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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said that the former U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Philip Goldberg, was a spy who was working to undermine him, saying Goldberg was kicked out of Bolivia for giving millions of dollars to activists to oust President Evo Morales. Photo courtesy Malacañang Photo Bureau MANILA, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said most U.S. ambassadors are undermining foreign governments by spying, and specifically mentioned former envoy Philip Goldberg. Duterte was responding to a report Tuesday in The Manila Times that the former ambassador had prepared a "blueprint to undermine" Duterte. It cited information from a "highly placed source" that Goldberg had a list of "strategies" for his eventual ouster in a timetable of 1 1/2 years. The U.S. State Department the same day described the allegations as "false." Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said in a statement to the newspaper, "As we have said, our relationship with the Philippines is broad and our alliance is one of our most enduring and important relationships in the Asia Pacific region." During remarks in a television interview, Duterte broadened the accusations to other ambassadors. "In the matter of the credible news, maybe you may have an inkling on how this guy operates," Duterte said. "Because most ambassadors of the United States, but not all, are not really professional ambassadors... at the same time they are spying. They are really connected to the CIA." "The ambassador of a country is the No. 1 spy but there are ambassadors of the United States to undermine governments. That's what happened to Bolivia," he added. Goldberg served as U.S. ambassador to the Philippines from Dec. 2, 2013 to Nov. 4, 2015. RELATED Bomb blast at boxing match injures dozens in Philippines Before Goldberg's deployment in Manila, he was the assistant secretary for intelligence and research at the U.S. Department of State. In 2006, President George W. Bush nominated him as ambassador to Bolivia. On Sept. 10, 2008, Bolivia's government gave Goldberg 72 hours to leave the country after the United States allegedly provided millions of dollars to opposition leaders and think tanks who opposed Bolivian President Evo Morales. The U.S. State Department said the allegations against Goldberg are baseless. "That's what happened with Bolivia," Duterte said. "He was expelled because he was undermining the native president there. "And Goldberg started to dig under, to erode the foundation of the presidency and he was expelled persona non grata." Duterte has shown disdain for President Barack Obama, whom he told to "go to hell" after Obama's criticism of his deadly war on drugs. |
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Oct. 19, 2017, 10:30 AM GMT / Updated Oct. 19, 2017, 12:24 PM GMT By Alyssa Newcomb There may be a few good reasons not to add your city to Amazon's shopping cart. Formal bids in the nationwide search for Amazon's second headquarters are due Thursday, and cities have been pulling out all the stops to attract the $479 billion retail behemoth. From the 21-foot cactus that Tucson, Arizona, shipped to Amazon's Seattle headquarters, to the giant Amazon packages that Birmingham, Alabama, placed around its city center, the nation's mayors, residents and business leaders clearly believe that having one of the world's most valuable companies move into town is a golden ticket to economic prosperity. But although the $5 billion project is sure to inject billions of dollars into the local economy and provide work for thousands of residents, some economists are warning that hosting the retail giant could bring on some equally giant headaches. "It feels like 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,'" Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, told NBC News. "It's a real prize, but they're going to need to be very disciplined. It's a big deal, a big project with lots of moving parts." While residents of the chosen city will likely reap the benefits of high-paying jobs and skyrocketing property values, they may also have to contend with some pain points as Amazon gets settled. Traffic jams and labor pains "It's a big construction project, and all large projects can be a bit of a nuisance to the existing residents," Zandi said of the proposed eight-million-square-foot headquarters. For a start, that means an influx of construction workers and materials coming to and from the site. This will raise the cost of labor for other businesses, Zandi said, since Amazon will be competing for workers. "People will move in to take the jobs, but it will probably put pressure on other businesses in the community who have the same labor pool," he said. "Some businesses might not be that excited." Traffic patterns in the chosen city will also be forever changed as thousands of workers commute to and from the new headquarters. Amazon is targeting metropolitan areas with more than one million people and within a 45-minute drive to an international airport. "There could be all kinds of traffic problems associated with a burst of construction and a change in location of employment," Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, told NBC News. And, while traffic jams may already be a way of life in cities like Phoenix and Chicago, they're "the kinds of problems cities like Buffalo and Rochester and St. Louis dream of having," he said, noting that these are "problems of prosperity." However, Tom Kucharski, president and CEO of Invest Buffalo Niagara — which is launching a joint bid with neighboring Rochester — said he sees the benefit of Amazon choosing a city looking for a resurgence. A worker gathers items for delivery from the warehouse floor at Amazon's distribution center in Phoenix on Nov. 22, 2013. Ralph D. Friso / Reuters file "The benefit we have is, through the structural reordering of industries over the past 100 years, we have infrastructures that can accommodate new investments in rail, airports can ramp up greater service," Kucharski said. "Where a lot of other communities may struggle with housing and workforce, we are sitting here ready for this opportunity." Concerned communities As the window comes to a close this week, 73 community groups from around the United States signed an open letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asking for the company to make some commitments to the cities under consideration. "We love jobs, we love technology, and we love convenience — but what you’re looking for will impact every part of our cities," the letter said. "We built these cities, and we want to make sure they remain ours." The signatories want promises from Amazon on everything from transparency and taxes to jobs and housing. That means asking for commitments on affordable housing, a promise to hire locally for construction jobs, and pledging to pay property taxes and sales tax on HQ2 building materials, and declining to sell its corporate income tax credits to other companies. “It has to be the right fit, not just for the company but for the entire community." “We need to make sure that Amazon commits to clear and enforceable benefits to any community they would move into," said Dorian Warren, vice president of the Center for Community Change, a national community organizing group. "This means, among other things, a commitment to hire locally for the many jobs that will be created, taking proactive steps to avoid gentrification and displacement of poor and working class residents, and to pay their full taxes like the rest of us," he said. Housing boom — or bust For some homeowners, when big technology companies move into town, it can be like winning the jackpot as housing prices skyrocket. Home values in Seattle, the site of Amazon's sprawling and still expanding original headquarters, have jumped more than 11 percent in the last year compared to a 6.9 percent annual average, according to Zillow. But for renters, the housing boom can be a nightmare, driving lower income people farther outside of town. Seattle rents jumped 7.2 percent, according to the same index, well above the national average of 1.2 percent. It's something Silicon Valley is also being forced to consider. In the tech-focused San Francisco Bay area, many police officers, teachers, firefighters, and other professionals essential to keeping a city safe and thriving have already been priced out and are instead forced to commute into the city where they work. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the charitable foundation that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg co-founded with his wife, Priscilla Chan, has already donated $3.6 million to help with the San Francisco housing crisis. While Burtless said this is the kind of opportunity that keeps local development offices "salivating," San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Nelson Wolff, a Bexar County judge, announced in an open letter to Bezos why the Texas city isn't submitting a proposal. "Blindly giving away the farm isn’t our style,” they wrote in the letter. “It has to be the right fit, not just for the company but for the entire community." While they were complimentary of Bezos and Amazon, the city's leadership ultimately decided their mix of real estate and incentives wouldn't make them the most attractive candidate for Amazon, according to a statement given to the San Antonio Business Journal. In fact, Nirenberg even believes Amazon already has its mind made up — but isn't saying just yet. "We've long been impressed by Amazon and its bold view of the future," he wrote. "Given this, it's hard to imagine that a forward-thinking company like Amazon hasn't already selected its preferred location." Either way, it's not likely that the final answer will be announced any time soon. After Thursday's bid deadline, Amazon may take a year to announce its decision. Vying for attention "This is about as big of a project I can ever remember," Zandi said. "There will be growing pains, but it will be well worth it, I am sure. I don't think any city would go wrong if Amazon chose their site for expansion." Look no further than what Amazon did for Seattle: The company's investments in the city from 2010 to 2016 added $38 billion to the city's economy, according to data provided by Amazon. Or, to put that in simpler terms: For every $1 Amazon invested, the company said it added $1.40 to the local economy. While each city has made its own particular case, Moody's scored the competing cities in five categories: business environment, human capital, cost, quality of life, and transportation and geography. Using a data-driven approach, it found Austin, Texas, was in first place, with Atlanta a close second. Philadelphia, the Rochester-Buffalo joint bid, and Pittsburgh rounded out the top five. Ultimately, the winning factor will likely be the good will of residents, said Zandi. "Amazon wants to be welcomed by the community. If there are people protesting or objecting, I would think it would have an impact on Amazon's location decision," he said. "They want to make sure the community wants them as much as they want to be there." |
August 28th 2011 — Topic: — Topic: CSS For more on Sass, read The Sass Way and follow @TheSassWay on Twitter. Note: Throughout this post, when I say “Sass” I mean “Sass and Compass.” This is not a post saying… “If you’re still building websites without Sass, you’re doing it wrong.” This is a post saying: “If you haven’t tried Sass/Compass, please do before dismissing it.” My Lawn… Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino If you are anything like me, then as a designer you are also probably a bit of a curmudgeon, though perhaps you consider it perfectionism – and justifiably so. You have honed a specific workflow you adhere to because that is what works, dang it. Woe unto anyone who suggests you are not doing things in the best possible way, right? Yes, exactly! Except, well… no. I believe my first reaction to Wynn Netherland, when he told me I ought to try Sass and that perhaps I would see a boost in productivity, was something along the lines of: “Bah, get off my lawn” — a reference to the cantankerous character played by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. I came to realize that his suggestion was not a subtle way of saying “I know something you don’t know” (though he did), but more of a friendly nudge towards greater efficiency. He was just being a good neighbor, so to speak. So, I am writing this post in an attempt to get designers out there (who are also already CSS savvy) to try Sass and Compass. I aim for this to be the article I wish I had read when I was first contemplating Sass but (at the time) did not consider it worthwhile. I could not have been more wrong. FUD There seem to be a number of false assumptions that designers get hung up on when it comes to the topic of CSS preprocessors. I know such misconceptions exist because I myself had these doubts ruminating in the back of my mind, and have seen others express similar sentiment, without actually having tried Sass. I hope to clear some of those up here… Myth: Using the command-line is hard Using the command-line is inconvenient I must learn both Sass and Compass Sass requires me to know Ruby Sass requires a foreign syntax Sass only works in Ruby on Rails Sass is always white-space sensitive Fact: Using the command-line is not scary Using the command-line is infrequent Sass and Compass go hand-in-hand Sass doesn’t require Ruby knowledge Sass is just CSS syntax, with extras Sass runs on Ruby (already on OS X) — outputs flat CSS , to use anywhere Sass itself is white-space sensitive — SCSS is not, use either one Think of it this way… As a designer you have undoubtedly worked on some project using PHP, Django, Rails, etc. You do realize PHP is a recursive acronym that means PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor — don’t you? Somehow, it is perfectly fine to preprocess HTML for productivity gains. Why should CSS be off the table? Setup Windows: On Windows, you will first need to run the Ruby Installer. Linux: On Linux, Rails Ready provides several Ruby essentials – read more here. OS X: This “just works” on a Mac, because Ruby is installed by default on OS X. Gem Install Note: The ~ symbol is an alias to username on OS X and Linux. If using Windows, replace ~ with %USERPROFILE% in the following command-line examples. For the sake of brevity, and server language agnosticism, let’s say you want to use Sass on a flat-file HTML site. To install Compass, which comes with Sass, just open up your favorite command-line utility, such as Terminal.app and type… Windows: gem install compass Linux + OS X: sudo gem install compass Next… Actually, that’s it! Compass and Sass are now installed. New Project Still got Terminal open? Good, just a few more minor things to type. To create a SCSS project named “my_project” on your desktop, do this… compass create ~/desktop/my_project Or, to create a Sass project named “my_project” on your desktop, type… compass create ~/desktop/my_project -x sass Regardless if you specified Sass (or defaulted to SCSS) as your preferred syntax, you will see a directory named “my_project” on your desktop, with a config.rb file inside. Really, this is all you need to get a Compass project going. You will see the various options nicely explained in the “#” comments. config.rb file: # Require any additional compass plugins here. # Set this to the root of your project when deployed: http_path = "/" css_dir = "stylesheets" sass_dir = "sass" images_dir = "images" javascripts_dir = "javascripts" # You can select your preferred output style # here (can be overridden via the command line): # output_style = :expanded or :nested or :compact or :compressed # To enable relative paths to assets via # compass helper functions. Uncomment: # relative_assets = true # To disable debugging comments that display the # original location of your selectors. Uncomment: # line_comments = false preferred_syntax = :sass Now that you’re done creating the project, you won’t need to type “compass create” again until you want to create an entirely new project. Or, if you’re like me – you can tweak your newly created project files and save them to reuse later as starting point for new projects. After which, all you’ll have to do is… Compass Watch Now that the “my_project” directory exists, go into it… cd ~/desktop/my_project Then tell Compass to watch for changes to your *.sass (or *.scss) files… compass watch As changes are detected in your *.sass (or *.scss), new *.css file(s) will be compiled on-the-fly. Once you’re satisfied with how things have shaped up, you can hit Ctrl-C to stop the watcher, and go deploy your flat CSS. Syntax You can use either the Sass or SCSS syntax, and can even have *.sass files and *.scss files in the same project, as long as you don’t mix the syntax within the same file. You can also @import flat *.css files into a *.sass or *.scss file. It all compiles down nicely into flat *.css file(s). Sass and SCSS differ only in that SCSS syntax is a “super-set” of CSS3 — just a fancy term that means all regular CSS still works fine inside of SCSS — and curly braces and semi-colons are still valid and required. Whereas in a Sass file, curly braces and semi-colons are not only unnecessary, they’re invalid. That might sound like crazy talk at first glance, but after having tried both, I can say I greatly prefer Sass to SCSS. But to each his/her own. At it’s core, Sass syntax can be thought of as simply CSS without { , } , or ; . In fact, if you do a find-and-replace, substituting nothingness for those characters “”, you’ll be all set to start converting flat CSS files into Sass. By way of example, here is the same code in SCSS and Sass, and what it would look like compiled (or written long-hand) in CSS… SCSS: // This comment is not output to CSS. /* This comment is output to CSS */ #foo { font: { size: 13px; family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif; } .bar, .baz { border-width: 1px; } .bar { border: { style: solid; color: #369; } } .baz { border: { style: dotted; color: #693; } } } Sass: // This comment is not output to CSS. /* This comment is output to CSS */ #foo font: size: 13px family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans-serif .bar, .baz border-width: 1px .bar border: style: solid color: #369 .baz border: style: dotted color: #693 CSS: /* This comment is output to CSS */ /* line 5, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo { font-size: 13px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; } /* line 10, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo .bar, #foo .baz { border-width: 1px; } /* line 14, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo .bar { border-style: solid; border-color: #336699; } /* line 19, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo .baz { border-style: dotted; border-color: #669933; } Compression You’ll note in the example above that the line numbers for each selector are written out in the CSS file, via comments. This is helpful if you combining multiple files via Sass importing, because unlike the typical @import in a flat CSS file, Sass will combine multiple files into one. This style of commenting helps you trace the origin of a style, in case you wanted to debug. When deploying to production once everything is solid, there is little need for these comments (nor indentation and line breaks), because browsers will render the code with or without them. Thankfully, all it takes is setting one option in your config.rb file, and everything will be minified auto-magically… output_style = :compressed This yields code that is difficult to read for humans, but is perfectly optimized to save precious bytes, and is perfectly parsable by any given browser… #foo{font-size:13px;font-family:"Helvetica Neue",Arial,sans-serif}#foo .bar,#foo .baz{border-width:1px}#foo .bar{border-style:solid;border-color:#369}#foo .baz{border-style:dotted;border-color:#693} You’ll even notice that every instance of “;}” has been replaced with “}” because CSS does not require a semi-colon on the last rule of each block. Little things like this add up, potentially resulting in a significant reduction of overall file-size. This equates to faster page loading, which we all know is pretty important. Compass Even if the aforementioned features were all Sass was capable of, it would be worth looking into. At the risk of sounding like an infomercial salesman… But wait, there’s more! Where Sass left off, Compass goes to the next level. Chris Evans as Captain America Gradients How many times have you attempted to remember the puzzling syntax for a CSS3 gradient? Though similar in implementation, the code to produce it is maddeningly different depending on the browser. This is where Compass truly shines, providing mixins that output this code for you. With Sass, most of it you write yourself, but Compass is great at bleeding edge CSS3, for which no human should have to remember the syntax. This terse, logical Sass/Compass code: @import compass/css3 #foo +background(linear-gradient(#fff, #ccc)) Turns into this ridiculous assortment: /* line 3, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo { background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #ffffff), color-stop(100%, #cccccc)); background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: -moz-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: -o-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: -ms-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); } Experimental SVG You can even set an “experimental” flag, to have Compass output SVG for you. This is great for browsers like IE9 and older versions of Opera, that understand how to render an embedded base64 encoded image, but can’t natively draw CSS3 gradients. A simple variable set to “true” outputs the necessary code. If you set $experimental-support-for-svg: true … @import compass/css3 $experimental-support-for-svg: true #foo +background(linear-gradient(#fff, #ccc)) A base64 encoded SVG string is output… /* line 5, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo { background: url('data:image/svg+xml;base64,PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiBlbmNvZGluZz0idXRmLTgiPz4gPHN2ZyB2ZXJzaW9uPSIxLjEiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8yMDAwL3N2ZyI+PGRlZnM+PGxpbmVhckdyYWRpZW50IGlkPSJncmFkIiBncmFkaWVudFVuaXRzPSJ1c2VyU3BhY2VPblVzZSIgeDE9IjUwJSIgeTE9IjAlIiB4Mj0iNTAlIiB5Mj0iMTAwJSI+PHN0b3Agb2Zmc2V0PSIwJSIgc3RvcC1jb2xvcj0iI2ZmZmZmZiIvPjxzdG9wIG9mZnNldD0iMTAwJSIgc3RvcC1jb2xvcj0iI2NjY2NjYyIvPjwvbGluZWFyR3JhZGllbnQ+PC9kZWZzPjxyZWN0IHg9IjAiIHk9IjAiIHdpZHRoPSIxMDAlIiBoZWlnaHQ9IjEwMCUiIGZpbGw9InVybCgjZ3JhZCkiIC8+PC9zdmc+IA=='); background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #ffffff), color-stop(100%, #cccccc)); background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: -moz-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: -o-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: -ms-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background: linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); } This can potentially add file-size and as such is (smartly) an opt-in feature, because the $experimental-support-for-svg flag defaults to false unless you specifically enable it. Still, it’s pretty cool to know it’s there. Border Radius Without belaboring the point of how cool Compass is, let me show one more CSS3 example. Adding a border radius is trivial enough, since the syntax is somewhat similar (aside from vendor prefixes), but what if you only wanted to round three out of the four corners of an element? It gets a bit more tricky, because browsers differ: “…top-right-radius” vs. “…radius-topright” etc. Compass to the rescue! You just type this… @import compass/css3 #foo +border-top-left-radius(4px) +border-top-right-radius(4px) +border-bottom-left-radius(4px) Compass does the heavy lifting… /* line 3, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo { -moz-border-radius-topleft: 4px; -webkit-border-top-left-radius: 4px; -o-border-top-left-radius: 4px; -ms-border-top-left-radius: 4px; -khtml-border-top-left-radius: 4px; border-top-left-radius: 4px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 4px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 4px; -o-border-top-right-radius: 4px; -ms-border-top-right-radius: 4px; -khtml-border-top-right-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 4px; -webkit-border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; -o-border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; -ms-border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; -khtml-border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; border-bottom-left-radius: 4px; } The Hard Sell What’s that, champ? You have all that fancy CSS3 syntax memorized already? Right… I bet you do. Keep telling yourself that. Seriously though, even if you know all those keystrokes, who in their right mind wants to type all that? Okay, fine. I will up the ante. Compass also has support for image sprites. You know that PSD or PNG file you maintain with tons of little icons, where you cleverly count the number of pixels each is offset from the top-left of the document? You can quit doing that, and instead have multiple, separate files that Compass will combine into one single HTTP request. Sass also has a slew of color functions that can act upon colors, so that you don’t have to painstakingly recolor things in Photoshop, and retrieve hex values via the color dropper. If you want to darken something 10%, just do it… #foo color: darken(#369, 10%) Which yields… /* line 1, ../sass/screen.sass */ #foo { color: #264c73; } Oh, and get this… Sass supports math, and Compass adds enumeration. That means you can create loops that spit out numerically incremented code, perfect for making custom vertical grid dimensions. For example, the 960 plugin. There is even a plugin to establish a baseline horizontal grid, called vertical rhythm, allowing you to achieve the (oft sought, rarely realized) goal of uniform line-height throughout an entire page. It’s not automatic, but it certainly gets you further than you might get manually adjusting margin and padding. Apps Currently, there are two apps that can be used to basically simulate “compass watch” to check for changes to *.sass and/or *.scss files and convert them to CSS. Also, I know of at least one other app that’s in progress, currently undergoing a private beta test. The two apps available today are: Compass.app — built in: JRuby — open source, on GitHub — cost: $7.00 compiled — built in: JRuby — open source, on GitHub — cost: $7.00 compiled Scout — built in: JRuby + Adobe AIR — open source, on GitHub — cost: free Done I could go on and on, but instead I will let you go read more about Sass and Compass in detail. I will say this: If you are a designer who prides yourself on writing efficient front-end code, then I would encourage you to give ‘em a shot. Worst case scenario, you end up back writing CSS the way you have been doing it. Best case scenario, you have another skill to add to the ol’ arsenal. Just think of Sass (and Compass) like the “jQuery of CSS.” Those who understand the fundamentals of CSS will always have an edge over designers who don’t code at all. A solid tool like Compass in the hands of a master CSS craftsman only serves to make him/her all the more effective, further widening the gap. |
The first duty of a prime minister is to not damage the country. One sure way to damage it, history tells us, is to do nothing when extremists spread hate against a group of fellow citizens. We have a far more frightening situation today. The prime minister himself is orchestrating a campaign of bigotry, covertly and not so covertly, against Muslims, who are arguably as vulnerable a group as were Catholics, Jews, Japanese or Chinese Canadians at various times in our history. In trying to win votes by dividing Canadians, Harper is violating the most sacred of Canadian values, unity. We can quibble about the details, but overall, Justin Trudeau's program is sensible, writes Haroon Siddiqui. ( Todd Korol / Toronto Star ) This is what Thomas Mulcair, Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth May, to their credit, are saying, loudly and clearly. Either Mulcair or Trudeau would make a good prime minister for a multitude of other reasons as well. Neither would run a one-man government. Or treat civil servants as enemies. Or silence scientists. Or kill detailed census data gathering. Or twist foreign and refugee policies to pander to selected ethnic communities. Or undermine democracy. Or make Canada a pariah in the world. Under either leader, Canada would win a seat back at the U.N. Security Council. Article Continued Below Mulcair has been an effective leader of the opposition. He is a formidable debater. But Canadians haven’t warmed up to him. “Angry Tom” tried a charm offensive, only to come across as faking it. A turncoat, he had a reputation of not being a team player when he was a Quebec Liberal minister. Now without consulting the NDP rank-and-file, he has promised a balanced budget in his first year as prime minister. Besides turning the party’s orthodoxy on its head, his unilateralism has a whiff of Harper’s. Far more troubling is Mulcair’s proposition that Quebec can secede with a 50-plus one vote. This is against the law of the land, the Clarity Act. Quebecers have a democratic right to quit Canada but they must first obtain a clear majority on a clear question. About Trudeau’s economic and social blueprint, we can quibble – modest deficits to stimulate the economy, tax cuts for the middle class, funds for carbon reduction and getting illegal handguns off the streets, etc. But, overall, his program is sensible. He was the first to attack the Parti Quebecois’ odious Charter of Quebec Values. He was ahead of Mulcair on the niqab issue, giving a thoughtful Barack Obama-style speech in March, laying down secular principles on how to accommodate individual religious rights without harming the common good. His weakest moments are well known. He was mute during Israel’s 2014 onslaught on Gaza. He buckled under Harper’s populist pressure to commit Canada to yet another American war in the Middle East, and to pass the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act (Bill C-51). Trudeau was both for and against both. He has since worked out plausible-sounding explanations – he tried to strike a balance between war-mongering and being helpful, providing security without sacrificing freedoms. He is promising stronger civilian oversight over the spy agencies. While Mulcair has mounted a strong opposition to C-51, it’s worth recalling that he initially hesitated and had to be pushed into voting against it by NDP elders, like Ed Broadbent. The Conservatives say Trudeau is not ready. He is far more ready than Harper ever was in 2006. And that he is too young. He is as old as John Kennedy was when he entered the White House. To the insinuation that he’s leader only because he is Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s son, the answer is that he had a great teacher who, besides giving him classical education and making him recite reams of poetry, grounded him in the values of bilingualism, multiculturalism and the Charter of Rights, the DNA of contemporary Canada. This is reflected in Justin Trudeau’s command of the issues, as seen in the three leaders’ debates. Article Continued Below He carries no torch for regional grievances. His sense of Canada is greater than the sums of its parts. He has a vision of Canada, grounded in the innate decency of Canadians. He has shown flashes of statesmanship: “Conservatives are not our enemies. They are our neighbours.” He does not display personal insecurities. He doesn’t feel threatened by others. He listens. He is a team player, has gathered experienced former ministers and bright young new talent, who would constitute a good cabinet. He has run a positive campaign, without whining, like his predecessor Michael Ignatieff did, about nasty Conservative attack ads. He clearly has charisma – he creates a buzz wherever he goes. He meets people with the tactile gusto of Bill Clinton. “His talent for face-to-face communication is beyond words and logic, which may be why his opponents, Tutting Tom and Strapped-in Stephen, who can’t manage it quite so effectively, mock him so viciously in public,” observes the Globe and Mail’s Ian Brown, in a beautifully-written profile. A Trudeau-led Liberal government would also signal the long overdue passing of the torch to a new generation. siddiqui.canada@gmail.com Read more about: |
One thing you can bank on when it comes to Zack Snyder, is that the director doesn't hold any punches when it comes to Superman. Fox All Access spoke with Snyder about Superman and the director mentions of all things - Smallville. Smallville has seen its share of success on the CW for the last ten years and comes to a conclusion with a two hour finale on May 13th. Snyder seems to think that Smallville was the only thing keeping Superman in the hearts of people - and doing it "quietly." "I'll say one thing and that is thank God for Smallville. And that is Smallville by itself, quietly has kept Superman in consciousness in a way that without it, my kids would really be like who the hell is Superman. Like, I don't even know who that guy is. Why do they have a ride at six flags for a guy that I don't even know who the guy is? He has a ride? Superman?" "So, I think in that way Smallville's done an amazing job of just keeping that icon alive and breathing, it's like he is on life support, but he's there, and I thank them for that incredibly. I think that's an incredible thing." Has Smallville gone about promoting Superman "quietly" - for ten whole years? These are some rather bold statements from Snyder, wouldn't you say? Superman has seen appearances outside Smallville as well, including the excellent direct to DVD Warner Bros. movies, in addition to the animated shows on the Cartoon Network. Don't forget, DC Comics also publishes numerous Superman related comics. And there was Superman Returns. With the new Superman: The Man of Steel under Snyder's direction, the director has A LOT to live up to. Recently, with Sucker Punch, reportedly not doing as well as hoped, some critics have begun questioning Snyder's ability - even more. I have yet to see it for myself, but our reviewer didn't give Sucker Punch a good write-up (to say the least!). Time will tell. Stay tuned to Cosmic Book News as more on Superman develops. Superman flies into theaters December 2012 directed by Zack Snyder starring, Henry Cavill as the Man of Steel, Diane Lane as Martha "Ma" Kent and Kevin Costern as Jonathan "Pa" Kent. Be sure to check out the Cosmic Book News Superman Movie Hub for even more news and information. |
The Obama administration’s Title IX regulation changes are nothing short of an attempt to rewrite this venerable statute without congressional oversight. Forty years ago, Congress approved the Education Amendments of 1972 by 88 percent in the Senate and 69 percent in the House, sending them to President Richard Nixon for his signature. The heart of that law is Title IX: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Congress has occasionally supplemented and modified the law in the ensuing decades, but in the last few years, something more troubling has begun to occur. It is nothing short of an attempt by the current presidential administration to rewrite this venerable statute without congressional oversight. This Is Essentially Brand-New The attempt to remake Title IX began recently. In April 2014, the Department of Education issued “guidance” on enforcing Title IX, the law banning sexual discrimination in education, in the context of sexual violence. The 46-page document includes an interpretation of the statute that includes “gender identity”: Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity and OCR [Office of Civil Rights] accepts such complaints for investigation. Similarly, the actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of the parties does not change a school’s obligations. In January 2015, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a dear colleague letter interpreting this document as requiring schools to provide all facilities and services based on the self-identified sex of students. This letter informed an unnamed school official (the information is redacted in the available copy): The Department’s Title IX regulations permit schools to provide sex-segregated restrooms, locker rooms, shower facilities, housing, athletic teams, and single-sex classes under certain circumstances. When a school elects to separate or treat students differently on the basis of sex in those situations, a school generally must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity. OCR also encourages schools to offer the use of gender-neutral, individual-user facilities to any student who does not want to use shared sex-segregated facilities. Two Local Test Cases The letter referenced two OCR investigations that resulted in out-of-court resolutions. The first involved Arcadia School District in California. There, OCR investigated complaints of discrimination against transgender students, specifically that “the District prohibited the Student from using sex-specific restroom and locker room facilities designated for boys during his sixth and seventh grade years.” The agreement between OCR and the district required the district to hire a consultant, create a support team at the parents’ request, and provide the Student access to sex-specific facilities designated for male students at school consistent with his gender identity; however, the Student may request access to private facilities based on privacy, safety, or other concerns; provide the Student access to sex-specific facilities designated for male students at all District-sponsored activities, including overnight events and extracurricular activities on and off campus, consistent with his gender identity; however, the Student may request access to private facilities based on privacy, safety, or other concerns; treat the Student the same as other male students in all respects in the education programs and activities offered by the District; and ensure that any school records containing the Student’s birth name or reflecting the Student’s assigned sex, if any, are treated as confidential, personally identifiable information; are maintained separately from the Student’s records; and are not disclosed to any District employees, students, or others without the express written consent of the Student’s parents or, after the Student turns 18 or is emancipated. The district agreed to implement new discrimination policies to “specifically include gender-based discrimination as a form of discrimination based on sex, and b. state that gender-based discrimination includes discrimination based on a student’s gender identity, gender expression, gender transition, transgender status, or gender nonconformity,” revise policies to “ensure that all students, including gender nonconforming and transgender students, are provided with equal access to all such programs and activities,” provide training to employees on transgender issues, and provide reports to OCR. The second resolution involved a complaint against Downey School District, also in California, and alleged more general harassment of a male student who now identified as female. The subsequent agreement requires the district to “continue to treat the Student the same as other female students in all respects in the education programs and activities offered by the District, including access to sex-designated facilities for female students at school, and at all District-sponsored activities, including overnight events, try-outs and participation in extracurricular activities on and off campus, consistent with her gender identity.” The district was required to enact the same kinds of policies required of Arcadia. The Feds and ACLU Tag-Team In June 2015, the Department of Justice filed a “Statement of Interest” in a federal case in Virginia that argues the OCR position as the appropriate interpretation of the requirements of Title IX: “The term ‘sex’ as it is used in Title IX is broad and encompasses gender identity, including transgender status.” The case was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of a student born female but who now identifies as male. The student alleges she was allowed to use the boy’s restrooms for a few weeks but the school district then enacted a policy that specified bathroom assignments follow biological sex. For students with “gender identity issues” the district designated private facilities. The ACLU says this “segregates transgender students from their peers.” The district court actually dismissed the claim, saying the OCR interpretation is not a plausible reading of the law and conflicts with an earlier Department of Education regulation that says schools may segregate based on sex, which this court said must include biological sex. The ACLU has appealed. In another case, in Palatine, Illinois, a boy who identifies as a girl sought access to the girl’s locker room rather than the private facilities the school offered. The student filed a complaint with the Department of Education with ACLU help, and OCR told the school it needed to allow the student to use the girl’s locker room. Now It’s Everywhere These cases are having an impact on other schools’ policies. In Hillsboro, Missouri, despite a student walkout opposing the policy, the high school allowed a male student who identifies as female to use women’s facilities. A news report explains: Districts that refuse to allow students to use a bathroom for the gender with which they identify could run afoul of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, said Kelli Hopkins of the Missouri School Boards’ Association. ‘The Office of Civil Rights has issued an opinion that says, if you do this, you have engaged in gender discrimination,’ Hopkins said. ‘At the same time, there is no case law or statute in Missouri that says this is against the law.’ Schools found to have violated a student’s civil rights are at risk of losing some of their federal funding, Hopkins said. Fairfax County, Virginia, also added “gender identity” to the district’s discrimination policy after being told OCR could terminate federal funding if it did not. In December 2015, a federal court in California denied Pepperdine University’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the university’s basketball team discriminated against two lesbian players. The court concluded, “[S]exual orientation discrimination is not a category distinct from sex or gender discrimination. Thus, claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation are covered by Title VII and IX, but not as a category of independent claims separate from sex and gender stereotype. Rather, claims of sexual orientation discrimination are gender stereotype or sex discrimination claims.” The court cited Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidance on Title VII as support for this conclusion. Religious Schools Now Targeted Most recently, activist groups have set their sights on religious schools that have sought an exemption from these interpretations of Title IX. Title IX has long allowed schools to request an exemption from the statute if “application of the law would conflict with specific tenets of the religion” so as not to lose federal funding and open themselves to private lawsuits. Most recently, activist groups have set their sights on religious schools that have sought an exemption from these interpretations of Title IX. The exemption will be granted as long as a school can show it is controlled by a religious organization and it identifies which applications of the law conflict with its religious teachings. At the urging of the Human Rights Campaign and others, the U.S. Department of Education announced earlier this year it would “create a searchable database that reveals the names of colleges and universities that have received exemptions on religious grounds from federal civil rights protections.” Most recently, on May 13, 2016, the Obama Department of Education and Department of Justice issued another letter reiterating their claim that Title IX “encompasses discrimination based on a student’s gender identity, including discrimination based on a student’s transgender status.” In fact, the letter brazenly asserts it is not adding “requirements to applicable law.” The letter also specifically invokes the possibility that schools may lose federal funds if they don’t comply. Some excerpts from the letter illustrate how remarkably broad and novel the administration’s requirements are: The Departments interpret Title IX to require that when a student or the student’s parent or guardian, as appropriate, notifies the school administration that the student will assert a gender identity that differs from previous representations or records, the school will begin treating the student consistent with the student’s gender identity. Under Title IX, there is no medical diagnosis or treatment requirement that students must meet as a prerequisite to being treated consistent with their gender identity. Because transgender students often are unable to obtain identification documents that reflect their gender identity (e.g., due to restrictions imposed by state or local law in their place of birth or residence), requiring students to produce such identification documents in order to treat them consistent with their gender identity may violate Title IX when doing so has the practical effect of limiting or denying students equal access to an educational program or activity. A school’s Title IX obligation to ensure nondiscrimination on the basis of sex requires schools to provide transgender students equal access to educational programs and activities even in circumstances in which other students, parents, or community members raise objections or concerns. As is consistently recognized in civil rights cases, the desire to accommodate others’ discomfort cannot justify a policy that singles out and disadvantages a particular class of students. … The Departments have resolved Title IX investigations with agreements committing that school staff and contractors will use pronouns and names consistent with a transgender student’s gender identity. … Title IX’s implementing regulations permit a school to provide sex-segregated restrooms, locker rooms, shower facilities, housing, and athletic teams, as well as single-sex classes under certain circumstances. When a school provides sex-segregated activities and facilities, transgender students must be allowed to participate in such activities and access such facilities consistent with their gender identity. The provision getting the most attention relates to the use of locker rooms and restrooms and specifically precludes a solution where schools provide single-user facilities to a student to assuage privacy and safety concerns: A school may provide separate facilities on the basis of sex, but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity. A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so. A school may, however, make individual-user options available to all students who voluntarily seek additional privacy. UPDATE: Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in a 2-1 decision, ruled the Department of Education’s interpretation of Title IX could be enforced, over a strong dissent. On a subject of this importance, process matters. A massive shift in the meaning of federal law is not something to be done by a bureaucratic agency at the stroke of a pen. |
For researchers at the UK's Rothamsted research center, the past few weeks must have felt like a train wreck in slow motion. The team engineered a strain of wheat to carry an enzyme, found in many other plant species, that will produce an aphid-repelling chemical. After what was undoubtedly a lot of time in the lab spent preparing the wheat, the Rothamsted staff was finally ready to test whether their modified wheat actually did what it was supposed to in the field. But starting in early April, they had reason to wonder whether they'd be able to learn anything from their test. In mid-April, a group calling itself 'Take the Flour Back' issued a blunt threat: "Pull up the GM wheat, or we will." Now, their deadline for action is fast approaching, and efforts to defuse the situation have gone nowhere, leaving researchers facing a potential confrontation this Sunday. In Europe, genetically modified crops have met a very high level of public resistance. Derided as "frankenfoods," the crops have attracted a broad spectrum of fears, from technical concerns like the possible spread of the engineered genetic material, to vague worries about what is "natural" and the role of modern agribusiness. As a result, a number of countries have attempted to ban them outright, and many have strict labeling requirements. In general, consumer demand has kept food derived from genetically modified crops from making it to market. (In the US, genetically modified crop products are considered indistinguishable from unmodified versions, and no specific labeling is required. There has been no significant consumer backlash, although some research fields have been vandalized.) The lack of local consumer acceptance, however, has not stopped European researchers from working on various ways of modifying crop plants. Rothamsted, for example, participates in many international research projects, and offers training to fellows from developing nations. Even if there were no local market for the results of its research, it could still find a home in a variety of other countries. This specific trial is actually designed to test a strain that has the potential to reduce pesticide use. Aphids, which feed on many crop plants, signal to each other via pheromones, one of which includes an alarm signal. A number of plants naturally produce this chemical (including, apparently, the peppermint), but wheat doesn't. So the researchers engineered a DNA construct that contains the two genes necessary to produce the chemical, along with sequences to let them select for the presence of the DNA in plant cells. This DNA was then inserted into wheat cells, which have now been developed into a viable wheat plant. The next step is to actually test whether this alarm pheromone does repel aphids in real-world situations, which is why the Rothamsted researchers have planted it in a nearby field, while taking several precautions to prevent the spread of any transgenic material. They have planted buffer zones surrounding the field of genetically modified wheat, and have destroyed nearby plants following the test. The genes used in this experiment are actually so common that they're found in many mammals; the ones used in this experiment have been modified to work well in wheat, but this has (somewhat ironically) left them most similar to the versions of the gene found in cows. That gave Take the Flour Back inspiration for its logo, which is a hybrid of a cow and a loaf of bread. The group fears... well, just about everything, and often makes a hash of the science in the process. For example, in a summary of concerns on its website, the section entitled "Unknown health / environmental impacts" mostly describes the European public's lack of interest in foods derived from genetically modified crops; it doesn't actually list a significant health concern. It does mention the use of an antibiotic resistance gene in the work, but neglects to mention that the gene originally came from bacteria. In one paragraph, it suggests that the whole approach is flawed, while in the next, it complains that if the tests do work, they'll simply drive the aphids into the fields of farmers nearby. In any case, the group has concluded that it must destroy this test planting. "This crop is a threat to our thriving wheat industry and our food security," the group writes, calling for what it terms 'a decontamination.' "We’d rather not have to clean it up, but there simply aren't any other avenues open to us." This action has received the support of other groups, including the UK's Green Party. Late in April, Rothamsted responded, pointing out that their work was an effort to reduce pesticide use, that cross-contamination isn't much of a problem with wheat, and that they had taken several precautions to prevent the spread of any transgenic plants. Its open letter also points out that Rothamsted contains some experiments that have been going on for over a century, so inviting a bunch of people to invade its fields to tear up crops might lead to a truly tragic loss of some one-of-a-kind resources. The scientists invited the people at Take the Flour Back to meet and talk with the researchers, rather than tear up their crops. The offer was not well received. The response from Take the Flour Back again shows serious misunderstandings of the science behind the tests, lumping all approaches to genetically modified crops together where convenient and focusing on the risk posed by the antibiotic resistance gene. The response ends by reiterating the group's threat: "You ask us not to pull up the GM wheat. We ask you not to recklessly endanger livelihoods and our food supply by letting it remain in the open air. We do not believe that it should be lawful for you to spread contamination in this way. If the government, through its close bio-tech industry ties, refuses to take responsibility for this problem, then we are left with no other choice." While the district council that has jurisdiction over the Rothamsted fields has restricted public access to the area over the weekend, the protesters may find some other form of confrontation. The key question appears to be what sort of damage results. Full disclosure: a family member volunteered at Rothamsted for several years, but was not involved in any research there. |
As a young Israeli who had just completed five years of service in the IDF, I looked forward to my new job educating people in the Pacific Northwest about Israel. I was shocked, however, by the anti-Israel bigotry and hostility I encountered, especially in the greater Seattle area, Oregon, and Berkeley. I had been very liberal, a member of the leftist Zionist party, Meretz, but the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that I have seen in the U.S. has changed my outlook personally and politically. As part of my work as an educator at StandWithUs, between January and May of this year, I traveled to college campuses, high schools and churches, sharing the history of modern Israel. I also shared personal stories about growing up in the Jewish state, and about my family. I always spoke about my military service as an officer in an IDF COGAT unit that attends to the needs of Palestinian civilians who are not involved in the conflict and promotes Palestinian civil society. Each time I would speak and take questions for an hour or more. I have shared my personal story with over 16,000 people at many, many college campuses and high schools, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, the University of Washington, Seattle University and many others. Many of those to whom I spoke were supportive, friendly, and open to hearing about my Israel. But, sadly, far too many were not. When I served as a soldier in the West Bank, I got used to having ugly things said to me, but nothing prepared me for the misinformation, demonization of Israel, and the gut-wrenching, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hostility expressed by many students, professors, church members, and even some high school students right here in the Pacific Northwest. I was further shocked by how unaware the organized Jewish community is and how little they are actually doing to counter this rising anti-Semitism, which motivated me to write this article. This new form of bigotry against Israel has been called the “new anti-Semitism,” with “Israel” replacing “Jew” in traditional anti-Semitic imagery and canards, singling out and discriminating against the Jewish state, and denying the Jewish people alone the right to self-determination. The new anti-Semitism is packaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS), which claims to champion Palestinian rights though its real goal is to erode American support for Israel, discredit Jews who support Israel, and pave the way for eliminating the Jewish state. One of BDS’ central demands is the “complete right of return” for all the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, subtle language that means the end of Israel as the Jewish homeland because it would turn Israel into a Palestinian-Arab majority state. It is surprising that an extremist group like BDS is ever taken seriously, but BDS advocates have found receptive audiences in some circles. Their campaigns are well organized and in many cases, well financed. They have lobbied universities, corporations, food co-ops, churches, performing artists, labor unions, and other organizations to boycott Israel and companies that do business with Israel. But even if these groups don’t agree to treat Israel as a pariah state, the BDS activists manage to spread their anti-Israel misinformation, lies and prejudice simply by forcing a debate based on their false claims about Israel. To give you a taste of the viciousness of the BDS attacks, let me cite just a few of the many shocking experiences I have had. At a BDS event in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the assembled crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?” she calmly answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any place else to go. They should not be there.” When I responded that she was calling for ethnic cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it. And during a presentation in Seattle, I spoke about my longing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I was done, a woman in her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than the Nazis. You are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was repeatedly accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my life. On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.” Such irrational accusations are symptomatic of dangerous anti-Semitism. Yet, alarmingly, most mainstream American Jews are completely oblivious to this ugly movement and the threat it poses. They seem to be asleep, unaware that this anti-Jewish bigotry is peddled on campuses, by speakers in high schools, churches, and communities, and is often deceptively camouflaged in the rhetoric of human rights. The American Jewish community and its leaders are not providing a united front to combat this latest threat. Unfortunately, this repeats a pattern of Jewish communal groups failing to unite in a timely way to counter threats against us individually and as a community. Shockingly, a small but very vocal number of Jews actively support BDS. They often belong to organizations that prominently include “Jewish” in their names, like Jewish Voice for Peace, to give cover to BDS and the anti-Semitism that animates it. A question that we, as a Jewish community must ask ourselves, is whether it is ever appropriate to include and accept Jews who support BDS and directly or indirectly advocate the ultimate elimination of the Jewish State of Israel. I think it is not. My experiences in America have changed me. I never expected to encounter such hatred and lies. I never believed that such anti-Semitism still existed, especially in the U.S. I never knew that the battlefield was not just Gaza, the West Bank, and hostile Middle Eastern countries wanting to destroy Israel and kill our citizens and soldiers. It is also here in America, where a battle must be waged against prejudice and lies. I implore American Jews: do more. Israel cannot fight this big battle alone. If you are affiliated with a Jewish organization, let it know you want it to actively, openly and unequivocally oppose the BDS campaign and those who support it. Inform yourself, your friends and families, by visiting websites of organizations like StandWithUs, Jewish Virtual Library, AIPAC, AJC and others that will update you and provide information about BDS and anti-Semitism. I urge the organized Jewish community and its members to wake up and stand up for the Jewish state of Israel, and for all it represents, and for all it works to achieve. |
Holistic doctors 'suicided' over GcMAF, which threatens to put cancer industry out of business (NaturalNews) A breakthrough cancer treatment appears to be the reason why a handful of holistic doctors were recently found "suicided" is now gaining worldwide attention as a potential universal cure for cancer. And new microscopic footage released by First Immune shows this amazing remedy in action -- the human protein GcMAF is visually seen activating the body's own macrophages, which are then able to attack and destroy breast cancer cells in vitro.The roughly two-minute video clip, which has been posted to YouTube , reveals the true healing power of GcMAF, a human protein that the body makes naturally but that some people lack or can't produce in adequate volume.By delivering an activated version of this substance intravenously, scientists have shown that the immune system can be fully invigorated to destroy cancer cells on its own without the need for chemotherapy or radiation."Your GcMAF empowers your body to cure itself," explains the website GcMAF.se, operated by First Immune. "In a healthy person your own GcMAF has 11 actions discovered so far, including two on cells, three excellent effects on the brain, and 6 on cancer. Amongst these it acts as a 'director' of your immune system."As you'll notice in the above video, GcMAF serves as the energized mechanism for macrophages to target and eliminate breast cancer cells. The incredible mechanistic action of this substance is shown in amazing clarity, and is further described in an associated paper entitled "Multifaceted immunotherapeutic effects of GcMAF on human breast cancer cells .""Time lapse photography over 60 hours shows the cancer monolayer ... first changing from corrugated to smooth ... as the cancer is destroyed," reveals First Immune. "[T]hen the cancer 'fingers' are also eaten and destroyed by the macrophages."Short for Globulin component Macrophage Activating Factor, GcMAF just so happened to be the primary focus of research being conducted by Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, M.D., a Florida doctor who was found floating dead in a river back in June. His sudden death was immediately ruled a suicide, even though he had a gunshot wound to the chest, suggesting he was murdered Dr. Bradstreet's "suicide" was just one of about seven others that occurred all around the same time, and all within the holistic healing community. Dr. Bradstreet and his other now-dead colleagues had all been involved in research focused on GcMAF's potential as both a treatment and cure for cancer , and one that doesn't produce deadly side effects like conventional cancer treatments do.GcMAF doesn't actually cure cancer, of course -- it merely provides the ammunition needed by the body's own immune system to eradicate and cure cancer itself, naturally. And this represents a threat to the pharmaceutical industry, which profits to the tune ofof dollars annually peddling quackery like chemotherapy and radiation, both of which have been shown tomore cancer."GcMAF and/or oral Colostrum MAF macrophage activation therapy is indicated in the treatment of any diseases where there is immune dysfunction or where the immune system is compromised," explains the website of a clinic out of Japan that sells an oral form of GcMAF.Besides cancer, the conditions listed as appropriate candidates for GcMAF treatment include:Read about other anti-cancer treatments from the independent media at AntiCancer.news You can also do your own research on other types of cancer treatments at TruthWiki.org |
ANALYSIS/OPINION: ANALYSIS/OPINION: There’s a tiny priest living in Rick Santorum’s trim, toned body, struggling to get out. The rogue priest escaped Sunday and said foolish things. The candidate most admired for plain speech made it plain and clear that he doesn’t believe in the wall between church and state and doesn’t think much of John F. Kennedy for saying he did. “I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” he told ABC News. “The idea that church can have no influence or involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country.” This should cook his goose with conservatives (and everybody else), Catholic and Protestant alike, but it probably won’t. Many voters are as ignorant as Rick Santorum about the plain meaning of the First Amendment. Mr. Santorum, no doubt listening to his inner rogue, says the First Amendment’s guarantee of “the free exercise of religion means bringing everybody, people of faith and no faith, into the public square.” Indeed it does, and the pope, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, all the Methodist and Episcopal bishops, rabbis Orthodox and otherwise, and peaceful imams everywhere have the right to be heard. But none of them has the right, as arbiters of their faith, to compel the president of the United States to make public policy conform to religious doctrine. This is what makes America the exceptional nation. This is what Mr. Santorum appears to not understand. John F. Kennedy, addressing the concern of the Protestant ministers of Houston in 1963, set the standard for how Catholic candidates for president (and other public office) should answer questions about how his faith would guide his secular presidency. “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute,” JFK said, “where no Catholic prelate would tell the president, should he be Catholic, how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote, where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.” No one has said it better since, but Mr. Santorum says he read the speech and it “makes me want to throw up.” Heaven probably doesn’t have Wi-Fi connections, and a good thing, because JFK would throw up if he heard Mr. Santorum’s garbled understanding of what he told the preachers in Houston half a century ago. “Go and read the speech,” Mr. Santorum said. “[He says] ‘I will have nothing to do with faith. I won’t consult with people of faith.’ ” But JFK said nothing remotely like that. He expected, of course, to consult his conscience, as all presidents are expected to do, and in his case it would be a conscience informed by faith and the teachings of the Gospel. But he promised to listen to no prelate, however well-intentioned, telling him how he must make public policy. This distinction is so simple that even a caveman would understand it. The doctrine of separation of church and state is taking a beating this season. In a campaign video, President Obama urges black voters to pressure their churches to support his re-election by getting his messages out via “the faith community.” Voters, he says, should commission themselves “congregation captains.” This is part of the launch of “African Americans for Obama,” a blatant appeal to put race to work on his behalf. “Honkies for Romney” and “Blue-Eyed Devils for Santorum” may be next. New York Times columnist Charles Blow, in a tweet, tried to do a job on Mitt Romney’s religion, mocking the Mormon custom of wearing a “temple garment” under regular clothing as a reminder of faith, and telling “Muddle Mouth” Romney to “stick that in your underwear.” He apologized (though not as abjectly as his man routinely apologizes to angry Muslims). The temptation of any presidential candidate is to do whatever works in a primary, figuring to tone down red-hot rhetoric later. Mr. Santorum may be unique. His appeal is based on saying whatever pops into his head, as long as he pleases his inner priest. If that upsets the congregation, tough. But it’s difficult, for Catholics, Protestants and others alike, to envision a rogue priest presiding over the White House. • Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington Times. Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
Why Top CS School Doesn’t Mean Top Software Engineer Smitha Milli Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 2, 2015 Unlisted I have learned a lot of things at Berkeley, but very few things that have made me a better software engineer. As a current student, here’s my perspective on why a top cs school != a top software engineer (with focus skewed towards Berkeley because of my personal experience). CS schools weren’t created for software engineers. Computer science departments came into existence long before the tech boom that made being a software engineer such a hot job, and as such, they’re not focused on the skills that are necessary for industry today. As one of my professors once said, “The target audience of the Berkeley EECS curriculum is not the majority of Berkeley EECS students.” You don’t write enough code. In Berkeley’s three intro courses, there are only four projects in each of the classes. Suppose you spend 20 hours on each of those projects and 20 hours on labs… that’s still only 100 hours a semester. Programming, like other skilled trades, is something you need way more practice with to master. The technologies taught don’t match the technologies used in industry. Although Berkeley just started using Git for its intro series, despite the large industry demand, there’s still no web or mobile development that is taught as part of the formal curriculum. Collaboration is key in industry. Sure, most projects allow you to have groups of 2–4 people. But in a bigger company, you’ll be dealing with a codebase that has hundreds or thousands of people working on it. There are all sorts of subtle questions that collaboration brings up like, “What methods should I expose to make my API most useful?”, “How do I make my code more reusable?”? Reading other people’s code is as important as writing code. Being able to easily parse and understand a codebase makes onboarding way faster. Finding elusive bugs is also dependent on code-reading ability, not code-writing ability. Code review isn’t present. In our classes, you often get your projects auto-graded without any feedback on design or style. When projects are graded by a human, there’s usually no incremental review, which means you don’t have feedback on the structure of your code before it’s too late (and you don’t care). There’s a huge difference between writing code and writing clean code that isn’t being made clear enough. Testing isn’t emphasized. You can get by on many projects without writing any tests. We usually have access to an autograder that automatically runs the tests our code will be graded on. This means you don’t learn how to come up with sufficient test cases yourself. And although writing unit tests is starting to be required in a couple lower-division classes, more advanced testing techniques (like using mocks and stubs) still aren’t taught. Students don’t learn how to use libraries and frameworks. In the real world, the first thing you do when you’re deciding how to create something is figure out if someone else has already done it. If you want your web developer to create some graphs, you should be able to say “just google d3.js” and have them figure it out. But projects at school are too constrained to teach students this kind of exploration. That being said, the purpose of top cs schools isn’t to create software engineers for the majority of tech jobs needed today. And there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. But if a student’s goal is to become a software engineer, it’s a good idea to learn what your formal cs education is skipping over. And perhaps employers should avoid overemphasizing a top cs school for standard tech jobs? |
Tim Lambesis, the frontman of Grammy-nominated metalcore band As I Lay Dying, has pleaded guilty to charges that he tried to hire a hitman to kill his wife. He faces up to nine years in jail. Lambesis's wife, Meggan, filed for divorce in September 2012, claiming in the divorce documents that Lambesis was "obsessed with bodybuilding", neglected to properly care for their children, adopted from Ethiopia, and had spent thousands of dollars on tattoos. She also stated he had had multiple affairs during their marriage. The prosecution also alleged that he wouldn't get access to their children, and that Meggan would take a sizeable chunk of his money in the divorce, so Lambesis attempted to have her killed. He first approached his personal trainer, Brett Kimball, who testified at a pre-trial hearing that Lambesis "wanted to know if maybe I could find someone to do it for him". Lambesis eventually met with an undercover agent posing as a hitman code-named Red who said Lambesis told him: "I don't want to see her ever again." When asked, "Do you want her dead?" Lambesis replied: "Yes, that's exactly what I want." According to prosecutors, he gave the agent $1,000 for expenses, pictures of Meggan, a code to get into their house and, to create an alibi, dates he would be looking after their children. During the month of his initial arrest, the singer's lawyer claimed Lambesis was on steroids, stating: "His thought processes were devastatingly affected by his steroid use." Lambesis initially pleaded not guilty when arrested, before changing his plea on Tuesday. His band As I Lay Dying were nominated for a Grammy in 2008, and have had two top 10 albums in the US. Initially a Christian along with his band members, Lambesis lost his faith in recent years; while under house arrest in 2013, during court proceedings, he said he no longer believed in God. |
Share Pinterest Email Toyota is trying to do for fuel cell vehicles what Tesla did for electric cars: It revealed its hydrogen-powered Mirai on Monday and also announced a network of refueling stations across the northeastern United States. The Mirai, which means “future” in Japanese, can travel 300 miles on a tank of hydrogen, refuels in less than five minutes and only emits water vapor, according to Toyota. Toyota partnered with industrial gas supplier Air Liquide on the stations. A network of 12 is planned for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Toyota says the locations have been selected to “provide the backbone of a hydrogen highway for the Northeast corridor.” The Mirai takes only five minutes to refuel. Photo by Toyota The company already announced a $7.3-million loan to FirstElement Fuels to support the operation of 19 fueling stations in California. So at least Toyota is putting its money where its mouth is. Toyota president Akio Toyoda made the announcement in a video, noting that “we are at a turning point in automotive history.” “As a test driver, I knew this new fuel cell vehicle had to be truly fun to drive -- and believe me, it is. It has a low center of gravity, which gives it very dynamic handling. After surviving millions of miles on the test track and 10 years of testing on public roads in freezing cold and scorching heat, after passing extensive crash tests, and after working with local governments and researchers around the world to help make sure it is easy and convenient to refuel, we are ready to deliver.” The car officially launches tomorrow night, Nov. 18. We’ll get more information at that time, and probably at the LA Auto Show as well. |
The Heilongjiang hand cannon The Heilongjiang hand cannon or hand-guna[›] is a bronze hand cannon manufactured no later than 1288 and is possibly the world's oldest confirmed surviving firearm. It weighs 3.55 kg (7.83 pounds) and is 34 centimeters (13.4 inches) long. The Heilongjiang hand cannon was excavated during the 1970s in Banlachengzi, a village in Acheng District, Heilongjiang province, China. It was found alongside other bronze artifacts made in the style of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (12th–13th century). The hand cannon was probably used in battles fought nearby Banlachengzi in 1287 and 1288. The History of Yuan states that a Jurchen commander by the name of Li Ting led a group of soldiers equipped with hand cannons into a military camp in 1288, as part of an anti-rebellion campaign for the Yuan dynasty. The cannon currently resides at the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum in Harbin, China. Description [ edit ] The Heilongjiang hand cannon is 34 centimeters (13.4 inches) long without a handle and weighs 3.55 kg (7.83 pounds). The diameter of the interior at the end of the barrel is 2.6 cm (1.0 inches). The barrel is the lengthiest part of the hand cannon and is 6.9 inches long. There is no inscription on the hand cannon. The hand cannon has a bulbous base at the breech called the yaoshi (藥室) or gunpowder chamber, where the explosion that propels the projectile occurs. The diameter of the Heilongjiang hand-gun's powder chamber is 6.6 cm (2.6 inches). The walls of the powder chamber are noticeably thicker to better withstand the explosive pressure of the gunpowder. The powder chamber also has a touch hole, a small hole for the fuse that ignites the gunpowder. Behind the gunpowder chamber is a socket shaped like a trumpet where the handle of the hand cannon is inserted. The bulbous shape of the base gave the earliest Chinese and Western cannons a vase-like or pear-like appearance, which gradually disappeared when advancements in metallurgical technology made the bulbous base obsolete. Historical context [ edit ] Gunpowder was invented in China during the 9th century. One of the first references to gunpowder occurs in the Taoist alchemical text known as Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe (真元妙道要略), composed during the mid-800s, containing a passage mentioning the use of gunpowder. By the 12th century, Song dynasty forces were utilizing gunpowder weapons such as fire lances, grenades, and metal bombards. Exploding gunpowder bombs were used as early as 1126 during the Jingkang Incident, when the Jurchen Jin dynasty besieged the Song capital of Kaifeng. The Song defenders launched explosive bombs called pili pao (霹雳炮) at the besiegers. The predecessor of the hand cannon, the fire lance, was a spear tied with a bamboo or paper barrel that could fire projectiles. The transition between the fire lance to the cannon or hand cannon was gradual, so literary references to a weapon called huotong (火筒; "fire tube") can either denote fire lances or metal-barrel firearms. The Xingjun Xuzhi (行軍須知; "What an Army Commander in the Field ought to Know") dated 1230, lists huotong among other gunpowder weapons, but may refer to either a fire lance or a hand cannon. This has been attested to by surviving metal cannons and hand cannons in China from the 13th and 14th centuries. The oldest among the excavated cannons is the Wuwei cannon dated to 1227. It was discovered in Wuwei, Gansu and likely originates from the Western Xia period. The Wuwei cannon has a weight of 108.5 kilograms (239 pounds), a diameter of 12 centimeters (5 inches), and a length of 1 meter. An iron cannonball and a small quantity of gunpowder were also discovered at the Wuwei archaeological site. The earliest cannon inscribed with a date of manufacture is a bronze cannon. It is dated to 1298 according to an inscription in the 'Phags-pa script. Outside of archaeological finds, appearances of the cannon in Chinese art may suggest that the cannon was invented as early as the 12th century. The oldest artistic representation of a cannon is a stone relief sculpture dated to 1128. The sculpture was discovered in 1985 carved in the walls of Cave 149 of the Dazu Rock Carvings in Dazu, Chongqing. The Heilongjiang hand-gun is dated to 1288. At 3.55 kg (7.83 pounds) and is considerably lighter than older projectile devices such as the bulky trebuchets that were used to launch explosive bombs. Since the earliest textual reference to a "huo chong," or "fire tube," is dated to 1230 and the oldest surviving hand cannon is dated to 1288, the invention of the hand cannon likely occurred in the mid-13th century. The invention of the metal-barrel hand cannon in China did not diminish the popularity of the earlier bamboo-barrel fire lances. The fire lance was cheaper and more portable than the hand cannon and was still used in China until the 16th century when the musket replaced the fire lance. Excavation and dating [ edit ] The hand cannon was discovered in July 1970 at an archaeological site in Banlachengzi village (半拉城子). The village is situated on the shores of the Ashi River in Harbin's Acheng District. The archaeologists discovered several bronze objects that were excavated with the hand cannon. The excavated objects were a bronze vase, a bronze mirror, and a bronze cooking pan. All the bronze artifacts were manufactured in the style of the Jurchen Jin dynasty. The Jin dynasty collapsed after the Mongols besieged and captured Caizhou in 1234, which suggests that the Heilongjiang hand-gun can reasonably be dated to the 13th century at the latest. The dating of the Heilongjiang hand-gun is based on battles in 1287 and 1288 that were fought near the site where the archaeologists discovered the hand-gun. The battles were part of Mongol prince Nayan's rebellion in Manchuria against Kublai Khan, the emperor of the Yuan dynasty. An account of the 1287 and 1288 battles is documented in the History of Yuan, which references the use of hand cannons. In 1287, a group of soldiers equipped with hand cannons led by commander Li Ting (李庭) attacked Nayan's camp. The History of Yuan reports that the hand cannons not only "caused great damage," but also caused "such confusion that the enemy soldiers attacked and killed each other." The hand cannons were used again in the beginning of 1288. Li Ting's "gun-soldiers" or chongzu (銃卒) were able to carry the hand cannons "on their backs" according to the History of Yuan. The passage on the 1288 battle is also the first to coin the name chong (銃) for metal-barrel firearms. Chong was used instead of the earlier and more ambiguous term huo tong (火筒), which may refer to the tubes of fire lances, proto-cannons, or signal flares. Wei Guozhong (魏國忠) was the archaeologist who excavated and dated the cannon. He wrote a description of the archaeological find in the article "A Bronze Bombard Excavated at Banlachengzi in Acheng Xian in Heilongjiang Province," which was published in 1973 for the journal Reference Materials for History and Archaeology.b[›] Wei proposed a connection between the hand cannon discovered in Banlachengzi and the nearby battle sites. The historian Joseph Needham remarked that Wei's "find will long remain of capital importance, since it is the only metal-barrel hand-gun so far discovered which almost certainly belongs to the 13th century." References [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] ^ a: Hand-gun is an alternative name for the hand cannon and should not be confused with modern handguns. Particularly in British English, the term hand-gun refers to historical cannons that could be carried by a single individual due to their small size. ^ b: The journal was later renamed Culture Relics (文物). Citations [ edit ] |
Image caption Gov McCrory said photo identification was required for common practices such as boarding a plane North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has signed into law a controversial bill requiring voters to show photo IDs when they go to the polls. His state becomes the first in the US to impose restrictions on voters since the Supreme Court struck down part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act in June. Civil liberties groups immediately challenged the decision, arguing it hit minorities and poorer voters hardest. But supporters of the law say it tackles voting fraud. 'Protection' The Voting Rights Act was originally enacted to fight entrenched racial discrimination against voters in the 1960s. But the Supreme Court ruled in June that circumstances had since changed and key elements of the Act were intended to be only temporary. In effect, the ruling brought an end to the requirement for federal "pre-clearance" of changes to election laws in 15 mainly Southern states. Gov McCrory, who is a Republican, said in a statement: "Common practices like boarding an airplane and purchasing Sudafed require photo ID and we should expect nothing less for the protection of our right to vote." The North Carolina law, as well as requiring voter identification, bans election-day registration and reduces the period allowed for early voting from 17 days to 10. College and university photo IDs will not be considered legitimate identification. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other groups immediately filed a lawsuit challenging the changes, due to come into effect in 2016. "Eliminating a huge part of early voting will cut off voting opportunities for hundreds of thousands of citizens," ACLU official Dale Ho told North Carolina media. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a speech in San Francisco on Monday, criticised the court's ruling, arguing that "anyone who says racial discrimination is no longer a problem in American elections must not be paying attention". Texas passed its own voter ID law in 2011 and US Attorney General Eric Holder said last month he would challenge the legislation, describing the Supreme Court's June ruling "flawed". |
12-year-old children cannot give adult consent! Jerry Brown advocates the chemical raping of children What's next: Chemotherapy for schoolgirls? Total California cave-in to the criminal vaccine industry Here comes the public school vaccine propaganda The STATE shall decide what gets injected into your child from now on! Let the Governor know what you think Hear more on the Robert Scott Bell Show (NaturalNews) Insanity prevailed in California once again today as Governor Jerry Brown signed bill AB499 allowing 12-year-old children the ability to consent to being injected with Gardasil vaccines without their parents' knowledge; yet at the same time the Governor banned the use of tanning beds by anyone under 18 unless they received parental consent ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/09/us... ).For the record, HPV vaccines are widely linked to maiming and even killing countless children while contributing absolutely nothing to the body's real defense of cervical cancer ( https://www.naturalnews.com/031279_HPV_vaccin... ). The entire fabrication of quack science behind HPV vaccines is nothing but a corporation fantasy created to drum up sales for vaccines. In contrast to that, tanning beds have actually been scientifically shown toin people who are deficient in vitamin D ( https://www.naturalnews.com/024687_Vitamin_D_... ) -- and that includes the vast majority of the population living in California.The whole idea that 12-year-old children can give "consent" to being injected with HPV vaccines is a total violation of common sense and yet another encroachment of the nanny state upon the rights of parents.The idea that 12-year-old children can consent to invasive medical procedures that carry a very real risk of death is. Is the state now going to say that 12-year-old children are adults and can buy beer, drive vehicles and consent to sexual encounters with other adults, too? If Jerry Brown is saying that 12-year-old children are old enough to make such major decisions about their sexual health, then by implication he's also saying that 12-year-olds have the right to decide, for example, that they want to have sex with a 20-year-old.But that's crazy. This is why we have laws about sexual predators who target minors. It's based on the premise that, and that they are thus easily preyed upon by those who would approach them with their own selfish agenda.Such as the vaccine industry, for example. Now, by removing parental consent from the decision-making process for HPV vaccines,which sounds a lot like rape. And just as physically raping a child will leave permanent scars, HPV injections often cause their own permanent damage -- or even death!What I'm saying here -- and I want to be completely clear in my choice of words -- is thatThat he has sided with the vaccine industry over the lawful rights of parents is an outrage. This is disgusting, immoral behavior from a dangerously overreaching politician who now feels he has the power to usurp parents' rights and turn over their children to the whims of the-- the same industry that uses children as guinea pigs to run outlandish medical experiments in countries around the world ( https://www.naturalnews.com/019187.html ).The vaccine industry in particular is steeped in criminality, including one of its godfathers, Dr. Jonas Salk, who conducted illegal medical experiments on U.S. insane asylum residents ( https://www.naturalnews.com/031564_Jonas_Salk... ).At the same time, Gardasil has been found to be https://www.naturalnews.com/033585_Gardasil_c... ), meaning that thanks to Jerry Brown, this contaminated andmish-mash of chemicals can be injected into 12-year-old children without their parents even knowing about it.Thanks, Governor, for poisoning the children of California!Think about the implications of this precedent in California. If the state now believes it can selectively "grant" children the right to consent to highly invasive and evenmedical procedures, then where does this stop?Will schools roll outfor all fifth-grade girls with the claim that the state ifby injecting young girls with toxic chemotherapy agents? Will schools allow children towithout parental consent as long as those trials are excused as being for "public health?" Will California's public schools now start teaching children thatbecause even the little boys have been injected with HPV vaccines designed to preventcancer? Will they give lessons on oral sex in the classrooms to explain why even the boys are being lined up and injected with Gardasil?One day, parents in California will find their little boys coming home from school and telling them, "Today at school we learned about oral sex and got Gardasil shots to protect us from disease! Here's my permission slip, which they let me sign myself! Aren't you proud of me?"You see, the insanity just never ends once you start giving in to the dark side of the vaccine industry. By signing this bill into law, Governor Jerry Brown hasand delivered millions of fresh, young children to the vaccine industry's insatiable desire for profit at any cost.Yeah, this is blunt language, but these are issues of such seriousness that they call for total honesty about what just happened. Jerry Brown just let the vaccine industryof California with a provably deadly vaccine that offers absolutely no scientifically-supportable benefits (unless, of course, you believe all the quack science fabricated by the vaccine makers themselves, which shouldn't count in any honest assessment of efficacy).This is a reflection of the scam that Texas Governor Rick Perry tried to pull off with his ill-fated mandate of the Gardasil vaccine in Texas. That was eventually exposed as a total insider job with a key Rick Perry staffer being on the Merck payroll, and now Perry is paying the price in the Presidential race for his Big Brother vaccine mandate. Jerry Brown will probably never run for President, so he seems to be more concerned with leaving a legacy of some sort. What he doesn't realize is that his legacy will befrom the vaccine he "granted" those children the ability to accept without parental permission. This guy is going to bewhose lives were stolen from them by deadly chemicals which were dishonestly marketed to them as safe.Because what we're going to see now in California isthat pressures little children into being vaccinated through a carefully-planned social engineering assault.Public schools, which already lie to students about everything from world history to economics, will blatantly lie to the students about vaccines, stating things like "people who don't get vaccinated can spread disease" and then reinforcing vaccine acceptance with things like candy and donuts. This is the way social engineers operate: The make you unpopular or try to make you feel guilty if you don't do what they want you to do. But if you go along with their agenda, they reward you with social acceptance and food or monetary awards. I can see these schools even offering students $5 in cash if they accept the vaccine shots without parental consent.There is no end to the evil trickery and the downrightthat will be committed in California to force these injections onto schoolchildren there. As NaturalNews readers already well know, the vaccine industry will stop atto force its deadly chemicals onto infants, children and teens. Whether you think this is just a profit agenda or something far worse -- such as aagenda -- doesn't really matter. What matters is that by signing this law, Governor Jerry Brown haswhile telling parents "Hands off your own children!"Let's face it, the idea that a 12-year-old child can give "consent" to any medical procedure is a total fiasco. If it weren't so sad, it would be laughable.Keep in mind that by signing this bill, Jerry Brown is saying that children who arecan suddenly say YES to being injected with what is essentially anof viral fragments, toxic preservatives and neurologically damaging adjuvants.Is this not aon children? If you jab some kid with a needle filled with toxins, that's a felony, even if they give you permission, right? So why is it suddenly okay for public school nurses to do the same thing evenparental consent?Jerry Brown, you are a shameful human being and a sellout to the criminal vaccine industry. No matter what other good you may have done in public office, it can never outweigh the torrent of evil you have unleashed with this single irresponsible action. May these deaths weigh heavily upon your conscience as you burn in eternity for willfully violating the sacred bodies of countless innocent children who will now suffer and die because of your grotesque, nefarious actions.Whether you believe in the quack science of vaccines or not, for God's sakewhat should be done with their own children, not the (corrupt) state!You gotta love California, folks: This is the state that believesthat those who distribute it are charged with felony crimes and subjected to terror-level surveillance campaigns even when parentsfor their babies. But toxic, deadly vaccines are so "safe" that children can give consent to them without their parents' approval whatsoever!Contact Governor Jerry Brown at:This issue is being discussed in much greater detail on the Robert Scott Bell Show airing Tuesday, October 11th. You can hear it live at www.NaturalNewsRadio.com or find it in the archives (downloadable MP3s) at: |
Maria Kang says she's "sorry/not sorry." Well, in that case, let me be among the first to accept/not accept your apology. You may remember "fit mom" Kang from earlier this fall, when a photo of her in midriff-baring workout clothes, surrounded by her three children, and accompanied by the confrontational challenge, "What's your excuse?" went viral. In the ruckus that followed, Kang was described as being a healthy motivator or a fat-shaming bully, depending on how you view these things. As one of her commenters explained, "People like you who post pictures like this make me cry because without surgery I will never look like you." At the time, Kang defended her tough love stance, telling the "Today" show, "However your body physically manifests in the process of exercising and eating healthy is beautiful. And it doesn't have to look like mine." Advertisement: But Kang seemed to contradict her own statement that it's not about looks recently when she took to Facebook to criticize another viral sensation -- Curvy Girl Lingerie's Facebook campaign encouraging customers to submit photos of "regular" women in their underwear. As Curvy Girl's Chrystal Bougon explained of the idea, "For most of us Curvies, we will have rolls, bumps, lumps, scars, stretch marks, surgery scars, breasts that are natural and that have breast fed our babies. And we can still be STUNNING and BEAUTIFUL." Kang had a different point of view. Writing on Facebook, she declared, "I was a little peeved because while I feel like it's ok to love and accept your body, I think that we're normalizing obesity in our society." Ridiculously, after a user complained, Kang was temporarily booted from Facebook and her post was removed as "hate speech." Kang told Yahoo! Shine Monday, "I felt like I’d been sent to the principal’s office and been expelled. We’ve become so sensitive to this weight issue that people who speak out against it are vilified. It’s so backwards to me." Kang's comments didn't deserve to be banned, even if they weren't the most enlightened or sensitive. That was an idiotic move on the part of the complainer and Facebook. But that doesn't mean Kang's remarks should go unchallenged. In a revealing follow-up post on her site, Kang tries to explain the roots of her concern for "our obesity crisis in America" – her own "hateful relationship with food that triggered several years struggling with bulimia," and a mother whose lifestyle – and heart and kidney problems -- deeply affected her. Kang says, "I feel a lot of pain," and she describes how her parents couldn't be with her on her wedding day because her mother had to be hospitalized for an infection. "Many have called my reflection of this pain selfish, after all, my mom was struggling to live at the hospital," she writes. "What they don’t understand is whether realized or not, these unfortunate circumstances could’ve been prevented if she lived a healthier lifestyle. Many feel I am selfish for not being compassionate to her ordeal, while I feel she was selfish for not taking care of her health my entire life." By her own admission, Kang has a great deal of personal experience with the toll that unhealthy relationships with food take on a person and that person's loved ones. Kang's concerns about the very real health risks of obesity have validity. We live in a country in which junk food and sedentary lifestyles are killing us, and giving our children long-term serious health problems. She has also in the past posted photos of her less-than-perfect stretch marks and post-baby excess abdominal flesh, so she should have some experience with the kind of vulnerability it takes to expose oneself. But where Kang fails in both logic and, spectacularly, empathy is in her inability to distinguish the difference between her own family history and a photograph of a real woman whose health and circumstances she knows zero about, beyond the size of her body. She assumes that because a woman is bigger than Kang-size – and worse – isn't ashamed to be, we're "normalizing" something she assumes is, well, as she called her mom, "selfish." She writes on Facebook, "No one should be ashamed of who they are, at the same time, in order to desire something greater, you have to – at some level – be uncomfortable with where you are at." Which is fine if you're the sole arbiter of everybody's "greater," or if you assume that being a certain size is automatically unhealthy and selfish. In much the same way that Lululemon's Chip "Your Fat, Scratchy Thighs Are the Problem Here" Wilson compounded his already not-great statements by issuing an apology that was all about how "sad" the whole controversy made him, Kang conveniently turned her tone-deaf remarks into a chance to talk about her resentment that her mother wasn't with her on her wedding day. Here's what she could have considered instead. You can inspire people to eat healthy foods and to move their bodies without declaring yourself "peeved" that other people are quite contentedly – quite bravely – putting themselves out there despite not having washboard abs. You can motivate without an obvious disdain for people who are different. And you can be sorry when you're wrong. Just sorry. |
At the end of this month, Divmod will lay off its last employee and cease to be.As some of you know, I've been on hiatus for several months now. The idea was originally that I would take a break, allow the company to build up a small operating buffer to deal with our cash-flow issues, and heal a psyche damaged by many months of intense stress (caused largely by those same cash-flow issues).The psyche-healing worked out okay. I'm feeling much better than I was when my break started. The cash-flow issues, not so much. The reality turned out to be that much of the new consulting business we were counting on just didn't materialize. We managed to get quite a bit of maintenance done on our infrastructure — I continued to help out intermittently, interleaving some reviews and bugfixes with hobby projects — but it was no longer really clear what business purpose that infrastructure was serving. We didn't have any product that generated a revenue stream and we certainly didn't have the resources to build a new one.Users of Divmod email: I'm not exactly sure what the plan is, but JP and I will personally make sure that you can get your email in some form and we'll work out some way to keep at least a forwarding service running.Users of Divmod open source projects: we will figure out some way to continue to host and maintain the code. I'm not sure what we're going to do about official stewardship, but it was years before Twisted needed any official legal structure, so I'm sure we'll make due.The Divmod Fan Club , which deposits money into mypaypal account rather than a business one (for stupid technical reasons which are now extremely convenient), is generating enough money that we may be able to afford some hosting, assuming those of you who supported Divmod-the-company would like to continue supporting Divmod-the-ambiguously-defined-collection-of-open-source-projects. Regardless of whether you decide to cancel your subscriptions now (you can do so in the UI for your PayPal account; nothing to do with us, happily), thank you all, very much. You enabled us to do a lot more with our open-source work than we would otherwise have been able to, and you helped the get through a number of crunches in the past.The fan clubenable us to host the collection of open source projects, and possibly also host versions of Mantissa and Quotient , and Sine . I think that having some users would help keep those projects alive in the absence of a corporate sponsor. I'm not really sure what's going to happen to Blendix, though, and as a proprietary thing it requires more thinking. If you care deeply about it, please get in touch with me. Also, if you are a member of the Divmod community who might like to help out with administration, we might need help with mundane things like keeping our Trac instance running.Now, on to the more personal stuff.Thanks in advance for your condolances, but I'm feeling okay about this. Not to say that I don't wish Divmod had ended with more success, but I spoke to Amir and JP yesterday, and we all agreed — it's time to move on. We tried everything we could think of. It's time to do something different.More importantly, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do next.Right now I'm considering a few things. I have a couple of job offers, I have a few ideas for new businesses that I might want to start myself. Some of those ideas are things I would bootstrap myself, some would require funding.Some of you reading this right now have intimated that you'd like to offer me a job, if I were available. Some have speculated that you might want to fund some other company that was less ambitious than Divmod. Well, now's your chance. Get in touch, and let's talk.If you can, please do it soon, though. Some of the offers I'm already considering need a decision soon, but I'd really like an opportunity to consider my options before I jump into the next thing. |
Relax, remix and restore with Resynth, a minimal musical puzzler on Steam for PC and Mac Relax, remix and restore with Resynth, a minimal musical puzzler on Steam for PC and Mac WINNER GAME OF THE YEAR INTEL LEVEL UP 2017 WINNER BEST PUZZLE/PHYSICS GAME INTEL LEVEL UP 2017 FINALIST BEST SOUND/MUSIC AZPLAY FESTIVAL 2017 FINALIST INDIE PRIZE SHOWCASE ASIA INDIE PRIZE 2017 FINALIST ACROSS THE DITCH AWARD PLAY BY PLAY FESTIVAL 2017 OFFICIAL SELECTION MADE WITH UNITY SHOWCASE UNITE MELBOURNE 2016 FINALIST EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN AGDA AWARDS 2016 FINALIST EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO AGDA AWARDS 2016 HONORABLE MENTION INNOVATION AGDA AWARDS 2016 WINNER GAME OF THE YEAR INTEL LEVEL UP 2017 WINNER BEST PUZZLE/PHYSICS GAME INTEL LEVEL UP 2017 FINALIST BEST SOUND/MUSIC AZPLAY FESTIVAL 2017 FINALIST INDIE PRIZE SHOWCASE ASIA INDIE PRIZE 2017 FINALIST ACROSS THE DITCH AWARD PLAY BY PLAY FESTIVAL 2017 OFFICIAL SELECTION MADE WITH UNITY SHOWCASE UNITE MELBOURNE 2016 FINALIST EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN AGDA AWARDS 2016 FINALIST EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO AGDA AWARDS 2016 HONORABLE MENTION INNOVATION AGDA AWARDS 2016 WINNER GAME OF THE YEAR INTEL LEVEL UP 2017 WINNER BEST PUZZLE/PHYSICS GAME INTEL LEVEL UP 2017 FINALIST BEST SOUND/MUSIC AZPLAY FESTIVAL 2017 FINALIST INDIE PRIZE SHOWCASE ASIA INDIE PRIZE 2017 FINALIST ACROSS THE DITCH AWARD PLAY BY PLAY FESTIVAL 2017 OFFICIAL SELECTION MADE WITH UNITY SHOWCASE UNITE MELBOURNE 2016 FINALIST EXCELLENCE IN DESIGN AGDA AWARDS 2016 FINALIST EXCELLENCE IN AUDIO AGDA AWARDS 2016 HONORABLE MENTION INNOVATION AGDA AWARDS 2016 A musical puzzler made in Melbourne, Australia, and released with the assistance of: Copyright © 2017 Polyphonic LP Pty Ltd, All rights reserved. |
The Baltimore Orioles saved Baltimore sports fans this week. When it was tough to be a Ravens fan the Orioles kept winning. Leading Off We give shout outs to some listeners that sent us an email (mail@section336.com), Bert has some cool memorabilia to share, and the Orioles have more Home Runs than any other team by a long shot. We also look at the Orioles’ trips to Tampa Bay and Boston, and wonder if Nelson Cruz be in the talks for MVP? This Weekend We prepare for four games with the New York Yankees as well as looking past this weekend to a series with the Blue Jays; these series should really help us with that Magic number stuff. Plus if you want to have some fun, look at the pitching probabilities for next Tuesday. Who would you put on the rubber? This Week in Orioles History Minnick highlights some stars of past O’s squads. Ball Bag What stands out on next year’s schedule? Should the Orioles and Nelson Cruz be talking contract extension? Has Davis found his stroke? And why doesn’t he wear his own glove? Are you concerned about J.J. Hardy’s nagging injuries? The MLB Network uses a three-letter “A” word to describe Chris Tillman. Will the Orioles clinch first in the American League, and if so, when? Will the A’s make the postseason? Question of the Week As the Orioles go into the postseason, what is your biggest fear for the team? |
A person driving a Dodge Durango SUV t-boned someone driving a Nissan Sentra this morning in Bellevue. The collision sent the Sentra onto the sidewalk where it struck three people, including a mother pushing her 28-month baby girl in a stroller. The toddler was killed. Our deepest condolences go to the mother — who also suffered minor injuries — and the child’s whole family and community of loved ones. Bellevue Police said the person the Durango was headed south on 140th Ave NE around 10:15 a.m. when the person driving the Sentra was making a left turn onto westbound Bel-Red Road, according to KOMO. The collision sent the Sentra onto the sidewalk on the southwest corner where the mother, her child and a third person were. The third person also had minor injuries, as did the two people driving. Police do not suspect drug or alcohol use were factors. Exactly how and why the collision happened is still under investigation. 140th Ave NE has five-to-six lanes and Bel-Red Rd has five lanes, so the intersection is rather large. Damage to the Sentra shows how much force the impact had. 2015 has been a deadly year for children on Eastside city streets. In June, two-year-old Susie Dreher was killed in Redmond Town Center and four-year-old Haochen Xu was killed in a crosswalk in Issaquah. UPDATE: Also Tuesday, KIRO TV’s Nick McGurk reports that a young child in a car was sent to the hospital when a collision flipped the car in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood. According to a USDOT report of child traffic deaths and injuries (2014 report using 2012 data), 1,168 children 14 and under were killed in 2012. 169,000 were injured. 255 of those children killed were pedestrians. |
Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF Pam Oliver will have one more season as a Fox Sports sideline reporter, although she'll no longer team up with Fox's "A" crew of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman. Oliver has written an account for Essence of how Fox broke the news to her, and on where sideline reporting is headed. Oliver says that when Erin Andrews was hired two years ago, she felt like a dead woman walking. Co-workers commended the 53-year-old Oliver for not being angry about it, but inside, Oliver said, "I was humiliated." When Oliver met with her Fox Sports bosses in April, she says they tried to couch it as a reassignment: they wanted to move her to Fox Sports 1 for "specials and long-form stories." Oliver says she enjoys sideline reporting, and wanted to at least work a 20th year, and was able to convince them to give her one more season. But it wouldn't be with Buck and Aikman, with whom she's worked for a decade. Andrews was getting that plum assignment. Oliver can't help but notice that Fox, moreso than any other network, appears to prefer a certain type of female hire: Once the changes were announced, people started talking. Some asked, "Do you think it had something to do with your race?" No. I definitely do not. Others asked, "Does it have something to do with your age?" Well, maybe. The business is very demographic-oriented. As one executive said to me, Fox Sports will look radically different in the coming years. I assume that means they want to look younger. It's not difficult to notice that the new on-air people there are all young, blond and "hot." That's not to say that Erin isn't capable. I think she's very capable. She's also popular on Twitter and social media, so I can see how that would also make her highly sought after. Still, covering the NFL is a big deal. Stations like ABC and NBC entrust their programming to veterans. So when people talk about all networks making a turn to a particular type of girl on the sidelines, it doesn't hold water. Advertisement Oliver says she's now at peace with how things worked out. At times I'm ashamed of how tragic I was making things out to be. It's just a job change. I'm not out on the streets. I'm not unemployed. Everybody wins: Fox gets its coveted reporter in the lead role and I get to do my sideline job for my twentieth and final year. I'm also looking forward to developing stories that interest me and delivering long-form pieces for FS1. That kind of work is like being in reporter heaven. Oliver has spent 20 years doing a commendable job at a deeply stupid position. If it's her wish to keep doing it, then this sucks for her. But if it's any consolation, in no other business does the premier reporter get stuck standing in the cold, giving vague team-censored updates on a special teamer who went to the locker room with a hand injury. Advertisement [Essence] |
The Nexus (members only) There's something big, dark, and slimy emerging from the murky depths of Lumbridge Swamp. The nature of this strange entity is unknown, but what it does mean is an awesomely social Prayer-training method aimed at low-level players! Members will be able to head over to Lumbridge Swamp and help the druid Ysondria channel elemental forces with the sheer force of faith, stemming the tide of the corruption and earning plenty of Prayer XP in the process. There's also a chance that the horror will show its ugly face, and you'll be able to earn more XP sending it back where it belongs. There'll be a finite amount of Prayer XP that you can gain from this training method, but it'll be enough to get a new player from 1-40 and over that first levelling hurdle with the minimum of chicken bone burial. For everyone else, it'll be a fun way to pick up a nice chunk of Prayer XP in a really cool-looking area while chatting with your friends. God Emissaries (free players and members) We've also got a fantastic update for lore fiends among you this month, where you'll learn more about your favourite RuneScape gods and earn some awesome rewards for pledging your allegiance. Following the events of The World Wakes, the RuneScape gods are coming back with a vengeance. Eight new NPCs known as the God Emissaries will be making their voices heard, and they'll be looking for you to join their cause. Each emissary will be speaking in favour of a god, and will give you a full account what their god represents, what the god in question has been up to since the establishment of the edicts, and what you can do to show your support. You'll be able to join any of the eight factions they represent: if you favour serenity, freedom and a strong, noble outlook, perhaps you'll pick Armadyl. Do you thrive in chaos, continually reforging yourself in the fires of calamity, each time stronger than before? Zamorak's your guy. If you think Guthix was right, and that the gods should mind their own business, then the new Godless faction might be for you! Whether you're a free player or a RuneScape member, you can align yourself with the faction of their choice, earning a title and a wieldable standard to display your choice. Members can also complete combat, skilling and exploration objectives for their chosen emissary, earning XP, improvements to the battle standard such as combat and skilling buffs, and a new helmet with level 60 hybrid combat stats. Farmed and Dangerous (members only) High-level farmers among you will get your green fingers on 10 new plants this month. Their level requirements will range from level 76 to 96, and they'll make use of less-used plots like hops, flowers and allotments, so they'll be a great help on the way to 99. They come with a bunch of other great benefits to boot, including opportunities to get XP in other skills once they're grown. Steal the fruit from the jaws of a Venus fly trap, for example, and you'll be able to eat it for a chunk of Thieving XP (just mind your hands!) or pull up sunchoke tubers for some outdoor Strength training. You'll also be able to use your Construction skill to build grape vines, and then grow grapes and make god-themed wines, which can be used to enhance god brew potions. With all this - and more - coming to the Farming skill, it's going to be a blooming good spring! Bonus XP Tidy Up (free players and members) As an extra on one of the above update weeks, we'll be performing some maintenance on the Bonus XP system. There are loads of different items in RuneScape that can boost your XP gain from skilling or combat training, and it's high time we brought them all together under the same roof. From this update, the bonus XP you're entitled to will be given under the same system as the Recruit a Friend scheme. Most of the changes here are going on under the hood, and are meant to help us in future development, but one big thing you'll notice is that many of these items will no longer need to be worn to access the bonus XP linked to them - so you'll be able to wear an amulet that gives you a combat bonus rather than your usual XP amulet, for example. Solomon's Store/Squeal of Fortune (free players and members) We've got some cool stuff coming to Solomon's Store and on the Squeal of Fortune, with dragon keepsake keys for weapons and a bunch of amazing new PvP death animations coming up, as well as the superbly spicy Fiesta de Guerreros. For those of you looking to treat yourself to some new cosmetics, the future's bright and sunny. RuneScape Beta Programme The RuneScape Beta Programme got off to a grand start last month, with loads of you logging in to try the HTML5 client beta and the alpha version of the New Interface System, and sending us tonnes of amazing feedback. We're working hard on fixing the first round of bugs and performance issues, but we'll be shifting the programme up a gear later this month, expanding our group of selected testers and - after that - open up both the HTML5 client and NIS to all RuneScape members for testing. Keep the feedback coming - it's your thoughts, requests and observations which will make RuneScape 3 the game you want it to be. If you haven't been able to try the new features yet, don't worry. You'll get your chance soon, so keep your eyes on the news! That's it for May. Enjoy the springtime sun, let us know what you think about the above and - most importantly - have fun! Mod Mark RuneScape Design Director Discuss this here. What is a 'Behind the Scenes' article? Behind the Scenes is a sneak peek at the planned game updates that we hope to launch in the coming month. This, however, is only a plan - not a promise - that a particular update will be released in a particular way or at a particular time. To get you the highest quality updates as quickly as possible, we usually keep on tweaking and testing right up until the moment before release, so sometimes things change or take a bit longer than expected. We aren't afraid to change our plan if necessary, as we will never launch an update before it is ready. |
What may seem like a plot of a science fiction movie, is actually the scenario present in one little corner of our biological realm. To that end, entomologists are already aware of a unique natural phenomenon where groups of ants tend to abandon their fellow brethren, to protect a particular caterpillar (lycaenid butterfly variety) against its enemies. This occurrence was long believed to be a product of a reciprocal relationship – where both parties had something to gain from their actions. But now, researchers at the Kobe University in Japan have uncovered a more deeper biological aspect in this scope. According to them, the lycaenid caterpillar can secrete a special substance from its dorsal nectary organ. And when this substance is consumed by the ants, it basically turns them into ‘bodyguards’ who fight for the caterpillar instead. Quite intriguingly, these ‘converted’ bodyguard ants were found to be not exactly willing in their guarding duties. In that regard, the scientists observed that the ants didn’t just consume the secretion and went their merry way. Instead they stuck around the caterpillar – thus hinting at a biological factor which is not just confined to a symbiotic relationship. So, to make further tests, the researchers brought back both of the creature types to their laboratory. They divided up the ants into two separate groups, and one of these groups was allowed to feed on the secreted material from the caterpillar’s dorsal nectary organ. The results showed that the ants that consumed the ‘nectar’ substance stayed with the caterpillar, while the other ants wandered away. Furthermore, these ‘converted’ ants had the tendency to respond to particular stimuli. For example, when the lycaenid caterpillar raised its tentacles and moved them, the ants reacted to that and tended to act aggressively – by seeking out enemies. On further analysis, it was found that the raising of tentacles is a part of defensive motion by the caterpillar. And lastly (and most interestingly), the scientists dissected and discovered that the affected ants had decreased levels of dopamine in their brains. They somewhat replicated that effect by feeding a fresh batch of ants a drug called reserpine – that blocks the flow of dopamine. These drug-addled ants were found to have movement lethargy, which was similar in nature to the nectar ‘drunk’ ants. So this might allude to a biological phenomenon where the caterpillar secretion causes the alteration of dopamine levels in ant brains – thus making them more aggressive while being induced by the caterpillar. The related study was originally published in the journal Current Biology. Source: ScienceDaily Featured Image Credit: Alexander Wild |
With Leg one of each Major League Soccer Conference Semifinal completed, Major League Soccer’s newly implemented away-goals rule has already made its mark. Two matches featuring away goals put those clubs at an early advantage, one that could come in handy. In what may eventually become the greatest MLS Cup Playoffs in history, we take a look at the second legs of the current matches to determine who will punch their tickets to the Conference Finals. Eastern Conference DC United v. New York Red Bulls Leg One: New York Red Bulls 2-0 DC United In what may be the most intriguing match in this round of the playoffs, the New York Red Bulls will look to hold a 2-0 lead in their match at DC United. The regular season Eastern Conference Champion’s DC United will need to completely change their current form if they want to even think of advancing. The New York duo of Thierry Henry and Bradley Wright-Phillips thrashed United’s defense last time out. New York’s offensive advantage was extremely clear with the Red Bulls out-shooting their opponents 17 to 9. If the same results holds in the second leg, the Red Bulls will easily take this series. The only hope for DC United in the match is too shut down the deadly New York offense. Eliminating chances for Henry and Wright-Phillips will play key roles in determining the outcome of this match. If United can shut down the Red Bull offense and take advantage of some attacking opportunities, DC United just might be able to find their way into the Eastern Conference Finals. Any goal for the Red Bulls will be endgame for the offensively weakened DC United. Prediction: DC United 1-1 New York Red Bulls; New York Red Bulls wins series New England Revolution v. Columbus Crew Leg One: Columbus Crew 2-4 New England Revolution Losing only once in their last thirteen league matches, the New England Revolution clearly have the momentum. After suffering a league worst eight game losing streak earlier this season, the Revolution revitalized their squad with the signing of United States International Jermain Jones. Since arriving in New England, Jones had appeared in eleven matches, scoring twice with three assists. Joining the squad in the second match of their current thirteen match run, Jermaine Jones led the club to its best finishing position since 2007. Columbus on the other hand, which qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 2011, will need a massive turnaround to advance any further in the playoffs. The Crew managed a late penalty during the closing moments of the series first leg, but will still need to defeat New England by at least three goals to advance. The only real hope for Columbus will be in the sides attack. Columbus will need attack early and often, while also limiting any opportunities for the Revolution. Barring a miracle though, it is highly unlikely that Columbus will see play any more matches after this Sunday. Prediction: New England Revolution 2-2 Columbus Crew; New England Revolution wins series Western Conference Seattle Sounders v. FC Dallas Leg One: FC Dallas 1-1 Seattle Sounders The Supporter’s Shield Champions Seattle escaped Dallas with a 1-1 draw after falling behind early. Dallas Converted a first half penalty thanks to a reckless challenge by Marco Pappa in the 34th minute. If Seattle want to win this series, they cannot afford more idiotic mistakes. In a match that was dominated possession wise by Dallas, Seattle did take the majority of the scoring chances. However forwards Dempsey and Martins were both kept quiet by the Dallas defense. Goalkeeper Raúl Fernández also contributed with seven saves, keeping Dallas in the hunt for the win. If Dallas is to win at Seattle, the game-plan for their last match is the perfect blueprint. Keeping the Sounders off the scoreboard and the crowd at CenturyLink Field quite will play a major part in determining the outcome of this match. If Dallas can score an early goal, the side may just be able to hold Seattle with its good defense. The Sounder’s will need to do just the same. Scoring an early goal will convince the home crowd of the side’s chances, inspiring the side to a possible win. The winner of this match-up will almost definitely be the favorite for the Western Conference Final, with both clubs having showed good form as the season drew to a close. Prediction: Seattle Sounders 2-0 FC Dallas; Seattle Sounders win series Los Angeles Galaxy v. Real Salt Lake Leg One: Real Salt Lake 0-0 Los Angeles Galaxy After losing out on the Supporter’s Shield in the last week of the season, Los Angeles will definitely be looking to make a run at their fifth MLS Cup. Being Landon Donovan’s farewell tour only adds intrigue and emotion to the club’s matches as many will be looking for Donovan to end his career on the highest of highs. The United States all-time leading scorer will need to contribute at home if the club wants to make it to the Conference Finals. After the first matches 0-0 result, any goal scored in this match could be the series winner. Los Angeles do have the star power advantage in the match, with Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane expected to lead the side to victory. Real Salt Lake will counter with Kyle Beckerman and the league’s best goalkeeper, Nick Rimando. In what will be a must see match, where any mistake can cost the clubs the win, it will be the most discipline side that take this match and punches their ticket to the Conference Finals. Prediction: Los Angeles Galaxy 2-0 Real Salt Lake; Los Angeles win series Playoff Rankings With both Vancouver and Sporting Kansas City eliminated from the playoffs, the rankings have slightly changed. Once again, the rankings are not based on each clubs ability or strength, just on their chances to win the MLS Cup. 1. Seattle Sounders 2. New England Revolution 3. Los Angeles Galaxy 4. New York Red Bulls 5. DC United 6. FC Dallas 7. Real Salt Lake 8. Columbus Crew 9. Vancouver Whitecaps 10. Sporting Kansas City Seattle maintains the top spot in the rankings even with the draw at FC Dallas. However, the Supporter’s Shield Champions should be able to win at home and advance to the Western Conference Finals. Los Angeles, following their draw at Real Salt Lake drop a spot, only because of New England’s domination of Columbus. The end of season form for New England has carried over into the playoffs and the Revolution are looking like title contenders more and more every day. The Red Bulls also moved up thanks to the play of its attacking duo in Henry and Wright-Phillips. If the attack continues at its current pace, it will be no shock to see the club contending for an MLS Cup title. DC United drop to five comes after their 2-0 loss at New York, but can turn the result around and just might have a shot at winning the match. FC Dallas, Real Salt Lake and Columbus Crew round out the remaining clubs, as each look to turn the tables and advance to their respective Conference finals. |
A Miles Brothers film of the legendary heavyweight prize boxing match between Bill Squires and Tommy Burns, played out at Ocean View, California, on July 4th 1907. Weighing in at a measly 178 pounds, the 5’7″ Canadian Burns was a 10-1 underdog against Australia’s Bill Squires who was coming off a 20 consecutive knockout streak. To the shock of all present, this mismatch came to an unexpected end in the first round when Burns KO’d Squires in one of the fastest knockouts in the history of boxing up to that point. The fight was labeled the “shortest and fiercest contest on record”. Burns would go on to secure a reputation for knocking out the biggest men in the sport. He wrote, in a book brought out in 1908, about how the face of boxing was changing, no longer being about brute strength but speed: “In modern boxing speed is nearly everything, and I have always considered my success to be primarily due to the fact that lacrosse and hockey had taught me to be spry and smart on my feet before I ever thought of donning a pair of boxing gloves.” |
Most redditors have seen bots in action on the site. Reddit bots can perform a number of tasks including providing useful information, e.g., an Imperial to Metric units bot; convenience, e.g., a link corrector bot; or analytical information, e.g., redditor analyzer bot for writing complexity. PRAW provides a simple way to build your own bot using the python programming language. As a result, it is little surprise that a majority of bots on Reddit are powered by PRAW. This tutorial will show you how to build a bot that monitors a particular subreddit, /r/AskReddit, for new submissions containing simple questions and replies with an appropriate link to lmgtfy (Let Me Google That For You). There are three key components we will address to perform this task: LMGTFY Bot¶ The goal of the LMGTFY Bot is to point users in the right direction when they ask a simple question that is unlikely to be upvoted or answered by other users. Two examples of such questions are: “What is the capital of Canada?” “How many feet are in a yard?” Once we identify these questions, the LMGTFY Bot will reply to the submission with an appropriate lmgtfy link. For the example questions those links are: Step 1: Getting Started¶ Access to Reddit’s API requires a set of OAuth2 credentials. Those credentials are obtained by registering an application with Reddit. To register an application and receive a set of OAuth2 credentials please follow only the “First Steps” section of Reddit’s OAuth2 Quick Start Example wiki page. Once the credentials are obtained we can begin writing the LMGTFY Bot. Start by creating an instance of Reddit : import praw reddit = praw . Reddit ( user_agent = 'LMGTFY (by /u/USERNAME)' , client_id = 'CLIENT_ID' , client_secret = "CLIENT_SECRET" , username = 'USERNAME' , password = 'PASSWORD' ) In addition to the OAuth2 credentials, the username and password of the Reddit account that registered the application are required. Note This example demonstrates use of a script type application. For other application types please see Reddit’s wiki page OAuth2 App Types. Step 2: Monitoring New Submissions to /r/AskReddit¶ PRAW provides a convenient way to obtain new submissions to a given subreddit. To indefinitely iterate over new submissions to a subreddit add: subreddit = reddit . subreddit ( 'AskReddit' ) for submission in subreddit . stream . submissions (): # do something with submission Replace AskReddit with the name of another subreddit if you want to iterate through its new submissions. Additionally multiple subreddits can be specified by joining them with pluses, for example AskReddit+NoStupidQuestions . All subreddits can be specified using the special name all . Step 3: Analyzing the Submission Titles¶ Now that we have a stream of new submissions to /r/AskReddit, it is time to see if their titles contain a simple question. We naïvely define a simple question as: It must contain no more than ten words. It must contain one of the phrases “what is”, “what are”, or “who is”. Warning These naïve criteria result in many false positives. It is strongly recommended that you develop more precise heuristics before launching a bot on any popular subreddits. First we filter out titles that contain more than ten words: if len ( submission . title . split ()) > 10 : return We then check to see if the submission’s title contains any of the desired phrases: questions = [ 'what is' , 'who is' , 'what are' ] normalized_title = submission . title . lower () for question_phrase in questions : if question_phrase in normalized_title : # do something with a matched submission break String comparison in python is case sensitive. As a result, we only compare a normalized version of the title to our lower-case question phrases. In this case, “normalized” means only lower-case. The break at the end prevents us from matching more than once on a single submission. For instance, what would happen without the break if a submission’s title was “Who is or what are buffalo?” Step 4: Automatically Replying to the Submission¶ The LMGTFY Bot is nearly complete. We iterate through submissions, and find ones that appear to be simple questions. All that is remaining is to reply to those submissions with an appropriate lmgtfy link. First we will need to construct a working lmgtfy link. In essence we want to pass the entire submission title to lmgtfy. However, there are certain characters that are not permitted in URLs or have other . For instance, the space character, ‘ ‘, is not permitted, and the question mark, ‘?’, has a special meaning. Thus we will transform those into their URL-safe representation so that a question like “What is the capital of Canada?” is transformed into the link http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+is+the+capital+of+Canada%3F) . There are a number of ways we could accomplish this task. For starters we could write a function to replace spaces with pluses, + , and question marks with %3F . However, there is even an easier way; using an existing built-in function to do so. Add the following code where the “do something with a matched submission” comment is located: from urllib.parse import quote_plus reply_template = '[Let me google that for you](http://lmgtfy.com/?q={})' url_title = quote_plus ( submission . title ) reply_text = reply_template . format ( url_title ) Note This example assumes the use of Python 3. For Python 2 replace from urllib.parse import quote_plus with from urllib import quote_plus . Now that we have the reply text, replying to the submission is easy: submission . reply ( reply_text ) If all went well, your comment should have been made. If your bot account is brand new, you will likely run into rate limit issues. These rate limits will persist until that account acquires sufficient karma. Step 5: Cleaning Up The Code¶ While we have a working bot, we have added little segments here and there. If we were to continue to do so in this fashion our code would be quite unreadable. Let’s clean it up some. The first thing we should do is put all of our import statements at the top of the file. It is common to list built-in packages before third party ones: from urllib.parse import quote_plus import praw Next we extract a few constants that are used in our script: QUESTIONS = [ 'what is' , 'who is' , 'what are' ] REPLY_TEMPLATE = '[Let me google that for you](http://lmgtfy.com/?q= {} )' We then extract the segment of code pertaining to processing a single submission into its own function: def process_submission ( submission ): # Ignore titles with more than 10 words as they probably are not simple # questions. if len ( submission . title . split ()) > 10 : return normalized_title = submission . title . lower () for question_phrase in QUESTIONS : if question_phrase in normalized_title : url_title = quote_plus ( submission . title ) reply_text = REPLY_TEMPLATE . format ( url_title ) print ( 'Replying to: {} ' . format ( submission . title )) submission . reply ( reply_text ) # A reply has been made so do not attempt to match other phrases. break Observe that we added some comments and a print call. The print addition informs us every time we are about to reply to a submission, which is useful to ensure the script is running. Next, it is a good practice to not have any top-level executable code in case you want to turn your Python script into a Python module, i.e., import it from another Python script or module. A common way to do that is to move the top-level code to a main function: def main (): reddit = praw . Reddit ( user_agent = 'LMGTFY (by /u/USERNAME)' , client_id = 'CLIENT_ID' , client_secret = 'CLIENT_SECRET' , username = 'USERNAME' , password = 'PASSWORD' ) subreddit = reddit . subreddit ( 'AskReddit' ) for submission in subreddit . stream . submissions (): process_submission ( submission ) Finally we need to call main only in the cases that this script is the one being executed: if __name__ == '__main__' : main () |
Joe Arpaio, the sheriff of Arizona's Maricopa County, speaks at a January event with Donald Trump behind him in Iowa. (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press) For decades, immigration hard-liners have felt sidelined and taken for granted by Republican presidential candidates, left with dog whistles and policy crumbs. But Donald Trump’s ascent to the top of the Republican ticket has changed their fortunes. Longtime advocates for shutting the door to new immigrants now hold crucial positions in Trump’s campaign, and many feel, for the first time in recent memory, that they have a candidate who is willing to speak plainly about reducing immigration flows and offers their clearest shot yet at influencing, perhaps even drastically altering, U.S. immigration policy. Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff and poster child for workplace raids and traffic stops, earned a prized seat on Trump’s airplane a few months ago, spending hours with his new close friend. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the fiercest opponent of GOP-backed “amnesty” bills in Congress for the last decade, now smiles and demurs when asked whether he might serve as Trump’s running mate or settle for a Cabinet position. |
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The number of people in the U.S. with anal cancer has tripled since the 1970s, according to a new study that suggests rates of detection in high-risk groups may partly explain the rise in cases. A U.S. cancer database search found that the rate of anal cancers went from approximately one person per 100,000 between 1973 and 1996 to three people per 100,000 between 1997 and 2009. “I think the literature has already shown that there has been an increase in anal cancer cases, but we were surprised to see how dramatically it increased,” according to Dr. Lily Lai, the study’s senior author from City of Hope in Duarte, California. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), about 7,000 people will be diagnosed with anal cancer in the U.S. in 2013, and about 900 will die from the disease. The most common type of anal cancer by far is squamous cell carcinoma, which accounts for about 85 percent of cases. For the new study, Lai and her colleagues analyzed trends in the 11,231 squamous cell carcinoma cases described in a U.S. database for the years 1973 through 2009. They saw a large jump in 1997 - in the 23 years before that one, 4,224 people had been diagnosed, compared to 7,007 people in the 13 years afterward. Although both sexes saw an increase in anal cancers, the rate for men jumped most dramatically - from one in every 100,000 men to three in every 100,000. That compared to the women’s rate, which rose from 1.4 in every 100,000 women to about 2.4 in every 100,000. Lai told Reuters Health that the major increase in cases among men was a novel finding, and her team suspects it could be due to more men getting screened more often, especially men with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). According to the team’s report in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a majority of people with HIV also have persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infections. The sexually-transmitted virus is somewhat less widespread in HIV-negative individuals, whose immune systems may eventually clear HPV infections from the body. HPV is linked to the development of cervical cancers and of anal cancer. The ACS says eight of every 10 anal squamous cell carcinomas are caused by HPV. “It could be that there is an increase in men (with anal cancer) and that there are other factors that we don’t know are involved,” Lai told Reuters Health. “We think it’s probably a detection bias, that’s the simplest explanation.” Dr. Robert Cima, a surgeon in the department of colon and rectal surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said that could also mean the number of squamous cell carcinomas did not change that much in people without HIV or weakened immune systems. “It does show up, but certainly a patient without risk factors is at very low risk for developing this kind of cancer, and a blanket screening program across the country for all patients would not be a useful approach,” said Cima, who was not involved in the new study. However, he said, when people who fall into those high-risk groups notice changes, they should get checked by a doctor who specializes in identifying and treating those cancers. SOURCE: bit.ly/ZFy3g0 Journal of Clinical Oncology, online March 18, 2013. |
Young Dare yells 'Allahu Akbar' next to charred remains of car in footage The four year old British boy dubbed 'Jihadi Junior' has been filmed detonating the bomb which kills four ISIS prisoners in the group's latest execution video. Isa Dare, the son of Muslim convert Grace 'Khadija' Dare from south east London, pushes the button that blows up four alleged spies sitting in a white car behind him. Standing triumphantly next to the charred remains of the car, his hand raised to the sky, the boy then yells: 'Allahu Akbar.' It is the second time the young boy, who was brainwashed after his mother took him to Syria three years ago, has appeared in one of the extremists' propaganda videos. Scroll down for video Isa Dare (pictured), the four year old British boy dubbed 'Jihadi Junior', has been filmed detonating the bomb which kills four ISIS prisoners in the group's latest execution video Condemned to die: One by one, each prisoner is forced to confess to either spying on or conspiring against ISIS. They were handcuffed inside the car, with a look of fear in their eyes Isa Dare, the son of Muslim convert Grace 'Khadija' Dare from south east London, pushes the button (pictured) that blows up four alleged spies sitting in a white car behind him Four men are seen giving confessions before the car is blown to pieces (pictured) in Raqqa, Syria At the end of the video, the young boy is seen yelling 'Allahu Akbar' next to the remains of the exploded car His grandfather told of how the child begged him to save him just days before he was forced to appear in the first video last month. In what was seen as a 'promotion' of this latest murderous release, Dare was made to declare: 'We are going to kill the kuffar [non-believers] over there' - before pointing to the men killed in today's video. The latest video, which is believed to be shot in ISIS's de facto capital of Raqqa, was entitled: 'They are the enemy so be aware of them.' One by one, each man confessed to either spying on, or conspiring against, ISIS. They were later seen handcuffed to the inside of a car - with a look of utter fear in their eyes. Before they were killed, the senior ISIS commander standing next to the boy threatened British Prime Minister David Cameron for arming the terror group's enemies in Syria. He said: 'You will never fight us except behind fortified fortresses or behind walls. 'So no David Cameron, you’ve given the whole world more certainty in this [inaudible]. You’ve only done two things. As the grown militant placed a hand on the young boy's head, he threatened David Cameron by saying: 'Prepare your army and gather your nations as we too are preparing our army' Before they were killed, the senior ISIS commander standing next to the boy threatened David Cameron and announced: 'Today, we’re going to kill your spies the same way they helped you kill our brothers' 'Firstly, when you sent your spies to Syria and when you authorised for your men, thousands of miles away, to push a button to kill our brothers who lived in the West. 'So today, we’re going to kill your spies the same way they helped you kill our brothers.' As he placed a hand on the young boy's head, he added: 'So prepare your army and gather your nations as we too are preparing our army. Young Dare was brainwashed by ISIS fanatics after his mother, 24, who had links to Lee Rigby's killer, brought him to the warzone. His grandfather, Henry Dare, 59, said Isa made a desperate plea for help during a heartbreaking phone call just days before he featured in the barbaric stunt, saying: 'Please save me.' It later emerged that Isa's father had made a desperate attempt to rescue his son after his estranged wife fled to Syria and married an ISIS militant. Asked if he thought his grandson had any idea what he was saying in the video, Mr Dare – of Deptford, south east London – said: 'No – he's a kid. The four alleged spies were handcuffed to the inside of the battered, white car before it was blown to pieces The latest video (pictured), which is believed to be shot in ISIS's de facto capital of Raqqa, was entitled: 'They are the enemy so be aware of them.' 'He's a minor, he's under five. He's acting under the influence of ISIS guerrillas. He's too young. He's propaganda. They are just using a small boy. They are using him as a shield.' Mr Dare said he had reported Grace to the police on three occasions before she left for Syria and told them 'she's behaving in a very funny way'. Grace Dare is believed to have been radicalised online, then began attending the Lewisham Islamic Centre, where Fusilier Rigby's murderers Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are reported to have worshipped. The mosque has denied they were part of the congregation. Her mother Victoria said she changed her first name to Khadija after she began attending the mosque. 'I still call her our Grace,' said the mother. 'I want her back in my life. She is the only child that I have and the devil took her away.' Young Dare (pictured) was brainwashed by ISIS fanatics after his mother, 24, who had links to Lee Rigby's killer, brought him to the warzone Dare, born in London in 1991 of Nigerian descent, went to Syria in around 2012 and married a Swede known as Abu Bakr. He is now dead. She used social media to gloat about the beheading of American journalist James Foley and said she wanted to be the first British woman to kill an ISIS hostage. Her mother, also from Lewisham, said of her daughter in a BBC TV documentary last April: 'She loved church. She had a Bible, she read the Bible. 'She would sit and pray and pray and pray.' Downing Street said the release of the video on Sunday showed the terrorist group was 'under pressure'. The footage shows five men in orange jumpsuits 'confessing' to taking money in return for filming and photographing sites within Raqqa, the capital of ISIS's self-declared caliphate. In ISIS's last barbaric propaganda video, Dare (pictured) pointed to the men in the car and said 'we will kill kuffar [non believers] over there' In 2014, his mother posted a shocking photograph to her Twitter account of her then four-year-old son Isa, meaning 'Jesus', holding an AK-47 rifle Jihadi bride: Isa Dare's mother, Grace, who fled to Syria with him three years ago is seen with her husband, ISIS militant Abu Bakr, who died in battle A member of a Raqqa-based group which opposes ISIS told the Radio 4 Today programme that the victims included shopkeepers and businessmen from the town. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said of the video that 'it reflects the barbarity of this organisation but it is also a propaganda tool. This is a terrorist group we are seeing put under pressure.' More than 30 UK children have already been made the subject of family court orders over radicalisation fears, Scotland Yard has revealed. Judges have considered cases involving 12 different families. |
The international music and art festival Womadelaide is a regular drawcard during Adelaide's festival season. "Housing out of reach", "The death of the Australian dream" — if you're a young adult living in Sydney or Melbourne such headlines might be enough to make you give up trying to own your own home. Key points: Young adults moving to Adelaide to buy housing Adelaide praised internationally as it transforms Job opportunities still the biggest challenge outside Melbourne and Sydney House prices in Adelaide, however, remain affordable and with international travel guide Lonely Planet laying praise on the city in recent years, along with economists, perhaps it is time for a closer look at the festival city. Cameron Kusher, CoreLogic's head of research in Australia, said Adelaide's median house price was $455,000 at the end of February. Sydney by comparison was $895,000 and Melbourne $680,000. "We're talking Sydney prices almost double what they are in Adelaide, but you certainly don't get double the wage for the same level of job in Sydney," Mr Kusher said. In fact, to service an 80 per cent loan in Sydney, it would cost a homeowner 44.5 per cent of their annual median income, compared to 37.9 per cent in Melbourne and 33 per cent in Adelaide. Just saving a 20 per cent deposit in Sydney will cost somebody 168 per cent of their median annual earnings. In Melbourne it will cost 143 per cent but in Adelaide it is a relatively smaller 125 per cent. "It's much harder to get into the market in Sydney, and it's a similar story in Melbourne," Mr Kusher said. "And once you're in the market, you've got to dedicate a lot more of your income to paying off the mortgage." Is it time to move to Adelaide? The housing figures make an isolated argument for an interstate move, but mention Adelaide to any parochial Sydneysider or Melbournian and it is more often than not met with scoffing, invariably by those who have never travelled there. "The big brother or big sister will always knock the little one into place," Melbourne-based Lawrence Mooney said, an Adelaide fan who visits regularly. "People need to feel superior in some way or another. That's why Adelaide's picked out. "People couldn't be bothered going to the trouble of discovering the place. They took a quick look and just go, 'it's small and shit and boring', and that's incorrect." They might call Adelaide a sleepy town with a disproportionate appetite for weird, headline-grabbing murders; an ageing place full of baby boomers who block innovation and refuse to retire; or a town full of hardcore football fans who harbour a chip on their shoulder for losing the grand prix to Melbourne. Such descriptions are correct, of course, but unbeknown to Sydneysiders equipped with blinkers, or Melbournians reciprocating an unassailable football rivalry, Adelaide has transformed significantly over the past seven years: A rivitalised CBD is bursting with small bars and start-up businesses The famed February/March Fringe Festival has exploded into the second largest of its kind in the world A revamped Adelaide Oval is bringing tens of thousands into the CBD all year around After years of letting it languish, the State Government is finally investing in public transport and reinstalling a city tram network The transformation has not gone unnoticed overseas. Lonely Planet recently listed South Australia fifth on it Best of Travel 2017 list, citing its wine regions and beaches as drawcards, just three years after it endorsed Adelaide as one of the top 10 cities in the world to visit in 2014. And in 2016, the Economist Intelligent Unit listed Adelaide as the fifth most liveable city out of 140 cities surveyed worldwide. Melbourne was listed as number one; Sydney dropped four places to move out of the top 10 altogether. Young adults making the move Rita Horanyi, 34, moved to Adelaide from Melbourne in 2010 to do postgraduate study and now lives there. "It's true that Adelaide didn't have a great reputation when I first moved, and back then it was understandable why that was the case," she said. "In the last five years the city has improved significantly. Adelaide's bad reputation lingers, but friends of mine from interstate who visit for festivals and so on do notice the changes and are pleasantly surprised." Warner Music media manager Bret Woods, 35, moved back to Adelaide about four years ago after spending his adult life in Sydney. "Working in the music industry, I'm seeing there's more than enough stuff going on," he said. "To me, it almost feels like when Sydney had that small bar scene five or six years ago. Adelaide's in the same situation." Having recently bought a house in Adelaide, Mr Woods simply laughed at the idea of buying a house in Sydney. "Buying a place in Sydney is impossible, let alone anywhere we wanted to live or used to rent." He added that perceptions of Adelaide interstate were starting to change, with several friends from the UK and Sydney having recently visited for the Fringe Festival and the Clipsal 500 car racing carnival. "And obviously our wine regions are pretty highly regarded, and at least do their bit to hold up SA to the rest of SA [outside the festival months]." News Limited journalist Stan Denham moved to Adelaide from Sydney five years ago. "The kind of lifestyle you can have in Adelaide is not attainable in Sydney, unless you are earning megabucks," he said. "I was up there last weekend and was struck again by the beauty of the city, but then very few Sydneysiders get to really enjoy that. "Most of my time was spent working and commuting." Dubai-born surgeon Annika Mascarenhas, 27, moved to Adelaide from Perth in 2013, having visited the year before. "I've been here while things have started to boom," she said. "I think the misconception exists that Adelaide's a sleepy city. It exists in Perth as well. "The Oval opened, the Fringe got a bit bigger, more wineries are advertising good weekends ... there's plenty to do." Adelaide's biggest challenge is jobs Before Adelaide can expect a major influx of young adults chasing the homeowner's dream, however, it does lack in one area that Sydney and Melbourne has in spades — job opportunities. "Since the end of 2008, most of the growth in the housing market has been in Sydney and Melbourne, but those two cities between them have created about 66 per cent of all jobs created since 2008," Mr Kusher said. Most of those jobs have been in the services sector, financial services and the health care sector. "But unfortunately for the rest of the country, the jobs growth story hasn't been as strong," Mr Kusher said. Until recently, South Australia suffered the highest unemployment rate in the country, due largely to a downturn in mining and the decline of large-scale manufacturing. Start-up businesses and small bars are unlikely to produce the same levels of employment, but the State Government has been working hard to transition the city's employment base. This includes securing major, long-term defence contracts, spending big bucks on a medical research hub, and courting emerging industries such as self-driving cars. But Melbourne and Sydney also benefit from being the headquarters for the big end of town in businesses, multinational companies, banks and financial institutions. "It would be hard to move them away from those cities for somewhere like Adelaide or Brisbane or Hobart," Mr Kusher said. "Those cities need to look at ways to attract different types of business or to find ways to attract big businesses to move part of their functions to other parts of the country." Mr Kusher added, however, that as more and more businesses started to allow their employees to work remotely, there could be a shift of workers moving to places where the housing is more affordable, "in markets like Adelaide". |
For some reason there has always been a weird disconnect between comic book superheroes and film media. Which makes little sense, since heroic literary characters of the same archetype (Zorro, Tarzan, The Scarlet Pimpernel, etc.) have done pretty well in various film incarnations, despite their outlandish similarity to comic book heroes of the same vein. By “done pretty well” I refer to the faithfulness of their film incarnations to the original source material. Meanwhile, comic book superheroes rarely make it to the live screen without being horribly (and, usually, inappropriately) revamped and retooled into completely different creations. Creations that usually fail to satisfy. I suspect the problem lies in the categorization of the source material itself. Books are books, and their contents, literature; whereas comic books originated as an inexpensive entertainment mostly intended for kids, printed on rough pulp stock garishly depicted in the cheapest four-color process of the day. Comics were meant to be read and thrown away (which is why mint condition comics from the 1930’s and 1940’s are prized by collectors today). Their covers trumpeted words like “Fun” and “Amazing” and “Action” in huge splashy fonts across the title banner. Superheroes were the biggest, brightest, flashiest characters of all, always larger than life… but infused with a raw childish glee. Simple plots, minimal dialogue, and fast action: that was the winning formula of the golden and silver ages of comic publishing. It’s long been believed in the hallowed halls of film and broadcasting that comic books are strictly kid’s stuff. So when adapting comic book superheroes into film media, that is the approach too often taken by those involved– always to the detriment (and failure) of the adaptation. But superhero comics— even the silliest and most immature of the lot— have always been taken seriously, if by no one else than by their faithful readers. Each fictional superheroic milieu exists as its own domain, bound by its unique inherent logic. If those who adapt that material take the time to understand— and remain true to— that logic, the end result will satisfy and embody the essence of that superhero experience. But if not— then woe to any who dare adapt a superhero comic by trying to “elevate it” above the inherent rules and requirements of its source. You cannot do a superhero adaptation justice by steeping it in irony, while laughing at it behind your hand– especially if you don’t really understand why the source material is anything other than a big dumb joke intended for children. You might successfully parody it or devolve it to satire, and such a mockery might even be popular for a year or so until the laughter wears thin. But those laughing won’t be real fans; they’ll be those who mock the costumed superhero genre because they find it inherently laughable. They can’t appreciate the childish wonder and simplicity that were the roots the genre, nor can they accept the depth and complexity that has since infused superhero comics, evolving them into an art form that can readily compete with the most powerful examples of traditional literature; one full of the same philosophical resonance and inspiring characterization found in the most relevant of modern novels today. Over the past 85 years of film and television, the only decent superhero adaptations were those which approached the subject matter with the utmost seriousness and took earnest care to preserve the unique elements that encapsulate the look, the spirit, and the underlying (albeit completely unreal) superhero logic that breathes urgency, relevance, truth— and ultimately, LIFE— into a fictional world that allows for the existence of such strange and wonderful anomalies as masked, costumed, super-powered crime fighters. Studio executives and artists who can neither grasp nor accept the necessary unreality of such an adaptation will always strive to re-tool the comic book superhero into something more “realistic” and “less outlandish,” in the mistaken assumption that to attract and satisfy a “normal” audience, some supposedly-irrational elements common to superhero comics must be eliminated and the entire premise brought closer to real-world interaction. Costumes will be subdued or minimized; masks will be eliminated or taken off; larger-than-life set pieces will be re-imagined into something more mundane and realistically commonplace. That is almost always a mistake; if such elements are changed, they must be replaced with satisfactory variants. You cannot take away the mask, or the cape, or the secret headquarters, without losing part of what makes the superhero unique and defines his character. Nor should the adaptation completely abandon the realm of belief by pushing the superhero into an impossible world of bizarre impressionist scenery and ridiculous colors intended to suggest those found in four-color comic print. That’s a cheat; it completely gives up on the adaptation by resorting to artifice, slick trickery intended to excuse the unreality of the material by blaming its original format. A skilled director might successfully copy the style of an original comic by translating it into the “hyper-real”— but he shouldn’t surrender and diminish the entire exercise by just flattening it out and emulating a comic palette. That cheapens it without doing the original material justice. Nor must everything therein be grim and humorless; but the humor that emerges within that world must be a part of that world; it cannot be laughter from outside, at that world’s expense. Above all, every element of the superhero character and the world in which he dwells must be taken seriously, by all involved, or the entire project will ultimately ring false. Certain film and television directors have lately been able to succeed in this area, some more so than others. But to do so, those who would attempt such an adaptation must be fearlessly devoted to the original comic of origin. Fearless. Which brings me to my review of the new NetFlix series, Daredevil. Unlike a few recent television superhero adaptations which seem desperate to change the interactive dynamic of the comic books upon which they are based by unnecessarily altering seminal traits of the superheroes involved, and surrounding them with gobs of extra characters to shamelessly transform the adaptations into ensemble pieces of soap opera complexity (a hold over from the “focus more on the day-to-day life and relationships of the heroes than on the super stuff” trend of recent adaptations), Daredevil gets it mostly right. It remains surprisingly true to the original comic book series. The main characters are recognizable, the action is believable (but still heightened enough to qualify as “super”), the fight scenes are amazingly well-crafted, and the plotting, though sluggish (even glacial) at times, eventually gets there. This first series functions as a 13-hour-long extended origin tale, and really takes its time getting to the last shot of the series— the big pay off costume pose. It’s a slow burn, but well worth it. Charlie Cox is a solid choice to play Matt Murdock / Daredevil, a blind-but-superpowered lawyer who fights crime on the side. The series chronicles the character’s origin, juxtaposed with the rise of crime lord Wilson Fisk (whom comic fans know as The Kingpin), convincingly played by Vincent D’Onofrio. Deborah Ann Woll is believable as Karen Page and Elden Henson is adequate (admittedly with a few good moments) as Foggy Nelson. The series creator is Drew Goddard, and the showrunner is Stephen DeKnight— both BtVS alumni during Joss Whedon’s WB/UPN tenure— which explains a lot. The same intricate plotting punctuated by sudden turnarounds and dramatic plot twistiness, long familiar to Buffy and Angel fans, abounds. It’s a quiet adaptation, and one that definitely needs a second season to really get its feet under itself (another signature quality of the Whedon television ouvre). But it’s a highly successful relaunch of a superhero whose video legacy was almost ruined by a few half-assed appearances in desperate 1980’s Hulk TV movies and Ben Afflecks’ self-indulgent scenery-chewing film version. Let us never speak of those adaptations ever again. I would have liked to see Matt Murdock’s trademark red hair on the character. But for some reason, nowadays all male TV superheroes are brunette with beard stubble. Even the blond and ginger ones. Nonetheless, I’ve been reading Daredevil comics since the mid-1970’s, and this is him. The Man Without Fear. I’m hooked. |
“Haight Street was not a good place to be,” Mitch Maycox, a San Francisco college student in 1967, says about the Summer of Love. “The police were stretched so thin, because of the influx: the crime, the drugs, all of that stuff. A lot of things slipped through the cracks because so much was going on.” For many, the Summer of Love inspires visions of hippies laughing as they strolled arm-in-arm through Haight-Ashbury, flowers in their hair, joints in hand, Jefferson Airplane playing in the background. Such activities certainly took place, but 1967 saw more than just love and peace. Police clashed with the community, city officials condemned the hippie movement, STDs were rampant, and drug overdoses and murders were not uncommon. At the time, the newspaper, TV and radio reporters happily covered politicians’ outrage and the social carnage, but present-day media has largely chosen to focus on the shiny, happier sides of the hippie gathering. To dive into the complexities of the rampant addiction, sexual diseases, murders, and authorities’ crackdowns on the hippie movement would mar S.F.’s role in the colorful historic summer. It’s much easier and less controversial to publish stories celebrating the Beat poets, musicians, and anti-Vietnam war activists of the era than it is to track the violent police responses to demonstrators, the overdosing runaway teenagers, and a police force that couldn’t control the chaos. The Summer of Love has been tidied up and neatly wrapped in a tie-dye package. But ask anyone who was there, and they’ll more than likely have a story of the era’s dark underbelly. Maycox was one of them. In 1967, he spent much of his time in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood, where students from S.F. State or the University of San Francisco rented out whole blocks of houses with their friends. “People bought up properties because it was a blighted neighborhood,” he says. “Rents were cheap. It was all artists, musicians, social activists. Most of the people were activists.” But that changed with the influx of hippies. On Jan. 14, 1967, 30,000 people took over Golden Gate Park’s Polo Fields for the Human Be-In, fueling a nationwide impression that the hippie movement’s home was San Francisco. The Department of Public Health took a stance on the situation just two months later, when authorities estimated that there were “4,000 hippies” in the city. A team of health inspectors was deployed to the neighborhood. Clinics were full of people suffering from STDs, the result of a general lack of public sex education among teenagers who’d fled their middle-class homes, and the frequent use of drugs. “There was a lot of drug use, group sex, communal sex,” says Dr. David Smith, founder of the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic. “It would be an understatement to say there was a spike in STDs. That’s like saying a hurricane is a strong wind.” In a March 1967 interview with the Chronicle, the city’s health director, Dr. Ellis Sox, did not mince words, comparing the influx of hippies to an apocalypse: “These people are creating the slums they live in,” he said. “Most poor people forced to live in poor housing at least try to keep clean, but here we have young people of good education and background who are creating a slum. When water is shut off from failure to pay the bill, toilets are not being used. Garbage is thrown around, and this attracts flies and rats. Bubonic plague is carried by rats on fleas, and it is not impossible there might be an outbreak of epidemic meningitis.” By June, the number of people visiting the Haight was predicted to be close to 100,000. For context — that’s more than an entire day’s worth of Outside Lands attendees, squished into one neighborhood. Every spare couch was filled, runaways huddled in doorways at night, and school buses converted into mobile homes lined the Panhandle along Oak and Fell streets. “They were living on the streets, or renting a place, half a dozen people to a room,” Maycox remembers. “That’s when it really changed.” A New York Times employee who went by the name “Ms. Elizabeth” also recalled that the tone evolved throughout the summer. “At first, it was really very happy,” she said. “There were so many ‘be-ins’ and marches and free music. Organized crime got the Hell’s Angels involved. There was an influx of young runaways, many from well-to-do families. They were expecting a city of love and found a city like any other city, and a lot of them ended up being prostitutes.” Maycox confirms this. “Some people came here just to prey on the younger folks,” he says. “They’d rob them. A lot of young girls would end up as prostitutes. Some of the pimps from the Fillmore would come recruit people These were young kids; 15, 16, 17. What surprised me was how fast that happened.” Runaway teens drew cops to the neighborhood, as frantic parents across the country tried to track them down. Soon, even the Diggers, a radical activist group, were rejecting people under 18 from their community houses, out of fear cops would raid them and find drugs. Signs went up in windows saying the underage weren’t welcome. Running away was a crime, and those who were caught were tossed in the Youth Guidance Center, a juvenile-delinquent center on Twin Peaks with bars on the windows. It quickly reached capacity, with cots filled up and teenagers forced to sleep on the floor. Deveron, a 13-year-old girl, described the scene in a September 1967 letter to Reverend Larry Beggs, the founder of Huckleberry Home for Runaways. “The rooms are steaming hot 24-hours a day,” she said. “The windows are half an inch thick and through the tiny crack at the top you can maybe see a few lights at night outside the barbed wire. There are no people there. Only animals. If it wasn’t time to be let out they had to wet their floors. The only sounds are ‘Be quiet!’ and the sound of rattling trays and doors and keys.” Amid the plethora of sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution, and city-supported child abuse, hospitals were overloaded with hippies overdosing on drugs. In his city-history book Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love, David Talbot writes that “when high-flying kids were brought to General Hospital … they were dumped across the street at Mission Emergency Hospital, where they were thrown in with alcoholics or gunshot victims, or locked in padded isolation cells. What began as a mildly bad trip could erupt into full-blown psychosis by the time a hallucinating patient made his way through the city’s harrowing public-health labyrinth.” By October, tens of thousands of hippies who’d migrated to San Francisco for the summer had left. Many returned to college to finish their degrees, others were drafted into the Vietnam War. A “funeral” marking the death of the hippie movement was held to signify the official end of the summer. “We wanted to signal that this was the end of it, to stay where you are, bring the revolution to where you live and don’t come here, because it’s over and done with,” organizer Mary Kasper said in a public statement after the funeral took place. But while the masses vacated, the neighborhood retained some of the damage the Summer of Love had inflicted. Veterans returning from the war became hooked on hard drugs, which were readily available on street corners. Janis Joplin, who’d become well-known after an appearance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, drank herself to death only three years later. And as the haze of pot smoke left the Haight, Charles Manson packed his family into a bus and proceeded to murder at least seven people. It’s easier to memorialize the fun, peace-loving, happy Summer of Love than its darker partner. But remember: That which glitters is not always gold. Check out more stories from this week’s cover story here: Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll ’67: The Hippie Temptation Fifty years ago this month, Harry Reasoner and CBS tried to scare kids away from drugs. It didn’t quite work. Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll ’67: The Bad End of the Summer of Love By Labor Day 1967, a pair of horrifying drug dealer murders made the Haight too violent for even Charles Manson. |
Pizzagate’s days in the limelight are waning. Even Edgar Welch—the 28-year-old who entered Comet Ping Pong armed with several firearms to “investigate” the made-up child trafficking claims—has hardly been in the news lately. So it came time for Pizzagate’s trolls and true believers to invent a new conspiracy. And boy, is it ever dumb. The theory hinges on the supposed misdeeds of two content-saving services, Archive.is and Slimgur. In short, those advocating the Pizzagate conspiracy theory are now accusing two of their most trusted online services of undermining their investigation because they’re getting too close to “the truth.” First, a bit of background: Archive.is is similar to the Wayback Machine—it’s a means of saving a snapshot of a webpage at a specific time, and favored heavily on sites like 4chan where threads can disappear quickly. Slimgur, on the other hand, was built because members of the long-since banned Reddit community r/fatpeoplehate thought that Imgur, the gold standard in image sharing services, was too restrictive. In response, they built a knockoff that doesn’t delete content intended to incite hatred. The new theory claims that these two internet archiving services are responsible for deleting Pizzagate-related content. This, of course, means that Pizzagate must be true, because why else would anyone seek to pour this “evidence” down the memory hole? Advertisement This laughable game of thread telephone started innocently enough on Reddit knockoff Voat (where r/Pizzagate and r/fatpeoplehate fled after being banned). A few were unassuming threads on both the Slimgur community and on fatpeoplehate asked why Slimgur appeared to be down. Once the service outage was noticed by Voat’s Pizzagaters, a lapse was instantly upgraded to an “attack.” Pizzagaters also claimed that Archive.is was in cahoots with whoever was trying to discredit the theory that career politician Hillary Clinton runs a child sex-trafficking ring out of a pizzeria. It’s worth noting that every Pizzagate page I attempted to view through Archive.is was in perfect working order at the time of this writing—though a few were apparently inaccessible for a short time. Advertisement Reddit’s infamous Trump community r/the_donald further wrung “a website is down” into the dribbling supposition that “Archive.is and sli.mg are removing all Pizzagate related links,” while the subreddit KotakuInAction—a hub for GamerGate—cried “censorship.” When shared by an administrator within Centipede Central—the 6,000-strong Trump room on chat client Discord—it was somehow determined that “they” were “planning something” and that both sites were down. But here’s the catch: When reached for comment, Archive.is’s webmaster told Gizmodo that these increasingly hyperbolic threads might have been an elaborate attempt to drum up controversy where none existed. Advertisement “[A few pages] were temporarily hidden [because they were] mistakenly classified as spam,” the webmaster wrote in an email to Gizmodo. “That spam report [was] received from [someone] who claims to be a Voat admin, so what is happening now could be carefully planned.” He or she attached a redacted email exchange showing how this was possible. The handful of pages that were affected on Archive.is were functioning normally by the time the “news” was shared to Centipede Central. How many of the creators of these threads—if any—were in on the plan, and how many just wanted some juicy controversy to post without taking half a second to investigate? It’s not clear, and probably never will be. But then again, seeing patterns and nefarious intent where none exist—like a broken website or a few emails discussing a common food item—is a beloved past time among the internet’s most gullible users. Gizmodo has reached out to the creators of Slimgur and will update if we receive a response. |
violent-goblin: u-wnt-tea: hacksign: merridewpls: hacksign: white British people are some of the most insensitive inhuman and cocky freaks I’ve ever encountered Hmm that’s right… bad mouth a whole group of people because of the actions of some individuals you’ve seen who fit that description…. sounds like the sort of thing you’re complaining about white British people doing………… interesting…. white british people colonized the entire world, murdered millions, enslaved my ancestors and created a system of racism so ingrained into this society that not even my great great great great grandchildren will be able to escape its touch so i’ll call these british losers whatever the fuck i want you wooden toothed flea ridden brute. Me “bad mouthing” them on tumblr.com will never in any capacity be comparible to the murder and destruction they have brought to me and others for centuries. @violent-goblin u wanna talk to me about murder and slavery talk to me about the spanish “explorers” that slaughtered the aztecs or the islamic crusades or the mongol conquests or the roman empire or literally any other society on earth because nearly every single fucking country on the planet is responsible for the death, rape and misery of millions upon millions idk what fucking planet you live on where the brits were entirely responsible for all the slavery and racism in the world ever™ but it sure as fuck isnt earth british people weren’t the first nor were they the only group to do anything you’ve said and your ignorance is so startling and depressing that i dont even know where to begin tbh and quite frankly i’m insulted that you’d tag me in this ali, get fucked you dumb bastard |
Two glasses of martini, one red and one blue at a sidewalk bar in Washington, DC. (UPI/Billie Jean Shaw) CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Jan. 18 (UPI) -- According to a new study, people who work 48 hours a week or more are likely to drink alcohol more heavily. The study looked at data from over 330,000 people in 14 different countries. It found people who work more than the average work week were 11 percent more likely to engage in heavy drinking. Heavy drinking is considered 14 drinks or more per week for women and 21 drinks or more per week for men. Considering the study analyzed people from 14 countries, 11 percent translates to 2 million people drinking heavily because of their jobs, Cassandra Okechukwu of the Harvard School of Public Health wrote in an editorial for the study. "The workplace is an important setting for the prevention of alcohol misuse, because more than half of the adult population are employed," wrote the team of researchers. "Further research is needed to assess whether preventive interventions against risky alcohol use could benefit from information on working hours." The study was published in the British Medical Journal. |
India's top rifle shooters, including Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra, warmed up in style for the upcoming World Cup in Fort Benning, USA, by returning a rich haul of three gold and two bronze medals at the International Shooting Competition of Hannover. The tournament, held at the National Shooting Center in the German city, featured more than 1000 shooters from around the world. Beijing Games gold medallist Bindra won both the individual and team gold in his pet 10m air rifle event, while upcoming talent Chain Singh added the 50m men's rifle prone yellow metal to his 10m air rifle team gold, which he won alongside Bindra and London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang. Narang also won the bronze medal in the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event. Rising rifle shooter, Apurvi Chandela, who recently helped India bag an Olympic quota place in Korea, too won a bronze medal in the women's air rifle event. All the medal winners will be seen in action next week in Fort Benning for the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup and they would be aiming to bag as many Rio Olympic quota places as possible, before the quadrennial sporting showpiece gets underway next year. |
With the advent of high-throughput sequencing technologies, data scientists are facing immense challenges in large-scale sequence analysis and in integrating genomic annotations. For instance, comparing new experiments with previously published datasets, translating genomic coordinates between different assemblies of an organism as well as finding cross-species orthologues are some of the common use-cases in basic science experiments. To assist these tasks genomic features are routinely represented and shared using Browser Extensible Display (BED; [1]), Distributed Annotation System (DAS; [2]), General Feature Format (GFF), Gene Transfer Format (GTF) and Variant Call Format (VCF). These all enable cross-sectional analysis of genomic studies across multiple programming languages, thereby enabling seamless data-integration. R is the de facto standard for statistical analysis and visualization in computational biology [3] for both exploratory prototyping and rigorous production pipelines. To this end R has adopted several packages, such as GenomicRanges and IRanges that expressly deal with genomic intervals [4]. Albeit powerful, these existing tools require understanding of bespoke data structures and classes/objects. To address these issues we implemented a formal BED-operations framework called bedr, which is an R API offering utility functions implementing commonly used genomic operations as well as offering a formal R interface to interact with BEDTools and BEDOPS. bedr is fully compatible with the ubiquitous BED tools [5, 6] paradigm and integrates seamlessly with R-based work-flows. |
When you run experiments, there’s inherently an element of the unknown. After all, we’re trying to figure out things we don’t know. And sometimes, things go wrong. FATALLY WRONG! Here are some of the most interesting, most intriguing, and sometimes most horrific, experimental deaths we’ve ever heard of. 15. Those magnificent men and their flying machines The first post on this list is dedicated to all those brave souls who lost their lives attempting to defeat mankind’s oldest enemy: gravity. Truly, there is no greater statement of belief in your own invention than hurling yourself from a high point, depending only on it for survival. Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari, who tried to make wooden wings; Otto Lilienthal and his hang gliders; Franz Reichelt, a tailor who attempted to make the world’s first parachute. We salute you. You attempted to beat gravity, and instead plummeted to a grisly death. Rechelt deserves special mention for not only hurling himself off the Eiffel Tower with only a poorly constructed edifice of cloth stuck to his back, but doing so during the dawn of cinematography, thus ensure the entire event was recorded for the world to remember. 14. Marie Curie There’s a certain romanticism attached to the tale of Curie. She discovered the theory of radioactivity, discovered polonium and radium, undertook the first studies of how to use these strange new theories to treat cancer, and was awarded Nobel prizes in Physics and Chemistry. However, a lifetime of exposure to the radiation, along with the universal lack of knowledge about its effects, lead to her death from aplastic anemia. She worked under such heavy radioactivity that all her notes—even her cookbook—are stored in lead lined boxes, and anyone wishing to study them has to wear protective clothing. 13. Jesse William Lazear The Yellow Fever was a disease that most likely originated in Africa, but during the 18th and 19th century was convincingly kicking the ass of the United States. It wasn’t until the 1900s that Lazear—a researcher of the “American Plague”, and bearer of a name that sounds like Lazer— confirmed that it was even transmitted by mosquito. He was a tireless researcher to try and defeat the illness, to the point where he secretly exposed himself to infected mosquitos. I bet you know what happened then. Yup, he contracted the disease, and died. You want to know how Yellow Fever will do you in? Most people will just get fever, headache, chills, back pain, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, and then walk away with life-long immunity. The second phase, however, is the deadly one. Liver damage, jaundice, abdominal pain, bleeding from the mouth, eyes and ass. And finally, blood filled vomit. What a way to go. 12. MKULTRA MKULTRA sounds like the stuff of conspiracy theorist’s dreams. It also sounds like a badass metal band, but that’s besides the point. If someone told you that the CIA was secretly testing American citizens with psychoactive drugs in order to test their effectiveness for interrogation, you’d probably give that person a nice sheet of tinfoil from which they could fashion a handsome and fetching hat. But it happened. The CIA went around dosing the fuck out of everyone, to see how LSD and other drugs functioned, and they tried to figure out mind control. Didn’t really work. Hell, they even got a group of prostitutes to secretly drug up their johns to see how the acid worked on unwilling participants. Two people died from the tests: Harold Blauer, a New York professional tennis player, who was injected with a mescaline derivative called MDA during treatment for depression. This was done without his knowledge or consent, and he died after a massive overdose of the drug. Frank Olson was an Army biochemist, who was exposed to LSD under dodgy circumstances. Some say he was murdered for threatening to go public. The official version is he was given the drug, not knowing what it really was, and then jumped from 13th story window. 11. Stateville Penitentiary Malaria Study Man, the Army sure does show up a lot on this list, huh? I guess they just have a thing for human experimentation. So, you have a prison in Illinois 1940s, and a medical department, Army and State Department who want to run a controlled study of malaria—a.k.a the disease that has killed the most human beings, ever. Oddly enough, they even got the prisoner’s consent, including infamous murderer Nathan Leopold. 441 inmates volunteered, I assume for extra cigarettes or something similar, and were bitten by 10 disease carrying mosquitos each. Only one died, from a heart attack after battling a number of rounds with the fever. The interesting thing about this situation, is the defence team of the Nazis during the Nuremberg Medical Trials claimed there was no difference between the prison experiments, and the forced experimentation in the concentration camp. It was during this trial that the concept of “informed consent” was cemented, into the form we know and love today. 10. British Nuclear Tests In the 1950s, Britain was desperate to have its own nukes, and undertook a number of atomic tests in a picturesque corner of the Pacific known as Christmas Island. Dubbed Operation Grapple, they detonated a series of atmospheric nuclear devices, without bothering to evacuate either their personnel, or the inhabitants of the island. Some reports say that instead of protective gear, the servicemen were just told to turn their backs from the explosion, and cover their faces with their hands. The men reported a flash so bright they could see their bones through their hands, and so strong that it knocked many over. And afterwards, they all ate fish from ocean, swam in the lagoon, and drank the local water. The American Government continued to perform tests in the area for years. Both sides deny any long term ill effects to the servicemen or local population. 9. The German Ebola Accident If you’ve ever been in a science lab, you’ll have probably run into various stringent rules about behavoir, like: no drinks, no open-toed shoes, keep experiments separate, no sex on the lab tables, etc. And you probably ignored most of them. Well a worker at an Ebola research lab in Germany knows the importance of these procedures, after she accidentally pricked herself with a needle through three layers of protective gloves. She was instantly quarantined and given an experimental treatment, and managed to survive. So yes, she lived, and doesn’t really belong on this list. But, it gives me a chance to talk about Ebola, so fuck you all, I’m running with it. Ebola is nasty. Like really nasty. It has a mortality rate of 50%-89%, depending on strain. So, if you get the nicest, sweetest, most cuddly version of it, it’s still even odds of you kicking the bucked. The nastier ones will almost certainly do you in. And you know how you go? You bleed and shit yourself to death, while all your organs shut down. Awesome. 8. The Fallout Experiments Oh fallout, white and fluffy as snow, it descends from the heavens after a nuclear explosion. It’s radioactive dust that’s created when a nuclear bomb goes off, and its incredibly toxic, and has a tendency to work its way into the food chain. It leads to cancer, death, and horribly mutated babies How do we know this? Because the American Government exposed the inhabitants of Rongelap Atoll to it. Yeah, it would have sucked to live on a Pacific Island in the 50s and 60s, when all this shit was being blown up. This one wasn’t intentional, but they sure didn’t mind watching the effects. It was after they detonated a lithium deuteride bomb, which ended up producing a much larger explosion than originally planned, combined with strong winds that bore the dust over the islands. They called the severely malformed offspring of the island’s inhabitants “jellyfish babies”. Nice. 7. Dr. Henry Cotton Dr Henry Cotton. Sounds like a nice and fluffy guy, doesn’t he? Well, he wasn’t. He ran the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton (previously called New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, now known as Trenton Psychiatric Hospital), and thought that you could cure insanity via removing parts of your patients. That’s right, he beliveved rudely ripping organs from your body would cure delusions. He’d start with removing all the teeth, move on to the tonsils and sinuses, and then, in no particular order, the testicles, ovaries, gall bladders, stomachs, spleens, cervixes, and colons. Wow, with all that gone, you’d be down to almost no internal organs. One example was “An 18 year-old girl with agitated depression [who] successively had her upper and lower molars extracted, a tonsillectomy, sinus drainage, treatment for an infected cervix, removal of intestinal adhesions — all without effecting improvement in her psychiatric condition. Then the remainder of her teeth were removed and she was sent home, pronounced cured”. Seeing as this was the 1920s, and before antibiotics, I’m sure you can imagine what the survival rate was like. Cotton claimed an 85% success rate, which was completely wrong. It also turns out that the mortality rate among his patients was around 45%. Even if you did survive, you’d be missing a large chunk of your internal organs. 6. The Demon Core The name “Demon Core” sounds like something out of a B horror movie, and it should. The Demon Core was a nuclear device with a rather troublesome tendency to kill researchers. At the Los Alamos labs in the 1940s, the Demon Core was a chunk of subcritical plutonium that was used for research, and on two separate occasions, it went critical, killing scientists. The first was Harry Daghlian, who was working neutron reflection experiments, surrounding the core with neutron reflective bricks. Each one brought the core closer to critical, and when he accidentally dropped a brick on the plutonium mass, it triggered a massive blast of radiation. He pulled it off quickly, but received a fatal dose of radiation, and died 28 days later. The second incident involved Louis Slotin and a group of scientists, who were placing two half-spheres of neutron reflecting beryllium around the plutonium core. The two halves were held apart by a screwdriver wielded by Slotin, but he slipped, and the two closed. The core went supercritical. He pulled apart the halves, thus saving the life of everyone else in the room, but received such a big hit of radiation that he died 9 days later. 5. TGN1412 In the process of researching new drugs, you start by trying them out on small mammals, and slowly working your way up the ladder before eventually reaching us human types. There’s a fundamental theory that if it’s fine for all the smaller creatures, it’s probably going to function in a vaguely similar way for the bigger ones. Sometimes, however, it doesn’t. That’s what happened with TGN1412, a drug being studied by the company Parexel. A group of study subjects in London were exposed to the drug at a dose 500x lower than was safe in animals. In humans, it caused catastrophic systemic organ failure. Within five minutes, they were in rapidly escalating pain. Basically, their body shut down. Six patients were hospitalized, four died, and one looks like he may be developing cancer. As an ex-drug trial volunteer myself, all I can say is “GAH!” 4. The Tuskegee Syphilis experiment In the 1930s, syphilis was poorly understood, and many of the treatments toxic in their own right. In 1932, 399 poor black workers with the disease were promised free treatment, but when funding dried up due to the depression the study changed its goal, and the disease was left to run its course so that it could be studied. Now, that’s bad enough, but they were trying to find out more about syphilis in order to treat it better, so they had good intentions. But in the 1940s penicillin rocked along, which cured the disease. And the group running the experiment refused to treat the patients with it. They intentionally blocked the patients from learning about penicillin, and prevented them from seeking outside treatment. The experiment ran from 1932 to 1972, at which point, of the original 399 only 74 survived. 28 had died from the disease, 100 from complications associated with it, 40 of their wives were infected, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis. 3. The Nazi Experiments There’s a reason the Nazi’s are such effective villains in so much of our culture. It’s very easy to forget some of the shit they did, which was downright torture, in the name of science. The experiments they ran on the people in concentration camps are terrifying and disturbing. Prisoners were dunked in ice water for hours, to see how long downed pilots would survive in the North Atlantic. Decompression chambers were used to test the effects of high altitude, usually followed by live brain dissections to see what happened; they were forced to drink salt water as their only source of fluids; war wounds were inflicted and deliberately infected in order to test new treatments; and TB was brought into the population. These people died under horrific circumstances. Yet these are the only clinical information we have about certain conditions. The hypothermia data in particular is far beyond any other study that could be attempted, which puts researchers in a dilemma. Is it ethical to use data gathered by such disgusting means in order to work on treatments that may save lives? 2. Mengele’s twins As bad as the tales of most Nazi research are, Mengele’s experiments were particularly twisted. He worked primarily on young twins, as he was obsessed with unlocking their secrets to increase the birth rate of the “master race”. In no particular order, and always without anesthetic , he scraped bone shavings out of gaping holes in peoples legs, combined a pair of twins to create a conjoined body; injected dye or chemicals into their eyes to change the color; drew large amounts of blood; transfused large amounts of blood between twins; spinal taps and injections; one twin would be infected with a disease and the other not; organ removal; castration; amputation; some even allege sex change and incestuous impregnation operations. Some 3000 twins passed through his hands, and only approximately 26 survived. The “angel of death” indeed. After the war, he vanished to South America, where he lived out the rest of his life in remorseless hiding, to die from accidental drowning at the age of 68. 1. Unit 731 While the Nazis were doing their horrific work in Germany, the Japanese outdid them in mainland Asia, undertaking a regime of ruthless experimentation the likes of which are too disturbing to imagine. Everyone knows about Nazi experimentation, but the story of Unit 731 is far less known, and all the more horrific for it. Unit 731 was a research base in Northeast China, and the home of more than 10,000 deaths by experiment. The patients were vivisected without anesthesia after infection with diseases; pregnant women were vivisected and the fetus removed; limbs amputated to study blood loss; said limbs re-attached to the opposite side of the body; extremities were frozen by repeated immersion in water while left in icy conditions, then amputated or thawed to study gangrene; prisoners had their stomachs removed, and their esophagus attached to their intestine directly; live humans were used to test grenades at various ranges and positions; flamethrowers; chemical and biological agents including plague, cholera, smallpox, botulism, syphilis and gonorrhea; being hung upside down until they choked to death; air injected into their arteries to cause embolism; horse urine injected in their kidneys; deprived of food and water till death; placed in high pressure chambers till death; being exposed to extreme cold; burned to see how well they could survive different degrees of burns; spun until death on a centrifuge; animal blood injections; lethal radiation doses; injected with sea water to see if it could be substituted for saline; and buried alive. A laundry list of human atrocities. While many of the Nazi doctors were at least brought to justice for their crimes, Unit 731 merely disbanded and General MacArthur gave immunity to its doctors in exchange for information on biological warfare, and the majority got off scott free. However, Russia brought war crimes proceedings against a number of the perpetrators, and sentenced them to hard labor in Siberia. I can’t help but think they got off light. |
On this day in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was executed for treason in Northamptonshire. We look at the life and times of Scotland’s first female leader. A large crowd of more than two hundred people had gathered at Fotheringay Castle to watch the execution scheduled for the day. But as the lady on the block spoke her prayers in Latin, it was clear that the large crowds were for no normal execution. Imprisoned for corresponding with known plotter Anthony Babbington - a fellow Catholic aiming to overthrow Mary’s cousin, Queen Elizabeth - it took three strikes to successfully sever Mary’s head. Mary Stuart’s demise as the Queen of Scotland brought an end to years of suspicion on the part of her cousin. The only surviving child of James V, Mary I of Scotland acceded to the throne at just six days old on the death of her father, James V of Scotland. Her French mother, Mary of Guise, acted as Regent on her young daughter’s behalf. In April 1558, Mary married Francis - the heir to the French crowd - before he became king in 1559. The uniting of the French and Scottish crowns, much to the chagrin of England, was broken in 1559 by the death of Francis due to an ear infection. Mary returned to Scotland aged 18 and immediately encountered difficulties as a Catholic in a Protestant nation. Married again seven years later to Lord Darnley, their relationship suffered under the accusations of infidelity. The Earl of Darnley died in suspicious circumstances in February 1567, and Mary progressed onto her third marriage a mere three months later with her new son James. READ MORE: The history of Scotland’s dry temperance towns Marriage to the main suspect in Darnley’s murder drove a wedge between her and Scottish leaders. Bothwell was exiled and Mary abdicated her throne in July 1567, before being imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Kinross-shire. After escaping her imprisonment a year later, Mary made her way to England in the hopes of securing shelter from her cousin, Elizabeth I. Here, she was imprisoned and surveilled for nearly two decades. Mary became the focus of many Catholic plots to depose Elizabeth, but was spared because she had not acted in any of them. This all changed in 1586, as Mary wrote letters to Anthony Babington who was planning to depose Elizabeth. With this incriminating evidence against her, Mary was tried for treason and sentenced to execution in October 1586. She was executed at the age of 44 on 8 February 1587, with son James succeeding Elizabeth in 1603. |
During the above interview, rapper and notable robbery victim 2 Chainz reveals how much he charges to collaborate with other artists. $100,000 will get you a verse, a video appearance, swag, and charisma, apparently. Chainz also guarantees that girls will be in attendance, due to the fact that they want to meet him. For any artists considering paying the fee, here's a list of other things you could buy for $100,000: 1. 50,890 ounces of festive multi-colored confetti 2. A single family home in many parts of the US 3. 3 1/2 brand new Toyota Priuses (Prii?) 4. Oh, or you could feed several hundred people for a whole year. But Tity doesn't want people judging him harshly regarding the steep fee: "Don’t look down upon me. You’re like ‘Man. What the f… who’s gonna pay that for a verse?’ Don’t worry about it, your favorite rapper paid it.” Source: Uproxx |
A flood of cash is filling the coffers of Corporate America and nobody else. (Photo by lightboxx/ Shutterstock) In an age of disparity, corporate wealth is far from an indicator of economic health. When I read in a financial newsletter that giant corporations are 'sitting on' $1,265,836,000,000, I don’t feel like breaking out the champagne. I see it as a funeral pyre for the American Middle Class. I read a number of finance-industry newsletters. I want to share with you a recent excerpt from one of them. Here it is: $1,265,836,000,000. This is the amount of cash that S&P 500 companies (excluding banks and other financial institutions) are currently sitting on. As of the beginning of the third quarter, the largest U.S. companies collectively held $1.27 trillion. That’s about 13.5 percent more than this time last year. … Where is this cash coming from? Well, borrowing accounts for some of it. But mostly, it’s that companies are simply generating cash faster than they are spending it. Companies sitting on cash—the financial newsletter thinks that this is great news! Spectacular news! How nice—for them. Here is more great news for Big Business: Corporations have been largely excused from paying taxes. The Government Accountability Office found earlier this year that the average effective tax rate on U.S. corporations is only 12.6 percent of their income. That’s low enough to make Mitt Romney jealous. Hooray, say the financial newsletters! More spectacular news! In fact, the corporate income tax has been performing a magical disappearing act for decades. In 1952, corporate income tax revenues totaled 6 percent of GDP. The average during our enormous post-war economic expansion, between 1945 and 1970, was more than 4 percent of GDP. Since then, in every year, it has been less than 3 percent. In 1983, Reagan’s tax breaks knocked corporate income tax revenue as a percentage of GDP all the way down to 1 percent. It returned to that pitifully low level in the first year of the Obama administration, and it has remained below 2 percent. No wonder the corporate cash pile keeps growing and growing and growing. But what about the non-corporate entities in America? How are those bags of flesh and bones known as “human beings” faring? Well, 11 million of us are unemployed and more than 7 million of us have part- time jobs, but can’t find full-time work. And in the past 10 years, the U.S. labor force participation rate has shrunk by 3 percent. Among those who are fortunate enough to find work, the average pay is a whopping $24 an hour. According to a University of Michigan report, around 1 in 5 households in America has a negative net worth—they owe more than they own. In addition 48 million Americans have no health coverage, and 48 million rely on food stamps to stave off hunger. Don’t expect the next generation of red, white and blue meat-bags to do much better. One fifth of all American children live in households trying to survive on less than $2,000 a month. Many of these children go to bed hungry; is it any wonder that our schools are producing students whose math scores, by one measure, are among the worst in the world? A Tale of Two Cities , the novel by Charles Dickens, begins with the famous words, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In America today, it is the best of times for multinational corporations and their CEOs. But for ordinary people, it’s pretty bad, and getting worse. For non-corporeal entities, times are good. For flesh and bone, bad. Legal fictions, good. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters—all bad. I submit to you that there is a connection between those two things, a connection generally known as “cause and effect.” There are several such connections, in fact. First, inequality causes poverty through simple arithmetic. If the richest 1% is taking half of everything, then that just doesn’t leave very much for the other 99%. And inequality in America is not only the highest in our history, but also the highest in any industrialized country. According to the CIA World Factbook, our Gini coefficient— a statistical measure of income inequality—places us between Venezuela and Uruguay, with far more inequality than every major European or East Asian nation. Our inequality is surpassed largely by a bunch of African countries. Second, inequality causes poverty through economic mismanagement. As that finance newsletter proudly states, huge corporations don’t spend their money; they just sock it away. And the same thing is true of rich people, and banks, and multi-national corporations. The 400 individuals on the Forbes 400 list alone have accumulated more than $2 trillion in wealth, the great majority of which remains in their pockets year after year. We are ending up with enormous pools of cash that have been drained from the real economy, and are not reinvested in it. We have a national economy with a maximum possible economic output of $16 trillion each year, but much of it ends up in deep pockets with no holes, just sitting there. This creates a massive and chronic shortage in “aggregate demand,” a problem that John Maynard Keynes accurately described 75 years ago. If we allow demand to fall short, then unemployment explodes. Hence we paper over the evaporation of all that money from aggregate demand with federal deficits, “quantitative easing” and enormous personal debt. But it doesn’t matter, because the existence of all those people without jobs—what Marx called a “reserve army of the unemployed”—still fuels poverty by decimating wages. Desperate people bid down the price of labor simply to survive. Average wages, adjusted for inflation, haven’t increased since the 1970s. America is becoming a nation of cheap labor. And the notion that in such circumstances, burgeoning business profits somehow will magically increase wages and create jobs is delusional. They haven’t, and they won’t. The misconception that the so-called job creators will deploy corporate profits to take risks, to reinvest, to expand and, ultimately, to employ more people is a right-wing pipe dream. They might be doing that in China; they sure aren’t doing that in America. Businesses see labor simply as a cost. Business tries to reduce that cost as much as possible, in order to boost profits as much as possible. Business is not in the business of creating jobs. Business is in the business of maximizing profit. Business hires labor only when it can make a profit from that labor. If any business could eliminate its labor force entirely, it would. And many actually do just that, through subcontracting, outsourcing, offshoring and other measures that reduce compensation or eradicate the labor force. So please forgive me if, when I read in a financial newsletter that giant corporations are “sitting on” $1,265,836,000,000 “in cash,” I don’t feel like breaking out the champagne. I see it as a funeral pyre for the American Middle Class. A system that taxes Warren Buffett’s secretary at a higher rate than Warren Buffett stokes the flames of that funeral pyre. A system that provides for corporate tax loopholes that are as large as corporate tax revenue stokes the flames of that funeral pyre. We create that system, and it’s breaking us, from within. Those are the facts. The Sturm und Drang that you see on the evening news is a desperate effort to avoid those facts. And the deep, deep question in our political system today is this: Are we going to do anything about it? |
When I first heard that autistic people didn't have empathy, I assumed my son Mickey must be an exception. He was not yet 2 when the developmental specialist told us all the things our child would never do. Pretend play. Eye contact. Empathy. I remember sitting on the floor of his bedroom days later, hugging my knees to my chest and watching Mickey build block towers, thinking, who was this child? Had he suddenly become a stranger? At the sound of my sobbing, Mickey looked up. He put down the block in his hand. Stood. Toddled toward me. Bent down to peer searchingly at my face. Then he spread his arms wide and wrapped himself tight around me in a full hug. At that moment I realized he was exactly the same child I'd had before the diagnosis -- an affectionate, playful little boy who was not yet speaking but already knew how to offer sympathy. So why does this myth that autistic people lack empathy persist? The reasons are complicated -- a convergence of media, popular culture, and ignorance. But if you want to lay blame, you might start with the British cognitive psychologists Simon Baron-Cohen and Uta Frith, who in the 1980s coined the much-loathed term "mind-blindness" for what they considered the core deficit in autism: the autistic person's inability to employ a "theory of mind." Meaning, essentially, that autistic people are incapable of imagining anyone else's thoughts and feelings. But empathy is a complicated construct. There is cognitive empathy, the ability to read other people's feelings, but there is also affective empathy, the ability to share other people's feelings. Just because you don't have the social/cognitive skill to read someone else's feelings doesn't mean you can't feel someone else's pain. While it's true that autistic people often have a harder time reading social cues, it is quite a leap -- and a dangerous one -- to assume that a person's inability to interpret nonverbal cues means he doesn't care and has no empathy. Empathy is the trait that makes us human. So to say that autistics lack empathy is saying that they are less than human. And once you dehumanize others it becomes "permissible" to do things to them. To taunt and bully and abuse. Consider places like the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts, a so-called treatment center for people with autism that uses painful electrical shocks to the skin to punish self-injurious behavior. That's not treatment. That's torture. And if you still don't think this kind of thinking is dangerous, consider this. In the wake of the Sandy Hook school massacre, as some people speculated that the shooter Adam Lanza might have been on the autism spectrum, hate groups began showing up on Facebook. One group calling itself "Asperger's Prevention Campaign" posted this: "When we reach 50 likes, we will find an autistic kid and set it on fire." (Facebook has since removed the group.) Everyone in the autism community knows the saying, "If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism." Some people on the spectrum may struggle with empathy; others can feel overwhelmed by other people's feelings. Then there is everyone in between. You know what? That's why we call it a spectrum. Twenty years on, I have ample evidence that my son can read other people's moods and react appropriately. He'll frequently ask us such questions as "Are you tired?" "Are you feeling frustrated?" "Can I give you a hug to cheer you up?" |
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - A group of militants who attacked a police station and army camp in India’s Himalayan state of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday had crossed the border from Pakistan the previous day, the state’s chief minister said. Omar Abdullah told reporters the raid, in which at least eight people have been killed, appeared designed to upset plans for a meeting in New York this week between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. “Given the history, timing and location, the aim is to derail the proposed meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart,” Abdullah said. “There are forces that are inimical to peace and want to derail any peace process.” India has faced an insurgency in its part of Muslim-majority Kashmir since 1989 and has long accused Pakistan of supporting the militants fighting Indian rule. |
After studying filmmaking with Leslie Thornton at Brown University, and French New Wave director Eric Rohmer at The University of Paris-Michelet, Sam Levy began his professional career as an apprentice to cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer in his own right when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted one of the “Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. Sam went on to shoot three films for director Noah Baumbach: Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We’re Young. Sam’s recent films include Lady Bird - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture - as well as two projects for director Spike Jonze: Changers and Untitled Frank Ocean Project. Sam has photographed commercials and music videos for such directors as Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, Fredrik Bond, Stacy Wall, Randy Krallman, Lisa Rubisch and Brigitte Lacombe among others. |
Explaining Public Transit to the Public It’s not something you hear often in transit-rich areas, but in cities and towns across the U.S., the specter of the “empty bus” looms large. Jarrett Walker at Network Blog Human Transit points us to a video from the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, in west-central Florida, which has produced a series of educational shorts on how its buses work. The latest episode of “Bus Buzz” addresses the myth of the empty bus. Using video from bus security cameras, a PSTA spokesperson explains how ridership ebbs and flows depending on the route and time of day. This ingenious public relations campaign would translate well to most any transit system, regardless of size. With so many transit agencies trying to improve service, often while suffering from budget woes, there’s plenty of fodder for this kind of public outreach. Elsewhere today: The Wash Cycle dissects the arguments in favor of a bill that would make bike helmets mandatory in Maryland; Bike Portland gauges reaction to President Obama’s pick for Interior secretary; and Green Lane Project Blog examines how cyclist stress influences bike maps. |
The Hughes Brothers' Book of Eli isn't all post-apocalyptic Samurai sword action and ipods. Mixed in with the violence and sepiatones is one giant religious symbol that we just had to quiz the Brothers about in our exclusive interview. We spoke to each brother separately — which is why a few questions are repeated below — but they each seem to have their own take on the religious, or non-religious, undertones that run through their post-apocalyptic film. They struggled with keeping the film from being one-sided while tackling the always difficult job of keeping Eli spiritual but not preachy. Warning some light spoilery talk. Why did you want to make Eli? It's been many years since your last film. Why was Eli special? Albert: I didn't get it right away, my brother did. And I said, "I don't know about the religious stuff or the spiritual stuff." And then I went to sleep and woke up after a few hours of dreaming about it and thought, "Okay, I get it." Creatively, I get it. Visually, I get it. Story-wise, I get it. It hit all cylinders. For some unexplained reason, in a way. You just said that you had trepidation about Eli, and I read that the project went through a lot of rewrites, we're curious as to what went in and what had to go to keep you interested? What did you change? Advertisement Albert: It was more the things that came off as preachy. It's not about that. We tried to tone that down and make it about the mission, and the faith in that mission, as opposed to coming off righteous. Eli really walks the line of being an evangelical film, versus a movie that's just about a mysterious new hope in a post apocalyptic world. So what had to go, in order to keep it from being too preachy? Albert: It was more the things that the main character [Eli, Denzel Washington] should be saying, it could turn the audience off a bit, if they don't believe in that. The movie is not about that. So you want people to enjoy it, no matter what. And it's not about watering it down, it's just not that character. Advertisement Then why did you guys choose to have the book [that Eli carries across America and Gary Oldman's character covets aid him in ruling the world] be the Bible? Albert: That was there when we got the script. That was part of the attraction to it as well. It's incendiary sometimes, depending on what you believe and kind of appealing because of the controversy in that and how you look at that. And how the story is constructed around it. If you do it right, if it's handled right, and how the audience will respond. If it's handled wrong then that's a bad thing. And you felt it was handled right because they used the Bible? Albert: I think the first draft was great, it just needed to be nuanced that's all, because it's dealing with anything sacred. If you talk about anything sacred, you have handle it right. You can't just go in there and make a movie and be careless about it because you are stepping on people's beliefs. You can't go into something like that being silly about it, no matter what you believe. Advertisement Did you discuss using other religious texts? Like the Koran or maybe the Torah? What about another literary work like Thomas More's Utopia or a classic Plato text? Albert: No, we never thought about changing it. It was what it was when it came to us, and that was part of the appeal when it came to us. This book, which isn't revealed to be the Bible before you see the film, but is clearly noted as the Bible close to the beginning, is being described in the synopsis as a work that "provides knowledge that could redeem society, and the source of all their pain knowledge," what is that knowledge exactly, and how is that more important than knowledge of building an irrigation system, or medicine or anything survivalist? Advertisement Albert: It depends on what you believe. It could be about irrigation, if you want that kind of irrigation for your mind. Some people need to read to stimulate themselves. It could be that book or another book. That character [Eli] believes that he was told to take it somewhere. I can agree with the intent of that question, you know? But as a filmmaker, you have to believe in the story and that translation. If you're making Lord of The Rings, you have to believe in Middle Earth. If you are making Star Wars, you have to believe that there are spaceships up there going around in space, even though it's not reality. You have to believe in the mythology of that movie in order to do it. I'm just curious. For you, why was it more important to have a character carrying a book with a message of spirituality, versus a message of "This is how you purify water?" Albert: I would say it's the same thing nowadays. Why is it important that people are holding that book in such high regard, or thinking that it should be spoken from, or told to others as opposed to building a church talking about irrigation? You can pose that question to anybody in any time period, post-apocalypse or now, about any religious text, or any text of any sort. "Oh, it's more important to survive. We need food. So why not build churches about survival and food?" Advertisement So I guess you could say that any form of learning is a spiritual experience or should be? Albert: No, not really, I agree with your intent behind your question, I'm not trying to be vague. It depends on who the person is and what their want is. Let's say they found water. Then what? They may need to feed their soul, and then what? Let's talk about the other characters and their reaction to the book. The reason Gary Oldman wants the Bible so bad is because he believes it will help him rule, can you elaborate on that at all, or on his character's convictions? Why does he believe this will help him, what leads him to believe that? Advertisement Albert: Well I think if you applied it to nowadays, even misguided people who truly believe in one word over the other, think that their word is better than another person's word and they want to build a bomb and go run into a place and kill people. I think his character realizes how powerful that is. It's so powerful that it makes people even kill themselves over one word or one type of faith. His character says, "Ha, I've never seen anything that powerful that can move people to do things that are crazy, or move people to do things that are good." Depending on how you use that tool, which his character considers is a tool, you can either use it to manipulate in a good way or manipulate in a bad way, or not manipulate at all. In the movie they state that all the Bibles, and a lot of other religious texts, were burned after the "last great war," because many people believed that religion was a catalyst for this war. If religion didn't help the people of Eli's fictional past, why do you guys as filmmakers think it will help their future? Albert: You have some very deep, profound psychological questions there! You're applying logic to something that there is no logic in. That's part of my struggle. If you apply logic to a faith based religion — any of them — it will slowly start to fall apart. If you apply logic to Star Wars or Lord of The Rings, it will slowly start to fall apart. But if you go into it as a movie experience, as entertainment, [as] a mythology, and you don't look for the holes, and you go and believe then that's a different experience. But you're like me, I can tell by your questions. [Laughs] I can't even answer that. I can't answer some things in all of the movies that we've made. Ok, there's a good point in that. I wouldn't call it cynicism, because I'm a very cynical person, but there's that side of me where I say, "Well if it caused the problem then why do you think it's going to help anything?" Well there's those people that use it to cause problems and those that use it to solve problems. That's the only thing logically that I can say to myself to help me with that. Advertisement One of the great things about post-apocalyptic films, whether people want them to or not, they usually make some sort of social commentary about today's times, be it our dependence on oil, electricity, our dependance on paper currency. What do you think Eli is making a social commentary on? Albert: I think it's people and what people do. George Carlin had this great quote, "the concept of people is great, people just fuck it up." People with too much time on their hands, too much money in their hands and maybe too much religion on their hands can do some pretty sick and crazy things. And that goes for now and the future. For me personally, I come from the cynical side of things, [so] ... some of your questions are the same questions I had. So that's how I went into the movie, thinking like this. I've seen the posters of Eli with the words "deliver us" in the background and couldn't help but think of Moses... Advertisement Albert: There's a lot of that in there. That's marketing right there. I think they did a great job of marketing. Then there's the passings that came from Kung Fu. He's a monk but he's not preaching to people to act, he's preaching people more to be a pacifist. There are these great wanderers who impart wisdom — to us Eli was more of a pacifist. He's delivering certain information. Some people have brought up Moses before, because he's delivering certain information behind a certain faith or belief in something. But to us, he's more of a Monk. "I'm going here to do this, but if someone gets in my way I'm going to have to use violence but I'm not going to throw the first punch." And that was the sort of stuff we grew up with. Even Clint Eastwood's The Man With No Name, he wasn't looking to shoot somebody in the back. Somebody always brought it to him first. He's definitely not very religious, he sees someone get raped and murdered and doesn't do anything about it. Why have that duality — is it because he's only human or is this the state of a modern day prophet? Is Eli a modern-day prophet because he is flawed? Albert: You have some very deep, deep questions. No I wouldn't consider him that at all. No. I think it's more subtle and not so on the nose.The deal is I want people to go into the movie and read into it what they want to read into it. There are certain things that are ambiguous about certain questions that I have the answers to for myself, but I want the audience to make up their own minds on. You can't give the audience all the answers. Some people think you should, but you shouldn't, and that's what an audience should do, answer that question for themselves, not as the filmmaker. Through the years I've been more frustrated with director's commentaries and things like that, "why are we explaining a film, nobody had to explain films in the past." You shouldn't have to explain anything — poetry, art on the wall, a movie, whatever it is. You shouldn't have to explain yourself. But here I am, being a hypocrite. ALLEN HUGHES Allen, your brother mentioned that you brought him this script. Why did you want to make Eli? Advertisement Allen: It spoke to me because when I got to page 45 and Carnegie [Gary Oldman] said "this is not just a book, it's a weapon aimed at the hearts and minds of the weak and desperate. It will give us control," I said, Oh my God, what is this? There are certain things that are inexplicable I just knew in that moment that I had to do it. This is so important. There are things that I can't even articulate that this movie is doing, what it has to say about human beings. We all see things through our own emotional principles and disposition. Using that book — one of the biggest selling books of all times one of the greatest influences of other literature of all times as well — it just made it that much more impactful and powerful. Let's talk about that line. How is The Bible a weapon? Allen: Carnegie is just talking about bending humanity to his will, he knows how powerful those words are and he wants to be the ruler, he's not talking about physically killing people. He's not a bad guy in the traditional sense. He's trying to restore civility, for lack of a better word. He wants civilization to be civilized. And he's demented, obviously, and he's distorted and demented, he's delusional. But I think he's in it for the right reasons. Jim Jones was in it for the right reasons, and then thousands of people ended up dying from poisonous Kool-Aid. That's what happens with that shit. Doctors do it all the time, they get god complexes. I read an interview with you guys in Maxim, where it mentioned that a lot of audience members might think that this is Mad Max meets The Passion of Christ, and that that is a wrong assumption to make. Why? Advertisement Allen: Yeah I don't think that [describes] the movie at all. I don't believe you can even make comparisons. First of all, Passion of the Christ is an anomaly, it's a one all. That will never happen again. That was a situation that no one ever would have foresaw. I don't think you can compare any movie to that movie. Whether you loved it or it wasn't your cup of tea. As far as Mad Max, I prefer Road Warrior. Our movie has a bit of Road Warrior in it. Was it important to make Eli flawed? Allen: It was very important, if you are a believer or not. I can only speak to if someone is a human being and they are blessed, there's something about them that's magical. Whether it's Michael Jackson, or your neighbor that every time he comes out, certain birds appear. I don't know how to explain it. But the point is they both are human beings and have flaws. And if you don't show that, how would someone relate to them? Advertisement What had to be cut to keep this film from being overly evangelical? Allen: I think it's definitely very difficult to walk that line. Even with the music, if you play one note while he's talking about the Bible it can become very Christian. Music can do that alone. If you play it one way, it can be very corny [and] Christian. If you play it [a different] way, it can be very nondenominational or spiritual. So I went to test, and I made sure, sonically speaking, that the movie is about oneness. It's about accepting the common human spiritual condition. And let's not split hairs over who God is or what God is, we're all going to assume coming in, even non-believers, that there's something going on. There's some energy, life force or interconnectivity we all have. We're all related, we're human beings. I paid close attention, and Albert, to what we were editing out and putting in. And what you were hearing, and what you weren't. It is a dangerous walk, but I believe and I know in my heart it was the best hands it could have been in, because you can't buy us, and you can't make us do anything for money or politics. We're not going to move, unless something moves us. Advertisement What was the message of Eli? Allen: I think the bottom line is, these words, whatever the sacred text are, in our lives as human beings, it's precious. All of it's precious. The things that matter most — our water, our history, our lives, our families, our souls — it's all precious, and we need to get back to the elemental fundamental appreciation of that. Do you think Eli will be seen as a Christian movie? Allen: We specifically directed a movie to pitch you the way a book — like the Bible, or the Koran or the Torah, or any sacred words — that whatever you bring to it, that's what you're going to come out of it with. If you're that dogmatic about what your thoughts are about things and you want to have preconceived notions, then one will come out and say "this is a Christian movie," and they'll either be happy about it or be pissed about it. But if you're open minded and you sit back and watch it, maybe watch it again because there are so many subtle things that are happening that are worthy of a repeat viewing. I don't think you'll walk out with that feeling at all. |
In a last-ditch effort to save the troubled Green Line extension, leaders of two cities on the rail line said Thursday they’d contribute $75 million toward the project — just four days before transportation officials will meet on its fate. The offer from the cities of Somerville and Cambridge came as a regional transportation planning agency also took steps to shift $152 million that would have extended the rail line to Route 16 in Medford and instead spend that money on an earlier phase of the project that runs through Somerville. Together, the steps amounted to a bid to help salvage most of the 4.7-mile rail line, which has run up to $1 billion over budget. State transportation officials have threatened to pull the plug if that gap can’t be closed. The offers would still need to be approved by the two city councils. Advertisement “It became very clear to us that to have any shot of moving the Green Line forward, we’d have to make a significant contribution,” said Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, whose city is offering $50 million. “We didn’t come to this decision lightly.” Six of the seven planned Green Line stations would be located in Somerville. Get Metro Headlines in your inbox: The 10 top local news stories from metro Boston and around New England delivered daily. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here On Monday consultants hired by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation are set to present redesigned, scaled-down stations, contracting changes, and other plans aimed at reducing the cost of the now-$3 billion project. The boards of MassDOT and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s fiscal control board could then vote to approve the revised plan — or to kill the project altogether — perhaps as soon as Monday. Members of the fiscal control board — appointed last year by Governor Charlie Baker to help right the MBTA’s finances — did not return calls late Thursday. Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack praised the new contributions, which were hashed out over months of talks with city and state officials, but said little about the plan to be unveiled Monday. “MassDOT appreciates the collaboration by Cambridge, Somerville, and the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization throughout this process and looks forward to further discussion of the redesign and its cost with the boards next week,” she said in a statement. Advocates for the line — who have packed public meetings in recent weeks urging officials to find a solution that gets the project built — cheered the news, even as they acknowledged $75 million is a relative drop in the bucket. Advertisement “It’s a great vote of confidence, obviously. It puts more skin in the game for Somerville and Cambridge,” said Marc Ebuña, cofounder of Transit Matters, which backs the extension. But “it’s more of a gesture than it is necessarily going to [move] the project forward.” Others framed the move differently. State Representative Denise Provost, a Somerville Democrat and vocal supporter of the extension, said her understanding was that state officials gave the cities no choice but to pony up. “The Commonwealth has the power to hold the Green Line extension hostage,” she said. “You could view this as asking for ransom.” Either way, coupled with the $152 million that had been earmarked for the project’s final phase and could now be spent earlier, the money should be enough to make a meaningful difference, said Marc Draisen, executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. “That’s a significant chunk of change,” said Draisen, who’s also vice chairman of the MPO, which allocates federal transportation funding in the region. He said he was hopeful that the $152 million could eventually be replaced to fund the line all the way to Route 16. “We don’t have the final cost numbers yet, but I’m hoping the gap has been very, very substantially narrowed.” Advertisement The move is substantial in another way, Draisen notes. It’s a rare case in Massachusetts where local governments would help finance transportation projects — typically the domain of the state. With funding tight for both transit and road projects statewide, he said, it could be a way to help build more. And in this case Cambridge has another partner. The private developers who are building NorthPoint — a 42-acre complex of office, retail, and apartment buildings in East Cambridge that would house a new Lechmere Station — are in talks to foot some of Cambridge’s $25 million bill. “We will continue to work closely with them toward the completion of this essential infrastructure investment,” said Tom Sullivan, president of development for NorthPoint. And both state and city officials said they’ll continue to explore so-called “value capture” tools that would help governments raise money from new development along the line to help finance its construction. But those tools require state legislation that is moving much more slowly than MassDOT’s review of the overall project. Construction of the extension, planned for 25 years, was originally intended to be complete in 2011 — and then in 2015. Some work on the project has begun, but the new cost estimates threw everything into doubt. The offers from the two cities and the planning group are not set in stone. Both Curtatone and Cambridge City Manager Richard Rossi said they’re simply recommending the spending to their respective City Councils; any funds would need a vote. They’re still working out details such as timing and where, exactly, in their city budgets the money would come from. And the new plans and decisions to shift federal money would need more local votes and the OK of federal officials. But the top officials of the two cities that would benefit most from the Green Line Extension said they wanted to send a clear message — ahead of Monday’s meeting — that they’re willing to do what they can to help the project survive. “There’s a lot at stake for us,” Rossi said. “It’ll be quite devastating if this project goes down.” Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com . Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan |
I spent the years 1966-1971 in New Orleans, attending graduate school at Tulane University and organizing the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter there. It was the height of the movement against the Vietnam War. We had a city-wide chapter of SDS comprised mostly of non-students called Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), which published a monthly newsletter called The Midnight Special. All kinds of magazines and newsletters arrived in our MDS mailbox from abroad – China, Cuba, the Soviet Bloc countries, and from various fraternal movements. Even though the U.S. was bombing the smithereens out of Vietnam, it was not an officially declared war, so I suppose that’s why mail continued to come from there as well. One time a pamphlet from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam came through, which was Ho Chi Minh’s memoir of his early political education and activism when Indochina was still a French colony. As a young man Ho served in the merchant marine and traveled the world. He wrote that around 1919 his ship stopped in New Orleans, and he noticed from the local morning newspaper (the States-Item, perhaps?) that later that afternoon there would be a lynching of a Black man in a public square, to which everyone was invited. I couldn’t believe it! I mean, it might have been one thing if the paper had reported an event that had occurred the previous day, but to announce it in advance and basically say, “Y’all come on down!” was simply not credible to me, Being right there in New Orleans, I had the resources readily accessible to prove him wrong. I hopped on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar down to the main library where I could look at a microfiche of the newspaper of the date Ho had cited. Damned if he wasn’t perfectly right, date and all! Clearly he had clipped this article and kept it among his papers as reference for a future memoir that he might compose some day. He stated exactly what the newspaper said. I was shocked, and it offered me a powerful lesson in the history of our country reading about it approximately 50 years later. How recent these events! How deeply seared in living human memory! Ho Chi Minh died in 1969, while the war was still in progress, although the end of it in 1975, prolonged mercilessly though it was, could already be seen. The announcement of his death reminded me that he had taught me something sobering and disturbing about my own country. I imagined I might well be walking the streets of New Orleans with people who could have witnessed that lynching half a century before. It gave me further resolve to continue doing all I could to bring those sorry chapters to a close. Photo: Wikipedia (CC) |
Welcome to the ECS Electrochemistry Knowledge Base. This resource was created and is manually curated by Dr. Zoltan Nagy. He updates it regularly. An Introduction What is Electrochemistry? Electrochemical Science and Technology Information Resource (ESTIR) More than 1,000 links to websites of interest to electrochemists and to anyone interested in electrochemical topics. Listing of more than 3,000 books and proceedings volumes. Listing of more than 5,000 review chapters. Listing of more than 600 graduate schools (from more than 60 countries) where a student can study electrochemistry. Includes descriptions of research interests of the professor. Historic publications in electrochemistry available on the Internet. Popular science articles on electrochemical topics. Societies, journals, handbooks, nomenclature, meetings, etc. All the sections are continually kept updated. Electrochemistry Dictionary More than 1,000 simple and brief definitions of words and phrases used often in electrochemistry. New terms are still added occasionally. Crosslinked with the Encyclopedia for more detailed information. Electrochemistry Encyclopedia More than 40 popular-science style articles describing many aspects of electrochemistry, written by leading experts in the field. Many additional articles are presently in preparation; new articles are added at irregular intervals, and all articles are periodically updated as recent developments occur. Crosslinked with the Dictionary for definition of terms. |
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