughts are very much influenced by their surroundings and interactions with others. If we were to take a newborn baby, put it in an isolated bubble and let it develop into an adult, it would have very few inputs to use toward creativity. Rich minds always stay active and search for new experiences. They look at nature, visit New York City, talk to other like-minded individuals, and they also spend time alone, absorbing and reflecting on everything they have learned. As an individual thinker, there are certain tips we can follow to enhance our creative output while interacting with our environment: – Carry a notepad or voice recorder with you everywhere you go. – Be interested and curious in everything. – Always seek new knowledge. – Talk to other creative people. – Try and look at things in unconventional ways. – Be more mindful of your thoughts. Besides the advice to carry a notepad or voice recorder, a lot of this is about fostering the right attitude. Brainstorming and creativity is very much about how you see the world, and consequently how you interact with it. Other great links on the creative process Creativity is something that has always interested me. Not so surprisingly, there are many different ways to think about it. Here are a few links I’ve discovered over the past couple of months that give some interesting insights: Did you enjoy this article? Learn more about psychology and self-improvement in my new e-book The Science of Self Improvement. |
An Irish astrophysicist is among a shortlist of hopefuls who are still in the running to become the first humans to travel to Mars. Dr Joseph Roche, who works for Science Gallery and Trinity College Dublin, was this morning named on the list of 100 candidates in the third round selection process for Mars One. Over 200,000 people applied to take part in the privately funded one-way mission to the red planet. They have been whittled down through a screening, medical and interview process to 100. The last round saw 660 candidates take part in online interviews. Mars One aims to create a permanent human settlement on the red planet, with crews of four departing every two years beginning in just under ten years. It is backed by Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, who intends to send a series of robotic missions to Mars over the coming years, to prepare an infrastructure for the arrival of humans. The missions will be funded privately through crowdfunding and the creation of a reality TV show around the project. It is estimated the total cost of the missions will be around $6bn (€5.26bn). The candidates come from all around the world, including 39 from the Americas, 31 from Europe, 16 from Asia, seven from Africa, and seven from Oceania. In a statement this morning, Mars One said the following selection rounds will focus on composing teams that can endure all the hardships of a permanent settlement on Mars. It said the candidates will receive their first shot at training in the copy of the Mars Outpost on Earth and will demonstrate their suitability to perform well in a team. |
Police say suspect set himself alight and motive for attack on Resorts World Manila is more likely robbery than terrorism Dozens of people are feared dead in a fire that started after a gunman burst into a Manila casino and set gaming tables alight. At least 36 people had died, mostly due to suffocation following the blaze, a spokesman for the Philippines president said. Investigations so far suggested a criminal rather than terrorist intent, he added. The unidentified lone gunman stormed the casino at Resorts World Manila, a complex of hotels, restaurants, stores and a sprawling multi-floor gambling area, in the early hours of Friday morning. He fled with stolen casino chips worth at least 113m Philippine pesos (£1.7m, $2.3m), then forced his way into a room in an adjoining hotel and killed himself by dousing himself in gasoline and setting himself alight, police said. The national police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, said security footage showed the gunman ignoring a guard who tried to question him at the complex’s entrance, then going straight to the casino. He stuffed a backpack with gambling chips, fired an assault rifle at TV screens and set gambling tables on fire by pouring gasoline on to them from a two-litre bottle, Dela Rosa said. It was not clear how he smuggled the gasoline and rifle into the crowded casino. The bag of high-value gambling chips was found in a toilet. Dela Rosa described the gunman as white, about 6ft tall and English-speaking. Facebook Twitter Pinterest CCTV images of the suspect. Photograph: Philippines National Police The Philippines has been on heightened alert amid a crisis in the south of the country, where troops have been battling Islamist rebels since 23 May. An Islamic State-linked Filipino operative claimed Isis “soldiers” were responsible for Friday’s attack, but police maintained that the gunman was acting alone and that no connection had been established with the fighting in the south. Armed police were deployed at about 2am on Friday (1800 GMT Thursday) after gunfire and loud bangs were heard inside the casino building. Those who died were in the casino’s main gaming area, said Oscar Albayalde, chief of the capital’s police office. “What caused their deaths is the thick smoke,” he told reporters. “The room was carpeted and the tables [were] highly combustible.” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said four Taiwan nationals were among those killed and a South Korean foreign ministry official said one South Korean had died, apparently after a heart attack. At least 54 people were hurt, some seriously, as they rushed to escape, officials said. “I heard many, many gunshots,” Julio Silva, a witness who managed to dash out of the complex, told DZMM radio. A spokesman for the nearby Ninoy Aquino airport told the Guardian: “Terminal 3 has been locked down because it is near the Resort World. We still don’t know how this will affect flights.” Terminal 3 manages international and domestic flights. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Filipino man is frisked by a police officer outside the Resort World Manila. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/EPA The Philippines’ armed forces have been fighting a militant faction sympathetic to Islamic State in the country’s south. A fierce 10-day battle has been raging in the city of Marawi, about 500 miles (800km) south of Manila, and, last week, the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte imposed martial law across the southern region of Mindanao, arguing that the measure was necessary to crush a rising threat posed by Isis-linked rebels. In Marawi, the army has deployed helicopter gunships and artillery fire to try to dislodge the gunmen, but they have held a large section of the city. Over the past week, security forces have been deployed to other cities in Mindanao province, concerned that the militants may attempt to launch attacks outside Marawi. The clashes started after security forces tried to capture Isnilon Hapilon, an Islamist militant leader who is the subject of a $5m (£3.88m) reward offered by the FBI and endorsed by Isis. The Philippine ‘Suicide Squad’ saving civilians trapped on Isis frontline Read more Hapilon is believed to be a senior leader in a coalition of insurgent groups in the Philippines, although their operational links with Islamic State in the Middle East remain unclear. The clashes there have left at least 171 people dead and Duterte said last week he may need to declare martial law across the rest of the country if the threat spreads. He has said he fears that the “terrible ideology” of Isis will spread on Mindanao, an island of 22 million people, and has warned that it could become a haven for supporters fleeing Iraq and Syria. The US president, Donald Trump, passed on the thoughts and prayers of the American people to those affected by the incident. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Trump said: “It is really very sad as to what’s going on throughout the world with terror.” He added that he was “closely monitoring the situation” and would continue to provide updates. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Filipino police officers take their position outside the Resort World Manila. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/EPA Associated Press contributed to this report |
An Irishman in the Philippines is in hiding because of a potential threat from vigilante militias. Eanna Ó Cochláin (55), from Cork is on bail as he appeals a 12-year sentence for possession of marijuana, but his passport has been confiscated to prevent him leaving the country. Mr Ó Cochláin, a nurse whose wife is Filipino, was arrested at an airport in the Philippines in 2013 after a small quantity of marijuana was discovered in a packet of cigarettes, which he claimed was planted on him. His case was raised in the Dáil this week amid concerns about the deaths of more than 3,500 alleged drug dealers and addicts in the Philippines, killed by vigilante militias in a policy promoted by the country’s president Roderigo Duterte. People Before Profit TD Mick Barry referred to comments last week by Mr Duterte when he said that “Hitler massacred three million Jews... there’s three million drug addicts. There are. I’d be happy to slaughter them.” Mr Barry, describing Mr Duterte as a populist authoritarian leader, highlighted the president’s comments that he would not prosecute police for extra judicial executions. The Cork TD said Mr Ó Cochláin’s passport was now believed to be missing and he asked if the Irish authorities had demanded its return as is was Government property. Sinn Féin TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said Mr Ó Cochláin’s wife Jho was running out of money to support him and he asked if Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan was confident that it was possible for him to get a fair trial on a drugs charge. Mr Flanagan said he and officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs had been giving the matter priority attention for some time. There was no doubt he said that the case had been complicated by the domestic environment in the Philippines with the severe counter-drugs actions being pursued by Mr Duterte. He said the Irish Government at political and official level regularly raised this case with government representatives from the Philippines and he had most recently raised the issue himself in September with the Philippines secretary of foreign affairs. Mr Flanagan said he and the department were following the case closely and the Government remains most concerned about the well-being and health of this Irish citizen. He said “we have made our concerns perfectly clear to senior Filipino officials on a number of occasions at fact-to-face meetings and we will continue to do so.” Ireland’s embassy to Singapore, which is accredited to the Philippines, and the honorary consul in Manila have been providing assistance to Mr Ó Cochláin and his family, the Minister said. Mr Flanagan confirmed that the passport was being held as one of the conditions of Mr Ó Cochláin’s bail and he added that the Irish embassy in Singapore issued him with a letter confirming his Irish citizenship as a form of identity. The Minister stressed that the Department of Foreign Affairs enjoyed a very high reputation “in terms of the exceptional levels of consular care we provide to Irish citizens abroad. “My officials are known to go above and beyond what is considered the usual practice for a country in terms of consular care,” and already this year officials had dealt with 1,500 cases. |
On Thursday night in Chicago, the Bulls were clinging to a 4-point lead over the Clippers. With 50 seconds left, Derrick Rose ran off some clock near midcourt; as the shot clock hit 14, he used a Pau Gasol ball screen to beat Chris Paul to the elbow and attack the right side of the paint, where he was met by DeAndre Jordan, one of the most athletic rim protectors in the league. But Rose was undeterred — he burst from the elbow toward the right block, elevated (at least a little) and banked in a gorgeous runner to put his team up by 6 with 45 seconds left. Vintage Rose. Here was the blend of speed, smarts, touch and fearlessness that once made Rose an MVP. It was the exact kind of play we used to expect from him on a nightly basis — making the biggest shot in the biggest moment of a nationally televised game. But plays like this — with Rose probing, attacking, succeeding — have been rarities this season. Simply put, Rose hasn’t been himself; he’s more passive than we’ve ever seen him. More simply put, Rose has been bad, and so has the offense he helps to run. As of today, the Bulls are 12-8, which is by no means terrible, but Chicago came into the year expecting a return to contender status in the East, thanks to a newly refurbished offense. Instead, the team is winning in spite of its offense, trotting out one of the most anemic attacks in the entire league. The Bulls offense currently ranks 29th in offensive efficiency, scoring just 97 points per 100 possessions. We’re 20 games into the season and the “Fred Hoiberg Offensive Awakening” is still hitting the snooze button. The Bulls brought in Hoiberg this June in part to help finally unlock the sleeping offensive beast in the Windy City. After years of offensive repression under Tom Thibodeau, the pace-and-space explosion of a team with exciting young players like Jimmy Butler, Nikola Mirotic, Bobby Portis and, yes, Rose, was supposed to be downright tantric. It hasn’t happened yet. While the Bulls have pumped up last year’s bottom-10 pace rating to a top-10 figure, this year’s offensive model is significantly less effective than Thibodeau’s last iteration, which put up 104.7 per 100 last season, making the Bulls the 10th-best offense in the league. It’s hard to transform a team that was the 10th-best offense into the 29th, especially considering almost all the players are still in place. The Bulls have accomplished (?) this in part by dumbing down their shot selection. Looking at their shots per game around the court, they have increased their midrange shooting activity under Hoiberg while decreasing their restricted area and corner three activity. Shot selection isn’t the only component of offensive efficiency, but these questionable shifts in the Bulls’ shot diet have unsurprisingly contributed to the downturns in their points per possession numbers. Of course, team shot selection doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and here’s the thing about bringing pace-and-space, or any other high-octane offensive revolution, to Chicago: Derrick Rose is still the face of the franchise, and right now that face is broken. It’s sad to say, but Rose is among the least efficient players in the NBA this year. He has a player efficiency rating of 9.89 and is one of only a handful of players putting up negative win shares per 48, and the arc of his CARMELO projection looks like a stack of printer paper. It’s hard to look sharp when your face is busted. On the surface, this isn’t a revelatory observation; Sad Derrick Rose is practically a subgenre in NBA writing, as we’ve become desensitized to the decline of one of the best young players in the league. With Rose, injuries are always the story. This case, however, may call for fans to turn their attention from Rose’s well-documented knee injuries and consider that this recent downturn likely has something to do with the fact that he is still dealing with blurred vision from his preseason orbital fracture. It’s tough to shoot a basketball in an NBA game when you can’t see. Squint past all the depressing artifacts of the broader demise of Derrick Rose on this shot chart, and you can see how this might manifest: Just look at those midrange regions. At his peak, Rose was one of the most efficient midrange jump shooters in the league. So far this year, 68 players have taken at least 250 shots, and within that group, Rose ranks 66th in field goal percentage, outshooting only the decomposing Kobe Bryant and the very green Emmanuel Mudiay. But Rose is 27, a former MVP, and squarely in a time when his midrange game should be getting better, not worse. Or take the at-the-basket region — 79 players have attempted at least 100 shots within 8 feet of the rim this season, but Rose ranks dead last in efficiency in this group. It’s alarming, and the clearest sign that Rose simply isn’t close to being the player he was. In his MVP year of 2010-11, Rose converted 54 percent of his buckets in this same area. And before you go saying that this drop has more to do with his loss of explosiveness because of the knee injuries and less to do with that face injury, consider that last season that number was 55 percent. Additionally, Rose’s passivity shows up in his lack of trips to the free-throw line. He’s currently getting there just 2.8 times per 36 minutes, which would be the lowest mark of his career — which is saying something, considering his early-career aversion to contact. It’s also less than half of the level during his MVP campaign, when he went to the line 6.6 times per 36 minutes. This is strange, because Rose is actually driving more often this year. Going by the SportVU “Drive” stats, Rose drives 9.5 times per game, compared with 7.2 last season (we don’t have data going back to his MVP season). However, his points per possession have fallen from a respectable 0.83 last year to a disastrous 0.58. Performance as bad as Rose’s on drives can submarine an entire offense. Data from Synergy says Rose is running pick-and-rolls on 41.5 percent of his possessions, up from 32.3 percent last season. That’s a big number of possessions eaten up by a guy who poses zero threat going to the cup. That means that even though Rose is passing more off of his drives (26.9 percent, up from 19.3 percent, per SportVU), he isn’t terrorizing the defense into giving up its shape, helping to create the “space” in a pace-and-space offense. No amount of Pau Gasol post-ups can paint over so many possessions being doomed before they even begin. The good news is that (as you may have noticed in that Vine above) Rose didn’t wear his mask in the second half Thursday night, and after being held scoreless in the first half, he finished with 11 points, 2 from that huge floater that helped seal the win. Maybe it’s hokey, but maybe that mask symbolized the latest setback for Rose, and perhaps its removal means that Rose can get back to being at least an approximation of Rose again and that Hoiberg can get on with the awakening. While it’s tempting to say that Chicago’s offensive woes are proof that Hoiberg and the new coaching staff are lost, it’s also only December, and the team is 12-8. Chances are they are only going to get better with time. Hoiberg’s pace experiment may still prove to be a bad idea for this group, but when your star point guard can’t see straight, it’s hard to discern tactical failures from executional ones. And if Thursday night is any indication, maybe the Bulls are ready to take off the mask and start getting buckets again. Check out our 2015-16 NBA Predictions. |
These are external links and will open in a new window These are external links and will open in a new window These are external links and will open in a new window Image copyright AFP Image caption The moderators largely let the event run its course without interference The frontrunner in the race for the French presidency, Emmanuel Macron, has filed a lawsuit over online rumours that he has a secret bank account in the Caribbean. Prosecutors in Paris have opened an investigation following his complaint. The news came after the centrist, pro-EU candidate was regarded as having come out on top in the final TV debate ahead of Sunday's run-off vote. His far-right adversary, Marine Le Pen, referred to the claims in the debate. He replied: "That is defamation." On Thursday, an aide to Mr Macron told AFP news agency: "We will not hesitate to prosecute for defamation anyone who repeats this false information." The prosecutors' investigation sends a clear message that anyone repeating the allegation can expect to be taken to court, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris says. The allegations about a secret bank account spread online on right-wing websites and on social media. Speaking on French radio on Thursday, Mr Macron called the allegations "fake news and lies" and said some of the sites spreading them were "linked to Russian interests". His supporters say some of the sites have supported US President Donald Trump. In other developments on Thursday: Former US President Barack Obama endorsed Mr Macron in a video message, praising his "liberal values" and saying he "appeals to people's hopes and not their fears" Protesters shouting "out with fascists" threw eggs at Ms Le Pen while she was on the campaign trail in Brittany; bodyguards covered her head and moved her away Ms Le Pen's estranged father Jean-Marie, a co-founder of her National Front (FN) party who she removed in 2015, said he thought she "perhaps did not rise to the occasion" in the TV debate How she brought the claims up and how he replied Le Pen: "I hope we won't find out that you have an offshore account in the Bahamas. I hope so..." Macron: "No, Madame Le Pen, because that's defamation." Le Pen: "No, no, I said 'I hope'." Macron: "But what about you? We all know about your undervalued assets and we all know that you're currently under legal action - that's not my situation, that's yours." He was referring to alleged fraudulent payments from the European Parliament to the FN's party staff . The FN denies allegations that it took payments for staff who were not really working for MEPs, and Ms Le Pen says she is the victim of a politically-motivated vendetta. What else came up in the debate? Mr Macron and Ms Le Pen argued for two hours in the hope of winning over voters. She lambasted him on his record as economy minister in the Socialist government - a post he quit to form his En Marche! movement - and accused him of being "the candidate of savage globalisation". In turn, Mr Macron said Ms Le Pen had openly lied, proposed nothing and exaggerated the concerns of the public. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Macron directly accused his rival of lying - while she questioned his record Ms Le Pen accused him of complacency about the threat of radical Islamist terrorism. In response, Mr Macron said the measures she proposed - "eradicating" Islamic fundamentalism by shutting down extremist mosques, and expelling preachers of hate - were "snake oil" that played into terrorists' hands and the desire they had for a "civil war". What was the viewers' verdict? Both candidates were hoping to make an impression on the estimated 17% of undecided voters in the first election the country has ever held without a candidate from the two traditional mainstream parties. BFMTV carried a poll suggesting viewers of the debate had a more favourable view of Mr Macron than Ms Le Pen in most categories. He was the "most convincing" of the pair in the opinion of 63% of those interviewed. Mr Macron was also deemed the "most convincing" for two-thirds of those who voted for both left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round, and for 58% of those who voted for Republican François Fillon. Mr Macron also led among voters when they were asked about which candidate was most honest, was most aligned with the voters' values and had the best plans. The BFMTV poll was carried out among 1,314 people over the age of 18 who had watched the television debate. How has the French press reacted? French newspapers were taken aback by the open hostility on display during Wednesday night's debate. Le Figaro saw Ms Le Pen adopt a "strategy of total war that consisted of bombarding her opponent without respite". Mr Macron, it says, "dominated his opponent on economic issues" during a debate of "unprecedented brutality". Liberation accuses Ms Le Pen of "drowning the debate in an avalanche of disinformation" and publishes a list of what it says are false or exaggerated statements made by her. Le Monde also firmly comes down on the side of Mr Macron, who it says "repeatedly denounced the 'nonsense' by the candidate of the National Front - often rightly". Les Echos takes issue with the aggressive tone of the debate, saying the candidates "spent more time attacking each other" than explaining future reforms. Poll tracker |
Lord Edward Fitzgerald is one of the most romantic figures in Irish history, a rebel aristocrat associated with the failed revolution of 1798, known as the ‘Citizen Lord’. He is today buried in Saint Werburgh’s Church near to Dublin Castle, an institution he hoped to overthrow by force. A small plaque on the front of the church marks this fact, and it’s one of the great ironies of the city that Major Henry C. Sirr who captured him is buried in the graveyard at the back of the church. One figure associated with Edward Fitzgerald I’ve been fascinated by for a while now is Tony Small, an escaped slave Fitzgerald encountered in the United States who he later employed as a personal assistant. Small became a frequent sight around Dublin in the 1780s and 1790s, in a city where coloured men were few and far between. Fitzgerald commissioned a portrait of Small in 1786 by the artist Thomas Roberts: In her brilliant biography of Fitzgerald, Stella Tillyard noted that “If Lord Edward’s mother was his great love, his constant companion was Tony Small, the runaway slave who saved his life in North America in 1781”, and she went on to note that “Tony embodied and brought to life his master’s commitment to freedom and equality for all men.” Small had witnessed the British and Americans at war firsthand in 1781, as when his owners had fled South Carolina with their possessions and slaves, Tony had escaped and stayed on. On the 8th September 1781, Tony wandered onto a battlefield, and as Tillyard has noted he stumbled across “the blood-soaked uniform of a British officer of the 19th Regiment of Foot. The man was alive but unconscious, overlooked by the search parties of both sides.” The man was Edward Fitzgerald, and when he next awoke he was in the small hut Tony Small knew as his home. Fitzgerald offered Small liberty, and a new life working as his servant, in return for wages. An incredible and unlikely friendship had been born. Kevin Whelan discusses the friendship between the two in his entry on Lord Edward Fitzgerald for the Dictionary of Irish Biography, noting that “The best-documented Irish example of imaginative sympathy between a white and a black man is the subsequent relationship between Fitzgerald and Small. Until his death in 1798, in a sprawling career that took him across much of Europe, America, and Canada, Fitzgerald never subsequently parted from his ‘faithful Tony’.” In time, this one-time British soldier and darling of the Ascendancy class was converted towards the ideas of republicanism, the influence of writers such as Thomas Paine and personal observation on the streets of France inspiring this total shift in identity and politics. It was not until 1796 that Fitzgerald joined the United Irishmen, but the seeds had long been planted. Small followed Fitzgerald wherever he went, and on moving to Dublin with Fitzgerald, Small lived within the family home of Leinster House for a period. By this point Fitzgerald was married to a young French woman by the name of Pamela, and as Tillyard has noted “to Ascendancy society Pamela seemed to be every bit as much a symbol of the revolution as she was to Lord Edward himself.” Her poor English, and her Catholic faith, instantly distanced her from the Dublin ruling class of the day. Yet imagine how ‘different’ Tony Small must have appeared in the Dublin of the late eighteenth century. One story relating to Small and Leinster House was told by John Brennan in a feature on Fitzgerald for The Irish Times in 1963, in which he noted that on one occasion when Fitzgerald was returning to his family home, Small alerted him to the presence of soldiers inside the house, thus saving Fitzgerald from arrest. When Fitzgerald moved to Kildare in 1795, Tony moved with him, returning to Leinster House before the birth of the son of Fitzgerald and Pamela. The time in Kildare is remembered in Tillyard’s biography as a very happy one, with Tony said to come up from the servants’ rooms to dance jigs and enjoy Irish music and culture. He would travel also to Germany in May 1796 when Fitzgerald departed for there, to engage in discussions with the French Directory. Tony Small had not alone an employer within the small travelling party in which he frequently accompanied the Fitzgerald’s, but also a partner. From the time he had lived in Kildare he had been very much in love with Julie, another servant who was the nursemaid of Pamela. Together they would have children. Fitzgerald played a leading role in the planning of the insurrection for 1798, and his arrest and capture in May of that year on Thomas Street was a major blow to the republican movement. A reward for £1,000 was on the head of Fitzgerald, and he was considered among the most influential and indeed dangerous United Irish leaders still at large. He was taken to Newgate Prison, where he died having been denied proper medical treatment. This prison holds an infamous place in Dublin’s history, and it was there that the Sheares Brothers were hung, drawn and quartered for their role in the republican movement. At the time of the passing of Edward, Tony was staying with Pamela in England. Both were naturally devastated, and the passing of the aristocrat-turned-revolutionary brought an unexpected twist in Tony’s life, as Pamela would in-time remarry and Tony and Julie felt it time to move on. Setting themselves up in London off the back of their savings, Tony died there following a period of illness. Not much was known of this period in Tony’s life, but recently released letters from the Fitzgerald family have shined a light on the period. Kevin Whelan has noted in a feature for History Ireland magazine that: After 1798, Tony drops out of view but these new letters pick him up again. He had moved to London, and set up in trade in Piccadilly. Falling ill in 1803, he appealed to the Fitzgerald family for assistance which was quickly forthcoming (according to Lucy). The letter demonstrates Tony Small’s accomplished literacy. He talks of having spent money on doctors and asks ‘the family to make up a sum of money for me so that I might be able to keep on business for my wife and children which is my greatest trouble’. Small was obviously in contact with Arthur O’Connor’s peripatetic servant, Jerry O’Leary, because O’Connor wrote from Fort George that he had heard that Tony had fallen on hard times and was not being helped. Lucy Fitzgerald adds an indignant annotation that the family were indeed assisting him. Beyond Tillyard’s excellent biography of Fitzgerald, little has been written on Tony Small. Did he appear in any of the Dublin newspapers of the day I wonder, as he would have been an unusual sight on the streets of the capital with his close relationship to Fitzgerald. The escaped slave who made it to Leinster House is as good a Dublin story as any, and Tony should not be forgotten. |
Hardly a ten-minute drive north of Oban stands one of the oldest castles in all of Scotland. Dunstaffnage Castle looms from a rocky promontory and glowers across a key junction of western Scotland’s sea lanes, guarding the entrance to Loch Etive and protecting the Pass of Brander from Scotland’s enemies. A fortification has stood here for a very long time — some posit it may have been a Dál Riatan stronghold as far back as the 7th century — and the impressive structure visible today was largely constructed in the 1200s. Old castles like Dunstaffnage are my favorite kind of castle because they were functional, defensive fortifications, not the gaudy, romantic showpieces built later that were more country home than anything else. The only windows at Dunstaffnage are arrow slits, the only doors are a portcullis and stout oaken gates. Before the advent of the gun, this was a place that only starvation and disease could overcome. Imagine sailing your fleet through the western isles only to come upon this bastion of might and influence. Such scenarios were commonplace at Dunstaffnage for its history is long and violent. Glorious sun shone down on the day I visited Dunstaffnage Castle this past May. The light splayed through the trees standing on the castle’s pretty grounds and glistened on the waves of Ardmucknish Bay where a host of yachts lay at anchor in the marina. A long, level path leads out onto the promontory where Dunstaffnage’s gray eminence stands impressively against the sea. A broad, high curtain wall extends around the castle, punctuated by a trio of round towers. Sarah and I purchased our entry tickets at a small cottage beyond the walls before climbing the steep staircase leading to the entry. The records of Dunstaffnage’s founding are somewhat hazy, old as they are, but it’s believed the present castle was built around 1220 by Duncan MacDougall, grandson of the famous Somerled, King of the Isles. At the time, this region was part of Norway, and the ensuing decades bore witness to the bloody struggle between the two nations. By 1266, this area was part of Scotland, but it was only a few short decades later that the titanic battle for Scottish independence from England began. Such wild and violent times! Inside the castle walls, I quickly made my way up to the wallwalk where warriors would have raised their great shields in defense of Dunstaffnage. I can imagine the mixture of fear and courage they must have felt when Robert the Bruce besieged this castle in 1309 after his victory at the Pass of Brander. Dunstaffnage Castle passed into royal holdings after the Bruce’s successful siege, and by the 15th century it was the Campbells, earls of Argyll, who claimed this castle as their own. The Campbells held the castle for the next 300 years, and they proved to be a troublesome lot to the Crown. During these centuries, the Campbells made few significant changes to Dunstaffnage, the main exception being the rebuilding of the gatehouse and tower. It is truly amazing how much of the original 13th-century castle remains today. Can you imagine any of our modern buildings lasting 800 years? Dunstaffnage Castle was last garrisoned during the Jacobite Uprising of 1745. Government troops held the castle and waited here to defy Bonnie Prince Charlie’s military might, but this clash never came to pass. It was, however, the site of Flora MacDonald’s imprisonment for a short time. After the Bonnie Prince’s defeat at Culloden, he fled west to the Inner Hebrides where he met Ms. McDonald. She helped him escape Scotland, and she was later arrested by the English for being an accomplice of the failed usurper. While Dunstaffnage Castle’s rich history centers around times of conflict, it’s worth pointing out that it was also lived in during times of peace along the Firth of Lorn. More than just a defensive bulwark, Dunstaffnage contained a guest house, barracks, estate office, law court, and prison. It was here that the lord of Lorn’s tenants came to pay their rents and even pray, for there is a small chapel just a couple of hundred yards away in the nettle-thick forest. The view from atop the battlements is so good I should have stayed up there until sunset, which would have been a sight to behold. Alas, time was not on my side, and there were others places calling my name (like the Fairy Bridge). Dunstaffnage Castle is a truly impressive pile unique in its age and the quality of its construction. This is a must-see place for architecture, history, and scenery buffs whose travels take them to the western seaboard near Oban. |
62 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit In Early Access since the launch of the Vive last year, Vanishing Realms (2016) development continues, as stated in the updated roadmap on the game’s Steam news page. The acclaimed VR action RPG is due to receive a large update that launches the original game out of Early Access, with brand new content and new hardware support also in the works. Remaining an Early Access title for HTC Vive since it launched with the hardware on April 5th 2016, Vanishing Realms has seen two major updates to address the initial feedback from players, and to add new features such a hard mode, new combat AI and improved weapon and item interactivity. The game was praised as a great early example of roomscale VR, delivering fun, immersive gameplay. 1 of 5 The launch roadmap was recently updated on the game’s Steam page, with the plan to bring the game’s existing two chapters out of Early Access for a ‘1.0 launch’, before work continues on brand new content for Chapter 3. “Support for new hardware” is also listed on the roadmap, and likely to refer to Oculus Touch (not currently officially supported by the game); the game is technically playable on Rift and Touch, but it seems it would benefit from official support. However, the fact that Touch isn’t specifically named, and that developer Kelly Bailey is a former Valve employee, makes it at least slightly plausible that he is referring to the Valve ‘Knuckles’ prototype controller instead, though we aren’t holding our breath there. As for the much anticipated new content, Chapter 3 promises “new weapons, magic, creatures and environments.” Bailey is staying quiet on pricing or release date for now, though he says it’s likely to launch as a paid DLC add-on to the game, rather than an entirely new title. |
Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world The Gay Police Association is to lose its funding after a government decision to stop supporting police staff diversity groups. According to a letter seen by Police Review, all such groups will have their funding stopped completely next month. The letter from Justine Currell, head of police equality at the Home Office, said: “I know this will be a huge disappointment to you and your association but I do want to stress the importance the government places on equality and diversity both in society as a whole and in the police service.” Other groups affected are the National Disabled Police Association, the British Association for Women in Policing and the Muslim Police Association, which said the makeup of the police force “could look like it did in the 1970s and 1980s”. The Gay Police Association (GPA) received £102,000 of Home Office funding in the year ending April 2010, but this was halved to £51,000 in the last financial year, with the stipulation that the money was a “projects only” award – meaning it could not be used for administrative costs. Deputy chair Vic Codling said this meant that volunteers had been paying out of their own pockets to represent the GPA at meetings and meet administrative costs. The GPA began in 1990 and has never had full-time staff – only volunteers who help out and run its 24-hour helpline. It has 3,000 members, who do not pay membership fees. Mr Codling said that charging membership would cost money to collect and argued that members should not have to pay to ensure they are represented and supported. Mr Codling said the GPA was still necessary and claimed that gay officers still face discrimination. “It would suit a lot of our colleagues if we didn’t have a presence,” he told PinkNews.co.uk. “Diversity is still an unpopular word.” He added: “Some people say to me, ‘why can’t we have a straight or white police association?’. If they needed protection [because of their sexuality or race] then they could.” Mr Codling, who questioned whether the funding cuts met diversity requirements, said that chiefs of the police diversity associations had been invited to a meeting with policing minister Nick Herbert, who is gay. He said the changes would not mean the end of the GPA but will “affect our ability to help chief police officers with issues and support our colleagues”. “If the police is such a good employer, people should be able to be openly gay with dignity but that’s not the case,” Mr Codling said. He said that the organisation has “high credibility” with those who need it and has been praised by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO). ACPO lead for equality Chief Constable Stephen Otter, said: “ACPO values the role played by the diversity staff support associations as a critical friend and recognises the contributions made in delivering a police service which supports its staff, provides an attractive career choice and meets the needs and expectations of the wider community.” He added that ACPO would” continue to work closely with the staff associations at a national and local level to ensure the interests of our diverse workforce are taken into account”. A Home Office spokesman said: “The government is committed to equality and supports the development of a diverse police service but we must tackle the deficit and the Home Secretary has been clear that forces must bear their share of the cuts. “We recognise the work of police diversity groups but believe the leaders of the service, including the Association of Chief Police Officers and in the future Police and Crime Commissioners, should be using their expertise to deliver better opportunities for all staff. “They will be responsible for building a diverse workforce and ensuring they have due regard for their duties under the Equality Act.” |
In the Oscar-winning film Lost in Translation, Bill Murray famously plays a lonely actor looking for meaning in his life in a strange land. He meets a young blonde woman and goes to a party with her. Now life seems to have imitated art when the Hollywood star stunned a house full of students by turning up at their party in the early hours of the morning. The 56-year-old actor was in St Andrews for a celebrity golf event but, rather than retire for an early night when last orders were called, he went off to explore the more playful side of the historic city. He had been drinking with fellow golfers in the fashionable Ma Bells bar when he met Lykke Stavnef, a Norwegian blonde, who was out with her friend Marie Bergene. To her surprise, Murray accepted her invitation to a party and accompanied her along the cobbled streets to a Georgian townhouse, where a gathering overflowing with young Scandinavians was in full swing. "Nobody could believe it when I arrived at the party with Bill Murray," said Miss Stavnef, 22, a social anthropology student. "We met him in the bar and he made some jokes. He was just like the character in Lost in Translation." In Sofia Coppola's film, Murray's character, feeling alienated and alone, strikes up an unlikely relationship with a newly married university graduate, played by Scarlett Johansson. Together they savour Tokyo's nightlife, roaming the city's bars as they try to escape the gloom of life in an unfamiliar country. They stumble into a karaoke bar, taking it in turns to sing to one another. While Murray made no attempt at singing this time, he amazed the revellers by offering to cook and then clean the dirty dishes. "It was really funny because he was pretty old compared with all the other people there, but he was so relaxed and it was really amusing when he started to wash up," said Miss Stavnef. She was concerned that there were no clean glasses when she arrived with Murray but she said he was quite happy to drink vodka from a coffee cup. As news spread around the city that Murray was a surprise guest at a student party, the house became crowded with people wanting to meet the star of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day. "The alcohol ran out very quickly when word got round that he was with us," said Agnes Huitfeldt, 22, an economics and finance student. "I was standing in the hallway when he came in. I introduced myself, but I was really surprised when he remembered my name later as there were so many people there. "He was joking with me about reheating some leftover pasta and how drunk everyone was. The pasta was probably quite hard to get off the dishes because they had been sitting around." Shortly after finishing the washing-up piled high in the students' kitchen, the Hollywood star left with a couple of companions who were believed to have been involved in the golf competition. "He couldn't fail to have a good time," said Tom Wright, 22, an international relations student. "The party was overflowing with stunning Scandinavian blondes. He seemed to be in his element, cracking lots of jokes. It was the talk of the town the next day." Murray was partnered with Miguel Angel Jiménez at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Other actors taking part in the three-day event this month were Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper and Hugh Grant, while Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington headed the list of professional golfers. The golf course at St Andrews draws many Hollywood stars. Kevin Costner took a holiday with his wife at the Old Course Hotel that led to allegations of his making a sexual pass at a hotel masseuse. He strongly denied the allegations. Murray is the fifth of nine children. He and most of his siblings worked as golf caddies, which helped pay his tuition at the Loyola Academy, a Jesuit school, in Chicago. He has four children with Jennifer, his second wife, whom he married in 1997. Murray fired his publicist several years ago and has no agent. He could not be reached for comment. |
The two sides have had troops and equipment in the area since July Two Cambodian soldiers have been killed in an exchange of gunfire with Thai troops along a disputed section of their border. The clash, near the ancient Preah Vihear temple, has prompted Thailand to urge its nationals to leave Cambodia. Tension has been high since July, when hundreds of soldiers on both sides faced off metres apart. Both sides have said they want to find a peaceful solution and will hold talks to discuss the conflict. Thailand and Cambodia both claim they own the area around the temple, which recently became a Unesco World Heritage site. Officials from both countries have claimed the other side fired first. 'Good neighbour' The exchanges of small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades were reported to have continued for about an hour. Political tensions drive row In pictures: Preah Vihear Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said two soldiers had been killed and two wounded while Thai officials said five Thai troops had been wounded. Mr Hor Namhong said another 10 Thai soldiers had been captured but would be well treated and returned home if Bangkok requested. However, Bangkok said that none of its soldiers were missing. A Cambodian army official told the Associated Press news agency that commanders from both sides were trying to negotiate a ceasefire. Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said the fighting was "small scale" and that he was committed to reaching a settlement over the issue with Cambodia, which he described as "a good neighbour". After fighting broke out, Thailand alerted air force jets and readied transport planes to evacuate Thai nationals from Cambodia. 'Death zone' The military stand-off began in July when Cambodian troops detained three Thai protesters who had entered the site illegally. TEMPLE DISPUTE TIMELINE 1962: International court awards temple to Cambodia, but surrounding land remains undesignated 1970s-1990s: Khmer Rouge guerrillas occupy site 2001-2002: Thai troops block access over water row July 2008: Unesco lists temple as a World Heritage Site July 2008: Thai FM quits after court rules he violated constitution for backing Cambodia's Unesco bid July 2008: Both sides move troops to temple area August 2008: Troops withdrawn after high-level talks October 2008: Fighting erupts around temple area More than 1,000 soldiers from both countries moved into the area, digging trenches into the rough terrain around the temple. In August, military personnel agreed to withdraw most of the troops from the area but in early October, Cambodia claimed that Thai troops had returned. Thailand has denied that its troops entered Cambodian territory. But on Tuesday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen threatened to turn the area into a "death zone" if the Thai troops did not withdraw. The two countries have held several rounds of talks but have so far failed to reach a settlement. Mr Hor Namhong said that talks to be held on Thursday were a good sign that the countries could begin to resolve this week's conflict, which was said was "an incident between soldiers and not an invasion by Thailand". Ancient dispute The stand-off between the two countries centres on 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of scrub near the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, which sits on a jungle-clad escarpment dividing the countries. Preah Vihear is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site The temple is only accessible from Thailand and the area around it is heavily mined - a legacy of Cambodia's long war against the Khmer Rouge guerrillas. An international court awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but land surrounding it remains the subject of rival territorial claims. The decision by the UN in June to list Preah Vihear as a World Heritage Site reignited lingering nationalist tensions. Disputes between the two countries date back centuries when the Thai and Khmer monarchs fought each other for territory and power. In 2003, the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh was torched by rioters angry over the alleged comments of a Thai actress who said that the Angkor Wat temple complex should be returned to Thailand. E-mail this to a friend Printable version Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? |
Percentage Gains vs. Dollar Gains for Day Traders For the longest time, I was focused solely on the percentage gains of any trade. I would look at a stock price and determine how much it would need to run for me to get my desired percentage gain. Usually, I would look for gains of at least 10%, so if a stock was at $8/share, I would want to make $0.80/share, and if it were at $2/share, I would want to make $0.20/share. If I didn’t think a stock could run at least 10%, I would avoid it. After all, high percentage gains are one of the main reasons I love penny stocks. That being said, I don’t only invest in penny stocks, so I account for other scenarios so I don’t miss out on easy trades. Recently, I have changed my strategy for one main reason; I rarely use all of my cash in one trading day. Percentage gains really do not matter too much if you are not leveraging all of your cash. Additionally, I set my risk exposure based on dollar amounts and not percentage amounts. If my risk exposure for each trade is $200 (it varies for me), that remains constant, and I don’t care if I invest $1000, $2000, or $10,000 on the trade. This post is not about some revolutionary new trading strategy, but simply a different perspective that may open the doors to more possible trades. Think about this: For this example, assume both stocks mentioned below have the same dollar risk/reward ratio of 1:1 with a potential risk of ($0.20)/share and a reward of $0.20/share. Here is how this trade would work when things go as planned. Scenario A1: You buy 1000 shares of a stock at $8 and it runs to $8.20 where you sell it. You made $200 on an $8000 investment. Scenario B1: You buy 1000 shares of a stock at $2 and it runs to $2.20 where you sell it. You made $200 on a $2000 investment. Scenario A yields a 2.5% gain while Scenario B yields a 10% gain. Scenario B is clearly a better trade, BUT they both yield the same return of $200. Both trades have their advantages and disadvantages. The obvious argument here is that you should compare both trades using the same initial investment. Sure, let’s do that. Scenario A2: You buy 1000 shares of a stock at $8 and it runs to $8.20 where you sell it. You made $200 on an $8000 investment. Scenario B2: You buy 4000 shares of a stock at $2 and it runs to $2.20 where you sell it. You made $800 on a $8000 investment. Scenario B is looking a lot better now right? Well, yes and no. You forgot that the trade can also go against you. Scenario B may expose you to more risk than Scenario A. Of course, every trade will be different, and it is important to assess risk levels before entering a trade. However, as mentioned above, these stocks have a risk of ($0.20)/share as well. So, how would the trade work out if it went against you? Scenario A3: You buy 1000 shares of a stock at $8 and it drops to $7.80 where you sell it. You lost $200 on an $8000 investment. Scenario B3: You buy 4000 shares of a stock at $2 and it runs to $1.80 where you sell it. You lost $800 on a $8000 investment. As we saw above, your gains were increased by using the same initial investment on both trades, however, so were your losses. If your maximum risk exposure was $200/trade, you could have never placed the trade in Scenario B because it exposes you to $800 of risk. What’s the point of all of this? In no way am I saying that the trade in Scenario B2 is a bad move. I’m just trying to shine light on the fact that percentage gains should not be your only focus. Imagine that one investor takes their portfolio from $1000 to $2000 by the end of the year, while another takes theirs from $20,000 to $25,000. The first investor enjoys an 100% portfolio gain, while the second enjoys a 25% portfolio gain for the year. At the end of the year, the second investor still made more money ($5000 vs. $1000) which is the real bottom line of investing. Here’s a day trading example. Let’s say your average trade size is $10,000. If you make one trade in the day that yields 10%, you make $1000 for the day. 10% gains are harder to come by so you will be limited in the amount of trades you can find. If you make 10 trades that yield only 2.5% each on $10,000 investments, you can make $2500 for the day. Of course, stocks that run 2.5% intraday are much easier to find than stocks that run 10%. What You Need to Account For: 1. How much free cash you have in your account – If you have a smaller account, you will want to focus on percentage gains because they will help you grow your portfolio faster. If you have a larger account and don’t use all of your cash every day, it would be wise to consider taking some smaller percentage gains to grow your account. This will be better than just letting your cash sit, especially if you can find low risk trades. 2. Pattern Day Trader Rule – Accounts with less than $25,000 are limited to a maximum of 3 round trips per week (round trip = buying and selling the same security during the same a day) based on SEC guidelines. If you can only make 3 round trips a week, you will want to make them count. You should be focusing on percentage gains because you are limited in the amount of trades you can make. 3. The Time Value of Money – This article is targeted towards day traders who buy and sell stocks within the same day. If you are holding a stock for more than a day, percentage gains are more important because your money is tied up until you sell the particular security. 4. The Dollar Risk/Reward Ratio for a Trade and Your Risk Exposure– This is by far the most important thing to account for. In the above examples (Scenarios A & B), there was an assumption that both trades had the same risk/reward ratio from a dollar gain/loss stance. This will not always be the case. When trading stocks with lower percentage gains, you also want lower risk. This allows you to leverage a higher percentage of your portfolio for the trade. So, in my fictional examples above, both stocks had a risk of ($0.20) and a potential reward of $0.20 (a 1:1 risk/reward ratio). Assuming the amount of shares you bought and the risk/reward ratio were constant, and the price per share varied, this made it so it didn’t matter whether you were investing $2000, $5000, or $10,000 because your risk was always $200 for the trade ($0.20 risk * 1000 shares). The percentage of my portfolio that I invest in a trade is relative to the dollar gain/loss per share, not the percentage gain. This leads to the next important reason why the risk/reward ratio is critical when focusing on percentage gains vs. dollar gains. Let me run through one more quick scenario: Scenario A: Your portfolio has $50,000 in it. Your maximum risk exposure is $500 per trade. You find a stock trading at $10. The stock has a risk of ($0.10)/share due to a strong support level, and a potential gain of $0.30/share from an intraday bounce. The potential percentage gain is only 3%, yet the potential risk is only 1% for a 1:3 risk/reward ratio. This allows you to leverage a much larger percentage of your portfolio in the trade. In fact, based on your set risk exposure, you could even leverage your entire portfolio (you should never invest your entire portfolio in a trade, but this is a theoretical example). You can now purchase 5000 shares of the stock at $10, for a maximum loss of $500 (your set risk exposure) and a maximum gain of $1500. This fictional stock only has to run 3% for you to make $1500. Scenario B: Your portfolio has $50,000 in it and your maximum risk exposure is $500 per trade (Kept constant throughout both scenarios). You find a stock trading at $1/share. The stock has a risk of ($0.25) based on a strong support level and a potential gain of $0.50/share due to a positive press release. The potential gain is 50% and the potential loss is 25% for a 1:2 risk/reward ratio. Based on your maximum risk exposure, you can buy 2000 shares at $1 (2000*$0.25/share risk = $500). If the trade goes in your favor, you make $1000. If it goes against you, you lose $500. This stock has to run up 50% for you to make $1000. Scenario A yields a better dollar gain ($1500 vs. $1000) even though the percentage gain is 47% lower than Scenario B. Of course, you had to use more cash from your portfolio, but as mentioned in the first point on this list, if you have the free cash, you might as well use it. Keep in mind that understanding the real risk/reward levels is critical to the success of this tactic, and, you should always account for the fact that things may not go as planned. A stock’s price action doesn’t follow definitive rules and risk/reward levels may be breached at any time. How to Use This in Your Trading As mentioned at the beginning of the article, this is not some revolutionary new trading tactic. It is just a different way to look at day trades. I’m sure many traders already utilize this strategy. Apply this in a way that compliments your current trading style. By no means do you want to turn this perspective into a strict trading rule. Both percentage gains and dollar gains matter at different times. Personally, I have used this strategy to shift my perspective on trading gains in a way that has opened the doors for more profitable trades. By recognizing that the bottom line of trading/investing is how much money you can bring in, you can look at certain trades in a new light. I look at each new trade based on how much money I think I can make while limiting the position size to account for my set dollar risk exposure. Some traders recommend choosing position sizes based on a percentage of your portfolio (eg: 10% of your portfolio used for each trade). That strategy is solid and helps minimize risk, but it can also limit your trading possibilities. I no longer care how much of my portfolio I leverage as long as I keep my risk exposure constant, nor do I care about my percentage gain on a trade as long as I achieve the dollar gain I desired. |
A long-planned project that would bring seven acres of housing and park space to South LA may finally be getting underway. The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion on Tuesday calling for the demolition of a group of industrial buildings on the site now, clearing the way for the project’s development. Known as the Slauson and Wall Green Space and Affordable Housing Project, the development will be located at 5867 South Los Angeles Street. It has been in the works since the now-shuttered Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles acquired the property in 2010, then entered into an arrangement with nonprofit organizations TRUST South LA and Abode Communities to develop the site into three acres of housing and a four-acre park. Once expected to be complete by 2015, the project predictably ran into delays when the state’s redevelopment agencies were dissolved in 2012. In January the City Council authorized a total of $4.1 million to pay for the first phase of development on the project. That includes more than $1.75 million just to raze the properties located on the site right now. The cost is high, the motion says, because it includes cleanup of lead and asbestos contamination on the project site. TRUST South LA estimates the entire project will take five years to complete. Once finished, it will include 120 units of affordable housing and community center managed by Abode Communities via a 99-year ground lease from TRUST South LA, while the park space, which will be maintained by the city’s Recreation and Parks Department. TRUST South LA and Abode Communities are also working on the redevelopment of the Rolland Curtis Gardens apartments in Exposition Park, which is turning a housing complex with 48 units into a larger mixed user with 140 affordable units, a health clinic, and retail. That project has been somewhat controversial—both with neighbors who worry that a lack of market rate units will keep the area segregated, and with current residents worried they may be displaced during construction. Update: Per Abode Communities, all Rolland Curtis residents have been relocated in advance of new construction. |
John Fleming, a State Department spokesman, said officials were aware of the students’ protest and had sent staff members to Hershey, Pa., where the candy company is based, to investigate. “It is our job to ensure that all J-1 visa holders are accorded their rights under all provisions of the Summer Work Travel program,” Mr. Fleming said. The arrangements that brought the foreign students to work at the Eastern Distribution Center III, a vast warehouse in a trim industrial park near Hershey, the American chocolate capital, involved layers of contractors. The students said they mainly placed blame on the organization that manages the J-1 visa program for the State Department, the Council for Educational Travel, U.S.A., which is based in California. Photo Rick Anaya, chief executive of the council, said he had brought about 6,000 J-1 visa students to the United States this summer. Mr. Anaya said he had tried to respond to the Palmyra workers’ complaints. “We are not getting any cooperation,” he said. “We are trying to work with these kids. All this negativity is hurting an excellent program. We would go out of our way to help them, but it seems like someone is stirring them up out there.” A spokesman for Hershey’s, Kirk Saville, said the chocolate company did not directly operate the Palmyra packing plant, which is managed by a company called Exel. A spokeswoman for Exel said it had found the student workers through another staffing company. The spokeswoman, Lynn Anderson, said: “We contract with a staffing agency to provide temporary employees, some from the local work force and some J-1 visa holders. We don’t have a lot of influence over some of those issues that they’ve raised.” A labor organization, the National Guestworker Alliance, which has been working with the students, presented a complaint on Wednesday to the State Department asking for the Council for Educational Travel, U.S.A. to be removed from its list of sponsoring organizations. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In the protest on Wednesday, about 200 students who were scheduled to start work on an evening shift at 3 p.m. walked into the plant and presented a petition with several hundred signatures to a management representative. Then, together with some students coming off the daytime shift, they marched out. Photo They came down the driveway to the plant, with semi-trailer trucks wheeling by, chanting, “We are the students, the mighty, mighty students!” and labor slogans in English as well as their own languages. The students said they believed that so many of them walking off their jobs would stop some production on their shifts. “We want to own our rights,” Ms. Zhao said, speaking in English. She and three other Chinese students held out their arms, pointing to bruises they said they had from moving large boxes. Representatives from two American labor unions participated in the rally at an intersection outside the plant. Three labor officials, including Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania State Federation of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and Neal Bisno, president of a Pennsylvania branch of the Service Employees International Union, staged a brief sit-in at the plant entrance and were arrested. Harika Duygu Ozer, 19, a second-year medical student from a university in Istanbul, said she had heard from friends that the summer exchange program would be fun and that she would earn enough money to pay for her medical school tuition. “I said, ‘Why not?’ This is America,” Ms. Ozer said. When she was offered a contract for a job at a plant with Hershey’s chocolates, she said, she was excited. “We have all seen Charlie’s chocolate factory,” she said. “We thought, ‘This is good.’ ” Photo Like many other students, Ms. Ozer said she invested about $3,500, which included the program costs, to obtain the J-1 visa and travel to the United States. Several Chinese students, including Ms. Zhao, said they had paid more than $6,000 in the process of securing visas. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ms. Ozer said she worked an eight-hour shift that began at 11 p.m. “You stand for the entire eight hours,” she said. “It is the worst thing for your fingers and hands and your back; you are standing at an angle.” At one of the sites where she worked, she said, cameras were trained on her, and supervisors told her that if she did not want to maintain the pace of work, she should leave. Godwin Efobi, 26, a third-year medical student from Nigeria who is studying at a university in Ukraine, said his job was moving boxes. “Since I came here, I have a permanent ache in my back,” Mr. Efobi said. “Holding a pen is now a big task for me; my muscles ache.” The students said they decided to protest when they learned that neighbors in the apartments and houses where they were staying were paying significantly less rent. “The tipping point was when we found out about the rent,” Mr. Efobi said. Ms. Ozer and other students said they were paid $8.35 an hour. After fees are deducted from her paychecks as well as $400 a month for rent, she said, she often takes home less than $200 a week. “We are supposed to be here for cultural exchange and education, but we are just cheap laborers,” Ms. Ozer said. |
Melbourne band Husky has been signed by renowned US record label Sub Pop, the label that has in the past been home to bands such as Fleet Foxes, Nirvana and Soundgarden. After several years playing around Melbourne, Husky had a steady climb throughout 2011. They won Triple J unearthed, released their debut album Forever So to critical acclaim and toured nationally at sold-out venues, including support slots for Gotye, Laura Marling, Devandra Banhart, and Noah and The Whale. Husky have been signed to US label Sub Pop. “The band's strength rests in its infectious, evocative songs and stirring live performances,” said President of Sub Pop Jonathan Poneman. The quartet - comprised of Husky Gawenda, Gideon Preiss (keys), Evan Tweedie (bass) and Luke Collins (drums) - recorded, produced and engineered their debut in a Northcote house. |
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, tunnel-building virtually ceased for 1,000 years, resuming in about 1565 in Moscow, where Tsar Ivan Grozny (the Terrible) built an immense labyrinth of tunnels apparently used as catacombs. They were discovered in the 20th century when the Moscow subway was built. But it was only in the 19th century that tools driven by compressed air or electricity, drilling machines, compressors and ventilators made long-distance tunneling practical. Tunneling through hard rock is relatively simple, apart from the labor involved. Tunnels in hard rock tend to support themselves even against the pressures common under mountains or sea floors. But softer material -- sand, gravel, sedimentary rock and the kind of chalk deposit through which much of the Channel Tunnel runs -- presents difficulties that have killed many tunnel workers in earlier projects. Danger of Collapsing Walls The danger is that as a tunnel is cut, its walls may collapse before workers can reinforce them with cast-iron rings, masonry or other means. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. The Lotschberg Tunnel in the Swiss Alps, completed in 1911, had earlier suffered disaster. After penetrating two miles into a mountain of relatively hard rock, drillers emerged into a zone of rocky debris. Broken rock and water under enormous pressure poured into the tunnel, killing 25 men. To avoid such accidents, many tunnel builders have resorted to compressed air and steel rings called shields. A bulkhead that closely fits the inside of the tunnel is installed near the rock face where workers are drilling, and the air inside is compressed to resist the tendency of water to leak through loose rock. Workers enter the compression chamber through an air lock, and the compression chamber is pushed along behind them. In one common variation, compressed air is also used to push a ring of steel called a shield into the leading end of the tunnel as it is dug, thus protecting workers from collapse until a permanent tunnel lining is built. Safer System in Channel A much safer system was devised for digging the Channel Tunnel. The French and British drilling machines heading toward each other under the Channel did not require shields, because each machine formed its own seal between the dangerous rock face and the tunnel behind it. The leading part of the machine resembles a telescope, the back of which grips the tunnel wall while the front end, which does the grinding, is pushed out into the virgin rock. When the front end reaches its maximum extension, the rear part propels itself forward, using its movable grippers for traction. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The circular face of the machine, which is turned by electric power, is studded with tungsten carbide "picks" that claw away at the rock, hurling debris into a conveyor that moves the waste to the rear. As picks wear out they can be replaced from behind the drilling plate without workers having to enter the dangerous space in front. As the boring machine crawls forward at 14.8 feet an hour, it is followed by a train some 200 yards long, the head of which is a "segment erector." This device lifts huge segments made of iron and concrete into place, to form the rings that are fitted together to line the tunnel walls and support the structure. Each complete ring consists of eight curving segments bolted together and packed with impermeable material at their seams. At normal speed, tunnel workers could complete a new ring every 13 minutes. The progress of the drilling creates a zone several feet long where collapse might occur in an accident. To seal this zone -- and to seal the cylindrical machine to the tunnel wall when drilling is temporarily halted -- a wet clay mixture is forced into the space between the machine and the rock wall. A special safety feature of the tunneling machinery is that it requires very little human assistance. Only a driver and two people to operate the lining machinery are needed, so loss of life would be relatively light in an accident. |
I was speaking recently with some Iranians on the ground in Iran when they told me about a recent wedding where a 14-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl got married. They argued that the religious government admires such marriages, and the trend is unfortunately increasing. The authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran gave full permission for this marriage. As the Iranians were telling me about a recent wedding, I was prepared to offer my congratulations until one of the men mentioned that it was between two young children. Here are some photos of the marriage: This is not an exception to the rule in the Islamic world or under the ruling of the religious clerics in the Islamic Republic. It happens all too often. Although Muslim scholars argue that marrying a 9-year-old girl was only completely acceptable more than 1000 years ago during the time of Prophet Muhammad, still tens of thousands of underage girls are being forced to get married in Iran and the number expands to hundreds of thousands in the entire Islamic world. The Islamic Republic is only one country among dozens of other Islamic countries which have legalized and even encouraged under age marriages. This trend is reportedly on the rise instead of declining. For example, there was a 59 percent increase in under-10 year old marriages in Iran in one year. Several parts of the Islamic Republic have experienced a dramatic growth in under-age marriages. According to the Islamic Republic civil code, Iran’s constitution set the legal marriage age for girls at 13 and boys at 15. But the Iranian parliament's legal affairs committee made several statements arguing that the Islamic Republic is attempting to lower the girl marriage age to 9. So, even though the above-mentioned marriage is illegal based on Iran’s civil code, the religious authorities allowed it. Why is the government trying to lower the legal age of a girl to 9, rather than increase it? Isn't age 9 even well before the child reaches puberty? All of these marriages are happening under the eyes of the so-called moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, whom President Obama seems to admire. Even more abhorrent, the Islamic Republic previously passed a law that permitted men to marry their young adopted daughters. Instead of focusing on crucial issues such as economics, gender rights, human rights, citizen rights and freedoms (speech, expression, assembly, etc), the government’s focus and time is spent on ensuring that grown men, and particularly the clergy, are capable of marrying a girl of any age they desire. Of course as the Islamic belief in the Islamic Republic’s system dictates, the girl has no say in this marriage. With only her parents’ permission, she will be sent to another man's house. She will go from innocent child to a wife overnight. Some of these marriages are arranged to settle financial debt or for other materialistic reasons. Previously, Mohammad Ali Isfenani, the chairman for the legal affairs committee, said matter-of-factly: "As some people may not comply with our current Islamic legal system, we must regard 9 as being the appropriate age for a girl to have reached puberty and qualified to get married. To do otherwise would be to contradict and challenge Islamic Sharia law." Before the clergy came to power in Iran, the marriage laws of the nation were much more advanced and complied with international human rights and standards. After the revolution, there has been a steady trend to completely remove the rights of all women, increase patriarchy and ratchet up the clergy’s power over women, which serves to satisfy the ayatollahs and Imams’ sexual desires. The justification that Ayatollah Khamenei and other Iranian religious leaders use for such terrible acts are either: This is what the Quran and Allah directed or this is what Muhammad did, as he married a 9-year-old girl. This is exactly the same justification that the Islamic State is currently using to “legally” rape 9-year-old girls and slaughter thousands of people. I recommend you watch the Frontline documentary on the Islamic States taking Yazidi girls. Their acts are totally barbarous. The psychological and emotional difficulties that these girls go through is unimaginable. According to this rising trend and according to the International Center for Research on Women, everyday approximately 25,000 girls under the age of 18 will be married. Other countries where this intolerable tradition occurs include Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Niger, Bangladesh, and India. UNICEF indicated that roughly 17 percent of girls are married under 18 in the Islamic Republic. There is not even a right of consent for these girls against unwanted sex or becoming pregnant. Many of these girls die at a young age due to a pregnancy in a not yet fully developed body or childbirth difficulties. A lot of girls who are forced into an underage marriage face grave psychological damage or even commit suicide. If they oppose the imposed decision to get married, the repercussions are swift and severe. For example, an Iranian child bride faced execution for killing the man she was forced to marry. Razieh Ebrahimi was forced to marry at the age of 14. At the age of 15, she was a mother with a child. And at the age of 17 she killed her husband. Human Rights Watch urged the Islamic Republic's judiciary to stop her execution. The most important decision in a girl's life, which will affect her for the rest of her years, is made by the government legal code and her brothers or parents. As Razieh Ebrahimi pointed out, "I married our neighbour's son when I was only 14 because my dad insisted… My dad insisted I should marry him because he was educated and was working as a teacher. I was 15 when I gave birth to my child… I didn't know who I am or what is life all about.” It is unbelievable to see these acts still happening in the 21st century. What is the reason? Muslim scholars are quick to jump and say Islam, the Quran and Muhammad are not the problem. However, these are the very same things that they use to prove that a little girl's life should be ended for the sake of the pleasure of religious men. |
Many of the city's most vulnerable residents are living in rooming house-type dwellings, not licensed by the city and where conditions are unsafe, say housing advocates. A CBC Nova Scotia Investigation this week highlighted a number of buildings which fire and police officials describe as rooming houses, but are not registered with the city. That means they're not subject to annual inspections and don't have to comply with rules that demand they be safe, clean and warm. Those buildings include an unlicensed residence at 2179 Gottingen St., that was condemned by the city last fall and is now vacant. Few options Dalhousie Legal Aid community worker Evan Cool says the first reports he heard about the Gottingen Street address were "frankly unbelieveable." One unit "had a packed dirt floor, one window that didn't open and the only source of heat was a kerosene camping heater." He says the landlord was attempting to rent that unit for $600 a month. When contacted by CBC this week, the owner, Hasan Yildiz, said not to phone again and hung up. Cool says there are consistent concerns with many of the city's unregistered, defacto rooming houses. "Plumbing, structural integrity, electricity, general maintenance, like pests. Bedbugs are becoming more and more of an issue in the city and if a landlord is negligent and doesn't attempt to nip these things in the bud when they come up, these problems just spread." He says people living in the buildings have few options, when it comes to housing. Safe rooming houses needed "People who've been criminalized, people with multiple disabilities, without much of a family or community support network, people with addictions, and people who are marginalized on the bases of race often, marginalized around being involved in sex work or drug use. Some of the most vulnerable people in our society," said Cool. Claudia Jahn, with the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia, says there are also problems in the south end of Halifax, in buildings rented to students. "They have no locks on their doors. Or they have locks on their doors and there are really way too many people in one building to make it safe." The advocates say they'd like to see a revival of safe rooming houses in the city. They point out this was traditionally a respected form of housing, useful for single people who want a private room and shared amenities. Need and demand They're urging the city to take away low-income housing from private sector providers and explore non-profit and cooperative solutions. "We have to be creative," says Jahn. "How can we create more affordable housing units in the city. Then we wouldn't have these problems. It's all about need and demand." She says a partnership, involving representatives from the city and non-profit groups, is now looking at the problems related to rooming houses in Halifax. Among other things, they're discussing how best to revitalize rooming house stock in the city. The city has acknowledged there is confusion surrounding the definition of a rooming house. It says it's working on new standards with the goal of having them in place by next year. |
ANKARA — Fresh from public displays of affection at their joint press conference early Friday afternoon, Donald Trump and Theresa May retired to the White House state banqueting room for lunch. Then it got really interesting. The defining image of the pair, walking hand-in-hand like the odd couple of world politics, came as they strolled along the White House colonnade on their way for grub — an all-American menu of blue cheese salad and beef ribs. Inside the room, each were joined by their eight closest officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s ideological guru Steve Bannon and his influential son-in-law Jared Kushner. The conversation was “warm, free-flowing and unscripted,” a Number 10 official said, with the pair spending much of the hour-long meeting discussing the Brexit vote, which Trump has backed with gusto. What else went on behind closed doors? Based on an account of the encounter given by a Number 10 briefer to the British press corps travelling with her from Washington to Turkey and then on to London, here are nine of the most telling moments from inside the room. Trump collects menus “At the end of the lunch he said that he always kept menu cards to remember significant moments,” the Number 10 official said. The tourist president By this measure, Trump deemed his lunch with the British prime minister significant. “He gave the menu card to one of his members of staff and said ‘keep that safe, I had lunch with the British prime minister’.” Not for turning While warm and friendly for most of the meal, serious diplomacy was also done. At these moments, Trump was resolute. May raised the thorny issue of Russia and its violations of the Minsk agreement, designed to end fighting in eastern Ukraine. “He said he understood her position,” the official said. But Trump doubled down on his commitment to make friends with Moscow. “[He said] he hoped that he could have a great relationship,” the official added. State visit demands — PM before HM “He said several times that it was really important to see Theresa first when he comes to England,” the official said, putting one HRH Elizabeth II in her place. “He wants to see her first on arrival. ‘When I come to the UK, I want to see you first’.” Will May oblige and wait obediently on the Heathrow tarmac for Trump’s arrival later this year? New Ronnie Trump and May bonded over their love for the conservative icons Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, with the U.S. president expressing his hope that the new transatlantic power couple could strike an even closer relationship. “They talked a lot about Thatcher and Reagan,” the official said. “Both agreed it was one of the most successful political relationships ever. They referred to the time that Thatcher took over Britain and the large challenges that she faced, and agreed that they had a shared admiration for her. Trump went on to say that he always looked up to Reagan and said that he wanted their relationship to be even better than that one.” Old friend Nigel Trump swept aside diplomatic niceties by raising his old friend Nigel Farage during the conversation. The UKIP leader’s name came up “in the context of the Brexit vote,” the official said. “Trump made clear his views on Brexit. He said he’d heard Farage’s take on it and was interested to hear the prime minister’s take.” Ideological allies May told the U.S. president that, in her view, the British public wanted the U.K. to be “a sovereign nation in charge of its own decisions.” She said these were “hard-working people who, she felt, had been left behind.” In response, Trump said he cared for those people too and talked about how he felt there “were many in America who felt the same.” Hand-in-hand “If you watch the video, they’re walking along and there is an unseen ramp,” the Number 10 official said, when asked about the already famous hand-holding image. “He offered his hand, which she took as they stepped down the ramp,” the source said. Asked if this was seen as a “chivalrous gesture” the aide agreed. Scared of ramps? Is there another reason he took the British prime minister’s hand? The chatter in the White House press corps, picked up by U.K. government officials, was that the president had a phobia of stairs and ramps — a condition known as bathmophobia. Paired with his self-confessed “germophobia,” which may have stopped him reaching for the hand rail, Trump’s “chivalrous” gesture may have been less gentlemanly than at first sight, some wags averred. |
One only needs to peruse the headlines of the last few years to realize that Hollywood’s big budget franchises have graduated to the even bigger realm of “universes.” Marvel may have been the first to popularize it with the “Marvel Cinematic Universe,” but shared brand synergy is underway at nearly every studio at the moment. Warner Bros. has their own superhero stable, as does 20th Century Fox, and Paramount is even trying to find a path toward unifying their Hasbro titles. But while everyone else is looking forward, Universal is glancing back. And why not? After all, Universal Pictures is responsible for the first shared cinematic universe. Over 80 years since it began, the Universal Monster legacy continues to stretch into a new century, spreading its celluloid immortality like a juicy Transylvanian kiss. The Universal Monsters did it first, and in many ways, their blunt directness has a special charm that is sorely lacking in the self-seriousness currently masquerading in their bloodless, caped descendents. And it really all goes back to one monster in particular: Lon Chaney Jr.’s eternally unblessed Wolf Man. Chaney’s unforgettable plea for audience mercy and understanding in 1941’s The Wolf Man, as well as make-up artist Jack Pierce’s notoriety for the best use of Yak fur in movie history, is generally considered the marker for Universal's final “A-list” monster picture. But it also signified a change of thinking at the studio, inadvertently inviting a literary concept as abstract as "universe-building" in through the backlot's sidedoor. And with those eventual follow-up sequels, there came a new type of monster movie. In the decade preceding The Wolf Man, Universal horror began its high pedigree breeding when Carl Laemmle Jr. had successfully won over his father to pursue the relatively untapped genre. Carl Laemmle Sr., a co-founder of Universal, saw little initial appeal in the supernatural stories of Bram Stoker or Mary Shelley. But the success of Lon Chaney Sr.’s silent films eventually led to the advent of Tod Browning’s Dracula (which Chaney the elder was originally set to star in before his death) and James Whale’s Frankenstein, both of which were released in 1931. In purely geeky terminology, Bela Lugosi’s vampire was Tony Stark, but Boris Karloff was Robert Downey Jr. since he benefitted the most from these two Universal chillers. Despite being the first (official) silver screen realization of Dracula, and the first talkie iteration of Dr. Frankenstein’s arrogance, neither of these films were “small,” much less the B-movies that would later be invented for the slums of horror cinema and those characters in particular. Universal and Carl Laemmle Jr., as the head of production, treated all of their horror films with the same kind of reverence that MGM would come to shower upon the musical. Maverick filmmaker and human being James Whale, who amongst other things was an openly gay man living proudly in the early 20th century, was given special leeway by the Laemmle family that tended to recognize a brilliance most of the industry would ignore in his lifetime. Pictures like The Old Dark House (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933) were allowed near carte blanche for Whale to introduce his acidic sense of humor, lacing the scares with just as many laughs. Indeed, the studio bent over backwards to lure him for the first major horror sequel ever made, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), which is widely considered by film historians to be the crown jewel in Universal’s legacy, as well as possibly the horror genre as a whole. It is certainly difficult to top for pure emotional catharsis the sequence where Karloff’s monster stumbles upon a blind man’s shack (though Mel Brooks tried his damnedest in 1974). However, just as Whale was attempting to stretch out to more “respected” fare like Show Boat (1936) and the ill-fated All Quiet on the Western Front sequel, The Road Back (1937), it seems the studio stretched too far. Despite the success of Showboat and almost all of their monster movies, the rest of Laemmle Jr.’s gambles had gone bust by 1935. That year, John Cheever Cowdin’s Standard Capital began the process of buying out the Laemmles' share of Universal Pictures. In 1936, the father and son were pushed out, and Universal became a very different company—one that wouldn’t necessarily make a horror sequel the centerpiece of its expensive production year (or keep an openly gay director in its favor). The era that kicked off the Universal Monsters Universe, including celluloid joys like The Mummy (1932) and The Black Cat (1934), came to an end. But the monsters as always proved impossible to stay dead. In fact, soon their forces would merge for unprecedented movie history. As, in many ways, the transition film between Universal’s “A-picture” horror and what would become the cash-in monster mashes to come, The Wolf Man (1941) still stands underrated in its own right as a masterpiece of the style. Produced and directed by George Waggner, the movie was a commercial effort to tap into werewolf mythology better than Universal’s less successful (and highly undervalued) preceding lycanthrope adventure, The Werewolf of London (1935). The far greater success of The Wolf Man was due to a number of reasons, but one especially unique contribution was that of Curt Siodmak. A German Jew with secular leanings, he already had begun pursuing creative writing and script doctoring when he immigrated first to England and then Hollywood in 1937 following the rise of the Nazi Party. Siodmak was a mercurial figure who had seen firsthand neighbors turn into monsters before his eyes, so he had little trouble in envisioning a good man that could turn into a murderous beast with the right encouragement. It also allowed him to write “Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright.” Perfection. further reading: An American Werewolf in London is Still the Best Horror Reimagining Factor in an all-star cast that included Claude Rains as Sir John Talbot, the Welsh lord and father of the ludicrously American Larry Talbot (Chaney), and supporting work from Warren William, Ralph Bellamy, and Bela Lugosi, and most of the movie’s budget was literally up on screen in the cast listing. And while Waggner’s straightforward direction lacked some of the atmosphere of what Browning did for Transylvania or Whales did for Castle Frankenstein, the lush wooded soundstages dripping with fog machines in The Wolf Man present a classically irresistible charm, most notably when Talbot’s hairy alter-ego comes out to play. A movie that won over audiences with its deep reservoirs of tragedy, mostly from the over-spilling guilt within the pools of Chaney’s eyes, the movie was a major success in 1941 despite opening less than a week after Pearl Harbor was bombed. That was the real transition. As the U.S. entered World War II, Hollywood was tasked with coming up with quick, efficient, and cheap entertainment. Suddenly, Universal needed to find a way to churn out its decade-long monster stable in a fantastic fashion. Thus enters again Curt Siodmak. As Siodmak told it, he desperately wanted a new car, so he joked to George Waggner at the Universal commissary during lunch that he had the perfect idea for a new movie: “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man.” Later that afternoon, Waggner called Siodmak to his office and told him to buy the car, because he had a script to write. Despite Universal already churning out monster movies like they were B-24s, such as The Mummy’s Tomb (1942) and The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), both of which starred Lon Chaney Jr. in excessive amounts of make-up, 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man was the studio’s relatively delayed follow-up on their last pre-war classic. And it seems Siodmak found the best way to continue the sad sack tale of the doomed Larry Talbot, who tragically died in the last picture at the hands of his father, was for Larry to wake up and commence biblical combat with the Frankenstein Monster. In essence, Siodmak inadvertently made his creation the lynchpin of cinema’s first shared universe. Despite the Universal library already brimming with fangs and teeth, the only one that had really continued as a series beyond a spare sequel was “Frankenstein” (now simply signifying the Monster since the last “Dr. Frankenstein” in the series appeared in The Ghost of Frankenstein). And all of these works were standalone, taking place in a twinkling Neverland of automobiles and horse drawn carriages. The Wolf Man is even one of the few that appeared to take place in modern times (WWII notwithstanding), as Larry Talbot was exceedingly a mid-20th century American with a background in electrical engineering when he returns home to Wales for the first time in 20 years. The only horse drawn carriages are from the backwards-looking gypsies, beautifully personified by Maleva (the wonderful Maria Ouspenskaya). further reading: 13 Must-See Werewolf Movies With Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, the film’s brisk 74 minutes are literally cut in near symmetrical half when the film begins as a direct continuation of the 1941 film—Larry Talbot is conveniently awakened by two dimwitted grave robbers who sneak into his crypt and remove his death shroud of wolfsbane on the night of a full moon—and abruptly enters the twinkling fantasy of the Frankenstein franchise, which began with Whale’s tongue firmly planted in his cheek. Lesser directors on the other hand had continued it with Son of Frankenstein (1939) and Ghost, unaware that they were emulating a sly comedy. When Larry Talbot crosses the English Channel to continental Europe in his search for a permanent death at the hands of Dr. Frankenstein, he is crossing over from his own mythology into another from the Universal canon, thereby stitching them together like the good doctor himself. In short, this is the moment where the Wolf Man became the Agent Coulson of 1940s cinema. The second half of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man is decidedly less interesting than the first. While it still has the strength of Chaney and Ouspenskaya’s returning Maleva, not to mention the sparkling charms of Ilona Massey slumming it in her one and only horror movie as Elsa Frankenstein, the daughter of Ghost’s most recent mad scientist, the latter portion is a bit of a mish-mash. When Chaney is interacting with Massey or the superstitious folks of Vasaria, the movie tends to work, jarring anti-Nazi imagery and hilarious 19th century German and Swiss stereotypes notwithstanding. There’s even a genuinely creepy moment when Larry locks eyes with a teenage girl in a small tavern, allowing both parties an implicit acknowledgement of pre-destined ravishment and doom, as he will soon devour her later that night. However, the actual “Frankenstein” of the film, the Monster now played by Bela Lugosi since Chaney could only be in one place at a time, feels like an afterthought. Lugosi is widely criticized as the worst onscreen depiction of Universal’s Frankenstein Monster, yet it is not entirely the acting legend’s fault. The then-60-year-old Lugosi was given the unenviable burden of continuing a lousy subplot from Ghost of Frankenstein where the creature was awarded Ygor’s brain (also played by Lugosi) but had gone blind as a result. So, Lugosi was forced to stumble around the set as a blind Monster while speaking with a Hungarian accent. The effect…was apparently not good, and Universal executives in post had all of Lugosi’s speaking lines cut, rendering the performance even more incomprehensible. Luckily, the aftermath was Siodmak and Chaney’s creation taking an even more central focus as the star of the movie, and soon the Universal Shared Cinematic Universe. And no matter what, there’s also not a person alive who cannot grin at Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man’s grand finale when these mutual masters of malevolence have their much hyped Combat in the Castle—throwing lab equipment and each other around like a prophecy of WWE shenanigans to come. If only Zack Snyder could have matched the sheer gonzo joy of this epic brawl. Very quickly, Universal realized there were far greater rewards with keeping their most popular monsters together than having them stay apart. The same year of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, the studio also released the overlooked vampire gem Son of Dracula. In spite of its title, and Lon Chaney’s miscalculated pity pleas as the dark count, this is most definitely a story about the original Count Dracula (at least according to the film’s characters) coming to the shores of New Orleans. Long before Anne Rice married the vampire to voodoo, Son of Dracula did just that when a 20th century girl with a taste for the occult ends up getting more than that when she invites “Count Alucard” (get it?) home, becoming his bride. However, the following year saw what was most certainly meant to be the original Universal Dracula make his first official showing without qualifiers since the original 1931 film. Played by John Carradine with a wispy moustache, this Dracula was angry after having a wooden stake pulled from his heart—he also was not alone in a movie that also featured the Frankenstein Monster, a mad scientist, a hunchback (the horror!), and of course the Wolf Man. House of Frankenstein (1944) solidified Universal’s Cinematic Universe when wacky Dr. Niemann (Boris Karloff) escapes with a hunchback assistant (J. Carrol Nash) from prison to wreak havoc and revenge on the men who imprisoned Niemann 15 years prior for trying to reanimate the dead. First, Niemann enlists Dracula into his plan by removing the stake from his heart (the count’s corpse had become part of a traveling freak show), and then he finds Larry Talbot and the Frankenstein Monster encased in frozen ice from their last encounter. Soon, all of them, plus a lovely gypsy girl (Elena Verdugo) are attempting to play God over Frankenstein’s creation. It's a nutty movie with production values occasionally as flimsy as its plot, but there is an undeniable appeal with the film as well. Attempting to organize a chronology around most of the Universal’s Monster catalogue is a fool’s errand since they all take place in anachronistic landscapes and misty soundstages, often populated by the same folks with murky origins. For example, Lionel Atwill appears as a small town constable in House of Frankenstein, even though he was the Mayor of Vasaria in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. In the earlier picture, he hits it off well with Elsa Frankenstein, which shouldn’t be a surprise since he played her father, Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein, in Ghost—however she was played by Evelyn Ankers in that picture (who perhaps did not return for the crossover since she already was a Wolf Man love interest in the 1941 film). further reading: Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe Timeline Explained! Even the geography is a muddle since the Monster resides in the vaguely Swiss village of Vasaria in both Ghost and Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. And yet, when Dr. Niemann thaws him out ostensibly “six years later” in House of Frankenstein, the village is now titled “Village Frankenstein,” while Niemann seeks to take Larry, the Monster, and the whole brood to his old lab…in Vasaria. As these movies were released annually in the days before television (never mind Blu-ray or digital download), the filmmakers could play fast and loose with the material. But also, there is something to be said with the freedom to do whatever they want with the material. While it is reassuring that shared franchises have master plans and are building to something presumably epic today, during the Second World War, people already had enough “world-building” in their real lives. Nobody had time or the inclination to worry about continuity, canon, and other buzzwords when they went to the movies, especially franchise films that were far more unapologetic in their cash grabs than they are today. If director Erle C. Kenton wanted another monster mash with Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, and now a lady hunchback(!) in 1945’s House of Dracula, then he’ll have it! How did they all meet up when they each bought the big silver one in House of Frankenstein? Does it really matter? Apparently not to screenwriter Edward T. Lowe Jr.! House of Dracula followed up on the previous House party by more or less ignoring it. In fact, this is at first glance the story of a not-yet crazy scientist trying to cure an inexplicably still-alive Dracula of vampirism until the Wolf Man barges in again to make it all about him and his sorrow. Talbot even discovers the Frankenstein Monster for the maddening scientist. At the very least, Lowe and Kenton seemed considerate enough to give Larry a happy ending for once when he becomes the real hero by getting cured and saving the girl from the doc and monster. It is all so unapologetically absurd in its quest for audience appeal and entertainment (and money) that it’s a wonder the crossovers only were relegated to Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Wolf Man. Strangely, the Mummy never showed up in these pictures, nor the Invisible Man. Purportedly, the Invisible Man and the Ape Woman were set to appear in House of Frankenstein when it was originally entitled The Devil’s Brood, however it seems that even in 1943, there were concerns with overstuffing a film with too many characters. Perhaps Marvel should take notes after that second Avengers. Around the time that WWII ended, so too did the public’s appetite for Universal’s imaginary monsters. The three ghouls only teamed up one last time, including Chaney as Larry and Lugosi’s first-and-only filmic reprise of the Dracula role, in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948). Even the Invisible Man got the '48 equivalent to a "post-credits" stinger in it too. Whether this could be seen as a harbinger of the dangers of oversaturation, or merely a generational distancing from the visages of death in strange European lands, is still debatable. Nonetheless, for a brief time during the World War II era, Universal’s biggest monsters—Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Wolf Man—all shared the same screen universe for four pictures. And by extension, so too do the rest of the Universal Monsters interconnect due to Larry Talbot’s best intentions to do what is right. Like the story of his life, it ended in a bloodbath, but at least it continues to leave Universal fans howling. David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. He’s also a member of the Online Film Critics Society. Read more of his work here. You can follow him on Twitter @DCrowsNest. Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here! |
The Baltimore liquor board on Thursday suspended Banditos Bar & Kitchen’s liquor license for two weeks and imposed $6,000 in fines on the Federal Hill bar following a triple stabbing there in May. The bar and restaurant at 1118 S. Charles St. was charged with endangering general welfare, failing to prevent illegal activity on its premises and failing to cooperate with police. The charges came after a triple stabbing occurred at Banditos around 1:30 a.m. May 13. Shawn Guzman, a 17-year-old, was charged with attempted first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and two weapons charges in a separate criminal case. After a hearing that lasted more than an hour Thursday, the three-member Board of Liquor License Commissioners unanimously found the bar guilty of public welfare and illegal conduct violations. By a 2-1 vote, the bar was found not guilty of failing to cooperate with police. Banditos was charged with a cooperation violation after police discovered an employee cleaning up blood inside the bar before crime lab technicians arrived, and officers testified that they smelled a strong odor of bleach when they arrived at the scene. The $3,000 fines per violation are the maximum the liquor board could impose. James Dipino, the general manager of Banditos who was on duty that night, said the bar was preparing to close when the stabbing occurred, and he was in his office after taking several cash registers to the back of the building. When he returned he saw a pool of blood with a 3- to 4-foot radius, he said, and observed several staff members coughing from what he thought was pepper spray. He did not immediately see any of the three stabbing victims, but ordered an employee to begin mopping up the blood. “I had about four females who were working and, as a man, I didn’t want them to have to see that,” Dipino said. Liquor board commissioner Dana P. Moore was the only board member who found Banditos guilty of failing to cooperate with police. “It just doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “I’m just trying to understand why your first thought would be to destroy evidence” “Everything happened so fast,” Dipino said. “My head was spinning.” Banditos is working to open a craft deli in a space next door to the bar that previously housed Forever Yogurt. An expansion of Banditos’ liquor license to include that space was approved in January. Members of the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association protested the expansion, and appeared again at Thursday’s hearing to push for harsh punishments against Banditos, including suspending or revoking its license. Others, in letters to the board, suggested reversing the approval for its expanded license. While liquor board Chariman Albert Matricciani Jr. recognized there were many Federal Hill residents upset with the concentration of bars in their neighborhood, he said the board was unable to address the license expansion because it was a separate issue from the violations stemming from the stabbing. “I can’t cure whatever problems you have with Federal Hill in this hearing today,” Matricciani said. As part of the new project next door, Banditos was updating its security system and its cameras were down for about a week in May, including the night when the stabbing occurred. Dipino and owner Andrew Dunlap said they do not know how or when Guzman was allowed inside. They said it was possible the teen came for dinner while the kitchen was open — before the bar starts carding patrons outside the doors — and was able to stay into the early morning hours. Dunlap was not at the bar that night, but after speaking with investigators, decided to replace the security company that mans the doors and keeps and eye on the crowd inside at night. The owners brought on a new security company about a week after the stabbing. “Through the process of speaking with the inspectors and production of some of the evidence coming forth, we felt that it was time to question who we had working for our security company and see if there was something better out there,” Dunlap said. About 20 people attended the hearing to support Banditos, with nearly as many in attendance to oppose it. “I’m concerned that y’all still today don’t understand what happened and why it happened,” Moore said. CAPTION Actor Kevin Spacey has been spotted in Baltimore recently. Scheduled to appear in court Jan. 7 in Nantucket to be arraigned on the indecent assault and battery charges, Spacey could face as many as five years in prison if convicted. Actor Kevin Spacey has been spotted in Baltimore recently. Scheduled to appear in court Jan. 7 in Nantucket to be arraigned on the indecent assault and battery charges, Spacey could face as many as five years in prison if convicted. CAPTION Dirt bike riders were seen zipping down North Monroe Street in West Baltimore and popping wheelies Tuesday while filming a movie scene. Based on a casting call posted to the Maryland Film Office’s website , it appears the “ride scenes” were shot for the feature film “Charm City,” alternately called “12 O’Clock Boys.” The film will reportedly be executive produced by Will Smith and is based on the 2013 documentary “12 O’Clock Boys” directed by Maryland Institute College of Art alum Lotfy Nathan. Dirt bike riders were seen zipping down North Monroe Street in West Baltimore and popping wheelies Tuesday while filming a movie scene. Based on a casting call posted to the Maryland Film Office’s website , it appears the “ride scenes” were shot for the feature film “Charm City,” alternately called “12 O’Clock Boys.” The film will reportedly be executive produced by Will Smith and is based on the 2013 documentary “12 O’Clock Boys” directed by Maryland Institute College of Art alum Lotfy Nathan. smeehan@baltsun.com twitter.com/sarahvmeehan MORE BALTIMORE DINER 100 essential food and drink experiences every Baltimorean must try Map: 10 hot Baltimore restaurants Dish Baltimore: Search Baltimore Sun-reviewed restaurants UPDATES: July 20, 5 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details. |
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