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What’s more valuable, your idea or your secret? This is the problem that every entrepreneur is faced with. You come up with an idea that you believe is the bomb, and you don't want to share it with anyone else. It's your baby. Your gift to the world. Your goose that will lay billions of golden eggs. Or something more noble, that will end world hunger or achieve world peace. But alas, there have been thousands if not millions of these ideas floating around in people's heads and intentions, and one of them may have solved the problem of global warming, but we'll never know, because those people never told anyone about it. Larry Page has said that: "You need to invent things and you need to get them to people. You need to commercialize those inventions." In other words, what good is an idea if it is born and dies in your head? Let's break down the process, and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of letting people know about your idea vs keeping it a secret until the big unveiling. Keep it locked up in the most secure place ever Let's think about this in cool terms. Imagine you're an (even more important than) top secret agent, and you have to do things. Every step step you take, and every move you make, is going to be "classified". Your best friend asks you what's new with your life, you say: "it's classified". Your boyfriend asks you if you want to go out this weekend, and you say: "it's classified". You get where I'm going with this. This is the biggest problem. Keeping your idea secret until you turn it into a product is the biggest challenge. Not only do you have to do everything yourself, it is also going to cost you more time and money. Then, after decades of work, when you finally unveil the product, the reception by end users is a gamble. Unless you're the kind of company that is named like a Beatles record label, likes to hoard billions of ca$h, and your whole advertising strategy is based on secrecy, then go ahead. Otherwise, it just isn't worth it. Tell everyone about it First off, you have to understand, that if you're able to come up with one idea, you are able to come up with another. That's why the phrase "serial entrepreneur" exists. It's not like people are alloted a set number of ideas at birth and you use them up during your life. Necessity breeds creativity, and that's how humans have evolved to the point where you can order condoms by pressing one button. Usually, when you come up with an idea, and you feel compelled to turn it into something, it's not like everyone you talk to about it is going to feel the same way about it. There are probably people right now that are devising or have already come up with ideas to make e-cigaretes less obnoxious, and good for them, it'll probably lead to less smokers, but it's not something that's going to compell me to start the Cool Vaping Company. The odds of finding someone that feels about an idea the same as you do, are slim. That's why we advocate rapid prototyping. Quickly turn your idea into 'something', and get it out there, have people react to it. Then based on user feedback, you improve, iterate and move on. Yes, this is another post about getting your product out as soon as possible, and not hold back until you polish everything. This is not something revolutionary. It's a tried and tested method. The first computer made by Steve Wozniak didn't look even close to a Braun appliance rip off. But the ones made by his company a couple of decades later did. Have a look at this old news article. Do those websites seem like good and polished executions of ideas? Not even for their time. Get your idea to people, and then react. What about if someone steals your idea? Well the Chinese have been doing that for decades. Also, the most recent and famous example is Instagram, with their Stories. Snapchat has been around for 5 years. They're a good successful company. Instagram comes along, and just blatantly chops a piece of their pie, and is eating it while maintaining eye contact (to assert dominance). Arguably Samsung has done that to Apple as well. So, it's not about the idea, it's the follow through. Conclusion You believe that you've come up with something, try and make it happen. As quickly as possible as simply as possible. If you're aiming to compete in the half pipe Winter X-Games, you first learn to ride a snowboard, and then you attempt to nail a 1440. Get your idea out there, and see what happens. If people like it, it'll serve as motivation to make it better. If people don't like it, then you can tweak it for them to understand it better. If they still don't like it, you come up with something different. The ideas for Slack, or Instagram weren't conceived in the form they are now. Slack was part of a communication feature of a game. Kevin Systrom was making a location based app, the focus of which wasn't on filtered photos. So, test and collaborate, don't hide. If a great idea is executed, the world becomes a better place independent of who the executioner is. If it's you, great, you're rich. If it's not you, then you'll come up with something better soon enough (and then get rich). |
BOSTON—There seems to be no identifiable fifth starter in the Blue Jays rotation, no one that could be perceived as the weakest link, someone to skip over if necessary. It was presumed Aaron Sanchez was that man after he was the final pitcher named to the starting staff in the spring. But it could be argued that Sanchez, after three starts, has been the team’s best pitcher. You could suggest R.A. Dickey is that fifth man right now, but he is the only one in the group that has ever pitched 200 innings in a season, and he has done it for five straight seasons. J.A. Happ has allowed just four earned runs in 19 innings over three starts this month. ( Mary Schwalm / The Associated Press ) J.A. Happ made his case for a ranking better than five on Monday. The 33-year-old left-hander worked seven strong innings and one batter into the eighth, keeping the Jays in the game until the offence broke out in the eighth. “That’s always the goal, keep them in there and you know (the offence is) going to keep battling,” Happ said as improved to 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA. “That was a huge (eighth) inning for us against a tough pitcher (Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel) and we had some great at-bats. It was a fun win.” The Red Sox opened the scoring in the second inning against Happ, just the fifth time in 14 games the Jays’ opponents have scored first. With one out, Hanley Ramirez reached out and sliced a double that took one hop around the Pesky Pole and into the seats. One out later, third baseman Josh Rutledge lined a double to the alley in right-centre. Article Continued Below “The pitch Hanley hit for a double was a pretty good pitch and the 0-2 (to Rutledge) was a pretty good pitch too, maybe caught the edge of the plate,” Happ said. “Maybe I needed to try to get him to chase, but I feel there was enough today where we could keep them off-balance.” The Jays’ rotation over the first 14 games of the season has a combined 7-3 record with a 3.27 ERA. The 88 innings by Jays starters, just under 6 1/3 innings per outing, is the most by any starting staff in the American League. |
The coming weeks should provide more than enough time for fans and pundits to ponder whether the union of Favre and the Jets was a good idea in the first place. “I can honestly say right now that I’m glad I made the decision to come here and play,” Favre said after the game, hands stuffed into jeans pockets and his hair shimmering silver in the television lights. “I knew the odds were against us, I knew the expectations were high. But I consider that a huge challenge. “One game, as I said last year, one game, one season, I’m not going to hang my head. I can sit here until I’m blue in the face telling you how I expected us to go on, how disappointed I am. I know every guy in that room is. But it is what it is. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Among the debris swirling around Giants Stadium when the game ended was the final statistical line for Favre: 20 of 40 for 233 yards, with a touchdown and three interceptions. It was part of a broader equation that added up to the fourth loss in the final five games for the Jets (9-7), who were 8-3 at Thanksgiving — a pratfall that provided a firm tug on Favre’s previously unassailable legacy. He threw two touchdown passes and nine interceptions in the final five games. “I’m sure everyone’s going to say, ‘He’s old and washed up and gray’ and all that stuff,” Favre said. “Maybe they’re right.” He did not sound as if he believed that. “There’s no reason in my mind that I should have played any differently than I did earlier in the year,” he added. Advertisement Continue reading the main story To make the playoffs, the Jets needed a victory and a loss by New England or Baltimore. The Dolphins simply needed to win. But the game’s intrigue went deeper. Favre had retired in March after 16 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, only to change his mind, an awkward drama that stretched into August. Green Bay finally traded Favre to the Jets. (Because the Jets missed the playoffs, they will lose a third-round choice in the April draft.) 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 Jets quickly dumped their own longtime quarterback, Chad Pennington, who was scooped up by Miami. That is why the game Sunday became, in large part, a proxy on the quarterbacks, particularly Favre. Pennington completed 22 of 30 passes for 200 yards and 2 touchdowns, with no interceptions. Favre threw incomplete on six of his first seven passes before connecting with Jerricho Cotchery for 26 yards in the second quarter. Five plays later, Favre flung a short pass to Laveranues Coles, who was zipping through traffic on a crossing pattern. Coles turned upfield and tiptoed into the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown. It gave the Jets a 6-0 lead. Favre, serenaded with cheers, bounced like a child on a trampoline. But on the first play after Pennington led the Dolphins to a touchdown and a 7-6 lead late in the first half, Favre faked a quick pass left and threw a screen pass to the right, into the arms of defensive end Phillip Merling. Favre fell trying to prevent Merling from scoring on a 25-yard interception return. Favre stood on the sideline rubbing his sore shoulder as his backup, Kellen Clemens, warmed up behind him. When Favre took the field, fans booed again. The injury, Favre said later, “hurts in the back, it hurts down the bicep, and occasionally in my neck.” He added, “Other than that, it’s fine.” He declined to use it as an excuse for his erratic play late in the season but will have a magnetic resonance imaging test Monday. The results could affect his retirement decision. “I’m 39,” Favre said. “I don’t want to have to have a bunch of surgeries to continue playing.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story But he looked strong leading the Jets on a 10-play drive that ended with a field goal on the last play of the half. And when he got the ball again in the third quarter, he led the Jets on a touchdown drive, followed by a sharp throw for a 2-point conversion, that gave the Jets a 17-14 lead. The Dolphins took the lead for good midway through the third quarter. Favre was handed a few more chances for another comeback. His team trailing, 24-17, Favre completed seven consecutive passes on the Jets’ best drive of the fourth quarter, moving the team to the Miami 29 with about five minutes remaining. But his next pass, thrown quickly, whizzed past the hands of Chansi Stuckey and into the arms of Goodman again. Favre held his hands to his helmet. In the playoff race, it no longer mattered for the Jets. The Ravens were winning easily over the Jacksonville Jaguars. By the time Favre threw his last pass, the Giants Stadium stands were mostly empty. Even those with No. 4 Favre jerseys walked away. There was nothing left to see except, perhaps, a legacy ending. Again. |
James Te Huna: ‘I’m Fighting Brandon Vera, UFC on Fuel 4’ Four fight UFC veteran James Te Huna has his next fight booked as he will face Brandon Vera at UFC on Fuel 4. Te Huna made the announcement via his Twitter account on Thursday. The fight was first reported by MMAWeekly.com content partner FightBulletin.net “I’m fighting Brandon Vera, UFC on Fuel 4,” wrote Te Huna. While UFC on Fuel 4 has not been official announced, Fuel TV Executive Vice President and General Manager George Greenberg stated earlier this week that he expected that show to take place in July, although final plans have yet to be decided. No date or venue has been rumored as of yet either for the fourth live card on Fuel TV. James Te Huna will get back in action on a two fight win streak, and going 3-1 thus far in his UFC career. His lone loss is to top ten light heavyweight prospect Alexander Gustafsson, and outside of that Te Huna has been flawless finishing every other fight inside of the 15-minute time limit. Facing Te Huna at UFC on Fuel 4 will be former heavyweight and now light heavyweight prospect Brandon Vera. Vera was actually released from the UFC following a loss to Thiago Silva at UFC 125 in Jan 2011, but after Silva was suspended due to a falsified drug test result, the UFC gave him another shot. Vera made the most of it by picking up a win over Eliot Marshall, and now hopes to build on that with his fight against Te Huna. The two light heavyweights are the first bout announced for the UFC on Fuel 4 card. MMAWeekly.com will have more information on the show when it becomes available. |
Ted Kennedy: Public Option "Vital" To HCR In his last published piece on the subject of health care reform, Senator Ted Kennedy wrote on July 18, 2009: I long ago learned that you have to be a realist as you pursue your ideals. But whatever the compromises, there are several elements that are essential to any health-reform plan worthy of the name. . . . To accomplish all of this, we have to cut the costs of health care. . . . [O]ne of the most controversial features of reform is one of the most vital. It's been called the "public plan." . . . This will foster competition in pricing and services. It will be a safety net, giving Americans a place to go when they can't find or afford private insurance, and it's critical to holding costs down for everyone. (Emphasis supplied.) Don't let the Third Wayers like Ezra Klein and Steve Pearlstein tell falsehoods about what Ted Kennedy thought about the public option. His words speak for themselves. Speaking for me only |
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common clinical diagnosis in patients presenting to the emergency department and in hospitalized patients. It is normally treated with long-term anticoagulation therapy to reduce the risks of death and the morbidity associated with chronic pulmonary venous thromboembolism. Because the clinical presentation is often nonspecific and can be mimicked by a range of other conditions, in routine practice, pulmonary CT angiography (CTA) is often used as the imaging method of choice for further investigation [1]. Pulmonary CTA has been shown to be highly sensitive and specific when pretest clinical diagnostic tools are used [2] but surprisingly inaccurate in patients with low pretest probability, with false-positive rates as high as 42% [3]. Unfortunately, adherence to referral guidelines for pulmonary CTA has repeatedly been shown to be low [4, 5]. Nonetheless, many clinicians will initiate anticoagulation therapy on the basis of a positive result, regardless of pretest probability [6], even in isolated subsegmental PE [7]. The risk of hemorrhage related to anticoagulation therapy is potentially significant. A large meta-analysis in 2003 [8] found a 7% annual risk of major bleeding and a 0.4% incidence of bleeding-related fatality in patients treated with oral anticoagulation therapy for venous thromboembolism for longer than 3 months. The practical implications of long-term anticoagulation therapy for the patient are also potentially significant, requiring frequent attendance to their medical practitioners for blood tests, consequent time off from work, potential adverse drug interactions with other medications, adjustments to travel and lifestyle, implications for future dental and medical procedures, and possible negative effects on life insurance status. With these considerations in mind, it is important to minimize the misdiagnosis of PE. Common artifacts that can lead to a false-positive diagnosis of PE have been well described in the published literature [9–11]. Despite this, however, reported interobserver agreement varies widely, especially in the diagnosis of subsegmental PE [12]. Wide variations in concordance between general and subspecialist radiologists have been reported (89–100%) [13, 14], as well as between residents, fellows, and attending radiologists (87–93%) [15–17]. Although pulmonary CTA examinations are frequently interpreted by general radiologists in most centers, limited data exist on the interobserver agreement between general and subspecialist chest radiologists. A small number of studies [13, 18] have directly compared pulmonary CTA interpretation by general radiologists with that of a single subspecialist chest radiologist. There is very limited analysis of these discrepant cases in terms of PE location within the pulmonary arterial system and potential causes of misdiagnosis. In addition, the absence of a practical reference standard examination makes it difficult to draw conclusions regarding the accuracy of pulmonary CTA in routine clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the rate of overdiagnosis of PE by pulmonary CTA in a tertiary-care university hospital by assessing the degree of discordance between the original reporting radiologists and an expert panel of subspecialty chest radiologists and to attempt to establish patterns of misdiagnosis to try to understand the causes underlying pulmonary CTA misinterpretation. Materials and Methods Choose Top of page ABSTRACT Materials and Methods << Results Discussion Conclusion References CITING ARTICLES This retrospective study was conducted at University College Hospital Galway, which is a specialist oncology center and a university-affiliated tertiary-care medical center in Galway, Ireland. Approximately 130,000 imaging studies are performed annually in the University College Hospital Galway Radiology Department, which is staffed by 15 attending and nine resident radiologists. The Galway University institutional ethical review board approved this retrospective study and waived the requirement for written informed consent. An electronic search was performed of the approved finalized reports of all consecutive pulmonary CTA examinations performed over a 12-month period between August 1, 2012, and July 31, 2013. Data were collected by both electronic query and manual review of the electronic medical record. All scans were acquired on a 64-MDCT scanner (Somatom Sensation 64, Siemens Healthcare) in the craniocaudal direction with a collimation of 0.6 mm and gantry rotation of 500 milliseconds. Automated dose control software was used with 120 kVp and 200 mA maximum; 80–120 mL of low-osmolar contrast medium (350 Omnipaque, GE Healthcare) was injected through an 18-gauge cannula sited in the antecubital fossa, at a rate of 4–5 mL/s, followed by a 20-mL saline bolus chaser injected at 4 mL/s. Optimal scan acquisition time was determined using a bolus-tracking technique with an ROI placed over the pulmonary trunk. Images were reconstructed with a 512 × 512 matrix and a smooth kernel, with 1-mm axial and 1.5-mm coronal slice thickness and 0.8-mm slice overlap. Images were reviewed using IMPAX (version 6.5, AGFA Healthcare). All studies in which a definite diagnosis of PE was reported were selected for further analysis. Studies reported as nondiagnostic or negative for the presence of PE were excluded (because the purpose of our study was to evaluate the potential rate of over-diagnosed PEs, rather than the overall diagnostic accuracy of pulmonary CTA). All studies were anonymized for independent interpretation on stand-alone workstations by a panel of three subspecialist chest radiologists, each with at least 10 years’ experience in pulmonary CTA interpretation. One radiologist was among the 15 on-site attending radiologists. The other two panel members were reviewers from another tertiary referral center. The final consensus opinion of these three chest radiologists was used as a surrogate reference standard for the diagnosis of PE. Each examiner was blinded to the index report, PE location, clinical history, and other diagnostic test results. An initial interpretation was performed by each of the three chest radiologists independently, in which they recorded the presence or absence of PE, the most proximal level of PE, the lobar location of PE, and the overall quality of the examination (satisfactory or unsatisfactory for diagnosis). After this initial interpretation, a second analysis was then made of those studies in which there was any disagreement among the three chest radiologists (to minimize the risk of overlooking PEs because of interpretation fatigue after reading a large number of pulmonary CTA studies in succession). Where there was any persistent discordance among the three chest radiologists after this second review, the original report was accepted as being correct (i.e., positive for PE). Next, a third and final analysis was performed of those studies for which there was a discrepancy between the consensus opinion of the three chest radiologists and the original report, guided by a partial unblinding of the original report to direct attention to the original reported PE. Where there was unanimous agreement among the three chest radiologists that a pulmonary CTA was negative, a final outcome of negative for PE was recorded. In addition, the following final data were recorded: patient demographics (age and sex); the most proximal PE location according to the modified Boyden classification [19] (pulmonary trunk, main pulmonary artery, lobar pulmonary artery, segmental pulmonary artery, or subsegmental pulmonary artery); number of PEs (solitary vs multiple); quality of contrast enhancement, assessed by calculating the average of the CT number measured in the pulmonary trunk and the right and left main pulmonary arteries with a circular ROI equal to the diameter of the vessel (Fig. 1); and interobserver agreement (modified kappa index) among the three chest radiologists and between the final consensus opinion of the three chest radiologists and the original reporting radiologists. View larger version (298K) Finally, the individual discordant cases (those that were considered to be negative for PE) were analyzed separately to attempt to establish a potential underlying cause for the misdiagnosis of PE on the original report, such as movement artifact from breathing or cardiac pulsation; poor contrast opacification of the pulmonary arteries due to Valsalva maneuver, cardiac insufficiency, or other cause of mixing of opacified and unopacified blood; beam-hardening attenuation artifact caused by adjacent high-density structures such as opacified veins, contrast material pooling in the inferior vena cava or right ventricle, or bony structures; and the presence of airspace disease obscuring the underlying pulmonary vasculature. Descriptive numeric values were used for patient and PE demographics (actual values, percentages, mean [± SD], and ranges). Comparisons between groups were performed using the paired t test and for ordinal categories using the chi-square test. A p value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant. All statistics were performed using SPSS (version 16, IBM). Results Choose Top of page ABSTRACT Materials and Methods Results << Discussion Conclusion References CITING ARTICLES There were 937 pulmonary CTA examinations performed over the course of the 12-month study period. Of these, 174 studies (18.6%) were reported as positive for PE by the original radiologist (Table 1), and comprised 84 male and 90 female patients with a mean age of 64 years (range, 17–99 years). PEs were reported as solitary in 67 cases (38.5%) and multiple in 107 cases (61.5%) (Table 2). PEs were more frequently reported in the peripheral segmental and subsegmental arteries (103 cases; 59.2%) than in the more central and lobar arteries (71 cases; 40.8%) (Table 1). Twenty-four patients (13.8%) had a reported solitary subsegmental PE. The average quality of contrast enhancement was 327.0 ± 88 HU (range, 127.1–625.2 HU). View Larger Version TABLE 1: Comparison of Contrast Enhancement, Patient Age, and Pulmonary Embolism (PE) Location in All and Discordant Pulmonary CT Angiography Examinations Reported as Positive for PE by the Original Radiologist View Larger Version TABLE 2: Comparison of Solitary Pulmonary Embolism (PE) in All and Discordant Pulmonary CT Angiography Examinations On final analysis, the panel of three chest radiologists were of the consensus opinion that 45 (25.9%) of the original 174 index cases were negative for the presence of PE. Interobserver agreement between the panel members was almost perfect (weighted κ = 0.835). These discordant cases comprised 25 women (none of whom were pregnant) and 20 men (mean age, 60 years; range, 23–91 years). Overall image quality was considered to be satisfactory for diagnosis in 170 examinations (98%) and inadequate for diagnosis in four examinations (2%). The average quality of contrast enhancement was 291.3 ± 60.9 HU, versus a mean of 338.5 ± 91.8 HU in the group with a concordant diagnosis (p = 0.002). There was discordance between the chest radiologists and the original radiologist in 31 of 67 (46.2%) cases of reported solitary PE, whereas discordance occurred in only 14 of 107 (13.1%) cases where multiple PEs were originally reported. Discordance was highest for cases of reported peripheral PEs (38/103 [36.9%] cases of segmental or subsegmental PEs), with the highest rate for reported solitary subsegmental PEs (16/24 [66.7%] of such cases). Discordance occurred most commonly in the lower lobes, with the most commonly involved vessels being the lateral basal and posterior basal segmental arteries of the left lower lobe; these vessels accounted for 35.5% of all discordant cases diagnosed at the segmental level. Interestingly, no discordant diagnoses were seen in the right middle lobe (where diagnostic difficulty might have been expected because of the more horizontal course of the pulmonary arteries and their greater susceptibility to partial volume averaging effects). The distribution of instances of discordance between the chest radiologists and the original reporting radiologists was relatively even, varying from zero to six cases per radiologist (median, three cases), indicating that this was a generalized rather than an individual phenomenon (Fig. 2). View larger version (30K) Causes for the 45 cases of discordance included the following: 24 (53%) cases were due to motion artifact from breathing (19 [42.2%]) or cardiac pulsation (5 [11.1%]), eight (18%) cases were due to poor contrast opacification from Valsalva maneuver (3 [6.7%]) or contrast material mixing (5 [11.1%]), 10 cases (22.2%) were due to attenuation artifact secondary to beam hardening from adjacent high-density structures, and three cases (6.7%) were due to effects from adjacent airspace disease (Fig. 3). View larger version (45K) Discussion Choose Top of page ABSTRACT Materials and Methods Results Discussion << Conclusion References CITING ARTICLES This study shows an unexpectedly high rate of overdiagnosis of PE by pulmonary CTA in a tertiary-care university hospital, with an overall rate of 25.9% of all positive pulmonary CTA examinations, increasing to as high as 66.7% of cases where a solitary subsegmental PE was originally reported. Discordance was greatest for solitary PEs, PEs located in segmental and subsegmental pulmonary arteries, and in the lower zones of the lungs. The positive predictive value of pulmonary CTA for the diagnosis of PE was only 74.1% in this study. The published overall rate of positive diagnosis of PE on pulmonary CTA varies from study to study (e.g., 15.4% [14], 16.4% [13], and 17.8% [6]) but usually ranges between 14% [20] and 22% [7]. Differing levels of adherence to referral guidelines, which has been shown to significantly affect positivity rates, may explain some of this variation; for example, 30% of all pulmonary CTA examinations were positive for PE in the multicenter Christopher Study [2], which used strict adherence to a basic pretest risk stratification tool. The rate of index positive cases in our center was 18.6% for the 12-month period studied. After review by the panel of chest radiologists, this was revised downward to 13.8%. In our institution, there is no systematic use of pretest probability scoring (e.g., Well or Revised Geneva scores [21, 22]) and inconsistent use of d-dimer assays. Furthermore, many pulmonary CTA examinations in our institution are ordered by the emergency department before assessment by the admitting medical team. The combination of a lack of pretest probability assessment and either inconclusive or possibly erroneous pulmonary CTA results can cause difficulties in patient diagnosis and management, often leading to repeat imaging and unnecessary anticoagulation therapy. The risks and disadvantages of anticoagulation therapy include hemorrhage (occasionally devastating or fatal) [8], interactions with other medications, inconvenience in terms of attendance for repeated blood tests (which may require time off work), and cost (to both the patient and society) [23]. Furthermore, a diagnosis of PE carries with it implications for life insurance coverage, travel plans, and preparation for other medical or surgical procedures. The diagnosis of PE also places the patient in a higher risk category for future events, which can influence investigations and management if the patient again seeks medical attention for similar symptoms. The significance of a false-positive pulmonary CTA examination should be considered in this context. Previously published studies have shown differences between chest- and non-chest-trained radiologists in the diagnostic accuracy of pulmonary CTA interpretation. In a 2011 study of 70 isolated subsegmental PEs by Pena et al. [13], a reviewing thoracic radiologist reinterpreted 11% of these examinations as negative. In a separate abstract published by Miller et al. [18], a single thoracic radiologist found a false-positive or probable false-positive rate of 11% at all pulmonary artery levels in 508 cases. Compared with these previous studies, the current study is larger and uses a panel of three subspecialty chest radiologists as a more robust surrogate reference standard, rather than relying on one single radiologist's opinion. Although this was a single-center study, our department does not differ in any significant way from any other university hospital imaging center, with the same mix of inpatients, out-patients, emergency department patients, and pregnant patients as might be found in any equivalent tertiary referral center, and with a modern radiology department using conventional MDCT technology and a PACS for the performance and interpretation of pulmonary CTA examinations, staffed by a general mix of experienced subspecialty fellowship-trained radiologists. The high rates of discrepant pulmonary CTA interpretations found in this study raise concerns about the diagnostic accuracy of radiologists in the wider community. However, the generalizability of our results should be confirmed with a larger multicenter study. Causes of diagnostic difficulty in the interpretation of pulmonary CTA examinations are well recognized [9–11]. A full description of such interpretative pitfalls is beyond the scope of this discussion, but potential false-positive findings are known to occur because of partial volume averaging effects secondary to motion (breathing and cardiogenic), poor contrast opacification from mixing of opacified and unopacified blood, beam-hardening attenuation artifact from high-density structures (e.g., contrast agent in the superior vena cava [SVC] and right atrium), and confusion with venous structures and mucus-filled bronchi [9, 10, 24]. In our study, the most common cause identified for the misdiagnosis of PE was motion artifact due to breathing, which accounted for 42.2% of cases. Breathing artifact has previously been shown to be the most common mimic of PE [18] as well as the most common cause of equivocal pulmonary CTA findings in up to 74% of cases [9]. Breathing artifact can most easily be identified on a lung window by the presence of the seagull artifact, the stair-step artifact, and rapid changes in position of vessels on contiguous image slices [10] (Fig. 4). Ways to reduce the level of breathing artifact include administering supplemental oxygen and scanning in the caudocranial direction [24]. View larger version (288K) View larger version (353K) The second-most-common confounding artifact was beam-hardening attenuation artifact (Fig. 5) from high-density structures, including pooled contrast agent in the SVC or other adjacent vessels, metallic structures such as pacemakers, or the patient's arms if they cannot be elevated above the chest. The use of a saline chaser helps clear pooled contrast agent from the SVC [10]. Apart from their proximity to a high-density structure, regions of low attenuation related to streak artifact have much higher densities (> 78 HU) than real thrombus and form indistinct borders with contrast agent in the vessels [10]. We also observed that beam-hardening attenuation artifact could often be tracked in a radial pattern from the source of the artifact and could also be identified in other nearby structures. View larger version (216K) View larger version (178K) Other artifacts responsible for misinterpretation included cardiac pulsatility (Figs. 6 and 7), which is most often seen in regions of the lung adjacent to the heart, such as the lingula and the paracardiac segments of the lower lobes; reduced mixing of contrast agent with unopacified blood, which can be due to excessive inflow of unopacified blood from the inferior vena cava or other veins, excessive breath-holding resulting in a Valsalva maneuver, or poor cardiac function and poor mixing of contrast agent; and obscuration of the pulmonary arteries by adjacent parenchymal disease. The latter is attributed to increased local vascular resistance, which leads to reduced flow and flow artifacts [10]. Interestingly, in our study, there were no discrepancies due to confusion between PEs and pulmonary veins or mucus-filled bronchi. This might suggest that discrepancies in the diagnosis of PE arose not because of unfamiliarity with anatomy or to a lack of attention to detail when reading the scan but rather because of perceptual errors resulting from an under-recognition of the other causes of false-positive examinations, as summarized already. View larger version (339K) View larger version (290K) View larger version (212K) Our study also highlights the difficulty of performing audits of the accuracy of pulmonary CTA interpretation. The original decision by the treating physician to initiate anticoagulation therapy would be taken within the clinical context of the patient's presentation, history of thromboembolic disease, cardiac workup, d-dimer levels, and so forth, and is not based purely on the result of the pulmonary CTA scan. In our study, this clinical information was not included. In this regard, as a specific outcome from our study, it was considered to be neither clinically appropriate nor ethical to revisit the original clinical diagnosis several years later on the basis of the results of an academic study that had not been designed to reexamine all of the clinical information that was originally available. Rather, the purpose of our study was to examine the diagnostic difficulties in the use of pulmonary CTA as a diagnostic study in isolation. In the absence of a practical true reference standard, we opted to rely on the consensus opinion of three experienced chest radiologists, which would be difficult to reproduce on a routine basis because of the time involved in collating and reviewing the necessary examinations. Correlation of pulmonary CTA findings with clinical outcomes (e.g., recurrent thromboembolism or death) is a crude measure of accuracy and would also be difficult to achieve in routine clinical practice. The difficulty in performing regular audits of this very common imaging test highlights the risk of unrecognized diagnostic drift, where an established diagnostic test performs less well over time because of changes in practice and personnel and because of an absence of feedback or correlative reference standard test. Practical measures to reduce the risk of PE misdiagnosis could and should include any of the following: systematic use of pretest probability assessment (which would require buy-in from clinicians and incorporation into imaging protocols); radiology technologists being educated to optimize image quality, focusing on proper patient breathing technique and repeating examinations where appropriate; increased familiarization by radiologists with the range of potential diagnostic pitfalls; encouragement of the use of second opinions by interpreting radiologists, particularly for solitary subsegmental PEs; and regular review of positive pulmonary CTA cases (e.g., at monthly discrepancy or audit meetings). Some of these measures are easier to implement than others, but their importance is underscored by the implications of a false-positive diagnosis of PE. |
Thai pro-democracy protester Akkarakit Noonchan (C) is detained by a police officer near Victory Monument in Bangkok February 22, 2015. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai police arrested three people on the streets of the capital on Sunday after they held a small gathering to “exchange views” with the country’s military junta. Thailand’s military has severely restricted public gatherings since seizing power in a coup last May. Taking a hard line on dissent, it has detained more than 300 people, including activists, journalists and politicians. The leader of a group of four people, Akkarakit Noonchan, was dragged away by plainclothes officers shortly after the beginning of the event at Bangkok’s downtown Victory Monument, according to a Reuters witness. Akkarakit told reporters that the group, calling itself Serichon Thailand 58, did not intend the gathering to be a protest. They had earlier displayed t-shirts depicting a bird with its beak and claws bound, as dozens of uniformed police stood by. Akkarakit, 47, and two others were held for several hours by the army for “attitude adjustment” before they were released to police and charged with disturbing the peace, Lieut. Col. Wichai Daengpradab told Reuters. |
What A Waste: Taiwan Plans To Create A 'Patent Bank' To Protect Taiwanese Companies Against Patent Lawsuits from the without-the-aggressive-suing? dept Tim Swanson was the first of a few of you to pass on the news that the Taiwanese government is planning to put together a "patent bank" that would basically seek to buy up patents around certain technologies, and local Taiwanese firms share in the patent pool and effectively check patents out to use against others if threatened. Of course, this is similar to the original pitch that Intellectual Ventures made... and also similar to the claims of companies like RPX which basically tried to recreate the Intellectual Ventures model. Of course, IV also went on the offensive, rather than just the defensive. And, as Stephan Kinsella has pointed out , all the patent banks in the world won't save you if you get sued by a non-practicing troll who is immune from return patent lawsuits. Really all this demonstrates is how ridiculous the patent system is, when governments (and the article notes that South Korea and Japan have similar things) have to create special institutions totheir own companies from the patent system. Shouldn't that raise questions about the patent system itself? Filed Under: patent bank, patents, taiwan |
While not announced onstage during Wednesday's iPhone event, Apple has quietly updated its iPad lineup specifications with storage buffs for iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4, and price drops for the top-of-the-line 9.7- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models. The changes were noted on Apple's dedicated iPad webpage shortly after CEO Tim Cook closed today's event, which itself was packed with announcements regarding new iPhones, Apple Watch models, AirPods wireless headphones and more.As seen in the comparison chart above, Apple is bumping the base storage capacity of iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4 up from to 32GB, while at the same time eliminating the 64GB option. Configuration options are now limited to 32GB and 128GB. The change does not affect pricing, meaning customers get twice as much storage for their dollar.Apple did, however, modify the price structure of its iPad Pro series. Only certain configurations benefit from the price drop, starting with a $50 reduction for both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular iterations of the 128GB 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The 256GB versions get a more substantial price cut of $100.Apple's largest slate, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, gets the same treatment as its smaller sibling. Prices of both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular models with 128GB of storage are reduced by $50, while maxed out 256GB configurations shed $100 off previous list pricing.Apple's decision to cut iPad pricing comes after the company announced new storage tiers for iPhone. Starting with iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple is bumping base storage allotments for its smartphone lineup up to 32GB, with a maximum of 256GB available for an extra $200. |
New Chief of Clinton’s Transition Team Is a Strong Backer of TPP and Free Trade Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive Asian trade deal, as secretary of state before turning against it while a candidate for president. One of her closest allies, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, said at the Democratic convention she would renew support for the deal — with some tweaks — if she wins in November, something the campaign denied. Now, a high-level campaign appointment has further muddied the waters on Clinton’s true views of the pact. On Tuesday, the former secretary of state announced Ken Salazar, a former U.S. senator and secretary of the interior, would serve as the chairman of her transition committee. He brings with him one inconvenient policy position: outspoken support for TPP. “The TPP promotes and rewards American firms that export our clean energy ingenuity, creating good jobs at home while shaping a renewable energy future abroad,” Salazar co-wrote in a USA Today op-ed in November 2015, along with Bruce Babbitt, another former interior secretary. Salazar’s appointment is likely to provide ammunition to critics, both within the Democratic Party and from Republicans, that Clinton’s reversal on the deal is only temporary and that she would seek to implement it if elected. She changed her position only after her primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, railed against the deal as part of his pitch to progressive Democrats. Now, she says it does not meet her standards. The Clinton campaign did not return a request for comment on Salazar’s free trade past. Salazar has been a long-running supporter of the trade deal, and free trade in general. As a Colorado senator, he voted for trade pacts with Peru and Oman. In December of last year, he joined two former Colorado governors to pen a Denver Post op-ed calling for Congress to pass TPP. “Current rules of international commerce stack the deck against our state, but opponents of [the TPP] have responded by turning inward, clamoring to turn back the clock, and shutter ourselves from the increasingly interconnected economy,” Salazar and his co-authors wrote. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s push to get the deal done before he leaves office — he considers it a cornerstone of his economic legacy — continues. After signaling last week that he will send the pact to Congress, Obama’s deputy U.S. trade representative, Robert Holleyman, said at an event in Atlanta on Monday that his boss plans a “full-fledged, full-throated effort” to make TPP law. On Tuesday, Politico reported that the president is set to push for the deal in a series of events across the country. Obama’s continuing push for the deal puts Clinton in a tight spot; it’s likely to enrage the progressive wing of his party, as well as some Rust Belt voters who still feel the sting of past job losses attributed to free trade. Clinton needs those voters to win the White House, but also wants members of Obama’s voting coalition to pull the lever for her in November. Her TPP tap-dance continues. “President Obama’s events around the nation in favor of passing the corporate-written TPP after the election will hurt Democratic chances of success this November — and help Donald Trump’s chances with blue-collar voters,” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement Tuesday. Photo credit: CHRIS KLEPONIS/Getty Images |
The news from Central New York Playhouse last week was that the troupe had succeeded in seating its 10,000th playgoer in the former retail space on the second floor of Shoppingtown Mall. More significant is that its current production, Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party (running through May 31), is pivotal to the development of the company. No other show has succeeded better in minimizing the space’s weaknesses while exploiting its assets. Wild Party is also one of the edgiest shows any community theater company has ever attempted, in a range with Judy’s Scary Little Christmas and Urinetown. Credit director-choreographer Stephfond Brunson and music director Abel Searor, who put the eight-player musical ensemble on a raised platform upstage so that all the action is in front of the musicians. This is the same way Syracuse Opera staged Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, with some of the same effect: The music matters more. Lippa’s complex, terrific score is one of The Wild Party’s major attractions, and this staging clarifies orchestral tone without drowning out voices. Giving up space on the relatively small stage also works well. It makes the show feel like a kind of subversive, subterranean cabaret. This is another way of saying it makes you forget you’re in a mall. All of this in the name of debauchery. New Yorker writer Joseph Moncure March’s long narrative poem “The Wild Party” (1928) was a literary sensation in its day. Jack Kroll called it “F. Scott Fitzgerald on Spanish fly.” Banned in Boston and elsewhere, it was the book that made William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) want to become a writer. Never forgotten, it was the basis of the dark James Coco film The Wild Party (1975) and two musicals in the year 2000. Michael John LaChiusa’s Broadway show boasted big names but suffered a short run, while Andrew Lippa’s off-Broadway version became the one everyone has wanted to remember. Flushed with tension, Wild Party’s action begins when Queenie (Leila Dean), a blonde chorine from vaudeville, is squabbling with her abusive husband Burrs (Jason Bean), a mordant clown possibly based on silent film actor Fatty Arbuckle. To raise their spirits she decides to throw the mother of all parties and make herself attractive to the men who arrive as a way of making Burr jealous. They’re a motley lot, and most are in some form of show business, so they tend to wear black and flaunt shtick in their entrances. No one makes a bigger splash than Queenie’s friend Kate (Mary Musial) with her show-stopping “Look at Me Now.” To meet the demands of the music Brunson and Searor have cast the net to snare just the right voices. Leila Dean might once have been a Mary Magdalene in a Salt City Center production of Jesus Christ Superstar but she’s been belting them out at rock venues more recently. Tall, almost ghostly in her blonde marcel wig, with epaulet-like tattoos on her alabaster skin, Dean can dominate a scene even before she sings. Last seen in Covey Theater Company’s Rent, Mary Musial’s Kate writhes with the bumptious energy of a young Liza Minnelli. Jason Bean as the fateful Burrs (not always seen in clown makeup) was a community theater discovery when he impressed deeply as Javert in Baldwinsville Theatre Guild’s Les Misérables in March. Company regulars Liam Fitzpatrick has made some sacrifices to play Mr. Black, a threatening dude who arrives with Kate. Fitzpatrick has shaved nearly all the hair from his ears to the top of his crown, with what’s left on top pomaded straight back, to look like something from Weimar Germany. Black’s entrance number, “Poor Child,” a quartet with Burrs, Kate and Queenie, suggests a naïve romantic under the swagger. The chemistry with Queenie is immediate, and flames are running along the taboo love triangle. Two new faces electrify the two comic second leads: short blonde Mae (Briana Jesse Duger) and plumpish Eddie (Zach Siracuse), who brighten the tone with “Two of a Kind.” Mr. Black’s hair is hardly the only reminder of Weimar Germany, also the era of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. One of the singing D’Armano brothers, Phil (Benjamin Wells), is dressed to look like the Emcee in the Brecht-inspired Cabaret. Donnie Williams’ period costumes, the extreme white makeup with blackened eyes, and Marguerite Beebe’s harsh, from-below lighting design could put the party in Berlin instead of Manhattan. comments |
Fish is frequently misidentified on menus and grocery store counters in New York City, even at expensive restaurants and specialty shops, DNA testing for a new study found. National supermarket chains had the best record for accuracy in seafood labeling, the researchers reported. The researchers, from the conservation group Oceana, said that genetic analyses showed that 39 percent of nearly 150 samples of fresh seafood collected from 81 establishments in the city this summer were mislabeled. The study did not identify any of the restaurants or stores, although it noted that most were in Manhattan. In some cases, cheaper types of fish were substituted for expensive species. In others, fish that consumers have been urged to avoid because stocks are depleted, putting the species or a fishery at risk, was identified as a type of fish that is not threatened. Although such mislabeling violates laws protecting consumers, it is hard to detect. Some of the findings present public health concerns. Thirteen types of fish, including tilapia and tilefish, were falsely identified as red snapper. Tilefish contains such high mercury levels that the federal Food and Drug Administration advises women who are pregnant or nursing and young children not to eat it. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ninety-four percent of fish sold as white tuna was not tuna at all but in many cases a fish known as snake mackerel, or escolar, which contains a toxin that can cause severe diarrhea if more than a few ounces of meat are ingested. |
Anglican Bishop Rennis Ponniah has issued a statement released on the St Andrew’s Cathedral website urging the clergy and deaconesses to alert their congregation about the homosexual content in the Beauty And The Beast movie. The movie opens in Singapore on Thursday, March 16, 2017. In the live-action remake of the Disney classic, Josh Gad’s character LeFou is portrayed as being positively gay and having confused feelings for the handsome antagonist Gaston. A gay character has been touted in the press as a Disney first. Director Bill Condon said before the movie was released that it would feature a “nice, exclusively gay moment”, creating hype and speculation as to what the scene entails. The Bishop wrote on March 11: “Disney films for children’s entertainment are usually associated with wholesome and mainstream values. But times are changing at a foundational level… LeFou is portrayed as gay and a ‘gay moment’ is included in the movie by way of a subplot.” “Parents are advised to provide guidance to their children about (the film), and indeed to their children’s entertainment choices in a rapidly changing age.” He also said the Diocese and the National Council of Churches will work on a fuller advisory this week for the movie. Spoiler alert: Turn your phone upside down to read all about the LeFou gay moments that transpired in Beauty And The Beast: This is the statement in full: STATEMENT FROM BISHOP RENNIS 11 MARCH 2017 By Bishop Rennis Ponniah Dear Clergy & Deaconesses, It is needful that you alert your congregation about the homosexual content in Disney’s re-make of Beauty and the Beast – a film scheduled for screening during the March school holidays. Disney films for children’s entertainment are usually associated with wholesome, mainstream values. But times are changing at a foundational level. In this new live-action remake of the classic film , the character LeFou is portrayed as gay and a ‘gay moment’ is included in the movie by way of a sub-plot. Parents are therefore strongly advised to provide guidance to their children about this re-make of ‘Beauty & the Beast’ , and indeed to their children’s entertainment choices in a rapidly changing age. Let us pursue Prov 22:6 ” Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” The Diocese and the National Council of Churches are working on a fuller advisory to our members in the coming week. With the Lord’s blessing as we shepherd our people. Bishop Rennis Ponniah 11 Mar 2017 If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get the latest updates. |
The Founders created a system of checks and balances. Those overseeing the nation’s spying have switched to a system of cheers and bouquets. This was the impression given by members of the House intelligence committee as they held an open-to-the-public hearing Tuesday on the National Security Agency’s snooping into Americans’ phone and Internet records. “That’s a patriot!” Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said of Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director. “Your leadership in NSA has been outstanding,” added Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (Md.), the committee’s ranking Democrat. Only his spymaster’s cool kept Alexander from blushing. “Thank you for the kind words,” he replied. “As you noted, we have extraordinary people doing great work.” 1 of 76 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Tom Toles draws Congress View Photos A collection of cartoons about Capitol Hill. Caption A collection of cartoons about Capitol Hill. Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. The hearing was really a pep rally, as lawmakers praised the officials involved in the surveillance programs and then yielded the floor for an hour so the officials could make statements about how responsible and restrained they’ve been. The congressional overseers of the intelligence agencies quite clearly are captivated by — if not captives of — the people they are supposed to be supervising. Rogers, in fact, seemed irritated by the notion of letting the public in on their little secret, a disclosure made necessary by Edward Snowden’s leaks. Rogers spoke disapprovingly of being “forced into the position of having so publicly discussed intelligence programs due to irresponsible criminal behavior.” Deputy FBI director Sean Joyce, one of the witnesses, joined in the complaint that the “egregious leaks” have hurt national security because “now here we are talking about this in front of the world.” Those responsible for the programs shared few new details but offered many “trust us” reassurances. “These programs are limited, focused and subject to rigorous oversight,” Alexander testified. “Rich and rigorous oversight,” added Chris Inglis, Alexander’s deputy. “Extensive oversight,” agreed James Cole, the deputy attorney general. “Robust and fairly intimate.” “Extensive and serious . . . multilayered,” amended Robert Litt, general counsel to the national intelligence director, James Clapper. Ann Telnaes animation: The NSA’s metadata gathering techniques. (Ann Telnaes/The Washington Post) As evidence of this robustness, Cole cited a “report” issued last month finding that U.S. law “imposes at least as much, if not more, due process and oversight on foreign intelligence than other countries.” He didn’t mention that the “report” was published by a big lobbying firm. Alexander said he would provide the committee with classified documents describing 50 cases in which the surveillance programs were helpful, but he only made two public Tuesday. The officials didn’t explain why those cases, involving a plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange and a terrorist financier in California, couldn’t have been done with less-sweeping data collection. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), who said the officials would have been better off providing information about the program “up front,” asked whether their newfound transparency would include the public release, with redactions, of secret court opinions related to the surveillance programs. “It’s been a very difficult task,” was Litt’s noncommittal response. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) asked how soon Litt would have an answer on declassifying the opinions. “I’m hesitant to answer any question that begins ‘how soon,’ ” Litt said. Schiff, in the minority of lawmakers challenging the witnesses, suggested that the NSA might want to get the phone “metadata” from the telecommunications providers on a case-by-case basis rather than amass all the data for all Americans. “The concern is speed in crisis,” Alexander told him. Schiff wasn’t persuaded. “I think that the American people may be much more comfortable with the telecommunications companies retaining those business records,” he said. As for the intelligence officials’ boasts about self-supervision, Schiff added, “all those internal checks are valuable, but they’re still internal checks.” While there’s bipartisan consensus that the programs are valuable, it’s a mystery why more lawmakers don’t question the intelligence officials’ just-trust-us assurances. After all, only three months ago, Clapper publicly assured Congress that such programs didn’t exist. Congressional overseers have become apologists, assuring the public that the programs are “legal, court-approved and subject to an extensive oversight regime,” as Rogers put it. “This is very important that we get the message out to the American public that what we do is legal,” Ruppersberger concurred. To that end, he asked Alexander about “unfortunate” criticism of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court as weak because it rarely turns down a government request. “Do you feel in any way that the FISA court is a rubber stamp?” Ruppersberger asked. “I do not,” Alexander replied. “The federal judges on that court are superb.” When the executive branch thinks those checking its power are “superb,” it’s time for rebalancing. Twitter: @Milbank Read more from Dana Milbank’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. |
Late night host Jimmy Kimmel took to social media Wednesday to attack Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. “Put simply, Scott Pruitt is a piece of sh*t,” Kimmel wrote to his eight million Twitter followers. “If you care about the outdoors, stop him. #PruittHearing” Put simply, Scott Pruitt is a piece of shit. If you care about the outdoors, stop him https://t.co/jh4VM7SECx #PruittHearing — Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) January 18, 2017 The Jimmy Kimmel Live! host’s tweet linked to a website for Washington, D.C.-based environmental nonprofit American Rivers. “President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency is someone who has fought consistently to block environmental protections,” the group’s website reads. “The American people did not vote to put the EPA in the hands of someone who has recklessly worked against its mission to protect Americans’ water.” Pruitt, who has served as Oklahoma Attorney General since 2010, has been a relentless critic of President Obama’s climate strategy, the “Clean Power Plan,” and has sued the EPA. Pruitt attended a hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday morning. Pruitt told lawmakers Wednesday that he “does not believe that climate change is a hoax.” “I believe the ability to measure with precision the degree of human activity … is subject to more debate on whether the climate is changing or [that] human activity contributes to it,” Pruitt said. As for Kimmel, he’s been tapped to host the broadcast of the 89th annual Academy Awards on February 26 on ABC. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson |
by Brett Stevens on February 6, 2016 As an old almost forgotten adage goes, “The truth hides in plain sight.” This means that most human activities are dedicated to hiding truth because it offends us personally, at an emotional level, and since it is in plain sight that common sense must be obscured. We must become magicians and snake oil salesman, distracting the audience with the waving of the hand while the other hand slyly hides the prize. So it is in politics where in 2016, it is suddenly popular to bash capitalism again. This, as the world’s leading socialist state in Venezuela implodes, socialist Europe goes broke and cannot lead itself, and even our socialist-style social programs here in America have driven us to a $19 trillion debt. Of all the things to blame, it would seem that capitalism would come dead last! And yet, that is why it is blamed: the crowd needs a scapegoat. It cannot admit to itself that not only are its social programs mere gimmes disguised as altruism, but that they have failed to do anything of real impact except make the problem worse. Our social programs take most of our taxes, and most of that is taken from the middle class, which is why the middle class is eroding while the underclass grows. That shows us the intersection between typical human political thinking and typical human individualism. Individualism says that the world is there for the individual, and implies that nothing changes since the time the individual first encountered it. Try this with older generations: you will note they are stranded in 1965 in their minds because that is when they came into the world. Typical human political thinking is that since “everyone must get along,” you can use those who are succeeding to bolster those who are not, and then — problem solved! Except, of course, that viewpoint looks at the wrong problem. The real problem is not that some are starving; it is that their society does not provide wealth that they could take advantage of. Robin Hood programs take income from where it generates more income and distribute it to where it goes to dead-end uses because its spending is exclusively at the consumer level, and the lowest level of consumer activity at that. The reason nature concentrates resources is so that they can have more effect; dispersing them lessens that effect. This is why socialism and welfare states are paths to death. And yet these programs are popular. Why? Me, me, me: people think in terms of themselves and they like the safety implied by welfare and socialism. “I cannot fail, because I will be subsidized,” the thinking goes. Even more, they delight in the thought of taking from the people who did make it big and giving to the rest. Punish those bastards for making us all look bad. They forget that in the meantime they set up giant bureaucracies and dump money onto clueless people who spend it badly, enriching all the wrong people in the process. Capitalism on the other hand does not deserve an -ism at all because it is business, pure and simple. The only difference between capitalism and communism is accountability. Under capitalism, the individual makes financial decisions and reaps reward or failure. Under socialism, the group absorbs both loss and gain. It is like decision insurance and as in insurance, only the owl-eyed bureaucrat makes out like a bandit. Then because the entire system is risk-averse, no one makes decisive actions, and so entropy takes it to the cleaners. Our current fad for blaming capitalism — popular among both inveterate leftist Boomers like Jerry Garcia Bernie Sanders and clueless products of public television Millennials — is to avoid blaming what we should blame. Yes, we should blame our socialist drift which has driven the West into debt and trashed its public institutions. But even more, as a society we are unable to make any good decisions. We are risk-averse there too. And what kind of insurance do we have there? Oh yes: democracy, or the system where no one person is accountable. The leader is elected, but he is held in check by laws and the representatives. They can in turn blame the opposition party. And the voters can blame each other. The problem is that decisions are not made, but assessed. If enough people vote for something, it is adopted and everyone can blame everyone else. The scapegoat mania spreads. And so in the West, we have a rotting infrastructure: it is unpopular to demand spending on anything but bennies. Both USA and EU are awash in third-world refugees who secretly (or in some cases, not so secretly) resent us and want to destroy us: it is unpopular to cut anyone out, to violate any individual’s human/civil rights. And so it is that the same risk aversion that destroyed the Soviet Union has taken hold here. The real culprit in 2016 is democracy, or emocracy as we might call it because it consists of people making decisions with their emotions instead of reality-based thinking, and yet we cannot blame it because it is popular because it hands out the bennies. So what can we blame that has a small audience of supporters, so as to remain popular? Why, capitalism of course; in theory only the rich support it, and they are few. See, Romans, the day is saved; we have found the witch and we can burn it. Nonetheless doubts remain. I first encountered these doubts when I saw the results of first British socialism and next Euro-socialism. In the UK, people talked about how they had adopted the new ways, which seemed suspiciously like a productized form of what their Communism enemies were doing. At first, this hybrid between the socialist welfare state and union dominance of production seemed pleasant. Then I saw the expensive rotting council slums, the industry which could not make a working car, the massive bureaucratic shutdowns. When I went to mainland Europe, I was at first pleased with how the state supported students, the elderly and the poor until I saw the cost. Everything was expensive and any change was nearly impossible because of red tape. No, I thought, I prefer the frontier mentality of America where we expect next to nothing from government and pay accordingly. That has its own problems, but the solution is not to go toward this European socialist model. Humanity is its own worse enemy. The perpetually popular ideas are risk-averse ones that spread that risk to the group and in the process, remove accountability from the decision makers. Trade unions, welfare states, socialism itself and mandatory insurance all fall into this area. The perpetually unpopular ideas are the ones which place the burden on the individual and favor the individuals who do right, because these make people aware of their risk of failure. The fear spreads like a plague. Once it has taken over, people will do anything but blame the cause. As a result, humanity has come down to a vital decision point in the West. Do we stop the risk-averse madness and start taking responsibility, or do we continue beating the dead horse of these failed policies in the hope that someday they will magically start working? Common sense says one thing, and mass popularity — democracy — says another. One comfort is that either way, these may be our last elections and so the problem will solve itself, one way or another. Tags: capitalism, democracy, emocracy, insurance, risk-averse, socialism, unions Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. |
Ghotbi, who left Tehran for California as a teenager in 1977, was well aware what World Cup qualification meant for the soccer-crazy Iranian people. He soon learned what it meant for Ahmadinejad. Since becoming president in 2005, Ahmadinejad has visited the national team during training on numerous occasions. His most recent visit was last weekend as the players prepared for a vital home game against Lebanon on Tuesday, which Iran won, 4-0. (If Iran beats South Korea this coming Tuesday, it guarantees a spot in the World Cup next year, and it still could get in with a tie or a loss, depending on other results next week.) Ahmadinejad also was rumored to have been involved in the hiring and firing of Daei as coach and in pushing for certain players to be included in national team rosters. Ghotbi’s first 2010 World Cup qualifier was a trip to North Korea on June 6, 2009. Ahmadinejad provided the presidential plane so the team could return home as fast as possible for a must-win game against United Arab Emirates in Tehran just four days later. Iran won that game, 1-0. Iran then failed to get the necessary victory in South Korea. “I do believe the distractions played a big part in our team’s concentration, performance and result,” Ghotbi said, referring to the mass demonstrations and clashes then going on in Tehran. “Our players saw the images on CNN and BBC upon our arrival in Seoul. They were also in communication with friends and family back in Iran, and the violence in the streets consumed their thoughts.” Ghotbi claimed no prior knowledge of the wristbands. “I still do not know what happened behind the scenes in Seoul, why and who was behind it.” Nor, he said, did he know why the bands were removed for the second half; he was focused on tactical issues. At the time, people close to the team suggested that there had been government officials in the locker room talking to the players at halftime. |
By Ken Quinn, Coalitions Director for the Convention of States Project in Maine – We, as citizens of the United States, have become quite ignorant of our own history. This ignorance often prevents us from seeing history being repeated and from making necessary course corrections to prevent calamity from striking. A meeting between states to solve problems is one of those historical practices that we have long forgotten about. Today when we hear the term “convention of states” we immediately think that it is some radical idea that has happened only one time in our history in 1787. Revisiting American history may just help us resolve current political challenges facing the country. Truth be told, our nation has a long and rich history of conventions of states meeting to work out differences and resolve their issues. As I have stated in a previous article, the Constitutional Convention was a convention of states that met in response to the act from the Annapolis Convention of September, 1786 for an express purpose: “to take into consideration the situation of the United States; to devise such further provisions as shall appear to them necessary to render the Constitution of the federal government adequate to the exigencies of the Union;” The Annapolis Convention was a convention of states called for the purpose of taking “into consideration the Trade and Commerce of the United States, to consider how far an uniform system in their commercial intercourse and regulations might be necessary to their common interest and permanent harmony.” However, due to only five states attending they were unable to conduct business and therefore recommended another convention to meet in Philadelphia in May the following year. The Framers of the Constitution were very familiar with these types of conventions because many of them had attended such conventions themselves in the past. In fact several of them were delegates at the Annapolis Convention. In attendance at the 1786 Annapolis Convention were the following 1787 Constitutional Convention delegates: Alexander Hamilton, George Read, John Dickinson, Richard Bassett, Edmund Randolph and James Madison. A convention to address pressing concerns between states was a process our Founders were very familiar with and routinely called. In his article, Founding-Era Conventions and the Meaning of the Constitution’s “Convention for Proposing Amendments,” constitutional scholar Rob Natelson has done an excellent job in identifying 32 such conventions that met prior to 1787: “What nearly all commentators have overlooked is that the Framers did not write, nor did the Ratifiers adopt, Article V on a blank slate. They wrote and ratified against the background of a long tradition of multi-colony and multi-state conventions. During the century before the drafting of Article V, there had been at least 32 such gatherings—at least 21 before Independence and another eleven between 1776 and 1786. In addition, there had been several abortive, although still instructive, convention calls. These multi-government gatherings were the direct predecessors of the convention for proposing amendments, and formed the model upon which the convention for proposing amendments was based. Universally-accepted protocols determined multi-government convention procedures. These protocols fixed the acceptable ways of calling such conventions, selecting and instructing delegates, adopting convention rules, and conducting convention proceedings. The actors involved in the process—state legislatures and executives, the Continental and Confederation Congresses, and the delegates themselves—each had recognized prerogatives and duties, and were subject to recognized limits. These customs are of more than mere Founding-Era historical interest. They governed, for the most part, multi-state conventions held in the nineteenth century as well—notably but not exclusively, the These customs are of more than mere Founding-Era historical interest. They governed, for the most part, multi-state conventions held in the nineteenth century as well—notably but not exclusively, the Washington Conference Convention of 1861 . More importantly for present purposes, they shaped the Founders’ understanding of how the constitutional language would be interpreted and applied. Moreover, the Constitution, as a legal document, must be understood in the context of the jurisprudence of the time. In that jurisprudence, custom was a key definer of the “incidents” or attributes that accompanied principal (i.e., express) legal concepts and powers. Thus, the customs by which the founding generation initiated and conducted interstate conventions tell us how an Article V convention should be initiated and conducted; further, they help define the powers and prerogatives of the actors in the process. But beyond that, there is considerable affirmative evidence that the Founders specifically understood these customs to define the language of Article V.” The Washington Conference Convention of 1861 (“It’s Been Done Before: A Convention of the States to Propose Constitutional Amendments”) which Natelson references above was the closest we have come to an actual Article V convention for proposing amendments. Other than a few minor exceptions it was a dry run of how a convention for proposing amendments would work today. That convention was held and proposed amendments to allow slave states to remain as they were in order to prevent the Civil War. Unfortunately the convention was too little too late and Congress did not take the necessary action to submit the proposed amendments to the states for ratification. Had the states applied for an Article V convention properly and Congress acted upon the outcome of the convention promptly they may have prevented the Civil War and saved over 600,000 American lives. At the beginning of this article, I stated how ignorance of our history can lead to tragic consequences. Today we see the handwriting on the wall as our nation spirals downward into financial ruin. Most of the people we trusted and elected to represent us in Washington DC have betrayed us. They continue to ignore the warning signs and continue to disregard the rule of law as found in our Constitution. We are at a moment in our nation’s history that we must take bold and decisive action. The Framers of the Constitution knew this day would eventually come and that is exactly why they gave the states recourse against a runaway Congress with a convention for proposing amendments. |
In a national first, the Andrews Labor Government today announced a permanent ban on the exploration and development of all onshore unconventional gas in Victoria, including hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) and coal seam gas. The permanent legislative ban, to be introduced to Parliament later this year, will protect the ‘clean, green’ reputation of Victoria’s agriculture sector, which employs more than 190,000 people. This will provide much-needed certainty to regional communities. The decision ends the anxiety felt by Victorian farmers about the environmental and health risks associated with fracking and forms part of the government response to the 2015 Parliamentary Inquiry into Onshore Unconventional Gas in Victoria. This Inquiry received more than 1600 submissions, mostly opposed to onshore unconventional gas. It is clear that the Victorian community has spoken – they simply don’t support fracking. The Government’s decision is based on the best available evidence and acknowledges that the risks involved outweigh any potential benefits to Victoria. Our state is the nation’s top food and fibre producer with exports worth $11.6 billion. The permanent ban protects our farmers and preserves Victoria’s hard-won reputation for producing high quality food. Exemptions to the ban will remain for other types of activities that are not covered by the current moratorium, such as gas storage, carbon storage research and accessing offshore resources. Exploration and development for offshore gas will also continue. Until the legislation is passed by Parliament, the current moratorium on unconventional onshore gas exploration and development will stay in place. The Labor Government will also legislate to extend the current moratorium on the exploration and development of conventional onshore gas until 30 June 2020, noting that fracking will remain banned. We will undertake the most extensive scientific, technical and environmental studies in Australia on the risks, benefits and impacts of onshore gas. These will be overseen by an expert panel, headed by the Lead Scientist Amanda Caples, and will include farmers and industry, business and community representatives. Quotes attributable to Premier Daniel Andrews “Our farmers produce some of the world’s cleanest and freshest food. We won’t put that at risk with fracking.” “Victorians have made it clear that they don’t support fracking and that the health and environmental risks involved outweigh any potential benefits.” Quotes attributable to Minister for Resources Wade Noonan “There has been a great deal of community concern and anxiety about onshore unconventional gas – this decision gets the balance right.“ “We have carefully considered the Parliamentary Inquiry’s key findings and recommendations, consulted widely and made our decision on the best available evidence.” |
To kick off the 5.9 PBE cycle we have a huge update, including a newskin, Sskins for, a gameplay updates for, and more!Continue reading for more information! (Warning: PBE Content is tentative and iterative - what you see may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers! Manage your expectations accordingly. ) Table of Contents New Skins Star Guardian Lux 1350 RP 1350 RP Nurse Flan "Episode 1 - A Guardian is Born: Lux's Starlight Transformation "In the name of Demacia, I will punish you!" By day, Lux Crownguard is just a shy, studious student studying for her studies. But with the power of love and light of the stars, she transforms into a light binding, evil fighting, lovely solider of Demacia! Enter, Star Guardian Lux! Completely new model (ribbons, stars and cute things!) New particles for abilities! (stars and sparkles!) New recall! (she spins around magically!) New ability SFX! (can you even get more magical?) Some new animations! (a cute new idle, and a new dance! Can you tell where the dance is from?) Small quality of life adjustment for the AoE indicator for her (E) Lucent Singularity. The ring has been adjusted to better represent the actual size of the ability. 1350 RP* As players who get the first look at this in-progress skin, it would be wonderful to hear your thoughts and feelings on the new Star Guardian skin! The feedback and bugs you leave here will help us get a better idea of things we may still have to take a look at. :] See you on the Rift! *Pricing is always subject to change while on PBE!" SSW Rengar 750 RP 750 RP SSW Singed 750 RP 750 RP SSW Talon 750 RP 750 RP SSW Thresh 975 RP [The cup has the incorrect texture atm!] SSW Twitch 975 RP 975 RP Galetta "The champions have arrived! Each one of these skins honors a player of Team Samsung White, the winners of the 2014 League of Legends World Championship! These skins are representative of the following players and include: Looper: Singed, 750 RP New character model. Dandy: Rengar, 750 RP New character model. Pawn: Talon, 750 RP New character model. New (W) and (R) particles. Imp: Twitch, 975 RP New character model. New recall animation. He rolls in the grass! :3 Mata: Thresh, 975 RP New character model. All particles color shifted to blue. New recall animation. Your feedback and bug reports are extremely helpful to us, so please check out all the SSW skins and let us know what you think! Feel free to drop any bugs you find in this thread as well! See you on the Rift!" Ashe Champion Update Ashe, including a totally new passive and Q as well as tweaks to the rest of her kit! Check out the original announcement, including previews and additional context, Riot Repertoir's Today's patch includes the recently announced champion update for, including a totally newpassive and Q as well as tweaks to the rest of her kit!Check out the original announcement, including previews and additional context, here or check out PBE feedback thread below: "Ashe Update Feedback Thread Hi guys, Since Ashe is going to be on PBE now, I wanted to leave brief context post explaining what's going on, as well as provide a place for you guys to give feedback on power, bugs, bad feels, clunkiness, or whatever else. Without typing up a whole wall of text, I'll cut straight to the abilities: Base Stats AA missle speed 2000 >>> 2500 AS/lvl 4.0 >>> 3.33 Passive - Frost Shots Permaslow moved from Q to Passive. Slow strength scales with character level Ashe no longer has a chance to crit. She never crits targets that don't have her passive on them, but always crits targets that do have it for (math stuff below, since I know people will ask or be confused): (TotalAD)x1.1+(TotalAD)x((CritChanceStat)x(1+(CritDamageStat))) Let's say Ashe has IE, PD, and 200AD. Under this model, she deals 385 damage (200x1.1+200x.55x1.5). With an IE and 100% Crit, she deals her ADx2.6 on targets with her passive on them. Etc. Q - Ranger's Focus Ashe builds Focus stacks by attacking, up to 5 stacks. When activated, she gains AS and her Passive slow is improved for 4 seconds. If she consumed 5 stacks of Focus, her AA also transforms to a flurry attack for the duration, which is effectively additional AD During the flurry attack, Ashe will Crit (from her passive) and Lifesteal, but will only apply on-hit effects like BotRK and Braum passive on the first arrow of each flurry attack W - Volley Mostly unchanged, except it does a bit less damage, has a bit lower CD early game, and has better blocking gameplay now (no more free damage through minion waves) E - Hawkshot No longer passively grants additional gold on last-hit Is now global and on ammo, but the recharge rate is longer than the old cooldown R - Enchanted Crystal Arrow Unchanged except for a small nerf where the area slow around the ECA target is now her passive slow rather than a 50% slow As I mentioned, please feel free to leave feedback here. Pending how busy I am getting her ready for release and managing a few other projects, I'll try to stop in regularly to respond to your posts. Cheers, Repertoir" [1] "each shot in the Ranger's Focus will crit if her enemy has her passive applied onto them. If they don't already have her passive on them then the first shot from Ranger's Focus will apply the passive and all subsequent shots will crit." [2] "Her auto attacks on targets that are affected by her passive are still considered 'crits', which means that the Frenzy mastery would work on them." [3] Max Stack Q active and on hits: "The first Q missile will apply on-hits like BotRK; the next 4 on the attack won't." [4] "Runaan's fires 2 bolts for every single attack during a Focus-empowered Q. It feels pretty cool." [5] No Focus (Q) building on structures "Her Q works on towers and inhibs, but Focus cannot be built on structures, only maintained. For instance, if she has 4 Focus stacks and attacks a turret, the 4 stacks will be refreshed, but she won't get the 5th." [6] Duration of Q's passive and active - "4 seconds on the Focus stacks, and 4 seconds on the Q buff duration." [7] Passive's bonus damage to slowed enemies only works on her own slow [8] She can not "mini crit" characters who are immune to slow / disables like Olaf, Morgana, Yi. Auto Attack missile Speed increased to 2500 from 2000. to 2500 from 2000. Attack Speed growth reduced to 3.33 from 4 Completely Redesigned Spells and basic attacks slow targets by 5/11/17/23/29/35% (at levels 1/4/7/10/13/16) for 2 seconds. Basic attacks always critically strike targets with Frost Shot for 110 +( [Crit Chance] x [1.0 x Crit Damage])% damage (increased by items that would otherwise grant Critical Strike Chance), but Ashe does not otherwise critically strike. Completely Redesigned Mana Cost: 50 at all ranks Cooldown: 18 seconds Passive: Applying Frost Shot grants Focus for 4 seconds, stacking 5 times Active: Consumes all Focus to grant 20/30/40/50/60% Attack Speed and increase Frost Shot's slow by 20% for 4 seconds. If 5 stacks are consumed, Ashe's basic attacks fire a flurry of arrows resulting in [.23/.24/.25/.26/.27 Total AD per arrow for a total of 1.15/1.20/1.25/1.30/1.35 Total AD per basic attack] physical damage per attack for the duration." Upon activating Q, she unleashes a flurry of five arrows per shot. Mana Cost: 50 at all ranks ( from 60 at all ranks ) Cooldown: 12/10/8/6/4 ( from 16/13/10/7/4 ) Fires arrows in a cone, each dealing 20/30/40/50/60 ( from 40/50/60/70/80 ) (+1.0 total AD) physical damage. Enemies can block multiple arrows from Volley, but will only take damage from the first. Cooldown between Casts: 5 seconds Recharge time: 90/80/70/60/50 seconds ( from 60/55/50/45/40 flat cooldown. ) Range: Global ( from 2500/3250/4000/4750/5500 ) Reveals terrain as it flies toward target location anywhere on the map. Grants vision for 5 seconds. Ashe can store up to 2 charges of Hawkshot at a time. ( no longer grants 3 gold on unit kill. ) Mana Cost: 100 Launches a crystal arrow of ice in a line that stuns an enemy Champion dealing 250 (+1.0) magic damage. The farther the arrow flies, the longer the stun, up to 3.5 seconds. Surrounding enemies take half damage. ( slow around area is now equal to her passive's slow % from 50% ) Balance Changes * Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These are not official notes. * Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These areofficial notes. Champions Ashe Ashe has received a champion update on the PBE! Check out this announcement post and Riot Repertoir's PBE feedback thread for more information or look above for aggregated details! Arise! (W) cast range indicator now also shows the attack range of his soldiers. Unspeakable Horror (E) active damage increased to 80/125/170/215/260 from 50/100/150/200/250 Event Horizon (E) [Tooltip now lists the delay at .5 seconds from .75] Items Enchantment: Cinderhulk Damage changed to 15 ( + .6 per level) ramping up to 30 (+1.2 per level) from 16 (+1 per level) ramping up to 24 (+1.5 per level) The experimental Mandrake Ward has been re-added to the PBE but is not available in the shop for testing. Last we heard the item is on hold. More information available here. Monsters Damage increased to 90 from 75 To kick off the 5.9 PBE cycle we have new skins for, andHere'swith a bugs & feedback thread forNext up we have a set of FIVE skins to celebrateas our 2014 World Champions!Here'swith a bugs & feedback thread for the fiveskins!Few more bits from the follow up discussion:With the changes on the PBE, let's take a closer look:With these gameplay changes,has new VFX.First up her quiver glows when she reaches five stacks ofHere's a brief video preview of her Q vfx across all skins:and here's a video preview of her updated kit: |
A Catholic youth group has shocked its religious superiors in Mallorca by producing a calendar that features a nude version of the passion of Christ. The wrath of the bishop of Mallorca has fallen on the Davallament youth group from the Spanish island's town of Sant Joan after they decided to make the stripped-down version of the Easter week story to raise funds. The calendar features a semi-naked trio of young men raising the cross on which Jesus will be crucified and a Last Supper whose protagonists wear only crotch-hugging underwear. In other shots the protagonists are entirely naked, covering their genitalia with plumed roman helmets (above). "It is a daring and original idea that emerged because we are young and wanted to do something new," a group member, Antoni Company, told Ultima Hora newspaper. The bishopric of Mallorca, however, has criticised them for shocking their more traditional elders. "It turns Easter week into something banal," the bishopric said in a stern written admonition. "It does not respect Christian symbols and is insensitive to Catholic feelings." The calendar marks the 20th anniversary of the Davallament Youth Association, one of whose principal tasks is to act out the passion of Christ in a fully-clothed version every Easter. "It all came from the need to celebrate our 20th anniversary," said Pep Mas, the group's co-ordinator. "The actors are the same people who take part in the Easter week representation, and the pictures are shot in the same places. I don't think, after all these years, that anyone can doubt our dedication." The town's mayor, Joan Magro, approves. "The calender is very original," he said. "The pictures are artistic and the models show what they have." The town's priest, Joan Marti, refused to be drawn. "They are grown up enough to know what they are doing and what it all means," he said. |
In one of his delusional speeches, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan this week called on the entire Muslim world, and the Turks as well, to visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque, because “that was Prophet Muhammad’s commandment.” Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter He didn’t let the fact that the mosque was built 70 years after Mohammad’s death confuse him. Just like he denies the Armenian genocide, the arrest of thousands of citizens, who have been jailed for many years and subject to forced labor or executed one way or another. Erdogan. Do you really plan on funding his vacation resorts? (Photo: EPA) The truth is I couldn’t care less about Erdoğan. What I do care about is the rise, or should I say leap, in the number of Israelis who have travelled in recent weeks and months to Turkey’s vacation resorts, the all-inclusive clubs in Antalya, as well as the occasional media reports presenting the people of Israel with all the nice, beautiful and luxurious things Turkey has to offer. Yes, I used to vacation in Turkey too, before the Marmara incident, and I used to write that these vacations offer the best value for money. I travelled there again after the Marmara incident, when it seemed the Turkish president was beginning to reconcile with the State of Israel, and I went back to writing about what the Turks have to offer. But like many people in Israel, I was wrong too. the Turkish president hasn’t changed, and there is no reconciliation between him and the people of Israel. He gladly seizes every opportunity he gets to attack Israel or try to meddle in its internal affairs, presenting himself as the most important Muslim leader in the world. In a television report aired two weeks ago, Israeli families explained that they had travelled to Antalya because they had no other choice. “There was no room in the other destinations we wanted to go to, so we went to Antalya,” they said in a sort of fake apology. That’s a pretty lame excuse and delusional answer to the question why do people even go to Turkey. Money has no smell Personally, I have no intention of going there as long as the tyrant is on his throne, and I won’t go either if his successor follows in his footsteps. The truth is I’m afraid to go there. Every time I receive an offer to go on a business trip to Turkey, I refuse politely. Images from the film “Midnight Express” pop up in my head, and I really don’t want to take any risks. If something happens, don’t call on the Israeli government to rescue you (Photo: Danny Sadeh) But beyond the fear, I find no reason to travel to a country whose leader spits in your face and in my face, day after day and hour after hour. I have no reason to invest my money in the Turkish economy. I’m not a public opinion leader and I won’t call on anyone to boycott Turkey and not to go there, if that’s what they want to do. Neither will I call for a boycott of the travel agencies that sell vacation packages to Turkey. Money, as you know, has no smell. |
Several companies have pulled campaigns from social network Facebook after their ads started appearing next to offensive photos and posts. Facebook is making new revelations about government orders for user data. (Photo: Karen Bleier, AFP/Getty Images) Story Highlights Nissan, U.K.-based Nationwide pull ads that appeared next to objectionable content Facebook removes offending photos, posts Dove points out offensive material, too, in statement Facebook is re-evaluating content on its social-network service after two major brands yanked ads that appeared next to photos and posts they deemed offensive. Nissan and U.K.-based Nationwide are among the firms that yanked ads when they appeared adjacent to misogynistic content, the Financial Times reported. Nissan spokesperson David Reuter says ads serving the U.K. version of Facebook have been halted, and the automaker is working with Facebook to opt out of placing ads globally on pages with offensive content. Nationwide says it suspended Facebook advertising, but welcomed efforts to work out a solution with Facebook. "As a responsible and trusted consumer brand, we do feel that sites like Facebook should have stringent processes and guidelines in place to ensure that brands are able to protect themselves from appearing alongside inappropriate content," Nationwide said in a statement. Skincare product maker Dove, whose ads also were displayed next to what it called misogynistic content, says it's taking the issue "very seriously." "We have been actively working with Facebook over the past few days to address the issue of gender-based hate-speech, and we welcome Facebook's commitment to take additional measures to tackle the problem," Dove spokeswoman Stacie Bright said in a statement. Facebook says it removed the disputed content. "We have been working over the past several months to improve our systems to respond to reports of violations, but the guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards," Marne Levine, Facebook's vice president of global public policy, said in a statement. "We need to do better – and we will." The focus on offensive content in Facebook was sparked by an open letter sent to the social network last week on behalf of several organizations, including The Everyday Sexism Project and Women, Action and the Media. They urged Facebook to classify content glorifying violence against girls and women as hate speech. The letter referenced "groups, pages and images that explicitly condone or encourage rape or domestic violence or suggest that they are something to laugh or boast about." "Facebook's response to the many thousands of complaints and calls to address these issues has been inadequate," the letter said. "You have failed to make a public statement addressing the issue, respond to concerned users, or implement policies that would improve the situation." Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/19lSkg8 |
BJP Tuesday raked up again the contentious issue of Ram Temple before the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections on February 11, saying a “grand” temple will be built in Ayodhya if BJP secures an outright majority. “Ram Mandir is a subject of faith. It is not going to be built in two months. The temple will be constructed after the elections. BJP will come to power with a full majority,” party’s Uttar Pradesh chief Keshav Prasad Maurya told reporters here. Advertising He also hit out at Akhilesh Yadav, saying the UP chief minister is neither with Backward Classes nor Dalits, “he only betrays”. His remark came after Allahabad High Court directed the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that no fresh caste certificates are issued to those belonging to 17 Other Backward Classes (OBC) groups. Asked about the SP-Congress alliance, Maurya said: “SP is a sinking ship and that of Congress had sunk long back. Even if BSP joins it, they will not be able to salvage it.” Alleging that the entire government machinery under Yadav was embroiled in corruption, he said that after coming to power, BJP will conduct a probe and if needed, “send them to jail”. He accused the UP chief minister of cheating people and claimed there were irregularities in admissions, women safety issues were not accorded priority and dial 100, launched to improve police services, was nowhere to be found. |
A gay man who condemned President Donald Trump's immigration order as driven by irrational fear was himself charged with assault for blocking Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from entering a middle school in Washington, D.C., on Friday. The opposition to DeVos has ranged from legitimate criticism to irrational paranoia, which seems to have driven protesters to physically prevent her from doing her job. "Some are afraid that the Syrian or Yemeni or Libyan or Sudanese or Iranian or Iraqi family fleeing conflict or persecution is instead coming to take our jobs or threaten our way of life," 31-year-old protester Bilal Ahmed Askaryar wrote in an NPR article last month. Despite denouncing this fear as irrational, Askaryar allegedly engaged in an act of protest based on similar fears of Betsy DeVos. Over the weekend, Askaryar was charged with misdemeanor assault and failing to obey an officer during a demonstration outside of Jefferson Middle School Academy, Politico reported. The paper also quoted a police report which said Askaryar was given "several lawful orders" to move out of the way of a vehicle, and then pushed an individual identified as "V-1." Listed as a factor under one of the charges is "impeding/assaulting US government cabinet member," Politico added. Askaryar reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charges. The gay man came to the U.S. as a 5-year-old refugee from Afghanistan in 1990, according to his story in NPR. He reportedly became a naturalized citizen in 2000 and earned a graduate degree from American University. The Washington Blade, D.C.'s LGBT newspaper, identified Askaryar as a "gay D.C. resident." The fracas with DeVos took place on Friday morning. While the education secretary attempted to get into Jefferson Middle School Academy, a group of protesters blocked the entrance, heckled her, and even physically stood in the way of her vehicle. It seems Askaryar was the man who ran in front of the motorcade, holding a "Black Lives Matter" sign obstructing the vehicle. This racial message was particularly interesting, since black leaders have praised DeVos for caring about children in their community. "She's not African American, but she's concerned about our children," Dr. Dwight Montgomery, president of the Memphis chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s organization), said of DeVos. This protest should not have been surprising, however, coming after months of liberal attacks on DeVos. Since President-elect Trump chose her to head the Department of Education, liberals have branded DeVos a racist, an elitist, a foe of public education, a religious extremist, and even — in a harebrained attack — a supporter of child labor. Cynical conservatives would explain these attacks as a desperate ploy by teachers' unions to retain their power in the face of DeVos' outspoken support for school choice. |
MONTREAL -- Ah, the great Canadian northwest, where the mighty Mackenzie River rumbles to the frigid Beaufort Sea. Land of the Mounties, land of the Inuit. A land soon, perhaps, to be known as "Bob." In 1999, Canada's 1.3 million-square-mile Northwest Territories will split in two, with the eastern region to become Nunavut, a vast semi-autonomous homeland for the Inuit, or Eskimos, who will make up 80 percent of the 22,000 residents. The more densely populated western realm, with 45,000 people bunched in an arctic enclave of 504,165 square miles, is seeking its own identity. Territorial political leaders recently asked residents to propose names for the new region. The top five picks will be put to a vote this fall. When the deadline for submitting names passed recently, more than 5,000 people favored keeping the name Northwest Territories. In second place, though a few thousand votes behind, was a dark horse candidate: Bob. Bob ranks well ahead of the 190 other contenders, which include Restavit, Alluvit, Fullavit, Tundraland, Freedom Territory, Eskimo Pie and Snobound. The campaign for Bob is being waged on the Internet, where supporters have created a Web site listing compelling reasons why the Northwest Territories should be renamed Bob, such as: " 'Bob' sounds the same in each of the official languages of the Northwest Territories," including English, French, Cree, Inukitut and Dene. So, no ethnic feathers would be ruffled. " 'A spokesman for Bob said ' sounds friendlier in news reports than 'A spokesman for the Northwest Territories said ' " Politicians and aboriginal leaders are unamused. "The campaign to make the name of the Western Territory into 'Bob' is not humorous," said J. Michael Miltenberger, member of the territorial assembly. "This campaign is hurting the reputation vTC of residents of the Western Arctic across North America and beyond." Officials recently extended the deadline for submitting new names to Aug. 31. Pub Date: 8/16/96 |
Pokémon Go, the augmented reality free-to-play mobile game from Niantic, will be available this July. Nintendo announced the release window during its second-day E3 live stream, but didn't give a concrete day. The company did say the game's accessory, a wrist-worn wearable called Pokémon Go Plus that lets you play the game without using your smartphone, will be available for $34.99. Unfortunately, it won't be quite ready at launch, Nintendo clarified. Pokémon Go is an ambitious AR title being developed by Niantic, the makers of Android game Ingress, in conjunction with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company. In our first hands-on look at the game earlier this month, we saw exactly how the game incorporates the same real-world exploration elements of Ingress with a pokémon twist. The core gameplay will involve looking through your smartphone camera while the software integrates the digital creatures into the environment. 'Pokémon Go' will let you capture the titular pocket monsters in the real world On a deeper level, you'll be able to assume the role of a trainer and travel to notable points of interest near where you live — or where you happen to be visiting — to capture pokémon and battle at gyms, which are located at notable landmarks. At any given moment, the gyms will be controlled by one of three groups, the Red, Blue, or Yellow team. You can take control of gyms for your pledged faction by battling your own pokémon, and teaming up with others in the real world raises your chances of victory. In its E3 live stream, Nintendo clarified further that players will be able to level up their trainers to catch stronger pokémon. There will also be a "candy" rewards, which players can use to evolve pokémon. As for the sought-after legendaries, pokémon like Mewtwo and Zapdos, Nintendo doesn't appear to have decided whether it will host local events in different cities to allow players to meet up and capture them. Trading between players is in the works, but won't be available at launch. The company did say that Go will have some kind of tie-in with the franchise's main handheld titles, but we don't know how that will work just yet. The two latest games, Pokémon Sun and Moon, will be out this November. Update June 15th, at 7:10PM ET: A previous version of this article spelled Zapdos with a "t" instead of a "d," and we have since been electrocuted by the thunder bird god for our grievous error. How Pokémon took over the world in 20 years |
Bristol Ice Rink opened as part of a huge Mecca entertainment complex in the 60’s known as the ‘New Bristol Centre’. At the time it was the biggest entertainment complex in Europe boasting a dozen licensed bars, an ice rink, bowling lanes, a casino, a night club, a grand cinema, a sumptuous ballroom and a multi story to accommodate all the visitors. At a cost of £2m pounds to build no expense was spared. By the turn of the 21st century the glam and glitz of the 60’s were long gone. A large part of the building had been knocked down to make way for student flats, the cinema had closed and while still profitable the ice rink itself was in a desperately run down state. In 2012 despite public dismay the owners of the building decided to serve notice on the ice rink and it closed for the final time to make way for more student flats. Above the ice rink the remains of some of the bars and clubs are still apparent amongst the mess of years of neglect. |
I am the father of two daughters. They are young now, but I hope that someday soon they will go to college. At college, there are often safety tips. I remember hearing them when I was a college student. There will be warnings of the dangers of alcohol abuse. There will be warnings about walking alone on campus, about finding yourself alone in someone else’s room, and even about how to dress. The vast majority of these warnings will be directed toward girls, warning them of the ways that they can prevent themselves from being raped. There are various statistics about the prevalence of rape on college campuses. A quick google search put the number of women that are victims of rape or attempted rape at anywhere between 1 in 50 and 1 in 4. The truth likely lies somewhere in between. “Rape Culture” on college campuses seems to be growing, as evidenced by the recent debate that Daniel Tosh sparked when making “rape jokes.” Much of the problem has lied with college administrations that are unwilling to punish, or sometimes even investigate, men accused of rape. Notre Dame’s football program was one such case that gained noteriety, but activists across the country have been raising their voices.\ So I decided I would chip in. I came up with this list of “Rape Prevention Tips For College.” I think this is almost 100% fool-proof. 1. Don’t rape anyone. 2. If you go out on a date with someone, don’t rape her. 3. If there is a girl at a party, and she is dressed very sexy, don’t rape her. 4. If you are with a girl that has had way too much to drink, don’t rape her. 5. If you see a girl, and she is passed out; walk by her, or help her get home, or find her friends. Don’t rape her. 6. If, at any time, you are unsure if what you are doing is rape, then stop doing that, immediately. Maybe it is time that we start teaching men at college that raping someone isn’t okay. Every girl that gets drunk is not looking for sex. Every girl that wears a mini skirt isn’t waiting for you to get into it. Should women avoid dangerous situations? Sure. I will teach my daughters to be smart. I will likely get them to a Girls Fight Back seminar someday, where they will learn to defend themselves. I will teach my daughters to protect themselves. As a father of two girls, I will do my part. I will do my best to teach my girls to respect themselves. But its not all on me, or on them. You fathers of boys need to step up too. Teach them, in no uncertain terms, that it is not okay to rape. You teach them not to lie. You teach them not to cheat. You teach them lots of things. You may be squeamish about it. It might be an uncomfortable topic, so I provided you with this list to help. Learn it. Live it. Follow The Fat Pastor on Facebook Follow @FatPastor on Twitter Follow Girls Fight Back on Facebook |
Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE (R-Ariz.) on Monday called it “sad” that President Trump did not make human rights a priority during his meeting with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte. The White House said the two leaders “briefly” discussed human rights in the context of Duterte’s drug crackdown, but the Philippine president’s spokesman said the issue was not discussed. And human rights obviously not a priority in @POTUS’s meeting with Duterte – again, sad. — John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) November 13, 2017 Since taking office in 2016, Duterte has carried out a “war on drugs,” which has led to thousands of killings of suspected drug dealers and users, according to Human Rights Watch. ADVERTISEMENT Trump praised Duterte at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, saying the two have had “a great relationship.” He later laughed when Duterte referred to members of the press as “spies,” according to a reporter traveling with Trump. McCain, who has been an outspoken critic of Trump, also ripped the president on Saturday for ignoring human rights violations during his stop in Danang, Vietnam. McCain was captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. |
A Liberal government would build a wide bike lane down the middle of Northbourne Avenue and a bus lane down either side, carving five metres out of the median strip to fit the extra lanes. The Liberals will announce their Northbourne plans on Wednesday. Deputy leader and transport spokesman Alistair Coe said the Northbourne work would cost up to $58 million with a generous contingency. He said about 2.5 metres would be taken from each side of the centre strip on the main gateway road. That would reduce the width of the Northbourne median from about 27 metres to about 22 metres. The extra road space would create enough room, when combined with the current kerbside bike lane, for four southbound and four northbound lanes of traffic on Northbourne Avenue from Barry Drive to Antill Street. One lane in each direction, adjacent to the kerb, would be a dedicated bus lane, with bus bays where possible. |
Joseph Stein, Author of Fiddler on the Roof, Dead at 98 He died after fracturing his skull in a fall, his son Harry said, adding that his father, an inveterate jokester, had suffered numerous ailments in recent years, including prostate cancer, and used all of them as fodder for humor. "He said he got some of his best material on the way to the grave," Harry Stein said. More from Writers Write Joseph Stein, the Tony Award-winning author ofand many other Broadway hits has died after a bad fall at his home. He was 98.reports:Stein co-wrote, based on Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" which starred Jackie Gleason and Robert Morse, and penned the musical, based on, and well as many other musicals. He was working on a new musical at the time of his death.He was a great talent. Our condolences to his family. |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video OKLAHOMA CITY -- It's one of the largest employers in the metro; one outspoken Oklahoma City councilman is voicing concerns about Chesapeake Energy. Those comments come on the heels of numerous national reports questioning the energy giant's business ethics. Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid questioned Chesapeake's long-term future. The company's influence on the city extends way beyond their ever-expanding campus. "Our fortunes rise and fall together," Ed Shadid said. That's why Shadid said he felt the need to use his public office at city council to question the energy giant's financial practices after published reports detailed how company CEO Aubrey McClendon used personal loans to finance oil wells, then used those stakes to leverage additional loans. "Yes, technically it's legal. We'd just like to see more disclosure," Shadid said. "Chesapeake has been a partner with the city for 20 years. They are a dependable corporate partner," OKC Councilwoman Meg Salyer said. For her part, Salyer defended Chesapeake and called Shadid's comments irresponsible and reckless. "To get involved in commentary and questions of individual companies, I don't think is appropriate," Salyer said. Criticism aside, using the intersection of N.W. 50th St. and Western Ave. as an example, Shadid added the city may need to restrict rezoning of commercial property by Chesapeake around their campus, posing the possibility of the energy giant one day going under. Shadid also suggested the company restructure its board of directors. "Adding one or two people to the board is the quickest way to decrease any volatility in the market and deal with disclosure concerns," Shadid said. Officials at Chesapeake declined to go on the record Tuesday about Councilman Shadid's comments, adding that Councilwoman Salyer provided a good response. |
A majority of Americans (some surveys report as high as 94%) say they want mandatory labeling of Genetically Modified Foods (GMOs). But what are GMOs, and what is the big deal? What are GMOs? Genetic engineering (GE) is the process of transferring specific traits, or genes, from one organism into a different plant or animal. The resulting organism is called a GMO (genetically modified organism). 70% of processed foods in American supermarkets are estimated to contain genetically modified ingredients. Genetic engineering is different from traditional cross breeding, where genes can only be exchanged between closely-related species. With genetic engineering, genes from completely different species can be inserted into each other. Genetic engineering not only refers to crops but also animals. For example, salmon have been bioengineered to grow five times faster than wild breeds, and chickens have been genetically modified to lay low-cholesterol eggs. At this point in time, no GE animals have been approved by the FDA to enter the food supply, but that scenario may not be far off. The majority of GMO crops are found in the United States with 68% of GE acreage right here. Others include Argentina (22%), Canada (6%), and China (3%). That’s 99% of the world’s GE acreage (almost 400 million acres!) in just 4 countries. America’s 170 million acres of genetically engineered crops produce 95% of the nation’s sugar beets, 94% of the soybeans, 90% of the cotton and 88% of the feed corn. Are GMOs harmful? There have been many concerns raised over GMOs and the insufficient testing on the effects of genetically engineered foods on people and the environment. Genetic engineering is still in its infancy, and scientists don’t fully understand the consequences of introducing DNA from one species into another. DNA can change and mutate with the combination of foreign DNA, possibly with harmful results. The long-term effects of consuming GMOs have not been properly studied nor the effects such organisms have on the environment, in general. Some specific concerns with GMOs include allergic reactions, gene mutation, antibiotic resistance, loss of nutrition, damage to the environment, and gene pollution. Consumers could experience allergic reactions with GMOs injected with known allergens such as nut or strawberry genes injected into common foods. Without labeling, a shopper allergic to one of these would be unaware of a potentially severe reaction. Another concern is the combination of DNA will lead to the creation of new allergies previously not in existence. Gene mutation is a possibility with the forced combination of DNA. The effects of these mutations are unknown on human health or their introduction into the environment. Almost all GE food contains antibiotic resistance marker genes that help makers know whether the new genetic material was transferred to the host plant or animal. GE food could make disease-causing bacteria even more resistant to antibiotics. This opens the possibility of increasing the spread of disease throughout the world. Although some GMO foods are being developed to increase nutrition, the majority of GE crops are developed for pest resistance and herbicide tolerance. The nutritional value of these organisms may be significantly less than non-GMO foods. The full extent of damage to the environment is unknown. GE crops are consumed by insects, birds and animals. Along with wind and water, the seeds of these plants are distributed outside the acreage, perhaps combining with other non-GMO crops. The effects of these combinations, or the effects on the creatures that consume them, is unknown. One possible scenario is GE crops cross-pollinating with weeds, potentially creating “superweeds” that could become difficult to control. Once these genetically engineered organisms are released into the environment, they cannot be recalled or cleaned-up. Unlike chemical spills or nuclear disasters, gene pollution cannot be contained or separated from the environment. What can we do? One positive tool for consumers would be the labeling of products containing GMOs. Over 40 countries worldwide require labeling – the European Union, Australia, Russia, Brazil, China, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, and New Zealand. Some have even banned all GM foods – Japan, Ireland, and Egypt. Currently, the United States has no such requirement, although California is currently attempting to pass legislation on the issue. The FDA and GMO supporters say that labeling genetically modified foods would be cumbersome and costly, ultimately raising food prices. Countries currently with label laws say the costs are far less than FDA is quoting. Proponents argue we have the right to know what we’re buying and eating. There are already laws requiring information on ingredients and nutritional content. Truth in marketing is a fundamental principle of consumer choice and the free market. Until the government requires labeling of GMOs, consumers can avoid these products by choosing sustainable foods. Shop the farmers market, grow your own veggies, or choose foods from the supermarket that are marked Organic. The USDA regulations governing organic food do not permit genetically-modified fruits and vegetables, and organic meats cannot come from animals that were fed GE crops. Choosing Organic products ensures that you won’t be consuming any genetically engineered foods or causing any unnecessary strain on the environment. The long term effects of GMOs on human health and the environment are unknown. Common sense says stick to sustainable crops and animals for your well-being and the planet’s. You’ll feel better you did! Image credit: Christian Science Monitor |
A closer look at how the English contingent fared in this weekend's NRL action. HE was sidelined by injury for five weeks but England stand-off Gareth Widdop took just one game to go back to the top of the NRL’s point scorers list – overnight at least. The 28-year-old’s two tries against Wests Tigers on Saturday, each of which he converted, allowed him to move to just one point short of a century for 2017 despite missing a third of the matches played this season. In subsequent matches of round 13 the following day, Penrith’s Nathan Cleary, Parramatta’s Clint Gutherson and Sydney Roosters’ Michael Gordon were able to overtake him – but given that Widdop is actually playing again, the trio are in for a fight. Widdop is back and Widdop is running it again! Quality first of two tries on his return for @NRL_Dragonspic.twitter.com/u8hqpYKIch — England Rugby League (@England_RL) June 4, 2017 “Gaz, I thought, was the form player of the competition before his injury,” said Dragons coach Paul McGregor following a 16-12 success at ANZ Stadium, referring to a left knee problem. “He did a lot of work over the last five weeks to come back early – and I’m glad he did. “He’s a total professional in the way he goes about his preparation to play well. The boys get a lot of confidence in Gareth because he’s the type of player who instils that in everyone. “And as I said before, he’s a good leader.” GARETH WIDDOP: A blazing return from injury for the England stand-off in a 16-12 win over Wests Tigers at ANZ Stadium; two tries, two goals and a clean line break. JOE WARDLE: Played the full 80 minutes against Melbourne after being named in the centres, making 27 tackles in a 40-12 defeat at AAMI Park. The man himself was typically humble, commenting: “I’ve done everything possible to get back out there this week and there were a few good moments and probably a few areas I can work on. “Midweek … I wanted to give myself every chance and I just wanted to make sure I could get through training. I did that throughout the week. The physio said I was right to come back. “I didn’t push it. I just did what was asked.” CHRIS McQUEEN: Just half an hour on the field in the 20-8 defeat to North Queensland, making 17 tackles. JOE GREENWOOD: Played the full game at the 1300SMILES Stadium, making 36 tackles and missing seven. Canterbury captain James Graham’s neck injury prevented him playing against Penrith at the same venue on Sunday – and it was probably a good one to miss as the Bulldogs were lapped 38-0. The rest of the England stars and selection hopefuls involved in the curtailed round 13 were all on the losing side. Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has accused rivals of “cheating at the ruck” to shut the Green Machine down – an issue that directly affects hooker Josh Hodgson who is at acting half more than any team-mate. JOSH HODGSON: Played 82 minutes for Canberra against Manly – because the game went into golden point time. Thirty-three tackles and 89 metres. ELLIOTT WHITEHEAD: 43 tackles at Lottoland. “There’s nothing you can really do about it,” the England rake told reporters. “We don’t really worry about it, we just concentrate on ourselves and our game plan of what we want to do. “You can’t prepare too much for what the other team is going to do because one, you’re not quite sure and two, there’s not much you can do about it anyway.” |
WASHINGTON – Democrats on a House committee are pressuring the White House to release a wide array of documents about the security clearances granted to former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump‘s son-in-law and top aide. In a letter Wednesday, 18 members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said they have “serious concerns” about how the White House is handling classified information and who is being allowed access to such sensitive material. The letter, citing press reports, singles out Kushner for failing to disclose numerous contacts with foreign officials on his security clearance questionnaire. It also questions why the White House allowed Flynn to have access to classified information after learning that he had misled administration officials about the content of conversations with a Russian diplomat. Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman for Kushner, did not immediately comment on the letter. Kushner’s attorney, Jamie Gorelick, said she hadn’t seen the letter and was out of the country. Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, declined to comment. READ MORE: Jared Kushner travelling to Middle East to work toward peace deal Flynn, who was later fired over the misleading statements, is currently the subject of congressional probes and the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates. Kushner, who is currently in the Middle East attempting to broker a peace deal between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, has said through his lawyers that he is willing to talk to federal and congressional investigators about his foreign contacts and his work on the Trump campaign. Gorelick has previously acknowledged that Kushner failed to disclose some of his contacts with Russian government officials while he was filling out his security clearance questionnaire. Gorelick said in April that the omissions were an “administrative error,” adding that “there was no intent to obscure any foreign meetings, including those with Russia.” WATCH: White House stays quiet on Kushner probe, says many facts ‘assumed’ Among those meetings that he omitted was a December meeting with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., and another with the head of a Russian bank. During the Kislyak meeting, which took place at Trump Tower in New York last December, Kushner proposed a secret back channel between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team, according to a person familiar with the discussions. In his talks with Kislyak, Kushner broached the idea of a line of communication with Russia to promote sensitive discussions exploring the new administration’s possible options in Syria. The goal, according to the person familiar with the meeting, was to connect Flynn, who was Trump’s top national security aide at the time, with Russian military leaders. The Washington Post, which first reported the session, said Flynn also attended the meeting. READ MORE: Donald Trump partner in the running to build FBI building causing ethics concerns Kushner also separately met during the transition period with Sergey Gorkov, the top executive of Russia’s state-supported VEB bank. The White House said Kushner was acting in his capacity as a transition official at the time. The bank has said that the meeting was part of a new investment strategy that was being unveiled to leading world financial institutions as well as “the head of the Kushner Companies.” In their letter, the Democrats on the oversight committee request that the White House provide any documents or communications regarding these meetings or other contacts Kushner had with Russian government officials and businesses as well as any documents or communications detailing the classified information that Kushner and Flynn had access to since December. They also request documents related to any White House official who has been granted access to classified information while under investigation by law enforcement and any White House official who resigned or was terminated due to a criminal investigation or an inability to obtain a security clearance. The Democrats’ letter was copied to the committee’s newly installed Republican chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina. But it’s unclear if the letter will have much success in prying loose documents from the White House. So far, the Trump administration has largely ignored requests for documents from Democratic lawmakers, only turning over documents when Republicans join in the request. |
MEASURING SOUND Text: Hugh Covill Most of us couldn’t give an FFT about measuring sound, but it’s actually a handy thing to know. Can we measure sound? Sure we can. So, how do we do it and what will these measurements tell us? A wise man once said to me: “Good sound is the absence of bad sound”. I love sayings like that. If you’ve ever wondered about quantifying sound; if you mix live gigs or put together PA systems regularly, if you have the same monitor speakers as your buddy but his sound ‘way’ better that yours and you can’t figure out why, then these next few pages are for you. Ostensibly aimed at the live sound practitioners this ‘foot in the door’ into the world of measuring sound will, I hope, be of interest to a broad range of sound practitioners. So read on and measure up! THE BACKGROUND The last 10 years has provided a heady rate of evolution for those of us working at the live end of the audio pond. While processor speeds and capabilities have continued their inexorable climb, the price point for these same technologies has continued on a downward trend. The impact of this has been two-fold: applications predicated on DSP technology and pioneered in previous decades have come of age, and these technologies have now become financially viable for a good proportion of our industry. The design and development of digital consoles, A/D converters, digital delay technology, DSP-based loudspeaker management, and advances in crossover technology, speaker technology and line transmission protocols have all been driven by the technological paradigm known these days as Moore’s Law (after Gordon Moore, co-founder of the Intel Corporation who famously stated in 1965 that: “the number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 24 months”). This pace of change has added a complexity and sophistication to the PAs we use on a daily basis. Correspondingly, the tools that we use to measure and quantify the performance of PA systems have become commensurately sophisticated. Ten years ago a notebook computer was the tool of perhaps only a few practitioners working at the highest levels of the industry. These days you’d be hard-pressed to find a mix engineer, sound designer or system engineer without one on the job. An important application on most live sound laptops is usually some type of measurement program; the most familiar and ubiquitous of these being the dual-channel FFT-based measurement system. Unfortunately, much of the wider audio fraternity views these measurement tools as complicated and baffling, and their application a black art. Actually, the fundamentals of dual-channel FFT analysis share much in common with your garden-variety audio samplers, and very few people would consider them baffling. If you understand the fundamental variables: sample start/end, loop start/end, root key, pitch table etc you can fairly easily move from one application to another. It’s the same with measurement applications. SCRATCHING THE SURFACE So what is FFT and why do we want to be measuring our sound systems using it? Well firstly, let’s find out what the letters stand for! The letters F.F.T. stand for Fast Fourier Transform, which is a mathematical process for moving signals between the time and frequency domains. And the best way of explaining what that means exactly is to take a look at some illustrations. The top of Fig.1 shows a snare hit in the familiar DAW wave sample representation. This almost universally-recognised waveform represents the time domain – even cricket’s ‘Snicko-meter’ tool uses it! This time domain waveform is simply amplitude (the variation in a changing quality from its zero value) shown on one axis plotted against duration (time) on the other axis. But there’s more to the graphic display of audio files than a time domain graph. Using FFT we can create an alternative view of this same snare hit – the transfer function of this wave sample – i.e., move from the time domain into the frequency domain. This alternative view displays the frequency spectrum of the snare hit plotted against magnitude (a change in level expressed in dB). An FFT analyser will allow you to switch between these two views with the click of a button. But isn’t the FFT analyser’s frequency spectrum just like some more precise RTA (Real Time Analyser)… the type you see in iTunes or a car stereo display? Not quite. An RTA measures and displays sound pressure (in 1/3-octave frequency slices) instant-by-instant – there’s no measurement over time, it’s simply a whole bunch of snapshots. Meanwhile, a dual-channel FFT measurement requires a sample of the sound but lets you determine the duration of that sample (the FFT size). This provides the user with the ability to view data over a given time period. So now, if you have two or more speakers a distance apart, an FFT will clearly indicate the arrival of each sound event as well as any acoustic anomalies, such as reflections. If you examine Fig 2, you can plainly see the difference between the RTA (which displays spectral content at an instant) and the impulse response’s ability to reveal a variety of time domain data and also yield a transfer function (frequency vs magnitude) plot. Having access to both domains provides us with a wealth of additional information when compared to the RTA display, information you need when you’re dealing with multiple sources. After all, if these multiple sound sources are not perceived as originating from the same point in time then the listening experience can become very disorientating. COMPARE & CONTRAST Dual-channel FFT measurement provides a means of comparing two signals (usually the sound system’s input with the output). The ‘transfer function’ can therefore be thought of, generally, as describing what happens to a signal on its way from input to output. Dual-channel FFT typically employs pink noise at the output of the mixing desk as a reference and compares that with what the measurement microphone is hearing from the speakers in the room. Why pink noise? The short answer is that pink noise acts as a reference signal with a flat frequency response, meaning that it has equal energy per octave, and as such, if you input this signal to an RTA you will see a flat line across the entire audible frequency range. So if the measurement microphone also exhibits a flat frequency response then we can listen to pink noise (flat response) out of the room’s speakers and use FFT to obtain a transfer function of the sound system’s response. Such a ‘transfer function’ is comparing the output of the desk with the output from the loudspeaker and its inherent interactions with the room as recorded at the measurement microphone. Simply put, it’s showing what has changed. Bear mind that any dynamic processors (compressors, limiters etc) must be bypassed while measurements are being taken, as they’ll inevitably introduce their own non-linearities. A-TYPICAL SETUP Let’s return to Fig 1 again (the no-name speaker) and follow the process of making a measurement. On the left hand side (time domain) is the impulse response. Making this measurement involves a reference signal (often pink noise) that is fed to both the measurement system and the speakers with the sound coming out of the speakers recorded at a microphone. Once you know how long it took for the signal to travel through the sound system, out the speakers, through the air and into the microphone (this is the peak of the impulse: approx. 1ms) you can delay the reference signal so the two signals are aligned in time. Now we can perform a transfer function measurement (the frequency domain) to compare the reference signal with the sound captured at the microphone point. ACTING ON IMPULSE It’s worth dwelling on the term Impulse Response a little more. The impulse response is arguably the most important measurement available to live sound practitioners. Learning how to make this simple measurement and understanding the terminology doesn’t take a long time. What does take time is learning how to set variables for the appropriate measuring task and then interpreting the information the programs reveal. These are skills that only develop with experience. An impulse response can communicate a huge amount of information: direct sound level, room decay time, noise floor level, reverberant sound levels, identifying reflections and the direct-to-reverberant ratio levels (that are used to determine intelligibility) to name but a few. The ability to view data in both the time and frequency domains provides for a veritable smorgasbord of visual data that can greatly assist sound engineers with the tasks of sound system time alignment, tuning (setting a listening curve) and electro-acoustic investigations. We should be mindful, though, that despite all this visual feedback, we’re still working with sound and must trust our ears. Measurement can put us in the ballpark but the home runs are only hit with lots of critical listening. We need to be prepared to reject data that doesn’t correspond to what we’re hearing. Your ears must remain the final arbiter. TUNING TIPS Most live sound folk will begin using measurement tools with the aim of improving their sound system ‘tuning’ (although, I like to call it ‘optimisation’). When attempting to ‘tune’ and align a sound system here are some thoughts that may be helpful: Listen to the sound system with your favourite music. Use a varied selection of music you know well. I like to use minimal, sparsely constructed music without a lot of reverb; it’s better for discerning how the system decays and for hearing reflections. How well does what you hear correlate with the measured data? If you can clearly hear an abundance of midrange, but this is not reflected in the measured data, then there’s a strong possibility that the measurement setup is flawed, so recheck your equipment. Play some vocal music. This is a really good way of listening to how well your delay speakers are set. Is there smearing in the high frequencies or timing problems? Listen to the transition areas where the loudspeaker coverage overlaps i.e. where the coverage of one speaker finishes and is replaced by coverage from a delayed speaker. Be clear in your own mind about the listening curve you’d like to achieve. Have some similar music to use as a reference – i.e., don’t take a Three Tenors CD to a hip hop gig. PHASE & EQ After measuring comes fixing, and the first solution most engineers will reach for is their EQ. But it’s worth understanding that, generally, acoustical or electronic problems cannot be resolved with equalisation. For example, if your measurements reveal a difference in phase between the left and right sides of a PA that could be traced to wrong driver polarity in a single speaker. Such a scenario is not something you’d want to compensate for with equalisation. The same applies to destructive reflections and incorrect crossover settings – they cannot be ‘EQ’d out’. So, if you’re measuring a dip in response at a certain frequency, do you solve this with EQ? Further measurements at different locations can help establish if the dip is audience-wide or just in one area. Equalisation should be used to re-balance the sound system’s interaction with its acoustic space and artistically to sculpt the listen-curve. ‘EAR ‘EAR FFT Measurement systems are a kind of Swiss army knife for sound folk. The trick is knowing when and where to apply the correct tool and how to interpret the results. Puccini once wrote, “Music is noise submitted to order by wisdom”. The most valuable tools we have as sound people are our ears. We can use a measuring tape to buy a metre of silk; the tape cannot, however, quantify the quality of that silk. Similarly, sound systems require human input to determine the subjective aspect. This article is very much a case ‘for’ measurement. Anything that assists us to better understand what we’re hearing, and consequently attain better sound outcomes more consistently, benefits our practice greatly. This article has left many questions unanswered and there’s much that I’ve skated over in pursuit of a ‘bigger picture’. Stay tuned… ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE MATHS, THE JARGON, THE NITTY GRITTY Most people are so accustomed to looking at time domain, DAW-style waveforms, the penny may not have dropped yet, but: both domains (time and frequency) can be thought of as providing different views of the same data. At first glance a modern measurement system (above) can seem fairly intimidating. There’s a complex array of variables on offer and, to make meaningful measurements, all of them need to be understood and set appropriately. Fortunately, the fundamentals are far less complex than first impressions suggest, and as modern sound analysis is based on sampling sound, we can draw on our grasp of digital audio fundamentals to find suitable parallels for understanding measurement vernacular. The fundamental parameters to understand are Sample Rate, which refers to the time resolution of the measurement; Quantisation (or Bit Depth) refers to the amplitude resolution; and FFT Size, which refers to the duration of the measurement. Other variables include thresholding, averaging, coherence and time-windows. While setting the appropriate sample rate and bit-depth for recording (don’t lose sight of the fact that modern measurement systems are fundamentally samplers) is a well understood practice in audio, setting FFT size is not. So let’s dig a little deeper. FFT size refers to the length of the sample, the duration of the measurement to be made and is determined by the number of sample points. Here’s how it works. As a rule of thumb you need an FFT size that will allow you to capture the complete decay of the system being measured. If our sample rate is 48k then there will be 48,000 sample points for every second. If the venue we’re working in has, for argument’s sake, a mid-band reverberation time of 1.5 seconds, then to capture the full decay of the room as an impulse response will require (at a minimum) a 72,000 sample point FFT size (48,000 x 1.5, and often abbreviated to 72k). If we take a look at Fig 3 we can see that most of the variables at play are inter-related. The sampler analogy provides us with a good way to correlate the different terms used in measurement with ones that are, perhaps, more familiar to all audio folk. Once we’ve chosen a sample rate (usually 44.1k or 48k) and an FFT size (the duration of the measurement) we have, by relation, the time constant and frequency resolution of the measurement. The time constant quantifies how long it will take to acquire the data points and the frequency resolution refers to how far apart in frequency those data points will be spaced. So a 48k sample rate and a 32k FFT size will yield a time constant of approximately 666ms (32k/48k = 0.666) with the data points spaced every 1.5Hz. Simple huh? It’s just another sampler really, and like a sampler, each measurement system will implement a similar feature set slightly differently. The reason for the scope of the variables available is the range of different measurements that dual-channel FFT systems can perform. To get the best out of your gear… read the manual! |
Real Madrid vs Fuenlabrada Scored twice against Fuenlabrada Given the opportunity against Fuenlabrada in the Copa del Rey, Borja Mayoral showed what he can offer to Zinedine Zidane and the Real Madrid starting lineup. He scored the opening goal after a spectacular cross from Gareth Bale, who had only just come onto the field. Again in the second goal, he teamed up with the Welsh international to follow up on the rebound and to put Real Madrid into the lead at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. The goals from the youth product cut the tension produced by the Segunda B visitors, who had taken the lead through Luis Milla. They even went close to adding a second which would have taken the tie to extra time. Until now, Mayoral has only been in the starting lineup against the south Madrid minnows and in one league game against Real Sociedad. Although he scored against the Basques, something was missing in his game in the first leg of this Copa del Rey clash. In the second leg, he has once again shown his ability to score goals and with those goals he will stake his claim for a more important role in Zidane's squad. |
First post here, had to get some input on this. Sorry if it is long, wanted to make it as detailed as possible. My girlfriend and I were on vacation and had an intercourse on the night of Feb 15th and the morning of Feb 16th. Skyn condom was used both times and I did finish inside her with the condom on both times. I did not see any sign of leakage from the condom and it was fully on when I finished. Also, this was the first time we had sex and she did not have any sexual activity for at least 6-7 month before this, so no chance of already being pregnant. Need to mention that we did cuddle and performed oral sex between the 2 sessions. My penis did touch her vagina without a condom. My penis did accidentally go inside her vagina for a few seconds when we were cuddling but that was hours after I had an orgasm so I don't think there is a chance of alive sperm being on my penis . I did finger her and there might have been semen on my hands possibly. She had her last period on Jan 14th and according to her, she has a regular cycle of 28-30 days and never missed a period in her life and never been late for more than 4 days. Given that, she should've gotten her period right around the time that we were having sex on the 15th or 16th but that didn't happen. In fact she was telling me that she was praying to have a 2 day delay on her period so we can have sex. On the 16th of Feb, after we has sex, she took a shower and inserted a tampon since she was sure she will get her period that day. Today is Feb 26th and she still has not gotten her period. She has been having period cramps according to her, but no blood. She's been telling me that she feels like she's going to get her period any second, but that has not happened yet. Now what worries me is that she's been having some dizziness and nausea these past couple of days. She also is experiencing some emotional distress such as anger and temper. Also need to mention she took 2 pregnancy tests one on Feb 23 and one on Feb 21st. Both came back negative (one was digital one was analog). Need to add that she has been sick and still is. She is coughing and has a sore throat. Matter of fact I got the virus from her and I've been feeling under the weather too. Also she started going to the gym a month ago and it' s her first time working out in her life. She has been working out pretty heavily for someone that just started. 4-5 days a week for 2 hours each day and both cardio and weight lifting. She is 23 and about 90-100 pounds (small body frame). |
There is no power on earth to be compared to him. — Leviathan, frontispiece ¤ BEFORE IT BECAME other things — an interactive road-trip buddy movie, a cooking game, a simulator of days spent staring at the metal rails of highways — Final Fantasy XV was a Hamlet adaptation. The game was first announced at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in 2006, in a trailer that began with a portentous epigraph from the play itself: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” At that point, it was called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and its scope was defined in simple, Hamlet-like terms. It was a game about a young, moody prince, dressed in black, who tries to avenge his father. As the years passed, the game transformed into something different with every new trailer. It became “open world,” a buzzword for the game design philosophy of our moment, predicated on a large, sprawling, freely explorable map. Then it became open road: the focus shifted to four bros — Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum and his bodyguards Ignis, Gladiolus, and Prompto — in a car. In a 2014 trailer, they drive by lush, unremarkable deep-green foliage that looks as nice and as boring as Rockland County. The Hamlet plot is still there, but it’s crackling over the radio. The King is dead. The Empire is at the gates. It made sense to expect the game to become a monster in the literal sense of the term: a hybrid creature composed of heterogeneous parts. FFXV is a Japanese role-playing game, a genre well known for throwing anything and everything into a heady aesthetic stir-fry: opera, decadent Catholicism, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, giant robots, sky pirates, the life story of Frédéric Chopin, World War II. As Clayton Purdom wrote in a paean to the genre, “for pure bang-for-your-buck eccentricity, there are few analogs in contemporary culture.” But I don’t think even connoisseurs of JRPGs were prepared for the incoherent creature that FFXV ended up becoming. Half of it takes place in the open world that was promised — a place suffused with mundane detail and governed by the realistic passage of time. The other half sends you down cosmic corridors through concept-art fantasylands, fighting “daemons” and gods and the Evil Empire. Half of it tries to be On the Road, the other half Paradise Lost. One thing, however, has remained coherent about the game throughout its transformations: it’s still just as much a Hamlet adaptation. And it’s a Hamlet adaptation not just because it cribs the plot of Hamlet, but because it’s messily, chaotically divided. The game yokes together two worldviews that are aesthetically and philosophically incompatible. In equal measure, it fetishizes American freedom and absolute monarchy, and never resolves the tension. ¤ It would be a little misleading to say that Final Fantasy XV takes place in the United States. For one thing, many Japanese players were disturbed to find urban elements — especially apparatuses of the state: squad cars, toll booths, emergency vehicles — copied directly, and uncannily, from present-day Japan. But the meat of the game takes place in “America”: an Occidentalist fantasy cobbled together from stereotypes. Retro, chrome-clad diners dot the landscape, piping country through tinny jukeboxes. You end up interacting a lot with a woman named Cindy, a trucker’s fantasy who speaks in a Southern drawl, wears Daisy Dukes, and fixes your car. The game is deeply committed to selling the Americanness of its landscape — a combination of Southwestern aridity and Northeastern lushness, overseen by the bald eagle — and the authenticity of its road trip. All the camping gear is Coleman, proudly made in the USA. At the same time, into this vision of America, the game incongruously inserts the flamboyant fantasy tropes of its long-running series. To take just one example, every Final Fantasy game has featured “chocobos,” big yellow ostrich-like birds that you can ride. Here, you rent them at gas stations and clomp them through highway tunnels, trying not to get hit by cars. The game’s trailers promise a “fantasy based on reality,” and this oscillation between the two extremes is novel and exciting for a series that has never been particularly interested in telling a story at a real-life scale — a series that, 20 years ago, depicted diminutive 2D figures with the proportions of bobbleheads traversing entire continents. And it’s important that the “reality” part has an American feel, because the game offers freedoms that no other game in the series has been able to offer: the freedom to go where you want, do what you want, even eat what you want. Of course, much of the game’s vision of the United States’s present resembles an all-too-familiar dream of America’s past: a dream of bright red Coke machines, nickel coffee everywhere, and monoculture radio. A dream of political unity predicated on social homogeneity, or maybe the reverse: social unity predicated on political homogeneity. And here a deeper tension between “fantasy” and “reality” emerges into view. Is it a fantasy of America with chocobos, or of America without democracy? ¤ There’s a certain kind of scene that appears in many fantasy movies and video games. Our hero wakes up in a netherworld, on an abstract plane of color and light. Silence reigns; the din of combat, a war taking place elsewhere, has been left behind. He — it’s almost always he — is without his noble companions. They remain in the terrestrial world, gritting teeth and clashing swords in an endless montage. But he is not alone: he comes face to face with a sage who finally explains the order of the universe and the nature of the prophecy that concerns him. Their dialogue creates tension by delaying the outcome of a major battle. At the same time, it provides catharsis in the form of much-needed exposition. In Final Fantasy XV, the scene of cosmological exposition takes place after our hero, Noctis, gets trapped in a magic crystal. After passing out, he wakes up floating in a void of blue, and finds himself faced with one of the minor deities who appear throughout the series, a giant metal dragon named Bahamut who looks and speaks like Optimus Prime. With earthshaking gravitas, Bahamut explains Noctis’s role at the center of an ancient prophecy, and his place at the apex of creation: “The King of Kings shall be granted the power to banish the darkness.” There are obvious Christian overtones to Bahamut’s mumbo jumbo. But what’s striking about the line is that it’s completely literal. Noctis really is the King of Kings, and a king in the old sense of kingship, not a symbolic head of state but a true sovereign with divine authority. The game is obsessed with this idea. Noctis’s father is named “King Regis,” which literally means King of Kings. His car, a sleek black convertible in a world of dumpy pickups, is unsubtly called the Regalia. The player is reminded often that his buddies are his royal bodyguards. The game’s fetishism of royalty is weird even by the standards of medievalist high fantasy. But somehow it doesn’t feel weird, perhaps because games so often return us to feudalism. Chess operationalizes the hierarchies of a feudal order. So do card games in which the king trumps everyone else but the ace. The landscape of contemporary videogames gives you endless ways to be a monarch: sweeping strategy games that represent kingly decision-making from a top-down perspective (Crusader Kings II); RPGs, both Japanese and not, that represent it from a third-person perspective (Fable III); the mobile game Reigns, which cribs the card-swiping design of Tinder to present kingship as an endless series of face-to-face interactions with insistent, and sometimes gnomic, advisors. You die often in Reigns, because you made a decision that allowed the church, the military, the oligarchs, or the people to gain too much power and usurp you. But like any mobile game, it’s designed for replayability, and its replayability subsists on the decidedly feudal idea that the “King” as a rank, a position, outlasts the king as a mortal. The king is dead; long live the king. In FFXV, being the king isn’t about commanding armies, enacting policies, or collecting sycophants. It’s about wielding the awesome power of an unseen order, and being radically, ontologically, different. For reasons both developmental and, I suspect, philosophical, FFXV is the only game in the mainline series that only lets you play as one person (new downloadable episodes aim to change that, but the main game will always be that way). You have your bodyguards, and you can give them commands, but you are otherwise alone in the body of Noctis. Because the game unfolds in real time, rather than in a system of abstract menus, you control him in an unmediated way. Yet you also watch him, as much as you control him: you watch as he does things no one else can do, dancing around his foes and assaulting them with a rotating arsenal of spectral weapons that contain the spirits of his ancestors. He isn’t invincible. He actually feels fragile in a blue-blooded way. But injury just gives him — and you — the opportunity to abuse his greatest inheritance: the power to summon a major deity to his aid, which in this game causes enough destruction to constitute an ecological event. Only Noctis has that power. Only Noctis has that privilege. But FFXV also wants you to drive, to wander, to discover the open world. It never stops being a feudalism simulator, displaying the absolute difference of the king through systems of weaponized privilege. Yet it also reaches for the road trip as an experiential template, aspiring to give its characters (and its player) a kind of freedom that feudalism doesn’t permit, the freedom to decide who you are by itinerant travel, rather than being assigned a “place” at birth. Over the course of the game, this tension between worldviews becomes a real problem, polluting every meaningful exchange between Noctis and his bodyguards. In one poignant scene, he sits atop the roof of a dingy motel with Prompto, the meth-head-looking gunslinger who contributes to the group mostly by taking pictures. In extremely JRPG fashion, they start talking about their friendship, a bond that goes back to elementary school, and Prompto bares his soul — about awkwardness, loneliness, self-loathing. He tells Noctis how much their bond dissolves the feelings of inferiority that define his daily life: “But when we hang out, it’s so much fun I forget what I’m not.” Noctis listens, generously, as a friend and a peer. But the illusion of equality snaps when he tries to offer reassurance, and only ends up underscoring his own power: “You think I just make time for any old loser?” Rank comes roaring back. But this disjunction is also the problem at the core of Hamlet. In a famous essay, the literary critic Arnold Kettle argued that Hamlet turns on a conflict between the Renaissance humanism preached and practiced by Hamlet himself and the entrenched feudalism of the Danish court — a conflict that reflects the divided era in which the play was written, under Elizabeth yet after Montaigne. The world of the court is so defined by rank that even in the text of the play, Claudius appears never as “Claudius” but always as “KING,” and courtiers such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have little identity beyond their interchangeable position. Hamlet, by contrast, a sensitive intellectual schooled in the latest Continental philosophy, perceives people through a humanist lens, as humans first and foremost. He considers who they are in a personal sense rather than what they are in a political sense — often to the point, paradoxically, that he obsesses over what they are in a bodily sense. Rank means everything to the other characters, and means nothing (or “stench”) to him. “The king is a thing,” he says, after imagining Claudius getting eaten by worms. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Hamlet speaks this line, and it’s a humanist idea: he locates the source of morality in the mind of the thinking person. The line is hard to imagine as the rightful epigraph to a fantasy game that arranges the terrain of American freedom under the structural certitudes of medieval Europe, and identifies the “good” with the rightful exercise of sovereign power. But FFXV seems to want that feeling of incongruity, that sense that something “is out of joint.” It seems to want that quality that Hamlet has always had: a messiness that demands revision. ¤ Why have there been so many adaptations of Hamlet? The short answer is that it’s easy to adapt. But the more complex answer has something to do with the way the play itself mulls over questions of adaptation. It’s hard not to think of Hamlet as source material, as an original, but the play was a reworked version of a Thomas Kyd revenge tragedy, now lost, which scholars commonly refer to as “Ur-Hamlet.” And despite the “ur” prefix, the Kyd play was also an adaptation, based on the legend of “Amleth” in the Historia Danica of 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus, which in turn was based on sources buried further in the mists of time. Everything has sources. But Hamlet himself is particularly vexed by the idea that his own life is informed by source material: both the model of his father and the plot arcs of revengers past. He feels estranged from the bellicose Viking with whom he shares a name. He feels both attracted to and repulsed by the image of Pyrrhus, Achilles’ son, who killed the king of Troy to avenge his father: The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, Black as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couched in the ominous horse, Hath now this dread and black complexion smear’d With heraldry more dismal. The fact that he speaks of “heraldry” — the iconography of rank and lineage — as a “smear’d,” greasy substance proves Kettle’s point all over again. He can’t stand the feudal order. He imagines it here, as he does elsewhere, in the terms of corruption. But he still feels an anxiety of influence. He still defines himself by comparison to a prior model. He can’t escape his own predecessors, either as a prince or as a revenge-tragedy protagonist. He can only revise them. Noctis’s story derives pathos from the same condition — the weight of the crown, the pain of a legacy. In one of the game’s final scenes, his kingly ancestors appear as ghosts, for the last time, and take turns penetrating him with their swords, axes, and spears — a bizarre ritual of incestuous masochism that captures the anxiety of influence in even more violent terms than Hamlet does. But the game, like any good Hamlet adaptation, is a little like Hamlet himself, defined as much by its adherence to the source text as by its desire to revise the source text. Like The Lion King, it revises Hamlet by shifting genres. Hamlet is a tragedy; Final Fantasy is a fantasy. And like any fantasy, according to J. R. R. Tolkien’s rubric, it provides “escape” as well as “consolation,” correcting for problems that are deeper, more entrenched, than “the noise, stench, ruthlessness, and extravagance of the internal-combustion engine.” In the play, feudalism is what’s “rotten” in the state of Denmark. In the game, sovereignty cures what’s “rotten” in the state of Lucis, not just because the game’s plot resolves with the king ascending to his rightful throne, but because the game asks its player to “banish the darkness” through the mechanics of kingship. Even the most action-packed games boil down to puzzles and solutions, locks and keys. In this game, the puzzle is the decentralization of power, represented not just by the enemy Usurper but by a wild and free American landscape. The only solution — as it was for George III — is to bring the open world to heel. This fantasy sounds more hellish than consoling, yet it derives nonetheless from all the qualities that make monarchy so compatible with games in the first place: the clarity of its rules; the fixity of its ranks; the enchanting rectitude of an order beyond the human, carved in light by another hand. Part of the aesthetic appeal of Final Fantasy games involves seeing its rich bestiary of imaginary beings take on new form and meaning in a different kind of world. It seems almost aggressively on the nose that in this world one of the six major gods is Leviathan, a beast best known for its starring role as a metaphor for state power in the work of Thomas Hobbes. In Leviathan, Hobbes makes a case for absolute monarchy on the basis that life in the alternative, a “state of nature,” is “nasty, brutish, and short.” We need laws, he says, and they need to come from a being on a higher plane. The people must choose to subject themselves to a sovereign for the same reason that “gamesters” agree to play by rules: because it gives the world order and clarity. “It is in the Lawes of a Common-wealth, as in the Lawes of Gaming,” Hobbes writes: “whatsoever the Gamesters all agree on, is Injustice to none of them.” The paradox of Leviathan is that the system it prescribes requires humans to invest a human ruler with a status approaching inhumanity. As Tobias Menely points out in The Animal Claim, “sovereignty’s structure is ambivalent” in Hobbes’s account because “any sovereign, whether individual or corporate, becomes the guardian of the law, the preserver of the just polity, only insofar as he is not fully of it.” The king is as much master of his domain as he is an outsider, exception, aberration. That may be why in FFXV Noctis’s ascension ends up foreclosing every kind of humanity that his friendship and the open road entails. The game really is a fantasy — a Hobbesian fantasy in which absolute monarchy vanquishes the disorder of a “state of War.” But it’s also a kind of tragedy, ambivalent about its own certitudes. To reach for the sovereign is to reach for structure, but only ever at a perilous cost. And we reach for the sovereign. We reach for it with jokes (“Queen Offers to Restore British Rule over the United States”); we reach for it in jeremiads about the limitations of democracy and the dignity of the presidency, desecrated or restored. We reach for it when the world seems to be sliding into a “state of War,” hopeless and inchoate, of our own devising. Even Horatio reaches for it at the end of the play, with that famous line uttered after a scene of senseless carnage: “Good night, sweet prince.” Most of all, we reach for the sovereign in games. FFXV understands. That may be why it reaches for freedom, and reaches — so incoherently — for Hamlet. ¤ Matt Margini is a writer and a doctoral student in the department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Kill Screen, and Public Books. |
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. Daniel Alfredsson will likely wear the No. 11 one last time before hanging up his skates for good. While the plans are being finalized and nothing is written in stone, league sources confirmed to the Sun Monday the plan is for the 41-year-old Alfredsson to skate in the warmup Thursday. That means when the Senators take the ice in their final skate before facing the New York Islanders at the Canadian Tire Centre, the former Senators’ captain will be with his old teammates. Since a player who isn’t signed to a contract isn’t allowed in the warmup, it’s believed the Senators had to get special permission from the NHL office in New York, but it was no problem. No wonder Senators owner Eugene Melnyk tweeted Monday he’s been in touch with Alfredsson and advised Ottawa hockey fans to be in their seats long before the puck is dropped at 7:30 p.m. "Spoke to Alfie to finalize what will be the biggest ‘Welcome Home’ celebration Ottawa has ever seen! Sens fans, plan to be at game early!," Melnyk said on Twitter Monday morning. Returning from Detroit to announce his retirement, it’s believed Alfredsson will sign a symbolic one-day contract with the organization so that he’s able to retire as a member of the Senators. Don’t be surprised if Alfredsson, who will have his wife Bibi and four boys on hand, takes the ceremonial faceoff at centre ice with New York Islanders captain John Tavares just before the game. This may sound far-fetched, but Alfredsson may have been offered the opportunity to sign and play one final shift with the team where it all started but the talk is he didn’t have any interest. Alfredsson is happy enough to just take part in the pre-game skate and get a chance to get a proper sendoff in the place where he spent the majority of his career before leaving for the Wings. Though there was talk Monday that Melnyk’s confirmatin tweet was the first time he and Alfredsson have spoken since he left for the Wings in July, 2013, that’s not the case. Melnyk and GM Bryan Murray have both stayed in touch with Alfredsson since he left the Senators. The indications are Melnyk and Alfredsson have spoken more than once since he left. Though Alfredsson had planned to announce his retirement last Monday when the Senators were in Detroit, the decision was made that it would be better if he came here to say goodbye. No, it wasn’t pretty when Alfredsson left for the Wings as a UFA, but time has healed the wounds between the two sides and the relationship has been cordial for a long time. For his part, Melnyk has been heavily-involved in the planning of Alfredsson’s retirement night because the Senators want to make sure a man who did so much for them gets a proper sendoff. Ottawa fans didn’t like him walking out the door and taking the deal in Detroit. Neither did Melnyk and Murray, but both sides have great respect for each other, which is why all is forgotten. The organization wants to make sure all of Alfredsson’s wishes to make this a special night for him and his family are fulfilled in every way. This ceremony and gesture by the Senators towards Alfredsson shows that what happened in the past has been forgotten and this will be one of the biggest nights in Ottawa sports history. This is all taking place because Alfredsson reached out to Murray a couple of weeks ago to let him know his back wouldn’t allow him to play and he was ready to announce he retiring. Neither the Senators or Alfredsson wanted this announcement to take place anywhere else, which is why the "Coming Home" video was released once it was certain this would happen in Ottawa. The fact Alfredsson will likey get to skate with the Senators is unique and memorable because the next time the No. 11 is seen it will be raised to the rafters at Canadian Tire Centre. It will be a great night for a great man and his family. Twitter: @sungarrioch |
Ed Note: Updated for reality, bumped for relevance. Flyers are in the second round, bitches. As a team in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 match-up, the Flyers are in the unique position of being able to play any of the other six remaining East teams in the second round. No other match-up allows for this. There are eight possible scenarios that could play out in the rest of the first round. Here they all are, and how they affect the Flyers' likely second round match-up. #1 NYR, #2 BOS, #3 FLA win = Flyers play #1 NYR -- The Rangers should be the team the Flyers least want to play in these playoffs, and therefore, the team the Flyers least want to play in the second round. That said, if the Flyers aren't too bruised by a potential sweep of Pittsburgh, and the Rangers get chewed up a bit by Ottawa, it might it be nice to play New York sooner rather than later. That, my friends, is how you look at a glass that barely has the bottom covered -- from the bottom up so you have no idea how much is in it. #1 NYR, #2 BOS, #6 NJD win = Flyers play #2 BOS -- Ugh, Boston. I'm so sick of these people. This is probably the most likely scenario, because it assumes that the teams with more regular season points win the remaining series. A series against Boston for a third straight year would be deja vu all over again ... all over again. The Flyers have played the same team in the playoffs three years in a row twice before, against the Maple Leafs in 1974-76 (all first round wins) and the Rangers in 1985-87 (all first round, winning two of the three). Want an irrelevant plus? The Flyers made the finals in five of the aforementioned six years. Familiarity breeds ... success ... or something. #1 NYR, #7 WSH, #3 FLA win = Flyers play #3 FLA -- This is where you'll start to see how much you should be rooting for the Capitals right now. Unlike the Senators, the Capitals would actually seem to have a chance to pull off the first round upset, AND they also match up well against the Rangers in their recent history, so they could do a lot of the Flyers' dirty work for them without ever seeming like a real threat to beat the Flyers in the Conference Finals (Montreal 2010, anyone?). The Flyers haven't played the Panthers in the playoffs since 1996, when the Cats shut down the Spectrum in double overtime. It was a dark time. The Panthers also were a sub-.500 team this year, so there's no reason not to want them to hang around, or to face the Flyers. #1 NYR, #7 WSH, #6 NJD win = Flyers play #6 NJD -- Similar to the previous scenario, the Caps winning really protects the Flyers in the second round. After some bad luck against the Devils in the pre-Hitchcock era, the Flyers have won their last two Turnpike Series in 5 games. It wouldn't seem to be a worrisome match-up, especially since Martin Brodeur is now SO DAMN OLD. Seriously, no one is talking about how old he is. He's super, super old. #8 OTT, #2 BOS, #3 FLA win = Flyers play #3 FLA -- This and the next three scenarios all involve Ottawa upsetting the Rangers, which is an amusing, tantalizing possibility. The Senators do technically have home ice in that series now, so I guess they're the favorites. Right, conventional wisdom? If that does happen, everything gets real exciting. Again, it's hard to see the Flyers losing to the Panthers, who are a sub-.500 team that worships Kris Versteeg like he's their god. I do still like me some Scottie Upshall though, even after everything he did to my Wolf. #8 OTT, #2 BOS, #6 NJD win = Flyers play #6 NJD -- This is actually sort of a cool scenario. It would leave the Bruins playing the Senators, which is a division rivalry that has never once consummated itself in the playoffs. The Flyers could then comfortably feel like they were probably in the driver's seat in the East while at the same time staying somewhat under the radar (whatever that means). #8 OTT, #7 WSH, #3 FLA win = Flyers play #7 WSH -- This is Dream Scenario No. 1. If all three teams with fewer points win, the Flyers would become super-overwhelming favorites to win the East. That Florida-Ottawa series would the lowest-quality second round series probably ever, and the Flyers would get to face the winner of it should they survive the Caps, in what would be a combative series that *shouldn't* be too competitive. Dale Hunter has been horrible, Alex Ovechkin has been horrible, Mike Green has been horrible, Alex Semin has been horrible, and Braden Holtby can't last much longer (right?). #8 OTT, #7 WSH, #6 NJD win = Flyers play #8 OTT -- And this is Dream Scenario No. 2. The Flyers would suddenly become the highest remaining seed in the East, would get home-ice for the next two series guaranteed, and would again be hugely overwhelming favorites. An Ottawa team that is playing well enough to beat the Rangers could be a little scary, but so is a Flyers team that just crushed the Penguins, amirite? A Devils-Caps series would probably average 0.5 total goals a game, so maybe it's best not to wish that on the viewing public. Discuss away in the comments. Which scenario do you think is most likely to happen, and which scenarios do you think are best for the Flyers? |
AARP announced its opposition to the Republican proposal that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), arguing that it would “weaken Medicare” and give special interests a “sweetheart deal.” But the group’s primary concern is for people who haven’t yet reached retirement age, highlighting one of the biggest problems with the GOP’s plan to use tax credits in lieu of Obamacare subsidies. As proposed, the plan does not offer enough to help older people pay for what would become much more expensive coverage if the subsidies are scrapped and the GOP’s proposals to relax current age-based caps on premiums go through. Under the Republican proposal to offer refundable tax credits, the older and poorer you are, the bigger the check you’ll get from the IRS. Someone who’s 64 -- too young for Medicare -- would be eligible for a $4,000 tax credit to buy a plan. But AARP notes that the average premium for a person in his or her early 60s would be thousands of dollars more than that, if the current 3:1 “age rating” rules capping premiums for older participants are relaxed to 5:1. Under the ACA, older Americans can be charged no more than three times what younger participants with same kind of coverage are charged. The new plan would allow insurers to charge older Americans five times what they charge younger participants. Comparing the GOP plan for tax cuts and a 5:1 age rating with the subsidies now offered under Obamacare, AARP estimates that an unmarried 64-year-old making $15,000 a year -- assuming they live in a state that has not expanded Medicaid -- would see their premiums go up $8,400 a year. For this reason, AARP calls the bill an “unaffordable age tax,” and says it will have a disproportionately negative impact on poorer, middle-aged Americans. Republican lawmakers are also drawing opposition from conservative advocacy groups. Koch-backed group pressures Republicans to speed up Obamacare repeal Heritage Action said of the House GOP proposal that it “not only accepts the flawed progressive premises of Obamacare but expands upon it.” And Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners, both Koch-affiliated groups wrote to House Speaker Paul Ryan to say that they “cannot support” what they referred to as “Obamacare 2.0.” Club for Growth slammed the bill for failing to offer “the critical free-market solution of selling health insurance across state lines” and called it a “warmed-over substitute for government-run health care.” If the bill remains unchanged, “the Club for Growth will key vote against it,” a statement from the group said. |
Pearl Tubing for Pump In Style Breast Pumps When the tubing on Pump In Style breast pumps breaks or gets worn out with age, these replacements ensure that mothers can continue nourishing their offspring. Babies can drink their breast milk without fretting about the possibility of chemical contamination thanks to the tubing’s BPA-free construction. The tubes also endure high temperatures when placed inside Micro-Steam bags, which are designed to sanitize breast-pump parts or fog up eyeglasses so you can draw smiley faces on them. Pair of breast-pump replacement tubes Compatible with Medela Pump In Style models made after July 2006 BPA-free material Designed for better heat tolerance in Micro-Steam bags (not included) Dimensions: 42” (L) x 0.25” (W) x 0.25” (H) For questions pertaining to this deal, click the Ask a Question button below. For post-purchase inquiries, please contact Groupon customer support. Goods sold by Groupon Goods. View the Groupon Goods FAQ to learn more. |
Hau'oli Kikaha, New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons 2015 New Orleans Saints outside linebacker Hau'oli Kikaha (44) reacts after stopping Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman (24) short of the goal line during the game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta Sunday, January 3, 2016. (Photo by David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) (David Grunfeld, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) The New Orleans Saints will be without one of their key defensive players after end Hau'oli Kikaha suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, according to a report Thursday by Fox Sports. Kikaha did not participate in the organized team activity session open to media Thursday, with second-year defensive end Obum Gwacham working in his place. The torn ACL would not be the first for Kikaha, who bounced back from two such injuries to his left knee in 2011 and 2012 while at Washington. He led the nation in sacks as a senior in 2014. 2 new Saints at OTAs; Hau'oli Kikaha, Tim Hightower out Veteran safety Roman Harper and rookie tight end Garrett Griffin participated in all team and individual drills. Kikaha played 15 games and started 11 as a rookie linebacker in 2015. The Saints picked him in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He posted four sacks with four forced fumbles and one recovery last season. The Saints had planned to put the 6-foot-3 Kikaha in better position to rush the passer with a move to the end position opposite Cam Jordan. Kikaha had confirmed the position change after an OTA session in May. "I play an edge person -- whatever you want to call it," Kikaha said then. "Jack, Buck, weak end. Sometimes a strong end. I'm not playing Sam (strong-side linebacker) anymore. It's a little bit different. It's fun. It's definitely fun." It now appears the Saints will at least partially turn to Gwacham, who played nine games as a rookie after the Saints claimed him in waivers from the Seattle Seahawks last season. Saints coach Sean Payton did not address the injury when he spoke Thursday with media. News of the injury broke after the media session. |
The Harper government is committing Canada to reduce its carbon emissions by 30 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030, but offers no plan to rein in the country's fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases – the oil sands. The 2030 emissions target was submitted to the United Nations on Friday as part of preparations for a summit to be held in Paris in December where nations aim to conclude a global climate agreement to avert the worst impact of global warming. Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced the national commitment in Winnipeg on Friday, along with plans to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG) in three new sectors. Story continues below advertisement Environment Canada plans to match proposed U.S. regulations to target methane releases that occur primarily in drilling and hydraulic fracturing – fracking – for unconventional oil and natural gas. Ottawa will also target emissions from natural-gas-fired power plants, and among manufacturers who produce chemicals and nitrogen fertilizers. Conspicuously absent from that list is the oil sands, despite promises as recently as two years ago that Ottawa would impose regulations in the sector. Instead, Ottawa merely said it would invest in technology to improve the environmental performance of the oil sands. The 2030 target falls short of the pledge made by President Barack Obama that would see the United States cut its GHG emissions by 26 to 28 per cent from 2005 levels by 2025. Ottawa's plan translates to a 23.5-per-cent reduction in that year. "Canada's ambitious new target and planned regulatory actions underscore our continued commitment to cut emissions at home," Ms. Aglukkaq said. She pledged to "work with our international partners to establish an international agreement in Paris that includes meaningful and transparent commitments from all major emitters." Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated recently that Canada would not match American targets for 2025. The U.S. can achieve emissions reductions more cheaply than Canada because there is huge opportunity for American utilities to shift from coal-fired power to lower-carbon sources like cheap natural gas. In Canada, 79 per cent of electricity already comes from non-GHG-emitting sources like hydro, nuclear and renewable energy. Ottawa's 2030 commitments are being greeted with considerable skepticism. Mr. Harper pulled Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol when it became clear the country was failing to meet its 2012 target. And Environment Canada has indicated the country is not on track to meet Mr. Harper's commitment – made at the Copenhagen summit in 2009 – to reduce GHGs by 17 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020. The federal submission to the United Nations made no mention of that 2020 target. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement "I'm not confident that [the 2030] promise will be able to be kept, and in fact I'm confident that they have no intention of meeting that target," New Democratic Party deputy leader Megan Leslie said in Ottawa. "Let's look at the last targets they set. We're not even halfway there. I almost feel like asking why bother on their part. Where's the plan?" Environmentalists complained the targets are significantly behind those set by the U.S., and that the strategy includes some questionable tactics such as ignoring emissions growth in the oil sands and assigning a value for potential of the country's forests to reduce carbon-dioxide concentrations in the air. The federal government has reversed course in one area by acknowledging that there may be a need to purchase foreign offsets to meet its goals. The Conservatives had previously condemned any suggestion that the country would finance emissions reductions in other countries to claim credit against the Canadian targets. Despite low crude prices, oil-sands production – and hence carbon emissions – continues to represent the fastest-growing source of emissions. However, the industry has cancelled or delayed more than a dozen major projects in light of the price slump, a trend which would reduce the emissions growth rate in a few years when those projects would have come on stream. Mr. Harper has refused to impose tougher emissions standards in the oil sands, saying it would be "crazy" to add new burdens on producers at a time of low prices, particularly since the U.S. has no plans to impose such a regulatory burden on its industry. Story continues below advertisement Alberta has its own regulations, which set per-barrel limits and a $15 a tonne levy on emissions that exceed those limits. Those regulations expire at the end of June and the province's incoming New Democratic Party government must decide how to proceed. Overall, the federal government told the UN that Canada's GHG emissions were 3.1-per-cent lower in 2013 than in 2005. But the big reductions came during the recession. Between 2009 and 2013, emissions rose by 4 per cent. While dragging its feet on the oil industry, Ottawa has passed a regulation in the electricity sector which would phase out traditional coal-fired power plants. That rule will increasingly bite after 2020, as aging plants reach the end of their commercial life. Now, the federal government plans to impose regulations on the natural-gas-fired plants, which are used either to replace coal, or to back up intermittent renewable electricity like wind and solar. Ms. Aglukkaq is also announcing that Ottawa will match U.S. plans to regulate methane emissions in the oil and gas sector. That's a particular concern in the horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – that is used to extract natural gas and crude from shale rock. Environmental economist David Sawyer noted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's proposed methane regulations would place a burden on the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. industry, the shale-gas and shale-oil producers. Story continues below advertisement The Canadian industry welcomes the federal decision to match EPA methane standards, said Alex Ferguson, vice-president for policy at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Mr. Ferguson said provincial governments already have stricter rules for methane capture than do American jurisdictions. |
Quote# 102853Organized cheating on academic tests takes place all the time in Asian countries; accounts of wholesale cheating in China have received mainstream press attention, but it’s common throughout the region. The most common methodology involves students using mobile phones or small radio transceivers with earpieces to get test answers from someone located nearby who has copies of the tests, stolen or obtained through bribery from teachers and school administrators.In the few instances in which teachers try to stop students from cheating (probably because the parents in question hadn’t paid the requisite bribes, or because the local government feels the need to make an example due to press mentions of rampant cheating in their areas), there’s generally a bad reaction from parents.Note that parents are saying, “We want fairness. There is no fairness if you do not let us cheat.” In Asian societies, where parents routinely are expected to pay bribes to school administrators and teachers in order to ensure that their children are admitted to schools, and that they receive passing grades, this sort of perverse logic is actually valid, within that context.My guess is that a substantial number of the children involved in this cheating scandal are Asian, and that their families knew or suspected that the ‘tutor’ they hired planned on employing the same kind of espionage-like methods to ensure that their children received passing grades. Cheating amongst Asian students in the United States is widespread, and is a reflection of their cultural values. (See here, here and here.)The fact that the parents of a child implicated in the scandal above lawyered up, instead of shaming their child into coming clean, suggests to me that this family is Asian. My parents would have forced me to confess and to take the consequences of my actions, had I done such a thing; when I explain that to Asians, at first they don’t believe me, and then when I persist, they think my parents must have been crazy, as they themselves would do anything and everything to protect a family member from the consequences of his actions for any crime up to and including murder.Anti-Globalist, The Thinking Housewife 3 Comments [8/21/2014 3:29:46 AM]Fundie Index: 3 |
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returned home from abroad in a jovial mood on Saturday, poking fun at the latest online media speculation that he was gravely ill and had sought medical help in Dubai. Mugabe, 92, came back to the grim reality of rising public anger over an economic meltdown widely blamed on his misrule, with violence erupting a week ago when police fired teargas at opposition leaders and protesters. Reports that Mugabe’s health is declining have become common in recent years, but the veteran politician, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, often refers to himself as “fit as a fiddle”. On Saturday Mugabe poured scorn on rumours on some online news websites - partly fed by his early departure from a regional summit - that he had been rushed for medical treatment in Dubai. Mugabe told journalists at Harare international airport he had gone to Dubai on a family matter concerning one of his children. “Yes, I was dead, it’s true I was dead. I resurrected as I always do. Once I get back to my country I am real,” he quipped. But Mugabe showed some signs of frailty, walking slowly from the plane and only chatting briefly with officials before being whisked away in a motorcade. Mugabe rejects the blame for a crisis currently manifesting itself in acute cash shortages and high unemployment, and last week warned protesters there would be no “Arab Spring” in Zimbabwe, referring to the uprisings that toppled several Arab leaders. He routinely blames Zimbabwe’s economic problems on sabotage by Western opponents of his policies, such as the seizure of white-owned commercial farms for black people. Last week Mugabe accused Western countries, including the United States, of sponsoring recent anti-government protests. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (L) and his wife Grace look on during the Defence Force's 36th Anniversary celebrations in the capital Harare, Zimbabwe, August 9, 2016. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo - RTSM3F4 But even some of his once stalwart supporters, including Zimbabwe’s war veterans who invaded white commercial farms in support of Mugabe’s land seizures, have turned their backs on him, saying he has “devoured” the values of the liberation struggle. Zimbabwe, which has also been hit by drought and weak commodity prices, is struggling to pay salaries to soldiers, police and other public workers, fuelling political tensions, including within the ruling ZANU-PF. Divisions have emerged inside the party as senior officials position themselves for power after the veteran leader is gone, with one faction supporting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa while another backs first lady Grace Mugabe. |
Every Sunday we bring you an article from our archive, either for you to discover for the first time to read all over again. Today, to mark the recent announcement of Street Fighter 5, we present Wesley Yin-Poole's look back at Street Fighter 4, first published as part of our games of the generation series. 2009. It had been 10 long years since a brand new Street Fighter had been released, for whatever reason: too hardcore, too niche, or, as many believed, Capcom had milked its cash cow so violently for so long that all that remained was a shrivelled, six-button corpse. We dared to hope Street Fighter 4 would revitalise what had become a distant, stand-offish series. That's all we were asking for. That's all we expected. That, for Street Fighter fans the world over, would have been enough. As it turned out, it achieved so much more. Street Fighter 4 single-handedly revitalised the fighting genre for an entire industry and, for those who were there during the glory years of the 16-bit era, for those who toiled over 10-hit combos in Tekken and for those who mastered the parry and thrust of Soulcalibur, breathed new life into rusty quarter circle forward motions. Even the most die-hard Street Fighter fan will admit - whispered in back alleys only - that Mortal Kombat 9 turned out okay in the end. But why? Was it fate? Was Street Fighter's triumphant return a case of being in the right place at the right time? Perhaps. My answer is a simple one: Street Fighter 4 achieved all of the above because it's the greatest fighting game ever made. Capcom and producer Yoshonori Ono intended for Street Fighter 4 to celebrate the series' heritage, but they also needed it to be accessible. They needed it to be more pick up and play than the complex Street Fighter 3 with its Parries and Super Arts. Capcom's master plan was to design a game that would attract lapsed Street Fighter 2 players back into the fold. Despite the initially controversial 2.5D cel-shaded visuals (like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Street Fighter 4's detailed, expressive graphics get increasingly gorgeous with each passing year), and the addition of a handful of new characters with - shock! - new play styles, the gameplay would work similarly to Street Fighter 2's. The combat is fixed to a 2D plane with the eight original World Warriors and four boss characters and their famous special moves working as they did back in the day. This, coupled with a relatively slow pace, made for a familiar, manageable experience. Capcom hoped those who played Street Fighter 2 back on the SNES and Mega Drive would spot Street Fighter 4 and think, I remember that, give it a shot, and have some fun while rekindling childhood memories of bleeding thumbs, bloodshot eyes and 15-inch CRTs. Street Fighter 4 achieved all of this. Success! The fighting game community, though, needed more than rose-tinted familiarity before granting their coveted seal of approval. As with all fighting games, they demand a balanced roster of characters, combat with depth and a combo system that, as they put it, provides them with a platform to show off their technology. Street Fighter 4's greatest achievement is it delights expert and casual Street Fighter players with equal aplomb. It's the Toy Story of fighting games. "Street Fighter 4's greatest achievement is it delights expert and casual Street Fighter players with equal aplomb. It's the Toy Story of fighting games." He's behind you! Key to everything that is good about Street Fighter 4 is the Focus Attack, one of this generation's most inspired design decisions. Triggered by pressing medium punch and medium kick at the same time, it allowed characters to absorb an attack, filling up their Ultra Combo meter in the process, before launching a counter attack. Taken at face value, the Focus Attack makes dramatic comebacks more common than in any previous Street Fighter game. Under the hood, though, more was going on. The Focus Attack comes in three types: the longer you hold down the buttons the longer the Focus Attack animation, the longer the window of hit absorption and the more powerful the counter attack. Hold down the buttons long enough and you'll trigger an unblockable attack, crumpling your opponent into sitting duck status, leaving you free to launch some devastating, damaging combo. It makes for a more strategic game, a battle of wits that's less about combos and quick reactions (although combos and quick reactions of course are important) and more about mind games and zoning. The best players are those who get into their opponent's head, who accurately predict what they will do next, and who punish accordingly. The cherry on the cake is the Focus Attack Dash Cancel, an advanced technique that gets the FGC up on their feet at fighting game tournaments. You can cancel the animation of a special move with a Focus Attack and, then, if your brain can make your fingers go fast enough, cancel the Focus Attack animation by dashing forward, giving you a split second to finish with a high damage, crowd-pleasing, back-breaking Ultra Combo. Take Ryu's Shoryuken FADC into Metsu Hadouken Ultra Combo, for example. The input command is particularly complex: forward, down, forward and punch for the Shoryuken, cancel with the Focus Attack, dash forward to cancel the Focus Attack (double tap forward) then the Metsu Hadouken Ultra Combo (two quarter circle forward motions and all three punches). Techniques such as this make Street Fighter 4 as much fun to play as it is to watch - by experts and the uninitiated alike. Matches can appear slow and, sometimes, boring, as players feel each other out. But they can also end spectacularly - a smart prediction, a quick reaction, a flurry of fingers, an FADC into an Ultra Combo. KO! Indestructible. The crowd goes wild. Jump out of your seat. Punch the air. It's Ali taking a hit to the ribs as he weaves into position for... bang! Uppercut. Lights out. The heavy-set cel-shaded look is complimented by streaks of black ink that accompany a Focus Attack. Capcom's decision to eschew realism for more stylised visuals paid off - Street Fighter 4 remains a gorgeous, expressive and refreshingly colourful game to this day. Now, nearly five years after release, Street Fighter 4 is still the most-played fighting game on the planet. It enjoys top billing at EVO, the biggest fighting game tournament. Its nostalgia-fuelled accessibility ensured critical and commercial success upon release, but its enduring popularity makes it deserving of a place in the pantheon of this generation's best multiplayer games. History repeats itself. Companies burnt by their own mistakes seem hell bent on repeating them. Capcom's released no fewer than three iterations of Street Fighter 4 over the last five years, and while there is a decent amount of interest in the fourth - Ultra Street Fighter 4 - it's fighting game community fan service at best. The last couple of years have been somewhat depressing for fighting games fans: Street Fighter x Tekken, SoulCalibur 5 and Tekken 6 all failed to reach the heights Street Fighter 4 so effortlessly climbed. To survive, fighting game makers have turned to the free-to-play business model, risking a mauling from the FGC in the process. Every now and then you hear Yoshinori Ono evade the burning question: when's Street Fighter 5 coming out? I understand the question. The thought of a new entry in the series powered by next-generation consoles is truly exciting. But I've come to realise I don't want there to be a Street Fighter 5 for a very, very long time. Perhaps even for another five years. I mean, with Street Fighter 4 still so good, what's the point? |
That’s how prosecutor Jon Dee described the life of Michael Foster and Susan Cooper. The couple recently received three years in jail after making £400,000 over a period of six years from illegally growing and selling cannabis. But there’s a twist to this story. Most of the profits from the cannabis business went to aid poor families in a Kenyan village and charity. In 2004 on their farm in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, the couple converted two buildings to house their cannabis grow operation; each building with a growing room and a drying room. With their operation able to process over a hundred plants at a time, Michael and Susan were pushing cannabis on a commercial level, providing kilos for a local drug dealer. Michael and Susan would frequently fly to Southern Kenya and visit a village in the Kwale district near the tourist town of Mombasa. While there they would spend a majority of their cannabis cash helping the children of the village. The pair paid for surgical procedures, medical treatments, schooling, computers and more over the six year period. In 2010 an officer was pursuing a burglar in the area when he happened to smell cannabis coming from the home. When the officer knocked on the door, Susan answered the door. According to reports the officer asked if she knew why he was there, and she answered “Yes I do”. Officers found the two grow buildings with over 159 plants worth roughly £20,000. Officers also found £20,000 in a to go bag on the property. Susan and Michael were sentenced to 3 years in jail after admitting to four charges of producing cannabis and one charge of possessing criminal cash. I’ve seen some reaction to this story and most of it is negative towards the police and judicial system. You have to understand that the police are just doing their job. Cannabis is illegal by law, and the police and judicial system did their job according to the law. But at some point we have to listen to the will of the people. Do the ends justify the means? Are Susan and Michael consequences of ridiculous cannabis laws? Or is breaking the law, no matter how ridiculous, always punishable no matter the outcomes? |
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