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L'Oréal Blackett speaks to Survivors Manchester about their distressing research "WHEN you feel less of a man why would you want to tell anyone that?" asks Duncan Craig, CEO of Survivors Manchester, a vital initiative which provides support for men and boys who’ve been victims of sexual abuse. “Sexual abuse attacks the very idea of your own masculinity or maleness. Why are people surprised that for many boys it’s hard to speak out and it takes years?” It’s a question which reveals a troubling truth; taboo, stigma, humiliation, jaded views on masculinity all play a part in silencing male victims of sexual abuse. It comes as no surprise that society is largely unaware that women aren’t the only victims of this crime. Survivors Manchester’s recent research that one in six men has had abusive sexual experiences before the age of eighteen, is as startling as it is distressing. The results, taken from various sexual health charities including the Office Of National Statistics, suggest that over 3 million men and boys have been victims of sexual abuse and violence in the UK. Survivors Manchester also believe that due to the number of unreported assault cases this figure could be much higher. The findings were revealed during Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week (6 – 12 February), a social media scheme which aimed to encourage open conversation about sexual abuse. For Duncan Craig and Survivors Manchester, it provided a much-needed platform to talk about men’s experiences within this difficult subject, as well as encourage more men to seek support. “Sexual abuse affects us all, regardless of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, economic status or disability. The statistics around the number of victims are high and worryingly understood to be even higher,” says Duncan. Why are people seemingly oblivious to sexual violence against men? “There are a whole number of reasons why people aren’t aware about the number of men suffering; from the charity awareness campaigns, media stories, to government initiatives, that all tend to only focus on women. As a result, we then don’t engage in the much-needed conversations that could help bring awareness and encourage more men to seek support.” One in five women in the UK has experienced sexual violence and women are still predominantly the main recipients of abuse. Of the 78,000 rape cases committed in this country each year, roughly 9,000 are male victims. While there is a disparity in the number of reported cases, remaining blinkered to men’s experiences with abuse is damaging to vulnerable men. |
Jack Barnes, the notoriously hotheaded Men’s Rights Activist and longtime contributor to A Voice for Men, has escalated his attacks on me. In a post on AVFM, Barnes addressed me directly: I’m a junkyard dog with no owner and no collar. … Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you shouldn’t piss off a redheaded country boy from the backwoods of Tennessee? I promise you David that for the rest of your life there will be nights you cry yourself to sleep in anger and frustration over me. In a followup post on TwitLonger, someone claiming to be Barnes — and it seems abundantly clear that it is in fact him — threatened to drive from Tennessee to Chicago to confront me in a face to face in person discussion … No cops. No lawyers or prosecutors. No judges. No jury. No hiding behind a computer. Just me and you. … I don’t know of any parent that would blame me for stomping a mud hole in your fucking ass and walking that motherfucker dry for what you have done! What I have done is, in fact, nothing — nothing beyond letting the world know of some of the disturbing things Barnes has posted online. But as Barnes sees it, I am responsible for putting his family in danger. How? Well, not long ago, someone apparently doxed Barnes, posting personal information about Barnes and his family on Twitter. Of course, I had nothing to do with the doxing and only learned about it later from an AVFM video. I don’t know who did it, and I have publicly condemned it several times. I will condemn it again, right here: the doxing of Jack Barnes and his family was wrong and a deeply shitty thing to do; whoever did it is a shithead and no friend of mine. But Barnes is convinced one of my “cult followers” did the deed and bluntly warns me that ” I hold you personally responsible for this occurring.” Even though I did not dox him, don’t know who doxed him, did not tell anyone to dox him, and have publicly denounced doxing in general and the doxing of Barnes and his family specifically. The TwitLonger post declares: You have crossed a line David. This is no longer about the MHRM vs feminism. This is no longer about AVFM, which I have no affiliation with, and your website. This is no longer about Paul Elam publisher of AVFM vs you as publisher of your website. You have made this personal. This is now about me vs you. I don’t care that your little cult follower doxxed me. But when he/she doxxed my wife and little girl it became personal. The author of the TwitLonger post, almost certainly Barnes himself, says that he will only come to Chicago for the promised “face to face in person discussion” if his family members come to harm. But I do not have the luxury of seeing the threats as conditional ones. There are no conditions listed when he writes: I don’t know of any parent that would blame me for stomping a mud hole in your fucking ass and walking that motherfucker dry for what you have done! Hell, I bet even Gondi would be like “he did what to you family? Fuck him up! He is not saying that he would only be justified in “stomping a mud hole in [my] fucking ass” if something were to happen to his family; he is saying he is justified in doing so now. Because some person who is not me, and who is unknown to me, did something I only found out about later and that I have publicly denounced. And a possible “stomping” is not all I have to worry about: in his AVFM post, Barnes made sure I know that he live[s] in a state with more guns than people, where a side arm is as common as a cell phone and where it is legal for 10yr olds to hunt with high powered rifles and without adult supervision. So I can only assume that if he ever decides to pay me an unwanted visit he will be armed. The author of the TwitLonger post — almost certainly Barnes — declares that his obvious threats against me are not in fact threats but “simply a statement of fact.” I think any reasonable person reading these posts would see them as clear threats, and I am treating them as such. And it is plainly obvious to me that Barnes intends to terrorize me into silence with his threats — as his “promise” on AVFM that “for the rest of your life there will be nights you cry yourself to sleep” thinking about him makes abundantly clear. His threats are consistent with the threatening language he uses against feminists online, particularly on Twitter, which are clearly intended to shut his opponents up. As he put it in one notorious Tweet @GamingMattersUS @femfreq "harassing" will continue and accelerate. We're not going to stop until no one will openly admit to being feminist — Jack Barnes (@Jackbarnesmra) January 26, 2015 Adding to the surreality of this all, Barnes and his allies at A Voice for Men are so committed to their bizarre caricature of me as some kind of cartoon supervillain that they not only blame me for things I haven’t done but for not doing things that I have done. In this case, their eyes seem to have blurred over when they’ve come across the things I’ve written condemning the doxing. In his AVFM post, Barnes wrote that while other feminists had denounced the doxing, there was one person who has remain eerily silent about all this. That person is David Futrelle. Seems odd since all of this doxxing was done to avenge him. There is not a peep from Futrelle about this on his site or on social media anywhere that I could find. As a parent I know my kid is up to no good when she is quiet. Wonder if the same goes for adults (assuming the word applies)? In fact, I had condemned the doxing two days earlier in a post that Barnes has publicly acknowledged reading. On Twitter, AVFM’s “Chief Public Relations Officer” Suzy McCarley did Barnes one better, somehow managing to miss my denunciation of the doxing in a Tweet of mine that she was literally quoting at the time, leading to this rather surrealistic exchange: It is almost as if they are so committed to seeing me as a monster that they cannot handle it when reality defies their expectations. Another longtime AVFM supporter, so-called “Honey Badger” Hannah Wallen, has added a decidely Kafkaesque series of Tweets to the Twitter dogpile, including one that puzzled me greatly until she explained her “logic” in more detail: Reading "If you X, I'll Y" as "I'm gonna Y!" = admitting to planning X. What have you planned to do, doxing Dave? https://t.co/93hT4Dlsaj — H*nnah W*llen (@Oneiorosgrip) November 9, 2015 Eventually, I was able to understand that she was taking my concern over Barnes’ threats … as proof that I was planning to harm his family. She explained her “logic” in a blog post I discovered later. Utterly ignoring my denunciations of the doxing, and of doxing in general, she declared that if i didn’t immediately “admit”that my worries about Barnes’ threats were “a completely irrational overreaction to being held responsible for the effects of his dishonest shit stirring on his followers” I was essentially admitting that I was planning some sort of attack on Barnes’ family: [H]is current response indicates .. that he intends for harm to come Jack’s family as a result of his shit stirring, that he DOES encourage his readers to engage in this type of behavior, and that he DOES intend for one or more of his readers to respond to his writing by engaging in violence against HIS political opponents. After all, “If X, then Y” only infers Y on the condition of X… so responding to “If you X, then I’ll Y” as if the individual has only stated “I’m going to Y” is an admission that you’ve planned on X happening. This, I have to admit, is pretty ingenious. Kafka would be proud. But just in case anyone thinks there is anything to Wallen’s sophistry: I do not support doxing in general, and have made this clear on numerous occasions. I did not, do not, will not support the doxing of Jack Barnes or his family, nor do I have the slightest idea who did it. I do not “intend … for harm to come [to] Jack’s family” or to him. (Indeed, I don’t even know where they live; not only did I have nothing to do with the doxing of Barnes and his family, I didn’t even know about it until after the doxing tweets were deleted.) I do not support violence against my political opponents. All of this is obvious to anyone who actually reads what I write on this blog without their perceptions distorted by MRA-induced prejudice or preconceptions. That said, I will not apologize for taking Barnes’ threats seriously. Nor will I apologize for exposing misogynistic Men’s Rights activists to the light of day — not by “shit stirring” or engaging in Wallen-esque sophistry, but by quoting their own words and reporting their real deeds. And when people harass and threaten me — whether that’s Barnes, those at AVFM who have aided and abetted his threats, or anyone else — I will take every legal step I feel is necessary for my safety and the safety of others. This post is one of those steps. Share this: Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Email More Google Pinterest LinkedIn Pocket Print Like this: Like Loading... |
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images RELATED: Sonoma Raceway issues statement on North Bay fires SONOMA, Calif. (Oct. 10, 2017) – Sonoma Raceway will open its 50 Acres campground to evacuees seeking temporary refuge from the Northern California fires. The raceway, which is equipped to handle up to 2,000 campers during its major event weekends, will open its largest campground to evacuees in RVs beginning this afternoon. The 50 Acres campground is located directly across from the raceway on Highway 121 and has not been affected by the fires. Those in need of RV camping at Sonoma Raceway should enter the campground at Gate 6 on Highway 121, a quarter-mile north of Highway 37. The raceway will team up with United Site Services to offer basic RV services, including water/sewage service, to campers during their stay. The campground is dry with no hookups. For on-site assistance or directions, visit the Sonoma Raceway main office or front gate at 29355 Arnold Dr. in Sonoma. For more information, contact Sonoma Raceway at 800-870-7223 or email sonomaraceway@sonomaraceway.com. |
Same politician is under investigation over claims of child sex abuse over many years By Tim Wood and Alex Varley-Winter | 4 September 2015 “He believes that the MP is going to kill him” – Conservative MP Detectives are investigating a senior Labour figure over allegations that he has been charging constituents to represent them as an MP. It forms part of the police investigation, as reported in July, into claims of child sex abuse against the same MP. A Conservative MP, who asked not to be named, went to police after hearing a series of claims from what he says are independent witnesses against his colleague in the House of Commons. The Conservative MP told Exaro: “I believe that this man is totally corrupt, and I believe that he is also a paedophile.” “I have spoken to a lot of people about him, and individually they have all given me different pieces of the jigsaw. I want a very bad man out of Parliament. Everybody thinks that he is a complete crook.” Exaro first learnt of the police investigation in June from a well-connected source close to officers on the case. The source said that the Labour MP, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had sexually abused two teenagers, who had since attempted suicide and have been receiving treatment at a mental-health unit. The Sun on Sunday and Mail on Sunday, separately from Exaro, ran stories in July to say that two MPs had reported the Labour politician to police over allegations of child sex abuse. He is accused of preying on boys, and having a liking for “young ragamuffins”. Exaro can reveal that the police investigation into the Labour MP is more wide-ranging than originally reported. The Conservative MP said that police were also investigating allegedly corrupt councillors as part of the case. “The constituents pay the councillors, and there is a crooked MP at the top. He charges for stuff that MPs do as part of their normal job for their constituents.” He understood this to include charging for casework, he said. The MP added: “Someone is protecting him, and there is no appetite in Parliament for the issue of child sex abuse. When you start talking about it you quickly find that you have not got any mates. I do not detect an appetite for anyone to help me on this.” Police were investigating allegations that the Labour MP had, for more than a decade, been sexually abusing boys, he said. His information was that one of those abused had attempted suicide. The MP was driven to go to the police, he said, when he heard that one of those allegedly abused by the Labour MP was in fear of his life. “He believes that the MP is going to kill him. I found that chilling. How could I live with myself if someone was murdered? That is why I went to the police.” He drew a parallel with the scandal at the BBC over Jimmy Savile, the late television and radio star. “This has all the hallmarks of the Savile scandal. Everybody knows what a bad man he is, but he is still there,” he said. The police force that is carrying out the investigation would make no comment. Westminster has been besieged with claims of child sex abuse over many years by politicians and other public figures, and of a long-running cover-up. Last week, Harvey Proctor, former Conservative MP, called a press conference to angrily deny allegations against him of child abuse, torture and murder, which the Metropolitan Police Service is investigating under ‘Operation Midland’. And on Tuesday, Exaro revealed the existence of confidential files on alleged sexual offences by members of the House of Lords. Related Stories : Child sex abuse, ‘Fernbridge’ and ‘Fairbank’: Exaro story thread |
Campaigners hoping to create a fifth Welsh region say they have received an invitation to present their case to the Welsh Rugby Union. Plans to create a fan-owned side called Valleys Rugby were launched in March, headed by Pontypridd MP Owen Smith. The aim is to join the Pro12 League for the 2013-14 season, financed by fan subscription and commercial sponsors. A spokesman said they hope to meet WRU chief executive Roger Lewis over the coming weeks. Media playback is not supported on this device Can Wales support a fifth region? "We are grateful that the WRU's Roger Lewis, Steve Phillips and others are taking our proposal seriously, in the manner in which was intended, and look forward to expanding on our vision when we meet in the near future," said Nigel Greenaway. "Valleys Rugby has been massively encouraged by the response we have received in the few weeks since we launched, and we remain ever more certain that the Valleys must be represented once more at the top-table of Welsh rugby. "The success of Valleys teams, Cross Keys, Glyncoch, Penallta and Pontypridd over the weekend - and the magnificent performances by Ebbw Vale and Newbridge - all bear testament to the strength of Valleys Rugby and the imperative that it takes its rightful place once more in the elite of the Welsh game." The business plan for Valleys Rugby is to raise £1m a year through subscriptions from 10,000 people at £100 per person. They are also hoping for financial support from the WRU to develop infrastructure and recruit players. Pontypridd's Sardis Road, earmarked for major redevelopment, would host 50% of the home games, but the region would also look to play in Bridgend, Neath, Pontypool, Ebbw Vale, Caerphilly, Merthyr and Colwyn Bay in north Wales. |
A federal judge has ruled that Trump National Jupiter Golf Club in Florida will pay just under $6 million to some members who were denied access to the club, Politico reported. The judge found that the club violated its contracts by holding deposits from members on a "resignation waiting list." Those members were denied access to the club. The members who took part in the class-action lawsuit claimed membership rules were altered when now-President Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE took over the club in 2012 and contracts were violated, according to CNNMoney. ADVERTISEMENT Brad Edwards, the attorney for the former members, said the club was ordered to pay more than $4.8 million in damages and almost $1 million in interest, the amount the plaintiffs requested. The club "created their own contorted reading of a contract that allowed them to avoid the refundability of the deposits," he said. The Trump Organization’s lawyer, Alan Garten, told the news outlet the decision will be appealed. "The members who resigned were all members under Ritz-Carlton who resigned prior to Trump taking ownership. Trump purchased the club from Ritz and effectively saved it because it was in financial ruin. Notwithstanding the foregoing, we disagree with the judge's ruling and intend to appeal it," said Garten. Trump owns the club, but was not a defendant in the suit. |
From the Sydney Morning Herald of 3rd June, this report by Andrew Darby: Once routine, now often thought unkind, the cut may also be illegal. Parental consent might not be enough to protect the circumcisers of baby boys from later legal action. In a rare legal analysis of the medical procedure, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute found that criminal and civil law lacked certainty, and may abuse the rights of a child. … Quoting the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute’s paper Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision, Darby reports: The institute’s paper, “Non-Therapeutic Male Circumcision”, found that the consequences of an ill-advised procedure could be particularly grave. “Even if a court considers the physical loss following circumcision negligible, the social and psychological effects of a wrong decision can be devastating.” The institute said in law the operation might be considered an assault or a wounding, though there was little legal guidance on whether a routine circumcision was injurious. “There is uncertainty as to whether the consent of a parent for the circumcision of their child is sufficient to allow a circumciser to legally perform the procedure,” it said. OII Australia wishes to see ‘normalising’ genital surgery and hormone treatment of intersex newborns without their consent declared a criminal act. It, too, abuses the rights of the child, is for cosmetic purposes. We regard it as non-therapeutic. |
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has praised the loyalty of the club's fans Brendan Rodgers: Has thanked the Liverpool fans for their continuing support The Reds are yet to claim three points at home in the Premier League under Rodgers this season, while they have only won two league games on their own turf in 2012. They enter the international break 14th in the standings after Sunday's goalless draw with Stoke and the manager has hailed fans for their ongoing support despite testing times. He told the Daily Star: "This is a club that has only won two Premier League games at Anfield this calendar year and it's been nearly a year since the club has won consecutive Premier League games. "So to still get the support and backing of the supporters with that type of record, there are not many clubs who'd get that." Sunday's encounter saw six Stoke players booked but Rodgers refused to condemn their physical approach. He said: "They're a bunch of big men who make it difficult for you. There's no right or wrong way to play football. "They choose to play a totally different type of game. "But what I was proud of was that our young guys stood up to that and we coped while still trying to play our game." |
Jose araujo JUL 27, 2017 Roger, what would be the difference between spending Debt base money and equity base money? Still can't figure the difference... and I still have not found any theory that factors debt on economic development. Hi Jose, The main point of Werners is that In Germany lots of small banks evenly distributed across Germany mean that locally Small and Medium Enterprises have access to the Capital they need in a symmetric system which is very Robus. Highly centralised Banking models lead to asymmetric risk profiles and lack of skin in the game leads eventually to moral hazard becoming a trivial consideration ( To Big to fail , To big to Jail.`` Werner does not go into the differences between Debt based and credit based money but it does make a difference. The point which Werner does raise and that is relevant here iuis that Banking is extractive of value and not additive, this presents the Statistatic ians caluclating GDP a value added measure witrh a problem because the FInancial Services Sector as a profit centre does nothing to add to real wealth. On the question of Usury, or the usury Mistake, my views on this are aligned with Bernard Leitaer and his parable of the 11th round, creating money through making loans without creating the interest element to pay for the loans adds competition for money into the System which serves only to commodity money when its real benefit to a market system is to function as an accounting device. I think Carol Quigley statement Money and Goods are different from Tragedy and Hope makes this point pretty well. Money and Goods Are Different ”Thus, clearly, money and goods are not the same thing but are, on the contrary, exactly opposite things. Most confusion in economic thinking arises from a failure to recognise this fact. Goods are wealth which you have, while money is a claim on wealth which you do not have. Thus goods are an asset; money is a debt. If goods are wealth; money is not wealth, or negative wealth, or even anti-wealth. They always behave in opposite ways, just as they usually move in opposite directions. If the value of one goes up, the value of the other goes down, and in the same proportion.” The Relationship Between Goods and Money Is Clear to Bankers In the course of time the central fact of the developing economic system, the relationship between goods and money, became clear, at least to bankers. Thisrelationship, the price system, depended upon five things: the supply and the demand for goods, the supply and the demand for money, and the speed of exchange between money and goods. An increase in three of these (demand for goods, supply of money, speed of circulation) would move the prices of goods up and the value of money down. This inflation was objectionable to bankers, although desirable to producers and merchants.On the other hand, a decrease in the same three items would be deflationary and would please bankers, worry producers and merchants, and delight consumers (who obtained more goods for less money). The other factors worked in the opposite direction, so that an increase in them (supply of goods, demand for money, and slowness of circulation or exchange) would be deflationary.” http://letthemconfectsweeterlies.blogspot.se/2016/02/usury-hells-fuel-and-mans-oppressor.html With respect to the difference when money supply continues to expand because Banks continue to make sufficient loans to maintain velocity of money sufficient in the system to allow sufficient time for all debtors to meet their interest payments there is not a problem, When the level of loans reduces to the Point where velocity of money slows as hoarding of money becomes "Prudent" the problems of the difference between Debt based money at interest and Credit based money shows up radically, these events are Known as Recessions, but are baked into the debt based money cake. Here is a link to Lietaers Parable of the 11th round. http://www.lietaer.com/2010/09/the-story-of-the-11th-round/ http://www.lietaer.com/2010/09/effects-of-interest-based-currencies/ Three Main Effects. Encouragement of Competition Need for endless growth The concentration of Wealth. For a most detailed empirical view of the problems of Usury based monetary creation systems Helmuth Kreutz is I believe the Leading researcher in the field, Kreutz money syndrome and other important monetary texts are included and embedded at this link. http://theconquestofdough.weebly.com/some-important-texts.html |
TV Reviews All of our TV reviews in one convenient place. Major Lazer Major Lazer Major Lazer B Major Lazer Major Lazer B B Major Lazer Season 1 Created by Diplo, Ferry Gouw, Kevin Kusatsu (developed for television by Nick Weidenfeld) Starring Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, J.K. Simmons, John Boyega, Angela Trimbur, James Adomian Debuts Thursday, April 16, at midnight Eastern on FXX Format Quarter-hour animated series.. Three episodes watched for review An animated series inspired by electronic act Major Lazer has been a long time coming. The group’s G.I. Joe-esque avatar previously proved his star power in videos for “Hold The Line” and “Get Free,” and talk of the Major’s move to TV dates back as far as 2011. In 2015, Major Lazer enters FXX’s recently relocated Animation Domination block with a built-in mythology, an established archnemesis (General Rubbish, voiced here with diabolical relish by James Adomian) and two (soon to be three) albums of musical interludes at the ready. That’s the foundation for a late-night cartoon that enters the scene with all the poise and fearlessness of a protagonist who has a ray gun where his right forearm should be. Advertisement In a Jamaican dystopia ruled by aristocratic grump President Whitewall (J.K. Simmons at his J. Jonah Jameson-growliest), Major Lazer (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) leads the resistance effort with the assistance of Whitewall’s daughter, Penny (Angela Trimbur), and hacker whiz kid Blkmrkt (John Boyega). Their adversaries include vacationing vampires, monstrous strains of ganja, and a codeine-fueled supervillain with the voice and signature facial hair of Mad Decent signee Riff Raff. But conflict—and the explosion-filled fight sequences that follow it—is mostly a third-act concern for Major Lazer. In the grand tradition of Inspector Gadget or Ruby-Spears’ Mister T cartoon, the superhero’s young sidekick drives most of the action here, setting up the villainous pins that Major Lazer knocks down. The cast is strong and the structure solid (if familiar), but Major Lazer’s graphic and sonic palettes are stronger. Though it riffs on one of the crudest periods in TV animation, Major Lazer remixes the chunky outlines, washed-out colors, and fantastical content of ’80s Saturday-morning fare into something that’s psychedelic on purpose. It looks like ThunderCats or the Filmation Ghostbusters, but feels like a midnight movie. The show’s official Animation Domination debut, “Bad Seed,” flows lucidly from one mini-music video to the next, as Penny’s black-light-poster-come-to-life bad trip slams into Major Lazer’s own, considerably chiller “high-atus.” The demise of the week’s botanical foe is a foregone conclusion (turns out he doesn’t stand up to heat very well), but damn if Major Lazer doesn’t look great getting there. That sort of visual inventiveness has become Animation Domination’s calling card: The soft-focus-storybook aesthetic of the block’s Stone Quackers makes it TV’s most enticing late-night idyll, no matter its characters’ bad behavior. Major Lazer takes the look and feel of shows whose only saving grace is nostalgia and soups them up into a compulsively watchable and knowingly whacked-out midnight snack. It took a while to get here, but the care that went into Major Lazer is evident in every sinister shadow splashed across Whitewall’s face and every zig-zag reflection in Lazer’s sunglasses. |
Producers Keith Kjarval and Gary Schultz talk about looking forward to collaborating with Yelchin on his writing-directing debut, "Travis." Anton Yelchin’s tragic death Sunday came just three weeks before the 27-year-old actor was set to start shooting his directorial debut, “Travis,” which he also wrote. The crime thriller was scheduled to start production on July 11 in what Yelchin called “the lonely landscape of the San Fernando Valley,” said his friend and collaborator Keith Kjarval, a producer on the movie. Callum Turner was set to play the title character alongside co-stars Alia Shawkat and Milla Jovovich. The film centered on an actor and amateur photographer who witnesses the murder of a young woman after following her back to her apartment. READ MORE: Anton Yelchin Dead at 27: ‘Star Trek’ Actor Dies in ‘Freak Accident’ “We were calling it a voyeuristic crime thriller,” Kjarval said. “It was neo-noir, very urgent in morality, like a Dardennes brothers film.” Marilyn Manson was in talks to do the score for the movie, which was going to be shot by director of photography Sean Price Williams (“Heaven Knows What”). “The patient exploration of the moments where we are the most human is what Anton was interested in with this film,” Kjarval said. “It was a deeply personal film and I’m convinced it would have been one of many films he directed.” “Travis” would have been the third collaboration between Yelchin and Kjarval, who produced 2015’s “The Driftless Area” and 2014’s “Rudderless.” Yelchin named the lead character in his directorial debut after Robert De Niro’s character Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” Yelchin’s favorite film. “I know for sure that this film was going to reveal the undeniable and indisputable fact that Anton is a very rare and exceptionally gifted artist,” Kjarval said. “The amount of research and photography and art that he was pouring into this film was inspiring.” For producer Gary Schultz, who co-produced “The Driftless Area” and “Rudderless” and was also working on “Travis,” Yelchin’s future as an actor-director seemed inevitable. “A lot of the time when actors say they’re going to direct a movie, you kind of roll your eyes, but with Anton, he was such a student of film that I just assumed someday he would,” Schultz said. “He had such an interest in storytelling.” Yelchin’s passion for acting allowed him to be one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, taking role after role with little or no break between jobs. “Anton was always really into the way the old studio actors would work on four, five, or six movies a year, going from project to project, just immersing themselves,” Schultz said. “That’s why he had such a big body of work at 27.” READ MORE: Walter Koenig, ‘Star Trek’s’ Original Chekov, Remembers Anton Yelchin as a ‘Gifted Performer’ and ‘Good Person’ Yelchin was also obsessive about film history, watching two to three films per day at times, according to Kjarval. “When he becomes interested in something, he immerses himself in it and becomes somewhat of an expert in it,” Kjarval said. “The thing that he loved most was film and cinema.” On the day Yelchin died, Kjarval spoke to him on the phone about his plans to watch a Gaspar Noé movie as a part of his research for “Travis.” “He said, ‘There are a couple of shoes that I remember a character wearing that I think I want Callum to wear in this film,'” Kjarval said. “That’s kind of Anton. He had such a meticulous vision for the things he was interested in and the stories he wanted to tell.” Read on for a tribute to Yelchin written by producer Keith Kjarval. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. |
Netanyahu gives military ‘full backing’ over raid OTTAWA  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his “full backing” Monday to Israel’s military forces after a raid on a flotilla carrying aid to the Gaza Strip, which left up to 19 people dead. “The prime minister… reiterated his full backing for the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) and inquired about the well being of the wounded,” his office told AFP in Ottawa. Netanyahu was meeting Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper ahead of a high-profile visit to Washington on Tuesday, where he is due to hold talks with President Barack Obama. Up to 19 people aboard a flotilla of ships carrying aid for the Gaza Strip were killed earlier Monday when Israeli navy commandos stormed the vessels in international waters. The incident prompted a wave of international condemnation, as Israel said it was forced to board the ships to uphold its blockade of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet Obama on Tuesday in their first face-to-face talks since a frosty White House meeting in March that was viewed by many as an attempt to humiliate Netanyahu in the wake of a spat over settlements. The Jerusalem Post reports, “Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a press conference on Monday that while he was sorry for lives lost, the organizers of the Gaza-bound protest flotilla were solely responsible for the outcome of the fatal IDF raid earlier in the day. Fifteen activists were killed and dozens wounded in the violent clashes.” Barak said that the soldiers tried to disperse the activists aboard the ship peacefully but were forced to open fire to protect themselves. He called the flotilla a provocation, specifically called the IHH, an Islamic aid organization, “extremist supporters of terror.” The defense minister also called on Arab and Palestinian leaders not to let this “provocation by irresponsible people” ruin the progress made in proximity peace talks. The paper notes that IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi claimed Monday that “the Mavi Marmara, the only ship on which violence took place, was different than the other five ships of the flotilla. He said that five ships carried humanitarians and peace activists but the Mavi Marmara was sponsored by the extremist organization the IHH and those aboard acted in ‘extreme violence.'” Israeli Navy commander Vice-Admiral Eliezer Marom said Monday that IDF soldiers that raided Mavi Marmara acted with “perseverance and bravery.” A wires compilation at The National adds, Meanwhile, the Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas slammed the raid as “a massacre”. “We consider this to be a massacre and we condemn it,” an official from Abbas’ office said on Palestinian television, announcing a three-day mourning period. “We will have to take some difficult decisions this evening.” Hamas immediately urged Arabs and Muslims to “rise up” in front of Israeli embassies across the globe in protest against the raid on the fleet of aid ships, among them Turkish vessels. “We call on all Arabs and Muslims to rise up in front of Zionist embassies across the whole world,” said a Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, using the Arabic word ‘intifada’. …. The Vatican voiced “deep sadness” over the Israeli raid on the flotilla. The Holy See feels “deep sadness and concern” over the pre-dawn storming of the aid flotilla in which up to 19 pro-Palestinian activists were killed, a Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said. (with additional reporting by Raw Story) |
LUGAR TO GOP: ‘PLEASE DO YOUR DUTY FOR YOUR COUNTRY’…. The pending arms control treaty with Russia, New START, has no greater Republican champion than Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana. Lugar, the former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has long been Congress’ most respected and most credible GOP voice on international affairs, and his unyielding support for the measure should carry considerable weight in Republican circles. What I find especially interesting this week, however, has been Lugar’s willingness to raise the volume of that voice. On Wednesday, the mild-mannered-to-a-fault senator appeared at a press conference alongside Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), and was surprisingly animated about the importance of ratification. Yesterday, Lugar appeared on MSNBC, and again made his case in a more forceful way than is usually expected of him. “Please do your duty for your country,” Lugar said in a message to his colleagues. “We do not have verification of the Russian nuclear posture right now. We’re not going to have it until we sign the START treaty. We’re not going to be able to get rid of further missiles and warheads aimed at us. “I state it candidly to my colleagues, one of those warheads … could demolish my city of Indianapolis — obliterate it! Now Americans may have forgotten that. I’ve not forgotten it and I think that most people who are concentrating on the START treaty want to move ahead to move down the ladder of the number of weapons aimed at us.” Urging Republicans to “do their duty” for their country is good advice. If only they weren’t so inclined to place party over patriotism. Watching Lugar this week, it seems the quiet, reserved senior senator is just frustrated. I don’t know Lugar personally, but seeing his passion on New START, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s noticing that he seems to be the only Republican senator on the Hill who isn’t afraid to put our national security needs over petty, partisan nonsense. For the record, on the vast majority of the major issues of the day, I completely disagree with Lugar’s positions. The way in which he’s conducted himself during this debate, however, is a reminder that Lugar may be well to my right, but he tends to conduct himself in an honorable way. Congress would be a less infuriating institution if we could say the same about his Republican colleagues. |
Twenty years ago this month, Shaquille O'Neal, 24 years old and already poised to become one of the most dominant forces in NBA history, left the Orlando Magic to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Looking back, it was perhaps the most significant free agent signing ever. In any sport. Never before, and at no time since, has a single free agent's decision so definitely destroyed one potential dynasty while, at once, birthing another, and even that fails to capture the full impact of this move. The day Shaq went to L.A., the entire NBA landscape shifted in a way that is still being felt today. And I still can't believe it happened. Back in 1996, I was working as a consultant with Shaq's agent, Leonard Armato, who was my former boss before I went on my own to help form another agency. This consultant position gave me a front-row seat for probably the most botched negotiation on the part of an NBA team that I can recall in my 16-year career in the athlete representation business. There is no way Orlando should've lost O'Neal. Everything was stacked in its favor to keep him. Well, everything except for one very specific, very unexpected change to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which was all the opening the Lakers needed to ultimately lure Shaq by way of probably the single-most brilliant salary-cutting measure the NBA has ever seen. We'll get to that. For now, let's focus on the Magic, because this was their negotiation to lose, and man did they lose in a big way. I was there through the whole thing. In the meetings. On the calls. I still have many of my files. And I still shake my head when I look at them. Magic drop the ball early Initially, almost all of our internal discussions focused on Shaq staying with Orlando. As mentioned, they simply had more to offer Shaq than anyone else, not just for their ability to offer him the keys to a budding dynasty with a potential Hall-of-Fame wingman in Penny Hardaway, but more specifically, and perhaps more importantly, the fact that they could offer him the most money. In 1996, there was no maximum salary provision in the CBA. There was a salary cap, $24.3 million to be exact, but no max salary and no luxury tax penalty (both were products of the 1998 lockout). This is important. This meant that Orlando -- which owned Shaq's Bird rights and could thus exceed the cap to re-sign its own player, while everyone else had to get him under the cap which in many cases meant a full roster gutting -- could've thrown a blank check at Shaq (and not even incurred the luxury tax they would today) and, I believe, ended the negotiation before it started. But they didn't do that. Instead, they lowballed him. Almost offensively so. There are some aspects of Shaq's free agency that I remember like they happened yesterday, and that initial offer is one of them -- $54 million over four years with none of the yearly salaries specified, a far cry from the seven-year, $105 million deals Alonzo Mourning and Juwan Howard, both appreciably inferior players, had just received from the Miami Heat and Washington Bullets, respectively. But that wasn't even the worst part. OK, fine, so the Magic offered $13.5 million per year with no opt-out and Shaq wanted something closer to $20 million per year with an opt-out after year three. It's a low offer, but not the first time two sides have been far apart in initial negotiations. The more baffling part of the call, and I'll never forget this, was that the Magic, I guess in an attempt to create some kind of leverage, actually criticized O'Neal's rebounding and defense. Are you kidding me? When you have a player of Shaq's caliber, a guy who in his first four years in the league had already won Rookie of the Year and a scoring title, been named to the All-NBA team three times, been a runner-up for league MVP and led Orlando to the Finals after knocking off Michael Jordan, not to mention made a habit of doing things like this ... Shaq Breaking The Backboard Vs New Jersey Nets #ShaquilleONealhttps://t.co/Hm3pscLxt6 - Gustavo Vega (@iamvega1982) April 15, 2016 ... you tell that guy he's the greatest thing since sliced bread. You bend over backwards to get a deal done with him. Instead, the Magic decided it was a good time to criticize major parts of Shaq's game? Never mind that Shaq averaged more rebounds per game during his four years with Orlando (12.5) than he did in his eight years with the Lakers (11.8). That's not the point. It's the principle. The respect factor. Can you imagine the Thunder going into their meeting with Kevin Durant and saying, "Yeah, Kevin, you're a great scorer and all, but about that ball-handling and defense ..." That's nuts. But that was the tone Orlando set for this negotiation. The Magic didn't seem to appreciate that Shaq was a franchise-altering talent, even though he had already completely altered theirs. The 1996 free-agent class was star-studded -- future Hall of Famers Jordan, Mourning, Dikembe Mutombo, Reggie Miller, Gary Payton and Dennis Rodman were on the open market -- yet it was O'Neal who was considered the crown jewel. At that time, the prevailing championship formula in the NBA was that if you didn't have Jordan, you needed a dominant big man, and O'Neal was considered a modern-day Wilt Chamberlain who hadn't even reached his potential yet. The Magic had him right in their hands, the centerpiece of a budding powerhouse, and they took him for granted out of the gate. Lowballed him. Questioned his game. In a sense, Orlando positioned itself as an antagonist to Shaq rather than an organization that was entirely in his corner, even saying on that initial call that they needed to maintain financial flexibility for Penny Hardaway's free agency a couple of years down the road, signaling to our representation team that Shaq wasn't the full priority we expected him to be. It was about this time that we really started to consider alternatives as something other than backup plans. Finding these potential Shaq suitors and seeking out CBA loopholes to play to O'Neal's financial advantage were my primary responsibilities. The idea was this: Identify the teams that could get to at least $9 million under the cap without gutting the roster in order to offer a seven-year, $100 million contract voidable after three years, when Shaq would have Bird rights with these teams and could thus opt out to take advantage of his presumably increasing value. Also, if he left Orlando, his preference was to go to a big market. There weren't many teams that fit all these requirements. This is the list we came up with: NEW YORK KNICKS: This was a longshot from the start, as it was contingent on New York being able to trade Patrick Ewing. The Knicks also went after Jordan, who promptly re-signed with the Bulls on a one-year, $30 million deal. The market was there. But moving Ewing was never really an option. And when they signed free agent Allan Houston for $56 million over seven years, the cap situation just became unworkable. Nothing ever really materialized. DETROIT PISTONS: Detroit was attractive because of 1995 NBA co-Rookie of the Year Grant Hill, who had already earned All-NBA honors in his brief pro career. Allan Houston was also starting to emerge, and the thought of putting Shaq with a scorer like Hill and a shooter like Houston was attractive. But when Houston made his move to New York, this pie-in-the-sky scenario went with him. Plus, frankly, the Pistons never really showed much interest in making a deal for Shaq happen. Detroit was out. MIAMI HEAT: The Heat had the most roster flexibility and potentially the best cap situation of the bunch, but renouncing the rights to Mourning, who was also a free agent, to wipe out his cap hold of 150% of his 1995-96 salary was going to be a necessity. Mourning became a central barometer for all of our negotiations. Mourning had gone No. 2 in the 1992 draft, right behind O'Neal, and their careers had been linked ever since. People casually put them in the same conversation as big men, but Mourning wasn't the player Shaq was. When Miami signed Mourning to the aforementioned seven-year, $105 million deal, not only did it end any chance of O'Neal going to the Heat, it also served as an easy benchmark contract for Shaq's personal market. No way was O'Neal going to get a penny less than Mourning, and in fact, Armato was adamant that O'Neal get substantially more than Mourning for he did not see them as anything close to the same class of player. ATLANTA HAWKS: While Atlanta wasn't on our initial list, the Hawks quickly became a viable option when I, along with a colleague, took a call from current Los Angeles Dodgers CEO and President Stan Kasten about the Hawks' interest in Shaq. Kasten, who was president of both the Hawks and Atlanta Braves at that time, indicated that the merger between Hawks owner Ted Turner's broadcasting companies (CNN, etc.) and Time Warner would be able to generate significant ancillary income for Shaq. On the basketball side, he viewed Shaq as the missing piece to a championship in Atlanta and was comfortable offering him a seven-year deal averaging somewhere between $10 and $15 million per year. He was not, however, interested in breaking up much of his team to do so. This is kind of crazy to look back on, but in 1996, Kasten considered Mookie Blaylock and Christian Laettner to be the Hawks' foundational players. They weren't going anywhere. Two other players from a group consisting of Stacey Augmon, Alan Henderson, Grant Long and free agent Steve Smith also needed to be retained. This was the snag. After running all the numbers, Smith, an All-Star caliber player, was probably the odd man out, and we didn't like the idea of losing Smith. Eventually, Atlanta, which had become a legitimate contingency option, fell completely out of consideration when it signed Dikembe Mutombo to a five-year, $50 million deal. Shaq wasn't going to take less money that Alonzo Mourning got in 1996. Getty Images So Orlando was dragging its feet. Most other options were falling off our list. Only one team remained a true threat to lure O'Neal away from the Magic. It would take a perfect storm of circumstances to pull it off, but a perfect storm was indeed brewing. Here come Jerry West and the Lakers The first move the Lakers made in an effort to position themselves for Shaq was arguably the most significant draft-day trade since the St. Louis Hawks sent the draft rights to Bill Russell to the Celtics. In a piece of cost-cutting brilliance, the Lakers sent veteran center and fan favorite Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets in a move that not only netted them 18-year-old Kobe Bryant, but also the $3.3 million of extra cap space his rookie deal afforded them. In hindsight, this has to be one of the biggest steals in NBA history. The Lakers had actually saved money by trading for a guy who will probably go down as one of the 10 best players in history. In doing so, the Lakers had now become a real threat, maybe the biggest threat, to secure Shaq, who was clearly interested in joining such a storied franchise. The day after my talk with the Hawks, Armato briefed us on a sit-down meeting he had with the Lakers' Jerry West, who had formally offered Shaq $95.5 million over seven years with an option to terminate after three. The Lakers had an interest in getting the deal done quickly so they could then re-sign Elden Campbell. Having Campbell's Bird rights meant the Lakers could go over the cap to sign him, but they couldn't do that for Shaq, so they needed to get Shaq under the cap first and then add Campbell's salary. Still, Armato rejected the initial offer of $95.5 million over seven. It was the best deal that was on the table, but still below Mourning's deal and thus not enough. At this point, West said he was willing to trade George Lynch for a draft pick to be able to further sweeten Shaq's deal, and all the while, he was really pitching the Lakers as a franchise, stressing their history with dominant big men (George Mikan, Wilt and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), their winning tradition and his own ability to build championship teams. With Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos, Nick Van Exel and Bryant on board, the Lakers were a promising young team that were coming off a 53-win season. L.A. was closing strong. Magic still nickel and diming At this point, the Magic were more or less doing what we just saw the Miami Heat do to Dwyane Wade this summer -- offering not what Shaq deserved, not what would be commensurate with his value to the franchise, but rather only reacting to what other teams were willing to pay. At this point in his career, Wade is clearly not the player that Shaq was in 1996, but the way the negotiations were handled were very similar. The Heat's passive approach wound up costing them Wade. From our side, you could feel the same thing starting to happen to Orlando with Shaq. After all, instead of immediately upping their offer after the Jordan, Howard and Mourning signings, it was only when the Lakers dealt Lynch and Anthony Peeler to the Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies, thus freeing up even more cap space to pay Shaq, that the Magic revised their position. They presented Armato with two options: a four-year deal at $64 million, up from the original $54 million, or a seven-year deal at $109 million with an opt-out after year four rather than year three, which was Shaq's preference. It was bewildering, to be honest. We were all scratching our heads to think that still, at this point, with its franchise player potentially slipping away, Orlando was haggling over an opt-out year. We had just seen the Bulls give their franchise player a one-year deal that was some $6 million more than the entire salary cap on its own. Shaq wasn't Michael Jordan, nobody was, but he was definitely perceived as the next great superstar. The way we saw it, after the Lakers made their offer, the Magic could've just jumped in and blown everyone out of the water, just as they could've done from the start. This thing would've been over. But again, they didn't. They wouldn't go to $20 million per year over a longer deal. They were nitpicking the opt-out year. They were trying to effectively offer dummy money in the way of not-likely-to-be-earned incentives, such as Shaq, a historically horrible free throw shooter, shooting 60 percent from the line, which, incidentally, he only did one time in his NBA career. In essence, they were sealing their own fate with their stubbornness. It was right about this time that the final nail got driven into the Magic's coffin. The poll heard 'round Orlando To be fair to the Magic, it's not like the kind of money Shaq was asking for was peanuts. At the time there were only two $100-million-plus contracts in the league, Howard and Mourning. The $20 million per year he sought from the Magic (he expected more from them because they had his Bird rights) represented more than 82 percent of the 1996 cap. That's a lot. By comparison, the Grizzlies' Mike Conley just got the largest total contract in NBA history at $153 million over five years, which works out to roughly 30 percent of the cap in year one. Remember, too, that at the time there was sort of a prevailing sentiment among fans that players were being paid way too much money. There had been a brief lockout in 1995, souring some of the public relations, and there was definitely a disconnect between the common fan and superstars that has softened over time, to the point that nowadays I would say more people support the money these superstars are making, or at least are indifferent to it, because they know how much revenue they're producing. But in 1996, a hundred million bucks to play basketball had an outlandish ring to it. Playing to that debate, the Orlando Sentinel conducted a poll asking whether Shaq was worth $115 million. At that time, you could've asked that question about any player in the NBA, probably including Jordan, and fans would've said no, and sure enough, over 90 percent of the some 5,000 people who responded didn't feel Shaq was worth the money. The poll coincided with Dream Team II relocating to Orlando for final preparations before the Olympics, and Shaq was not happy. Not only did the team basically tell him he wasn't worth the money that lesser players were getting, now the fans were were telling him the same thing. This is the human part of these negotiations that sometimes gets lost in all the big money talk. Athletes, just like regular people, want to feel valued. From the outset, the Magic had done virtually nothing to make Shaq feel that way. Meanwhile, the Lakers, thanks in large part to that unexpected CBA change I mentioned earlier, were more than ready to jump in and show Shaq the love and money he both desired and deserved. A dynasty is born The Lakers were indeed taking a risk by holding up the rest of their summer plans to wait on Shaq. One by one, their backup plans were signing elsewhere. Dale Davis was the Lakers' first option behind Shaq, but he re-upped with the Indiana Pacers for $43 million over seven years as he'd grown tired of waiting. Mutombo, another alternative, was no longer available. Chris Gatling went off the market on a five-year, $22 million deal with the Dallas Mavericks. An inquiry was made by the Lakers about Dennis Rodman, who hadn't yet re-signed with the Bulls, but that never came to fruition. Other options being considered were Brian Williams (later known as Bison Dele) and two defensive-minded centers, Ervin Johnson, who wound up getting $18 million over seven years from the Nuggets, and Jim McIlvaine, who signed a seven-year, $33.7 million deal with the Seattle SuperSonics. Fortunately for the Lakers, Plan A worked out. As soon as the trade sending Lynch and Peeler to Vancouver went through, West immediately upped the Lakers' offer to $120 million over seven years with an opt-out after the third year. After hearing this, Orlando tried at the last minute to sweeten its offer with better cash flow, but they had lost whatever leverage they had to begin with, which wasn't as much as they apparently thought, certainly not after the rules of free agency had unexpectedly changed after O'Neal signed his seven-year, $39.9 million rookie contract in August of 1992. See, prior to 1995, two completed contracts and a minimum of four years of service were required for a free agent to be deemed unrestricted, and thus be able to sign with any team he wanted without the incumbent team having the ability to match any offer. The CBA that resulted from the 1995 lockout, however, eliminated restricted free agency for the first and only time in the salary cap era. After the 1998 work stoppage, the CBA returned to its original rules regarding free agency, but during this one three-year window, and only during this three-year window, every free agent was unrestricted. In other words, had Shaq, with just four years and one completed contract under his belt, been a free agent in this year's class, or in 1994, or 1998, or 1999, or 2000, or at any other time in free agent history other than that one three-year window, the Magic would've had the ability to match L.A.'s offer of $120 million over seven, which, for all their missteps, they surely would have done. But in 1996, they didn't have this luxury. If Shaq wanted to take the Lakers' deal, there was nothing Orlando could do about it. Armato personally went to Atlanta to discuss the offers with Shaq. I wasn't a part of Armato's discussions with Shaq, but I was told that Orlando constantly reacting to the Lakers instead of being proactive, coupled with the resentment Shaq felt about the Sentinel's poll, had pushed him over the edge. In the end, Orlando's ability to frontload the contract and Florida not having a state income tax, while California's rate was sky high, took a backseat to how Orlando had handled the negotiations. Shaq didn't want to leverage L.A.'s offer against the Magic again. He was ready to end the process and sign with the Lakers. A couple of days later, before the start of the Olympics, a press conference was held and the deal was announced. And the NBA has never been the same. In the years since, I've tried to wrap my head around all the ripple effects of this deal, which are still being felt today. Think about all the things that change if Shaq stays in Orlando, which I'm still convinced he would have done -- considering what they were building with a still healthy Hardaway, Nick Anderson, Dennis Scott and a recently re-signed Horace Grant (5 years, $50 million) -- had the Magic not so blatantly dropped the ball. For starters, the Lakers never become a dynasty without Shaq regardless of how much production they got from Kobe. Phil Jackson may never have gone to Los Angeles, where he won five more rings. After all, running the triangle offense with a dominant big man, something Jackson never had in Chicago, was a primary reason for him taking the Lakers job. Kobe, for all his greatness, probably doesn't win five rings in his career. At least not with the Lakers. Who knows how long he would've even stayed in Los Angeles. His legacy might well have been built in another city. Perhaps he goes home to Philadelphia. Perhaps, then, Philly never has to start tanking, its "process" never even starts, the lottery order changes, guys end up going different places, and suddenly the league as we know it today has been flipped upside down. That's just one scenario. There are a hundred more just like it. Who knows, for instance, how great that Orlando team could've become. Sure, Penny's career wound up being derailed by injuries, but they would've still had a window to be great. Maybe they challenge the Bulls' supremacy in the East. Chicago would've been most vulnerable in 1998 during its final championship run, provided Penny Hardaway's knees held up, and if Jordan is denied his second three-peat and ends his career with only five rings, perhaps he isn't so universally regarded as the greatest player ever but more on par with Magic Johnson. Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs, who lost three playoff series to Shaq and the Lakers during the first half of the 2000s, would have had a much better chance of consecutive NBA Finals appearances with O'Neal in the Eastern Conference. It's conceivable that the Spurs-Magic would have become the NBA's biggest rivalry with a healthy Penny. It's not hard to imagine them battling for league supremacy considering how weak the East was after Jordan's second retirement. The Magic breaking up because of a similar kind of tension that existed between Shaq and Kobe occurring between Shaq and Penny can't be dismissed either. In the end, you can go down this rabbit hole as far as you want, and none of it is unreasonable. Shaq going to L.A. shifted the NBA landscape, both present and future, on a dime. Perhaps 20 years from now we'll recall Kevin Durant's recent decision to leave Oklahoma City in a similar fashion. Durant's situation, really, is a good parallel for Shaq's situation in 1996. In OKC, Durant -- like Shaq in Orlando -- was on the cusp of a title. He had made one Finals appearance but came up short, attained huge levels of individual success, won scoring titles, became the face of a small-market franchise, and he had the superstar point guard as a wingman. And he left it all for the glitzy California team where Jerry West said he could win championships. Every time I see a big-name player leave his team in free agency, I think of Shaq in 1996. I think of the dynasty that became and the one that never got started. I think of Kobe and Phil and Jordan and Duncan, and that one window in the CBA that opened up the future -- or, I suppose, if you're Orlando, closed it. I think about it all, and every single time, I think about the Magic telling Shaq he needed to rebound better and that stupid poll and quietly shake my head at how easily it could have all gone a different way. Joel Corry is a former sports agent who helped found Premier Sports & Entertainment, a sports management firm that represents professional athletes and coaches. Prior to his tenure at Premier, Joel worked for Management Plus Enterprises, which represented Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Ronnie Lott. You can follow him on twitter: @corryjoel You can email him at: jccorry@gmail.com. |
RAMNAGAR: In a stringent anti-poaching measure, authorities at Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) have issued shoot-at-sight orders "to prevent killing of big cats in the reserve". The orders were passed after movement of suspected poachers was reported near the southern boundary of the park. Officiating in-charge of CTR, Parag Madhukar Dhakate , told TOI that the step has been taken for "protection of wildlife, especially tiger”.Besides the shoot-at-sight orders, various other steps are being taken by the authorities, including barring villagers in the vicinity from entering the protected area and subjecting visitors to the park to extensive frisking.“We have started tactical anti-poaching operations under which forest staff has been ordered to shoot at sight if a suspected poacher with arms is seen in the critical tiger habitat zone . This is not the first time such directives have been issued,” said Dhakate.The order comes just days after the controversial BBC documentary, 'Killing for Conservation', raised a question as to whether the war on poaching had gone a step too far. The film claimed that guards at the reserve were given the power to ‘shoot and kill’, which according to the BBC's South Asia correspondent Justin Rowlatt had led to the deaths of 23 poachers, compared to 17 rhinos last year. The environment ministry later criticised the BBC for "presenting a one-sided picture" and requested that it blacklist Rowlatt.Dhakate, meanwhile, added that to protect wildlife in the tiger reserve two drones and 150 forest frontline staff have also been deployed. To keep an eye on the park which has a population of 164 tigers, over 388 camera traps have been set up and sharp shooters equipped with night vision goggles have been put on duty.The park, which on an average sees over 1,000 visitors daily, will remain open to tourists in all five zones -- Jhirna, Bijrani, Dhikala, Dhela and Durgadevi -- but they will be subjected to extensive frisking. “Tourists are informed that they will face strict frisking, which they should cooperate with,” Dhakate said.Villagers in the vicinity of the park have also been told not to enter the forest area of the park for at least the next seven days. Over 100 villages are in the vicinity of the park and many villagers depend on the area for daily needs such as firewood.At present, over 500 forest department personnel maintain a 24-hour vigil at the reserve. At least three incidents of attempted infiltration have been thwarted in the past three months, forest officials said.Incidents of poaching of tigers and leopards have been on the rise in the state. The hill state reported seizure of 22 leopard skins and bones in 2016, according to the records of Delhi-based non-governmental organisation Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI). Numbers are equally alarming when it comes to tigers. Between 2012 to March 14, 2016, 50 tiger deaths were reported from CTR, out of which 13 big cats were killed by poachers. In March 2016, the special task force (STF) of Uttarakhand police in the biggest haul of its kind seized the skins of five tigers from a gang of poachers. Four of the skins were believed to belong to big cats from Corbett.Commenting on the shoot-at-sight orders, A G Ansari, a wildlife conservationist, said, “Stringent measures are necessary to protect wildlife. In 2011, when 11 elephants were poached at Corbett, similar directives were issued.”H S Bargali, deputy director at Corbett Foundation, agreed with Ansari. “Shoot-at-sight orders at Kaziranga National Park have proved a great deterrent to poaching. I appreciate that Corbett authorities too have taken the same decision.” |
After a long and turbulent journey through my Lord of the Rings Project we have finally reached the end of the road. It started off as just an idea and some simple sketches, gradually evolving into a depiction of my favourite scene from the narrative, invented and recorded by the genius J.R.R. Tolkien, then brought to life in the cinema by Peter Jackson. This is the first painting that I’ve tackled with oils and considering that fact, I am very pleased with the outcome, there’s still that part of my brain niggling at me that it didn’t come out totally how I had envisioned it. If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. – Vincent Van Gogh That quote was bouncing around in my mind a lot over the course of this painting, and I must admit Van Gogh certainly wasn’t wrong. Putting that aside though, I have now photographed the painting and I’m ready to add it to my portfolio. I spent a lot of time working on this piece, and a lot of time rectifying mistakes made and throughout the process I have learned an incredible amount about painting with oils; even if the canvas panel is now 6 inches thick with paint haha. I hope that this painting has captured at least some of the essence of this beautiful scene and portrayed the atmosphere and feel of it. I went into more depth about the intricacies of the scene in Part III. Initially I was going to get some Fine Art Prints made up of this piece but instead of that, I’ll leave it open to order, if anyone does want to purchase one just send me a message via the box on my Contact Page and the relevant arrangements can be made via e-mail. Please feel free to leave any feedback and comments, and subscribe to my blog for future posts and projects. Follow Blog via Email I won’t be running another big project like this one has been for a little while yet, I am going to focus more on studying the figure, learning more about oil painting and running smaller scale projects simultaneously. Until next time, take care! JGlover Advertisements |
That's right, there's now a marijuana resort in Colorado, and it's everything you want it to be. With the rising popularity of legal marijuana, Bud And Breakfast has opened up a property in Durango, Colorado that is any pot tourist's dream. "We’re bringing an element of luxury to that adventurous, exploratory vibe of childhood summer camp — in a beautiful setting where visitors can enjoy marijuana in a safe, comfortable, social environment," said Joel Schneider, CEO of the MaryJane Group , which runs the property. The cannabis resort offers activities for every lifestyle - whether you love the outdoors, or you just want to sit around, get baked, and eat. The weed resort lets you smoke anywhere you want on the grounds, except for the actual cabins (for safety reasons) - but smoking on your port or patio is allowed. During your stay, you will also be offered all of the highest quality accommodations, and all of them are infused with bud. The kitchen will always be cooking up weed infused edibles and gourmet meals, and you can even part take in cannabis infused lotion massages, or even marijuana painting (that's right, paint made out of our favorite plant). The Bud and Breakfast is so on their game, that they even have on-site budtenders that can not only recommend the top strains, but also provide proper pairings of flower and activities/food. That's right! They can tell you whether the Blue Dream pairs better with their beef or chicken, or if you want some Green Crack or OG Kush for your walk along their resort grounds. The Bud and Breakfast is currently open for business and you can make your reservations online, but you may want to check your savings account first. Reservations at the pot resort cost at least $395 a night. Toke on, see you in Colorado! |
A Green Bay woman who started a movement bringing awareness to mental illness has passed away. Amy Bleuel was 31. She died March 24th by suicide. But Thursday mental health leaders in northeastern Wisconsin remembered the legacy she left through Project Semicolon. Project Semicolon is a movement to help people battling depression and self-harm. Bleuel used her struggle with mental illness and the struggles of those around her to start the awareness project in 2013. The founder of the Center for Suicide Awareness Barb Bigalke calls it a movement. "The movement that Amy started was incredible; because everybody struggles,” Bigalke said. “So she took that you know what everybody struggles and what if we had an actual symbol behind that." That symbol became a semicolon used when a writer chooses to continue a sentence rather than end it. We spoke to Bleuel back in April of 2015 as her movement took shape. That symbol ended up tattooed on those who struggle mental illness across the world as they chose to stay strong. A leader from the Brown County Coalition for Suicide Prevention who worked with Bleuel says her legacy will continue to stay strong, too. "And that's the beauty of a semi-colon that's it's sentence that continues on,” Strommen said. “I know from her aspect that if she were here living today she would say the same thing stay strong and love endlessly." Both Bigalke and Strommen say Bleuel's ability to break through mental health stigmas will continue as a model for the future. "For her to actually be willing to talk about her struggles, her battles, to share her story literally around the world, is an incredible thing," said Strommen. An obituary says Amy leaves behind a husband, David. Family and friends are invited to a service at Pfotenhauer Funeral Home on Saturday, April 1. Obituary: http://www.pfotenhauerfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/PFOTEN1/obit.cgi?user=10544348_ABleuel People have been leaving messages of support on the Project Semicolon Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/projectsemicolon/?fref=ts Statement from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention: |
Image zoom Getty In terms of baking, “vegan” might as well be a swear word. Oft-associated with an over-the-top wellness fixation, veganism has garnered some serious side-eye from those among us who feel passionately about all things creamy, milky, and buttery. And when it comes to those who don’t regularly employ a full-fledged vegan diet, it’s especially hard to understand why someone would ingest a dairy-free cupcake over a regular one if they don’t have to. Well, first, there’s the health benefits. “Vegan baking can be more nutritious when veggies and low-sugar fruits are used to sweeten or add moisture,” says Candice Kumai, wellness journalist and bestselling author of Clean Green Eats. But it goes beyond that. “Vegan ingredients, like finely grated zucchini, carrots, and avocado, can add texture, nutrients, fiber, and flavor,” she adds. “And in some cases even add colors, like beets in a red velvet cake.” So, whether you’re trying to enjoy a more guilt-free dessert or just feeling experimental in the kitchen, we asked Kumai to share her favorite vegan baking swaps for you to try out. Keep scrolling for the ingredients that will help you blow away the next neighborhood bakeoff. Replace Butter with Sweet Potato Butter is maybe the number one most challenging thing to remove from our beloved baked goods. That, coupled with sugar, is the entire point, isn't it? Fortunately, sweet potato in all it's creamy glory makes a surprisingly good subsitute. "It's rich, packed with vitamin A and beta-carotene and adds sweetness, color, and moisture," says Kumai. In most cases, you can sub mashed sweet potato for the same amount of butter in a recipe to garner a similar rich, moist result. Replace Oil with Grated Zucchini If the zoodle phenomenon didn't tip you off, zucchini is having a moment. "It's incredibly versatile and inexpensive and, when grated into baked goods, it adds moisture, texture, and a boost of nutrients," says Kumai, who recommends subbing it in for oil in breads, cakes, and cookies. Replace Fat (and Sugar) with Grated Beets In the same way that sweet potato and zucchini add moisture in lieu of fats like oil and butter, beets can do the same thing but with the added bonus of sweetness. "Fresh grated beets are perfect blended into chocolate cakes," says Kumai. "They were used to sweeten cakes during times of war and ration because they were cheap." If you want to avoid the natural red or pink coloring that comes with the red beet territory, Kumai suggests using golden beets. Replace White Flour with Almond Meal While technically not a vegan swap, as traditional flour is naturally vegan, almond meal is an excellent addition to vegan baked goods if you're trying to avoid too much white flour or run out. "Almond meal helps add fat, flavor, texture, and a fabulous crumb to vegan and low-sugar cakes," says Kumai. Almond meal flour, which is full of vitamin E, fiber and protein, is easy to make, too. Just throw some blanched almonds into a food professor, but don't over mix or you'll get almond butter (not necessarily a bad thing either!). |
Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON will release a new EP featuring four previously unreleased tracks. "Cold Dark Place" will be made available digitally and on CD on September 22 via Reprise Records, followed by the release of a limited-edition ten-inch vinyl picture disc on October 27. Three of the songs on "Cold Dark Place" — "North Side Star", "Blue Walsh" and "Cold Dark Place" — were recorded during the sessions for MASTODON's 2014 album "Once More 'Round The Sun" and were produced by Nick Raskulinecz. A fourth track, "Toe To Toes", was recorded during the sessions for the band's most recent album, 2017's "Emperor Of Sand", and was produced by Brendan O'Brien. Those who pre-order "Cold Dark Place" will receive an instant download of the track "Toe To Toes" on September 1. Also, next month MASTODON will appear on the cover of the newly relaunched Revolver magazine. The issue, which hits newsstands on September 12, will be available withfour different covers, each featuring a member of MASTODON. When all four covers are placed together side by side, a single image of the full band, which is Brann Dailor, Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher and Troy Sanders, is created. As an added bonus, Revolver subscribers will receive an exclusive and very limited-edition seven-inch vinyl single with their paid order. The A-side is the version of "Toe To Toes" that appears on "Cold Dark Place", and the B-side is a previously unreleased instrumental version of the track. The single will be housed in a picture sleeve featuring exclusive artwork by Richey Beckett, who also created the cover image of the "Cold Dark Place" EP. A behind-the-scenes mini-doc on Beckett and the making of the "Cold Dark Place" cover art can be seen below. "Cold Dark Place" track listing: 01. North Side Star 02. Blue Walsh 03. Toe To Toes 04. Cold Dark Place MASTODON will spend the remainder of 2017 on the road in North America and Europe in support of "Emperor Of Sand", which debuted at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The follow-up to 2014's "Once More 'Round The Sun" was recorded at The Quarry Recording Studio in Kennesaw, just outside MASTODON's hometown, with producer Brendan O'Brien (PEARL JAM, NEIL YOUNG, AC/DC, RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE), who first worked with MASTODON on their seminal 2009 album "Crack The Skye". |
In Silicon Valley, the cost for talent is too high—and climbing. Will smart technology companies start moving to smaller markets? Behold the brave new economic geography. Downtown Dubuque, Iowa. (Photo: Dirk/Flickr) The Innovation Economy is dying. And by that I mean the economy centered in Silicon Valley is converging. And by that I mean the cost for talent is too damn high. Looking under rocks in Dubuque, Iowa: Dubuque was a city on a downward spiral. With the collapse of the farm economy in the 1980s, the city watched as the Dubuque Packing Co. closed up shop, and then as John Deere—still the city’s largest single employer—sliced its workforce by about three-quarters from its peak. Everyone in town, it seemed, either lost his job or had a relative who had. All told, Dubuque lost 10 percent of its population. Then IBM moved into an empty Depression-era department store. The shoppers who had once filled its nine stories had long since taken their business elsewhere. The morbid joke locals tell about downtown was that it was so dead, you could shoot a cannon down Main Street and not risk hitting anybody. ... ... When the IBM project surfaced, Dubuque was able to convince the company that its culture of working together to identify and rectify problems wasn’t just happy talk, but something the company could rely on. When IBM expressed concern about the local talent pool, Greater Dubuque downloaded and printed off 600 relevant resumes aspirants had put in its job-search database. During an early conference call, the city gathered nearly two dozen individuals from both its own agencies and the private sector to answer any questions the company might have. One of its competitors in the South, by contrast, had the mayor handle the call by himself on a cellphone with spotty service. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website Emphasis added. Thanks to its manufacturing past, Dubuque has a talented workforce that is relatively cheap. That's true for a lot of legacy cities from Springfield, Massachusetts, to Muncie, Indiana. The industrial wealth meant well-educated children who had the wherewithal to get far, far away did exactly that. Dubuque's reversal of fortune isn't news to me. In 2009, the IBM-to-Dubuque deal was a sensation in the ephemeral way that social media has redefined stories years in the making into a lucrative weekend trip to Las Vegas. Dubuque wasn't an instant success, but an indicator of a larger trend: Dubuque, Iowa (population 57,000) is wooing and close to landing a 1,300 person IBM IT facility. They are offering $52 million in incentives but that is not interesting part. Look at how they approach the issue of workforce availability. ... ... The truth of the matter is that most of the big ICT players in North America from Microsoft to Google to IBM (don’t forget RIM) have been putting large facilities in relatively small markets in recent years. This goes a bit counter to traditional cluster theory but the logic is actually quite simple. These large firms do in effect ‘raid’ top talent from other smaller ICT companies in these communities. How did Dubuque approach workforce availability? It wasn't the surplus of prospective applicants referenced in the first story cited above. Unfortunately, the Internet ate the newspaper article that explains. Luckily, I archived it: The proposed International Business Machines Corp. project is so large and the company so well-known that IBM plan proponents believe information technology workers and students in a 100-mile radius around Dubuque are well within reach. In addition to the local colleges, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa fall into that region. With the ongoing recession pushing national unemployment rates ever higher, Greater Dubuque officials believe that the IBM jobs could draw workers from as far as Des Moines, Omaha, Neb., the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and Chicago. Iowa Workforce Development data found that there are 22,000 potential information technology workers in that 100-mile radius around Dubuque, a figure that didn't surprise City Manager Mike Van Milligen. Behold the brave new economic geography. The game in San Francisco is an upward spiraling ping-pong match between higher priced real estate and talent. The safety valve is Dubuque. The talent cache for Dubuque is just as good, if not better, than the one attracted to Greater Silicon Valley. It's also much cheaper. Smart companies such as IBM are cashing in on the geographic arbitrage. You should, too. |
James Patterson and Stephen King might still top Forbes' yearly round-up of the world's richest authors, but the magazine is predicting its list will look a little more female-friendly next year. Forbes, which calculates its annual compilation by using official figures and talking to book industry experts, found that Patterson earned $94m last year – a period which saw him publish 14 new titles and make more than double the amount of the second-placed King. Nine of the top 15 slots on the list were taken by male authors, including King (who earned $39m thanks to the release of his doorstopper novel about the assassination of JFK, 11/22/63), legal thriller writer John Grisham ($26m), Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney ($25m) and newcomer George RR Martin, who made $15m following the adaptation for television of his Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series. The highest-ranking female writer on the list was Janet Evanovich, in third with earnings of $33m, but Forbes believes next year will present a very different picture. Not only will Suzanne Collins benefit from the full portion of the proceeds from the first Hunger Games film, and JK Rowling from the release of her first adult novel The Casual Vacancy this September, but EL James' record-breaking earnings from the erotic Fifty Shades trilogy, which sold 20 million copies in four months, will assure her "a place near the top of next year's top authors list", according to Forbes. "At the height of Fifty Shades mania, the erotic novels were estimated to be generating as much as $1.3 million per week for their author, EL James. And that's not counting the $5 million she received from Universal Pictures and Focus Films for the theatrical rights," said the magazine, suggesting that perhaps Twilight author Stephenie Meyer, who made $14m last year, might deserve a cut as "James's books originated as works of Twilight fan fiction". James Patterson: $94 million Stephen King: $39 million Janet Evanovich: $33 million John Grisham: $26 million Jeff Kinney, $25 million Bill O'Reilly: $24 million Nora Roberts: $23 million Danielle Steel: $23 million Suzanne Collins: $20 million Dean Koontz: $19 million JK Rowling: $17 million George RR Martin: $15 million Stephenie Meyer: $14 million Ken Follett: $14 million Rick Riordan: $13 million |
Now that we’re half way through 2017, it’s time to once again look into the future. There, I see a few high-tech markets growing and a certain group of companies reaping the benefits of such growth. Because of this, I think it would be a good idea to invest in GPU manufacturing companies like AMD ($AMD) and Nvidia ($NVDA) now. But why should you invest in these corporations? Market expansion. A large contributor to Intel’s growth in the early and middle 2000’s was the growth of the PC market, and much of Qualcomm’s growth can be attributed to the growth of the mobile device market. So as you can see, chip manufacturers achieve much of their growth from increases in demand stemming from the increasing performance needs of our gadgets. Image Courtesy: Nvidia But how will major GPU manufacturers play into this? Well, their chips will become much more prevalent. As the explosive expansions of PC and mobile slow down, three high volume markets will see large booms in the near future: Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Cryptocurrencies. Artificial Intelligence One of the most essential components of the field of AI is model training. As more data is amalgamated and stored for machines, the ability to process the data quickly and efficiently becomes increasingly important for individuals and organizations who wish to make sense of it. A few years ago, training machine learning models was performed on laptop CPUs. This may have worked in a handful of cases, but with the rise of big data this hardware can’t hold up. Nowadays, GPUs have become standard hardware within the field of Artificial Intelligence. Their high performance capabilities suit them well for this task. They can store and process data at much quicker and more efficient rates, making them the best choice for the job. And, this has given rise to chip specialization, as can be seen with Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which will induce hardware innovation in the high performance chip market and could mean more growth in the field. Nvidia has already put its foot in the door of AI with GPU-based cloud AI supercomputers, so I would expect more companies to do the same to enforce competition. Virtual Reality Another area where CPUs can’t compete, Virtual Reality is a computationally demanding technology that includes a multittude of complex tasks such as head tracking, texture rendering, and more while maintaining a high frame rate. Essentially, VR takes all of the complications of gaming and compacts them into a small, modular device (which is hard). And just like conventional gaming, GPUs will be the de facto performance chip for virtual reality. Because VR is already growing at a rather fast pace, high performance chipmakers currently have presence in today’s VR headsets. Nvidia and AMD are already competing for control of headsets like the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. Cryptocurrencies Whether you believe in their value or not, there’s no doubt that crypto currencies are a rapidly expanding market with growing attention. And, GPUs have presence in this area too. To bring these coins into circulation, they need to be mined. Mining digital currencies is the act of performing computationally intensive tasks to be rewarded with new issuances of the coin. Because this is such an exhausting task, GPUs are very common in this area. As the total market cap of these currencies rises, the need for bringing the more coins into existence follows. Thus, an increasing demand in GPU-based hardware will ensue. While their current value is mostly derived from personal computers and gaming, Graphics Processing Units will see sharp increases in demand in the near future. Companies such as AMD and Nvidia will likely see noticeable growth in market cap because of the increasing popularity of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Cryptocurrencies. You should probably invest now. You could buy shares of the companies, or you may prefer buying the cards themselves. As always, thanks for reading! Be sure to connect with me on social media below. Twitter, Github, Snapchat, Instagram |
The St. Louis Cardinals’ former director of amateur scouting, Chris Correa, is serving 46 months in jail for gaining unauthorized access to the Astros’ player information/evaluation database, codenamed Ground Control. A few days ago, MLB announced St. Louis’s penalty: they’d have to send $2 million and their top two draft picks to Houston. From a network-security perspective, the case is interesting. It illustrates how difficult true network security really is, which raises the strong possibility that another team will attempt this in the future (if indeed one isn’t doing it right now). Here’s a timeline of the incident up until it was made public: March 2013 – April 2014: Correa accesses Ground Control using passwords of various Astros staff. (Source: David Barron and Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle.) June 2014: Deadspin posts leaked documents that were retrieved from Ground Control, mostly regarding trades or potential trades during the 2013 season. This action causes the Astros to contact MLB, who contacts the FBI to begin an investigation into the breach. (Source: Derrick Goold and Robert Partrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.) June 2015: Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times reports that the Cardinals are the prime suspects in this investigation. Why didn’t the Astros detect the unauthorized access themselves? I don’t know anything about how they ran their security team, so I can only speculate. But I do have several years of experience in the network-security industry. I’ll use those to provide a perspective. First, Correa masqueraded as Astros personnel. According to the article by Barron and Kaplan cited above, Correa was able to guess or otherwise obtain the password of accounts belonging to general manager Jeff Luhnow, analyst Colin Wyers, and three minor-league players. The article contains details on what Correa did while logged in as these people, implying Ground Control keeps a record of user actions while they’re logged in. Impersonating three different people was smart. If anyone looked at Ground Control’s logs, they wouldn’t see Correa snooping around. They’d see Luhnow, Wyers, or a player accessing information. In this case the threshold for “something fishy is going on here, I’d better report it” is very, very high. These people are all expected to access Ground Control as part of their jobs. If Correa had gained access another way, perhaps via an account he was able to create for himself or by exploiting a security vulnerability in a web page, that might’ve set off more (figurative) alarms. In addition to Ground Control logs, there are logs from network devices that I’m betting Correa had to use in order to get to Ground Control. These device logs provided another way for the Astros to detect Correa. They didn’t, though, probably because network security is hard. Really hard. Some Obstacles to Effective Network Security The following problems are just a few I’ve noticed among customers in my own experience. Misconfigured Devices If you’re not collecting a log, you can’t analyze it for evidence of malfeasance. IT staff, often overworked to begin with, may install a device like a router, change the default password, make sure it works, and leave it be. These devices collect logs by default, but many have optional and even custom fields on which they can report. The trade-off is in disk space and storage: the more logs you collect, the more you have to store. IT is a cost center for many companies, so the focus is on minimizing money spent, not on creating a rich data source for security analysis. Products like Splunk and LogRhythm exist to centralize, and provide reports on, logs from all manner of devices, including network devices but also applications like Ground Control itself. You can search for anything you want and call up trend reports and pie charts at will. But these products are only as good as the people who use them, which leads to the next problem… Lack of Staff Maintaining a Security Operations Center (SOC) is expensive. If you want your network monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year, you need to hire nine people to cover shift changes, sick time, vacations, and so on. Then you have to train them and retain them just like any other employee. If you don’t have a 24 x 7 x 365 SOC, you risk getting breached when no one’s monitoring the network. You may never find out about it. Employees are often the most expensive part of any organization, but proving a return on this particular investment is difficult. If the SOC team catches something, there’s no way to quantify the value of their work. Who can say where the attackers would’ve gone and what they would’ve gotten? But the longer this team goes without catching anything, the more management looks at the team’s budget and starts wondering what value those nerds in the SOC are really providing. For these reasons I’ve seen many companies with a “Security Director” who is simply the IT person. This person may not have any network-security training whatsoever. They’re told they have to handle network security because they handle all the other computer stuff. CEO can’t log into her email? Printer’s acting up? Phone system’s down? Got hacked? These tasks often fall on the same person. False Positives A false positive is a security incident on which you raise an alarm but is actually expected behavior. Tackling this problem is difficult because each network has its own layout, its own set of users, and its own set of shared assumptions about how and when it’ll be used. The same is true of each application, especially custom-built ones like Ground Control. Here’s an oversimplified but illustrative example. Let’s say the Astros do have people monitoring not only their Ground Control logs, but also their network logs, and a security analyst notices Luhnow logging in from the Dominican Republic at 3:51 AM on a Sunday. The analyst thinks “That’s a weird time for Jeff to be logging in, and I don’t think he’s in the DR.” They tell their boss, who tells their boss, and pretty soon Luhnow gets a phone call: “Did you log in from the DR at 3:51 AM?” He replies yes, he took an unannounced scouting trip. This fact gets back to the analyst, who then removes “Jeff logging in from the Dominican Republic” from his mental checklist of “suspicious things I should report.” After all, no one wants to look incompetent in front of the guy who runs the team. Correa is now free to log in from the Dominican Republic, or pretend he’s in the Dominican Republic, with Luhnow’s account whenever he wants. After enough of these false positives, Correa has a lot of latitude for when he can log in as Luhnow, Wyers, or any staffer. Rise of the Analytics The trend in the network-security industry that attempts to overcome these problems is the same one that’s been roiling the baseball world for the past decade: analytics. Specifically: algorithms that run in real-time or on a schedule, monitor log files and other data sources on the network, apply statistical techniques, and alert humans when the “probability that something bad happened” exceeds a confidence threshold. The newest class of analytics would be perfect for the situation the Astros faced. User and Entity Behavioral Analytics (UEBA) claim to use machine-learning techniques along with network logs and other contextual data to establish behavioral patterns of all users on your network. When someone deviates from the pattern, an alert fires. Theoretically, UEBA would’ve caught Correa earlier. But they didn’t exist in 2013, and we don’t know how closely Correa’s activity matched Luhnow’s. Additionally, security analytics aren’t a panacea. Many analytics systems suffer from the same problems as manual log analysis. Consider: False Positives How do you write an algorithm that catches Chris Correa masquerading as Jeff Luhnow but lets the real Luhnow do his job without interruption? Over time, humans can learn the idiosyncrasies of the network or application they’re analyzing and adjust. In the example above, our human analyst did this. But teaching a computer is more difficult, and machine-learning techniques are in their infancy. In the security industry we talk about needing to “tune” security analytics systems. By tuning, we mean giving feedback to the detection algorithms (or whoever writes them) to suppress alerts about which we don’t care, reserving our inboxes for the ones that are relevant. The easier a system is to tune, and the more feedback an analyst can give it directly — instead of having to file a bug, send an email, or some other long-running activity — the more useful it is. Still, tuning can take weeks to months — and that’s if there’s a team dedicated to it, which brings us back to the problem of… Lack of Staff Analytics reduce, but don’t obviate, the need to retain staff. Someone must receive the alert, prioritize it along with the other things to which they must respond (the CEO still can’t log into her email, remember?), find the issue, remediate it, and (maybe) provide feedback to the system. A human being can fail at any one of these phases. Consider the hack of Target stores in 2013: analysts saw alerts but decided they “did not warrant immediate follow up.” The analytics did their job; the humans, as they do from time to time, erred in theirs. Additionally, if you depend on security analytics, you’re depending on a company’s ability to hire people to create useful ones. The intersection between “people who know network security well enough to create useful algorithms for detecting threats” and “people who know how to express these algorithms in production-ready code” is smaller than you might think. Several tools exist that purport to make writing analytics easier, but so far none have risen to the top. It’s similar to baseball operations. You have people who know baseball well enough to come up with useful ways of analyzing data, and you have people who can write releasable code. There’s a Venn Diagram here. The folks on the outside can provide value, but the people in the center are in the highest demand. Running Algorithms on Big Data Large computer networks truly are big data. For large companies, analytics may need to process and store millions of log messages per day, everything from “Fred logged in to gc-db-03 at 12:35:34 GMT” to “Mary transferred 545667 bytes of data to the IP address 1.2.3.4 at 14:01:22 GMT.” These analytics may also need access to historical datasets going back a year or more. Advanced systems store not only the log, but the actual packets that crossed the wire. All of this data has to be available to multiple security analysts at once, as quickly as possible. This Will Happen Again I’ve left out a lot about running an effective network-security operation here, because there isn’t room. Network security is a complex problem that exists at the very boundary between human-computer interaction. It’s a discipline unto itself replete with dense textbooks, advanced degrees, and industry certifications. Despite being 15-plus years into the internet-connected age, no one has quite solved these problems yet. The following is pure speculation: I suspect that, prior to 2014, the Astros had a typical network setup that probably included some log-management devices. I suspect that very competent people installed and maintained this equipment and set up the network so that (a) staffers could to their jobs but (b) the millions of people who visit Minute Maid Park every summer couldn’t access areas of the network they shouldn’t. But I suspect the team didn’t prioritize log reviews/monitoring as highly as they could have. In 2013, very few companies were doing security analytics, but many were doing log management. Splunk and LogRhythm both existed. Regular, deep audits of network access or flow logs could have helped the team catch Correa before the leaked documents hit the web. Regular audits of Ground Control logs would also have helped. I’m not knocking the Astros. The above two paragraphs are true of many companies — far more than you’d guess. Like a homeowner who installs a burglar alarm after getting robbed, I bet the Astros and other MLB teams doubled down on network security after Deadspin posted the leak. The fallout within MLB circles was apparently huge. According to Dave Cameron: The Astros didn’t benefit [from this situation]; they get a couple of lower-value picks and some mostly meaningless cash in exchange for some pretty seriously negative PR. Given the amount teams spend on their image, Houston came out in the red here. They got crushed when the trade transcripts were leaked to Deadspin. Crushed. I’m sure the Astros pay much more attention to their network and application security now. But this kind of thing will happen again — if not to the Astros, then some other team. Millions of dollars are at stake, not to mention the bright sheen of a World Series championship. The only question is: who is the next Chris Correa? |
ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Iran has offered support to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad as his forces tried to choke off rebels in the northern city of Aleppo. Seeking to restore his authority after suffering the gravest setbacks so far in the 17-month-old uprising, culminating in the defection of his prime minister on Monday, Assad was shown on television on Tuesday meeting a senior official from his key regional ally. It was the first footage broadcast of the 46-year-old leader for two weeks, and came a day after Syria’s new caretaker prime minister was televised chairing a hastily called cabinet session, possibly to rebut reports that other ministers had deserted along with premier Riyad Hijab. Saeed Jalili, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Iran would not let its close partnership with the Syrian leadership to be shaken by the uprising or external foes. “Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way,” Syrian television quoted Jalili as saying. The “axis of resistance” refers to Shi’ite Iran’s anti-Israel alliance with Syria’s rulers - from the Alawite faith which is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam - and the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, with Iranian and Syrian support. Damascus and Tehran have held Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states and Turkey, all allies of the United States and European powers, responsible for the bloodshed in Syria by supporting the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels. Western powers sympathetic to the rebels are concerned that anti-Western Sunni Islamists could benefit from a victory for the anti-Assad forces. Iran’s Fars news agency said Jalili told Assad that Iran was prepared to provide humanitarian aid to Syria. On a fence-mending visit to Turkey, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he wanted to work with Ankara to resolve the crisis. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan described as “worrying” a comment on Monday by Tehran’s top general, who blamed Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for bloodshed in Syria. Iran has expressed fears for more than 40 Iranians it says are religious pilgrims kidnapped by rebels from a bus in Damascus while visiting Shi’ite shrines. Salehi wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seeking his help to free them. Rebels say they suspect the captives were troops sent to help Assad. A rebel spokesman in the Damascus area said on Monday three of the Iranians had been killed by government shelling. He initially said the rest would be executed if the shelling did not stop but later said they were being questioned. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, without naming Iran or Sunni powers, warned against a descent into “sectarian warfare” and said Washington would not tolerate “sending in proxies or terrorist fighters” to “exploit” Syria’s conflict. REBEL AMMUNITION In Aleppo, rebels trying to fight off an army offensive said they were running low on ammunition as Assad’s forces tried to encircle their stronghold in the southern approaches to the country’s biggest city. Assad has reinforced his troops in preparation for an assault to recapture rebel-held districts of Aleppo after repelling fighters from most of Damascus. “The Syrian army is trying to encircle us from two sides of Salaheddine,” said Sheikh Tawfiq, one of the rebel commanders, referring to the southwestern Aleppo neighborhood which has seen heavy fighting over the last week. Mortar fire and tank shells exploded across the district early on Tuesday, forcing rebel fighters to take cover in crumbling buildings and rubble-strewn alleyways. Tanks have entered parts of Salaheddine and army snipers, using the cover of heavy bombardment, deployed on rooftops, hindering rebel movements. Another rebel commander, Abu Ali, said snipers at the main Saleheddine traffic roundabout were preventing the rebels from bringing in reinforcements and supplies. He said five of his fighters were killed on Monday and 20 wounded. But rebels said they were still holding the main streets of Salaheddine. A Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover during clashes with Syrian Army in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of central Aleppo August 7, 2012. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic A fighter jet pounded targets in the eastern districts of Aleppo and shelling could be heard in the early morning, an activist in Aleppo said. “Two families, about 14 people in total, were believed killed when a shell hit their home and it collapsed this morning,” the activist said. The house was one street away from a school being used as a base by rebels, he said. PREMIER DEFECTS As Assad’s forces battle to retake Aleppo, fighting has continued across the country. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence, said more than 270 people - including 62 soldiers - were killed in Syria on Monday, one of the highest death tolls in an uprising in which activists reckon at least 18,000 have died. Sixty-four of those killed on Monday died in the city of Aleppo and its surrounding province, the Observatory said. The president has suffered a series of blows in the last three weeks, from the bombing of his inner circle to the rebel gains in Aleppo, at border crossings and briefly in Damascus. On Monday, Hijab denounced Assad’s “terrorist regime” after fleeing the country. The defection of Hijab, who like most of the opposition hails from the Sunni Muslim majority, was a further sign of the isolation of Assad’s government around an inner core of powerful members of his minority Alawite sect. Opposition figures, buoyant despite setbacks in recent weeks of fighting, spoke of an extensive and long-planned operation to spirit Hijab and his extended family over the Jordanian border. A spokesman for U.S. President Barack Obama hailed Hijab’s defection as a sign that the 40-year rule of Assad’s family was “crumbling from within” and said he should step down. Western leaders’ repeated predictions of Assad’s imminent collapse have so far proven premature, however. Slideshow (21 Images) The security forces have overwhelming superiority in firepower, which they have wielded against lightly armed rebels. Hijab’s defection was the latest sign of Sunnis abandoning Assad, but there has been no sign yet that members of his mainly Alawite ruling inner circle are losing their will to fight on. |
It was March 1987 when the news first broke: Cucumbers were supposedly dying in a southeast Calgary greenhouse thanks to land left contaminated by an old oil refinery. Sheila Nichols can still remember hearing the reports on TV as she looked out her kitchen window at the glowing lights of the greenhouse and thought: "What about my infant daughter?" Nichols lived in Lynnview Ridge, a then new development that became one of the best-known contaminated sites in Calgary, and one that's still being cleaned up all these years later. It's certainly not the only one. The City of Calgary is currently managing 34 contaminated sites within its borders with $2.8 million set aside to fulfil its cleanup or monitoring obligations, according to documents obtained by CBC News. Additional funds help deal with landfills, and millions more have been set aside for Old Refinery Park, just below Lynnview Ridge. There are potentially hundreds more sites within the city that, at least theoretically, are monitored and catalogued by the province. Many are in private hands, while the federal government is responsible for 13. "We only know ones we've found. It goes back to the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns," said Trent Parks, the leader of environmental risk and liability at the city's environmental safety management department. "There may be more out there, we haven't come across them yet." Trent Parks, the leader of environmental risk and liability at the city’s Environmental Safety Management department. (Drew Anderson/CBC) Parks points to the number of gas stations in the city and says there's at least that many contaminated sites waiting to be discovered thanks to the near-inevitability of leaking underground storage tanks. One big challenge: Currently, the city has no control and no authority to inspect or clean up the contamination at sites it doesn't own and needs provincial approval for cleanup at sites it does. But that's something officials insist needs to change as part of ongoing negotiations with the province for a new city charter for Calgary. 'Hollowed out department' It turned out the cucumbers Nichols could see growing from her window likely weren't killed by the lead and oil liberally spread across the old Imperial Oil refinery on the edge of Ogden. But there was no doubt the land where she lived was contaminated. The greenhouse scare started a long saga in Calgary that ended with an entire neighbourhood wiped off the map and a $27 million plan to clean up, or at least manage, the site in partnership with Imperial Oil. That work continues to this day. That chunk of land was one of the first issues that Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra had to deal with when he was first elected in 2010, as two city departments argued over the future of the property. One year later, Lynnview Ridge tested his diplomatic skills when a negotiated cleanup plan between the city and Imperial Oil almost died after coming up against the provincial bureaucracy. Carra said he presented the complex risk management plan — including treating groundwater, capping the soil and erecting a barrier to protect the Bow River — along with three eminently qualified staff from the city's environmental safety department to the "last man standing in a hollowed-out department" at Alberta Environment. Find out which toxic chemicals might lurk in your neighbourhood by clicking on any pin in the interactive map below to find out details about that contaminated site. To find out more about what the different colours of the pins mean, click on the rectangular icon to the left of the map's title. "He was like 65 years old. He was about to retire. He had a B.Sc. behind his name. And he looked at this report and was like, 'I don't have the ability to decide whether this is the right way to go or not and I don't have the dollars to hire someone to tell me whether it's a good idea or not for a couple of years, so you're going to have to wait.'" With an impatient multinational corporation waiting in the wings, delay wasn't an option. That experience and Carra's resulting advocacy for the plan to a "revolving door of ministers" at the time is just one example of why Calgary wants a city charter to include powers over contaminated sites, he said. "If we've got an administration that's full of super-competent professionals, why we would be waiting on another order of government who doesn't have the professional capacity to sign off on something? Doesn't make sense." 9,000 litres of fuel, years of waiting Mayor Naheed Nenshi couldn't agree more. He says the former Gas Plus station in Bowness, which is under the control of the province, is the prime example of why cities need more authority over contaminated sites. That station leaked an estimated 9,000 litres of fuel from its underground storage tank and cleanup is just getting underway after seven years of waiting. The site sat in limbo for years as the owners stalled on cleanup, according to the province. Changes to the Environmental Protection Enhancement Act in 2014 finally allowed the government to move in and clean up the site itself. The province is footing the bill but still says it will try to make the owners pay. "You know, we have the expertise, we understand urban environmental issues and we have the ability to clean it up. We did not have the authority to clean it up. We didn't even have the authority to enter the land," he said of Gas Plus. Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the city didn't even have authority to enter the site of a former Gas Plus station in Bowness. (CBC) Nenshi says Alberta Environment lacks the ability, but holds all the authority -— something he says "doesn't serve citizens well." "The point of the city charter discussions is to recognize that the two cities, Calgary and Edmonton, have very sophisticated city governments, we have a lot of expertise, we know what we're doing, but oftentimes the authority is not aligned with the ability." Creosote, lead, salt and more Parks says there are a number of ways the city discovers contaminated sites, including screening properties the city has owned for a long time and testing land when something like an interchange is built or when land is being bought or sold. Likewise, the province relies on property owners to notify it of contamination and to remediate the problem. The city sites include a portion of Lynnview Ridge, the Manchester works yard — where a large city fuel spill occurred — and a former illegal battery disposal operation in the northeast. There are also less problematic properties including city road depots with salt contamination. The site of the former Gas Plus station in Bowness. It has been seven years since an estimated 9,000 litres of fuel leaked into the ground. Remediation is just starting. (Drew Anderson/CBC) In the West Village, where the creosote in the soil made headlines after the owners of the Calgary Flames pitched their CalgaryNext project, the city earmarked a mere $50,000 for the site pending decisions from city council and stressed the province should ultimately be responsible for a cleanup that's estimated will cost as much as $300 million. An additional 11 sites remain on the books with no dollar figures attached for various reasons. For some, the monitoring has simply ended and no further action is required. Others, including Eau Claire, are in a holding pattern depending on what the landowners intend to do. The city's five closed and three current landfills, which are handled differently, cost the city approximately $4.2 million each year for environmental-related monitoring and maintenance. Province unable or unwilling to provide information Alberta Environment and Parks, the ministry ultimately responsible for tracking all contaminated sites and enforcing cleanup in the province, was either unwilling or unable to provide clarity on how many sites it's aware of in the city of Calgary. After several months and repeated requests for information, the ministry said there were 1,766 sites. But CBC News had to inform a spokesperson that figure only applied to locations that had undergone an environmental site assessment. Information regarding how many of those areas are actually contaminated was either not known or not shared. Approximately 200 sites are "examined and evaluated each year" in Calgary, according to spokesperson Brent Wittmeier. Treatment to remove hydrocarbons from the water in the Inglewood Wildlands, once the home of an oil refinery, continues decades after cleanup started. (Drew Anderson/CBC) In 2009, the province introduced "remediation certificates" to formally mark completion of a contamination cleanup, according to Alberta Environment. Since then, 10 sites in Calgary have received certificates while others have been remediated but not yet certified. Several requests to speak with someone at the ministry with knowledge of contaminated sites went unanswered. A municipal affairs spokesperson said proposals in the city charter negotiations include enforcement abilities for the city when it comes to contaminated sites, as well as establishing bylaws relating to environmental issues, including contamination, climate change, mature trees and biodiversity. New powers would be rare It might seem strange that a city or province is unaware of environmental and health liabilities lurking within its borders, or that a municipality lacks the power to do anything about them, but that's pretty standard, says Christopher De Sousa, the director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Ryerson University in Toronto. He said a lot of municipalities and government agencies are just starting to inventory industrial and contaminated sites, "but if they don't own it, they're not including it in that inventory." "I would say a lot of jurisdictions are hesitant, historically, to inventory brownfields," he said of industrial sites when asked if it's normally difficult to come up with hard numbers. "The reason being, if a government identifies a site as potentially contaminated and they don't own it, have they affected the value of that site?" Lynnview Ridge was wiped off the map once residents became aware of contamination left by a former oil refinery. (Drew Anderson/CBC) De Sousa is only aware of one city in North America — New York — that has the authority to approve cleanup of contaminated sites. He said it can benefit a city to have more authority over the sites if they're willing to look at it intelligently and strategically. "If there's a will, there's a way. If there's a market, there's a way. If a landfill's been closed a long time, I mean, some of the best parks that I've been on are old landfills," he said. "There are ways to manage risk, and if done strategically and well, anything is possible." 'Petrochemical taint' versus sprawl It's that question of risk that intrigues Carra. He distinguishes between the risk of doing something on land that may contain contamination versus the risk of essentially not building on urban soil. He cites not developing near the rail corridor for fear of an explosion and letting sprawl continue unimpeded as examples of what can happen when "old-school risk" carries the day. Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra says the issue of Lynnview Ridge is one of the reasons the city needs new powers to deal with contaminated sites. (CBC) "Think about the environmental costs of not developing our inner city. If your job is to be a protector of the environment, taking this old-school approach to risk is ridiculous. It's especially ridiculous when you consider … the actual health impacts, worst-case scenario, of that particular petrochemical taint flowing through the groundwater," he says. The health impacts of contaminants found within a city can vary — from the learning disabilities in children linked to lead contamination and the cancer-causing effects of prolonged hydrocarbon exposure, to salt or low levels of methane gas exposure. "Any time there's a risk, we manage it," said Parks. "It could be just a small tank that's leaking and we have to go out and the risk management plan or the remedial action plan takes us a couple days and it's all cleaned up to scratch, or there's… the former refinery. Obviously they're a little more involved." Fear factor For those who have had to fight over contaminated land, it's hard to trust that the right steps will be taken, no matter who's in charge. And that those particular petrochemical taints Carra referred to are taken seriously enough. Nichols is understandably skeptical, the result of her own experience trying to get to the truth of what happened on the land surrounding her home all those years ago. When she bought the house — developed by a company called New West — she said she was told the area had just been for storage. What she didn't know: that storage included oil tanks that held leaded gasoline and often leaked. The city just wanted to reassure her everything was fine, she said. And Imperial just wanted everything to go away. A chain-link fence blocks access to the ridge where houses once stood in Lynnview Ridge. (Drew Anderson/CBC) "They didn't want to hear about it again, they didn't want their name tied to it. New West went bankrupt so they got out from under it," she said. Nichols isn't sure, all these years later, whether everything was blown out of proportion or not. Alberta Health tested her home three times and found nothing of concern based on their guidelines. There are no confirmed cases of anyone dying or falling ill from the contamination. But there was legitimate fear. "When you're the one living there and you've lost faith and trust in what you're being told, how do you know the fact that, if your child has ADD, that it wasn't caused by that?" she said. "How do you know the fact that, if somebody develops cancer, that they wouldn't have developed it if they lived somewhere else? There's no knowing. "I mean, there is a fear component to these things, but that I think is the greatest challenge for all of this heavy industry: when you start redeveloping land can you actually say it's safe for people to live on?" The city charters The city is banking on the fact that it has the expertise to answer those questions and to build the city it wants without having to go cap in hand to the province. It's also hoping it can do so without the delays that have long plagued some of the sites located within its borders. The city charters for Calgary and Edmonton are expected to be released in July, outlining expanded powers for the two centres on everything from contaminated sites to affordable housing to municipal tribunals for bylaw offences. Parks, for one, is confident in the city's abilities, at least at its current level of responsibility. "I'm comfortable with the way the city is managing their contaminated sites. I mean, I've got to say that that's kind of my responsibility," he said. "We've got a really good handle on what we do." |
A Freeport police officer responding to a call for help ended up shooting a dog -- a dog that was just helping his deaf owner. But what the police department did next, the owner's family calls really insensitive. For 14 years, Rascal has been Barbara Khoury's constant companion. She also relies on his bark to keep her safe. But last month, it almost killed him. "Boom! My ear rings," she said. It is a sound even Barbara didn't have trouble hearing, even though she's been deaf since birth. She had called 911 because she felt dizzy and couldn't breathe. She just wanted help. Instead, there was a second emergency. "Next thing she knows, she heard a loud shot, and then she thought the cop done killed her dog," said her son, Don Donnelly Khoury. Freeport Police Chief Tyrone Morrow had an explanation. "He felt like he was in danger," Morrow said. Morrow says when his officer cracked open the door, the barking dog charged him so he had no choice but to use deadly force. "All he knows is he has an injured female that needs medical attention, and his ability to render that aid is being compromised by an aggressive animal who looks like it's going to attack," Morrow said. "Right here, it was a big long gash," Don Khoury said. The bullet grazed Rascal. He went to the vet, had six staples and got to go home, but it wasn't over. "They're taking advantage of my mother," Don Khoury said. The city told Barbara Khoury she had to pay the vet bill. Chief Morrow made the decision and stands by it. "I believe it's not our responsibility to pay for the bill that was reciprocated by the lady calling us for a medical emergency," Morrrow said. "Now, would we have helped her if she had said it was an issue? Absolutely, but she never expressed that." Her family members are the ones who are upset. Barbara Khoury doesn't have any extra in her monthly budget. So to pay the $280 bill, she had to go to the bank and take out a loan. "That's just totally wrong," Don Khoury said. He believes none of this should have happened in the first place. "She just wanted help," he said. But Barbara Khoury and her family are grateful Rascal is still with them, and for that, they thank the officer's bad aim. "That's a real good thing, yeah, or else the dog could have been in a lot worse shape," Don Khoury said. |
Karyn Hayno-Steele wasn't paying attention to the weather developing around her Thursday afternoon when her backyard furniture started flying through the air. "I've never seen it moving around in my yard," she said. The storm damaged at least 15 to 20 buildings in the Arlington area Thursday starting around 4:25 p.m., with one person treated for minor injuries, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said. The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado did touch down and calculated the maximum wind speeds at 125 mph north of Monument Road. The tornado was the strongest tornado Jacksonville has experienced since August 2004. Slideshow: A look at the tornado's aftermath Multimedia: National Weather Service Jacksonville story summary At least 2 to 4 inches of rain soaked the city, the Weather Service said. Melissa Bujeda, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said several homes were reported damaged. The Mathews Bridge was closed and trees and flooding blocked multiple roadways. Bujeda said the "wind event" produced signs of damage for about a mile along Monument Road. On Monument, about 30 yards of privacy fence toppled. Rick Williamson screwed boards over the front door and a blown-out window of a home owned by his mother-in-law, Martha Prince. On the second floor of the building, the side wall leaned outward, and Williamson worried whether it would give way overnight. "Gravity is going to do what it's going to do," he said. The wind had blown out upper-floor windows and sucked at the wall causing it to pull away from the roof line. Inside, his mother-in-law's pictures and mementos still were in place. "She's going to freak out because everything she owns is in there," Williamson said of his mother-in-law, who was not in the home during the storm. Tom Francis, spokesman for Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, said lightning from the storm may have started two home fires. The first home caught fire in the 4400 block of Misty Dawn Court in Charter Point. A resident saw a bright flash and then smoke, Francis said. Firefighters put it out in about 20 minutes, he said. The other fire started about 4:30 p.m. in the 5400 block of Heronview Drive. No one was in the home when the fire started and firefighters were able to put it out in about 10 minutes, Francis said. There were no injuries in either fire, he said. Ellen Swenson, who has lived in a neighborhood off Derringer Road for 33 years, said she used to decorate a 30-foot magnolia tree for Christmas. The tree snapped in half and was leaning against another tree after the storm passed. Melody Nieves and her children, 19-month-old Benjamin and 5-year-old Brooklyn, weathered the storm in the bathroom of their home after hearing a loud, "crazy" noise. "I was just praying the whole time and everything started falling," she said. "When I came out I was in shock but it is all material damage. I'm just glad my babies are OK." Times-Union photographer Bob Self contributed to this report. steve.patterson@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4263 derek.gilliam@jacksonville.com (904) 359-4619 |
Last week, Deadspin columnist Drew Magary touched upon a common, but often undiscussed, male behavior: When a dude invites a lady friend over to “just hang out” and “watch a movie” (top-secret guy code for “try to get his fuck on”), he often plays a film he’s seen countless times before: If I’m having sex with the TV on, it’s not gonna be prestige TV. It’s gonna be something completely disposable and worthless, or it’s gonna be a movie I’ve already seen before (putting on an old movie you don’t REALLY need to watch again is a standard horny guy date move). This practice is less acceptable than in its pre-“Netflix-‘n’-chill,” DVD era heyday, when your viewing choices were limited to whatever shiny discs you had on hand. It’s hard to justify watching a film you’ve seen multiple times before now that the entirety of cinematic history (more or less) is accessible from your Apple TV. That’s thirsty, man. Yet the question remains: What’s the ideal date night movie? Choosing the right one is a delicate art, one that requires balancing several different factors — e.g., how long you’ve been dating, the ambiance you’re trying to cultivate and your date’s tolerance for gratuitous sex, violence and gore? I plumbed the depths of Reddit in the hopes of finding a definitive answer, and sure enough, there a lot of people on there giving recommendations about which movies are best for not actually watching. Oh, and whatever you do, don’t watch Antichrist. As several Reddit users attest, that movie will leave you feeling sexless for months (unless you’re into some really kinky shit, like genital self-mutilation). The Plot: Like many a teen sex comedy, Can’t Hardly Wait is the story of a group of horny youngsters trying to make good on their unrequited crushes at a graduation bash. The main story is actually a love triangle between the hottest girl in school (Amanda Beckett, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt); the lovesick loser who’s pined for her for years (Preston Meyers, played by Ethan Embry); and the douchebag jock who just dumped her (Mike Dexter, played Peter Facinelli). The best performance comes from Seth Green, however, who portrays Kenny, the white suburban doofus who relentlessly appropriates hip-hop culture. Problematic! The Vibe It Gives Off: Like the annoyingly earnest Preston, I am endlessly caring man who will love you for all eternity, even if never even learn my name! (Also, I’ve been stalking you for the past four years.) The Plot: Also known as the Ryan Gosling abs movie, Crazy Stupid Love is sure to inspire unrealistic expectations of chivalry and physically hotness among female viewers, and body dysmorphia among male ones. Six packs aside, Crazy Stupid Love is charming and funny and provides legitimately helpful dating and relationship lessons for men. Jacob (Gosling) learns the thrill of seducing countless scores of women pales in comparison to having a genuine emotional connection with just one, and Cal (Steve Carell) learns a healthy marriage takes constant attention and maintenance, both of yourself and each other. The Vibe It Gives Off: Beneath this rakish, well-coiffed exterior is a broken man who just needs love. Save me! (Subtext: I’m emotionally unavailable and talking to three other girls.) The Plot: A teen comedy rendition of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, this film is about the heavily sought-after queen bee (Larisa Oleynik); her hostile, “less-attractive” older sister (Julia Stiles); and the social outcasts (Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who dare try to woo them. This movie is fondly remembered by millennials, in part because it features a very young, very hunky version of the fondly remembered Ledger. But the movie itself is endearing and fun, and the soundtrack provides a nostalgic trip back to more innocent days of innocuous, pre-9/11 alt-rock. The Vibe It Gives Off: I’m an insufferable, emotionally stunted manchild who harbors a grating obsession with the pop-culture arcana from my childhood. But what I lack in maturity, I make up for in student-loan debt. The Plot: Bros have been in love with Love, Actually for years, presumably because they think it’s great for getting women in the mood for some old-fashioned, fireside, holiday-season fucking. Bros have even been known to refer to the holidays as “Love Actually season.” This is bewildering because Love, Actually is actually depressing as all hell, and contains few examples of actual enduring love. The film starts with a man giving the eulogy for his wife, who just died of cancer. Another storyline follows a married man leaving his wife for his younger, more comely secretary (classic). In another, a couple’s burgeoning romance is undone by the woman’s inability to say no to her mentally disabled brother. The most iconic (and insane) of Love, Actually’s storylines involves Mark (Andrew Lincoln) professing his undying love for his best friend’s wife in the corniest, most inconvenient way possible. What would have happened if his friend Peter (Chiwetel Ejiofor), and not Juliet (Keira Knightley), had answered the door? Peter would’ve beaten Mark senseless, that’s what. The Vibe It Gives Off: I may be basic, but Christmas-time is great for loving, nonetheless. The Plot: Another head scratcher considering the film is all about a man trying to get over a breakup. Nothing says, “I love you” like a film about a man removing any trace of his ex-girlfriend from his memory, apparently. Men presumably throw on this film so they can mansplain the neurologica nature of memory, expound on the genius of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and come across as having refined taste. The Vibe It Gives Off: I’m a total cuckboi. The Plot: The most commonly recommended date night movie on Reddit is Rob Reiner’s timeless 1987 masterpiece Princess Bride. It’s the perfect date movie, as it strikes the perfect balance between romantic and comedic, silly and serious, fantastical and human. And there’s something for everyone: Giants, sword fights, dog-sized rats; an absolutely radiant Princess Humperdink (Robin Wright) and the equally dreamy Westley (Cary Elwes); the satisfaction of besting some self-impressed asshole in a battle of wits and Billy Crystal made up as some kind of troll-wizard. The only potential downside is that if your date hasn’t seen Princess Bride before, she will probably slap your hand away when you make a move because she’s too enthralled. The Vibe It Gives Off: I’m both funny and romantic. Also, if you ever want me to wear a Zorro mask in bed, I’m totally down. |
Nate Silver gives Mitt Romney a 16 percent chance of winning, and gives Republicans a 22 percent chance of taking the Senate. A month is an eternity in politics, it ain’t over until it’s over, yada yada, but the main suspense right now is whether the Democrats can retake the House — I’m eagerly waiting for Nate’s take. And what this means is that in DC thoughts are turning to … Simpson Bowles. You know what will happen if the expected result materializes and Obama is reelected: all the Very Serious People will clamor for him to return to the pursuit of a Grand Bargain, built around S-B. So, a public service reminder: Simpson-Bowles is terrible. It mucks around with taxes, but is obsessed with lowering marginal rates despite a complete absence of evidence that this is important. It offers nothing on Medicare that isn’t already in the Affordable Care Act. And it raises the Social Security retirement age because life expectancy has risen — completely ignoring the fact that life expectancy has only gone up for the well-off and well-educated, while stagnating or even declining among the people who need the program most. Yes, I know, inside the Beltway Simpson and Bowles have become sacred figures. But the people doing that elevation are the same people who told us that Paul Ryan was the answer to our fiscal prayers. |
The company that manages an East York apartment building has dropped a demand that tenants pay extra for the right to use their air conditioning units after a CBC Toronto investigation uncovered it is illegal to request annual usage fees, changing some resident's original contracts. "There will be no change to the status of tenant-owned air conditioning units at this time," said a letter sent to tenants on Thursday from the management company, CAPREIT Limited Partnership. The move comes two days after CBC Toronto received a complaint from Patricia Steward, who has lived in the apartment building for 49 years. She says her air conditioner has been perched in her window for almost three decades. "I am ecstatic. I've been celebrating," Steward said after learning the news. "They finally did something right for us." 'You have to stand up to them' Steward, 76, claimed she was ready to fight the $125 hike. "You have to stand up to them, otherwise they'll get away with it," she said. Geordie Dent, executive director of the Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations — a non-profit group that advocates for tenant's rights — told CBC Toronto on Tuesday he deals with this ever year. 'It's incredible the number of people who don't know their rights and they're told one thing — especially the older ones — and they do it.' - Patricia Steward "There are literally tens of thousands of tenants getting these notices this summer, and a lot of them are going to be illegal," Dent told CBC Toronto previously. These fees have a serious impact on tenants, he suggested. "In our opinion, it's one of the great illegal wealth transfers that happen in the city every year from people who don't make a lot of money to millionaires and billionaires that are gouging them for illegal fees." 'They're in the business of making money' In the letter distributed Thursday, the landlord assured tenants who had already paid the "seasonal fees" that they would receive a full refund. Those who had removed their air conditioning units may reinstall them, management added. An indignant Steward, who took issue with the fee from the start, claims this shows the level of fear tenants have when complying with management's demands. "It's incredible the number of people who don't know their rights and they're told one thing — especially the older ones — and they do it. Anything to avoid being evicted," she said. While she can afford the set usage fees, it was the principle of the original letter itself she took issue with. "We have seniors here and that would be a hardship for them," Steward explained. "They're in the business of making money and not caring for people." CBC Toronto reached out to the management company to talk about their decision, but has not received a response. |
Share. Games aren't all about competition. Games aren't all about competition. Board games can be a competitive hobby that pits friend against friend in a ruthless contest for victory points and bragging rights. But sometimes it’s good to set aside your differences, sit on the same side of the table and work towards a common goal. Luckily, there are plenty of quality cooperative games with which to set aside competition and forge bonds of friendship in the fires of teamwork. Here are 10 of the best cooperative board games ever made. Pandemic Legacy Players: 2-4 Playtime: 60 minutes Pandemic put cooperative games on the map, and for good reason. Much of the genre’s hallmark mechanics originated here, from action point allocation to player roles with unique abilities. It also spawned a bevy of expansions and spinoffs, but Pandemic Legacy is the best and more revolutionary take on the virus-eradicating co-op game. It takes the core rules of Pandemic and stretches them into a campaign-length adventure played out over several sessions as you race to cure disease and prevent epidemics. This version introduces permanence as a mechanic, as the rules force you to rip up cards, sticker the board and alter the physical components in other ways as things (inevitably) don’t go your way. It’s a novel ruleset that has earned Legacy the number one ranking on Board Game Geek. The only potential drawback is that you must play with the same players each session, but because the game is so good everyone will be eager to jump back in. Sentinels of the Multiverse Players: 1-5 Playtime: 30-60 minutes Of the “superhero card game” subgenre, Sentinels of the Multiverse is the best, edging out Marvel and DC’s efforts. In Sentinels, players take on the role of superheroes in a clash against one of four game-controlled villains, and must team up to take them down. The game is full of personality and offers up a very streamlined gameplay experience, which is impressive given that it is publisher Greater Than Games’ first effort. If you’re after a comic book-themed cooperative game night, Sentinels of the Multiverse is hard to beat. Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island Players: 1-4 Playtime: 90-180 minutes Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island is a daunting and dark game, but players willing to wade through the sea of iconography, hefty rulebook and stifling theme will be rewarded with a satisfying survival simulation that rewards communication and teamwork. Based on the 1719 novel, players take on the role of survivors of a shipwreck that are must work together to gather food, build shelters, stave off attacks and explore the island. The combination of different scenarios and player characters ensure good replayability, while the survival mechanics do a fantastic job of selling the theme. Escape: The Curse of the Temple Players: 1-5 Playtime: 10 minutes If you find yourself with a few minutes of free time, Escape: TheCurse of the Temple is a great choice. Here, players take on the role of Indiana Jones-style explorers who must escape from a temple with a valuable relic. You do this by rolling dice, Yahtzee-style, in order to open up new rooms and search for the exit, and you can lend players your dice should they find themselves trapped in a room. The gimmick is that the game takes place in real time rather than being turn-based. The included CD serves as a timer that gives audio cues about how much of the game’s 10-minute playtime is left. Because all players must escape the temple in order to win, Curse of the Temple is every bit a cooperative experience. It is a lot of fun when everyone at the table is frantically rolling dice and yelling about getting cursed or trapped in a room. Escape is a great choice for families, or for those with just a little spare time. Mysterium Players: 2-7 Playtime: 50-60 minutes Part Clue, part seance, Mysterium drops players into the robes of psychic mediums tasked with solving a murder. One player plays a ghost who must, without speaking, guide the psychics in learning who committed the murder, where, and with what weapon. The ghost does this by altering the other players’ dreams through the use of beautifully illustrated cards that serve as clues. The players must interpret what their card means in hopes of guessing what the ghost is pointing to. It’s an absolute riot (and a bit frustrating) as the ghost to watch the psychics trying to piece together the symbols on their cards without being able to interject. Mysterium is not only a fantastic co-op game, but also a great party game. Hanabi Players: 2-5 Playtime: 25 minutes Hanabi is a cooperative card game where players attempt to build a magnificent fireworks display by playing cards in rows numbered 1 through 5 in matching colors. The hook is that you cannot see the cards in your hand, but the other players can. On your turn, you can either play a card from your hand in hopes that it’s the proper number and color, or you can give a clue to another player about the cards in their hand. Cooperative in every sense of the word, Hanabi relies almost entirely on your communication and memory skills, which can be rewarding or frustrating depending on your outlook. Just be prepared for arguments when you inevitably play the incorrect card from your hand even after you’ve been explicitly (or so your partners claim) told what you’re holding. Gloomhaven Players: 1-4 Playtime: 90-150 minutes To call Gloomhaven a fantasy adventure game is technically accurate, but a bit reductive. It tells the story of mercenaries chasing different goals in a changing world, and the legacy they leave behind. Gloomhaven takes the legacy system from Pandemic Legacy and weaves it into an epic fantasy campaign that takes place over generations. Each hero comes with a personal goal that, when completed, sends the hero into retirement and unlocks new classes and story elements. Upon retiring a hero, you will take control of another, which results in an impressive sense of time progression. The game includes several sealed boxes that are only opened upon reaching certain milestones, which makes Gloomhaven a game with a grand scale that is unmatched in the board game medium. Arkham Horror Players: 1-8 Playtime: 120-360 minutes H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulu mythos is ripe for cooperative gaming, and Arkham Horror does it best. This cooperative adventure sees players working together to stop the release of the Ancient Ones upon our world by way of upgrading their characters, tracking their sanity, and acquiring new weapons and items, and the mixture of horror and noir themes is still unique in the gaming landscape over a decade later. If the hefty playtime and table space required to play Arkham Horror scare you off, there are other, more streamlined ways to dive into the Arkham-verse, including Eldritch Horror, Elder Sign, and the Arkham Horror card game. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective Players: 1-8 Playtime: 60-120 minutes Sherlock Holmes is one of the most enduring fictional characters of all time, and for good reason. Watching him solve a seemingly impossible mystery with all the confidence and bravado of a stage actor has been a favorite pastime of generations of book readers and television watchers. With Consulting Detective, you finally get the chance to step into the shoes of Holmes and test your own deduction skills in a series of nonlinear mysteries. What makes the game great is how it refuses to hold your hand; each mystery presents a short setup and then sets you loose on London, leaving you to visit notable locations, interview suspects, and make educated accusations. Be warned, however, that these mysteries are tough, and may make you question your intelligence on more than one occasion. Betrayal at House on the Hill Players: 3-6 Playtime: 60 minutes The board game equivalent of a haunted house simulator, Betrayal at House on the Hill drops players into a mansion and forces them to confront the horrors inside. It starts fairly innocently, as you explore the randomly generated house and gather up items, but about halfway through the game, one of several different “haunt” events is triggered and one of the players betrays the group. The game then becomes about stopping that player and escaping the mansion alive. The hook is that nobody knows who the traitor will be, including the traitor themself. It’s a very fun mechanic that keeps everyone on their toes the entire game. Each scenario offers up a lot of variety in game mechanics and theme, from a huge world-eating snake that can be in several places at once, to a pyromaniac who has planted bombs around the mansion that must be disarmed. Betrayal is a perfect choice for a casual game night that will keep the group engaged until the very end. |
Image caption The Resurrection of Lazarus depicts the story in the Gospel of St John in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Caravaggio's Resurrection of Lazarus has gone on display in Rome, after seven months of restoration work. The painting, also known as The Raising of Lazarus, is believed to have been painted in 1609, one year before the artist's death at the age of 38. It depicts the story in the Gospel of St John in which Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. It marks the first time the painting has been restored in 60 years. It will remain in Rome until 15 July. The painting was housed for centuries in the church of the Crociferi fathers in Messina, Sicily, before it was moved to the city's museum. It shows the instant that Christ points to the dead Lazarus - who is being held in the arms of those who exhumed him - and brings his friend back to life. Image caption Caravaggio's 'Lazarus' before and after its restoration in Rome The background of the painting is mostly dark, which art historians say was probably because Caravaggio was in a hurry to complete the commission. "During this period of his life, Caravaggio was forced to finish his paintings very quickly, and therefore he refined his technique in order to achieve this objective," said restorer Anna Maria Marcone. "He used local materials and used the dark background in order to quickly realise the figures," she told a news conference. The painting was done on six pieces of canvas - five vertical and one horizontal - that were sewn together to reach the desired size. Marcone said the most difficult part of the restoration was repairing some of the damage done by what was believed to have been the first restoration on the painting, in 1670. The painting was unscathed in the great Messina earthquake of 1908, which killed some 200,000 people and destroyed thousands of buildings in Sicily and Calabria. It will be on display in Rome's Palazzo Braschi, overlooking Piazza Navona, until mid July, when it will be returned to Sicily. |
The Studebaker US6 (G630) was a series of 2½-ton 6x6 and 5-ton 6x4 trucks manufactured by the Studebaker Corporation and REO Motor Car Company during World War II. The basic cargo version was designed to transport a 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) cargo load over all types of terrain in all kinds of weather. Most of these were exported to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease by the USA during World War II, since the competing GMC 6x6 CCKW design proved to be more suitable for Western Front conditions. History [ edit ] Design and development [ edit ] In 1939-1940 the US Army Ordnance Corps was developing 2 1⁄ 2 -ton (2,238 kg) tactical 6×6 trucks that could operate off-road in all weather. Studebaker, Yellow Coach (a GM company) and International Harvester all submitted designs that were accepted and went into production in 1941. A total of 219,882 2 1⁄ 2 -ton (2,268 kg) 6x6 trucks and similar 5-ton (4,536 kg) 6x4 versions in thirteen variations were built. Studebaker was the primary manufacturer, which built 197,678 of them at their South Bend IN plant, while REO produced 22,204 more at their Chicago IL plant from 1944 under a sub-contract. REO trucks are identical to Studebakers, but REO only built cargo-model trucks with the long wheelbase and without the front-mounted winch, more specifically referred to as the US6 U9. All production by both manufacturers ended in 1945. Service [ edit ] The US6 was manufactured primarily for export under Lend-Lease. The Soviet Union would become the largest foreign operator. The first Studebaker US6 trucks arrived in the USSR in the autumn of 1941. The Red Army organized a test of eleven 6x6 "Studebekkers" (as they become referred to in the USSR) which took place between July 1942 and May 1943. The results were used to direct the enlargement of the payload from 2 1⁄ 2 tons (2,300 kg) to 4 tons (3,600 kg). In 1945, it was lowered to 3 1⁄ 2 tons (3,200 kg, although on improved roads they could carry up to a maximum of 5 tons (4,500 kg). Large numbers of Studebaker US6 trucks were supplied to the Soviet Union via the Persian Corridor in Iran under the USA's Lend-Lease program. The truck fulfilled many important roles in service with Soviet military forces during the war, such as towing artillery pieces and anti-tank guns and transporting troops over long distances. It was renowned for its overall ruggedness and reliability, including its ability to run on poor-quality fuel. The Soviet Red Army also found them to be a suitable platform for conversion into Katyusha rocket launchers, although this was not their main purpose. The truck became affectionately known as the Studer by Soviet troops and was even recognised of its importance (to the Soviet war effort) by Joseph Stalin, who sent a personal letter of appreciation to Studebaker, in which he thanked them for the superb quality of the US6 for Soviet service. Studebaker US6 trucks were also used by the US military in the construction of the Ledo Road and the Alcan Highway in North America during WWII. Following the end of WWII, the US6 strongly influenced the USSR's design of the ZiS/ZiL-151 truck, which, in turn, evolved into the similar (and succeeding) ZiL-157. Specifications [ edit ] Engine and driveline [ edit ] Hercules JXD engine Dump truck w/winch shift patterns Long wheelbase frame The US6 used a Hercules JXD engine, with an 320 cu in (5.2 L) L-head inline 6 cylinder gasoline engine developing 86 hp (64 kW) at 2800 rpm and 200 lbf⋅ft (271 N⋅m) of torque at 1150 rpm. A conservative-type and highly-reliable engine with a compression ratio of only 5.82:1, it could use 72-octane gasoline. This same engine was also used in the M3 half-tracks and, later, M8 Greyhound and M20 armoured cars (the latter was a variant (lacking the gun turret) of the M8 Greyhound). The Warner T 93 5 speed transmission had a very low first, a direct fourth and an overdrive fifth gear. A power take-off could be fitted to operate a winch (mounted just below in front of the radiator) and/or the hydraulic hoist on dump trucks (the U10/U11 and U12/U13 dump truck models). The Timken T-79 transfer case had high and low ranges, a neutral position and could either engage or disengage the front axle. There was one output shaft mounted forward to the front axle (not used in 6x4 trucks) and two to the rear, with one for each rear axle. Both front and rear axles were of the Timken split-type with a ratio of 6.6:1. The front axle had ball-type constant-velocity joints while the two at the rear were full-floating. Chassis [ edit ] The US6 had a ladder frame with three beam axles, the front on semi elliptical leaf springs, the rear tandem on quarter elliptical leaf springs with locating arms. There were two wheelbases, the short 148 inches (3.76 m), used in semi tractors, dump trucks, and short cargo models, and the long 162 inches (4.11 m), used in tankers, long cargo models, and the U9 chassis cab (measurements are from the centerline of the front axle to the centerline of rear bogie). All models had 7.50-20” tires and dual rear tires. 6x4 models, intended for on road use only, were rated at 5 tons (4536 kg), twice the 6x6’s off-road rating. Cab [ edit ] The US6 carried the design of Studebaker’s civilian truck cab, although it was modified for military use. Studebaker trucks were different from other 2 1⁄ 2 6x6 trucks built for the war effort of the USA because vent windows were included in each door. These vent windows were separate from the main window that rolled down into the door-frame and could be swung out to help with the truck cab's ventilation. Studebaker also designed the open-type military truck cab which was featured on the GMC CCKW (later models), but their major customer, the USSR, preferred the closed cab for their generally harsh (cold-weather) climate. While Studebaker's open-type truck cab became the American standard, production of the US6 with the closed-type truck cab was restarted after only 10,000 units of the former. Models [ edit ] Cargo U4 Tank U5 Tractor U6 Dump U11 Dump U13 The U1 and the U2 cargo trucks (which had a frontally-mounted winch) had a short wheelbase and the spare tire was mounted behind the cab, thus allowing a truck-bed measuring only 9 ft (2.74 m) long. These “prime mover”-style bodies were not a success as the US6 was to be mainly used for transporting cargo. The U3/U4 and the 6x4 U7/U8 cargo trucks had a longer wheelbase, which allowed the spare tire to be mounted under the 12 ft (3.66 m) truck-bed. 197,000 trucks with the 12 ft (3.66 m) truck-bed were built. The U5 tank truck had a long wheelbase and a two-compartment 750 U.S. gal (2,800 l) tank mounted on the truck-bed. Tanker trucks were not equipped with winches. The 6x4 U6 semi-tractor was the only semi-tractor version in the entire US6 truck series. Semi-tractors have limited off-road performance and, therefore, the U6 was rated for a 5-ton load on improved roads. For this same reason, they had no frontally-mounted winch. The U9 cargo truck had a long wheelbase and lacked a frontally-mounted winch. The Soviet Katyusha multiple rocket launcher could be mounted on their truck-beds (most of the US6 trucks in Red Army service were of the U9 model). The U10/U11 (end-type) and the U12/U13 (side-type) dump trucks had a short wheelbase. Both types had the dump-body mounted on a sub-frame at the rear of the truck, with the end-type dump having a hydraulic cylinder attached to the chassis with a lever arrangement while the side-type dump had the hydraulic cylinder mounted directly to the truck body. Dimensions [ edit ] Model Wheelbase Length[a] Width Height Weight empty[b] U1 Cargo (U2 with winch) Short 20 ft 11 in (6.38 m) 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m)[c] 9,875 lb (4,479 kg) U3 Cargo (long) (U4 with winch) Long 27 ft 11 in (8.51 m) 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m)[c] U5 Tank Long 20 ft 11 in (6.38 m) 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m) [d] 10,585 lb (4,801 kg) U6 Tractor Short (6x4) 17 ft 3 in (5.26 m) 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m) 7 ft 2 in (2.18 m)[d] 8,190 lb (3,710 kg) U7 Cargo (long) (U8 with winch) Long (6x4) 27 ft 11 in (8.51 m) 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) 8 ft 10 in (2.69 m)[c] U9 Cab/chassis Long 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m) 7 ft 3 in (2.21 m)[d] U10 End dump (U11 with winch) Short 18 ft 9 in (5.72 m) 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m)[e] 10,150 lb (4,600 kg) U12 Side dump (U13 with winch) Short 18 ft 11 in (5.77 m) 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) 7 ft 7 in (2.31 m)[e] 10,150 lb (4,600 kg) ^ With winch add 1 ft 3 in (0.38 m). ^ With winch add 610 lb (280 kg). a b c To cargo area tarpaulin bows. a b c To top of cab. a b To top of dump body cab shield. Cargo truck (Privately owned and fully restored) Cargo truck (in Berlin, May 1945) Semi-tractor trailer (Museum exhibit) Semi-tractor trailers (along the Persian Corridor, some time in 1943) Katyusha mobile-type multiple rocket launcher (Museum exhibit) A battery of Katyusha MRLS firing (at Stalingrad, some time in 1942) See also [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] |
0 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard It is looking more and more likely that Sen. Bernie Sanders is going to challenge Hillary Clinton and run for the 2016 Democratic nomination. msnbc reported that Sen. Sanders is leaning towards running for the Democratic nomination in 2016: Sen. Bernie Sanders is only days away from making a decision on a 2016 run, and leaning towards yes, according to his top strategist. “I think we’re coming to the critical moment of truth here. He’s now spent enough time traveling around the country talking to people and feels there is genuinely a large audience of people who are with him,” veteran Democratic strategist Tad Devine, who is advising Sanders, told msnbc. A formal announcement of his candidacy is expected to occur later in May. It must be noted that a lean is not a yes, and Sen. Sanders could change his mind, but if the answer was going to be no, it would be expected that the trips to early primary states would cease and a flat denial of his candidacy would be issued. If Sen. Sanders (I-VT) does run, it will be great news for Democrats and liberals on numerous fronts. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is not running. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has not traction with Democratic voters. Sen. Sanders is largely unknown to many rank and file Democrats, but he is on television often enough that he has more of a base of support than any of the other non-Clinton Democrats who are considering running. A Sanders campaign means that voters would likely get to see some Democratic primary debates, and the issues that might be debated include income inequality, Wall Street, the need to break up the big banks, trade agreements, Citizens United, and several other issues that do not get attention in the mainstream press but deeply matter to many on the left. Sen. Sanders has stated from the beginning of this process that he would run if no one else from the left stepped up to challenge Hillary Clinton. No credible challenger has emerged, so it looks like Bernie Sanders is running. Sanders draws passionate crowds all across the country when he speaks, and he will bring that passion with him to the campaign trail. Sen. Sanders will have to run a small grassroots campaign. His odds of being the Democratic nominee are slim, but while he wants to win, Sanders’s candidacy will be important because it will allow for a discussion of important issues. Bernie Sanders will be a welcome addition to the 2016 race. If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
One thing the Seattle Seahawks didn’t do in the draft that most people expected them to is select a big-body wide receiver. They did, however, choose 5-foot-10 Tyler Lockett in the third round, an explosive player who likely will take over as the team’s punt and kick returner. Seattle general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll probably have two reasons for not making a bigger receiver a draft priority. One is the acquisition of Pro Bowl tight end Jimmy Graham from the Saints. At 6-foot-7, 265 pounds, Graham is a hybrid who often lines up as a wideout. So that gives the team a big-body presence outside at times. The other reason is the optimism over Chris Matthews, who had a breakout performance in the Super Bowl with four receptions for 109 yards and a TD. Matthews is 6-5, 220 pounds. “Chris is an exciting prospect coming back to camp,’’ Carroll said. “He made a big impression at the Super Bowl. He had made a big impression on us anyway. So we brought him back to go to work and he did a nice job.” Matthews came to the Seahawks from the CFL, but was released at the end of the preseason last summer and placed on the practice squad. He was added to the 53-man roster on Dec. 6. “We go into this camp thinking Chris is going to be a big guy and the big receiver in this offense,” Carroll said. “He is as good as it gets to fill that expectation. We’ll see how he does.” |
Get the biggest Manchester City FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Manchester City are still in the fight to sign Paul Pogba this summer, according to Italian sources. And they may have found an unlikely ally in their bid to prise the France star away from Juventus – former arch-enemy Sir Alex Ferguson. The ex-United manager is rumoured to have told an Italian journalist who spoke to him at Wimbledon that Juve should sell their star player. Whether that is true or not, the newspaper closest to Juventus, Turin-based Tuttosport, is not certain that Pogba will still be with the club at the start of the new season. That would mean City and Paris St Germain are the only realistic destinations, with Barcelona – who hope to grab him next summer – ruled out this year. Juve are said to be readying a £28m move for Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil, although that does not depend on selling Pogba, as they have already lost Carlos Tevez and Andrea Pirlo this summer. City cooled their interest in Pogba last week after being quoted a £71million fee and £220,000 a week wages – but that is seen as a negotiating tactic. The Blues could also sell Edin Dzeko to Roma with the Serie A club poised to rake in £14.4million for the sale of defender Alessio Romagnoli to AC Milan. Roma aim to use the cash to land Dzeko. More on City Inter Milan are ready to offer a £10.8m package to land Stevan Jovetic. Roberto Mancini’s club have cooked up a loan for £1.44m with a guaranteed purchase next summer of £9.35million – but it is still short of City’s £14.4m valuation. |
The most common treatments for cancer are radiation and chemotherapy. However they have side effects and also damage healthy tissues. Moreover, their effectiveness is limited when the cancer has spread through out the body. Researchers at the Niels Bohr Institute are therefore working to develop a gentler treatment that 'tricks' the cancer cells, which would absorb a cytotoxin and therefore be destroyed, while healthy cells would remain unaffected. The results are published in the scientific journal, Scientific Reports. Physicist Murillo Martins at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen had an idea. He wanted to construct a kind of nanoscale 'lorry' that could transport the cytotoxin directly to the cancer cells via the bloodstream and would prompt the cells to let the 'load' in so that the cancer cells were destroyed. It is something you could imagine in a science fiction film, but could it be done in the real world? The first task was the 'vehicle' itself. For that he decided to use tiny magnetic beads, an approach well known in medical research. You can inject the beads into the bloodstream and by placing a magnet at the site where the tumour is located you can get the beads to move there. The next step was the cytotoxic load. "We designed a ring-shaped sac of a biologically useful base material and using chemical processes we encapsulated the cytotoxin surrounding the beads. The coupling does not always happen, but using a separation process we can sort the beads from where the coupling with the sac did not succeed," explains Murillo Martins, a postdoc in X-Ray and Neutron Science at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen. At the neutron scattering facility LANSCE in the US and the synchrotron facility at the Paul Scherrer Institute, PSI in Switzerland, they could 'look inside' the package with the cytotoxin and confirm that the cytotoxin was encapsulated in the ring-shaped package. Doorways into the cell The next problem to be solved was to get the package into the cell. A cell has a surrounding membrane that protects the cell against foreign substances. But it also has keyholes or receptors that can open up if the cell wants to let a substances enter. These substances must have a key that fits into the keyholes. "Then I thought, why do breast cancer, lung cancer and ovarian cancer so often spread to the bones? Bones are composed of minerals like calcium phosphates. Do cancer cells need these substances to grow? Can these substances be used as doorways to the cell? I decided to investigate this," explains Murillo Martins. So he made a coating of calcium phosphate on the package with the cytotoxin. Now they had to test whether the idea worked. Would the package with the cytotoxin be absorbed into the cells? And which effect would they have? Sick cells die, healthy cells are unaffected They carried out experiments with breast cancer, lung cancer and colon cancer cells along with healthy cells (monocytes and fibroblasts) at the Laboratory of Tumour Immunology at the School of Bioscience in Botucatu, Brazil. The studies showed that the cancer cells actually absorbed the packages with the cytotoxin. But what kind of effect would they have? Cancer cells and healthy cells have very different metabolisms and the two types of cells responded differently to the encapsulated anti-cancer agents. "We could see that the nanoparticles with the cytotoxin were absorbed by the cancer cells. This caused the metabolism of the cancer cells to change and the cells showed signs that they were about to die. The healthy cells, meanwhile, do not show any evidences of absorbing the packages with the cytotoxin. This suggests that the method can be used to send cytotoxin around the body with reduced toxicity and could therefore be potentially safer for healthy cells," explains Heloisa Bordallo, Associate Professor in X-Ray and Neutron Science at the Niels Bohr Institute. ### Contact: Murillo Longo Martins, Postdoc in X-Ray and Neutron Science at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, +45 9192-5369, murillolongo@gmail.com Heloisa Nuñes Bordallo, Associate Professor in X-Ray and Neutron Science at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, +45 2130-8829, bordallo@nbi.ku.dk |
As the new head coach of the Washington Capitals, Adam Oates said he plans to implement a style similar to what he saw from the New Jersey Devils and Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup finals: An in-your-face brand of hockey that dictates the course of a contest, balancing offensive intensity with sound defense. What he doesn’t want to change in the slightest, though, is the attention to detail Washington showed in the playoffs under the previous coach — and Oates’s former Capitals teammate — Dale Hunter. He wants that exact level of commitment in adhering to a game plan. “I really feel the game today is territory. You have to establish territory and protect it,” Oates said Wednesday during his introduction at Verizon Center. “I look at the Caps’ lineup and the talent level and I don’t see any reason why we can’t push the pace, be an aggressive team, but at the same time not sacrificing defense and protecting our goalie. That requires commitment all over the ice.” Oates said he will draw on the influences of coaches he’s played for and worked with as he makes the transition. But he will also take cues from what he wanted when he was a player — communication and feedback — as he works to earn the respect of the Capitals. While Oates will soon start that process with each member of the team, the most high-profile relationship will be between him and face-of-the-franchise Alex Ovechkin. The star left wing called Oates on Tuesday to welcome him and expressed his happiness that his new boss “likes offense,” but the real work will begin when the pair discuss Ovechkin’s game in preparation for a new season. “I think he’s a special player; in terms of adding a little bit to his game, I think I can,” said Oates, who praised the physical element of Ovechkin’s game. “But he’s got to earn my trust as a coach first, along with the rest of the guys, and it will be a process that we’re starting soon and looking forward to.” During his two years as an assistant in New Jersey, Oates was credited with helping Devils star Ilya Kovalchuk to become more of a two-way player. Oates acknowledged that there are some similarities between the two Russian wingers. “Ilya is a great guy and he made those adjustments willingly, and it was a huge part for him in the game,” Oates said. “He’s the same guy he was when I first met him — he’s a fabulous guy; he just needed to learn a little bit about the game. Even the superstars need to be coached once in awhile.” In Oates, Capitals General Manager George McPhee selected someone without prior NHL head coaching experience for the fifth straight time, but the newly named Hall of Famer’s intellectual and diligent approach to the game made the Capitals believe he is ready to guide a team. “I think the best way to describe what we tried to do in hiring Adam was simply to go hire a guy with the most upside, the guy that could really be a difference maker,” McPhee said. “We talked to some terrific people but it kept coming back to Adam as the one with the most upside who could really make a difference here.” McPhee cited numerous traits that helped push Oates to the forefront, among them his level of preparation, commitment to the game, understanding of leadership and ability to balance both offensive skill and defensive priorities as a player. He went so far as to compare Oates to former New Jersey and Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire, who was an offensive centerman as a player and developed into one of the most stingy defensive coaches in the NHL, as well as New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick. “You want intelligent guys running the bench,” McPhee said. “A guy like Bill Belichick in New England, he’s a bright guy. You try to get the smartest guy in the room. I just think with Adam’s understanding of this game and his ability to articulate it, he can be that guy.” |
Former Newcastle striker Alan Shearer says the large contingent of French players at the club is unhealthy. Newcastle's recent capture of QPR forward Loic Remy on loan means Alan Pardew's squad has 11 French players. Newcastle's French XI Yohan Cabaye - midfielder signed June 2011 from Lille Moussa Sissoko - midfielder signed January 2013 from Toulouse Hatem Ben Arfa - midfielder signed permanently in January 2011 after loan spell from Marseille Yoan Gouffran - striker signed January 2013 from Bordeaux Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa,- defender signed January 2013 from Montpellier Romain Amalfitano - midfielder signed July 2012 from Stade de Reims Massadio Haidara - defender signed January 2013 from Nancy Sylvain Marveaux - midfielder signed June 2011 from Rennes Gabriel Obertan - midfielder signed August 2011 from Manchester United Mathieu Debuchy - defender signed January 2013 from Lille Loic Remy - striker signed August 2013 on a season-long loan from QPR Shearer is worried it could have a negative impact if things went against Pardew's side. "I don't think it's a healthy thing to have too many French players in one dressing room," Shearer told BBC Radio 5 live. Newcastle finished fifth from bottom in the Premier League table last season and start the 2013-14 campaign away to Manchester City on Monday. "If things start to go against you then little cliques appear [in the dressing room]," added Shearer, who scored 206 goals in 404 games during a 10-year spell at Newcastle before managing the club for eight games in 2009. "I know Arsenal had a lot of French players and went on to be successful. But I don't see Newcastle being that successful." Despite his comments, Shearer is tipping his old club to enjoy a better season than in 2012-13 when they finished 16th. "Two years ago Newcastle overachieved without doubt by finishing fifth," he said. "Last season they underachieved by finishing fifth bottom. If the truth be known, they're somewhere in between. "At the minute I would have them finishing 11th or 12th." |
Late last week, on the eve of Star Wars: Battlefront II's wide release, Electronic Arts made the huge announcement that it was temporarily removing microtransactions. EA did so in the wake of a wave of criticism about how players could spend money to buy loot boxes, which contain items that theoretically provide an advantage on the battlefield. It appears that Wall Street is taking notice of this move, as EA's stock price closed on Friday, November 17--the day Battlefront II came out--down by around 2.5 percent. That comes out to around $2.78, dropping EA's stock price to $108.82 at market close on Friday. The market opens again on Monday morning, so we'll see what happens then. For the month overall, EA's stock price is down by 7 percent, though for the full year, EA is doing incredibly well; it's stock price is up 42 percent this year. EA submitted documentation with the United States Securities & Exchange Commission last week that said the removal of microtransaction is "not expected to have a material impact on EA's fiscal year 2018 financial guidance." For the year ending March 31, 2018, EA expects to make $5.075 billion in revenue and a profit of $1.136 billion. EA will add microtransactions back to Battlefront II in the future, though it remains to be seen when they'll come back and if the progression/loot crate system is changed. If microtransactions come back before the end of EA's FY18, EA's revenue and profit could be even higher. Star Wars: Battlefront II's microtransaction/loot crate system was highly contentious and controversial running back to when players discovered how the system worked in October's open beta. Loot boxes come with random items, but instead of things that are cosmetic only, they can also contain game-affecting things like deadlier grenades or cloaking abilities that give players a theoretical advantage. EA's statement on the removal of Battlefront II's microtransactions quoted DICE boss Oska Gabrielson as saying, "We've heard the concerns about potentially giving players unfair advantages. And we've heard that this is overshadowing an otherwise great game. This was never our intention. Sorry we didn't get this right." With all in-game purchases for Battlefront II now removed, progression is now exclusively tied to gameplay. EA is bringing back microtransactions "at a later date," but not until the studio has time to make unspecified "changes to the game." More details on this changes will come later as DICE considers more feedback and date. One possibility is that Battlefront II's microtransactions will return as cosmetic only, as is the case in Overwatch and other games, though this is just speculation. "We have created a game that is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow," Gabrielson explained. |
I went dressed as a sexy She-ra in a costume I had altered to fit me. I took some photos of myself in the costume when I first got it but I had a few things changed. And I didn't wear the She-ra head piece...that thing hurt! LOL. I had it taken in a little, even though I bought a small, I did want the costume to be a little more, ermm form fitting. And I raised the skirt up a little..to show more leg! Overall I think the alteration worked...what do you think?I liked the Power-con more than I expected. Compared to some of the people there, I'm a casual fan. While I do like She-ra and He-man and have fond memories of the show I watched when I was little, I'm not a hardcore collector. But I had a lot of fun, the panels were awesome and I learned a lot about the creation of the different shows, the main room had a lot to look at, lost of vendors, and the He-man museum was a sight. If you are a Masters of the Universe or Princess of Power fan, this was the place for you.I'm very enthusiastic about next year's event. Will I be cosplaying as a sexy She-ra again? Probably not unless I go to Power-con both of the days. Maybe Adora. LOL.Did you like the pictures? LMK by leaving a comment below or if you have something cool you want to tell me about He-man or She-ra post that too, I'd love to read it!Until next time heroes...I have the POWER!! Tanya |
Every time 6-foot-5 Battlefield left-handed pitcher Nick Wells stepped on the mound this season, it was a spectacle. He has long been on Major League Baseball scouts’ radar because of the combination of his skills and frame, and his stock continued to improve during his dominant senior season. The three-day draft begins Thursday night with the first two rounds. As Baseball America’s No. 119 prospect Wells is expected to be taken early in Friday proceedings, when rounds three through 10 take place. The national magazine lists Wells as the sixth-best prospect in Virginia and the top left-hander in the state. Wells was nearly untouchable this season, and in his final start he struck out 14 batters in a complete-game 4-0 win over South County. In 53 innings pitched, he had 102 strikeouts, six complete games and two no-hitters while allowing eight earned runs for a 1.06 ERA. In his first start of the season, March 31 against Woodbridge, 50 scouts were in the stands. Afterward, there was a steady flow of 20-25 scouts at each of his starts for the Bobcats. Wells has added seven mph on his fastball since last spring through a grueling weight program with Battlefield wreslter Justus Weaver. Weaver is signed to wrestle at Virginia Tech next year at a projected 157 pounds. “You have to work hard to get where you want to be,” said Wells, a College of Charleston signee who will have to decide between college and pro ball. “People said if I work hard, all this could happen. There were days I didn’t want to come out to lift, but Justus Weaver has done a number for me.” Weaver and Wells spent the summer, fall and winter working out together in a barn in Gainesville that belongs to friends of the Wells family. The barn holds a weight room, and Wells said it felt like 100 degrees inside when the duo started the regimen in the summer. As it got progressively colder, they kept working. In the summer, Wells lifted seven times a week and worked out at the Research and Development Baseball Academy four times a week In the fall, scouts took notice of Wells at the Perfect Game WWBA World Championship, where he touched 89 mph. The following week at the South Atlantic Border Battle at the University of North Carolina, about 20 scouts saw him again. At UNC, an adviser told Wells interest in him was soon to heat up, but Wells didn’t believe it. By December, he was receiving at least five questionnaires a week from MLB teams. “I didn’t know it would get like this,” Wells said. “I thought it was two flukes, and it turned out that they really liked me. When the winter hit, his fastball went from 83-86 to 90-93 consistently, his curveball had become sharper, and he gained more command on his change-up. Still, he says his change-up needs more work. Wells hasn’t always been taller than most of his classmates. His mother still has the U14 Virginia Sabres travel ball team photo, in which he was one of the shortest kids. But in the ninth grade, he reached 6 feet, and he has kept growing and might not be finished. Over the next couple weeks, Wells will be faced with a significant decision. College of Charleston advanced to an NCAA super regional and resume play Saturday against Texas Tech, and while Wells has been in constant contact with Cougars Coach Monte Lee, he said Lee has not attempted to sway him. “He’s been great,” Wells said. “ He said, ‘If you get the money you want, I’m not going to hold you back.’ He’s not pushing me either way. He’s been great about it.” After Wells’s name is called, he’s unsure whether he will sign a pro contract. For now, he’s dealing with the realization his high school career is over after the Bobcats lost to McLean in a Virginia 6A North quarterfinal on Monday. “There isn’t a definite number,” Wells said. “If the money comes in and looks good, I’ll take it. But right now I’m still headed down to College of Charleston.” Regarding how highly Wells could get drafted, MLB.com senior writer Jim Callis said, “A lot of it depends on signability with high school guys. . . . If he’s touching 93, you can see that in the third to fifth round.” |
WHEN THE PEOPLE of the United Kingdom went to the polls last year, they were faced with one clear option and one extremely unclear option. The clear option was the status quo: The UK would remain as a member of the European Union. The second option was to leave the EU. What exactly that meant was at that time, and indeed still is, a complete mystery. Many on the Leave side painted Utopian visions of the UK being restored as a global power with the resurgence of the Empire and the ability to be free from the shackles of European bureaucracy, that has supposedly been holding the UK back since 1973. Unclear what Brexit will look like A year on from the Referendum and following two rounds of detailed negotiations, it is far from clear what Brexit will look like, be it soft, hard or red white and blue. It is becoming apparent that the desires of the hard line Brexiteers will certainly not be met. The UK will have to meet its financial commitments in the form of a divorce bill and the UK will also need to compromise on a range of other areas. In addition, the tidal wave of new trade deals has not been forthcoming. In the period that the EU has signed new trade deals with Canada and Japan, the UK has been abruptly told by countries such as Australia that any trade deal will only come after a deal with the EU is signed. Even though Brexit has yet to actually occur, the UK’s economy has suffered with tepid growth rates according to the IMF, declines in household savings and growth while sterling is 11% down against the dollar and 18% down against the euro. At this stage, there is only one mainstream party advocating for an exit from Brexit in the form of the traditional pro-European voices in the Liberal Democrats. Prime Minister Theresa May was a reluctant Remainer as Home Secretary. Now she leads a government whose Brexit position seems to be increasingly driven by the big four Eurosceptic beasts, in the form of David Davis, Liam Fox, Michael Gove and Boris Johnston, with sensible politicians like Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond being constantly undermined. A clear vacuum in the Brexit debate Buoyed by a credible result in the General Election campaign, Jeremy Corbyn remains as leader of the opposition and leader of the supposedly pro-European Labour Party. This is a complex position as prior to becoming leader and prior to the referendum campaign, Jeremy Corbyn was a determined Eurosceptic. After a terrible effort in the referendum campaign itself, Corbyn has begun to reveal his true colours advocating a hard Brexit. Within Scotland, the SNP is more focused on running its own referendum, a second Independence Referendum. In Northern Ireland, the continuing stand-off in Stormont means Northern Ireland’s voice is solely being communicated by the pro Brexit DUP MPs currently propping up the Conservative government. This means that there is a clear vacuum in the Brexit debate in the UK, with no one materially pushing for a second referendum or a de-triggering of Article 50. A few well-intentioned, but realistically toothless, interventions from former leading politicians simply do not have any material bearing over the debate. A second referendum Given the fact that just 52% of people in the UK voted to leave in the EU in the first place and given that only one outcome was ever demonstrated clearly, it would seem eminently sensible to me that following the conclusion of the Brexit negotiations, before the great repeal Act is passed by the Houses of Parliament, that perhaps the people of the UK should be consulted once again in the form of a second referendum. A second referendum campaign could be run with the electorate given two very clear options. Remain within the EU or leave based on the terms of the Brexit negotiations. It is here that I believe that Ireland, as the EU member state that will most be impacted by Brexit, could intervene in this process by proposing an amendment to the negotiation terms requiring that any deal is put before the people in the form of a referendum. It would be a risky move but it could focus the minds of the UK government to take the negotiations a bit more seriously and if it were to come to pass it would prove a welcome opportunity for the people of the UK to have a genuine and open debate about two substantive options before voting accordingly. Senator Neale Richmond is the Fine Gael spokesman on EU Affairs in Seanad Éireann and was the Chairman of the Seanad Brexit Committee. |
Get the biggest Manchester United FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Major League Soccer bosses are ready to throw “big dollars” at Wayne Rooney when he decides to leave Manchester United, writes James Nursey in Seattle. Striker Rooney is struggling to hold on to starting positions for club and country following a poor European Championship and expensive summer signings at Old Trafford. And Merritt Paulson, who owns MLS champions Portland Timbers, has confirmed American franchises are monitoring the 30-year-old’s future closely and are ready to beat lucrative offers expected from China. Paulson said: “I would argue he still has some good soccer ahead of him. “I think he would be a great signing for MLS - 100 per cent MSL would be attractive for him. (Image: Getty) “Keeping in mind that is a very talented footballer, who has quality soccer ahead of him, you are not talking about a 34 or 35 year old. “I get excited about the impact he would have in the MLS more than a guy who is coming in later in his career. “The MLS is offering significant money. There were conversations with some guys who are as big a name as Rooney recently. “Orlando City had some high profile discussions with some players — guys in his age range. There are some big-dollar numbers that have been put out. (Image: Getty) “China is a factor, but also players need to determine where they want to play and what is going to be best for their legacy and lifestyle – where they want to live. “I think America compares really favourably — I wouldn’t want to play soccer in Beijing right now. I am not saying that because I don’t like China but the air quality issue is something they have to deal with in a sport which requires fitness. “Players need to make their own choices but I think about other leagues being competitors for talent more than I do the Chinese league, where certainly there is a lot of money being splashed around.” Watch horror challenge from Gervinho during Chinese Super League clash Paulson bought an MLS place for his hometown Portland, who joined the league in 2011. Now, the 20-team league is planning to expand to 24 franchises by 2020 and has two new sides coming in next year with Atlanta United and Minnesota United. Paulson traces the rise in football's popularity in America back to the signing of David Beckham for LA Galaxy in 2007. (Image: Getty) He added: “I think signing Beckham was a seminal moment for MLS. "Beckham was the only guy who could have had the impact he did.” Rooney has a £300,000-a-week deal at Old Trafford until 2019 but he is being courted by the mega-rich Chinese league. |
New York Red Bulls – New York City FC 2:1 The first ever Hudson River derby provided no shocks as RNBY rather easily beat their neighbors, maintaining a control over the game even after going a man down. Marsch’s RBNY lined up in their customary 4-2-3-1 formation, where a narrow attacking midfield of Grella, Kljestan and Sam support Bradley Wright-Phillips up front. Felipe and Dax McCarty were the two central midfielders whilst the back four consisted of Lawrence, Perrinelle, Duvall and Miazga who was later sent off. The visitors featured in a 4-4-2 formation in which David Villa featured as a striker alongside Shelton. Goalkeeper Saunders was behind a defensive line of Allen, Wingert, Hernandez and Williams whilst Mix Diskerud was a key player in midfield alongside Alvarez, Jacobson and Grabavoy. RBNY Right-Focus After Lloyd Sam assisted BWP’s opening goal in the 4th minute from the right hand side, the home side had a fixation on this area of the pitch during their attacks. Lloyd Sam in particular thrived off of an evident qualitative superiority, where he could isolate Allen and exploit a dominance which developed from a very early stage in the game. From this he threatened frequently, whilst the supporting Duvall and ball-oriented movements of Kljestan were important, at times leading Sam to becoming a free player where he could then dribble directly inside. Through these supporting movements towards the right, overloads were possible which simply emphasized the superiority in ability yet this could have at least been counteracted somewhat by a better organised defence. Marsch’s team have a focus on their right flank in most games, considering the superiority which Sam has over most MLS defences. However this approach was particularly successful against their Hudson River rivals who defended the left side badly at times. Out of possession, Villa moved slightly to the left side in somewhat of a lopsided 4-5-1 shape yet positionally he created issues for his team and gave little true support for Allen. Due to a lack of ball-orientation in defence, overloads were easily created through the movements of Kljestan who supported both wings well. Issues in NYCFC Defensive Organisation There were a number of issues for Kreis’ side without the ball, and perhaps primarily was their distinct lack of ball-orientation. They lacked any compaction near the ball which allowed New York Red Bulls to generate overloads in most areas of the pitch, primarily through the movements of the central midfield trio. Sitting in a mid-block, their lack of ball-orientation was a stark contrast to the much higher levels of the opposition and lead to easy developments down the right where RBNY created the previously mentioned overloads. Another contributing factor to this issue was their man-marking, as the wingers were always oriented on the RBNY full-back – meaning that the home side could effortlessly stretch and open up the midfield. Without any ball-orientation in the organisation of their shape, they lacked defensive access in numerous situations which could perhaps have been exploited better by the home side. This was often the case when McCarty or Felipe dropped slightly into the half-space to receive possession deep, where there was rarely an available player to press in time to be effective. Another issue was the lack of co-ordination between the players, which also had an impact on the poor defensive access. Whether this is a result of poor coaching, or the simple fact that NYCFC haven’t fielded a very consistent team for the opening of the MLS season, it caused them a number of issues against the ball. The home side emphasised this through creating central overloads with the inside movements of Grella and Sam, resulting in an even worse access for NYCFC. Although the Spaniard worked relatively hard during RBNY’s third phase, he showed poor intelligence in positioning and simple teamwork during numerous situations. Sat slightly to the left against the ball, he often disrupted the balance of the organisation through indiscipline in his positioning and situational passivity. This particularly had an impact in the opening goal of the game, which came just 3 minutes in as Wright-Phillips easily finished a cross from Lloyd Sam. Now there is a rather awful co-ordination across the whole block so to pin the build-up for the goal purely down to Villa would be harsh, yet his positioning offers little benefit to the defence whilst his lack of backwards pressing later allows Sam to get the better of Allen. The issue begins in the momentary lack of defensive access as Mix is far too slow to change the direction of his run as McCarty receives possession, however credit must be given to the RBNY player who takes a touch away from the zone of pressure for NYCFC. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution in midfield is very poor, with Jacobson, Grabavoy and Mix all on virtually the same vertical line, leaving the half-space completely open for Kljestan to drive into and create the 1v1 for Sam against Allen New York Red Bulls’ Pressing Game A key feature of Marsch’s new system which he has implemented, has been their high block in defence. Although it wasn’t on display for too long considering Miazga’s departure in the 35th minute, it still impressed and showed in the home side’s dominant start to the game. The pressing of RBNY is highly focused around their narrow 4-2-3-1 shape which enforces a strong central control with the inside positioning of Sam and Grella who block any central developments well. However, in the Hudson River derby Marsch seemingly made a slight change in shape to their usual pressing structure as they adopted more of a 4-1-1-3-1 in defence with Felipe higher than McCarty. The reasoning for this is somewhat unclear, although a possible explanation would be to press higher in midfield whilst maintaining stability against the central Villa. Changes at 10v11 After the sending off of Miazga, Marsch made the standard change into a 4-4-1-1 with the substitution of Grella, moving Kljestan to left midfield. There were some slight changes in their pressing, which would unlikely have been sustainable with a man disadvantage. Mainly they became more reserved, changing to more of a mid-block with only intense pressure in the midfield. The compactness of RBNY was helpful in their organisation, as it was much superior to that of NYCFC and allowed them to maintain a decent control of the centre. The main reason as to why NYCFC failed to capitalise on the numerical superiority was caused by themselves. Even when possessing an extra player, the away side had no penetration and failed to utilise the centre at all. In the final third, there was no synergy across the attack which was often disconnected through a lack of an organised positional game. Aside from this, the wing-orientation meant for a generally poor attacking strategy, especially considering the centre had been weakened much more than the flanks following the red card. Marsch made some adaptions to his attacking strategy also, as they became more focused on transitional play to create chances, which resulted in the second goal of the game where Kljestan broke down the left and drilled a low cross for Wright-Phillips. Conclusion It came as no shock to see RBNY win the first Hudson River derby, even following the dismissal of Miazga as NYCFC’s horrific streak continues. Although Marsch’s team weren’t at their best in relation to their pressing game and attack (though obviously the sending off has a large influence in that) they were still dominant and in control of the game throughout against a very poor NYCFC side. |
Malcolm Turnbull's infrastructure pitch to Victoria has run into serious strife just days after it was announced, with a state minister dismissing a key federal demand as "birdbrained". Roads Minister Luke Donnellan has confirmed Victoria will not be yielding to one of Mr Turnbull's main conditions attached to $1.5 billion of Commonwealth infrastructure funding outlined late last week. The Monash upgrade is seen as crucial by Liberal strategists In addition to matching the $1.5 billion of federal cash dollar for dollar, Mr Turnbull has demanded the Andrews government separate an existing $400 million project to upgrade Monash from its $5.5 billion Western Distributor plan. The Monash upgrade, along with the offer of $3 billion to the first Victorian government prepared to build the East West Link, is seen as crucial by Liberal strategists, with several key marginal seats in Melbourne's south-east. |
The Calgary Inferno swept both games in Toronto over the weekend, beating the Toronto Furies 4-1 on Saturday, and shutting out the Furies 5-0 on Sunday. The Inferno have owned the Furies this season beating them in all six games. The Furies opened the scoring Saturday at 8:09 of the 1st period, but that was all the scoring they did as the Inferno got two goals from Meaghan Mikkelson, both assisted by Bailey Bram and Rebecca Johnston. Then after a scoreless 2nd period, the Inferno got goals from Blayre Turnbull, assisted by Brigette Lacquette and Brianne Jenner and Rebecca Johnston assisted by Haley Irwin to make the final score 4-1. Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse stopped 26 of 27 shots for her 7th win of the season. As mentioned earlier, the Furies didn’t even hit the scoresheet on Sunday as the Inferno lit the lamp just 33 seconds into the game and never looked back. Goal scorers were Blayre Turnbull, Jill Saulnier, Jessica Campbell, Katelyn Gosling and Bailey Bram. Brianne Jenner picked up two assists, as did Brigette Lacquette. Other assists went to Sarah Davis, Blayre Turnbull and Rebecca Johnston. Emerance Maschmeyer turned aside all 18 shots she faced for her 4th win of the season. The Inferno now have 17 wins and 3 losses after 20 games this season and are in 1st place in the CWHL with 34 points. Brianne Jenner is leading the team scoring with 7 goals and 15 assists for 22 points in 16 games (5th in CWHL). Bailey Bram is 2nd in team scoring with 10 goals and 8 assists for 18 points in 18 games (7th in CWHL). Goaltender Genevieve Lacasse leads the team with 7 wins (2nd in the CWHL). Emerance Maschmeyer leads the team with a 1.70 goals against average (2nd in the CWHL) and leads the team and CWHL with a save percentage of 0.939. The Inferno now head to Japan to play Team Japan during the bye week before they host the Boston Blades for a pair of games next weekend at the WinSport Arena in Calgary. Game times are Saturday, February 4th @ 10:00pm EST/8:00pm MST and Sunday, February 5th @ 10:30am EST/8:30am MST. Check out the Calgary Inferno website for more news, scores, schedule and stats. |
Was Bob Dylan looking for the home where Bruce Springsteen wrote "Born to Run" in 1974 when he was detained by police near the Jersey shore last month? The 68-year-old music legend was picked up one Thursday last month by a 24-year-old cop who failed to recognize him as he walked the streets of Long Branch, N.J. in the pouring rain. It may have been as simple as it appears: Dylan told police he was talking a walk and looking at a home for sale. But the area where Dylan was picked up was just a couple blocks from the beachside bungalow where Bruce Springsteen wrote the material for his landmark 1975 album "Born to Run." In the past nine months, Dylan has visited the childhood homes of Neil Young and John Lennon, in both cases appearing without fanfare and barely identifying himself after he was recognized. Last November, Winnipeg homeowner John Kiernan told Sun Media's Simon Fuller that Dylan and a friend arrived unannounced in a taxi to his Grosvenor Ave. home, where songwriter Neil Young grew up. Dylan, Kiernan said, was unshaved and had the brim of his hat pulled down over his head. He asked for a look inside and inquired about Young's bedroom and where he would have played his guitar. Dylan has shown a deep affinity for the Canadian rocker over the years, most recently in his 2001 song "Highlands." And Young said at a Nashville concert in 2005 that he once lent Dylan one of his most precious musical treasures -- Hank Williams' guitar, for which Young wrote the ballad "This Old Guitar." Both men revere Williams, a country music legend. In May, Dylan joined a public tour of John Lennon's childhood home, according to the BBC. A spokeswoman for the National Trust, which runs the home as London landmark, said Dylan "took one of our general minibus tours. "People on the minibus did not recognize him apparently," the spokeswoman told the British news agency. "He could have booked a private tour, but he was happy to go on the bus with everyone else." Springsteen spent two of the most creative years of his young career in the house on West Court in Long Branch in 1974 and 1975, penning "Born to Run," "Thunder Road" and "Backstreets" while living there. Dylan's spokesman did not immediately return a call or e-mail for comment. 'Eccentric-Looking Old Man' in Yard On July 23, Dylan, one of the most celebrated, eccentric artists in American history, was in the Long Branch, N.J., area as part of a national concert tour -- a fact lost on Long Branch police officer Kristie Buble. To hear her describe it, the scene was like something out of one of Dylan's epic songs: It was pouring rain, Dylan was all alone, far from the traveling home of his entourage of tour buses. When Dylan wandered into the yard of a home that had a "For Sale" sign on it, the home's occupants became spooked by his appearance and called police with a report of an "eccentric-looking old man" in their yard, Long Branch Police said. One of the occupants even went so far as to follow Dylan as he continued on down the street. A publicist for Dylan who was on his way to a Dylan concert in Fresno, Calif., Friday evening, told ABCNews.com he had not heard the story, but would look into the incident. But Buble said the man told her he was Bob Dylan. "We got a call for a suspicious person,'' Buble said. "It was pouring rain outside, and I was right around the corner so I responded. By that time he was walking down the street. I asked him what he was doing in the neighborhood and he said he was looking at a house for sale." "I asked him what his name was and he said, 'Bob Dylan,' Buble said. "Now, I've seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago and he didn't look like Bob Dylan to me at all. He was wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots, and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head. "So I said, 'OK Bob, what are you doing in Long Branch?' He said he was touring the country with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp. So now I'm really a little fishy about his story. I did not know what to believe or where he was coming from, or even who he was. "We see a lot of people on our beat, and I wasn't sure if he came from one of our hospitals or something," Buble said. She asked for identification, but Dylan said he had none. She asked where he was staying and he said his tour buses were parked at some big hotel on the ocean. Buble said she assumed that to be the nearby Ocean Place Conference Resort. "He was acting very suspicious,'' Buble said. "Not delusional, just suspicious. You know, it was pouring rain and everything." Sergeant: 'That's Not Bob Dylan' Following her police training, Buble said she indulged him. "OK Bob, why don't you get in the car and we'll drive to the hotel and go verify this?' " she said she told him. "I put him in the back of the car. To be honest with you, I didn't really believe this was Bob Dylan. It never crossed my mind that this could really be him." Buble made small talk on the ride to the hotel, asking her detainee where he was playing, she said, but never really believing a word he said. "He was really nice, though, and he said he understood why I had to verify his identity and why I couldn't let him go," Buble said. "He asked me if I could drive him back to the neighborhood when I verified who he was, which made me even more suspicious. "I pulled into the parking lot," she said, "and sure enough there were these enormous tour buses, and I thought, 'Whoa.'" Her sergeant met her at the hotel parking lot. "I got out of my car and said, "Sarg, this guy says he's Bob Dylan,'" Buble said. "He opened the car door, looked in, and said, 'That's not Bob Dylan.'" "So we go over to the tour bus and knock on the door and some guy answers and I say, 'Are you missing someone?'" "Who's asking?'' came the reply, according to Buble. "I was in full uniform, so I say, 'I'm asking! I'm the police.'" Eventually, the police were shown Dylan's passport, which Buble said she looked at, saw the legend's name, and rather sheepishly handed it back to Dylan's manager. "OK,'' she recalled saying as she smiled. "Um, have a nice day." A police department source said Buble had taken her share of good-natured ribbing from some of the older officers. "To really appreciate the story from our end, you have to see Kristie," one cop said. "She looks like a 16-year-old kid, next to this living legend. It was unbelievable." Dylan Has Gone Incognito Before In fairness to Buble, Dylan has a long history of intentionally seeking anonymity, often with hooded sweatshirts and other limited disguises. In October, 2001, he was held up at a checkpoint at Jackson County Exposition Center in Oregon as he attempted to get into the backstage area of his own concert, according to the Associated Press. While it remains unclear whether Dylan was looking for Springsteen's old home in this case, and he never mentioned that he was to Buble, the description that the Winnipeg homeowner gave of Dylan when the singer visited Neil Young's home last year was similar Buble's story. "So these guys were standing at the front of the house about to get back into their taxi,'' Kiernan, the homeowner, said of Dylan and his friend in Canada. "I noticed he was wearing these expensive-looking leather pants tucked inside these world-class boots. Then I studied his face and tried to keep cool." It was Bob Dylan, who'd grown up just over the U.S./Canadian border, in Hibbing, Minn., Kiernan said. "When he said, 'Would Neil have looked out this window when he played his guitar?'," said Kiernan, "I realized what a spiritual experience he was having at that moment, knowing that he would have been doing the same thing at the same time in Minnesota. |
At Michelin's International Movin' On transportation summit, the French tire maker introduced a new concept tire that is airless, biodegradable and made with a 3D printer. Made from waste materials like cardboard, molasses and orange peels, the VISION tire’s most compelling design aspect is the capacity to change its treads quickly and “recharge” the treads via 3D printing. This would allow for road treads to be converted into off-road treads or winter tires, and vice versa. The VISION tires also have sensors that permit drivers to track tire performance via an in-car application. Unfortunately, the tire is still in the concept stage and Michelin said it likely won’t be available for at least a decade. It’s a very realistic dream. All the components are currently the topics of active research programs at Michelin and we can deliver on those solutions. Terry Gettys, Executive Vice-President, Research and Development with Michelin Group According to a gif released by the French tire company, 3D printing of treads could be done roadside and with the tap of a console touchscreen. Michelins said tread would be reprinted with “just the right amount of rubber” at ‘Print&Go’ stations. In theory, owners would book recharge appointments at these stations with a mobile phone or in-car app. In addition to adjustable treads, the concept tire also features an alveolar, or honeycombed, structure that literally takes the air out the tires. Instead of being inflated, the VISION tire has an “interior architecture capable of supporting the vehicle,” Michelin said. This would eliminate problems like tire blowouts and pressure loss via small punctures. The complex geometry of the concept tire appeared to suggest that it was also created via 3D printing. Mostapha El-Oulhani, who led the VISION project, said the tire, “is a showcase of our expertise as well as a promise of the future.” That future, according to Michelin, includes an airless tire that is 3D printed from biodegradable materials, features a rechargeable tread and has connectivity. We wanted VISION to be realistic since no purpose is served by designing objects or services that we know pertinently are unrealistic. On the contrary, VISION is possible since it is based on R&D know-how and we can already see the future applications, on which the Group is now working. It’s a promise that is within reach. Mostapha El-Oulhani, Leader of the VISION project The new Michelin concept comes after Goodyear announced a 3D-printed concept tire last year that foregoes the traditional disc-shaped tire design in favour of a spherical tire. Inspired by brain coral, the Eagle-360 tire would allow for a 360-degree range on lateral motion, as the name suggests. The bizarre tire also featured a “natural sponge” texture, “which stiffens when dry yet softens when wet to deliver adequate driving performance and aquaplaning resistance” and “absorbs water on the road and ejects water from the tire footprint through centrifugal force,” Goodyear said in a statement. Instead of being mounted on axles, the tire would be suspended using the same type of magnetic levitation technology used in Maglev trains. In addition to not relying on mechanical parts, which means less wear and tear, the tires would also offer a smoother ride, according to Goodyear. Like the VISION TIRE, the Eagle-360 tire would also feature sensors to allow a driver to monitor tread wear. The Goodyear sensors would also monitor road conditions with an eye toward optimizing safety. Also, like the VISION tire, the Eagle-360 tire is based mostly in existing technology, but consumers shouldn't’t expect to see either one on store shelves any time soon. Want to find out more about 3-D Printing? Request more information here. Image Credit: Shutterstock.com/astudio |
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