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Ludwig I (also rendered in English as Louis I; 25 August 1786 – 29 February 1868) was king of Bavaria from 1825 until the 1848 revolutions in the German states. Crown prince [ edit ] Born in the Hôtel des Deux-Ponts in Strasbourg, he was the son of Count Palatine Maximilian Joseph of Zweibrücken (later Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria) by his first wife Princess Augusta Wilhelmine of Hesse-Darmstadt. At the time of his birth, his father was an officer in the French army stationed at Strasbourg. He was the godson and namesake of Louis XVI of France. On 1 April 1795 his father succeeded Ludwig's uncle, Charles II, as duke of Zweibrücken, and on 16 February 1799 became Elector of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Arch-Steward of the Empire, and Duke of Berg on the extinction of the Sulzbach line with the death of the elector Charles Theodore. His father assumed the title of King of Bavaria on 1 January 1806. Starting in 1803 Ludwig studied in Landshut where he was taught by Johann Michael Sailer and in Göttingen. On 12 October 1810 he married Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (1792–1854), the daughter of Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The wedding was the occasion of the first-ever Oktoberfest. Ludwig strongly rejected the alliance of his father with Napoleon I of France but in spite of his anti-French politics the crown prince had to join the emperor's wars with allied Bavarian troops in 1806. As commander of the 1st Bavarian Division in VII Corps, he served under Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre in 1809.[1] He led his division in action at the Battle of Abensberg on 20 April.[2] With the Treaty of Ried of 8 October 1813 Bavaria left the Confederation of the Rhine and agreed to join the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in exchange for a guarantee of her continued sovereign and independent status. On 14 October, Bavaria made a formal declaration of war against Napoleonic France. The treaty was passionately backed by Crown Prince Ludwig and by Marshal von Wrede. Already at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, Ludwig advocated a German national policy. Until 1816 the crown prince served as governor-general of the Duchy of Salzburg, which cession to Austria he strongly opposed. His second son Otto, the later King of Greece, was born there. Between 1816 and 1825, he spent his years in Würzburg. He also made numerous trips to Italy and stayed often in the Villa Malta in Rome, which he later also bought (1827). Ludwig supported generously as a Philhellene the Greek War of Independence, in which he in the war of 1821 provided a loan of 1.5 million florins from his private funds. In 1817 Ludwig was also involved in the fall of Prime Minister Count Max Josef von Montgelas whose policies he had opposed. He succeeded his father on the throne in 1825. Reign [ edit ] Ludwig I of Bavaria, c. 1830 Ludwig's rule was strongly affected by his enthusiasm for the arts and women and by his overreaching royal assertiveness. An enthusiast for the German Middle Ages, Ludwig ordered the re-erection of several monasteries in Bavaria which had been closed during the German Mediatisation. He reorganized the administrative regions of Bavaria in 1837 and re-introduced the old names Upper Bavaria, Lower Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, Upper Palatinate and Palatinate. He changed his royal titles to Ludwig, King of Bavaria, Duke of Franconia, Duke in Swabia and Count Palatine of the Rhine. His successors kept these titles. Ludwig's plan to reunite the eastern part of the Palatinate with Bavaria could not be realized. The Electoral Palatinate, a former dominion of the Wittelsbach, had disappeared under Napoleon when France first annexed the left bank of the Rhine, including about half of the Palatinate, and then gave what remained on the right bank including, Mannheim and Heidelberg, to Baden during the German Mediatization of 1803. In 1815, Baden's possession of Manheim and Heidelberg was confirmed and only the left bank territories were given back to Bavaria. Ludwig founded the city of Ludwigshafen there as a Bavarian rival to Mannheim. Ludwig moved the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität from Landshut to Munich in 1826. The king also encouraged Bavaria's industrialization. He initiated the Ludwig Canal between the rivers Main and the Danube. In 1835 the first German railway was constructed in his domain, between the cities of Fürth and Nuremberg. Bavaria joined the Zollverein in 1834. As Ludwig had supported the Greek fight of independence his second son Otto was elected king of Greece in 1832. Otto's government was initially run by a three-man regency council made up of Bavarian court officials. After the July Revolution of 1830 in France, Ludwig's previous liberal policy became more and more repressive. The Hambacher Fest in 1832 revealed the discontent of the population caused by high taxes and censorship. In connection with the unrest of May 1832, some 142 political trials were initiated. The seven death sentences that were pronounced were commuted to long-term imprisonment by the king. About 1,000 political trials were to take place during Ludwig's reign. The strict censorship, which he had reinstated after having abolished it in 1825, was opposed by large sectors of the population. In 1837 the Ultramontanes backed by the Roman Catholic Church gained control of the Bavarian parliament and began a campaign of changes to the constitution, such as removing civil rights that had earlier been granted to Protestants, as well as enforcing political censorship. On 14 August 1838, the King issued an order for all members of the military to kneel in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament at Corpus Christi processions and church services. This policy, which had been in place when Bavaria was still almost purely Catholic in the period before 1803, had been discontinued the inclusion of large Protestant areas. Catholic disturbances during the funeral of the Protestant Queen Caroline of Baden in 1841 caused a scandal. This treatment of his beloved stepmother permanently softened the attitude of Caroline's stepson Ludwig I, who up until that time had been a strong opponent of Protestantism in spite of his marriage to the Protestant princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. The Ultramontanes' regime only ended due to their demands against the naturalization of Ludwig I's Irish-born mistress Eliza Gilbert (better known by her stage name Lola Montez). Ludwig resented this move and the Ultramontanes under Karl von Abel were pushed out. Already in 1844, Ludwig was confronted with the Beer riots in Bavaria. During the revolutions of 1848 the king faced increasing protests and demonstrations by the students and the middle classes. The King had ordered to close the university in February and on 4 March a large crowd assaulted the Armory to storm the Munich Residenz. Ludwig's brother Prince Karl managed to appease the protesters, but now the royal family and the Cabinet turned against Ludwig. He had to sign the so-called "March Proclamation" with substantial concessions. On 16 March 1848 it was followed by renewed unrest because Lola Montez had returned to Munich after a short exile. Ludwig had to let her be searched by the police on 17 March, which was the worst humiliation for him.[clarification needed] Not willing to rule as a constitutional monarch, Ludwig abdicated on 20 March 1848 in favour of his eldest son, Maximilian. Ludwig lived for another twenty years after his abdication and remained influential, especially as he continued several of his cultural projects. Most of his time in Munich his residence was the neo gothic Wittelsbacher Palais, once built for his successor and unloved by Ludwig. He died at Nice in 1868, and was buried in St. Boniface's Abbey, Munich he had ordered to be built. Ludwig I of Bavaria, c. 1860 Arms of the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1835. Cultural legacy [ edit ] As admirer of ancient Greece and the Italian renaissance, Ludwig patronized the arts as principal of many neoclassical buildings, especially in Munich, and as fanatic collector. Among others he had built were the Walhalla temple, the Befreiungshalle, the Villa Ludwigshöhe, the Pompejanum, the Ludwigstrasse, the Bavaria statue, the Ruhmeshalle, the Glyptothek, the Old and the New Pinakothek. His architects Leo von Klenze and Friedrich von Gärtner also strongly influenced the cityscape of modern Athens. Already as crown prince Ludwig collected Early German and Early Dutch paintings, masterpieces of the Italian renaissance, and contemporary art for his museums and galleries. He also placed special emphasis on collecting Greek and Roman sculpture. Through his agents, he managed to acquire such pieces as the Medusa Rondanini, the Barberini Faun, and, in 1813, the figures from the Temple of Aphaea on Aegina. One of his most famous conceptions is the celebrated "Schönheitengalerie" (Gallery of Beauties), in the south pavilion of his Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. A collection of 36 portraits of the beautiful women painted between 1827 and 1850 mostly by Joseph Karl Stieler. Also after his abdication, Ludwig remained an important and lavish sponsor for the arts. This caused several conflicts with his son and successor Maximilian. Finally, Ludwig financed his projects from his own resources. Ludwig I of Bavaria, a monument in the Walhalla Because of King Ludwig's philhellenism, the German name for Bavaria today is spelled "Bayern" instead of "Baiern," while the language spoken there has retained its original spelling "Bairisch"—note the I versus the Greek-derived Y. Ludwig was an eccentric and notoriously bad poet. He would write about anything, no matter how trivial, with strings of rhyming couplets. For this, the king was teased by Heinrich Heine who wrote several mockery poems in Ludwig's style. Ironically, Ludwig's Walhalla temple added Heine's bust to its collection in 2009. Private life and issue [ edit ] In private life Ludwig was, in spite of his royal assertiveness, modest and companionable and was even known for his often shabby attire. Ludwig was hard of hearing and had a birthmark on his forehead which was often concealed in portraits. Ludwig had several extramarital affairs and was one of the lovers of Lady Jane Digby, an aristocratic English adventuress. Another affair was the Italian noblewoman Marianna Marquesa Florenzi. His affair with Lola Montez also caused some scandal. Issue by Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen ( 8 July 1792 – 26 October 1854; married on 12 October 1810 in Theresienwiese, Munich) Titles, styles and honours [ edit ] Titles and styles [ edit ] 25 August 1786 – 1 April 1795 : His Serene Highness Prince Ludwig of Bavaria : Prince Ludwig of Bavaria 1 April 1795 – 27 February 1799 : His Highness The Hereditary Prince of Zweibrücken : The Hereditary Prince of Zweibrücken 27 February 1799 – 1 January 1806 : His Highness The Hereditary Prince of Zweibrücken, Electoral Prince of Bavaria : The Hereditary Prince of Zweibrücken, Electoral Prince of Bavaria 1 January 1806 – 13 October 1825 : His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Bavaria : The Crown Prince of Bavaria 13 October 1825 – 20 March 1848 : His Majesty The King of Bavaria : The King of Bavaria 20 March 1848 – 29 February 1868: His Majesty King Ludwig I of Bavaria Honours [ edit ] Domestic Foreign Ancestry [ edit ] See also [ edit ] Sources [ edit ] |
British Prime Minister Theresa May (2nd R) meets Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (2nd L) during a bilateral meeting at the sidelines of G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, September 5, 2016. REUTERS/Aly Song HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Monday he wants to negotiate a “very strong” free trade agreement with Britain after it leaves the European Union. Britain’s June decision to leave the 28-country EU sent financial markets into shock in anticipation of a recession as Britain enters a years-long process of tearing itself away from its biggest trading partner and forging a new global economic role. Britain’s economy will suffer as a result of the decision despite signs in recent data that the impact has not been as severe as some predicted, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday on her way to the G20 summit in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou. Turnbull told reporters that May told the Australians she “remains very grateful for the assistance we are providing, both legislative and in terms of other resources”. “And of course, from our point of view, getting in to deal with the British early and making sure we can negotiate a very strong, very open free trade agreement once they are actually out of the European Union.” |
Wearables: not the beginning of the end, the end of the beginning Rachel Kalmar Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 6, 2016 Another day, another wearables company is leaving the market. The announcement that Fitbit will acquire smartwatch pioneer Pebble follows this year’s trend of shutdowns and consolidation in the wearables space. The market, much like the aging devices I still wear on my arms, has lost its shine. While it might be sunset for the golden days of Wearables 1.0, it is far from the end of wearables. We are merely at the end of the beginning, not at the beginning of the end. When I joined Misfit Wearables as their data scientist in 2012, the already buzzing wearables field was just about to cross over into the mainstream. Fitbit had launched their second and third products, Jawbone’s UP had just been re-released, Nike’s Fuelband was bringing wearables further into the mainstream, and Pebble had raised over $10 million on Kickstarter for production of its first smartwatch, breaking records and drumming up demand for smartwatches. At Misfit, we had announced our first product, the Misfit Shine, and our own Indiegogo campaign was picking up steam. Piggybacking on the advances of mobile technology, the stage was set for an explosion of connected wearables, smarthome, and Internet of Things devices. In late 2011, Apple’s iPhone 4S shipped with Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE), leading to its adoption as the de facto standard for wireless communication between devices and phones. This, plus the increasing availability of smaller, cheaper electronics allowed device makers to develop affordable devices that would work both with Android and iOS. Enter the gadget-filled age of Wearables 1.0. Wearable technology itself is not new, but the ability to seamlessly connect devices to apps and cloud-based services has dramatically improved its utility and its popularity. Current wearables automatically offer a level of accountability that had previously required real commitment to obtain. This kind of access to data about one’s activities and habits can be a useful tool. Just as bathroom scales can provide feedback to help manage weight, wearables allow for a similar kind of insight about an individual’s patterns of activity and sleep. In the past few years, devices and apps have experimented with ways to remind and encourage their users to be more active. Though some have found the gamification and social features compelling, wearables have been largely B.Y.O.Q.: Bring Your Own Question. If you have a question about yourself or your activity that data could help you solve, these devices can provide this data. But without a question or specific goal, wearables alone won’t make you fit or even provide much beyond a verbatim account of your activities. As people realized that the devices they were wearing didn’t come with a built-in purpose, let alone a killer app, many abandoned them, unfulfilled. In 2014, Endeavor Partners shared their study that 30% of consumers had stopped wearing their device within 6 months. This was largely viewed as a critique of wearables, and a failure of companies to engage their users. My view was more optimistic: 70% were still wearing their devices after 6 months! Even without a clear value proposition, people continued to charge their wearables, put them on their wrists, and collect data. However, the fundamental question remains unanswered: what would make wearables universally useful? To answer this question, I often compare wearables to mills for grinding wheat into flour. Though some consumers have ideas of things they’d like to bake, most don’t want flour, they want cookies. The same is true for data: most people don’t want the data itself, they want cookies: the useful products and services that are built with this data. The problem is that for wearables data, we still don’t know what a cookie looks like. This is not the fault of wearables companies, but rather a reflection of where we are as a field. Wearables 2.0 will be about the products and services built on top of wearables data. Of these, the most important will be the ones that bring this data into the healthcare system. Right now, evidence-based medicine is missing a critical dimension. Connecting longitudinal data about individuals and populations to clinically relevant outcomes will fill this gap. Wearables are already being used in hundreds of clinical studies, and will ultimately play a fundamental role in the future of healthcare and medicine. It will still take some time to get there. My Pebble watch has been one of my favorite wearables, and I’ll be sad to take it off of my wrist when it reaches the end of its line. Since September, I’ve also received notices about the shutdown of the Basis B1 watch, the Narrative Clip wearable camera, and the AngelSensor open source smartband. These wearables will all join the growing collection of my device graveyard, leaving behind orphaned apps and drawers full of chargers. Though these clunky plastic step-counting wristbands may be on their way out, the data they created and the lessons they taught us will play an important role in shaping the next wave of devices. It may take awhile to get here, but Wearables 2.0 is on its way. Originally published at rachelkalmar.com on December 5, 2016 |
A sample letter opposing a proposed state antidiscrimination measure circulated by the Utah Eagle Forum this week calls homosexuality a “disturbing and disruptive” “personal weakness,” which the group compares to “theft, dishonesty [and] murder.” Fox 13 reporter Max Roth, who attended an Eagle Forum event on the antidiscrimination bill Wednesday, posted an image of the letter on Twitter, which was then spotted by On Top Magazine. The meeting was led by Utah Eagle Forum head Gayle Ruzicka. The sample letter, signed by Orem Eagle Forum president Barbara Petty, asks the antidiscrimination bill’s sponsor Sen. Steve Urquhart, “What were you thinking?” “Any confusion a man or woman has for their gender other than the gender that they were born with, is their personal weakness,” Petty writes. “We all have weaknesses and some are more disturbing and or disruptive than others. There is no need to categorize weaknesses.” “However our God inspired Founding Fathers included words in describing our Constitution as a document good only for a moral people,” she continues. “Deviant sexual life styles are immoral.” The letter goes on to compare discrimination against “immorality” to discrimination against “theft, dishonesty [and] murder” and berates Urquhart for promoting “oppression of the majority by the minority.” We’ve transcribed the letter from Roth’s photograph. Sic throughout, bolding is ours. Barbara Petty Orem, UT August 2013 Dear Senator Urqhart We raise our voices in extreme rejection of the Anti-Discrimination Bill that you sponsored. To propose such an option in support of a questionable life style is unacceptable. God’s word says he created man and woman in his image. Any confusion a man or woman has for their gender other than the gender that they were born with, is their personal weakness. We all have weaknesses and some are more disturbing and or disruptive than others. There is no need to categorize weaknesses. However our God inspired Founding Fathers included words in describing our Constitution as a document good only for a moral people. Deviant sexual life styles are immoral. We urge you to withdraw your anti discrimination bill and any further activity in that direction. We discriminate against immorality, theft, dishonesty, murder etcetera and as our representative in the Utah Senate your oath of office is to uphold the constitution. We hold you to the oath you have taken. Such action as described in the anti discrimination bill allowing a man to say he feels like a woman and wants to use the bathroom and shower facilities for women is a disgrace to the sacred covenants we have with the God of this world and offends all decency. It is also a complete perversion of sentiment in that, in order to make a small minority feel more “comfortable” in their unnatural behavior, the overwhelming majority must suffer being uncomfortable in natural behavior. It is not an abuse of a minority to reject its abuse of the sensibilities of the majority. Isaiah 5:20 says: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” What were you thinking? Please don’t consider oppression of the majority by the minority to be good. Sincerely, Barbara Petty cc: Senator Ralph Okerlund (who voted in favor to bring this Bill out of committee) Senator Peter Knudson (who voted in favor to bring this Bill out of committee) You can view Roth’s report from the event and another anti-antidiscrimination event the same day here. |
Last week’s failure to pass a referendum question on the introduction of a Shatner building fee was not a mistake, but rather a repudiation of the deeply unfair lease agreement between McGill and SSMU. It is far too easy to blame misinformed or apathetic students, as this year’s executive team did, for the results. Instead, SSMU ought to look in the mirror and reflect on what four years of arduous negotiations have wrought: yet another shift in costs to students. Never mind, it seems, that other student associations in Canada only pay a $1 symbolic fee for their rent. For Katie Larson, the SSMU president, the problem is not the lease, but the referendum question. Last week, she told the McGill Tribune she hoped students would reconsider their vote in a special referendum on the issue. In other words, last week’s vote was meaningless; SSMU will have its way, one way or another. And this time, to prevent the vote from swinging the wrong way, SSMU even brandished the threat of cutting back on some of its services, including Gerts – essentially a bluff, since the bar is one of the student association’s few ventures that generates enough income to break even. This is the sort of politics we’ve grown accustomed to in the real world, but it is especially troubling when we see it replicated on campus. SSMU’s solvency, we are told, hung on the outcome of a single question, and nobody budged. Apparently, it was easier to be sanctimonious in hindsight than plan for a successful referendum. Joey Shea, SSMU VP University Affairs, went as far as to declare that she felt ashamed by the results of the vote. “Students [of McGill] don’t understand the ramifications of their actions with this vote,” she told the Tribune. But the vote was destined to fail. While SSMU dithered back and forth on Brian Farnan’s apology email, the lease and the referendum went on the backburner. Not a word was said on the fee increase until after the vote took place, and nobody, it seems, questioned the wisdom of including such an important issue on an already cluttered ballot. Where were the posters, the flyers, and the Yes and No committees? And where were the executives and their smug speeches last month, before the voting period began? SSMU’s solvency, we are told, hung on the outcome of a single question, and nobody budged. Apparently, it was easier to be sanctimonious in hindsight than plan for a successful referendum – not that the question deserved to pass anyway. Like many of you, I voted against the measure. I was angry at SSMU for signing such a piss-poor lease and angry at the University for even suggesting one. Four years of talks, and our student association is in an even more precarious position than before. If this is the sort of deal McGill can foist on us, then why bother negotiating? The lease could have been signed years ago. Unfortunately, it is unclear if SSMU can rectify its mistake. When it comes to rescinding the lease, the contract’s language is clear: “The University accepts that the ASSOCIATION may terminate the lease due to financial concerns with a minimum of three (3) months prior notice sent by letter to the Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning). […] At the end of the notice period, the SSMU shall vacate the building and terminate all activities therein.” The University knows that the new lease will likely drive SSMU into bankruptcy with its current structure, and it implicitly threatens eviction if we fail to increase our fees. But would McGill follow through on its threat? The move would certainly be unprecedented, and the question is worth considering. At this point, none of our options are particularly attractive. But the next time our student association gets to sit down with the administration, it could at least pretend to have a backbone. Laurent Bastien Corbeil is a U3 student in Political Science and a former Daily news editor (2012-13). He can be reached at bastiencorbeil@gmail.com. |
I’ve posted about two potential Democratic candidates (State Sen. Jennifer Wexton and Fairfax County Board member Kathy Smith) to run against the abysmal Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-10th) next year. I’ve also heard several other names rumored. But now, we have an actual, announced Democratic candidate — Kimberly Adams; see email below. From: “Kimberly Adams” Date: Mar 25, 2017 1:03 AM Subject: Kimberly Adams for Congress Dear Friends and Family, Many of you have said you expected this to happen someday. TODAY IS THE DAY. I am gathering support for a run in the 10th Congressional District here in Virginia. I am running to represent the hard working people who make our homes here in the 10th District. I am a teacher and I always have been. It is time that someone like me defies all the odds and puts in the time to be our voice in Congress. Barbara Comstock is not serving her constituents well and she does not share my values. I believe that I can bring a strong voice of reason to Washington D.C. and be a powerful advocate for all those living in the 10th District. Primary day will be in June of 2018 and Election day will be in November 2018. That may seem like a long way off – it is not. I know that I can be successful in this race. I know that I can represent the interests here in the 10th. I also know that I will need your help to make this happen. Please click on the link below and make a commitment of your dollars. Know that the contribution will not be called-in until I officially file for the seat. This will happen on July 1. I am hoping to secure funds from as many people as possible to jump-start this campaign. (Federal contribution rules stipulate that an individual can give $2600 per race for a total of $5200 – so give early and give often!) https://www.crowdpac.com/campa igns/193150/kimberly-adams-for -congress I appreciate all of your support and I will be in touch with each and every one of you soon. You can always email me suggestions for the campaign, tell me about issues that you would like to see highlighted, or share ideas that you have for this race. You can view my early website here: www.kimberlyadamsforcong ress.com Thank you for always standing by me in the past and for believing in me now. Sincerely, Kimberly Kimberly Adams Working to Represent Virginia’s 10th Congressional District |
The opening keynote from Google I/O 2015 last week went on for more than 2 hours. As long as it was though, it was so packed full of news from the Google universe that the company didn’t have time to really flush out the details surrounding several of the key announcements. Among those key announcements was the new Google Photos service, which gives users unlimited cloud storage for their photos for free. As incredible as that sounds, “free” actually isn’t the only great feature to be found in Google Photos. DON’T MISS: Stop whining – the Apple Watch’s battery life is phenomenal Because a free, unlimited cloud photo storage solution is unheard of, most people focused all of their attention on the fact that it is indeed free. Ok, so there are some caveats with this free service that we detailed in a post last week, but there’s no question that Google Photos is unprecedented, and it deserves all of the attention it’s getting. But free and unlimited are just two of several cool features in Google Photos, and because they got all the attention, you probably don’t know about all the other great things baked into the service. |
Former Queens Park Rangers boss Mark Hughes is expected to be appointed as the new manager of Stoke City by the end of the week. Talks between Hughes and the Potters have gone well, and the 49-year-old is believed to be the Premier League club's first choice. Leading figures at the club are of the view that Hughes would be a "good fit". Tony Pulis left Stoke last week and suggested the board wanted "to take the club in a different direction". Hughes v Pulis Hughes Pulis Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea Notable clubs as a player Bristol Rovers, Bournemouth, Gillingham Blackburn, Manchester City, Fulham, QPR Managerial jobs Bournemouth, Gillingham, Bristol City, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Stoke (twice) 270 Premier League games as manager 190 97 Wins 56 36% Win percentage 29% Wigan manager Roberto Martinez and former Sunderland boss Martin O'Neill have also been linked to the post but Hughes, who has been out of management since being sacked by QPR in November, has emerged as the choice of key decision-makers. The former Manchester United, Barcelona and Chelsea striker started his managerial career with Wales in 1999 before leaving to take charge at Blackburn in 2004. He left Ewood Park four years later for Manchester City, where he spent 18 months before being replaced by Roberto Mancini. A one-season spell at Fulham followed before he was named QPR manager in January 2012. He saved the Loftus Road club from relegation that season, but was sacked just three months into the following campaign. The chairman of Stoke City's Supporters Club, Bryan Shaw, said the expected appointment of Hughes will not prove universally popular among supporters. "From all the people available, he would not have been my first choice, although he has a reasonable record apart from at QPR," he said. "Not a lot of supporters wanted Tony Pulis back when he was brought back for a second spell in charge. "That wasn't a popular decision because of his style of football. Probably half of the fan base was against him at first but he won the majority over. There is a feeling Hughes is similar. "If you ask the majority of Stoke supporters, Mark Hughes would not be their first choice. That said, whoever the chairman appoints we have to get behind. We just have to hope he proves us wrong." |
For many people, jobs are boring, low-paid, humiliating and increasingly scarce. New Humanist asks three young writers: what if we just did away with them? Employees leaving the Rolls-Royce works in Derby during the Second World War This article is a preview from the Winter 2014 edition of New Humanist. You can find out more and subscribe here. In discussion with New Humanist are Federico Campagna, author of The Last Night: Anti-Work, Atheism, Adventure (Zero Books); James Meadway, senior economist at the New Economics Foundation; and Dawn Foster, a journalist who writes on social inequality. NH: Federico, what are you trying to say in your book by comparing work to religion? Federico: When I first moved to Britain from southern Italy, I noticed this strange attachment to work, which contradicted the image I had of Anglo-Saxon rationalism. Instead of the activity of work being efficiently aimed at something, it was going round in a circle. People kept working overtime and I kept wondering, “Why do they do that? They are not going to get any praise, they are not going to get any money, they’re actually damaging their lives, so why do it?” I noticed there was a religious element, in the sense that work gives you something that nothing else does, which is that you became part of something bigger than yourself. You sacrifice your life, but what you get is somehow immortality, you become part of capital, part of the nation, part of the everlasting glorious community, and so on. The idea of the “Protestant work ethic” has been around for a long time, so how much is this a new development? James: What’s very striking – this is from a pure economics point of view – is that since 2008, productivity, in Britain, has declined, so for every hour that people are working, they are less and less productive as time goes on, certainly relative to similar countries. A typical hour worked in Germany now produces 30 per cent more monetary value than a typical hour worked here. And in the last 30 years or so, the progressive end of society seems to have wandered away from questions about the working day, how long it should be and what you do with it, and how much time you get after it. The demand for shorter working hours was at the heart of the labour movement from the early 19th century onwards. Dawn: We seem to have given up on the idea of quality of work and instead moved to gratitude for there being any work at all. Especially for young people: salaries are a pittance, and you have to be on call constantly. F: I think there is another element attached to it, which is its relationship with citizenship. Because of globalisation, the very concept of citizenship is under a lot of strain. So what seems to be developing is an idea of citizenship being related to work. In that, for example, when you talk about migrants, there are the scummy migrants and there are the hard-working migrants. So, becoming a worker in a sense is repaid by society, with the fact that you are in. If you are not a worker, you are out. That’s why you have to be grateful to be a worker, because then you are in. James, you suggested there had been a shift in the last 30 years. As you’re all from a generation that grew up during this period, how were you brought up to think about work? F: I come from a different place, so it is different. D: Coming from post-industrial South Wales, the thought that I was able to get a job at all was slightly fantastic. If you are working class, and grow up in an area with high unemployment, you are taught not to question any aspects of your job you are unhappy with. Because you are getting a wage, full stop. That’s quite a departure from the idea of industrial jobs giving whole communities a sense of identity. D: My area was particularly odd, because I lived in Newport and we had a steelworks. Towards the end of my time in primary school, the steelworks shut down. So it was relatively prosperous and then suddenly that was cut off. There was a sense of déjà vu because a lot of people who worked there had worked in the mines until they had been closed down a decade earlier. So two generations of people who had very strong working-class identities – men, in particular – felt the same thing happen to them. You can see it now there, a lot of men feel their masculinity has been completely undermined by that. F: There is this idea that as a human being you can’t develop in any way without work. And unfortunately, the Left has a difficult relationship with the idea of work. Instead of it being a problem that you are a worker, it became a source of pride: if you are a worker you need to remain a worker if you want to fight. Is that so wrong? F: I’m not entirely sure about that. You have to take pride, why? What does that mean? Is that fundamental to you in any way? Why does it have to involve what you do? You do many things, you sleep more than you work. I don’t think it’s logically necessary. D: Well, you can define yourself by what you do or who you sleep with, or, you know, how you sleep. But I think that most people define themselves by what they spend most of their time doing and who they associate with. So it’s a big part of people’s identity, their profession. People have been very proud to work and be workers. And to associate themselves with the community that produces things. J: If you take workplaces, it’s hard to think of more depoliticised environments. Look at the last 10-15 years, in any number of protest movements, marches, demonstrations, all that sort of stuff has happened on the outside. None of it is really happening in workplaces, not to the same extent as 50 to 60 years ago. So this idea that work is in any way something that might have an oppositional content, that there actually is something at work that you can oppose, that your boss is someone you can oppose, rather than just a feature in existence, is what I think has been evacuated, leaving just this kind of vague cultural identity. Like pride in being from a working-class background. F: Also, we’ve forgotten the fact that even for Christian religion work is one of the first punishments that God inflicts on people. Mortality and work. And childbirth. All three fit together. And clothes! Some might say the question “why work?” is hopelessly utopian. So why ask it? F: Because work takes up so much of our time. That’s your core activity, so, like any good company, that’s what you should probably talk about first. D: Because it defines us. Doesn’t it? A big problem at the moment is income inequality. And if we want to think about spreading wealth more equally, then we have to think about how to spread the work more equally. J: Technology has made our working lives easier in some ways, but the direction of technology matters too. There are loads of devices that are very good at monitoring what we do. A smartphone, for example, can report where you are, what websites you’ve been visiting, who you’ve been talking to. We find these things useful, but in the workplace this kind of technology is put to use in monitoring every second of what someone’s doing all day long. All this inventiveness and creativity has not gone towards, say, “How do we make people’s lives better?” Instead it’s been “How do we make it so that we don’t have to keep checking if they’re moving the right books around the warehouse?” F: Dawn, I wanted to ask you about feminism and the fact that feminist demands were met to a large extent because women entered the workplace. Could that have happened any other way? D: I can’t see how it would have. But I don’t think the pace of women’s liberation is as fast as people have made out. The number of women in low-paid work in Britain has actually increased since 2008; and women have been hit hardest by austerity policies. There’s also the argument put forward by feminist theorists like Selma James that women should receive wages for housework. D: One thing that troubles me is the sheer volume of unpaid work that women still do, especially considering how expensive childcare is getting. I don’t know how working-class women are expected to fund it. J: I don’t think extending the zone of paid work would solve the problem, though. What you want is for the work to be socialised, so that it doesn’t have to be done by particular individuals. One really obvious way is for the state to provide childcare – and you don’t have to look to utopias to find better examples of this than Britain. Most of the world’s developed countries do it, with the exception of America. But in the current political climate, you don’t have to go very far to sound utopian. What other areas could do with more of this kind of questioning? F: Education. In Italy, one thing that is still excellent is the state-run high-school system. There’s a type of school called liceo classico where we study humanities: it’s kind of like grammar school but everyone goes there, you can be a factory worker or a lawyer, it’s free and you study philosophy from the age of 15. There’s no vocational element, it was derived from a 19th-century school system for aristocrats. So you are not taught to become a worker, you are taught to become a person. Here in Britain, from a very young age, you are told that whatever you are doing, it is aimed at you becoming a worker. Even the university system is now understood and valued only in terms of what job it gets you afterwards. J: The more we can strip out the idea that the buyers of education are only doing it to get a job the better, frankly. D: I’d say the welfare system. The national debate has been completely poisoned by decades of stereotyping of who is on benefits and why they get them. The biggest problem is in-work poverty and the fact that people can’t make ends meet on the wages they get. We need to look at why we subsidise big companies to pay their employees. F: We could also think more about our attitude to society. Why we live together. JFK said: don’t ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. But the question should be about what the association can do for you: so asking for less work and more services is not a wild political request. Society only justifies its own existence when it provides everything we need and as much as it can possibly provide you. That’s why we live together – it’s not because we like each other. |
Beirut: An elderly Syrian took part in stoning his daughter to death for alleged adultery in a video posted on YouTube by Daesh on Tuesday. The execution took place in August or September in an Daesh-controlled rural area in the east of the central province of Hamah, according to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It was the latest in spate of videotaped executions that the militants have posted on social media as they impose their extreme version of Sharia across a swathe of Syria and neighbouring Iraq. In the video, a bearded gunman in combat fatigues stands behind the father, who is dressed in the white robe and chequered headdress typical of the Syrian countryside. They both face the young black-clad daughter as the gunman addresses her in the classical Arabic. “The punishment is the result of crimes which you committed under no duress,” he says. “You must accept the punishment of God. Do you accept the punishment of God?” She nods her head in assent, then turns to her father and asks his forgiveness. He refuses, saying “even if God forgives you, I will not”, until the assembled Daesh fighters persuade him to relent. But it makes no difference to his daughter’s fate. She is permitted to speak briefly before the stoning commences. “I say to every woman: preserve your honour ... and I appeal to every father to pay attention to the surroundings your daughter lives in,” she says. Her father then takes a rope, and ties it round his daughter’s waist before forcing her to lie down. The Daesh gunman then orders punishment to begin and the father joins in stoning her to death. The video drew condemnation from the mainstream Syrian opposition in exile. “We condemn this horrible crime committed by Daesh against this woman in the Hama countryside,” the National Coalition said in a statement “This crime has nothing whatever to do with the Syrian revolution.” Update: The video has since been removed from YouTube for violating the site's terms of service. |
Frequency, Led by MIT’s Langer, Aims to Fight Hearing Loss With Drugs Xconomy Boston — Concerts, power tools, screeching subway trains—they are among the many loud noises that can cause hearing loss by killing off the hair cells in our inner ear that pick up sounds. A new Cambridge, MA-based biotech, founded by famed MIT researcher Bob Langer and Harvard Medical School’s Jeff Karp, believes it has drugs that can stimulate dormant cells in the inner ear, which could in turn help regenerate hair cells that would improve hearing in a person who’s lost it. Frequency Therapeutics, a stealthy company founded in 2015 and backed by angel investors and “super angels,” announced itself and its lead product to the public today. Frequency has small-molecule therapies that it says can activate what are called progenitor cells, a type of cell that can differentiate like a stem cell but only into a specific “target” cell type, according to the company. The company says small-molecule drugs can cause those progenitor cells in the inner ear to multiply and create new hair cells, potentially restoring natural hearing. The startup is one of several biotechs aiming at the largely untapped market of developing drugs that combat hearing loss, a problem that Frequency says affects some 30 million men and women in the U.S. Notably, another Boston biotech named Decibel launched in October 2015 with a $52 million Series A funding round from Third Rock Ventures and SR One, the VC arm of GlaxoSmithKline, to develop drugs that combat some of the biological reasons for hearing issues. (Hearing loss, of course, has many potential causes.) Frequency seems to be taking a more understated approach, financially at least. Marc Cohen, the co-founder of Cobro Ventures and multiple biotech startups, including C4 Therapeutics, is the new chairman of Frequency and is providing initial funding for the company along with a group of angels and super angels, according to a spokeswoman, who declined to specify the funding amount. Langer and Frequency CEO David Lucchino are among the other members of the board. The company’s scientific discoveries were in part based on research into the ability some amphibians and birds have to regrow hair cells that have been damaged, according to Frequency. The company’s small-molecule drugs, which would be delivered as a slow-release gel via injection to the inner ear, target a type of progenitor cell called Lgr5+. Frequency hopes to enter human clinical trials in the next 18 months in patients with hearing loss, according to the spokeswoman. |
The best vacations are the ones that you remember, and not because of what they cost. A great trip shouldn't be a financial hardship, but finding the right destination to maximize your travel dollars can be a real chore. We've done the hard work for you and picked the best cities for affordable vacations. These are places where friends and families can come together in the pursuit of fun and relaxation without the worry of busting budgets. Cities were ranked by their offering of unique, free activities, both indoors and out, and by the availability of discounts on otherwise pricey attractions. For example, visitors will typically pay $15 or more for admission to a major zoo, while those on our list offer admission at less than half that. Package discounts to major attractions grabbed our attention as well. Whether your ideal getaway is hiking a snow-capped mountain, milling around museums or downing cheesy concessions at a minor league park, our list of affordable family-friendly cities gives you plenty of choices. The good folks at the Family Travel Network helped us determine what makes a great vacation destination and also provided a wealth of penny-pinching travel tips that we just had to pass along. “Great family vacations don't have to be expensive,” says Nancy Schretter, managing editor of the Family Travel Network. ”Get the whole family together to help plan the vacation and decide on your own definition of family fun. Then enlist the kids' help (if they're old enough) in searching the Internet for cities that have attractions that match your family's interests.” Here are a few travel planning tips: • Larger cities typically offer more free attractions and festivals • Traveling off season can mean serious price breaks • Take advantage of city-specific coupon books or family fun passes available online • Look for Kids Eat Free deals at hotels and restaurants, and stay in a suites property that offers free breakfast, kitchens and more room to spread out • Consider vacation rental-type properties, even in a city. Schretter says owners often rent homes for up to 50 percent less than nearby hotels and offer much more space Ready to start packing? Here's our Top 10 Cities for Affordable Vacations. |
Garfield Goose (1953) Filled-in child's coloring book,(1953) A coloring book (or colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media. Traditional coloring books and coloring pages are printed on paper or card. Some coloring books have perforated edges so their pages can be removed from the books and used as individual sheets. Others may include a story line and so are intended to be left intact. Today many children's coloring books feature popular cartoon characters. They are often used as promotional materials for animated motion pictures. Coloring books may also incorporate other activities such as connect the dots, mazes and other puzzles. Some also incorporate the use of stickers. History [ edit ] The Little Folks Painting Book, 1879 , 1879 Paint books and coloring books emerged in the United States as part of the "democratization of art" process, inspired by a series of lectures by British artist Joshua Reynolds, and the works of Swiss educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi and his student Friedrich Fröbel. Many educators concluded that all, regardless of background, students stood to benefit from art education as a means of enhancing their conceptual understanding of the tangible, developing their cognitive abilities, and improving skills that would be useful in finding a profession, as well as for the children's spiritual edification.[1] The McLoughlin Brothers are credited as the inventors of the coloring book, when, in the 1880s, they produced The Little Folks' Painting Book, in collaboration with Kate Greenaway. They continued to publish coloring books until the 1920s, when the McLoughlin Brothers became part of the Milton Bradley Company. Another pioneer in the genre was Richard F. Outcault. He authored Buster's Paint Book in 1907, featuring the character of Buster Brown, which he had invented in 1902. It was published by the Stokes Company. This launched a trend to use coloring books to advertise a wide variety of products, including coffee and pianos.[1] Until the 1930s, books were designed with the intent for them to be painted instead of colored. Even when crayons came into wide use in the 1930s, books were still designed so that they could be painted or colored.[2] Educational uses [ edit ] "California Poppy", a page from a wildflower coloring book Display of coloring books in a shop Example of a coloring book for children Coloring books are widely used in schooling for young children for various reasons. For example, children are often more interested in coloring books rather than using other learning methods; pictures may also be more memorable than simply words.[3] Coloring may also increase creativity in painting, according to some research.[4] As a predominantly non-verbal medium, coloring books have also seen wide applications in education where a target group does not speak and understand the primary language of instruction or communication. Examples of this include the use of coloring books in Guatemala to teach children about hieroglyphs and Mayan artist patterns,[5] and the production of coloring books to educate the children of farm workers about "the pathway by which agricultural pesticides are transferred from work to home."[6] Coloring books are also said to help to motivate students' understanding of concepts that they would otherwise be uninterested in. They have been used as teaching aids for developing creativity and knowledge of geometry, such as in Roger Burrows' Altair Designs. Since the 1980s, several publishers have produced educational coloring books intended for studying graduate-level topics such as anatomy and physiology, where color-coding of many detailed diagrams are used as a learning aid. Examples include The Anatomy Coloring Book and subsequent book series, by Wynn Kapit and Lawrence Elson, published by HarperCollins (1990s) and Benjamin Cummings (2000s).[7] There are some examples of educators using coloring books to better explain complicated topics, like math[8] and programming.[9] Some publishers have specialized in coloring books with an explicit educational purpose, both for children and for adults. The books often have extensive text accompanying each image. These publishers include Dover Books, Really Big Coloring Books, Running Press, and Troubador Press. Health and therapeutic uses [ edit ] Coloring books have seen wide application in the health professions as educational tools. One nurse, trying to limit the trauma of surgery, described in an academic publication how the use of a coloring book "might help [the child] to understand what was going to happen to him."[10] They are also used in rehabilitation of accident victims to aid recovery of hand–eye coordination, and they are used with autistic children both for entertainment and for their soothing effect. Coloring books have been used to explain complicated medical conditions to children.[11] One of the appeals of adult coloring books is that they help users relax and de-stress.[12] Political uses [ edit ] In 1962, cartoonist Mort Drucker teamed with humorist Paul Laikin in creating the John F. Kennedy Coloring Book, a satirical introduction to Kennedy, his family and administration, told from the point of view of his daughter Caroline. The book sold 2,500,000 copies.[13][14] In 1968 the Black Panther Coloring Book began circulating in the United States; the book features black men and children killing pigs dressed as police officers. It was argued to have been made not by the Black Panther Party but by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's COINTELPRO program to discredit the organization, a claim which other sources dispute.[15][16] The term and concept of the "coloring book" was adopted by the feminist artist Tee Corinne as a tool of female empowerment. Corinne made pencil sketches of female genitalia, which she then inked and printed on card stock. She published a collection of them in 1975 as The Cunt Coloring Book. No other name seemed really to fit, although the word "cunt" was not one with which I was particularly comfortable. The alliteration, though, was nice. I also liked the idea of combining a street term for genitalia with a coloring book, because both are ways that, as children, we get to know the world.[17] In August 2011, American publisher Really Big Coloring Books released We Shall Never Forget: The Kids Book of Freedom detailing specific drawings in the accounting of SEAL Team 6 shooting Osama bin Laden in his home. The book was criticized by some for portraying Muslims in a negative manner. The company has also published The Tea Party Coloring Book for Kids, Ted Cruz To The Future (2013) and a book about President Barack Obama's inauguration (2008).[18][19] Fine art [ edit ] Photographer Jno Cook produced line drawings based on Robert Frank's The Americans, and in 1983 published them in a limited edition as The Robert Frank Coloring Book. In 1994, the National Gallery of Art used the images as party favors for writers working on the catalog for a retrospective of Frank's work.[20] Adult coloring books [ edit ] Adults coloring at a library program Example of a coloring book for adults Coloring books are a form of adult therapy that have seen a growth in popularity in the 2010s. They reportedly bring people a sense of their childhood,[21] and help with developing fine motor skills and vision, reducing anxiety and creating focus, and relieving stress and anxiety in a manner similar to meditation.[22] Concentrating on coloring may facilitate the replacement of negative thoughts and images with pleasant ones.[23] Coloring books can be used in daily activity.[24] The books are also a way to get away from technology, which some regard as beneficial to people's health.[25] They can be used by people who are uncomfortable with more creatively expressive forms of art.[22] While coloring books for adults were popular in the early 1960s, those were satirical works rather than the therapeutic works that define the adult coloring book form today.[26] The first commercially successful adult coloring books were published in 2012 and 2013,[22] and began increasing in popularity in 2015. In April of that year two such coloring books became the top sellers at Amazon.[27] By November it was reported by Amazon.ca that the books were a top wished for item with nine of the top ten consisting of such books.[28] Also that month Crayola began offering its own line of adult coloring books.[29] Publishers also began packaging some of their colouring books with pencils and CDs.[30] Sales in the US continued to grow in early 2016, but began to fall by year end, with less newcomers trying the pastime.[31] Adult coloring books are offered digitally, via ebooks, digital apps,[32] and coloring pages that can be colored online or downloaded. Users' digital work-products can be saved and shared.[12][33] Dominic Bulsuto theorized that the trend of digital purchasing helped the spread of the genre, noting that the relative anonymous nature of the act allowed customers to feel more secure perusing books they would be embarrassed to buy in real life.[27] By 2016, Faber-Castell, a worldwide color pencil supplier, was reported to have trouble keeping up with demand for their products due to the craze,[34] while Blue Star Coloring sold over a million titles in one year.[35] Criticism [ edit ] Author Susan Jacoby has criticized adult coloring books, along with the popularity among adults of young adult fiction, as "an artifact of a broader cultural shift. And that cultural shift is a bad thing.”[36] She believes the Great Recession has contributed to this shift, as adults unable to find employment have moved home to live with their parents. New York City futurist and blogger Dominic Bulsuto describes adult coloring book fans as "stuck in The Shallows, mindfully coloring books to counter the existential angst of living in a digital society." He goes on to say that "...the endless Internet parade of silly cat photos, infantile comments and adolescent memes has dumbed us down." However, Bulsuto ultimately sees the trend as a good thing, noting that adults are increasingly buying books they want to buy, rather than books they are supposed to buy.[27] Coloring book software [ edit ] Coloring books can also be found digitally in the form of coloring book websites and applications. Coloring book software often has features such as color mixing, flood filling, and paintbrush tools that allow for more accurate and detailed drawings than regular coloring books. Notable artists [ edit ] |
Underground Resistance Date: October 22, 2017 02:53PM Underground ResistanceBy Christopher R RiceThis is a short history of the Underground. In light of today's political climate an underground is more important than ever. But first, what is the Underground? The underground is not right wing or left wing, black or white, in the 1800's the Underground railroad helped to free the slaves, in 1940's Germany the Underground worked to free the Jews. And yet the Underground has no religion.The Underground does not value life above all else, instead the Underground puts the highest value on personal freedom. The Underground believes that no one is free until we are all free.Freedom is believed to be God given because we are not born into bondage or debt. The Underground sees everyone, black, white, Christian or Jew as sons of the same God. The Underground fights for everyone's freedom. And can not stop until everyone is free. Here is a very brief history of the Underground:READ MORE: http://www.copsrcorrupt.com/underground-resistance.html Attachments: |
Image copyright Getty Images Campaigners against Heathrow expansion have claimed critics of a new runway have been "excluded" from a new cabinet committee which will decide the issue. Justine Greening, Theresa Villiers and Philip Hammond will not attend meetings to be chaired by the prime minister. The Airports Commission recommended a new runway earlier this month but it faces widespread political opposition. The Cabinet Office said ministers with the "greatest policy interest" in the decision had been asked to attend. The Conservatives ruled out building a new runway at Heathrow during the last Parliament but it is now back on the agenda after an independent commission concluded last month it was the best option to address the need for new capacity in the south of England. Speaking on Tuesday, Chancellor George Osborne insisted a final decision on whether to expand Heathrow or to plump for a new runway at Gatwick - also deemed feasible by the commission - will be made by the end of the year. The make-up of the new cabinet airports sub-committee, which will consider the issue, has been disclosed in a written ministerial statement. 'Sidelined' Its terms of reference are to "consider matters relating to airport capacity in the south east of England in the light of the Airports Commission's report". Aside from David Cameron, other attendees include Mr Osborne, Business Secretary Sajid Javid, Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, Environment Secretary Liz Truss, Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd and Chief Whip Mark Harper. But neither Home Secretary Theresa May, the MP for Maidenhead or foreign secretary Mr Hammond, the MP for Runnymede - both of whose constituencies are under the flight path - have been invited to attend. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Airports Commission has backed a third runway at Heathrow Neither Ms Greening, the international development secretary and Putney MP who has been a vocal critic of Heathrow expansion nor Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands, who represents Fulham, feature on the committee. The Northern Ireland secretary and Chipping Barnet MP Ms Villiers is not on it either, but Scottish Secretary David Mundell is. None of the committee members represent London seats or constituencies that would be directly affected by the construction of a new runway at Heathrow or the extension of one of its existing runways. 'Evidence-based' Conservative MPs who oppose expanding Gatwick have urged the government to bar any cabinet minister with "explicit and expressed constituency interests" connected to either Heathrow or Gatwick from taking part in the decision. In a letter to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood last month, they said to do so would breach the ministerial code. Hacan, an umbrella group of campaigners opposing Heathrow expansion, said critics of a new runway at the UK's largest airport had effectively been "sidelined" from ministerial discussions. Both Mr Osborne and Mr Javid are believed to be in favour of expanding Heathrow. A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The decision will be based on the evidence. That's why the committee membership is made up of those whose departments have the greatest policy interest in the decision, as you would expect, including the chancellor, the transport secretary, the business secretary and the energy and climate change secretary." Prominent opponents of Heathrow expansion within the Conservative Party also include London Mayor Boris Johnson and Zac Goldsmith, the Richmond Park MP who is hoping to succeed him. |
There are no “poor doors” in the new Regent Park. Instead of apartment building entryways segregated by income level, the subsidized townhouses resemble the market-rate homes across the street, erasing the stigma of poverty. A recreation center has opened down the block from a new arts building, both of them free to use. “We want to make sure people aren’t isolated and their mental health is strong,” said Pam McConnell, a deputy mayor of Toronto who lives in the neighborhood. “You do that by offering activities that bring them out of apartments, so everyone feels like they belong.” Ms. McConnell said the city has mandated that new businesses in Regent Park — among them a bank, a cafe and a supermarket — employ residents, providing nearly 1,000 jobs, a boon in a neighborhood where around 70 percent of the population lives in poverty, according to the last census in 2011, which listed 10,000 residents. But mixing incomes goes only so far without incorporating other community needs, Ms. McConnell said. “You have to make sure the people here who were disempowered gain their power and have their voice always acknowledged,” she said. Grass-roots participation lies at the heart of Regent Park’s billion-dollar transformation. From the start, the city and the developer incorporated residents’ needs into the design, from ensuring they were not forced out of the neighborhood, to stocking food that met Muslim religious requirements, and scheduling private swimming and yoga classes for women. “It didn’t happen by itself,” said Sureya Ibrahim, an Ethiopian immigrant and community activist who is Muslim and who has lived in Regent Park for 18 years. “We had to fight to make the redevelopment accessible and inclusive, but now it’s really a model of collaboration.” |
Fifth grader Jaylen Hocker popped up from his front row seat at the O’Reilly Theater. He walked onto the stage, held up a hand to block the bright theater lights from his eyes and waited for the OK from a panel of judges before he began. “He hath disgraced me and hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. And what’s his reason? I am a Jew," he said, reciting William Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." Hocker is a student at Jefferson Elementary School in Mt. Lebanon. He won the lower division of the Pittsburgh Public Theater’s scene and monologue competition earlier this week. His character, Shylock, is a Jewish moneylender with a bitter resentment of the Christian characters who have wronged him. Hocker remained stationery on the stage, projecting Shylock’s articulate disdain. Shylock, a notable Shakespearean character, is still relevant to teach, according to the state. Pennsylvania students are required to analyze at least one Shakespeare play by the 11th grade. The Common Core standard cites the author's works, written more than 430 years ago, still hold, “profound insight into the human condition.” While it is required literature, some educators advocate the text be taught as performance. That’s what Spencer Whale, a volunteer who helps coach students, said Shakespeare envisioned. “He intended for them to be interpreted by actors who would fill in things that didn’t immediately jump off the page,”Whale said. Whale helped students prefect their lines and performances leading up to the competition. He said one obstacle the young actors had to overcome was comprehending what is happening in the scene or monologue. A group of sixth grade girls at Highcliff Elementary School in the North Hills District rehearsed the same three-minute scene from "Comedy of Errors" for two months. During their recess period they gathered in the library, first reading the scene with librarian Doris Stupka. “They looked at (the script) and had no idea what they were reading,” Stupka said. The girls chose a scene with an all-male cast of characters. They had to play up a flatulence joke, something Jocelyn Young, 11, said took several reads to even realize it was a joke. “We didn’t understand when it said ‘butt, wind,'" Young said. "We were just reading it as ‘but wind.' So it was a lot more funny once we understood that." Most of the girls in Young’s group said they haven’t read the entire play they sampled from. But they had fun. They laughed and took selfies with a cardboard-cutout of Shakespeare’s head after they performed in the preliminary round. They volunteered to compete and likely won’t have to study the material for a few more years. Stupka said they’ll have a leg up when they do. “They don’t look at Shakespeare as something scary or intimidating,” she said. “It’s something fun and exciting and challenging.” |
What do the Kansas City Chiefs have in Chris Conley? Is Alex Smith holding him back? What can we expect from Conley this year and beyond? With the hype of Tyreek Hill’s season, it almost seems like people have forgotten that he’s not the only athletic freak on the team. The man who has been a solid #2 wide receiver for the last two seasons is Chris Conley. With a 45” vertical jump at the 2015 NFL Combine, Conley owns the record for highest vertical among all positions. Standing at 6’2, 213 lbs., Conley also ran a blazing 40 time at 4.35 seconds. This past season, Conley reached 530 yards receiving off 44 receptions (no touchdowns). Although he failed to score or have any big games, he was a consistently reliable target with a reception in all but the Falcons game. Out of his 44 receptions 30 were for 1st down, and had 7 of his 10 catches on third down convert into a first down. Last year. the top three Chiefs wide receivers all had at least 530 yards (536 for Jeremy Maclin, 593 for Tyreek Hill, and 530 for Conley). In the Andy Reid Era the only WR to cross the 1,000 yard mark is Maclin in 2015 with 1,088 yards. Last year, Travis Kelce led the pack in receiving yards with 1,125 yards. Is Smith holding Chris Conley back? The Chiefs didn’t just draft Patrick Mahomes for no reason. Smith will be turning 33 and entering his 5th season under Andy Reid. Since arriving, Smith has yet to show significant improvement in his downfield passing. With Smith’s conservative play style, wideouts on the Chiefs don’t have a lot of opportunities to showcase their full ability. Guys like Hill work well with Smith due to his elite speed and agility in the open field. A guy like Conley works best in the intermediate and deep zones as he’s able to win the sideline and contested balls. Andy Reid knows this and Smith’s yards per completion dropped to an all time low under Smith (10.7) in part due to the playcalling. To me, Conley’s ceiling is as high as Smith can take him, but the addition of Tyreek Hill may have also hurt his stock. With Maclin, Hill, and Kelce on the team, Conley may never get his chance to be a true No. 1 receiver for the Chiefs. Conley’s contract expires after the 2018 season, and only time will tell if the Chiefs will be able to keep him or not. If he does leave and end up on a more pass-happy team, you can count me as one of the first to call him a potential breakout star. |
Police officers stand guard as vehicles drive past Iran's parliament building in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, May 8, 2017. Police increased their patrols in the streets and subway stations of Tehran on Thursday, a day after a pair of stunning Islamic State-claimed attacks on Iran's parliament and the tomb of its revolutionary leader killed at least 16 people and wounded over 40. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Five of the men who launched an attack in the heart of Iran’s capital previously fought for the Islamic State group, the country’s Intelligence Ministry said Thursday, acknowledging the first such assault by the extremists in the Shiite power. The attacks Wednesday on Iran’s parliament and the tomb of its revolutionary leader killed at least 17 people and wounded over 40, stunning its people. The ministry issued a statement on its website with bloody pictures of the men’s corpses. It identified them by their first names only, saying they didn’t want to release their last names due to security and privacy concerns for their families. It described them as “long affiliated with the Wahhabi,” an ultraconservative form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia. However, it stopped short of directly blaming the kingdom for the attack, though many in the country expressed suspicion Iran’s regional rival had a hand in the attack. The men had left Iran to fight for the extremist group in Mosul, Iraq, as well as Raqqa, Syria — the group’s de facto capital, the ministry said. It said they returned to Iran in August under the command of an Islamic State leader and escaped when authorities initially broke up their extremist cell. The ministry did not identify the men’s hometowns, nor say how they were able to evade authorities. A woman suspected to be involved in the attack was arrested Wednesday. Commuters in the Iranian capital noticed police on street corners and motorcycles, more than usual as dawn broke. That came after Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari, a deputy Interior Minister, told state TV that “law enforcement activities may increase.” “We are focused on intelligence” gathering, he said. The state-run IRNA news agency also reported Thursday that the death toll in the attacks had risen to 17 people killed, citing Ahmad Shojaei, the head of the country’s forensic center. The attack Wednesday as lawmakers held a session in parliament and at the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini shocked Iranians who so far had avoided the chaos that has followed the Islamic State group’s rise in Syria and Iraq. Iranian forces are backing embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad while the Shiite power also is supporting militias fighting against the extremists in Iraq. The attack came as emboldened Sunni Arab states — backed by U.S. President Donald Trump — are hardening their stance against Shiite-ruled Iran. The White House released a statement from Trump condemning the terrorist attacks in Tehran and offering condolences, but also implying that Iran is itself a sponsor of terrorism. “We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times,” the statement said. “We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.” The comments sparked anger from Iranians on social media, who recalled the vigils in Tehran that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a tweet on Thursday called the White House comments “repugnant” and accused the U.S. of supporting terror. “Iranian people reject such U.S. claims of friendship,” Zarif tweeted. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard indirectly blamed Saudi Arabia for the attacks. A statement issued Wednesday evening stopped short of alleging direct Saudi involvement but called it “meaningful” that the attacks followed Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he strongly asserted Washington’s support for Riyadh. The statement said Saudi Arabia “constantly supports” terrorists including the Islamic State group, adding that the IS claim of responsibility “reveals (Saudi Arabia’s) hand in this barbaric action.” The “spilled blood of the innocent will not remain unavenged,” the Revolutionary Guard statement said. Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told The Associated Press on Wednesday that “the Iranian government should not use the attack in a very polarized situation against Saudi Arabia or claim that Saudi Arabia is somehow linked to the attack, because it isn’t.” On the streets of the capital Thursday, Iranians said they remained suspicious that Saudi Arabia had a hand in the attack. Some pointed to comments in May by Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the son of the King Salman and the kingdom’s defense minister, who said his country would “work so that it becomes a battle for them in Iran and not in Saudi Arabia.” “I am sure Persian Gulf Arab countries are behind this,” said Nahid Ghanbari, a 21-year-old university student studying accounting. “They have been angry about Iran’s power in the region. They look for a way to destabilize our country.” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, used the attacks to defend Tehran’s involvement in wars abroad. He told a group of students that if “Iran had not resisted,” it would have faced even more troubles. “The Iranian nation will go forward,” he added. The violence began in midmorning when assailants with Kalashnikov rifles and explosives stormed the parliament complex where a legislative session had been in progress. The siege lasted for hours, and one of the attackers blew himself up inside, according to Iran’s state TV. Images circulating in Iranian media showed gunmen held rifles near the windows of the complex. One showed a toddler being handed through a first-floor window to safety outside as an armed man looked on. As the parliament attack unfolded, gunmen and suicide bombers also struck outside Khomeini’s mausoleum on Tehran’s southern outskirts. Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah to become Iran’s first supreme leader until his death in 1989. Iran’s state broadcaster said a security guard was killed at the tomb and that one of the attackers was slain by security guards. A woman was also arrested. The revered shrine was not damaged. Police on Thursday said they now held six suspects as part of their investigation into the attacks. Reza Seifollahi, an official in the country’s Supreme National Security Council, was quoted by Iranian media as saying that the perpetrators of the attacks were Iranian nationals. He did not elaborate. Tehran’s stock exchange fell nearly 2 percent Thursday after the attacks. ___ Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. |
How do I know I’m transgender? I spent two decades trying to be cis. Jesse DeRita Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 14, 2016 Since coming out as transgender almost two years ago, a few times people have worked up the nerve to ask me, how did I know? How could I be sure? Didn’t I understand what I was saying? Yes, I understood what I was saying. I was saying I was going to undergo major surgery. Yes, I understood, testosterone therapy would shift my face and body into a reflection that not even I would find familiar. I admit, at the start of transition, I really couldn’t know if hormones and surgery were going to be helpful for me. It was a leap of faith I took, faith in an idea that I hadn’t been aware of for all that long. If I hadn’t known transgender people existed five years earlier, how could I be a transgender person? I had spent two decades trying to be cisgender, meaning, I tried to live as the gender I was assigned at birth. As a child, I can say definitively that I did not feel like a little girl. Did I feel like a little boy? I don’t know; I was only ever the person I was. Being categorized with the girls, I wasn’t insulted to be associated with them. The label felt incorrect, similar to what one feels when called the wrong name. I had a girl’s body. I wanted very much to be a girl. I just wasn’t one. The result? I was a very depressed and anxious child. I hated the way I looked, and puberty magnified this. Despite these feelings, I was able to form friendships with other kids across gender lines. I learned to live with the subtle, low level jealousy I felt toward boys, not understanding that the hurt I felt was a longing to be accepted and seen for the person I was inside. My friendships with girls were a complicated mix of being glad to be near them, with the background noise of wishing they saw me differently, wishing for an impossible reality where they wanted me not for the me I was, but for an invisible version of myself where I could be the ‘boy next door’. As a teen, I was obsessed with masculinity and femininity. I watched Fight Club almost every day, while also reading books on applying makeup and watching the women around me. Like a method actor, I practiced feminizing my mannerisms, my walk, my pattern of speech. I hated my breasts, but knew that other people found them to be beautiful and that there was a sort of power in that, and I learned to use my sexuality to distract from my masculine temperament. If I could distract people, I could hide in plain sight. Hiding in plain sight became the status quo. When I became unexpectedly pregnant at 18, I saw an opportunity to throw myself into motherhood, to connect with the womanhood assigned to me. In the span of five years, I married the father of my child, and gave birth to three children total by age 24. Giving birth, breastfeeding three infants, being married to a man. None of these things made me a woman. None of these things connected me to my femininity. I loved my family fiercely, but looking at my husband filled me with jealousy, with pain. I looked at his shoulders, and wished mine were strong like his. I would buy him button downs and oxfords that weren’t his style and try to convince him to dress in them, but when it came time to buy something for myself, I ordered it online, didn’t try it on. I even ordered my wedding dress online. In my children’s baby years, I befriended many incredible women, and witnessed the strong love that female friendship could be. Being around these mothers, it highlighted to me that I would never truly be one of them. I couldn’t make myself fit, no matter how much I wanted to, and there were times in my life where I would have given just about anything to feel at home as a woman, to be cisgender. When they confided in me, I felt like a liar. They wouldn’t be telling me these things if they knew I was a man, I thought to myself. What an insane thought, I would chide myself. You can’t be a man; look in a mirror. The internalized transphobia and cissexism caused me to doubt something that felt incredibly real to me. How did I know I was transgender? I didn’t, exactly, but I knew I wasn’t a woman. Transition cost me many things. It put every relationship I had in my life under strain. My spouse and I divorced, and I moved back in with my parents. I was suddenly known in my small town as the ‘mom that became a guy’. I’ve been misgendered and laughed at, and still deal with awkward and hurtful moments on a regular basis. I highlight this to draw notice to the argument that the incentive to ‘opt in’ to being transgender, a common defense of transphobes and bigots in general, as an argument without basis. Nobody opts into oppression. The sheer awkwardness of a pronoun change is enough to keep a person from transitioning out of fear of being rejected socially, let alone the actual physical harm that comes to many as a result of being trans. The pain I dealt with is a small fraction of the danger and upset I would deal with were I not a white man who is perceived as such, an intersection of privilege that insulates me from the violence of racism and sexism, and affords me the benefit of the doubt whether I deserve it or not. Changing my body to align with my gender identity afforded me an authentic and full life, a life that feels beautiful and connected. While not all trans people need or want medical intervention, for me those interventions have allowed me to think of myself and my body as a single entity for the first time in memory; I am no longer disassociated from my physical form. I believe that a person cannot really be fully invested in a life if they are not living it as themselves. Transition freed me from a life lived for others, and introduced me to an existence where I have a will to live, for it’s own sake. I still struggle with anxiety like many people, but no longer do I lose days to laying in bed, or have long crying jags for ‘no reason’ or spend my time fixated on distractions that don’t matter, just to avoid looking inward. I am in a healthy and fulfilling relationship where I am myself, without the dark shadow of my unresolved gender issues. I have been able to become a parent who is present, who is paying attention, and who can envision a future worth participating in. I know I am transgender because I spent my whole life trying to be cisgender. I know I am transgender because transition allowed me to be at home in my body. I know I am transgender, because transition allowed me to live, instead of just being alive. |
My Santa was quick to contact me, which is always nice. He even educated me on some Scandinavian traditions (gotta love doing International). He messaged me promptly that part 1 of my gift had shipped, and when I checked tracking I couldn't believe that it would be here the next day (hooray for a local Amazon warehouse)!! I was out and about with Christmas shopping the following day and came home early afternoon to see 2 boxes by the front door. Bummer, they were for my husband. Right around supper time the lovely brown UPS truck rolled up outside of our house. This time the package was for me and damn was it heavy for a little box. I couldn't open it fast enough! My Santa could not have picked a better present, "Written in My Own Heart's Blood" the newest book from Diana Gabaldon, a long time favourite author of mine (if you haven't read her work, you really need to). Hardcover no less (814 pages of pure awesome, hence the heavy little box)!! I had it on my Amazon wishlist, mainly as a hint to my husband. I certainly didn't expect to get it from my Santa, but I couldn't be more thrilled! And he says there's more to come! What a great guy!! Thanks so much Madsohm! Delivery #2 & #3 - I was late in posting gift #2 which is covenient really, because gift #3 came today! I was really lucky this year, my Santa really spoiled us. We got a pin, stickers, and t-shirts in gift #2. He even picked my daughters favourite colours! As if that wasn't enough, today we got one of those adorable redditgift boxes that transform into a house. In it was the softest snugly Snoo, a magnetic snoo clip, and a "sew your own kitty" that my daughters can't wait to do. They're taking turns sleeping with the Snoo, affectionately renamed Pepper (because apparently pepper makes him sneeze). Madsohm, you totally went overboard and shouldn't have, but we love you for it!! You now have friends in Western Canada should you ever make it this way. I hope 2015 is extra special for you! |
There's a new report out from Swrve which says 0.15% of mobile players account for 50% of mobile games revenue. The general idea isn't exactly groundbreaking news, but those specific numbers seem even more imbalanced than previously thought. The existence of "whales" in mobile gaming has been a staple of the industry for a while now. It's a term salesmen use for huge clients or casinos use for big spenders. But I think it's worth taking a look at the possible moral and ethical issues behind these elusive sea creatures in the mobile space. While the whales of the business world are millionaire or billionaire fat cats, that's usually not the case in the mobile scene. Rather, the types of people who spend thousands of dollars on free to play mobile games are generally not Arab sheiks or titans of industry. They're normal people with addictive personalities, and some mobile games have created a new sort of addicting environment that hasn't really been seen before. It's a weird hybrid of gambling addiction and more traditional video game addiction, neither of which is anything new, but the combination of the two is a relatively novel emerging phenomenon, and one all the mobile games giants are taking advantage of to full effect. While traditional game addiction hoovers up a player's time, there's usually something of a limit on the amount of money that can be sunk into a game. A Call of Duty or Skyrim addict may pour thousands of hours into a title, but relatively little cash past the initial $60 investment and a bit of merchandise. A game like League of Legends can be a huge time and money suck due to plenty of in-game microtranscations, but the sorts of things you can buy (character skins) aren't crucial to success in the game. Enter mobile/casual titles. They're free to play to get players hooked, but then nearly all of the content in the game can be bought with real world cash. As a secondary source of income, games like these will put up artificial time blocks that players can pay to skip. Both of these systems directly go after addicts. They don't care about their time necessarily, but they sure as hell want their money. And with time blocks as a core mechanic of the game, the only way a player can invest more time is to invest more money. While it's possible in games like Zynga's Farmville or Supercell's Clash of Clans to get a big farm or castle eventually, the leaderboards heavily favor those who spend real life money, and lots of it. A player who spends $5 for the resources to built a guard tower and $5 to skip the lengthy build time will have a distinct advantage over someone who waited a few days rather than a few seconds to get the same item. This isn't gambling, not really. The result isn't random; you get what you pay for. But the symptoms of addiction and the behavior of the addict is the same. "Just $5" turns into $20 then $100 then $5,000 in the worst cases. While like gambling, everyone has the right to do whatever they want with their money, addiction is very real, and it effects people who don't have that sort of money to spend more than the rich simply looking to have a bit of fun. If 0.15% of players are responsibly for 50% of mobile revenue, that equates to a lot of regular people spending serious cash on these games. The people I hear most often spending themselves into oblivion after getting hopelessly addicting to these games are bored middle-aged women and depressed college kids. Is there anything owed to people like this? Or can they simply do what they want? They can, of course. I'm not suggesting that games where it's possible to spend $5,000 a month on virtual goods shouldn't exist, any more than I'd say Las Vegas should shut down or prohibition should be reinstated. But I don't think this is a problem with much of a support system to help combat it. Gambling addiction is as old as time, but many of its lessons wouldn't quite cross over to this virtual realm. Video game addiction is on the rise, but this is a variant that can not only bankrupt someone's social life, but their bank accounts as well. There should be more education, more help available for people like these. While casinos advise us to seek help for gambling problems and beer commercials tell us to drive responsibly, so far all these mobile games companies do is bathe in the money of these super whales, and the fact that heavy, hurtful addiction plays a significant role in this 0.15%/50% revenue ratio is rarely discussed. Perhaps it should be. Follow me on Twitter, subscribe to my Forbes feed, and pick up a copy of my sci-fi novel, The Last Exodus, and its sequel, The Exiled Earthborn. |
REPEATEDLY over the last year and a half, I’ve written about teachers in Catholic schools and leaders in Catholic parishes who were dismissed from their posts because they were in same-sex relationships and — in many cases — had decided to marry. Every time, more than a few readers weighed in to tell me that these people had it coming. If you join a club, they argued, you play by its rules or you suffer the consequences. Oh really? The rules of this particular club prohibit divorce, yet the pews of many of the Catholic churches I’ve visited are populous with worshipers on their second and even third marriages. They walk merrily to the altar to receive communion, not a peep of protest from a soul around them. They participate fully in the rituals of the church, their membership in the club uncontested. The rules prohibit artificial birth control, and yet most of the Catholic families I know have no more than three children, which is either a miracle of naturally capped fecundity or a sign that someone’s been at the pharmacy. I’m not aware of any church office that monitors such matters, poring over drugstore receipts. And I haven’t heard of any teachers fired or parishioners denied communion on the grounds of insufficiently brimming broods. |
Snowpiercer has managed to take on something of a mythological form over the last year. Bong Joon-Ho’s new film has been highly anticipated by those who were blown away by his eccentric monster movie The Host and murder mystery masterpiece Mother. Fans waited with baited breath to see what he would do with the ambitious source material, high budget and cast of A-listers including Chris Evans and John Hurt. However, upon completion, Harvey Weinstein stripped creative control away from him. Despite being one of the highest grossing releases in Bong’s home country the notoriously bull-headed studio mogul, who owns the rights to release it in six major Western markets, proceeded to cut an entire 20 minutes from the movie. He patronisingly claimed that he wanted Snowpiercer to be dumbed down so it “will be understood by audiences in Iowa and Oklahoma.” He allegedly took his infamous ‘scissor hands’ to the unconventional ending, a great deal of character development and one particularly taboo-breaking classroom scene. It felt like the movie had derailed, like it was fated never to arrive in its intended form. Bong Joon-Ho and Harvey Weinstein quickly locked horns and lawyers became involved. The director’s loyal fan base, as well as pretty much anyone opposed to Weinstein’s tyranny, took Bong’s side and announced via social media that they would refuse to watch an American cut. Then, finally, after almost six months of fighting, Weinstein caved under the pressure from all corners and we got some welcome news: Snowpiecer would be given a limited US release in the summer, and it would be shown in full. The question now remains: was the full director’s cut of Snowpiercer worth fighting for? In short: hell yes. Snowpiercer is set in a post-apocalyptic future. In the beginning we learn that in an attempt to lower temperatures and stop global warming the governments of the world released a substance called CW7 into the atmosphere. It worked, but it worked too well. The planet’s temperature was sent dramatically in the other direction plunging humanity into a second ice age. The only people able to survive as the world descended into an uninhabitable frozen wasteland were the passengers of a non-stop train designed by the eccentric and enigmatic Wilford. The film is set entirely within the claustrophobic confines of this vehicle. In the years since the event, the train has begun to form its own class system and political hierarchy. At the head of the train is an eccentric Terry Gilliam like world of overindulgence. Meanwhile, those at the tail of the train are enslaved to a life of drudgery. After years of pain and misery, the citizens at the tail of the train have had enough of being pushed around by those in charge. They are planning to revolt, determined to take the engine from its conductor Wilford. Curtis (Chris Evans), a fierce revolutionist with a dark backstory, has scripted a plan to make it past the guards that seclude one class from another alongside his mentor Gilliam (John Hurt). The fighters also include Curtis’ loyal friend Jamie Bell, security specialist Kang-Ho Song and his daughter Ah-Sung Ko, as well as Octavia Spencer who is looking for the young son Wilford took away from her. When the action kicks in, Snowpiercer is structured in the video game format of The Raid. Each carriage possesses another wave of foes for the tail end of the train to defeat. Brilliantly constructed set pieces capture the action that is by turns beautiful and brutal. There’s an intense night-vision sequence that occurs when the train plunges into a tunnel. There’s also an axe-wielding corridor fight that sees Bong Joon-Ho throw down the gauntlet and challenge his producer Chan Wook Park’s masterful sequence in Old Boy. The film charges from one carriage to the next at a pulse-pounding speed with each new set piece. As we follow the revolutionaries through each carriage, fighting their way to the front, we also bear witness the train’s hierarchy and the increasing levels of excess as they work their way towards the ‘sacred engine’. Tilda Swinton’s Minister Monroe, a Margaret Thatcher like antagonist who demands order and structure as Wilford’s second-in-command, defines the barmy world of the train’s head. This is the actress at her most absurd, and at her best. Moments like these show that there is far more at work in Snowpiercer than just action. With rich political themes, the film provides a stark contrast to what many science fiction movies aspire to in the comic book era. But it’s not just the movie’s intelligence that makes it stand out from the crowd. One of the aspects that surely convinced Harvey Weinstein to attempt to cut the film is how feverishly unconventional Snowpiercer is. The plot twists and turns in directions that are unpredictable. It’s impossible to know where the film will take you from one moment to the next. It’s a film that actively enjoys throwing a spanner in the work and taking its audience by surprise – and it’s all the more entertaining for it. The entire tone of the movie refuses to conform to expectations too. What begins as a dark and gloomy dystopian vision of the future gets increasingly bonkers as the revolutionaries ascend the train. This reaches fever pitch at the aforementioned taboo-breaking school scene. A bright and colorful diversion from everything that came before it, the scene sees the fighters interrupt The Newsroom star Allison Pill in the middle of a lesson in the train’s classroom. She’s teaching the train’s youth about the history of their home. A crazy and hilarious singsong interlude with the children ensues, describing their leader Wilford while the kids sport gothic hand-made masks like something out of The Wicker Man. It’s about to get even more surprising, concluding with an uncomfortable and shockingly dark twist that illustrates how far the train’s elite will go to prevent revolt. It is a moment likely to cause controversy. However, the cause for major alarm at The Weinstein Company, at least if the reports are to be believed, was Snowpiercer’s final act. Of course, we won’t divulge any of the details about the film’s ending, but it should go without saying at this point that Snowpiercer doesn’t provide your typical Hollywood climax. Bong Joon-Ho’s overriding theme in the film is that of revolution, but his finale doesn’t conform to the optimistic cliche of good triumphing over adversity. Instead, Bong looks at whether the cost of revolution is really worth what it achieves. After the enormous tole in takes, are we destined to fall into the same patterns of hierarchy again and again? And if so, what is the solution? We won’t say any more for fear of revealing too much but it’s a bold, intelligent and fiercely unconventional ending that could, in fact, warrant an essay of its own. Whether all of Snowpiercer‘s greatness would have been present had the Weinstein cut gone ahead is doubtful. The greatest attributes of Bong Joon-Ho’s release are both the complexity of its themes and the audacious way it executes them. A ‘dumbed down’ cut is likely to have hacked Snowpiercer to the simplest possible story it could, stripping this sci-fi of its lofty ambitions and glorious unpredictability. And these are precisely the things that make Snowpiercer one of the greatest entries into the genre in a long time. So, was the full director’s cut worth fighting for? You are goddamned right it was. Snowpiercer is currently available to purchase on blu-ray in France |
Megatron thinks the Seekers should be having a better season for the Decepticons. TNF Anxiety Meter Have worries about starting someone on Thursday night? Adam Rank allays some fears with his weekly fantasy Anxiety Meter. More ... Have worries about starting someone on Thursday night?allays some fears with his weekly fantasy Anxiety Meter. As Calvin Johnson closes in on his third straight 1,000-yard season (974 yards) he said with all the double and triple teams he's been seeing, other Detroit Lions receivers should be having big years. "There (have) been games, whether it be the tight end, or Titus (Young), Nate (Burleson) when he was here, they've been able to have some big games," Johnson said, via MLive.com. "That's something that you got to have. That's something that I feel like, put it like this, somebody out of the receiving group, strictly receivers, should have 100 yards every game. That's just the way I feel about it." Unfortunately, Mr. Megatron, should and do are two completely different situations. The only time any other receiver (or even tight end) has breached the 100-yard mark was Young, who hit 100 on the dot against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 8. The receiving corp of Young, Burleson and rookie Ryan Broyles has only hit the mark three times combined this season -- two of those games (Seattle, Chicago) when Johnson was held below 50 yards. Young has been the most disappointing of the trio. The second-year wideout was expected to help take some of the heat off Megatron this season with his ability to take the top off a defense. However, through Week 10 he has only two catches of more than 25 yards. Both 46-yard touchdowns, but one was on a desperation Hail Mary catch against the Tennessee Titans that was batted back at him. He has struggled with drops and has rarely gotten separation from his defender. Broyles has had his moments since Buleson went down with a broken leg. He has shown some potential in the slot and has sticky hands -- caught 13 of the 17 targets thrown his way. He is still overcoming an ACL injury he suffered in college and trying to learn the intricacies of the pro offense. Oddly, Broyles and Young are both averaging 11.2 yards per catch, miles behind Megatron's 16.2. With tight end Brandon Pettigrew continuing to struggle holding onto the ball, the receiving corp will play a bigger role as teams continue to roll coverge Johnson's way. The All-Pro receiver, for his part, has confidence in his group of pass-catchers. "This is the firepower weapons we have in this offense," he said. |
Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant says he won’t visit the White House to celebrate his team’s championship with President Trump if they are invited. Thursday during an interview with "Nah, I won't do that," Durant saidduring an interview with ESPN . "I don't respect who's in office right now." The White House has not yet extended a formal invitation to the Warriors, according to the sports network. The team will visit Washington on Feb. 28 to play the Wizards. ADVERTISEMENT The 2017 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player spoke at a time when Trump has come under fierce criticism for his response to the deadly violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va. "I just wanted to sit back and analyze everything and gather my thoughts," Durant said. "I wanted to say something immediately, but I definitely want to be the voice of where I come from and people who have come from my neighborhood and deal with oppression.” Durant praised Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who refused to stand during the national anthem to protest police violence against black men, Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James and other famous athletes for speaking out on political issues. “A lot [of] guys with platforms have drove the conversation in a good direction. And what's going on in Charlottesville, that was unfathomable,” he said. Durant’s teammates, Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala, have each expressed reservations about going to the White House to celebrate their title with Trump. "I don't agree with what he agrees with, so my voice is going to be heard by not doing that," Durant said. "That's just me personally, but if I know my guys well enough, they'll all agree with me." Head coach Steve Kerr has asked his players to consider a visit “out of respect for the office itself.” But Kerr added that “ultimately it would be their decision … because it’s about them.” |
Poland has lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights against a condemning ruling on the country’s so-called ‘black sites’. The court found Warsaw had violated two terror suspects’ rights as it let the CIA interrogate them on its territory. The appeal to review the case was lodged by Poland’s Foreign Ministry, which announced the move on Friday. Details of the appeal are withheld, but it is said to have been prepared on procedural grounds, according to Reuters. In July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Poland violated an international treaty to protect human rights in 2002-2003 as it stroke a deal with the CIA. The rights the Polish authorities were cited to have abused include cover-up of torture, the right to liberty and the right to an effective remedy for victims of crime. READ MORE: European rights court condemns Poland for hosting secret CIA prisons The case was filed by two men, Saudi-born Abu Zubaydah and Saudi national Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. They claim they were brought to Poland in December 2002 and taken to a secret CIA prison in a Polish forest, code named ‘Quartz’. There they were subjected to treatment which amounted to torture. Both are now detainees at the US-run Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. The American government accused Zubaydah of running a terror camp in Afghanistan where some of the September 11 hijackers trained. Al-Nashiri was accused of directing an attack on the US warship Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden in 2000 that killed 17 sailors. “Both applicants… complained that Poland had knowingly and intentionally enabled their transfer from Polish territory despite the real risk of further ill-treatment and incommunicado detention, allowing them to be transferred to a jurisdiction where they would be denied a fair trial,” the court’s statement said. “Finally, they complained that Poland had failed to conduct an effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding their ill-treatment, detention and transfer from the Polish territory.” READ MORE: Gitmo detainees expose CIA's 'extraordinary rendition' at secret prison in Poland The court found the claims were sufficiently convincing. It concluded Poland cooperated in the CIA’s rendition program. "For all practical purposes, Poland had facilitated the whole process, had created the conditions for it to happen and had made no attempt to prevent it from occurring," the ECHR said. Poland was ordered to pay €100,000 in damages to al-Nashiri and 130,000 euros to Zubaydah. Poland denied the existence of CIA prisons on its territory. The USA acknowledged the presence of facilities outside US jurisdiction, but didn’t identify the exact locations of them. The ruling could serve as a precedent for other European states alleged to have hosted CIA prisons. Similar cases have been filed with the ECHR against Romania and Lithuania. The US, meanwhile, is outside of the court's jurisdiction. The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) stated in its report in 2013 that at least 54 countries had offered the CIA support to detain, transport, interrogate and torture suspects in the years following the 9/11 attacks. |
Kerala was awarded as the best family destination in the country. (File Photo) Highlights Kerala won the award at the Lonely Planet Magazine Travel Awards 2016 Also nominated in the best place for 'culture' and 'to relax' categories Kerala earlier won for its contribution as leader to sustainable tourism Kerala has once again been named as the best family destination in the country at the Lonely Planet Magazine India (LPMI) Travel Awards 2016.Kerala Tourism Director U V Jose received the award at a function in Mumbai on Monday, a release said in Thiruvananthapuram.The annual awards showcase the best travel experiences available to Indians and anoint the best service providers, the preferred places to stay and the destinations Indians most love to visit, it said.Nominations for the awards are shortlisted by a panel of travel experts and professionals, following which readers vote both online and in the magazine.Besides being judged the best place to take the family along for a holiday, Kerala was also nominated in the best destination for 'culture' and 'to relax' categories. Kerala Tourism had earlier won the Ulysses Prize of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation for its contribution as a global leader to sustainable tourism, the release added. |
PUTRAJAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The minute of silence to be observed for the victims of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is expected to be held some 45 minutes after the special plane transporting the remains of the victims taxies down the runway at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Friday morning. The one minute is expected to fall sometime between 10.45am and 11.30am, said Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek. "We hope the people can be ready for the moment of silence expected to be held during that time. "An announcement will be made for the nation to stand and observe the one minute of silence," he told a joint press conference on Wednesday on the ceremony to receive the remains of the MH17 victims. Traffic is expected to come to a standstill at the following locations during the moment of silence - Penang Bridge, Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad in Kuala Lumpur, KLIA, KLIA2 and Sultan Iskandar Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex in Johor Baru. Ahmad Shabery said that people could also observe the moment of silence in their office, vehicles and even in school. He said the plane transporting the remains would be here by 9.45am on Friday, if it depart from Amsterdam at 2pm (Netherlands time). "We have asked all radio stations to broadcast the ceremony at Kompleks Bunga Raya. "As for television, we hope that they would not show entertainment programmes except for sports on that day. "However, we want all channels, be they movie or drama, to broadcast the moment of silence, of which the template will be decided later," he said. Ahmad Shabery said police personnel would be on hand to manage the traffic flow for the convoy of the remains enroute to the burial grounds in the respective states. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mu'adzam Shah would be attending the ceremony at KLIA while the Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah is expected to be in Ipoh to receive the remains. Elected representatives, especially all Members of Parliament and foreign ambassadors, have also been invited for the ceremony at KLIA. |
From Monday through Friday, you'll find Akim Aliu on the ice training and practicing with the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga Steelheads - staying in shape while waiting for the phone to ring. At 25, the second-round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007 is still chasing the dream of playing in the NHL. His passion for the game remains strong - as strong as the responsibility he feels to create a more comfortable life for his mother Larissa and father Tai. They dedicated their lives to Akim his older brother Edward, and in Akim's case, gave him the opportunity to play a sport they knew very little about. Aliu's most recent brush with the NHL came in the form of a tryout with the American Hockey League's Rochester Americans, the affiliate team for the Buffalo Sabres. Aliu scored three goals in his first three games with Rochester to start the season, but couldn't crack the lineup. He was released and remains in a place he's been before - hoping for a brighter future, but still haunted by his past. Born in Africa, Aliu spent most of the first 10 years of his life in Russia. With a masters degree in geology, his father moved the family to Canada in search of a better life. Their small family rented a one-room apartment in Toronto and supported by welfare, Tai Aliu delivered pizzas while both parents held down odd jobs to pay the bills. Hockey was foreign to this family, but they quickly recognized it was part of the Canadian way. While Akim didn't understand the game and couldn't speak a word of English, his father purchased a pair of skates at a garage sale (four sizes too big) to introduce his young son to the culture of the sports. By his own admission, Akim couldn't skate in his first month of house league in Parkdale. And yet a few months later, he led the league in scoring and the seed for a promising career had been planted. Aliu jumped from house league to AAA the following season, playing with future Montreal Canadiens star P.K. Subban on the North York Rangers. From there he moved on to the Toronto Marlies, joining forces with the likes of future NHLers John Tavares, Sam Gagner and Brendan Smith. Aliu remained with the Marlies until getting drafted into the OHL, sixth overall by the Windsor Spitfires. He was big, aggressive, had offensive talent and could play forward or defence. Aliu was on his way. "I didn't grow up in this game," he explained. "For me, everything was trial and error. But as I got older, I started to understand the discipline of the game." But Aliu's critics will say, he lacks discipline - and perhaps, he has in varying forms. Aliu admits that stemmed from his early days of talking back to coaches, missing curfew or being late for practices. He's made mistakes and he's willing to own up to them all. That said, he isn't speaking out now to give excuses or seek pity either. He simply wants another chance to prove he can be the player some predicted he might be when he was highly-ranked for the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Following a much-publicized hazing controversy in 2006 (where a 16-year-old Aliu refused to participate, resulting in a fight with Spitfires captain Steve Downie that ultimately led to both players getting traded, Windsor coach and GM Moe Mantha getting suspended and the Spitfires slapped with a $35,000 fine), things started to turn and for a while, the world was right. Aliu fit in well with his new team the Sudbury Wolves, scoring 20 goals and 42 points in his draft year. He was told he would be a first-round pick, perhaps as high as the Top 15. But that didn't happen. "I sat there for three hours with my family and it was the most miserable three hours of my life," Aliu recalled. "It's hard to explain how difficult it is to sit there and hear all of the names called out, agonizingly waiting for mine." And the name Akim Aliu was called in the second round, 56th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks. His fear that a tarnished reputation would take its toll became reality. "Leading up to the draft, I kept hearing things about my character that simply weren't true," he said. "I felt helpless and kept trying to think of ways to get the message out." Aliu admits it took years to get over his draft day disappointment and he has regrets about what followed that fateful day. As a 20-year old in Chicago's system and playing in Rockford under head coach Bill Peters, he said he felt the pressure of Chicago's younger first rounders gaining the edge. Aliu could feel his stock dropping and didn't handle it well. "I didn't know how to deal with coaches," he explained. "I wasn't good at taking criticism. I thought I was doing everything right and everyone else was wrong." Following the departure of Dale Tallon and Rick Dudley from the Blackhawks organization, things spiralled further down for Aliu. He would rejoin Dudley in Atlanta, but the Thrashers soon became the Winnipeg Jets and his opportunity faded again. He eventually made his way to Calgary, where then-Flames GM Jay Feaster was intrigued by his size and skill. Aliu made his NHL debut in April of 2012 and in just his second game with the Flames, scored two goals in a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks. His play earned him a one-year contract for 2012-13, but it took a hit because of a lockout-shortened season and significant injuries that required surgeries on both his wrist and ankle. Yet another speed bump on his path to the NHL. There are a number of reasons for Aliu to abandon his dream, but he's far from doing that. He's had offers and opportunities to return to Europe or join former NHLers in the KHL, but he's not ready to do that either. He believes there has to be a spot for a Dustin Byfuglien-type player - capable of playing forward or defence - and that he can be a role model for kids growing up with little money and facing some of the difficulties he faced himself - and is still trying to overcome. Akim Aliu believes. Now he just needs to find someone in the NHL who believes in him. |
Staying in a dorm room with strangers can be a whole lot of fun, although it does come with challenges – cacophonous snoring, intimate smooching and offensive odours. Here are some handy tips to make your hostelling experience all the better. 'Shall we flip a coin to decide who sleeps on these moss-covered rocks?' Compromise is key to getting along with your fellow hostellers. Image by Jupiterimages / Getty Images Don’t treat shared bathrooms like a spa Picture the scene. After standing in the corridor for over 15 minutes waiting to use one of the hostel’s only two showers, another four people have joined the queue. The feisty hosteller in front of you is banging on the shower door. After what seems like an eternity, someone steps out of the cubicle amid billowing hot steam. But when you step in and switch the shower on, the water is barely a trickle. Somehow, gingerly splashing your nether regions with chilly water wasn’t the deep cleanse you were hoping for. Pro tip: shower outside the rush hours of early mornings and late evenings to avoid queuing. If you’re guilty of long indulgent soaks, try to remember your equally sweaty and smelly bunkmates need a shower too. Don’t be the late-night rustler A rustling sound breaks the silence that has finally descended on your dorm room. Your bunkmate has leaped off the bed above you and is performing a series of packing rituals at the ungodly hour of 4am. One by one, he sorts his trainers, shoes and sandals into colour-coded plastic bags. Only when he finally leaves for his early-morning train does quiet return… that is, until a soundtrack of snoring erupts from the opposite side of the room. Pro tip: when it comes to other people’s nocturnal noise, earplugs can be a great defence. If you’re noisy yourself, spare your roommates by packing the night before an early start, and use a backpack with a side-zip to access your stuff (it cuts down the rummaging). And if you’re known for breathing a tad heavily, try to doze off in your less snore-prone position. Sure you can keep your rucksack and flammable clothing right next to the lamp, it's not like there aren't clearly marked fire exits... oh. Image by Gabe Rogel / Aurora / Getty Images Think before you hit the light switch You’re just about to drift off to sleep when the dorm room light comes on. With a single flick of a switch, your new hostel friends just became foes. Hostels are packed with jet lagged and exhausted travellers, so light switch wars are a common source of tension. If you find yourself in the crossfire, try to win over your roommates by staying positive and friendly. If negotiation and common courtesy fail, try and see the humour in the situation – you’ll be telling the story of your jerk roommates for weeks after your trip. Pro tip: need to navigate back to your bunk after lights-out? Use your phone as a torch, or download a torch app (just don’t flash it in your roommates’ faces). And if you’re the one blinded by the lights, consider packing a pair of eyeshades. 'Off': it's hostel speak for 'there's people sleeping in here, numb-nuts'. Image by Paul Cross / CC BY 2.0 Leave romance at the dorm room door An unfamiliar sound wakes you, followed by heavy panting – a couple in the bunk next to yours have had a caipirinha too many. They are shushing each other, she lets out a little giggle, and a full re-enactment of R Kelly’s Bump n’ Grind is unfolding. When travellers are on the road for a while, sparks inevitably fly. But there are better venues for romance (a capsule hotel or behind a sand dune?) Pro tip: guilty of a little dorm room romance? No matter how quiet you think you are, you can bet your life your roommates are reaching for the popcorn. Keep it classy and find a different location. If it’s your bunkmates dancing the horizontal tango, see the next section for ways to decelerate their romance. Lay off the beans A powerful odour wafts through the dorm. A thunderous fart has awoken the entire room. While the other travellers shift uneasily under their sheets, you’re left wondering whether to stay put, leap for the door or start lighting matches. And you push from your mind the awful possibility that you might be the culprit... Pro tip: we’re all human. But in close quarters an ‘excuse me’ goes a long way, as does quarantining yourself in a bathroom stall if you’ve had an especially heavy night on the refried beans. If you’re the victim, some passive-aggressive spraying of aerosol deodorant should make your point. Delicious beans. But for some reason, eating them right before bed has a tendency to, ahem, backfire. Image by Jessica Rossi / CC BY-SA 2.0 Keep your clothes on You’re happily packing away when a furry shape pops into your field of vision: a stray wombat, or the elusive yeti? No, just your roommate strolling around butt naked. Seeing an exceptionally hirsute backside on the bunk below me first thing in the morning wasn’t the best way to start my day when I shared a room with a nudist in an Australian hostel, and some tact is often required to ask them not to leave it all hanging out. Pro tip: wanting to ‘get back to nature’ doesn’t equate to nudity, whether you’re male or female, average-looking or a love-god. Be sensitive that your neighbours might have differing comfort levels when it comes to big ol’ naked you – and don’t be shy about offering your exhibitionist bunkmates a towel. Don’t be the guy with the phone A loud ringtone breaks the early evening chatter, sending a wave of eye-rolling around the room. Your roommate frantically rummages in his backpack. The ring tone reaches a crescendo of vibrations and tinny Nokia beeps. He eventually retrieves it and lies back on his bed, squealing down the phone in excitement to his family back home. Pro tip: leave your phone on vibrate, especially in the evenings. And if you’re going to answer, take it outside. It may be important to you, but no one else wants their socialising (or sleep) interrupted by what uncle Max has to tell you from back home. Your dorm room should not look like a Mumbai laundry. Image by Andreas Eldh / CC BY 2.0 Don’t be the dorm room slob Your roommate is munching on her fifth pack of crisps as she lies on her bed, headphones in ears, bathrobe loosely wrapped around her. A gentle snow of crumbs drifts downwards as she dusts off her hands, descends from the bunk, and nimbly leaps over the heap of towels, travel guides and headphone cables that she’s dumped on the floor. Those lessons about tidiness you ignored while growing up? They’re coming back to haunt you. Pro tip: in-room lockers are a godsend when it comes to stashing your gear safely in one place – use them, and nudge any slovenly roommates in their direction. If that fails, commenting loudly on how you’ve always wanted a pair of those expensive headphones is a good way to get your roommates to stow their gear out of sight. Don’t lounge with laundry The crisp-muncher is back, and this time she’s got laundry. She hangs her just-washed trekking gear around the dorm room, looping bras around bedposts and stringing her socks over the windowsill. As if that musty smell wasn’t enough, a pair of damp knickers has just fallen onto your pillow. Perfect. Pro tip: most hostels have drying rooms where guests are encouraged to hang their wet clothes. Don’t be shy to remind your roomies if their smalls are decorating your bunk. If the drying racks are full, it’s a nice gesture to fold other people’s clothes (instead of tossing them to the side) before hanging yours up. Donning the shower cap too early: rookie mistake if you're a hosteller queuing for a shared bathroom. Image by Michael Coghlan / CC BY-SA 2.0 |
TV exec research presentations tend to be a little dry, but NBC Universal's Alan Wurtzel bucked that trend on Wednesday — outing the viewership of several Netflix series to the delight of many reporters. Data gathered from a sample of 15,000 users, by San Francisco tech firm Symphony, paints Jessica Jones as an especially strong player for the streamer. Based on audio recognition data, covering the months of September, October, November and December, a slide showed that an average 4.8 million viewers in the adults 18-49 group watched an episode of the Marvel drama. (The demographic, it should be noted, likely doesn't matter very much to Netflix on account of the absence of advertising.) Following Jessica Jones was Master of None (3.9 million adults 18-49) and Narcos (3.2 million adults 18-49). And in Narcos' defense, the sample mentioned missed the first few days of the show's release. Speaking of outside the premiere window, Wurtzel also cited that Orange Is the New Black, which premiered back in June, was still averaging 644,000 adults 18-49 two months after its third season kicked off. |
291 SHARES Facebook Twitter Linkedin Reddit In-game advertisement (IGA) is a pretty divisive issue; on one hand it provides needed incentive to developers who otherwise wouldn’t have the funds, on the other hand its … advertisement, something most people try to avoid on principle. Now that virtual reality is coming to a wider audience, it seems the medium is mature enough to open the conversation about funding games with ads, something HTC is letting developers enable in a big way with their newly announced VR Ad Service—and VR ads are different. Very different. Launched today at 2017 VIVE Ecosystem Conference, a new HTC event centered on the future of the Vive platform, the VR Ad Service will make it easier for developers to integrate a number of ad styles into their games hosted on Viveport. Viveport is the company’s digital distribution platform intended for both at-home service and the ever-growing out-of-home arcade market proliferating across China. The new program offers a number of ad styles that can play on both PC and a still unnamed HTC mobile VR headset. These include loading scene banners, big screen video, and both 2D and 3D in-app placement advertisements. A full list is available on the Vive developer site. The VR Ad Service is an opt-in program, so only developers that wish to include ads can do so, however HTC says that by opting in “all of your free apps would be automatically put on the list which can be used to integrate VR Ads.” But because of VR’s integrated head tracking technology, gaining revenue from ads is going to be a bit different. People actually have to look at the ads. “Ads that appear in immersive VR environments can not only provide more effective impressions, they can also track whether the users have viewed them or have turned away their gaze,” writes HTC on the VR Ad Service site. “Accordingly, the multiplied effect of effective impressions and verified viewings will bring you higher advertising revenue!” While in-game VR ads tracking your very gaze may sound like something out of a Neal Stephenson novel, it’s really a double-sided coin. By integrating more data points into the equation, advertisers can better determine what ads are actually relevant to you, so the likelihood of you seeing ‘dumb ads’ or ones cast out to the general public, decreases. The same theory applies to in-game analytics like Aldin Dynamics’ Ghostline tool used in Waltz of the Wizard which revealed some interesting information about what users did in the space, for how long, and what they found most interesting. “Compared to ordinary Ad impressions, Ads that are seen by users in an immersive VR environment can not only meet the user’s needs by means of precise re-targeting, but can also be detected if they are viewed effectively by users. Therefore, promotion of your applications would have much more effective impression, which not only arouses the attention of potential users and enhance brand image, but further attracts interested users directly to download your apps in the VR environment!” Vive’s VR Ad Service was announced alongside the news that the company will be an exclusive partner for all VR content related to upcoming film Ready Player One and a new HTC-led initiative called International VR Research Institute (IVRI), which has struck partnership with Shenzhen’s local government in order to “make Shenzhen a global center for VR research, development, and applications.” |
Data on new and recent math PhDs Historical Data for Mathematics PhDs Data from the annual employment survey of the American Mathematics Society (AMS), available at http://www.ams.org/employment/surveyreports.html Data for 2008 is preliminary, and "%unemployed" refers to the unemployment rate for new PhDs, shortly after receiving their degree. Data compiled from surveys of the math departments awarding the degrees. AMS data of recent mathematics PhD recipients Year of PhD number of PhDs US citizen PhDs % female % underrep'd minorities %unemployed 2008 1235 540 31 9 4.7 2007 1333 576 31 6 2.4 2006 1311 552 28 8 3.3 2005 1222 496 28 7 3.9 2009 data The data show that, by any possible measure, the number of unemployed mathematicians in 2009 is significantly larger than past years, with an unemployment rate for new math PhDs of more than 30 percent this year. Demographic data: The racial/ethnic makeup of the applicant pool was 51% white, 35% asian or pacific islander, 6% black or hispanic, and 8% other or not reporting. Data by year of PhD: |
Last week, it was reported on Chinese national news that Dota 2 would be part of an upcoming Chinese nation-wide esports tournament. Now we have more details emerging… The announced nation-wide esports tournament will be held by Zhejiang Daily Newspaper in conjunction with renowned esports broadcaster and media company Gamefy. There will be events held later this year as well as an all-new league to begin next year. For the events to be held this year, online regional qualifiers will begin by the end of June, and there will be post-season offline finals. Amongst all this news, the fact that everything will be simulcast live across various digital platforms — including negotiations for live feeds to broadcast television, as well as official Chinese Administration of Sport support (with further details of national team selection to come later on), are highlights so far. Specifically, it has been revealed that next year’s league format competition will occur under the patronage of the Administration of Sport, with the goal to build grassroots structures in regional sporting agencies as well. It would seem that Dota 2, being the headline game in all this, has unprecedented governmental support in China… Source: http://dota2.sgamer.com/news/201306/151041.html Advertisements |
First of all, great game! I made a playthrough of it, in case you were interested: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u7XzW8JtsQ> I guess some people didn't like this game because it wasn't really a stealth game. I get that, but this was more of an anti-stealth game, and I think it was awesome! Granted, the whole, run away from monsters into spikes mechanic doesn't exactly make sense, logically. However, it does make for a very interesting game, and I really enjoyed it! The puzzles were mostly really good. Figuring out what to do with the weird ice-blocks was quite challenging, though. There was literally nothing pointing you toward what to do. I did figure it out, but it was literally completely on accident. I guess I would have liked at least a hint, since there was no reason to believe I would be able to break through like that. The graphics and sounds went together nicely. It kind of reminded me of an old flash game I played a while ago, called Don't Look Back for whatever reason :P It really helped establish the atmosphere and it worked! I mean, I wouldn't really call this horror, but it definitely had some good horror elements to it. I was a little disappointed in the ending. I was hoping for a little more than that. I mean, I loved the game, but, as I said in my video, that "twist" is done quite often. Only, this time, it kind of came out of nowhere. I don't know. Maybe I completely missed the point. I just thought it was a little random. Again, as a whole, great game. I absolutely loved it. Thank you for all your work! I look forward to anything else you might create :) |
On Friday, LG Korea invited a bunch of people to a park in Korea with the promise of winning a free G2. All you had to do to score LG’s newest flagship device was get one of one hundred coupons dangling off a balloon. You know where this is going, right? Some people thought it would be awesome to be bring BB guns to shoot down the balloons, which resulted in 20 people getting injured. LG wanted to hold similar events in other Korean cities, but they rightly decided to cancel those plans. All of the people injured will received some sort of compensation, and medical treatment. Now at this point I could insert a joke about how poorly planned this was, but America is a million times worse. Remember that Walmart employee who died because people just had to get a nice deal on a 32 inch HD TV? Yeah, that was bad. So what makes the G2 special enough to warrant bodily harm? It has a 5.2 inch 1080p LCD with the most ridiculously tiny bezels ever seen on a device. There’s a Snapdragon 800 under the hood, along with a 13 megapixel camera with optical image stabilization and nine auto-focus points. Let’s also not forget about the rear mounted buttons, which I’m holding an open minded about. We’ll see what the people who review the device have to say. Like this post? Share it! |
Two writers keep the Two-Lane Blacktop conversation going... Scott: From the opening, Two-Lane Blacktop is defined as much by what it doesn’t do as what it does. Here’s a film about a cross-country race in which the question “Are we still racing or what?” comes up in conversation right in the middle of the country. It’s about a rivalry between drivers over cars and over a woman that more or less peters out. And it’s about pit stops and detours more than the straight lines of Arizona. Given that American cinema’s only access to the gearhead movie now is by way of the gaudy, huge-budgeted, CGI-assisted Fast And The Furious series, it’s particularly striking to see Monte Hellman’s vision of underground racing so utterly devoid of flash—or even light, for that matter. The racers and onlookers operate in near-total darkness—which makes sense, since drag racing is illegal, and the participants don’t necessarily want to draw public attention—and right away, there’s no sense of the winners and losers. There’s just two cars peeling off into the darkness. And with that, Hellman established an existential tone that has more in common with Michelangelo Antonioni than with Roger Corman. Two-Lane Blacktop has a deliberately stripped-down quality, but not in the way of a later work like Walter Hill’s The Driver, which uses minimalism to focus and intensify the action. Both movies offer no character names—in Blacktop, James Taylor is “The Driver,” Dennis Wilson is “The Mechanic,” Warren Oates is “GTO,” and Laurie Bird is “The Girl”—but Hellman is shooting for an act of deconstruction rather than a purebred genre piece. I can’t even imagine how audiences must have reacted to Two-Lane Blacktop in 1971, presuming they expected souped-up muscle cars embarking on a road race from Flagstaff to Washington D.C. Even knowing the film’s reputation, I recall being astonished by how defiantly it broke down any narrative expectations heaped upon it. What’s your experience with this movie, Sam? And how do you measure its significance to that period in American filmmaking? Sam: “Subversive” is one of the most abused words in criticism, but here’s a case where it genuinely applies. It must have sounded like Easy Rider on four wheels: Take a Roger Corman veteran who knows how to make genre art for a price, add a script conceived by a Gunsmoke actor and revamped by an underground novelist, cast James Taylor and a goddamn Beach Boy, throw in some Doors songs, then wait for the money to come rolling in. But despite being famously called “movie of the year” by Esquire, which published Rudy Wurlizter’s script in full, the movie was dumped into a single theater on a holiday weekend, and all but vanished into myth. It’s clear why: Instead of a carefree ode to easy riding and fast living, Hellman’s movie was more like a European art film, with brooding silences and long stretches of empty road. The protagonists are sullen, uncommunicative loners, hardly suited for the role of counterculture icons. And for a car-race movie, it’s notably short on tire-burning bravado; the few head-to-head contests are over in seconds, sometime dispensed with in a single shot. This wasn’t what the studio signed on for. And yet, 40 years on, it continues to capture the imagination: When I asked critics to name their favorite car movies, Blacktop won by—well, what’s the auto-racing equivalent of a landslide? The film isn’t preoccupied with literal nuts and bolts, but when The Mechanic tells The Driver, “She don’t seem to be breathing right,” it feels authentic, even for those of us who don’t know what that means. Their taciturn relationship feels just right for two men who’ve accompanied each other on endless long-haul trips, who know the parts of the country they can speed right through, and the ones where they need to keep to country roads and steal in-state plates so they can pass for locals. You might accuse it of caricaturing unfriendly rednecks who greet these grease-smeared longhairs with, “You all wouldn’t be hippies, would you?” But that’s rhymed with the eerie moment in which an old woman hitches a ride to the cemetery to visit people killed by a “city car”: Both sides have reason to be suspicious. Two-Lane Blacktop goes about as far toward subverting the purpose of a road-race movie as you can go; if you walked in 20 minutes late, you’d be hard-pressed to divine that there’s a race going on at all. The drivers are racing out of habit, almost instinct, like the cicadas the Driver tells the Girl about, who live underground almost their whole lives, then come up just long enough to reproduce and die. (The Girl cuts him off: “We’ve got a better life, haven’t we?” One of the movie’s best tricks is to deploy these overwrought metaphors, then immediately undercut them.) And yet, the more I watch it, the more I’ve sat with it, the movie—and especially its ending—doesn’t seem like the brilliant nose-thumb I once took it for. I don’t think its purpose is to lure in gearheads, then treat them to existential musing on the nature of man; that’s more Vanishing Point’s bag. The road-weary loneliness at its core feels truer to its subject than I understood at first, the characters more organic. Am I grasping at straws here, or does Blacktop embrace the race as well as subverting it? Scott: It’s hard to say. The word “organic” isn’t the first one I’d use to describe characters whom we can’t reference by name. But they are real characters, not archetypes Hellman and screenwriters Rudy Wurlitzer and Will Corry have created for the sole purpose of turning the genre on its head. Taylor’s performance as the Driver is exceptionally difficult to pin down, because it holds viewers at such a distance. Some may feel that’s a consequence of a folk singer revealing his limitations as an actor, but it strikes me as more strategic and compelling. You call it “road-weary loneliness,” but there are times when Taylor shifts from laconic to almost chillingly engaged, somewhere on the line between confident and sociopathic. Maybe that’s the trick in casting a popular musician in a movie: There’s a presence to Taylor that’s more self-assured than an actor with insecurities, and more than once, I’ve heard him described as a “zombie,” or something synonymous for this performance. But those eyes of his are a road to oblivion in and of themselves. Contrast that with Warren Oates, whose rangier performance as GTO meets Taylor’s serene confidence with dorky braggadocio. Driver and Mechanic size up GTO as an impostor pretty quickly, looking over his racing gloves and brand-new muscle car, which sharply contrasts with the old hunk of metal they’ve transformed, part by part, into an authentically customized racing machine. But who is GTO? What does he want? What is he trying to prove? There’s an element of generational resentment in the way he engages these younger men and challenges them for pink slips, as if to put them into their place. But Two-Lane Blacktop isn’t quite the hippies-vs.-squares showdown it might appear to be, if only because Hellman doesn’t seem that interested in that front of the culture wars. What’s more consistent is the idea that GTO is using the road as an opportunity to reinvent himself as someone different than he was before the film begins. He’s driving a new car—a car a middle-aged guy wouldn’t be expected to buy—and giving his identity a spin, which is why we’re treated to different stories for every new person he meets. That’s a feature of the road movie: When characters are away from home—or if they have no home at all—they can separate more easily from the person they were or were expected to be. So what do you make of The Girl, Sam? She’s even harder to me to understand than any of the men, and that seems entirely by design: Her hitchhiker passivity allows her to get bumped around from one driver to the next, until she becomes a prize on par with the pink slips these guys are ostensibly racing to get. There’s a craftiness to her that I might be missing, but I’m having trouble thinking about her independently of the men who are separately vying for her affection. Is she a character of deeper motivations than I assume her to be? Just as neither Taylor nor Oates fit perfectly into the “hippie” and “square” roles we might be inclined to assign them, The Girl isn’t categorizable, but doesn’t strike me as an independently conceived character by any stretch. What am I missing? Sam: Since I’ve already invoked the dreaded “subversive,” allow me to haul out another notoriously imprecise term and and allow that The Girl is more than a little problematic. Laurie Bird had no acting experience before Two-Lane Blacktop, and unlike Taylor and Wilson, she wasn’t even a performer, more a “private research project” (to borrow an especially creepy term from a contemporary profile) of Hellman’s who ended up being cast as the movie’s most nakedly symbolic character. She’s enigmatic and unknowable, freedom embodied, yet strangely dehumanized. Where does she come from? What does she want? She sleeps with The Mechanic, makes out with The Driver, and flirts with GTO, leaving them bamboozled and blue-balled. The men in those two cars can’t figure it out, and neither can we. At the same time, Bird, whose only other significant role was in Hellman’s great Cockfighter, brings Blacktop something you couldn’t get from a professional actor, a kind of opacity to the camera that’s both fascinating and frustrating, in more ways than one. One of the things that’s so distinctive about the movie is the way Hellman mixes acting styles, from Oates’ self-aware theatricality to Taylor and Wilson’s rough-hewn emotion to Bird’s unschooled mannerisms all the way down to the numerous non-professional actors they meet along the way. It would be a stretch to call Two-Lane Blacktop a documentary in any sense, but there are times when the fabric of the story wears thin, and we can see the real world peeking through. While we’re talking performances, let’s pull over for a spell and savor Oates’, which is one of the finest in a glorious, too-brief career. GTO, as you mention, first comes off as a figure of generational (and class) antagonism, an older, wealthier man who’s bought his way onto the racing circuit rather than earning his way there. (It’s fitting that his character is named for what he owns, where The Driver and The Mechanic are named for what they do.) GTO can recite his car’s specs, but a recitation is all it is; we see him repeat the same spiel to a hitchhiker word for word, just one of the lies and half-truths he pulls from a store as apparently bottomless as his briefcase full of booze and pills. As the GTO and the Chevy race eastward, though, we see that their occupants are in some ways more alike than they realize. The Driver and The Mechanic have been reduced to their essence; GTO has obliterated his, recreating himself anew with each passenger he picks up. At one point, it seems as if he might be about to tell The Driver his real story—something about a wife and kids—and Driver brusquely shuts him down: “It’s not my problem.” (Taylor may not prove himself an especially versatile actor in Blacktop, but the flash of white-hot anger in that moment says so much about his character.) The Driver disdains such personal attachments, at least once it’s clear things aren’t going to work out with The Girl, but GTO knows this life on the road can’t last forever: “If I’m not grounded pretty soon, I’m going to go into orbit.” And he finally pays tribute to The Driver and The Mechanic by stealing their story: “There’s nothing like building up an old automobile from scratch and wiping out one of those Detroit machines. That'll give you a set of emotions that'll stay with you, you know what I mean? Those satisfactions are permanent.” Closing thoughts? Or did we pass the finish line without even noticing? Scott: “Those satisfactions are permanent” is head-to-head with “Make it three yards, motherfucker, and we’ll have us an automobile race” for my favorite utterance in the film. And your point about Oates’ persona being so fluid and up-for-grabs that he assumes The Driver and The Mechanic’s identity in the end speaks to the conceptual dynamic of these four lead characters: The Driver and The Mechanic are stable, fixed units, though the flashes of hostility in Taylor’s eyes suggest the terrifying depths of his psyche. The Girl, as you point out, represents freedom, and seems to exist mainly as an unknowable creature who bounces between the men. And GTO is a slippery, amorphous character who’s as uncertain about who he is as his rivals are completely set. The trick of Wurlitzer’s script—and Oates’ performance especially— is that it doesn’t feel mapped out so squarely. There’s a real pulse to it. That said, maybe we should close by talking about Two-Lane Blacktop’s place in American cinema history, because it’s become such a touchstone for the renaissance of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The level of self-awareness Hellman brings to the film—along with an interest in landscapes, themes of loneliness and alienation, a dismantling of genre expectations, and that self-immolating closing shot—builds a bridge between American movies and their European counterparts, particularly Michelangelo Antonioni. In fact, Two-Lane Blacktop would make a great double-feature with Antonioni’s American movie, Zabriskie Point, from one year earlier, which also dawdled through arid landscapes en route to a spectacularly explosive finish. Just as the flowering of European cinema in the 1960s owed something to the reconsidered auteur qualities of American studio productions, movies like Two-Lane Blacktop engaged in the conversation from the other side of the Atlantic, reinventing national cinema in the process. Two-Lane Blacktop was a flop at the time, which is a prime example of how time—and the caretakers of critics, historians, and cinephiles—can put movies in the proper perspective. (Ditto Zabriskie Point, come to think of it.) Audiences usually aren’t prepared to have cinema redefined before their eyes, and Hellman’s film must have felt like a slap in the face to those who came to see a movie about a thrilling cross-country road race. We often credit viewers at that time for being more open-minded and sophisticated than viewers today, but this seems to be a case where Hellman was out in front of everyone, and a cult following trailed behind it for a while before catching up. My last question to you, Sam, is how much of Two-Lane Blacktop do you see in films today? I’ve already mentioned how little it resembles the high-octane garishness of the Fast And The Furious series. And a gearhead movie like Death Proof has Vanishing Point explicitly on the brain, but perhaps Hellman’s legacy is evident elsewhere. Sam: Ah, the dreaded influence question. Hellman came close to directing Reservoir Dogs, and while Death Proof may explicitly tip its hat to Vanishing Point, you can see traces of Hellman elsewhere in Tarantino’s oeuvre, perhaps especially Jackie Brown. You can find traces of Two-Lane Blacktop’s DNA in all manner of eccentric auto-focused movies, like Alex Cox’s Repo Man, and Kelly Reichardt’s movies owe a great deal to Hellman’s love of vagabonds, his reliance on nonverbal performances, and his use of nonprofessional actors. And while Blacktop’s styles are fairly far from David Lynch’s Lost Highway, he probably got some of his ideas here, about the open road’s power to warp the rules of cinema. Don’t miss Keith’s Keynote on the origins and stars of Two-Lane Blacktop, and Sam’s secondary essay linking it to the masculinity and shifting era of Mad Men. Next week, stay tuned for some basketball jonesing with Ron Shelton’s White Men Can’t Jump. |
Inaugural speeches are often criticized as long on rhetoric and short on substance. But President Obama’s second inaugural address on Monday was surprisingly specific about his second-term goals. Mr. Obama devoted an entire paragraph to climate change and energy, and later in the speech he pointed to several public policy issues where “our journey is not complete,” he said. Polls show that the president has at least a slim majority of Americans in his corner on almost all of the issues he highlighted. Here’s a look at the most recent polling on some of the agenda items Mr. Obama laid out: Climate Change We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The PollingReport.com database includes two polls on global warming conducted after the Nov. 6 presidential election. An Associated Press-GfK poll in the field from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3 found that 78 percent of respondents said they believed the planet had warmed over the past 100 years, and 49 percent said they thought global warming would be a “very serious” problem for the United States if left unaddressed (31 percent said they thought it would be “somewhat serious”). Fifty-seven percent of the 1,002 adults surveyed said the United States government should do “a great deal” or “quite a bit” on global warming. A United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection poll conducted Nov. 8 to 11 found that 57 percent of adults said they thought global warming was increasing the likelihood of storms like Hurricane Sandy. Same-Sex Marriage Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. On the issue of gay marriage, polls show that Mr. Obama has a slim majority of Americans on his side. The percentage of adults who favor same-sex marriage has been rising steadily for some time. Five polls on same-sex marriage have been conducted since the election and are included in the PollingReport.com database. Each poll uses slightly different question wording, but an average of 51 percent of respondents favored same-sex marriage and 44 percent opposed it. Voter Identification Laws Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote. There haven’t been many polls testing the popularity of long voting lines (although it is hard to imagine their being popular). However, the focus on the nation’s voting process in 2012 largely centered on states’ photo identification laws, like the one in Pennsylvania that was eventually blocked by a judge. On this issue, Mr. Obama does not have the public on his side. Polls asking about laws requiring voters to show photo identification have found a solid majority favoring such laws. A New York Times/CBS News poll from September and a Fox News poll from April both found 7 in 10 respondents supported requiring a photo identification card to vote. In a Washington Post poll from August, 75 percent of respondents favored photo identification laws. Immigration Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity, until bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country. There is polling on many aspects of immigration policy. But most observers consider the most contentious plank of potential reform to be a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements (the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats will reportedly insist on including such a path in any comprehensive reform bill). In the PollingReport.com database, four surveys have asked about a path to citizenship since the election. Each poll asked slightly different questions and found a range of answers. A Fox News poll conducted Jan. 15 to 17 found that two in three registered voters favored allowing “illegal immigrants to remain in the country and eventually qualify for U.S. citizenship, but only if they meet certain requirements like paying back taxes, learning English, and passing a background check.” Seventeen percent of the 1,008 voters surveyed supported sending all illegal immigrants back to their native countries. A CBS News poll from mid-December surveyed 1,179 adults nationwide and found that 47 percent favored allowing illegal immigrants who are currently working in the United States to “eventually apply for U.S. citizenship,” and 27 percent favored requiring illegal immigrants to leave the United States. In a United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection poll from just after the election, 43 percent of adults favored allowing only those illegal immigrants “who have been here for many years and have broken no other laws to stay here legally.” Another 33 percent supported allowing “all illegal immigrants to stay, provided they have broken no other laws and commit to learning English and U.S. history.” And an ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted Nov. 7 to 11 asked simply, “Do you support or oppose a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants?” Fifty-seven percent of the 1,023 adults surveyed answered “support” and 39 percent answered “oppose.” Guns Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm. The mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., appears to have galvanized support — at least temporarily — for gun control, with polls conducted this month consistently showing support for stricter gun laws in the mid 50s. For example, a New York Times/CBS News poll found that 54 percent of respondents favored tighter gun laws, up from 39 percent in a CBS News poll last April. A Jan. 17 Gallup poll found 53 percent of adults said they would want their representative to vote for the package of gun law reforms that Mr. Obama proposed. Forty-one percent said they would want their representative to oppose the laws. The evidence isn’t uniform, however. The most recent Fox News poll found that 51 percent of respondents said that “protecting the constitutional right of citizens to own guns” was more important than “protecting citizens from gun violence.” Forty percent of those surveyed said protecting citizens was more important. A more granular look at the polling reveals that a number of the proposals put forward by the Obama administration have overwhelming support. In the same Fox News poll, laws requiring criminal background checks and mental health checks on all gun buyers were both favored by more than 80 percent of respondents. (That’s in line with virtually every recent poll on guns. The Times/CBS News poll found that 92 percent of respondents favored background checks on all potential gun buyers.) Surveys show that bans on certain weapons and ammunition are less popular, but still supported by majorities of adults. Recent polls have found that support for a ban on assault rifles and semiautomatic weapons as well as a ban on high-capacity magazines usually falls in the low 50s to low 60s. |
Oh the puns we’ll have! See what I did there? Meta. Anyways…veggie burgers! I stumbled upon the Minimalist Baker’s Black Bean Beet Burgers and was immediately smitten with it. Her use of grains and black beans makes for a really good lookin’ veggie burger. So like any 20something female, I Pinned the fuck out of that recipe and mulled over it for three weeks/forgot I Pinned it/forgot I have a vegan food blog. Tyyyyypical 20something female. Luckily I managed to find time this weekend in between strenuous watching of The Good Wife and copious sleeping to take my dog to the farmer’s market to get ingredients. And by “ingredients” I mean ridiculously colorful radishes, heirloom tomatoes, and black kale i.e. none of the key ingredients for this recipe. WHY AM I SO BAD AT THIS. Moving along to Pun City, USA. Freekeh is an ancient grain that is fun to say and tasty. The best of both worlds? And for those very reasons, I’ve used freekeh instead of quinoa or barley. Sweet potatoes are my only favorite kind of potatoes and mixed with the black beans and that freekeh, you’ve got a really good texture that bakes up really nicely. Flax “eggs” help bind it a little more and edamame add some protein and a little crunchy fun. (I never learned to “fun.”) Now let’s get down to some motherfreekehn veggie burger business. (It’s a family business.) REAL FREEKEHN’ GOOD VEGGIE BURGERS makes 9 or so ingredients: 400g or about 2 cups of mashed cooked sweet potatoes (for me this was 2 medium sized sweet potatoes – baked for 45 minutes at 475) 15 oz black beans, drained and rinsed ½ cup dry freekeh, cooked according to package instructions 1 cup of edamame 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder ½ teaspoon curry powder ½ teaspoon paprika ½ teaspoon chili powder ¼ teaspoon cinnamon salt and pepper to taste 3 tablespoons of ground flax seed (whisked together with 9 tablespoons of water and refrigerated for 15 minutes) optional toppings: radishes tomatoes kale pretty things some buns or whatever veggie burger makin… Preheat the oven to 375. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a food processor, combine the black beans and mashed sweet potato. Transfer to a large mixing bowl to start mixing things in by hand. Add in the cooked freekeh and edamame. Start adding in the spices, tasting along the way. Adjust the proportions to your taste. Add in the flax “egg” and mix it all up and stuff. Refrigerate the mixture until it’s properly chilled. Spray the parchment covered pan with a light mist of cooking spray. (I am aware this sounds odd. Go with it.) Form the mixture into patties and arrange them on the pan. Again give the burgers a light misting of cooking spray. Bake for 30-35 minutes total, carefully flipping the patties after 20-25 minutes or so. Serve on a bun or whatever you like. Top with all the pretentious ingredients you bought at the farmers market. Purple radishes, you guys! Purple!! NUTRITION (per burger patty only) Advertisements |
I’ve been beating the drum of #NeverTrump everywhere I go the last several days and have been fortunate enough to have some networks offering me the air-time to do it. Interestingly, many on the right side of the aisle keep “warning” me that I’m being used by the lefty media who wishes to co-opt my message to fulfill their own dirty narratives. The problem with that warning is that I’m in full agreement with the dirty narrative being described. For the first time in my career, I am completely aligned with the talking points of the left on the GOP presidential nominee. He is a dangerous sociopath who uses xenophobic & racist dog whistles to stoke fear in masses of uninformed voters so that he can get to Washington and use the power of the pen to push billions of dollars to corporations as he cuts deals behind the scenes that benefit the most powerful and corrupt people in the world. Yes, we’ve actually nominated someone that sounds like he was created in a lab by Michael Moore. The most disturbing part of this is the fact that most pundits & politicians on the right don’t even entirely disagree with my assessment. They’ve all said as much, over and over, throughout this primary season. But now that Trump is the presumptive nominee, they’ve all gone silent and some are completely reversing saying that we must unify around planet Trump. Balderdash. Unifying around Trump is the absolute worst and most dangerous thing we can do. For the next 6 months, there can be many different narratives that take shape. The only one we can be certain about is how Trump will be described which I’ve already helpfully done above. The rest of the narrative could be “and he is roundly rejected by the vast majority of conservatives in the Republican Party” or “massive walkout at the Republican National Convention shows that the only unity taking place is in opposition to this walking reality tv show teaser.” Paul Ryan, Bush 41 & 43, Bill Kristol, Ben Sasse, and many others, are setting a great example right now by not giving in to the pressure. Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Rick Perry and Rand Paul have all decided that it’s more important to log GOP unity than it is to save conservatism. Noted. I’m told that in war, the men fighting were better served when they assumed they were already dead. That this assumption would alleviate much of their anxiety because the one thing that they were most worried about was already settled. This psychological trick is what I’ve employed to get through this campaign season. Whether you believe it or not, we have lost. It’s time for people to start thinking that way so that they can wake up to the reality that losing an election doesn’t have to be losing our identity. |
About Every kid has a dream. And we all know that many kids dream of becoming an airline pilot one day. We want to help those kids prepare for that day and better understand aircraft, how they fly and what they are made of, using resources from real pilots and animators in a fun and entertaining environment. TOGETHER, we will be offering FREE of charge access to online training and offline packs of 'Kids to Pilots' DVD's to hundreds ( HOPEFULLY THOUSANDS IF WE EXCEED OUR GOAL ) of children and teens. We hope that one day, with the knowledge they gained using 'Kids to Pilots' for FREE, they will be well prepared for that flying academy and make their parents proud by becoming real pilots. Who will be getting the FREE stuff? We will partner with one or more reputable charities both in the UK and internationally in order to ensure that all our products will be available for FREE to children and schools around the world that can't afford. We plan on posting publicly a report of all our activities to ensure complete transparency. 'Kids to Pilots' will be a complete online and offline animated training platform where a cartoon character ( Mr. Fly below ) will be teaching real, complex technical aviation concepts to kids and teens using an easy to understand language. Mr. Fly is so in love with flying that he always travels through the lessons on a paper airplane. The content of the animated training will be divided into training videos and packed with fun stuff like quizzes, tricky questions, different levels of knowledge, real flight simulation, cool animated tests and many more so that kids will learn aviation and best of all, have lots of fun in the same time. There will be content based on ages 7-12 and 12-17. We need your help to produce and share amazing aviation content for kids. What we will build will be amazing and never seen before: Kids will easily have access to the online platform packed with video training material, difficulty levels, quizzes, tests and LOTS of fun. The interactive book will be available on DVD and will have several editions. The mobile app will really shine to support the web app and keep the child on track with his training at all times. All media environments will work together to ensure that the child will have a comprehensive understanding of aviation in general and commercial aircrafts in particular. From aviation history and different kinds of aircrafts to flying in dangerous areas around the globe, kids will love the content and will find it useful without being bored. At RHM MEDIA we are a small team of motion graphics fanatics, specialised in video animations and training videos. For more than two years our director Robert Hoisan worked as an animator and special effects expert contracted by AOA USA to produce the highest quality training videos for Boeing 737 and 777 used by future pilots in online simulators around the world. Using our skills and expertise in motion graphics, animations and special effects, we have produced amazing aviation training videos for grown ups. You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with sound 00:00 00:00 We've learned a lot from working with AOA and our passion for aviation gave us the idea to produce here at RHM MEDIA 'Kids to Pilots', a revolutionary platform to help children learn aviation and have fun at the same time. Our kids need a mobile place where they can learn everything about airplanes, and we can teach them and help them live the dream of becoming a pilot. We will give away the 'Kids to Pilots' ZERO BUNDLE: All the features produced with your help here at Kickstarter will be accessible to hundreds or even thousands of kids around the world for FREE! We will pack everything and make it available to as many as we can. We have a team of real pilots, graphic designers, animators, voice over experts; we have the experience of creating aviation training for adults and we have the passion and love to help children with their dream of becoming a pilot. This is a major project that has the potential to change the lives of a huge number of children. There ’s a lot of work to do and we think that it will take around 14-18 months to produce all the videos, build the web platform, the app and the interactive book. But at the end of all the hard work, the kids will love what we offer them - especially the ones that will get it all for FREE. We have great rewards that include: But we believe that the biggest reward is knowing that many kids will receive the 'Kids to Pilots' package for FREE and they can follow the dream of becoming a pilot. If we exceed our goal on Kickstarter, we promise to start working on the 'Kids to Pilots' VIDEO GAME. Building the game is our wildest dream. It will be an amazing adventure game, where players need to learn hardcore aviation in order to pass different levels and overcame challenges so they can test their knowledge and avoid that deadly crash. It will be the first game of its kind and it will have different time slots from World War II to the present, where the gamer will not advance through different levels without knowing facts about aircrafts and flying. And just like our 'Kids to Pilots' aviation training for kids, we will make the 'Kids to Pilots' VIDEO GAME available for FREE to as many as possible. On Kickstarter it is all or nothing so we need to reach our goal in order to fund this project. Whoever you are and wherever you live on this planet ( or other planets :), YOU CAN CHOOSE TO BACK THIS PROJECT AND RECEIVE GREAT REWARDS. Thank you!! |
Seattle has elected a woman as its mayor for the first time since 1926. History has been made. Component post 10560586 could not be found. Seattle has elected its first woman mayor in 91 years. In Tuesday’s election, voters chose former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan over urban planner Cary Moon for executive chief. Durkan will be the first woman as mayor since Bertha Landes‘ election in 1926. Landes was the first woman to lead a major American city. She cemented a legacy as a good-government reformer, pushing for civil-service hiring, the city’s first traffic code and tighter regulation of nightlife. “Throughout her brief political career, Landes had to prove herself in ways that men did not — facing constant scrutiny over whether her dress and demeanor were proper for a woman of the early 20th century,” a 2013 Seattle Times story says. Landes lost her re-election bid to Frank Edwards, a theater operator. Some commentators speculated she lost because Seattle wanted to regain its reputation as a “manly” frontier town. For a full list of the city’s mayors, go here. You can find the latest results from Tuesday’s election here. Material from The Seattle Times archives contributed to this report. |
TEHRAN, Iran — Earlier this month, Brig. Gen. Ali Arasteh, deputy chief liaison of the Iranian army's ground force, for the first time publicly spoke about Iran’s military operations against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria. He told Iranian reporters, “Brigade 65 is a part of our army’s ground force and we are dispatching soldiers from Brigade 65, as well as other units, as advisers to Syria. This dispatch is not limited to commandos of Brigade 65, as advisers of Brigade 65 are already there.” With the exception of the 1980-88 war with Iraq, the army had not conducted foreign operations since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Only the Quds Force, the external operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Fatehin Brigade, made up of Iranian volunteers, had conducted advisory and ground operations in Syria and Iraq. The army is solely responsible for defending Iran’s borders, though if ordered by the commander in chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, it can also undertake assigned foreign missions. Brigade 65, also known by the abbreviation Nohed, is a special airborne force, and one of Iran’s most elite military units. It was formed prior to the Islamic Revolution, and had a very successful record during the war with Iraq. Its original core was formed in the 1950s, when the army sent 10 senior officers to France. In the ensuing years, two new brigades responsible for hostage rescue missions, irregular warfare, psychological warfare and support were added to the airborne force while Brigade 65 was created. Improved training alongside successful combat experiences — such as at the Manston Dhofar military base in Oman in the 1970s, and reportedly even in the Vietnam War — led this unit to become one of Iran’s best, alongside the Imperial Guard, by the end of the Pahlavi era. Brigade 65’s participation in operations in Oman was official. This apparently was not the case in Vietnam; however, before his death, Gen. Alireza Sanjabi shared a memory with this author about how he had served as a sniper in Vietnam. Sanjani added, “Before the revolution, most of the training of this brigade was done in the form of joint operations with the British SAS.” Indeed, Brigade 65’s power increased so much that during the early days of the Islamic Revolution, certain members of parliament urged its dissolution since they feared it might attempt a coup. However, it was not dissolved and remains as strong as ever. In the 1990s, there was a mock military operation in Tehran where airborne forces were asked to take hold of all important military and political centers in the capital. Despite fierce resistance put up by the security forces guarding these centers, the powerful “Ghost Forces” were able to occupy the capital in two hours. Ever since, these army green berets have been known as the “Powerful Ghosts.” Prior to its current deployment, Brigade 65 had not conducted foreign operations since the war with Iraq, as far as is officially known. There are, however, certain unconfirmed reports indicating that members of this brigade conducted reconnaissance missions in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. While the IRGC has been in charge of providing support for the Syrian government since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, the army during the past two years has taken pre-emptive measures in the fight against IS in order to neutralize any possible attack on Tehran. Last year, the commander of the army’s ground force, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, mentioned operations involving the deployment of troops to the Iran-Iraq border and cross-border artillery strikes. He also said that “a rapid response unit as well as specialized sniper training schools have been formed during the past few months.” In addition, advanced military equipment has been delivered to these forces to prepare them to confront any threats. Iranian classifications put the size of brigades at about 6,000 to 7,000 troops. Thus, it is probable that about 100 to 200 Brigade 65 commandos have been deployed to Syria. News of this deployment was heavily covered by Iranian media outlets. Indeed, only a few days after the deployment, reports of four Brigade 65 fatalities in Aleppo shocked public opinion. Pourdastan quickly described the situation to the press, “During an attack conducted by a few thousand takfiri [militant Salafi] forces and forces of Jabhat al-Nusrah on south Aleppo … four dear members of the [Iranian] ground forces were martyred. In this confrontation, a number of tanks and armored personnel carriers of the terrorist group al-Nusrah were destroyed and 200 terrorists were killed as well.” Based on the latter, it appears likely that the Iranians were the target of a surprise attack. Following the wave of intense reactions to the deaths of the four Iranian commandos, army commander Maj. Gen. Ataollah Salehi said that the regular forces have no responsibility to render advisory services to Syria, and that there is an organization in Iran that carries out related measures. Salehi said that some volunteers have been dispatched to Syria under the responsibility of that organization and that there may have been some members of Brigade 65 among them. He added that due to the strict rules of the army, it seems very unlikely that its officers would enter Syria on their own and that they had probably done so under the orders of the armed forces' general staff. This statement conveys Salehi’s dissatisfaction with the presence of army forces in Syria. The Syrian civil war appears poised to enter a new and more serious phase in the coming months. While Russia is reducing its military presence in Syria, Iran is trying to make up for that by deploying its own special forces. Considering the small number of Iranian troops that have been deployed, this may not be an important development from a military standpoint. However, it clearly shows that Iran is determined not to let the balance of power be disturbed in Syria. In the past few months, Iran has participated in the UN peace negotiations, clearly showing that it is not willing to capitulate to its regional rivals, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, after five years of having its soldiers injured and killed and having spent billions of dollars. Thus, it is possible that if the Syrian government is threatened more seriously, even more army forces will be deployed in Syria alongside the IRGC. |
One tool is "intentional play," in which staff takes part in games and makes sure everyone is included in the action, and that players take enough water breaks and rest to avoid provoking health issues. Street Soccer Canada has a strong entrepreneurial bent and generates income through commercial initiatives which include a laundry it runs three days a week to service local shelters, contracting to manage programs for the Region of Peel and organizing events like the Pan Am tournament. Through various grants Hamilton's Pan Am Initiatives will pay $20,000 for Street Soccer Canada to set up the soccer pitch, provide the referees, scorekeepers and emcees, and establish the overall tone of inclusion for the youth and Chamber of Commerce tournaments. Up to half of that fee will be applied to the nearly $25,000 it will cost to run the National Homeless Tournament. All players in that event are either homeless or have been at some time in their lives. Teams from Montreal, Kelowna, Victoria, Ottawa, and perhaps Prince George and Comox, B.C., have to provide their own way here, but Gregory's group will house and feed them at Mohawk College and get them around the city. They're starting fundraising now to make up the balance of the cost, and any individual or business interesting in donating can do so via canadahelps.org. "The guys who will be running this tournament are formerly homeless guys who've come through our mentoring process and now they're running our social enterprises," Gregory says. "It's kind of a double bottom line for us and Hamilton: 'We're going to help you guys with your tournament, and in turn you're helping us fund our homeless tournament.' "It's a great model." smilton@thespec.com 905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec |
Can a third party in Florida ever elbow aside Republicans and Democrats? When the Florida Libertarian Party held its annual convention last month in Cocoa Beach, it vowed to try, and it has its work cut out: “Objectively speaking, 2016 was the Libertarian Party's best year ever. It was also a savage disappointment.” That was the verdict of Reason Magazine on the party’s presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who won only 2.2 percent of the vote in Florida. As Libertarians look to the future, what’s the state of the national party and in Florida? For a Libertarian’s answer, the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board sought out Marcos Miralles, 23, newly elected state party chair. Marcos Miralles, 23, newly elected chair of the Florida Libertarian Party. Marcos Miralles, 23, newly elected chair of the Florida Libertarian Party. Q: What are the lessons for the Libertarian Party from the loss of its presidential candidate Gary Johnson in 2016? A: We need better organization from the first to the last step. Johnson never had a chance in the Sunshine State because our grass-roots game remained weak. Ultimately, the Libertarian National Committee is likely to focus more on smaller states, like Montana and South Dakota, so we need to realize that we will be on our own in 2020. We’ll need to set up field offices throughout the state, we’ll need a much stronger outreach to the Hispanic community, we’ll need to start an actual absentee ballot plan, and we’ll need to put our volunteers to work. Thousands of individuals signed up in Florida to volunteer in 2016, and the great majority of them were never to be seen. It all comes down to organization. Q: Libertarian members have been described as split between “pragmatist converts vs. stalwart radicals.” How would you describe the party’s core philosophy? A: If you look deeply into our philosophy, you’ll see that Libertarians have a rational and unwavering distrust of all government actions, and we will always look for free-market solutions to each problem in society. But our message resonates with both liberals and conservatives to some extent, and given our considerable support from independent voters last year, we have the potential of being the real middle-of-the-aisle party that dissatisfied voters can come to. Q: What would Libertarians have concentrated on in the first 100 days of the Trump presidency, if they had representation in Congress? A: If we had Libertarians in Congress, we would have focused on tax reform. It’s clear that President Trump is en route to clash with Libertarians every week of his presidency, but in some occasions, we could work together. Nobody from the Republican establishment dared to touch tax reform in the first 100 days, and this is where we would have come in. Q: Does the party have a national database of members, or those who contribute financially? A: Yes, and yes. That database grew exponentially thanks to the 2016 presidential campaign. Q: How does party membership in Florida and nationally stack up against figures before the 2016 vote? A: Our membership numbers are just a fraction of what we could have if all 2016 Libertarian voters registered with our party. Although we barely cover 0.1 percent of statewide registered voters, we could be a major party by 2020 if all those who voted for our nominees registered with the Libertarian Party. And that needs to be our first and foremost focus by the end of the 2018 mid-term season. Q: Libertarians seem to focus on the national level. What is the party doing to recruit candidates on the state and local level? A: We’ve actually just launched Operation: First Step, which focuses on recruiting candidates in each county of Florida to run for community development districts, soil and water boards, and other similar special districts. We’ve focused for a long time on large elections, but if we want to be realists and be successful, we need to start from the bottom and involve ourselves in the smallest level of government. Only then can we create leaders within our society who — with time, rapport and a good understanding of their community — will one day step up to win those seats at the national level. Q: What are the party’s top policy goals for Florida? A: Ideally, we would love to see an end to the war on drugs, work toward the demilitarization of police, a complete end to civil asset forfeiture, and budget trimming and severe tax cuts. However, there is only so much that Libertarians can accomplish without any presence in Tallahassee. So we’ll need to first focus on policies that can help the party become an established presence. We want to see a change in the state’s determination of what constitutes a major party. Now, that doesn’t mean we’re giving up on other potential reforms. Just this year, our team introduced, thanks to the collaboration of state senator and currently a candidate for Congress, Jose Javier Rodriguez (D-Coral Gables), SB 1750, a bill to reform special taxing districts and to give residents the power to abolish them. Q: Without any Libertarians in the Legislature or in statewide offices in Florida, how does the party stay relevant? A: It’s a humbling realization to see how much work we can accomplish regardless of having no elected officials in the Legislature. Ultimately, all politics is local. Nebraska, Nevada and New Hampshire all have state legislators. Our turn will come. Meanwhile, we’re confident we can show Floridians what Libertarians can do with our multitude of local elected officials that we currently have and will add on by November 2018. Q: Who is jockeying to be the party’s presidential nominee in 2020? A: I’ll let the potential candidates to their own bidding for now. But what I can guarantee you is that whoever the Libertarian delegates pick in 2020, that candidate will have a better result than Gary Johnson had in 2016 and will have a real chance at unseating the current president. |
But an excavation in the Israeli port of Ashkelon may give us clues about the arch enemies of the ancient Israelis Little is known about the ancient people, who counted Goliath - the 'giant' conquered by David - among their number Advertisement An archaeological discovery in Israel may have solved one of the most enduring biblical mysteries - where did the ancient Philistines come from? Little was known about the Philistines prior to the recent excavation in the Israeli port city of Ashkelon. The famed arch enemies of the ancient Israelites flourished in this area of the Mediterranean, starting in the 12th century BC, but their way of life and origin have remained a mystery. That stands to change after what researchers have called the first discovery of a Philistine cemetery. It contains the remains of about 150 people in numerous burial chambers, some containing surprisingly sophisticated items. The team also found DNA on parts of the skeletons and hope that further testing will determine the origins of the Philistine people. We may need to rethink today's derogatory use of the word philistine, which refers to someone averse to culture and the arts, said archaeologist Lawrence Stager, who has led the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon since 1985. 'The Philistines have had some bad press, and this will dispel a lot of myths,' Stager said. Stager's team dug down about 10 feet to uncover the cemetery, which they found to have been used centuries later as a Roman vineyard. 'After decades of studying what Philistines left behind, we have finally come face to face with the people themselves,' said Daniel M. Master, professor of archaeology at Wheaton College and one of the leaders of the excavation. 'With this discovery we are close to unlocking the secrets of their origins.' US anthropologist and pathologist, Sherry Fox shows a skull discovered at the excavation site of the first Philistine cemetery ever found A team of foreign archaeologists extract skeletons at the excavation site of the first Philistine cemetery to be studied Workers uncover the bones of Philistines, who were known as the archenemy of ancient Israel from the Hebrew Bible Little was known about the Philistines prior to the recent excavation, pictured, in the Israeli port city of Ashkelon Pathologist Sherry Fox holds aloft a skull of a Philistine, in the Mediterranean coastal Israeli city of Ashkelon The cemetery's discovery marks the 'crowning achievement' of some three decades of excavations in the area A skull of a 35-year-old Philistine woman after is was removed from the first-ever Philistine cemetery discover in the Ashkelon National Park A few human remains at Philistine sites had been discovered in past years, but they provided too small a sample to draw conclusions, he added. The archaeologists kept the discovery a secret for three years until the end of their dig as they did not want to attract ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters. 'We had to bite our tongues for a long time,' Master said. On hands and knees, workers brushed away layers of dusty earth to reveal the brittle white bones of entire Philistine skeletons reposed as they were three millennia ago. Decorated juglets believed to have contained perfumed oil were found in graves. Some bodies were still wearing bracelets and earrings. Others had weapons. The archeologists also discovered some cremations, which the team say were rare and expensive for the period, and some larger jugs contained the bones of infants. 'The cosmopolitan life here is so much more elegant and worldly and connected with other parts of the eastern Mediterranean,' Stager said, adding that this was in contrast to the more modest village lifestyle of the Israelites who lived in the hills to the east. Bones, ceramics and other remains were moved to a tented compound for further study and some artifacts were reconstructed piece by piece. The team mapped the position of every bone removed to produce a digital 3D recreation of the burial site. The Philistines buried their dead with perfume bottles, placed near the face. Near the legs were jars that likely held oil, wine or food. In some cases, archaeologists found the dead were buried wearing necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and even toe rings. Some were buried with their weapons. Archaeologist Adam Aja said: 'This is how Philistines treated their dead, and it's the code book to decoding everything.' THE PHILISTINES: ARCH ENEMIES OF THE ANCIENT ISRAELITES WHO COUNTED GOLIATH AMONGST THEIR PEOPLE The origins of this 'sea people' - a term also used to describe their Phoenician contemporaries - remain a mystery. Their red-and-black pottery suggests they may have come from the Mycenaean civilisation of the Aegean. 'What is certain is that they were strangers in the Semitic region,' where their presence between 1200 and around 600 BC is evident on a thin coastal strip running from present-day Gaza to Tel Aviv, said Master. Traders and seafarers, they spoke a language of Indo-European origin, did not practice circumcision and ate pork and dog, as proven by bones and marks found on them in the ruins of the other four Philistine cities: Gaza, Gath, Ashdod and Ekron. Beyond the previously scanty archaeological record, the Philistines are known mostly from the Old Testament account given by their neighbours and bitter enemies, the ancient Israelites. The book of Samuel describes the capture by Philistine fighters of the Ark of the Covenant and the duel between their giant warrior Goliath felled by a stone from David's sling. From these biblical descriptions of savage marauders comes the modern usage of 'philistine' to mean a person without culture or manners. A few hundred yards from the dig, at its outdoor laboratory, anthropologist and pathologist Sherry Fox told the skeletons' story. 'In their teeth, we can see that they did not have an easy life,' she said. 'We see these lines that indicate a growth interruption as the teeth are forming. There were problems in childhood with either fever or malnutrition.' 'We also see from their bones that they were hard workers, they practised inbreeding and they used their teeth as tools, probably in the weaving industry,' she said softly, holding up a skull. She said they were 'normal size' with no evidence of any Goliath-sized giants. Professor Lawrence E. Stager, Dorot Research Professor of the Archaeology of Israel, speaks from the excavation site Stager's team dug down about 10 feet to uncover the cemetery, which they found to have been used centuries later as a Roman vineyard The team found DNA on parts of the skeletons and hope that further testing will determine the origins of the Philistine people The archaeologists kept the discovery a secret for three years until the end of their dig as they did not want to attract ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters On hands and knees, workers brushed away layers of dusty earth to reveal the brittle white bones of entire Philistine skeletons reposed as they were three millennia ago The Philistines buried their dead with perfume bottles, placed near the face. Near the legs were jars that likely held oil, wine or food |
Get the biggest Aston Villa FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Paul Lambert believes the arrival of Tom Fox as Chief Executive can take the strain of his mobile - and help Aston Villa nab his remaining transfer targets. The Villa boss admits that the loss of Paul Faulkner left him ploughing something of a lone furrow through the summer. But Fox’s calibre and contacts should give Lambert an overdue helping hand. “If I can do it and I think it’s right for the club, and everything is good financially and players want to come then it’s something I would look at,” said Lambert. “Until you get that far then... wait and see. But we are trying.” Fox has spent the past five years as Chief Commercial Officer at Arsenal having been in the sports-marketing industry for over 25 years. Chairman Randy Lerner said in a statement: “I was delighted and even flattered by Tom’s interest in the Villa job. His achievements at Arsenal speak for themselves and, above all, his reputation as a leader and team builder makes him, to my mind, a great fit to take our club forward.” Lambert says Lerner will continue to have the final say on budgets with talks set to take place imminently. “I’ve not actually spoken to him (Fox) but I know Randy has been a massive advocate of him and obviously his record at Arsenal has been huge. “He’s come from a really good club and I’m pretty sure he will benefit this club. “We’ve needed somebody since Paul Faulkner left. It has been hard over the past couple of months not having any chief executive here. “But now Tom is coming in and it will be great for the football club. “Tom, myself, Randy and Robin Russell (Chief Financial Officer) will probably get together when Tom officially starts. “Ultimately the decisions will be the Chairman’s as to what happens but Randy has been great. He has always been good with me on that front and I’m pretty sure the four of us will get together at some point and talk about things. “As I say it has been tough not having anybody but we’ve got through that period and hopefully we can sit together and I’m pretty sure everything will go well. “I’m looking forward to meeting Tom. His record at another great club is great. “It’s been hard and I have probably had a go at everything but that’s the way it went. The new Chief Exec will certainly help me and help the club. “Paul Faulkner was great, the relationship I had with him. Tom hopefully does great for the club and we work well together. “I’ve just had to get on with it.” Last weekend’s win over Stoke lifted a cloud which had been hanging over the club all summer. “In football you try and protect everybody, the players and staff from outside influences,” said Lambert. “I knew we were a good side. I knew we could cause Stoke trouble. They put everything out of their minds and went and performed. “Off the pitch probably affects me more than the players. “After all the negativity towards the end of the season, to turn it around to what it is now, you can certainly feel it. “Everybody is looking forward to the game. The place in general there’s a major turn in fortunes. “And the new Chief Executive will be great. “I’ve basically done things myself. It’ been hard. I’ve probably fell out with more people than I’ve ever fell out with! “That’s the name of the game.” Lambert says Villa remain a big draw for players: “No doubt about it, absolutely no doubt. It is a massive club. Huge. Expectancy levels are huge. I’ve no worries about that whatsoever about Aston Villa being a big, big draw for any footballer. “The more successful you can be then the stronger the hand you’ve got. We have to get to that level. But regarding club size and facilities it is huge.” Fox said in a statement: “Aston Villa has always been an important club in English football and it has a long and rich history of success at the top of the game. “The chance to work with Randy, Paul Lambert and Robin to help restore the Club to its rightful place in the Premier League is a challenge I’m really energised by and greatly looking forward to.” |
The United Nations human rights chief thinks that Trump's criticism of journalists as “fake news” is an attack on the free press, and could incite violence against journalists. I have two big problems with Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein’s concerns. The first problem is obvious: Copts are being murdered in their churches. Yazidis — the ones who are surviving their genocide, I mean - are being sold into sex slavery. You get the picture. I’m pretty sure Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein has something better to do than worry about the hurt feelings of some mildly insulted journalists in the freest country on the planet. And secondly, the violence against reporters isn't coming at the behest of Trump but rather from his sworn enemies on the far left, Antifa, who have attacked journalists in Montreal and Berkeley. I was assaulted by a left wing activist at the anti-Trump Women’s March in Edmonton. And speaking of The Rebel, the UN tried to ban us from their Climate Change Conference, remember? The UN is pretending to defend freedom while leading the attack against it. |
What is Bitcoin Clashic? Bitcoin Clashic is peer-to-peer electronic cash for the Internet. It is fully decentralized, with no central bank and requires no trusted third parties to operate. Is Bitcoin Clashic different from 'Bitcoin'? Yes. Bitcoin Clashic is the continuation of the Bitcoin project as peer-to-peer digital cash. It is a fork of the Bitcoin blockchain ledger, with upgraded consensus rules that allow it to grow and scale. If I own Bitcoin, do I automatically own Bitcoin Clashic too? Anyone who held Bitcoin at the time Bitcoin Clashic was created became owners of Bitcoin Clashic. This means that Bitcoin holders as of block 478558 have the same amount of Bitcoin Clashic as they had Bitcoin at that time. If your Bitcoins are stored by a third party such as an exchange, then you must inquire with them about your Bitcoin Clashic. How is transaction replay being handled between the new and the old blockchain? Bitcoin Clashic transactions use a new signature hashing algorithm indicated by the flag SIGHASH_FORKID. These signatures are not valid on the Bitcoin Legacy network. This prevents Bitcoin Clashic transactions from being replayed on the Bitcoin blockchain and vice versa. Anyone else using Bitcoin Clashic's method and deployed later is a direct attack to Satoshi's True Vision Why was a fork necessary to create Bitcoin Clashic? The legacy Bitcoin code had a maximum limit of 1MB of data per block, or about 3 transactions per second. Although technically simple to raise this limit, the community could not reach a consensus, even after years of debate. Was the 1 MB block size limit causing problems for Bitcoin? Yes, In 2017, capacity hit the 'invisible wall'. Fees skyrocketed, and Bitcoin became unreliable, with some users unable to get their transactions confirmed, even after days of waiting. Bitcoin stopped growing. Many users, merchants, businesses and investors abandoned Bitcoin. Its marketshare among other cryptocurrencies quickly plummeted from 95% to 40%. Does Bitcoin Clashic fix these problems? Yes. Bitcoin Clashic immediately raised the block size limit to 8MB as part of a massive on-chain scaling approach. There is ample capacity for everyone's transactions. Low fees and fast confirmations have returned with Bitcoin Clashic. The network is growing again. Users, merchants, businesses, and investors are building the future with real peer to peer cash. Why didn't Bitcoin raise the block size if it was easy? Some of the developers did not understand and agree with the original vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash that Satoshi Nakamoto had created. Instead, they preferred Bitcoin become a settlement layer. Many miners and users trusted these developers, while others recognized that they were leading the community down a different road than expected. These two very different visions for Bitcoin are largely incompatible, which led to the community divide. Didn't SegWit increase the block capacity? Will Bitcoin Clashic ever have SegWit? Segregated Witness or "SegWit" is an unacceptable substitute for increasing the blocksize for several reasons. First, even if used in 100% of transactions, the increase would equate to 1.7MB blocks. Thus, it is a small capacity increase at best. It will not handle exponential growth or worldwide usage. Second, the soft fork implementation results in discardable signatures, which weakens Bitcoin's security model. Third, it makes future capacity increases more difficult due to bandwidth inefficiency and quadratic hashing attacks which SegWit doesn't solve since an attacker isn't forced to use it. For those (and other) reasons, Bitcoin Clashic was necessary as a pre-SegWit fork. Segwit will not be adopted. Which Development Team is In Charge of Bitcoin Clashic? Unlike the previous situation in Bitcoin, there is no one single development team for Bitcoin Clashic. There are now multiple independent teams of developers. This decentralization of development (and decentralization of software implementations) is a much needed and important step forward. What is the ticker symbol for Bitcoin Clashic? Bitcoin Clashic is represented by a number of different ticker symbols depending on the service or wallet. BCL is the recommended ticker. |
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