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Jess (Zooey Deschanel) tries to prove to everyone that she’s fine with being single on Valentine’s Day on ‘New Girl’ S06E16. Jess (Zooey Deschanel) tries to prove to everyone that she’s fine with being single on Valentine’s Day on ‘New Girl’ S06E16. Fox/New Girl Jess (Zooey Deschanel) tries to convince the gang that she’s fine with being single on Valentine’s Day. Cece (Hannah Simone), meanwhile, surprises Schmidt (Max Greenfield) at his workplace and Winston (Lamorne Morris) freaks out when Aly (Nasim Pedrad) asks him to get married on “New Girl” season 6 episode 16 (New Girl 6x16). Spoiler alert: This recap contains plot details about season 6 of “New Girl.” The sixth season premiered Sept. 20. The show is available in Australia via Tenplay. Nick, Schmidt, Cece and Winston stop their Valentine’s Day fun dance when Jess walks into the room, conscious of her single status. Jess insists she’s fine, but the gang concludes she isn’t when she reveals her plans for the day that include cleaning out her purse and going out for dinner alone. She also sends a Valentine’s Day card to herself. Schmidt is frustrated that he and Cece don’t get to spend their first Valentine’s Day together as a married couple. He has been working nonstop to try and impress Kim ( Gillian Vigman), his boss. Cece makes a surprise appearance at his workplace, but Schmidt’s clothes are unfortunately blown away by strong winds as they were about to start their “bonaversary” celebration. Kim sees them but lets it pass, saying that she knows how hard Schmidt works. She eventually promotes him afterwards. While spending some koala-ty time together, Aly, out of nowhere, asks Winston to get married. He is stunned, especially since he’s only on phase 6 of his 21-step proposal plan. He rejects her proposal out of astonishment, but regrets it immediately. Jess convinces Winston to cut his plan down to the essentials and offers to help him propose to Aly on Valentine’s night. Winston plans to recreate a memorable moment that he and Aly shared on one of their earliest missions together, but when he sees the look on Jess’ face when she heard Nick say that he’s in love, he calls off the whole thing out of respect for her. Jess’ personal chef, Gordon Ramsay, makes her snap out of her lonely Valentine’s funk. She admits to being frustrated with Nick being a great and romantic boyfriend all of a sudden, when he only gifted her a nudie card with a 20 dollar bill when they were together. She tells Winston to go ahead with the proposal – a very hastily executed one where Winston dresses up in a bobcat costume and gets knocked down – to which Aly says yes. RELATED ARTICLES: ‘New Girl’ season 6 episode 15 spoilers / recap: Jess has an apparent self-realisation while helping Nick on ‘Glue’ ‘New Girl’ season 6 episode 14 spoilers / recap: Jess and Robby’s outdoor adventure takes an unexpected turn on ‘The Hike’ |
Sep 21, 2017- Nepal Medical Association (NMA) said on Wednesday that hospitals and clinics across the country would be shut from Friday as part of its protest against government plan to force medical practitioners to pay compensation in the event of any untoward incident during the course of treatment. A Cabinet meeting on Monday proposed bringing a law that will require the doctors involved in treatment to pay compensation if s/he is found guilty of negligence. The Cabinet has decided to direct the Ministry of Health to draft a bill to this effect. The government move follows frequent incidents/ reports at hospitals where doctors are often accused of negligence for patients’ deaths or other health complications. The umbrella organisation of the medical and dental doctors across the country, however, has taken exception to the government plan and demanded that the government roll back its decision. On Monday, the NMA had warned of shutting all the hospitals if the government did not withdraw the decision “within 72 hours”. According to Dr Lochan Karki, general secretary of the NMA, the government failed to respond to the association’s call. Issuing a statement on Wednesday, the NMA has made an appeal to all medical and dental colleges, hospitals, clinics and nursing homes to stop providing services from Friday. The NMA said the doctors will provide only emergency services. Earlier on Wednesday, doctors during a meeting called by the NMA criticised the government plan, saying such a move would demotivate them. “How do I feel secure each time I enter the operation theatre at Bir Hospital?” wondered senior neurosurgeon Dr Gopal Raman Sharma. “We are not safe--neither at private hospitals nor at government health facilities.” Former Dr Anjani Kumar Jha, former President of the NMA, said the government is deliberately trying to disacknowledge the health profession. The government, however, is yet to issue any formal decision regarding its Monday’s proposal. Health Minister Giriraj Mani Pokhrel expressed his ignorance about the decision. “We were not consulted at all,” said Minister Pokhrel. “Such a blatant decision or proposal without any consultation won’t be sustainable anyway.” Published: 21-09-2017 08:36 |
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Pilot Christina Kurowicki was preparing to land at San Jose Mineta International Airport in March when bright light flooded the cockpit, impairing her night vision and making it difficult to see outside. "It was blinding. It was blinding," said Kurowicki, who filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration after the incident. "Incapacitating for sure." At least six commercial pilots have filed complaints with the FAA after they said they were blinded by light coming from the scoreboard at Levi's Stadium. Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Kurowicki is one of at least six commercial pilots who have filed complaints with the Federal Aviation Administration after being blinded by bright light coming from the 49ers' Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, saying it's a safety hazard, NBC Bay Area reported Wednesday. Last year, the FAA issued a safety-alert bulletin for pilots about the lights. FAA public affairs manager Ian Gregor wrote in a statement that most of the reports it reviewed were when the stadium's scoreboard was being calibrated, making it brighter than usual. "The FAA relayed these concerns to the stadium operator, which agreed to provide the FAA with advance notice of all scoreboard testing and not to test or calibrate it at night during scheduled airfield hours," Gregor wrote. Although the team says it was not aware of any incidents since the scoreboards were being initially tested, there was a report made in December 2014, after football season was well underway, the television station reported. Jay Rollins, a former American Airlines pilot with 20 years of experience, said a lone warning is gambling with safety. He said he hopes the 49ers will take action. "They really have to choose between whether the lights in the stadium and the excitement that goes on there is more important than the safety of these arrivals," said Rollins, who now owns his own aviation safety consulting business and runs a blog out of Florida. |
The 2018 Precinct Caucuses will be held throughout Nevada on Saturday, February 24th at 10:00 AM. Find your nearest caucus location below! Caucus Locations Carson County Eagle Valley Middle School 4151 East Fifth Street Bass E.S. 10377 Carson City, NV 89701 Churchill County Old Post Office 90 N. Main Street Fallon, NV 89406 Clark County Click here to find your commission district. COMMISSION DISTRICT A Bass E.S. 10377 10377 Rancho Destino Rd Las Vegas, NV 89183 Shadow Ridge H.S. 5050 Brent Lane Las Vegas, NV 89131 COMMISSION DISTRICT C Richard Bryan E.S. 8050 Cielo Vista Ave Las Vegas, NV 89128 COMMISSION DISTRICT D Canyon Springs H.S. 350 E Alexander Rd North Las Vegas, NV 89032 COMMISSION DISTRICT E Teachers Health Trust 2950 E Rochelle Ave Las Vegas, NV 89121 COMMISSION DISTRICT F Sierra Vista H.S. 8100 W. Robindale Rd Las Vegas, NV 89113 COMMISSION DISTRICT G Greenspun M.S. 140 N Valle Verde Dr. Henderson, NV 89074 Douglas County Douglas High School 1670 NV-88 Minden, NV 89423 Elko County Adobe Middle School 3385 Jennings Way Elko, NV 89801 Humboldt County French Ford Middle School 5495 Palisade Drive Winnemucca, NV 89445 Lyon County Silver Stage High School 3755 Spruce Avenue Silver Springs, NV 89429 Mineral County Mineral County Library 110 First Street Hawthorne, Nevada 89415 Nye County MESQUITE Virgin Valley H.S. 820 Valley View Mesquite, NV 89027 PAHRUMP Comstock Park Club House 151 W Comstock Circle N. Pahrump, NV 89048 Storey County LAUGHLIN William G. Bennett E.S. 2750 Needles Hwy Laughlin, NV 89029 VIRGINIA CITY Virginia City H.S. 95 R St. Virginia City, NV 89440 Washoe County Wooster High School 1331 Plumb Lane Reno, NV 89502 |
Growing up in a country where Tottenham Hotspur’s reputation is fairly limited, it’s not rare to get questioned on why one would even consider supporting the North London team. Well, why not support Spurs? “They don’t win any trophies.” Ah. That short and famous little answer that speaks volumes about one’s understanding of the meaning of football. I frequently feel like explaining, but the truth is the explanation is a bit too long and complex for a regular day-to-day chat – so I’ve decided to write about it, the importance of being Spurs. It’s true. Tottenham haven’t exactly been prolific in the trophy department in recent years. So why does its fanbase continuously grow despite this frustrating silverware record? Because Tottenham Hotspur’s ultimate objective isn’t silverware. Winning trophies is a goal set by football clubs – and Tottenham isn’t one. Tottenham is a philosophy, a culture. The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory Bill Nicholson, Spurs’ most successful and most famous manager, took charge of the club in 1958. His aim was not to win silverware, but to create an idea and a style that would consequently transform Tottenham into a prolific and title-winning side. “The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.” This quote belongs to the legendary ex-Spurs player, Danny Blanchflower, who witnessed and aided Bill Nicholson in building the Tottenham revolution – and he couldn’t have described it any better. Nicholson’s project was extremely successful. And I’m not talking about the eleven trophies he brought to White Hart Lane during his managerial tenure, I’m talking about his legacy: every Spurs supporter is born and bred into Bill Nic’s culture, which has now become synonymous to anything associated with Tottenham Hotspur. So how does this relate to my personal experience as a Spurs fan living abroad? It’s not easy to be in this position. I can’t just walk round the corner and have a chat with a local cabbie about yesterday’s match. The matches aren’t always broadcasted on television. If I want to go to the stadium, it’s just the five thousand miles on an eleven hour flight. The thing is, though, my passion for Tottenham isn’t altered in the slightest by these problems. Why? This is where Nicholson’s legacy comes in. Old Bill created something far more solid and lasting than any silverware a football club could win: an identity. I may be physically distant from my club, but that doesn’t mean I feel less of a part of it. My spine still manages to tingle every time I hear our numbers belting out chant after chant with fervorous passion. I miss White Hart Lane as much as a twenty-year season ticket holder does. every Spurs supporter is born and bred into Bill Nic’s culture, which has now become synonymous to anything associated with Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham is a family. Strangers from all across the globe will treat each other with utmost respect and kindness as a result of our passion and identification with the Spurs culture. Be it in Brazil, Belgium, Baltimore, Beijing or Barcelona, we are all Yids. And we carry North London in our Lilywhite hearts, vowing to keep and expand our club’s legacy and history. It’s an exciting time to be a Tottenham supporter, especially because Mauricio Pochettino and Daniel Levy are driving our team in the same direction that old Bill Nic did back in the day. Their work naturally reignites the identification sentiment amongst supporters all over the world, and they haven’t brought a single trophy home as of yet. We play with style, we sing loud, we follow our club religiously across England and Europe. We make ourselves known wherever we go. We are supporters of different nationalities, colours, ethnicities, races and cultural background, but we are all united in spirit and heart despite physical distance and any other complicating factors. We are Tottenham Hotspur – and this is why it’s so important, to me and to all of our supporters, to be part of the club. |
Yesterday, we reported that the PlayStation 4 will support party chat for up to eight users. This prompted us to ask Microsoft about the Xbox One's group feature to find out what users can expect. “At launch, up to eight people will be able to join a Party Chat at a time on Xbox One," a Microsoft spokesperson told Game Informer. This mirrors what is possible on the Xbox 360 right now. With launch less than a month away for both consoles in the United States, information is starting to flow more quickly. Our Take For most titles, eight-person parties are large enough. I wonder if players will want for more with games like Battlefield 4, which supports 64. In this case, more is better, and Microsoft hasn't ruled out growing the party size with its comment to us. |
Californians brace for 59% premium hike NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- One of California's largest health insurers - Blue Shield - announced plans to hike its premiums by as much as 59%. The jacked up premium rates are set to take effect on March 1, pending review from state insurance regulators. The move impacts 193,000 individual Blue Shield policy holders. The company, a member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association with 3.3 million members, which announced the move late Thursday, stressed that its decision has "almost nothing to do with the federal health reform law" and that ultimately the law will help slow down health care costs. But responding to this most recent increase the company said, "our individual market medical costs are rising rapidly due to higher provider prices, increased utilization, and the fact that healthier people are dropping coverage during a bad economy," the company said. Despite the steep double-digit hike, the insurer maintained it still expects to lose tens of millions of dollars on its individual healthcare business in both 2010 and 2011. Right to be concerned: "The people of California have a right to be concerned when they see this kind of rate increase month after month," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, said in a statement Thursday. Sebelius said the agency has reached out to California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones as well. "We stand ready to assist him and the people of California in any way that we can," she said. Despite health reform, that assistance will be limited. The federal government does not have the authority to review and strike down unreasonable rate increase requests. Historically, that authority lies with individual states. But some states don't have any rate review process at all and insurers can hike rates as much as they want. Under California law, the state insurance commissioner has no authority to reject excessive premium increases. "Many Californians will no doubt be surprised to learn that the Insurance Commissioner does not have the legal authority to reject excessive health insurance premium increases," California Commissioner Dave Jones said in a statement Thursday. Instead, Jones has asked Blue Shield of California to delay the implementation of the rate so that he has the opportunity to ensure that the increase has been thoroughly reviewed. "I find it stunning that Blue Shield would seek to impose such massive premium increases on policyholders during these troubling economic times,"Jones said in a statement Thursday. "These premium increases will impose significant financial burdens on struggling families and, in some cases, will lead to the loss of health care coverage altogether," he said. Health reform has tried to stymie these big rate hikes. For instance, health reform mandates that insurance companies spend 80% to 85% of the premiums they collect on medical care instead of toward their own profits and overhead costs. However, that new rule doesn't seem to have affected Blue Shield's move. The company said that the new rates "meet the federal requirement." Other deterrents include: $250 million in grants to states to set up a rate review process if they don't have one, and to further strengthen it if they already do. About $46 million of that amount has already been awarded to states, according to HHS. Beginning July 1, if an insurer proposes a 10% or higher rate hike, it will get extra scrutiny from state regulators as well as the federal government. In 2014, when health exchanges are set to open, states will have the authority to ban insurers with a questionable history of rate increase from participating in the exchanges. Sebelius, alluding to GOP efforts to repeal health reform, warned that without health reform, "the practice of insurers imposing these kinds of rate increases without public scrutiny would be the wave of the future." "Absolutely outrageous!" Doug Heller, executive director of consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog, said Blue Shield's move is shocking and that state regulators have their hand tied. "It is absolutely outrageous that regulators in California and in most states have no power to turn back excessive hikes in health insurance premiums," Heller said. "There's such a push to get every individual in this country health insurance and a mandate that everyone must have health insurance, yet regulators have their hands tied and can't limit these exorbitant premiums increases," he said. Since California has the largest number of uninsured people of any single state, about 7 million, Heller said the state cannot afford to have even those people who have insurance drop it be cause of rising premiums. "By jacking up rates, insurers are pushing people off their rolls and are undermining efforts to get more consumers access to healthcare," he said. "Insurance companies only want customers who can pay the premiums but don't want to pay their claims." |
Telecom, airlines, retail, manufacturing workers entering battles Growing signs of a resurgence of class conflict in the US By Jerry White 24 May 2016 In recent weeks, an increasing number of workers in the United States have been engaged in strikes, lockouts, contract rejections and other struggles. Social inequality is at historic highs, and workers are suffering the longest period of wage stagnation since the Great Depression, producing a radicalization that is in its initial stages. According to President Obama, life has never been so good in America, and an Internet search for the word “strike” brings up far more coverage in the news media of murderous “air strikes” by the US military than of workers’ struggles. Despite the best efforts of the trade unions to suppress the class struggle, however, workers in the telecom, manufacturing, airline and supermarket industries, as well as public sector workers, are entering significant battles. Developments in the US are part of an international tendency. Recent months have seen mass protests and now an oil refinery strike in France; a three-day general strike by Greek workers against austerity; a week-long strike by Nigerian workers against rising fuel and electricity prices; a strike by Mexican teachers to defend public education; a one-day strike by train conductors in the United Kingdom; and the first strike by Kuwaiti oil workers in two decades. In the US, the strike by 1,700 telecom workers at AT&T West in San Diego, California has undermined the efforts of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and other unions to isolate the six-week strike by 40,000 workers at Verizon. The CWA was forced to call the strike—which involves only 10 percent of the 16,000 AT&T West workers who have had no contract since April 9—because of growing rank-and-file opposition to giant telecom company. AT&T made $13.2 billion profit in 2015 and spent billions on acquisitions and dividend payments to its richest investors and top executives. The CWA and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) are currently involved in secret negotiations under the auspices of Obama’s labor secretary and a federal mediator to shut down the strike at Verizon as soon as possible on management’s terms. Despite being put on starvation strike pay rations by the CWA and IBEW, Verizon workers remain determined to beat back the attack on their living standards. In the working class as a whole, there is widespread support for a unified struggle. “We stand with our brothers and sisters on the East Coast,” an AT&T worker in San Diego told the World Socialist Web Site. “What happens to them can happen to us—corporate America is taking away our rights and we have to take them back.” A worker at the GM Hamtramck Assembly in Detroit told the WSWS on Monday, “I truly feel all workers should support the Verizon and AT&T workers. There is nothing on the news. They don’t want anyone to know. They look at it like a cancer that should be stopped from spreading.” An estimated 8,788 collective bargaining agreements, covering 2.2 million workers, are due to expire or be modified in 2016. The chief obstacles to a fight against the companies are the AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions, which are allied with the Obama administration and the Democrats. The unions function as an arm of corporate management and the state. They support the policy of lowering wages and cutting health care and pension costs to make US corporations more “globally competitive.” The unions have long abandoned the principle of “no contract, no work,” keeping workers on the job for months or even years without a contract. On Friday night, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) announced that it would continue negotiations with the US Post Office past the contract expiration date for 204,000 city letter carriers. Another 370,000 USPS workers were forced to accept arbitration by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and other unions. The United Auto Workers barely survived a rebellion by autoworkers and required a campaign of lies, threats and vote fraud to get sellout contracts past the resistance of the rank-and-file last fall. This year has already seen sick out protests by Detroit teachers organized in defiance of the union, opposition to a union-backed concessions deal by Chicago teachers and a wave of student walkouts in Detroit, Chicago and Boston. Earlier this month, hundreds of Honeywell workers rejected a “last, best and final” offer containing massive health care concessions by a nine-to-one margin at factories in South Bend, Indiana and Green Island, New York. The UAW forced workers to continue to labor past the May 3 contract extension, allowing the world’s largest aircraft parts manufacturer to lock out workers and bring in a notorious strikebreaking firm, Strom Engineering. Four hundred workers have been on strike for two weeks at Triumph Composite Systems in Spokane, Washington, another parts supplier for Boeing, after overwhelmingly rejecting a company ultimatum. The International Association of Machinists, which rammed through an eight-year contract extension on 25,000 Boeing workers in 2014 by less than a 400-vote margin, is now isolating the Spokane workers. Five thousand retail workers at Macy’s four New York stores, including in mid-town Manhattan, voted last Thursday to strike when their contract expires on June 15. The workers are fighting attacks on their health care, pay and the right to opt out of working on holidays. Thousands of workers at Kroger’s, the largest traditional grocery store in the US, have also voted to strike 41 stores in Virginia, Tennessee and West Virginia unless the company offers better pay and health benefits for retirees. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has forced them to continue working after the contract expired May 8. Two thousands pilots for five cargo companies contracted by DHL Express have voted to strike the German-based package delivery company because their wages are below those of workers at competing firms, UPS and FedEx. Meanwhile, thousands of UPS pilots and aircraft mechanics could strike after nearly three years of federal mediation. Hundreds of thousands of other workers at United Airlines, Costco, Safeway and Albertson’s supermarkets face contract expirations. Across the border in Canada, some 23,500 hourly workers at Ford, General Motors and FCA Canada have a mid-September contract expiration. In the US elections, the radicalization of workers and young people is expressed in the widespread support for Bernie Sanders, who has centered his campaign on social inequality and opposition to the “billionaire class.” Sanders role, however, has been to try to channel growing anti-capitalist sentiment back behind the Democratic Party, which, under the Obama administration, has overseen a historic transfer of wealth from the working class to the corporate and financial elite. The Socialist Equality Party is running in the US presidential election to fight to unify every section of workers in an industrial and political counter-offensive. We call for the formation of rank-and-file committees, independent of the pro-capitalist and nationalist trade unions, in order to fight for common actions to defend the Verizon and AT&T workers and organize a joint offensive against the attack on jobs, benefits and working conditions. Above all workers need a new revolutionary leadership, the Socialist Equality Party, to transform these struggles into a conscious political fight against the capitalist system, which is the root cause of social inequality, war and the drive towards dictatorship. Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. |
We've been tipped by a reliable source today that Google will be using the name "Key Lime Pie" for the version of Android that comes after Jelly Bean (in fact, the information comes from the very same source that tipped us to the Jelly Bean codename last year). We don't have any guidance on when we might see Key Lime Pie officially unveiled or what the version number may be — we haven't even seen Jelly Bean yet, after all — but it's reasonable to think that it could be a 2013 deliverable, particularly as Google has slowed down Android's iterative pace over the past couple versions. In the meantime, start getting used to the "KLP" acronym. (And for bonus points, name some other desserts that start with "K.") |
Among the various accusations exchanged by the two candidates during the first presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump on 26 September 2016 was Trump’s assertion that Clinton lauded the multi-nation trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as the “gold standard” of such deals: TRUMP: Your husband signed NAFTA, which was one of the worst things that ever happened to the manufacturing industry. CLINTON: Well, that’s your opinion. That is your opinion. TRUMP: You go to New England, you go to Ohio, Pennsylvania, you go anywhere you want, Secretary Clinton, and you will see devastation where manufacture is down 30, 40, sometimes 50 percent. NAFTA is the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country. And now you want to approve Trans-Pacific Partnership. You were totally in favor of it. Then you heard what I was saying, how bad it is, and you said, I can’t win that debate. But you know that if you did win, you would approve that, and that will be almost as bad as NAFTA. Nothing will ever top NAFTA. CLINTON: Well, that is just not accurate. I was against it once it was finally negotiated and the terms were laid out. I wrote about that in… TRUMP: You called it the gold standard. You called it the gold standard of trade deals. You said it’s the finest deal you’ve ever seen. CLINTON: No. TRUMP: And then you heard what I said about it, and all of a sudden you were against it. CLINTON: Well, Donald, I know you live in your own reality, but that is not the facts. The facts are — I did say I hoped it would be a good deal, but when it was negotiated… TRUMP: Not. CLINTON: … which I was not responsible for, I concluded it wasn’t. I wrote about that in my book… What is the TTP? Sometimes described as a “much bigger version of NAFTA” (certain provisions are meant to be improvements on those of NAFTA and would supplant parts of it once TPP takes effect), the agreement covers 12 Asian-Pacific nations, including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico (but not China), drops tariffs, raises environmental protection and human rights standards, and is supported by the Obama administration. It has not yet been ratified by the United States. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton spoke favorably of the agreement-in-progress on several occasions. For example: We want to realize the benefits from greater economic integration. In order to do that, we have to be willing to play. To this end, we are working to ratify a free trade agreement with South Korea, we’re pursuing a regional agreement with the nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and we know that that will help create new jobs and opportunities here at home. (8 September 2010) The United States is also making important progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which will bring together nine APEC economies in a cutting-edge, next generation trade deal, one that aims to eliminate all trade tariffs by 2015 while improving supply change, saving energy, enhancing business practices both through information technology and green technologies. (9 March 2011) This TPP sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field. And when negotiated, this agreement will cover 40 percent of the world’s total trade and build in strong protections for workers and the environment. (5 November 2012) After leaving the State Department in 2013, however, Clinton’s remarks about the TPP became more guarded. “Because TPP negotiations are still ongoing,” she wrote in her 2014 book, Hard Choices, “it makes sense to reserve judgment until we can evaluate the final proposed agreement.” By the time of her October 2015 debate with Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, Clinton was foursquare against it: I did say, when I was secretary of state, three years ago, that I hoped it would be the gold standard. It was just finally negotiated last week, and in looking at it, it didn’t meet my standards. My standards for more new, good jobs for Americans, for raising wages for Americans. And I want to make sure that I can look into the eyes of any middle-class American and say, “This will help raise your wages.” And I concluded I could not. Despite her current opposition to the agreement and her attempts during more than one presidential debate to recast her previous support of it as “hopeful,” the record shows that Clinton spoke glowingly of the TPP on more than one occasion, not least when she praised it in 2012 as setting “the gold standard in trade agreements.” |
Iran has hinted it might allow diplomats visiting Tehran for this week's Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit to visit a military installation that UN inspectors suspect has been used for nuclear military experiments. Iran says Parchin, a huge complex southeast of Tehran, is a conventional military facility and has dismissed the allegations. Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoundzadeh was quoted by the government-linked news agency Young Journalists Club as saying, "Such a visit [to Parchin] is not customary in such meetings.... However at the discretion of the authorities, Iran would be ready for such a visit." Iran is hosting the NAM summit, which ends on August 31. The tentative offer was made just three days after the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency again requested access to Parchin for its inspectors at a meeting in Vienna. Based on reporting by Reuters and AP |
* Investors flee for safety after Lehman files for Chapter 11 * High-grade debt, gold, yen in demand on bank industry storm * Focus turns to Fed policy decision on Tuesday (Repeats to additional subscribers with no change to text) (Updates prices, details) By Kevin Plumberg HONG KONG, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Stocks and the U.S. dollar fell sharply on Monday after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, sending safe-haven Treasury debt and gold prices soaring as the financial system bent under severe pressure. U.S. stock market futures SPc2 DJc2 NDc2 were down around 3 percent, pointing to sharply lower open, while major European markets were set for falls of between 3.5 to 4 percent STXEc1 FDXc1 FCEc1. Rapid-fire developments on Wall Street, only a week after the U.S. government bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, left some analysts literally speechless and sent shockwaves through almost every asset class. The dollar plunged 1.9 percent against the yen, on track for its biggest decline since February 2007, as investors’ willingness to take risks evaporated. [ID:nLF649266] “It’s a pure flight to quality right now,” said Adam Donaldson, head debt strategist at Australia’s Commonwealth Bank. “The big concern is how Lehman and other banks unwind their credit default contracts,” he added. “Nobody knows how that will play out.” The price of insurance against default on debt soared, pushing up the iTRAXX Asia ex Japan high-yield index ITAHY5Y=IE, a measure of credit market stress, to match record highs reached in the runup to Bear Stearns’ collapse in March. While a lack of confidence felled Lehman, a lack of short-term funding was hurting one of the world’s largest insurers American International Group Inc (AIG.N). The firm was asking the Federal Reserve for a bridge loan of $40 billion, according to the New York Times, an unprecedented move that further battered the dollar and knocked down two-year U.S. government debt yields to a five-month low. For more stories on Lehman, click on [ID:nN13574113] ASIAN STOCKS TUMBLE Stock markets in Australia, Singapore and Taiwan all dropped 3 to 4 percent, Indian stocks .BSESN fell 5 percent. Holidays in most major Asian markets kept volume thin though price action belied a desire to seek safety first and ask questions later. “The exact ramifications of the liquidation process and the unwinding of positions pertaining to the Lehman situation remain unclear. Hence, over the next 48 hours at least, financial markets are likely to be volatile and tense,” said economists with United Overseas Bank in Singapore in a note. The Swiss franc and yen, currencies associated with stability in times of duress, strengthened, especially against the dollar, which reeled as some in the market speculated the Federal Reserve may have to cut interest rates on Tuesday to shore up the economy from financial fallout. The U.S. dollar dropped 1.9 percent against the yen at 105.88 yen JPY= and was off 1.2 percent against the Swiss franc to 1.1165 francs CHF=. The euro rose by more than a cent against the dollar to $1.4380, up 1.1 percent from late Friday in New York. In the spot market, gold rose 2 percent to $778.85 an ounce XAU=. FED SUPPLIES LIQUIDITY, NOT CONFIDENCE The Fed on Monday said it would begin accepting equities as collateral for emergency loans for the first time as it tried to ease the spiralling crisis. The steps would likely help surviving financial institutions to find cash but may not do much to boost global confidence in the U.S. financial system. “The mere fact that they are forced to do this — and they may still yet do some more — indicates the breadth and depth of the trouble that the system is in,” said V. Anantha Nageswaran, head of investment research, Asia-Pacific with Bank Julius Baer in Singapore. In addition, 10 of the world’s biggest banks agreed to establish a $70 billion borrowing facility to bolster liquidity. U.S. Treasury yields, which move in the opposite direction of prices, fell sharply in early Asian trade on Monday and 3-month eurodollar futures <O#ED:> surged as dealers priced in the possibility of lower Federal Reserve benchmark interest rates. The yield on the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury note US2YT=RR hit a five-month low of 1.90 percent. The 10-year yield US10YT=RR was also at the lowest since April, at 3.52 percent compared with 3.72 percent late on Friday. Bank of America (BAC.N) said it would acquire Merrill Lynch & Co Inc MER.N for $50 billion in yet another development that realigned Wall Street. The deal was significant not just because of its price but it showed how the private sector will have to sort itself out and not depend on backing of the U.S. government. “For many, but not all, this is an impossible lesson to learn in the middle of the worst financial storm since the Great Depression,” said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist with RBS Greenwich in Greenwich, Connecticut. Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index fell 1.8 percent, weighed by shares of the country’s top banks such as Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA.AX) and Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG.AX). Taiwan's TAIEX .TWII, the only stock market open in north Asia, dropped 4.1 percent to the lowest since November 2005. Singapore’s Straits Times index .FTSTI was at the lowest since September 2006, down 2.9 percent. “The financial sector in the region is very volatile now and we don’t expect investors’ confidence to recover quickly in just a few days or one week,” said Alex Huang, a vice president at Taiwan’s Mega International Securities. While the fate of the U.S. financial system loomed in investors’ minds around the world, initial reports that Hurricane Ike had not severely damaged infrastructure in Texas knocked benchmark oil prices fall to a six-month low below $99 a barrel. [ID:nN14450042] Oil CLc1 fell $2.10 to $99.08 a barrel after falling as low as $98.46 — the lowest since February 26 — adding to a steady downward trend in prices since mid-July’s peak of over $147 a barrel as evidence mounts that high energy costs and a weakening economy are cutting into fuel consumption. (Additional reporting by Baker Li in TAIPEI and Wayne Cole in SYDNEY; Editing by Lincoln Feast) |
At this year’s Oscars ceremony, five worthy films vied for the coveted Best Animated Feature award. Of course, we all know the winner, but there was one nominee in particular that no one seemed to have even heard of, let alone seen. It was the outlier. At this year’s Oscars ceremony, five worthy films vied for the coveted Best Animated Feature award. Of course, we all know the winner, but there was one nominee in particular that no one seemed to have even heard of, let alone seen. It was the outlier. The odd duck. The unassuming little film called Song of the Sea. Well, I watched it, at any rate, although Song of the Sea isn’t really a film that one “watches” so much as experiences. It’s a stirring and gorgeously animated fable that harbors much more depth and meaning that it may seem at first glance. In fact, Song of the Sea is so great that it utterly transcends award shows, industry politics, and endless bickering about which film should have won the Oscar or which film was snubbed of a nomination. It is simply that good. Rooted in Folklore Helmed by Irish filmmaker Tomm Moore, Song of the Sea shows deep affection for the legends and lore of Moore‘s homeland. The story centers around a young girl named Saoirse (pronounced “Sheer-sha”), voiced by Lucy O’Connell, who lives by the sea with her father and brother. It turns out that she’s the last of the “selkies,” meaning that not only can she magically transform into a seal but she is also the only one who can free trapped spirits from their earthly prison by singing a “song of the sea.” The only trouble is, she’s mute. So, along with her brother Ben (voiced by David Rawle), Saoirse goes on a journey whereupon she encounters magic shells, an old woman/owl hybrid, and many more wonders and dangers in order to find her voice and restore order. As you may have gathered, Song of the Sea is… well, a bit strange. But its mythology is so dense and its characters so realized that it seems eternal, like a bedtime story told to you so often and at such a young age that it remains a part of you even well into adulthood. The story itself is simple enough – it’s essentially your standard “hero’s journey” – but Moore sets this story in a vast, creative world, inhabits it with colorful characters, and uses elements of folklore as a framework to convey weighty themes of grief and loss. A Wonder to Behold Like Moore‘s previous film The Secret of Kells (which was also nominated for Best Animated Feature in 2010), Song of the Sea is brought to life with a distinctive and painterly visual style. The 2D animation here is simply awe-inspiring and often surreal in its beauty. Fantastical characters and sprawling environments – the drab city, the green countryside, the crashing oceans – are brilliantly composited. And speaking of composition, Bruno Coulais, who also wrote the stunning musical score for Henry Selick‘s Coraline (2009), makes Song of the Sea an indelible treat to the ears as well as the eyes. Compared to the hyperactivity that plagues far too many kids’ movies, the film is paced somewhat moderately. Indeed, even my patience was tested during a sequence in which Saoirse goes missing and Ben spends the next several scenes calling for her: “Saoirse! Saoirse! Saoirse!” However, the warm humor and the occasional scary (yet never traumatizing) moment will keep children of all ages invested, while adults will be awestruck by the film’s artistry and the deeper motivations behind the story. “Remember Me in Your Stories and in Your Songs” These deeper motivations are what gives Song of the Sea its weight and poignancy, and are expertly personified using clever symbolism. According to the film’s mythology, when humans become overcome by sadness and despair brought on by the loss of a loved one, they turn to stone, unable to move onto the “next world.” And what of the Owl Woman, a witch who traps “bad” emotions and thoughts of despair (visually represented by dark rain clouds, turbulent winds, et cetera) in bottles and hoards them away? The deeper meaning behind these seemingly simple “fairy tale concepts” becomes clear once the bottles begin to break and the titular song of the sea is sung. They’re metaphors for how sometimes we get so wrapped up in our grief that we become hardened and stuck to the point of immobility. For how empty it feels for one to live life by “bottling up” emotions that may be unwelcome or uncomfortable (and is that really living?). The film comforts those of its audience who have either experienced these overwhelming feelings of grief or have yet to do so. It wraps us up in a warm embrace, squeezes us gently, and in our ear softly sings, “Only when we learn to dispel our demons, heal old wounds, ‘break our bottles,’ and let go of feelings of guilt and regret can we truly be free.” Not bad for an odd duck. Have you seen Song of the Sea? Which film do you think deserved the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature? (top image source: GKIDS Films) Opinions expressed in our articles are those of the authors and not of the Film Inquiry magazine. |
The US government has officially ended its oversight of ICANN, the organization that coordinates the management of domain names and IP addresses for the entire internet, therefore renouncing a largely symbolic but important role in internet governance. Founded in 1998 under California State Law, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is a nonprofit company responsible for managing the domain name system and coordinating the assignment of IP addresses. Since its creation, ICANN has operated generally under the supervision of the US Department of Commerce, and specifically by a board of directors. What Will Change? Fundamentally, the expiration of the contract between the US Department of Commerce and ICANN means that internet oversight will transition from US governmental control to international private control. ICANN will, therefore, become an autonomous, self-regulated and international nonprofit entity, and will retain the same operational purview as it had while under US supervision. It is important to note that both the US Department of Commerce’s previous role and ICANN’s current role are supervisory. The core operational system of Internet Governance has grown to be a largely democratic consortium of experts and enthusiasts operating together under a multi-stakeholders model. Governments, companies, and civil society organizations like the Internet Engineering Task Force (“IETF“) will continue to collaborate to govern, manage and improve how the internet functions- but under ICANN international supervision as opposed to US government control. On October 18th, ICANN is scheduled to release updates on how the organization has implemented community policies during its most recent operational quarter. Why Now? The change has been presented by both ICANN and the US government as a long-standing plan to privatize these functions with the process being drafted almost two decades ago. However, the process to hand over supervision and indirect control over the internet was arguably expedited by the Obama administration partially in response to the 2013 Edward Snowden controversy and subsequent criticism from both the international community and parts of US Congress. Furthermore, advocates and companies participating in the Net Neutrality movement in support of a Free and Open Internet played a significant role in realizing the transition. In an open letter to Congress from US tech giants like the Intel Corporation, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and HP states that “we have worked with representatives from civil society, government, and the technical community to craft a proposal that enables the U.S. Government to seamlessly transfer stewardship of the Internet’s addressing system to its global stakeholders.” This transition may be considered mainly a symbolic move to limit the US government’s control over the internet and information in the wake of far-reaching surveillance claims and controversies. However, this change also has the potential to promote a more open, democratic and international process of internet governance and access to information in an increasingly globalized and interconnected age. |
There are some jobs that are outright dangerous — and some more for women than men. Surprisingly, journalism is among them–and we aren’t talking about investigative journalism, but the industry in general. According to a new study from the International News Safety Institute and the International Women’s Media Foundation, 64 percent of women in media reported facing abuse, threats and harassment in the workplace. More than half of that came from a boss, supervisor or co-worker, according to the study. “When we talk about safety for the media, we often think in terms of staying safe in war zones, civil unrest and environmental disasters, but how often do we think of the office as a hostile environment?” said INSI Director Hannah Storm in a press release. Conducted between July and November of this year, the study included 875 women from around the world, with about 21 percent from North America, 19 percent from Europe and 28 percent from Asia-Pacific. More than 41 percent of respondents were between 25 and 34 years old and more than 82 percent worked as reporters. More than 45 percent reported that they had been sexually harassed by colleagues, and more than 28 percent by their bosses. Of course, there are jobs that are fatally dangerous. “The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows that there were a total of 4,383 fatal injuries on the job in the U.S. in 2012, down from 4,693 in 2011,” reports Forbes. Ninety-two percent of all on-the-job fatalities were among men. The figures reflect the disproportionate number of men in dangerous industries like construction and mining. “Still, women face their own dangers. About 20 percent of the women who died on the job were involved in roadway incidents, while more than a quarter (29 percent) were victims of homicides, compared with only 9 percent for male homicides,” reports Forbes. This is due to the concentration of women in workplaces like food and beverage stores, where a majority of deaths are homicides. Workplaces overall, however, have gotten safer. The rate of fatal work injury for U.S. workers in 2012 dropped to 3.2 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers, from 3.5 in 2011. The most dangerous profession in America is logging. Workers in this industry lost their lives at a rate of 127.8 per 100,000 full-time workers. Fishermen and fisherwomen now have the second deadliest job in America, previously the deadliest. Coming in third: airplane pilots, who like loggers are menaced by the threat of malfunctioning machinery and falling heavy objects. Seventy-one aircraft pilots and flight engineers were killed on the job in 2012, which is nearly 53.4 per 100,000 full-time workers. According to the report, 41 percent of all fatal workplace injuries happened in transportation incidents, like car accidents, overturned vehicles and plane crashes, most involving motorized land vehicles. “The second-highest cause of worker fatalities was assaults and violent acts, which accounted for 18 percent of deaths,” reports Forbes. Of all workplace injuries, slips, falls and trips killed 668 workers in 2012 or about 15 percent. A total of 509 workers died after being struck by equipment or objects while at work. Be careful out there! [via The Poyner Organization] |
As congressional Republicans move toward another vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act , new evidence was published Wednesday about the dramatic expansion of insurance coverage made possible by the law. Nearly 17 million more people in the U.S. have gained health insurance since the law's major coverage expansion began, according to a study from the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica nonprofit research firm. That tally takes into account 22.8 million newly insured people and 5.9 million who lost coverage in the last year and a half. Researchers found gains across all types of insurance, including employer-provided coverage, government Medicaid programs and policies offered through state insurance marketplaces created by the law. At the same time, the vast majority of Americans have seen no change in the source of their coverage, with 80% remaining in the same insurance, researchers found. “The ACA has greatly expanded health insurance coverage in the United States with little change in the source of coverage for those who were insured before the major provisions of the law took effect,” concluded the authors of the study, published online by the journal Health Affairs. The Rand study, based on surveys of 1,589 working-age adults, is not as large as other polls. But the findings are consistent with national surveys by Gallup, as well as with data from the federal government, which have all shown a dramatic decrease in the nation's uninsured rate since the health law's coverage expansion began. Importantly, Rand's survey, which has tracked a panel of the same people since 2013, provides an early snapshot of where the coverage is expanding. The biggest growth has been in the marketplaces created by the law, which now have about 11 million adult customers, about a third of whom were uninsured in 2013, according to the study. Medicaid, another pillar of the health law, has seen enrollment grow by nearly 10 million adults since 2013. The marketplaces allow Americans who do not get health benefits through an employer to shop for health plans that must meet basic standards and cannot turn away consumers, even if they are sick. And more than half the states have expanded eligibility for their Medicaid programs through federal aid made available by the health law. Rand also found substantial growth in employer-provided coverage, with some 8 million more adults now in a health plan provided by an employer. In fact, employer coverage was the biggest source of new coverage for previously uninsured people, the study found. “The law has expanded coverage to more Americans using all parts of the health insurance system,” said Rand economist Katherine Carman, the study's lead author. Nearly half of the newly insured people in an employer-provided health plan had access to such coverage in 2013 but elected not to sign up, Carman said. That suggests the new requirement in the law that Americans have insurance may be having an effect. The researchers did not find a large number of people who lost coverage when the health plans they had purchased on their own were canceled in 2013 or 2014, a phenomenon that generated fierce criticism of the health law at the time. “There were some doomsayers who were saying that this would have a major impact,” Carman said. “That wasn't the case.” Whether the coverage gains can be sustained remains unclear. The Rand survey shows that increases in insurance have slowed this year, compared with 2014. |
Did you see that viral story about a zoo in China naming their baby gorilla Harambe McHarambeface? Well, it's fake. But it fooled plenty of news outlets like The Mirror and The Metro. Because anything involving Harambe, the dead gorilla-turned-meme, is too good to check. Baby gorilla Afia at the Bristol Zoo in England in August 2016 (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images) The Jinhua Zoo in China allegedly had an online contest to name their new baby gorilla. And things were going smoothly until last week, when the online poll was hijacked by people who submitted the name Harambe McHarambeface. The old most popular name, Heijin, was quickly surpassed by the tribute to Harambe, which reportedly snagged 93 per cent of the total votes. But it's all a lie. How do we know it's fake? The source of the news is a website that was created on 9 September 2016. The fake news site, calling itself The Boston Leader, is complete bullshit and clearly manufactured everything from the poll's very existence to the quotes from the zoo. The Daily Mail bothered to reach out to the Jinhua Zoo, where Harambe McHarambeface supposedly lives, but they haven't heard back. And since the zoo doesn't have any newborn gorillas in the first place, I don't suspect they will. Harambe McHarambeface is obviously a nod to the meme of the disaster that is crowdsourcing a name for things online. Remember Boaty McBoatface? This one just never happened in the first place. Gizmodo's Factually highlights fun facts, interesting photos and weird trivia. |
A South Korean court sentenced an executive of VW Group’s local arm to one year and six months in prison, for fabricating documents on emissions and noise-level tests in order to make certain vehicles eligible for import. The court only publicized the surname of the executive, Yun, which was convicted of document fabrication, obstruction of work and for violating the environmental law, according to Reuters. “Volkswagen has by itself undermined its credibility as a global brand as a result of this crime which has caused grave social and economic damages,” the Seoul Central District Court said in a statement, referring to the suspension. Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scandal is still unfolding in South Korea, after last year’s sales suspension of 80 models from the VW, Audi and Bentley brands. The suspension was accompanied by a fine of 17.8 billion won ($14.91 million) on VW’s local arm. South Korea has been chasing VW with severity, filling criminal complaints even against executives like Johannes Thammer, managing director of Audi Volkswagen Korea. Officials have already raided their offices while the company was fined an additional 37.3 billion won ($31.87 million) for false advertising. The local prosecutors are still investigating the case, so this one will not be the last time we hear from them. PHOTO GALLERY |
A King County Superior Judge struck down the voter-approved $15 an hour minimum wage for the vast majority of workers the measure aimed to help. Judge Andrea Darvas’ ruling on Friday said the recently-approved measure applies to about 1,600 hotel and parking lot workers in the city of SeaTac, but that the city initiative does not have authority over 4,700 employees and contractors working within Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which is operated by the Port of Seattle. Darvas said the state Legislature has given municipalities like the Port of Seattle “exclusive jurisdiction” over their operations. “The Washington State Legislature has clearly and unequivocally stated its intent that municipalities other than the Port of Seattle may not exercise any jurisdiction or control over SeaTac Airport operations, or the laws and rules governing those operations,” she wrote in her ruling. Proponents of the measure say they will file an expedited appeal to the state Supreme Court, as expected. In November, voters in the city of SeaTac narrowly approved the labor-backed measure, which would require a $15 minimum wage, a handful of paid sick days and other standards to around 6,000 workers at the airport and related industries, like hotels and rental car companies. “While we appreciate the judge’s affirmation of parts of SeaTac Proposition 1, the voters approved the entire ordinance, not just parts of it. People working at the airport need paid sick days, tip protection, job security and a $15 (an) hour wage to support their families,” Heather Weiner, spokeswoman for Yes For SeaTac said in a statement. An inquiry to Alaska Airlines was not immediately returned. The challenge to the newly approved measure is led by Alaska Airlines Group and other businesses. The opposition put forward several legal challenges in their court filing, but focused on the initiatives jurisdiction, saying the city measure doesn’t have power over the airport, which is operated by the Port of Seattle. The Port of Seattle agreed. And so did the judge. “We continue to believe that we have exclusive authority to operate Sea-Tac Airport,” Port of Seattle spokesman Perry Cooper said Friday. Weiner said it was unfortunate that Alaska Airlines Group, which recorded a net income of $289 million in the third quarter of this year, is fighting to give workers at the airport better wages. Washington has the nation’s highest state minimum wage at $9.19 an hour. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Copyright (2013) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended an overnight Mass at a church in Sochi earlier this week in honor of Orthodox Christmas. During the service at Holy Trinity St. George Monastery, Putin knelt down and whispered something to a young boy sitting on the ground near his feet—a tender moment caught by a photographer. But a photo apparently taken shortly after the exchange shows the wide-eyed boy staring ahead, possibly in fear, shock or bewilderment. The before-and-after images have led to gleefully sinister speculation on Reddit about what Putin said to the child. "I'm not Vladimir Putin, the real one is dead," one Reddit user quipped. "I deleted your Pokemon save file," wrote another. Others theorized that Putin told the boy the password to the launch codes: "Bosco." "I killed Santa with my bare hands," Reddit user Resfad wrote. "If you pick your nose once more I will have it removed," another joked. "I am your father," several Redditors wrote. At least one user offered a plausible explanation for the kid's trauma: The boy may have been unaware that the president of his country was standing behind him until he knelt down to say hello. I'd probably have the same expression on my face if I was at some random function and Obama kneels next to me. "Putin didn't say anything," a Reddit user replied. "He merely stole that boy's soul." [Hat tip: Andrew Kaczynski/Buzzfeed] |
If you prefer to get your retro gaming fix via the vintage computers on offer then look no further. Tynemouth Software have teamed up with leading classic hardware manufacturer TheFutureWas8Bit to release an all-in-one game cartridge for the Commodore VIC-20. Although this fantastic system is often overshadowed by its 64k successor, the VIC-20 still has plenty to offer when it comes to gaming - with the likes of Jelly Monsters, Demon Attack, and even a port of Donkey Kong showcasing the computer’s potential. These three titles are just a few on the ones available on the Penultimate Cartridge for the VIC-20, with many more pre-loaded and ready to boot into action. This new addition for the Commodore computer also doubles up as a memory expander with several selectable RAM configurations just a key press away. Elsewhere the other great feature included is an easy access button to load other software from TheFutureWas8Bit’s SD2IEC device (a disk drive emulator for the older Commodore computers). Needless to say this is a fantastic addition to any VIC-20 gamer’s collection, and one that’s fairly priced at £64.99 with pre-orders now open. Commodore VIC-20 Penultimate Cartridge Demonstration Link: Penultimate Cartridge at TheFutureWas8Bit |
Earlier this year, several analysts at the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective took a look at income inequality in the major U.S. sports leagues. Using Gini coefficients, an economic tool that distills the degree of inequality among a set of earners to a single number, the collective found the NHL to be the most equitable and MLB to be the least. The researchers found that salary caps help limit income inequality, essentially. The results are below. A Gini coefficient of 0.0 means that every player has the same income — perfect equality — and a Gini coefficient of 1.0 means that one player takes home all of the income — perfect inequality. NHL: 0.42 NBA: 0.52 MLS: 0.54 NFL: 0.57 MLB: 0.62 But those are team sports. With the Masters tournament unspooling this week, I started wondering about income inequality for the PGA Tour, a collection of athletes that doesn’t have a salary cap. Surely, after more than a decade of big purses for Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and a select few others, golf would prove to be an unequal sport. It is, but increasingly less so. Since 1980, the PGA Tour has been shifting toward more income equality. How that happened, and how golf differs from other professional sports, shows that high levels of income inequality aren’t inevitable, even when individual athletes have different levels of skill. In 1980 the PGA Tour had a Gini coefficient of 0.70, which put it well above the major U.S. team sports. But last year the coefficient dropped to 0.58 (calculated using this tool). That holds, but to a lesser extent, if we look just at the top 100 money winners — in 2013 the tour’s Gini coefficient was 0.32, down from 0.36 in 1980. The move toward equality has happened despite huge amounts of cash injected into the game. In 2013, 82 golfers each won more than $1 million. Phil Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion, told ESPN this week, “I remember when I was an amateur and I won my first tournament in Tucson in 1991, the entire purse was $1 million, first place was $180,000 and Steve [Loy, my agent] and I would sit down and say, ‘I wonder if in my lifetime, probably not in my career, we would have play for a $1 million first-place check.’ [Now] it’s every week. It’s unbelievable, the growth of this game.” Since 1980, prize winnings on the PGA tour have increased from $35 million (in 2014 dollars) to $250 million. But the top 1 percent is still winning the same proportion of that money as in the past, even when the number of money winners on the tour fluctuates (from a high of 374 in 1996 to a low of 248 in 2002 and 2010). Using data provided by the PGA Tour, we can see how different tiers of golfers have split up the pot. The top 1 percent have seen relative stability in their share of winnings since 1980. In contrast, the share of winnings of the top 10 percent and top 25 percent of earners on the PGA Tour has fallen somewhat. The top 10 percent of earners took home about half of all the prize money in 1980, but less than 40 percent by 2013. Same for the top 25 percent: In 1980 that group took home about 80 percent of all available prize money, but only 65 percent by 2013. The distribution of winnings across the PGA tour has flattened out a bit, meaning that players on the bottom half of the winnings table are doing relatively better than they did a few golfing generations ago. The proportion of winnings taken home by those in the 25th to 50th percentile of golfers increased by 140 percent from 1980 to 2013. The bottom half of earners saw an even larger gain of 240 percent. A massive increase in overall income doesn’t disproportionately reward those at the top of the scale. Probably the closest analog to golf is tennis, an individual sport with a collection of players who belong to a tour and make money based on tournament performance. A 2012 analysis of the top-100 ranked tennis players on the ATP (men’s) and WTA (women’s) tours by Ryan Rodenberg, an assistant professor of sports law analytics at Florida State University, found a Gini coefficient of 0.44 for the men and 0.48 for the women. Since 1990, the women’s tour has had greater income inequality than the men’s tour, but in recent years the gap has closed considerably, with the men’s Gini coefficient rising by 0.11 points, likely due in part to the overwhelming dominance of a small number of male players. From 2007 to 2011, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer took home between 20 percent and 26 percent of all ATP World Tour winnings. In response to concern from players, both tennis tours have dramatically increased the amount of tournament winnings paid out to early-round losers. Wimbledon, for instance, increased the purse awarded to losers in the first three rounds by 90 percent over the past two years. Even in these comparatively simple settings — mini-economies if you will — there can be a very large range of outcomes on inequality. Looking at golf alone might be misleading. Looking across sports tells us that high levels of inequality aren’t inevitable. |
TIMELINE: FBI raid on Allentown City Hall to Pawlowski's indictment It was no secret Allentown's mayor was being investigated for allegedly trading city contracts for kickbacks and campaign contributions. Federal prosecutors only referred to the alleged ringleader of the pay-to-play scheme as public official No. 3, as FBI agents raided City Hall in July 2015 and prosecutors left a breadcrumb-like trail of charges and guilty plea deals with businessmen and city officials. On Tuesday, Mayor Ed Pawlowski was notified he was indicted, but the indictments are under seal, defense attorney Jack McMahon said. "Why they are sealed I can't begin to tell you," McMahon said. The indictments are slated to be unsealed on Wednesday in Philadelphia, with a first-appearance hearing set for Thursday, McMahon said. Michele Mucellin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia, declined to comment when asked about the indictments. More guilty pleas in Allentown, Reading pay-to-play investigation McMahon said he had heard there were others who were indicted at the same time as the mayor, but since they were sealed, he didn't have details. McMahon said he was aware Scott Allinson, of the Norris McLaughlin law firm, being indicted, but only because Allinson emailed people about it, and the email was then posted on the blog Lehigh Valley Ramblings. Pawlowski's former right-hand man admits role in kickback scheme While the mayor may not know exactly what prosecutors are alleging, they have revealed more pieces of their investigation puzzle in the guilty pleas made over the past two years. Developer Ramzi Haddad, of Bethlehem, was the first domino to fall. Haddad pleaded guilty in September 2015, admitting he agreed to give Pawlowski "numerous" donations in exchange for actions from the city, including municipal inspections of Haddad's buildings. The first city official to sign off on a plea deal was Dale Wiles, former assistant solicitor. In November 2015, Wiles pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, for his role in awarding the contract to a Pawlowski donor. Climbing up the ladder, former finance director Garret Strathearn and Allentown's former controller Mary Ellen Koval also reached plea deals. Then in April 2016, authorities announced a plea deal for a star witness -- political consultant Mike Fleck. Fleck and his company provided consulting services to Pawlowski and Reading Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer. Prosecutors said the mayors used Fleck and his employees to communicate "to certain donors that they were expected to provide items of value, including campaign contributions, in return for certain past or prospective official actions in Reading and Allentown." It wasn't just Fleck's role that made him an important piece to the investigation; he also reportedly wore a wire and secretly recorded clients of his H Street Strategies. Throughout it all, the Department of Justice would only say public official No. 3 was a man elected to represent Allentown who also ran for state office, and specifically detailed that the official announced April 17 he was seeking a federal office. Pawlowski previously ran for Pennsylvania governor, then announced on April 17 he was running for Pat Toomey's U.S. Senate seat. Days after the FBI raided Allentown City Hall, Pawlowski announced he was suspending his 2016 run for that seat. While the investigation has trudged on, Pawlowski announced he was running for a fourth term as mayor. He won the Democratic nomination in May to appear on November's general election ballot. Pawlowski began fundraising and his blue-and-white campaign signs popped up around the Queen City. He gave his annual State of the City address where he urged Allentown to become a "city of kindness." Just last Thursday held a ceremony where he signed an ordinance banning conversion therapy for gay and trans minors in the city. It was taking so long, that Allentown city council asked for the mayor's resignation and then, last week, passed a resolution asking the feds to hurry up with their investigation into the mayor. His posts on Facebook and Twitter also did not hint anything was amiss in his administration, with photos from around Allentown and a post on Tuesday about a child's lemonade stand raising money for the Humane Society. State Rep. Mike Schlossberg reiterated his call for the mayor to step down, with a tweet that said "Ed Pawlowski needs to resign as Mayor of Allentown. Now." Others, like the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 302, welcomed the news. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook. |
View Caption Hide Caption The Bengals' A.J. Green runs against Dolphins cornerback Tony Lippett. (Photo by John Grieshop/Getty Images) Cornerback Tony Lippett “looked comfortable to me,” coach Adam Gase said Friday, despite having a tough night against Bengals receiver A.J. Green. Gase said as of now, Lippett remains the starter at cornerback. Green finished with 10 receptions for 173 yards, including a 7-yard touchdown and a 51-yard catch. Illustrating how difficult the Dolphins’ secondary found it to cover Green, those 10 receptions came on only 12 targets. Of course, not all that yardage can be blamed on Lippett. But enough of it was on the second-year cornerback who was a surprise starter. Lippett replaced ineffective veteran Byron Maxwell, who didn’t play a snap. “I was pretty excited,” said Lippett, who was told about the chance a couple of days in advance. “It was a great opportunity: Thursday Night Football, to play against one of the greatest wide receivers. I was just trying to embrace the opportunity as best I can.” Green started the game with the 51-yarder by outwrestling rookie Xavien Howard. On the 7-yard touchdown, Green easily shoved aside an attempted tackle by Lippett to coast into the end zone. Later, he burned Lippett deep for a 43-yard reception, setting up a field goal. “Obviously, he’d like that missed tackle back,” Gase said. “He was in good position, too. If he finishes that, he’s probably feeling a lot better than what he does right now. Anytime you’ve got to go against A.J. Green that much, I mean, it’s not easy. He’s an elite guy. It’s going to be tough. You just try to do the best you can to hold him on explosive plays. We let a couple up but he’s going to get yards. It’s just, can we get it to where he doesn’t completely take over the game?” Lippett was a fifth-round pick last year out of Michigan State, a converted receiver adjusting to playing in the secondary. He’s 6-feet-3 and 194 but still was at a physical disadvantage against Green (6-4, 210). “He’s a big wide receiver and at the end of the day when you see the ball in there, he’s going to go and get it, no matter if somebody’s right on him or far away from him. That’s what separates him, catch radius.” Lippett found it a learning experience. “Not letting receivers get free releases,” he said, as a priority on his to-do list. “That’s one of the things. I have to utilize my arms and my length a little bit more.” Gase said Maxwell can’t be counted out. “I know this about Maxwell: He’s going to compete,” Gase said. “He’s going to come out and practice. He’s going to try to get better. You just never know in this league. One day you’re in a spot where you hate your life for the most part because you’re not starting or not playing and then all of a sudden you flip it around and next thing you know, you’re the guy.” Gase made numerous lineup changes Thursday night in an effort to get production and also send a message to the team. He said he’s not sure if more changes are in store for the next game, Oct. 9 against visiting Tennessee, but when asked if the team is more off course than he expected in this 1-3 start, he responded, “I don’t think we’re off course. There’s a lot of things we’d like to clean up.” He added that everybody wants to say “the sky is falling but we have to keep working at it.” DOLPHINS EXPECT MIKE POUNCEY BACK NEXT WEEK Miami Dolphins: 5 conclusions from snaps played Adam Gase and Ryan Tannehill echo each other’s Dolphins concerns Five instant takeaways: Cincinnati Bengals 22, Miami Dolphins 7 |
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said Tuesday that his office would hire outside counsel to appeal a court ruling that the state must recognize same-sex marriages performed outside Kentucky, just moments after the state attorney general, a fellow Democrat, said he would no longer defend the ban. Jack Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, said Tuesday that if he appealed the recent ruling, he would be forced to defend discrimination. “That I will not do,” he said in a statement. “As Attorney General of Kentucky, I must draw the line when it comes to discrimination.” Beshear promptly announced that his office would continue the appeal, the Associated Press reports, saying there would be “legal chaos” if the courts don’t delay any changes until after an appeal. “Employers, health care providers, governmental agencies and others faced with changing rules need a clear and certain roadmap,” Beshear said. “Also, people may take action based on this decision only to be placed at a disadvantage should a higher court reverse the decision.” The rapid-fire action and reaction underscored how states are struggling to respond to a wave of court decisions striking down same-sex marriage bans of various kinds. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently said state attorneys general don’t have to defend gay-marriage bans if they view them as discriminatory. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now The circumstances are similar to Pennsylvania, where the state’s Democratic attorney general declined to defend the state’s gay marriage ban in a lawsuit, leading the Republican governor to take up the case. The federal judge in the Kentucky case ruled last month that the state’s voter-approved ban on recognizing same-sex marriages violates the constitution, and the judge last week gave the state 21 days to implement his ruling that same-sex unions performed out of state be recognized in Kentucky. [AP] Contact us at editors@time.com. |
A 69-year-old Saint John man is behind bars awaiting sentencing after using his SUV to deliberately run down a pedestrian on the city's east side last Thursday morning. The crime was captured on video and is being widely circulated on social media, labelled as a case of "road rage." The video shows a black Audi being driven straight into a young man, sending him flying into the air. "Oh my God, he just hit my friend," the woman shooting the video screams. She was on the phone with Saint John police at the time. "He smoked him," she tells the dispatcher, as she runs over to her friend's side. "Are you OK?" she cries out. "I can't move my arm," replies the young man, who is splayed on the asphalt, his right arm outstretched. Gene Williams pleaded guilty Friday to assault with a weapon, dangerous driving and leaving the scene of an accident, Saint John police Sgt. Charles Breen said. Williams was remanded in custody until his sentencing hearing, scheduled for April 10 at 9:30 a.m. Verbal confrontation led to chase The SUV driver and the pedestrian first encountered each other in Grand Bay, outside the city, police said. "Officers were advised by a witness that they were at an appointment in Grand Bay and when getting in their vehicle, had words with a male who was parked near them," Breen said. The witness and male passenger drove away, headed toward Saint John, and noticed the man was now following them. He followed them all the way to Coldbrook Crescent, the witness told police — nearly a 30-minute drive, according to Google Maps. When they arrived, the witness and passenger parked in a parking lot and got out of their vehicle. That's when "the other driver swerved towards the two, struck the male passenger and then left the scene," Breen said. Police were called to Coldbrook Crescent at 11:08 a.m. They were at an appointment in Grand Bay and when getting in their vehicle, had words with a male who was parked near them. - Charles Breen , sergeant The 23-year-old male passenger, identified in the video as Timothy Tyler, was taken to the Saint John Regional Hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, Breen said. Police located the SUV at 12:05 p.m. and arrested the driver. The 35-second video of the hit and run was posted on YouTube on Friday and had more than 5,000 views, as of mid-afternoon on Monday. It was also picked up Sunday by WorldStarHipHop.com, where it has been viewed more than 254,000 times and generated 1,980 comments. |
China has a “systemic weakness” in its governance structure, said Elizabeth Economy, Director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Each year, the country faces 100,000 protests, according to her. These public demonstrations of discontent are about varied issues like forced relocation (e.g. for the Three Gorges Dam project), corruption in government officials, and environmental pollution. The real problem isn’t a specific issue, according to Economy. Rather it’s the inability of the Chinese government to effectively address public discontent. The Communist regime lacks “transparency, official accountability and the rule of law,” she said. Moreover, as the country’s middle class grows, there will be greater access to communication technology (i.e. social media websites, cell phones) and expectation for political expression, so the chances of rebellion may be greater. Economy said it’s a mistake for the Chinese government to think that delivering economic growth is enough to pacify the people; if it were really enough, there wouldn’t be over 100.000 protests per year, she said. In the wake of the Arab protests, Chinese activists tried to stage their own version of it. However, the Chinese attempt at the Jasmine Revolution quickly fizzled out in a few hours. Economy said it was cut short due to the swift and heavy-handed action of the police. According to Foreign Policy, the police “rounded up, detained, or placed under house arrest” over 100 people nationwide during its crackdown. This video from BBC also showed that the police were decisive in clamping down on foreign media. While the Chinese government was successful in stamping out the unrest this time, deep issues remain. “The Jasmine Revolution in China has yet to flower, but it seems clear that the roots have been planted,” said Economy. |
How Long Do Drugs Stay In Your System? How Long Do Drugs Stay In Your System? Drug Detection Times indicate a point in time in which drug testing can reveal the presence of the drug metabolites in your urine, hair or saliva. This includes the time from when the drug can first be detected to the point in time when you will test clean. Your Drug Detection Times Can Vary Based Upon: The Drug Consumed. Each system creates a different metabolite for each drug. Metabolites are a product of your metabolism. Some of these metabolites stay in your system a long time. An example of this is the marijuana detection time which can be in excess of 60 days. This is an extreme as most drug detection times are much less. The marijuana detection time for s urine drug test can be up to 60 days and for a hair drug test in excess of 90 days. The marijuana detection time is an extreme as most drug detection times are much less. The Type Of Drug Test. Each drug test also has a differing drug detection time. The hair drug test is always at least 90 days and could be longer in certain instances. The blood test is usually the shortest with drug detection times of only several days. The mouth swab drug test, sometimes called the saliva drug test, detection times are usually less than a seek. Where as the urine drug detection times are usually less than a month. Your Usage Level. Typically the more you use the longer the drug detection time for that drug. The exception to this rule in the hair follicle drug test detection times. They are always in excess of 90 days no matter your usage level. Your Personal Factors. There are a number of your personal factors which can either shorten your drug detection time or lengthen your drug detection time. Metabolic Rate Body Mass Physical Activity Age Overall Health. Drug Tolerance Metabolic Rate We will discuss these in greater detail later in this article. The Four Main Types Of Drug Tests Explained. It is very important that you first identify which drug test you are facing and learn a bit about how to pass that drug test. Know how long do drugs stay in your system for a urine drug test. The urine drug test is the most common due to its simplicity to administer, accuracy and immediate results. The common urine drug test is also the easiest to beat. There are more complex (expensive) urine drug tests that are harder to beat. These are relatively rare and most often used to confirm a failed test when a contested, legal or financial ramification is possible. Know how long do drugs stay in your system for a hair drug test. The hair drug test can detect drug usage in any hair that was growing anywhere on your body at the time you used the drug. Example: If you used 12 months ago the hair growing at that time is still on your body, it can be detected. The hair drug test can also tell when and how much of a specific drug was used. However, these specific hair drug tests are rare. Know how long do drugs stay in your system for a saliva drug test. The saliva drug test ( also known as Mouth Swab Drug Test) can be given anytime, anywhere. The results are accurate and immediate. The saliva drug test is not affected by the standard “tricks” used to beat the urine drug test. Because of these advantages, the saliva drug test is replacing the urine test. The saliva drug detection times are generally shorter than the urine test. Know how long do drugs stay in your blood for a blood drug test. The blood drug test is very accurate, is the least used and must be administered by a heath care professional. It is the gold standard of drug testing. The blood drug test most often given by insurance companies or law enforcement. NOTE: Expect a urine drug test with the blood test. This combination provides both a short and long-term look at your drug exposure. What Can Affect How Long Do Drugs Stay In Your System? A drug test does not look for the actual drug in your system. It looks for something called a metabolite. When you ingest a substance your body changes (metabolizes) that substance into one or more metabolites. It is these metabolites the drug tests looks to identify. Any metabolites your body does not use are stored off in the fast growing cells such as hair, nails and to the greatest degree your fatty cells. The more fat in your body the longer the drug detection times tend to be. The problem is that an exact timetable for how long drugs remain detectable is almost impossible to exactly determine due to the many factors that can affect how an individual’s body processes and stores metabolites of the drugs. Most tests are also available with various cut off levels which can increase or decrease your drug detection times. As an example, the amphetamine drug test is available in cut off levels from 500 to 1,000 pg/mg with corresponding longer detection times as the cut off level gets higher. To be safe, Always Test Clean publishes the maximum time a drug can be detected with the most sensitive tests. Even though there are some standards for drug cut off levels, one rarely knows the sensitivity level of the test faced. Betting on the lower (minimum) time can get one into real trouble. Many other charts profess minor differences in drug detection times. We believe in publishing clearly safe lengths of time. These drug test detection times are your number one bet on being safe. Drug Detection Times Can Vary Substantially Based Upon: Amount and Frequency of Use: Single or small doses of drugs are generally not as detectable for as long a period of time as chronic or long-term use. Single or small doses of drugs are generally not as detectable for as long a period of time as chronic or long-term use. Metabolic Rate: Individuals with slower body metabolism are prone to a longer detection times. Individuals with slower body metabolism are prone to a longer detection times. Body Mass: In general, human metabolism slows with increased body mass resulting in longer detection time. In general, human metabolism slows with increased body mass resulting in longer detection time. Physical Activity : Physically inactive individuals with a high percentage of body fat in relation to total body mass are prone to a longer detection time due to the increased amount of excess metabolites stored in their fat cells. Physically inactive individuals with a high percentage of body fat in relation to total body mass are prone to a longer detection time due to the increased amount of excess metabolites stored in their fat cells. Age: In general, human metabolism slows with age. In general, human metabolism slows with age. Overall Health: Human metabolism slows during periods of bad health which can result longer drug detection times. Human metabolism slows during periods of bad health which can result longer drug detection times. Drug Tolerance: Users typically metabolize a drug faster once a tolerance to the drug is established. This can result in a shorter detection time. Users typically metabolize a drug faster once a tolerance to the drug is established. This can result in a shorter detection time. Urine pH: Urine pH can impact drug detection. A highly acidic urine results in a somewhat shorter detection time. Note On The Drug Detection Time For The Hair Drug Test. The hair sample can be taken from anywhere on your body. Shaving your head won’t work. The hair drug test sample is usually taken as close to the scalp as possible and is about 1.5 inches long giving a drug detection time of about 90 Days. Should the tester take 2 inches of hair your drug detection time will be extended an additional 30 days. Drug use can be detected for many months or even years in your hair is long enough. Note On The Drug Detection Time For The Blood Drug Test. A blood drug test looks for the presence of the actual drug in your blood. The blood drug test is most often used to determine the presence of current health issues such as nicotine, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cholesterol levels, hepatitis and other things of concerning overall health. Most drugs have a detection period of less than 2 days. The exceptions are THC and Nicotine, which chronic use can be detected for several weeks. The blood drug test is often given along with a urine drug test, so be ready for both. Drug Detection Times Chart Do Not Base Your Outcome On Just Anyone’s Published Drug Detection Times. As stated above, absolutely accurate drug detection times are a myth. Drug test detection times do vary based upon some factors that are in your control and some factors that are out of your control. But one has to have a base line to begin. Judging your drug detection times is difficult at best. If you really want the least risk to pass a drug test, you should either not do drugs or rely on the technology of detoxification for reliable results. These Drug Detection Times Are Worse Case. The drug detection times below are based upon a worst case scenario. This is why these times might be a bit longer than some published times. As you can imagine,it would not be prudent to base your decision on the shortest time drug detection times published. The drug detection times we publish are not only based upon worst case times published by across the major drug test manufacturers, but by real world experience over the past 20 years. These Drug Detection Times Are Safe To Use. We have included drug test detection times for most of the prescription and non-prescription drugs most will be facing. We have included these times across all four of the major drug test mediums; urine, hair, saliva and blood. How Long Do Drugs Stay In Your System? MDMA How Long Does MDMA Stay In Your System? (MDMA) Urine 5 Saliva 3 Hair 90 Blood 1 Methadone How Long Does Methadone Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 12 Saliva 7 Hair 90 Blood 1 See Methadone Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For Methadone. Methamphetamine How Long Does Methamphetamine Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 5 Saliva 3 Hair 90 Blood 1 Morphine How Long Does Morphine Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 7 Saliva 7 Hair 90 Blood 3 See Morphine Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For Morphine. Nicotine How Long Does Nicotine Stay In Your System? (Days) 1 Time <4 Times Month 3+ Times Week Daily Urine 1 1 5 14 Saliva 3 3 3 5 Hair 90 90 90 90 Blood 2 2 2 5 See Nicotine Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For Nicotine . Opiates How Long Does Opiates Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 3 Saliva 2 Hair 90 Blood 2 See Opiates Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For Opiates. PCP How Long Does PCP Stay In Your System? (Days) 1 Time <4 Times Month 3+ Times Week Daily Urine 7 7 7 10 Saliva 3 3 3 5 Hair 90 90 90 90 Blood 1 1 1 2 See PCP Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For PCP. Percocet How Long Does Percocet Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 5 Saliva 2 Hair 90 Blood 3 Phentermine How Long Does Phentermine Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 5 Saliva 3 Hair 90 Blood 1 Ritalin How Long Does Ritalin Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 5 Saliva 5 Hair 90 Blood ? Suboxone How Long Does Suboxone Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 7 Saliva 3 Hair 90 Blood 1 See Suboxone Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For Suboxone. THC How Long Does THC Stay In Your System? (Days) 1 Time <4 Times Month 3+ Times Week Daily Urine 5 – 8 11 – 18 22 – 35 49 – 63 Saliva 1 1.5 2 3 Hair 90 90 90 90 Blood 1 1 2 5 Tobacco How Long Does Tobacco Stay In Your System? (Days) 1 Time <4 Times Month 3+ Times Week Daily Urine 1 1 5 14 Saliva 3 3 3 5 Hair 90 90 90 90 Blood 2 2 2 5 Tramadol How Long Does Tramadol Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 5 Saliva 3 Hair 90 Blood 1 Valium How Long Does Valium Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 42 Saliva 3 Hair 90 Blood 2 See Valium Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For Methadone. Vicodin How Long Does Vicodin Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 6 Saliva 2 Hair 90 Blood 2 Weed How Long Does Weed Stay In Your System? (Days) 1 Time <4 Times Month 3+ Times Week Daily Urine 5 – 8 11 – 18 22 – 35 49 – 63 Saliva 1 1.5 2 3 Hair 90 90 90 90 Blood 1 1 2 5 See Weed Drug Test For More Information On How To Pass A Drug Test For Weed. Xanax How Long Does Xanax Stay In Your System? (Days) Urine 10 Saliva 3 Hair 90 Blood 1 Drug Detection Times Reference: Drug Testing Facts: Drugs.com Limits Of Detection (LOB) Table: Mayo Clinic |
I’m in the process of buying a house in the Station North Arts and Entertainment District of Baltimore. Here’s what the listing has to say about my house: “This modern rehab is close to everything Station North Arts and Entertainment District has to offer. Walk to restaurants, Charles Theater, various entertainment venues, coffee shops — it is all here.” Baltimore’s arts scene was a major reason I moved to Baltimore, and a major reason for choosing the Station North neighborhood. But while my listing talked up the arts, it said nothing about the artists. Artists have certainly left their mark on Station North, and my partner and I certainly look forward to patronizing the businesses they run. But the organically developed communal live-work spaces that play such a vital role in helping make Baltimore an arts mecca are an endangered species. In fact, there’s another listing down the street that's a little out of my price range: the Bell Foundry, for sale for $1 million. Baltimore City evicted residents of The Bell Foundry last year. (Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun video) Baltimore City evicted residents of The Bell Foundry last year. (Lloyd Fox, Baltimore Sun video) SEE MORE VIDEOS You may remember the Bell Foundry from last winter, when its tenants were suddenly evicted by the city in the wake of a tragic fire in an Oakland, Calif., live-work warehouse that killed 29 people. More than one Bell Foundry tenant subsequently became homeless, joining the 7,500 other Baltimoreans evicted in 2016 — one in 17 renter households. Arts and culture workers put a compelling face on the eviction crisis, since Baltimore is using the arts as an engine of economic development. But many of the solutions are the same for artists as they are for any population facing housing insecurity: rent court reform, more robust eviction prevention assistance and permanent affordable housing. My listing goes on to say “a mortgage would be less than many pay for rent in the same area,” which to this millennial seems like saying “water is wet.” Becoming an adult in the wake of the foreclosure crisis, I've only known housing markets of low mortgage interest rates and rental inflation. Rental inflation is particularly pronounced in Baltimore, thanks to stagnant wages, costs associated with maintaining the aging housing stock and highly leveraged investments giving landlords little flexibility in what to charge. One in three Baltimore renters pays over half of their income toward housing, versus one in four nationwide. How are they supposed to save — for a house or anything else — at that rate? Wesley Case Dan Deacon, third from right, said the city currently lacks enough venues for artists to perform and show their work on Tuesday at the second meeting for Mayor Catherine Pugh's Safe Arts Space Task Force. Dan Deacon, third from right, said the city currently lacks enough venues for artists to perform and show their work on Tuesday at the second meeting for Mayor Catherine Pugh's Safe Arts Space Task Force. (Wesley Case) (Wesley Case) Fortunately, the mayor has appointed a Safe Art Space Task Force to explore how the city can make more space for the artists it’s hoping will make Baltimore an attractive place to live. I'm excited for them to release their recommendations shortly. Committees have been surveying the artist community on their space needs, identifying areas of regulatory code and enforcement to change, and understanding potential sources of financing for building and renovating artist spaces. Early results showed a staggering 80 percent of survey respondents indicating interest in owning a home or workspace. Baltimore should pay attention to this statistic. Unlike places like Denver and Oakland, which launched similar efforts to support artist spaces, we are starting early enough on the redevelopment curve that large-scale artist property ownership could be financially feasible. It could happen faster than you'd think. Look at Howard Street, home of the artist-owned spaces Le Mondo and Current Gallery. After several years of failing to attract developers to the rest of the block, the city recently inked a deal for market-rate apartments and retail — right after Le Mondo opened to the public. Coincidence? I don’t believe so. As someone investing in the Station North neighborhood because of the creative amenities, it’s in my interest that artists be able to stay for the long term. And it only seems fair that if I'm going to build equity because of their work, they be able to build equity too. I’m trying to do my small part, by seeing shows and buying art and donating money, but we also need policy changes that acknowledge the value artists bring to Baltimore. Eva Wingren (Twitter: @ewingren) is a New Economy Maryland fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. |
US National Security Advisor Susan Rice (L), Press Secretary Jay Carney (C) and Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco listen to President Barack Obama speak on Syria in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington on August 31, 2013. Obama said Saturday he will ask the US Congress to authorize military action against Syria, lifting the threat of immediate strikes on President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Obama said he had decided he would go ahead and launch military action on Syria, but he believed it was important for American democracy to win the support of lawmakers. AFP PHOTO/Nicholas KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) Delivering a speech at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday, White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco said that local communities have to be aware of terrorist threats where the government cannot, noting that parents should watch for “sudden personality changes in their children at home.” (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) Delivering a speech at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government on Tuesday, White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser Lisa Monaco said that local communities have to be aware of terrorist threats where the government cannot, noting that parents should watch for “sudden personality changes in their children at home.” In the speech at the Harvard Kennedy School Forum entitled, “Countering Violent Extremism and the Power of Community,” Monaco made mention of the Boston Marathon bombings anniversary and the Kansas shootings at Jewish community complexes. “President Obama has been laser-focused on making sure we use all the elements of our national power to protect Americans, including developing the first government-wide strategy to prevent violent extremism in the United States,” said Monaco, in a transcript made available by the White House. “At the same time, we recognize that there are limits to what the federal government can do.” Monaco continued, saying that local communities have to share some responsibility in awareness of possible terrorist threats within the U.S. “Local communities are the most powerful asset we have in the struggle against violence and violent extremism,” said Monaco. “We’ve crunched the data on this. In the more than 80 percent of cases involving homegrown violent extremists, people in the community—whether peers or family members or authority figures or even strangers—had observed warning signs a person was becoming radicalized to violence.” Monaco said that many of these warning signs are ignored, and that local communities and parents should be more wary of problems developing domestically. She listed a series of behaviors that may indicate a growing threat. “Parents might see sudden personality changes in their children at home—becoming confrontational. Religious leaders might notice unexpected clashes over ideological differences. Teachers might hear a student expressing an interest in traveling to a conflict zone overseas. Or friends might notice a new interest in watching or sharing violent material.” “The government is rarely in position to observe these early signals, so we need to do more to help communities understand the warning signs, and then work together to intervene before an incident can occur.” Monaco said that in addition to citizen alertness, the Department of Homeland Security is increasing its partnerships across the country and making hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money available annually to local law enforcement to help improve anti-terrorism security at the municipal and county level. — Benjamin Fearnow |
The timing of the rut, or breeding season, for white-tailed deer varies locally, especially in southern climates like Georgia’s. During the rut, the desire to breed causes deer to become more active compared to the rest of the year. Bucks move more and become less secretive, making them easier to hunt and more susceptible to being hit by motor vehicles. Researchers at the University of Georgia and biologists with the Wildlife Resources Division found a strong correlation between peak deer-vehicle collision timeframes, deer conception dates and the hourly movement rates of deer tracked by GPS. Based on that information, deer-vehicle collision data provided by the Georgia Department of Transportation was used to map the timing of peak deer movement in Georgia. Counties marked with an asterisk (*) had fewer than 100 deer-vehicle collisions for the sample period, too few to determine meaningful results. Accuracy of the dates shown for these counties will be low. The map is based on “Using Deer-vehicle Collisions to Map White-tailed Deer Breeding Activity in Georgia,” a peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Co-authors are James H. Stickles, David B. Stone, Charles S. Evans, Karl V. Miller, Ph.D., Robert J. Warren, Ph.D., and David A. Osborn of UGA, and Charlie H. Killmaster of the Wildlife Resources Division. |
WARNER BROS. RECORDS, INC. December 27, 1967 Mr. Danny Rifkin 710 Ashbury Street San Francisco, California Dear Danny: Dave Hassinger is back from his New York trip and the tapes are being sent from New York. We plan to release the LP in February and must have all art work in her almost immediately. There is no time for delays or indecision as we must have the package on the market as quickly as possible. The recording in New York turned out to be very difficult. Lack of preparation, direction and cooperation from the very beginning have made this album the most unreasonable project with which we have ever involved ourselves. Your group has many problems, it would appear, and I would believe that Hassinger has no further interest or desire to work with them under conditions similar to this last fiasco. It's apparent that nobody in your organization has enough influence over Phil Lesh to evoke anything resembling normal behaviour. You are now branded as an undesirable group in almost every recording studio in Los Angeles. I haven't got all the New York reports in as yet, but the guys ran through engineers like a steamroller. It all adds up to a lack of professionalism. The Grateful Dead is not one of the top acts in the business as yet. With their attitudes and their inability to take care of business when it's time to do so would lead us to believe that they never will be truly important. No matter how talented your group is, they're going to have to put something of themselves into the business before they go anywhere. Recording dates have been firmly fixed for January 3rd and two days thereafter. We expect that you will be on hand to complete this drawn out project and get the art work going. Your artistic control is subject to reasonable restrictions and I believe that the time and expense involved along with your own freedom has been more than reasonable. Now let's get the album out on the streets without anymore fun and games. Best regards, (Signed) Joseph B. Smith JBS: a cc: Brian Rohan December 27th, 1967: After many weeks of fruitless and often shambolic recording sessions in studios on both the west and east coasts of the U.S., Warner Bros. Records executive Joe Smith writes a very stern letter to co-manager of the Grateful Dead , Danny Rifkin. In it, he informs Rifkin of the band's frustrating lack of progress and unprofessional attitude during recording of their sophomore album, Anthem of the Sun ; even going so far as to label it "the most unreasonable project with which we have ever involved ourselves."Producer David Hassinger did soon quit the project - apparently the final straw was a request by guitarist Bob Weir to create the illusion of "thick air" in the recording studio - and the album was eventually released in July of '68.Transcript follows. Image courtesy of the Grateful Dead |
1 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Game Menu 02:22 2 Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem OST - A Journey Into Darkness 01:38 3 Nox Arcana - Trespassers 02:53 4 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 12 01:31 5 Devil May Cry 3 Soundtrack - Stage Music 4 [Within Leviathan] 02:44 6 Saw 3D Score Soundtrack [Track 16] - Crazy 00:45 7 Hellraiser soundtrack 05 - Reunion 03:10 8 Angel Heart Original Soundtrack: Track #5. I Got This Thing About Chickens 03:49 9 Septicflesh - Dark Testament [HQ Stream New Song 2017] 07:52 10 Roman Heuser - Bedroom Visitors (Dark Mystery Horror Soundtrack Beat) 02:23 11 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 09 01:14 12 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience - Extra 02 01:15 13 2. Resurrection - The Crow 02:11 14 Atrium Carceri - Third from the Centre 02:51 15 Jerry Goldsmith - The Shadow - Hotel Monolith 05:22 16 HP Lovecraft Cthulhu music ambience 1920s 3 of 4 - Beyond The Shores Of Sleep 15:00 17 Hellraiser soundtrack 01 - Hellraiser 01:48 18 Dark Atmospheric Ambience Music - Suspicion - Celestial Aeon Project 02:18 19 Saw 3D Score Soundtrack [Track 17] - Insane 00:45 20 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 2 - Main Menu 01:57 21 Saw 3D Score Soundtrack [Track 19] - Autographs 02:58 22 The 13th Hour Track 01: Mansion In The Mist 01:18 23 Saw III Score - Baptism 03:10 24 Atrium Carceri - Knowledge of the Few 05:22 25 Alien 3 Soundtrack 03 - The Beast Within 03:10 26 Saw III Score - Amanda 02:18 27 Dark Fantasy Music For Writing - Mystery - Celestial Aeon Project 02:26 28 Limbo Soundtrack 7 - Main Theme 01:52 29 Alien 3 Soundtrack 05 - Candles In The Wind 03:22 30 Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem OST - Ram Dao 02:28 31 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 6 - They Know My Name 02:08 32 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 10 01:16 33 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 06 02:20 34 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience - Strange 01:52 35 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 5 - The Harmonic House 02:08 36 6. Her Eyes...So Innocent - The Crow 02:47 37 Monkey Island 3 [OST] [CD2] #34 - Goodsoup Family Crypt 01:48 38 01. Nox Arcana - Necronomicon - Mythos 01:58 39 HP Lovecraft Cthulhu music ambience 1920s 4 of 4 - Shadow Out Of Time 14:46 40 Nox Arcana-Necronomicon 02:07 41 The Capponi Library - Hannibal Soundtrack - Hans Zimmer 01:17 42 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 08 01:17 43 Belfer - czołówka serialu 01:08 44 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience - Extra 01 01:41 45 Midnight Syndicate - Midnight 01:29 46 Dark Music - The Sealed Kingdom 04:36 47 HP Lovecraft Cthulhu music ambience 1920s 1 of 4 - Storm From Beyond 14:57 48 Saw 3D Score Soundtrack [Track 6] - Only You 02:44 49 Saw III Score - Tin Box 01:33 50 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 02 01:51 51 Angelo Badalamenti - Fire Walk With Me (Saxophone Version) 06:46 52 Saw 3D Score Soundtrack [Track 24] - Teeth Tape 01:34 53 HP Lovecraft Cthulhu music ambience 1920s 2 of 4 - Strange Seas In The Mist 14:55 54 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 01 01:49 55 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 27 - A Dangerous Voyage 02:04 56 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 24 - Temple of Dagon 02:10 57 Interlude #2 - Christopher Young 02:33 58 Limbo Soundtrack 5 - Survival Instinct 01:03 59 Charlie Clouser - Hello, Adam 03:58 60 Christopher Young - Def Con 4 Main Title 01:42 61 Hellraiser soundtrack 02 - Resurrection 02:31 62 Nox Arcana Eldritch Rites 01:33 63 Def-Con 4/Godzilla 1985 - Ghost Planet/Steve Martin's Theme 02:04 64 The King in Yellow: Cthulhu Mythos Orchestral Horror Music 07:46 65 11 - White Walkers - Game of Thrones - Season 3 - Soundtrack 03:21 66 The Ring Soundtrack - Rachel's Quest 03:40 67 Ju On 2 - Christopher Young - The Grudge 2 (Soundtrack) 02:54 68 Musica Cthulhiana - The Unnamable 06:32 69 Saw III Score - Be Surprised 02:04 70 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 20 - The Marsh Refinery 02:38 71 Nox Arcana The Black Throne 02:01 72 Saw 3D Score Soundtrack [Track 7] - Talk Show 03:43 73 Diablo 2 - Jungle (HQ) 07:31 74 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 05 02:17 75 Creepy Music 2 Yog Sothoth 15:14 76 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 31 - Devil's Reef 02:45 77 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience - Darkness 02:40 78 06 - Diablo 2 - Lord of Destruction - Baal 04:24 79 Atrium Carceri - Rusty Red Stains 03:26 80 Goblin - Suspiria Theme - 1977 06:05 81 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 13 01:37 82 Nox Arcana The Nameless City 03:38 83 The Terrible Old Man: H. P. Lovecraft Orchestral Horror Music 05:30 84 Arbre Noir - Protoplasma 06:21 85 Sephirot - Dark Father 08:04 86 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 10 - Innsmouth Town Square 02:12 87 Saw III Score - SWAT Team 01:31 88 Nox Arcana Ancient Shadows 02:29 89 Nox Arcana Temple of the Black Pharaoh 03:50 90 The Colour Out of Space HP Lovecraft Orchestra Horror Music 04:22 91 Horror Music / Halloween Music - Predator - Albion III Iceni test run 02:34 92 Amnesia: The Dark Descent OST - Ambience 11 01:19 93 NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD Theme 1968 02:19 94 Sherlock Holmes The Awakened The Dark Side of Nothing 01:59 95 Ju On I - Christopher Young - The Grudge (Soundtrack) 05:23 96 Call of Cthulhu: DCotE - 17 - Drippings From the Ceiling 02:00 97 HP Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu: Soundtrack Part 2 Orchestra Horror Music 05:37 98 Angel Heart Original Soundtrack: Track #10. Johnny Favourite 04:41 99 Guardian of the Gate Nox Arcana 03:26 100 Sephiroth - R'lyeh 09:21 |
Roboticists frequently turn to nature for inspiration for their inventions, reverse engineering the traits that evolution has developed over millennia. Others are taking a shortcut by simply integrating modern technology with living animals. The idea may seem crazy, but animals and machines are not so different. Just as a network of wires carry electrical signals between a robot’s sensors, processing units and motors, the flow of action potentials around our nervous system connects our sensory organs, brain and muscles. But while there are similarities, the natural world has come up with some intricate solutions to problems that engineers are nowhere near replicating in silicon. That has prompted some scientists to try and piggyback on evolution’s innovations by building part-animal, part-machine cyborgs. Here’s a rundown of some of the most eye-catching examples. 1. Light-controlled dragonflies In January, R&D company Draper and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced a partnership aimed at turning dragon flies into miniature drones. They are relying on an approach called optogenetics, whereby the animal is genetically modified so that certain neurons feature light-sensitive ion channels. This allows these neurons to be controlled by pulses of light, which is far more targeted than using electrical stimulus. The researchers are also developing a tiny backpack light enough for the dragonflies to carry that contains all of the necessary control electronics, as well as integrated guidance and navigation systems that could make the dragonfly-drones fully autonomous. They hope these flying cyborgs could one day carry small payloads, conduct surveillance and aid in research. 2. Joy-riding moths Compact chemical detectors able to detect trace elements of a substance continue to elude engineers, which is why we still rely on dogs to sniff out things like drugs, bombs and disaster victims. But man’s best friend may soon face some stiff competition from moth-controlled robotic cars. In the study, moths controlled their vehicles by moving their feet over what is effectively an upside-down computer mouse trackball. When the moths detected the scent of female moth sex pheromones they attempted to walk towards the source, and the robotic cars were able to accurately replicate their intended route. The researchers say in the future they should be able to genetically engineer the moth pilots to seek out other odors, such as those of explosives or drugs. 3. Remote-control bugs There have been multiple efforts to create remote-controlled insects, with cockroaches taking the brunt of our experiments. You can buy a RoboRoach kit for $150 that can be attached to the animal’s back and allows you to control it by stimulating its antennae. Scientists dissatisfied with that level of control stuck electrodes into a cockroach’s nervous system for even greater precision. For some, though, even that was not enough, and now researchers have directly wired up the leg muscles of a giant beetle and developed sequences of electrical stimulation that allowed them to control the speed with which the insects walk. The next step is to independently control all six of the bug’s legs. 4. Magnetic mind-control of mice Using a similar approach to optogenetics, researchers introduced a protein into the neurons of mice that can trigger a nerve impulse when subjected to a magnetic field. The neurons in question were involved in the reward center of the rodents’ brains, and when placed into an enclosure, they split between magnetized and non-magnetized sections. The mice with the so-called “Magneto” protein spent much more time in the magnetized areas than mice that did not. They also injected Magneto into the neurons of zebrafish larvae that control an escape response that causes them to coil up. When subjected to a magnetic field, they did just that. 5. Interfaced sheep DARPA has developed a so-called stentrode — portmanteau of stent and electrode — that it injected into blood vessels in the neck of sheep. Stents are small mesh tubes normally fed into arteries then expanded to keep the passageway open to help treat cardiovascular disease. This stentrode, on the other hand, is guided from the neck to a vein deep in the sheep’s brain, where it’s implanted to take “high-fidelity measurements” of brain cells. While sheep have found themselves the unwitting victims of DARPA’s tinkering, humans are the ultimate target, with the aim of doing things like controlling prosthetics directly from the brain. Human trials are scheduled for this year. 6. Cyborg plants It’s not just animals that scientists seem intent on hooking up to machines. In 2015, Swedish researchers created the first “e-plant” by filling the veins of a garden rose with conductive polymer. They showed the subsequent wires could carry a current, and the leaves even slightly changed color in response to the voltage. This year, the same went a step further by using the same approach to build energy-storing supercapacitors inside plants. Two parallel wires running through the plants’ veins were used as electrodes, and the plant material separating them acted as an electrolyte. The researchers say this could lead to plants with their own energy storage systems that could power sensors and actuators for a host of applications. Image Credit: Draper |
Photo Women who seek accommodations from their employers during pregnancy are sometimes fired or forced into unpaid leave for a surprising reason: Their doctor’s note was not carefully worded, experts warned on Wednesday. Doctors routinely write employment notes for pregnant patients requesting a change to work duties for a health concern. But until now, few realized how those notes can backfire. In a commentary published in Obstetrics and Gynecology, five doctors and a lawyer warned that unspecific or poorly timed notes could bring harsh responses from employers. “We can do harm if we are not careful when writing these notes for patients,” said Dr. Rebecca Jackson, the lead author and the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at San Francisco General Hospital. In roughly 70 percent of pregnancy-related cases investigated by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the last decade, a female employee was fired. Doctors’ notes often play a pivotal role in employment conflicts, Dr. Jackson and her colleagues said. Vague or overarching medical recommendations can exacerbate the problem because some employers seize on them to suggest a woman can’t perform her job and so must be put on unpaid leave midpregnancy. “Then having exhausted all of her maternity leave, before her baby is even born, she is threatened with job loss or is fired,” said Sharon Terman, the director of the work and family program at the Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center. Some doctors’ notes are pre-emptive, suggesting that a pregnant patient will need accommodation before she actually does. Others seek accommodations that are impossible to grant, such as asking that a child-care worker not be exposed to children with colds. The authors of the new editorial recommended that doctors first learn what a patient’s essential job duties are. Doctors should then specify in the note what she can no longer do and, as important, what she can still do. These days, some exhausted but healthy patients without medical necessity ask for a note. Some physicians comply, neither party understanding the potential fallout. Only “truly necessary” notes should be written, the authors advised. Dr. Laura Riley, the medical director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital, has had some patients in the often-uncomfortable third trimester ask to stop working at 38 weeks, after a few preterm contractions. Some workplaces will accept the note and not penalize pregnant workers who take leave a week or two before delivery. However, “many people don’t have that luxury, and they don’t know it until they take in a note,” Dr. Riley said. “Then they are denied, or worse, someone says: ‘Oh you can’t do your job? Then I don’t have a job for you.’” In her 24 years as an employment lawyer, Sharon Gustafson says she has even seen some employers “solicit restrictions,” by asking employees to get a doctor’s note to be able to work while pregnant. In one prominent legal case, Peggy Young, a former employee of the United Parcel Service, was told to get a note, said Ms. Gustafson, her lawyer. Her doctor recommended that her lifting of parcels heavier than 20 pounds be restricted. Instead, U.P.S. placed Ms. Young on unpaid leave. She sued for discrimination; in March, the case was reinstated by the Supreme Court. Even the best educated doctors may not understand legal ramifications. San Francisco General Hospital surveyed 83 prenatal providers, including nurses, midwives and doctors, and found that half thought all workers got up to three months of unpaid, job-protected leave specified under the Family and Medical Leave Act. In fact, roughly 40 percent of workers are not eligible. Yet two-thirds of these doctors wrote notes outlining their patients’ workplace restrictions exactly as requested by the patients. When those restrictions included essential job functions, Dr. Jackson said, the patients risked being placed on unpaid leave. Pregnant women are often worried about lifting, for instance, and those who lift frequently — say, every three to five minutes for more than an hour straight daily — should consider limiting the weight, according to a 2013 report. But other pregnant women probably do not qualify for a workplace restriction, according to the commentary authors. In 2012, while Maria Yesenia Arroyo Guerrero was pregnant with her second daughter, her doctor wrote that she should avoid lifting more than 50 pounds because of back and hip pain. As a nursing home assistant, she was bathing, dressing and lifting as many as 10 patients daily. After Mrs. Arroyo, from Hayward, Calif., presented the note to her employer, she was told her duties could not be changed. Instead, she was placed on unpaid leave in her first trimester. She also was told that if she did not return to work by July 18, 2013, she would be terminated, despite the fact that her baby was scheduled to be born via cesarean section the day before. Her termination letter was waiting at home when she returned from the hospital. “This shouldn’t happen to any pregnant woman,” Mrs. Arroyo said in an interview. She is preparing to sue her former employer, seeking policy changes and damages including lost wages. “Even when asking for an accommodation, the emphasis should be kept on the employee’s ability to work, rather than primarily on the inability to do some aspect of the job,” Ms. Gustafson said. Related: For more fitness, food and wellness news, “like” our Facebook page. |
Independence Thanissaro Bhikkhu July 4, 2003 Independence Day. A good time to ask yourself what you’d like to be independent from. What are the things that weigh down on the mind, that oppress the mind? If you ask most people, they’ll talk about things outside: their job, their family, their worries about the economy or the environment. But if you look deeply in your own mind, you’ll realize that the main burdens on the mind are the things that come from within. This is why the mind needs to be trained. If the mind isn’t trained, it just keeps on creating suffering for itself without realizing what it’s doing. The phrase we chanted just now—“Those who don’t discern suffering”—on the surface sounds very strange, for everybody knows suffering. We’ve all suffered in one way or another in our lives. But the issue is: Do we really discern suffering? Do we really understand it? Do we see precisely what’s happening? If we could look into the way the mind is creating suffering for itself, to the point where we really understand it and take it apart, then that’s the end of it. That’s what comprehension means. As the Buddha once said, our duty with regard to suffering is to comprehend it, to understand it to the point where you stop creating it, where you can let it go. All the causes, all the conditions that lead to it: you can let them go. That way the problems you’re responsible for totally disband. As for the rest of the world outside, it goes along with its own way, but it doesn’t make inroads on the mind, can’t weigh the mind down. Those are the good benefits of learning to understand or learning to discern suffering. But for most of us, our lives are distracted with other things, other issues that seem to be more pressing—and they make themselves more pressing. They demand that we take responsibility for them. It requires a real act of will to step outside of those requirements, those responsibilities, and to take the time to really look into the mind to see exactly where the suffering is, what the suffering is, where it’s coming from, and how it can be stopped. The Buddha once said all he taught was suffering and the end of suffering— in other words, how to understand it to the point where you put an end to it. That’s the essence of the teaching. Once that was accomplished, he said, that’s all you really need to be taught. From that point on you’re truly independent. In the texts they describe stages in understanding suffering, stages of awakening. Total freedom is called arahantship. To become an arahant means you become someone worthy, someone worthy of respect. The first stage on the way is called stream-entry. You enter the stream to nirvana, the stream to true peace. The meaning of the image is that once you reach that point it’s inevitable, just like getting into a river. The current will carry you down to the ocean— nirvana—for sure. So it’s important to reflect on the conditions that the Buddha said lead to that first stage of insight. The first of these conditions is having good friends, people who have discerned suffering, have come to an understanding of it. Not only do they have that understanding, but they also lead their lives in line with the fact that they really have understood. This is an important condition for the practice because you find that the people you hang around are the ones who shape your own behavior, your own attitudes. Even if you are simply reacting against them, the way they think has a molding effect on your own thoughts, so you have to be careful who you hang around with. This is what you might call the social side of the practice. The second condition is that you listen to the Dhamma from those people. You really listen. And the Buddha gives instructions on how to know what’s Dhamma and what’s not, the litmus test being to put what you’ve heard into practice. But before you get to that point, you first have to think about it. You have to ask questions. This is what’s radical about the Buddha’s teaching, the emphasis placed on asking questions, on framing the right questions. He calls this ability “appropriate attention,” paying attention to the right issues—in other words, the issues related to the end of suffering and precisely what your mind is doing to create suffering. This factor—appropriate attention—is the third condition for stream-entry. Our ordinary tendency is to blame our suffering on this person or that person, not liking what this person is doing, not liking what that person is doing, getting upset, getting offended, and running off in that direction without looking at what the mind itself is doing. So the first question is to look inside. If you put a particular teaching into practice, what results do you get? Do you find more passion, more aversion in your life, or less? Do you find that you’re more burdensome to yourself and other people, or less? As you work through these questions and test the Dhamma that you’ve listened to, you get a better and better sense of how to practice in the Dhamma in line with what the Dhamma really is, the Dhamma here being the truth, the truth that leads to the end of suffering. This is the fourth condition for stream-entry. So those are the four conditions: associating with good people, listening to the Dhamma, appropriate attention, and practicing the Dhamma in line with the Dhamma. It sounds like a one, two, three, four process, but it’s not really. All four factors influence one another. As you put the Dhamma into practice that’s both a test of the Dhamma you’ve heard and also a test of the people you’ve been listening to, to see if they really are the good people you thought they were. So these things are all connected. And all four factors help refine one another as you practice. And as the Buddha once said, of the external factors the most important one is associating with good people. Of the internal factors, the most important is the factor of appropriate attention, learning to ask yourself the right questions: questioning your attitudes, questioning the results you’re getting from your actions. Even though we may be sitting here with our eyes closed, we don’t blind ourselves, we don’t close our eyes to what’s going on in our lives. We close our eyes so we can look more carefully, look more fully into the mind. So ask yourself directly: What are you doing right now? What are the results of what you’re doing? Are they satisfactory? So many people go through life habitually, on automatic pilot. They develop a habit and then stick with that habit, becoming more and more ingrained in certain ways of doing things. This is basically the definition of addiction: people trying to put an end to the suffering they feel, not really quite getting there, but continuing to repeat the same old actions over and over and over again. And the habits have an old familiarity. It’s like an old shoe you feel comfortable wearing. It may not be a particularly good shoe, or particularly good for your posture, but you’re comfortable with it because it’s familiar. What we’re doing when we’re practicing is learning how to ask the kind of questions that break out of the old familiar mold, break out of the old familiar habits, break our old addictions—our ways of doing things that really haven’t gotten the ideal results, but where we’ve learned to settle for second best, sometimes not even second best: third or fourth. Each time you sit down to meditate, remind yourself: What are you here for? You want real happiness. Have you found it? Well, no. If not, then what can you do to change what you’re doing? Develop the ability to keep asking that question and to be trying new things. That’s what appropriate attention is all about. That way you can really find what it means to practice the Dhamma in line with the Dhamma. That was one of Ajaan Mun’s most frequent topics in his Dhamma talks. He said that we should practice the Dhamma not in line with our preconceived notions, not in line with whatever our cultural background may be, or our sense that, “Well I’m the sort of person who does these things this way so it’s going to have to be this way.” We learn to drop those attitudes in order to find out what the actual Dhamma is, what the practice of the true Dhamma is. And then you bring your own actions, your own thoughts, your own words, your deeds, your own attitudes in line with that. This requires a fair amount of sacrifice, a fair amount of letting go. So many old ways we have of doing things we’ve got to learn how to put aside. We often resist this, but when we’re willing to put them aside we find that things open up in the mind. If it weren’t possible to change, there would be no reason to teach the Dhamma. The Buddha wouldn’t have had to waste his time. But he saw that it can make a difference, that people can change their ways of living, ways of thinking, ways of acting and speaking for the better when they learn how to ask the right questions. And particularly when they look at the issue of suffering in terms of cause and effect. Exactly what goes along with the suffering? The texts use the word samudaya, which means origination, but it also means something that arises together. Every time there’s suffering, what else arises at the same time in the mind? When the suffering goes away, what’s gone? When it’s come back again, what else has come back with it? You want to learn how to look into these questions, and that requires good, strong concentration, and steady mindfulness, which is why we work on these qualities in the meditation. This kind of questioning also requires a sense of wellbeing in the present moment so that you’re not asking out of desperation, you’re not either grasping at straws or pushing things away out of irritation, for understanding doesn’t come that way. Understanding comes from looking at things consistently, steadily, and asking those questions in terms of cause and effect, being more sensitive to what we’re doing, and more sensitive to the results. |
Lucasfilm and EW have chosen just about the coolest way for you to meet the characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. They’ve released images of Topps-style trading cards, based on old Star Wars designs, that reveal the Star Wars: The Force Awakens official character names. Read them below. The images, via Entertainment Weekly, reveal the following data: The “ball droid” is BB-8 Oscar Isaac is Poe Dameron The Sith is Kylo Ren Daisy Ridley is Rey John Boyega is Finn Here are the images: “I’m only sorry we couldn’t give everyone a stick of gum,” Abrams told EW. Head there to see more of the images from the trailer, but this is the big news. Another interesting tidbit is that Abrams told EW there’s a significance to the numbers on each card. Those are as follows: #11 — BB-8 on the move #53 — Poe Dameron in his X-Wing #67 — Kylo Ren ignites his Lightsaber #74 — Rey on her Speeder #76 — Finn on the run #81 — Stormtroopers prepare for battle #88 — X-Wings in formation #96 — The Millennium Falcon What could that mean? Order in the movie seems like the most obvious guess but would Finn really be “on the run” after we see the Poe in the X-Wing? And wouldn’t the X-Wings in formation probably be right after that, not 35 things away? Please speculate below. I’m honestly just trying to process that these names are the names. The names we’re literally going to be living with and talking about for the rest of our lives as Star Wars fans. Finn. Rey. Poe. Kylo Ren. BB-8. Think about that. BB-8 will, eventually, be as familiar to you as R2-D2. At this moment, it’s hard to even pronounce. Could Kylo Ren be as iconic as Darth Vader? Finn as recognizable as Luke? Rey as Leia? Poe as Han? I can’t wait to hear what went into naming these characters. They’re all certainly unique. (Except, maybe, Finn, which is a very popular baby name). And, of course, we still have dozens of names to be revealed: characters played by Andy Serkis, Adam Driver (maybe), Lupita Nyong’o, Gwendoline Christie, Domhnall Gleeson, Max von Sydow and more are all yet to be revealed. What are your feelings on finally have the Star Wars: The Force Awakens character names? |
There was a time when cloud computing was a disruptive force in the world of technology. It’s now as ordinary as the clouds in the sky. There was a time when cloud computing was a disruptive force in the world of technology. It’s now as ordinary as the clouds in the sky. Back in 2011, Holger Kisker from Forrester claimed (among other predictions) that “The Wild West of cloud procurement is over”. By 2012, most companies had established their formal cloud strategy, multi-cloud resources had become the ‘norm’, and the industry as a whole was growing rapidly. However, a few years ago, cloud computing was still considered a new technology, one to rival the traditional infrastructure. It’s now got to the point where cloud computing isn’t some upstart, or rival technology; it’s the default way that the technological world works. Giving users greater speed and flexibility, cloud technology has started a new era of productivity and innovation in the public and private sectors. Related Article:Things to Consider When Launching Your App in the Cloud The cloud has already revolutionized the way we access computing power. According to Tim Kraska, an assistant professor of computer science at Brown University, “computing power and storage can now be consumed like electricity in an on-demand fashion.” Last year, Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief, Andy Jassy, declared that the "Cloud has become the new normal." Jassy predicts that the vast majority of workloads will move to the cloud in the next 10 years, for example, publishing giant Time Inc. is using AWS to eliminate two of its data centers in the next year alone. Quite simply, the cloud is starting to re-shape the deep infrastructure we rely on. And this is more than evident in a series of recent innovations and developments: 1. Telecom Infra Project (TIP) to Reinvent Telecom Network Infrastructure Earlier this year, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) was launched – an engineering-focused initiative that aims to re-imagine traditional approaches to building and deploying telecom network infrastructure to be more in line with an online cloud-based world. To achieve this, the project brings together operators, infrastructure providers, system integrators and other technology companies to develop a solution to the global data challenge. With more people and devices online than ever before, traditional telecoms needs an overhaul. For example, TIP members will be looking to develop 5G, among other things. What this means for business: The cloud has largely focused on consolidating and simplifying, adding extra elements of efficiency to all areas of business. Arguably, all modern businesses lean on their phone and internet infrastructure to connect with clientele and service customers. Historically, deployment of telecom infrastructures has been an arduous, time-consuming process with lots of wires, downloads and IT manpower that today seems sort of silly. If you’re still muddling about with a telecom system that has a nauseatingly complex design, keep your eyes open for these future networks. 2. Google Wants Hard Drives to Be Designed to Store Cloud Data The basic 3.5-inch hard drive disk design hasn’t changed much since the dawn of computing. But, according to Google, this needs to change. Google is hoping to work with both technology experts and researchers in design to create hard drives that are specially designed for cloud-based storage. This would be a landmark moment for cloud technology, as this seemingly ephemeral form of computing would be changing the physical design of our devices. Related Article:What's Your Disaster Recovery Plan? Instead of focusing on individual disks, the proposed design would be about optimizing a collection of disks to improve capacity and performance. What this means for business: simply put, data storage. The more we store and process, the more advanced our businesses become. Businesses are constantly creating digital catalogs that are thorough and searchable. You’re on-premise hard drives have infinitesimal storage compared to the cloud to come. Smarter machines with bigger storage means smarter business. 3. Intel Designs Custom Chips for AWS’s New C4 Instances Another great example of how cloud technology is developing rapidly and re-shaping the tech world is this project from Intel. To power AWS’s new server instances, Intel has designed custom Xeon processors that are optimized for high-octane computing. The result? The chips will provide the highest level of CPU performance that Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) has ever seen. This will dramatically improve Amazon’s cloud-computing platform. What this means for business: smarter, faster and more capable programs online. Online programs running off optimized cloud systems will be able to do more with less. Advanced computing over the web is evolving quickly enough that soon download may become less common than subscribe. No more running to the store to buy the latest issue of whatever business analysis software. Check for cloud first. Related Article:5 Technology Trends That Have The Power to Change Your Business As you can see, cloud computing has become much more than just another IT platform shift or a cost-containment mechanism. It’s transforming every sector of society, affecting everyone, and not just IT professionals. From SMBs to governments and everything in between, the cloud is becoming part of the deep structure that forms the digital world. This marks a new era of innovation for businesses and, at NewVoiceMedia, we are excited to be part of this technology revolution. Our cloud contact center and inside sales platform can help your business grow and help you to deliver better service, all with the efficiency, flexibility and reliability of a cloud-based platform. |
Image via Wikipedia WARNING: If you are a vegetarian you might want to skip this post – it is 100% about bacon. IheartPGH owes alot to bacon, we didn’t really think much of this blog and only a handful of our friends read this little website – and four years ago that was a pretty small group of people that were willing to read a blog. But then we posted about Bacon Night (TGIB – Bacon Night 11/18/2005)at the Harris Grill and somehow the Post-Gazette found that post and mentioned this humble little blog in the paper and things started to change. So I have noticed that bacon is kind of a big deal for many of our readers so here is an event for the bacon lovers. The Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour, Saturday, September 26, 11:00 – 4:00, Harris Grill – $30 gets you 5 hours of bacon goodness. You can even purchase a signed copy of the book Bacon: A Love Story: A Salty Survey of Everybody’s Favorite Meat . A must read for the bacon enthusiast. The Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival in Des Moines, Iowa has been going strong for two years and now they’re taking it on the road to several cities around the United States during the summer of 2009! The Bacon Tour will bring together bacon enthusiasts for a celebration of all things bacon. There are a limited number of tickets available for this event. Attendees will be treated to several bacon appetizers and small plates featuring Vande Rose Artisan Dry Cured bacon, rated #1 bacon by America’s Test Kitchen, featured in Cook’s Illustrated magazine and on the Today Show. The food will be prepared right here in the Harris Grill kitchens by our experienced pork artisans. The event will also feature a bacon eating contest. Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour attendees will have the opportunity to purchase a signed copy of Bacon: A Love Story (HarperCollins, May 2009). The book was written by Heather Lauer, author of the blog, BaconUnwrapped.com. Lauer is co-hosting all Blue Ribbon Bacon Tour events being held around the country this summer. Local bacon blogger, Jason Mosley – aka “Mr. Baconpants” (MrBaconpants.com) – will also be co-hosting the event. Mosley was recently featured in an article that appeared on Pittsburgh’s PopCityMedia.com. Tickets: $30 per person, which includes admission to the event, delicious bacon appetizers and small plates prepared by Harris Grill featuring Vande Rose Artisan Dry Cured bacon including Bacon Pierogi, Bacon Wrapped Shimp, Bacon Brittle, Bacon Wings, Bacon Sushi, Chicken Fried Bacon, Bacon Cupcakes, and two beverage tickets for adult libations of your choice. Click Here to buy tickets. http://blueribbonbaconfestival.com/the-blue-ribbon-bacon-tour-is-coming-to-pittsburgh-on-september-26/ [geo_mashup_map] Related reading about bacon… |
Researchers have used the world's thinnest material to create the world's smallest transistor, one atom thick and ten atoms wide. Reporting their peer-reviewed findings in the journal Science, Dr Kostya Novoselov and Professor Andre Geim from The School of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Manchester show that graphene can be carved into tiny electronic circuits with individual transistors having a size not much larger than that of a molecule. The smaller the size of their transistors the better they perform, say the Manchester researchers. In recent decades, manufacturers have crammed more and more components onto integrated circuits. As a result, the number of transistors and the power of these circuits have roughly doubled every two years. This has become known as Moore's Law. But the speed of cramming is now noticeably decreasing, and further miniaturisation of electronics is to experience its most fundamental challenge in the next 10 to 20 years, according to the semiconductor industry roadmap. At the heart of the problem is the poor stability of materials if shaped in elements smaller than 10 nanometres* in size. At this spatial scale, all semiconductors -- including silicon -- oxidise, decompose and uncontrollably migrate along surfaces like water droplets on a hot plate. Four years ago, Geim and his colleagues discovered graphene, the first known one-atom-thick material which can be viewed as a plane of atoms pulled out from graphite. Graphene has rapidly become the hottest topic in physics and materials science. Now the Manchester team has shown that it is possible to carve out nanometre-scale transistors from a single graphene crystal. Unlike all other known materials, graphene remains highly stable and conductive even when it is cut into devices one nanometre wide. Graphene transistors start showing advantages and good performance at sizes below 10 nanometres - the miniaturization limit at which the Silicon technology is predicted to fail. "Previously, researchers tried to use large molecules as individual transistors to create a new kind of electronic circuits. It is like a bit of chemistry added to computer engineering", says Novoselov. "Now one can think of designer molecules acting as transistors connected into designer computer architecture on the basis of the same material (graphene), and use the same fabrication approach that is currently used by semiconductor industry". "It is too early to promise graphene supercomputers," adds Geim. "In our work, we relied on chance when making such small transistors. Unfortunately, no existing technology allows the cutting materials with true nanometre precision. But this is exactly the same challenge that all post-silicon electronics has to face. At least we now have a material that can meet such a challenge." "Graphene is an exciting new material with unusual properties that are promising for nanoelectronics", comments Bob Westervelt, professor at Harvard University. "The future should be very interesting". *One nanometre is one-millionth of a millimetre and a single human hair is around 100,000 nanometres in width. A paper entitled "Chaotic Dirac Billiard in Graphene Quantum Dots" is published in April 17 issue of Science. It is accompanied by a Perspective article entitled "Graphene Nanoelectronics" by Westervelt. |
The ridiculous irony with all of these is that technology has been carefully crafted over time specifically to prevent them. For instance, modern camera lenses have reflective coating and other treatments specifically to prevent lens flares. Virtually every time you see it in a movie, some poor bastard has had to go back in and add it with CGI, or else they had to specifically stage the shot so the sun was in perfect position to give them a shot that used to get cinematographers fired. 1 3D That Somehow Makes the Movie Look Worse Continue Reading Below Advertisement Have You Ever Noticed: There's something weird going on with 3D. On one hand, Avatar was so crisp that it looked like you could jump into the screen. Pixar movies like Up and Toy Story 3 look like dioramas--the depth of field making it seem like you could reach in and grab one of the toys out of the universe. But then you have these other movies, showing in the same theaters, that you watch with the same glasses, that look like shit. It hasn't gone unnoticed: Clash of the Titans famously was released in 3D and Jeff Katzenberg, the guy pushing 3D heavily, said it looked so bad it was going to kill the format. Continue Reading Below Advertisement But the low point has to be The Last Airbender. Forget about the dialogue and acting for a moment--it had a 3D job so terrible that it looked significantly worse than any of the old-fashioned 2D movies it was being shown alongside. Everything was dark and muddy. Or maybe we just don't know what genius looks like. What's Going On? What they're failing to tell you in the ad campaigns for these films is that not every 3D movie was actually shot in 3D. Most of them weren't, in fact. They were instead converted to 3D after the fact. Not only does it not give you anything like the illusion of depth that 3D is supposed to be used for, but it actually degrades the whole image. Continue Reading Below Advertisement The reason is technical: The 3D conversion darkens the image a lot as a function of the process. You lose light both when converting the film, and then from the glasses, meaning you essentially make a bright film overcast and render a dark film impossible to see. So if a film was dark to begin with, like The Last Airbender, turns into a murky mess. Why would they do that? Because the converted 3D movies can charge the same ridiculously inflated ticket price as the real 3D movies. We're talking up to a 50 percent markup here. Do the math: It only costs the studio $10 to $15 million to do this quick and dirty 3D conversion, yet it helps a mediocre movie like Clash of the Titans make $500 million worldwide. The jacked-up 3D ticket prices alone will earn that money back many times over. So, the same rule applies here as it does everywhere: If it's making them rich, why ever change it? Do you have an idea in mind that would make a great article? Then sign up for our writers workshop! Know way too much about a random topic? Create a topic page and you could be on the front page of Cracked.com tomorrow! For more Hollywood dipshittery, check out 5 Innovative Ways Hollywood Is Screwing You Over and 5 Things Hollywood Reuses More Than Plots. And stop by Linkstorm (Updated 08.04.10) to discover which director has actually made every Hollywood movie in the last 20 years. (It's Uwe Boll.) And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get sexy, sexy jokes sent straight to your news feed. |
Barney Ross is approached by CIA man Church, who wants him and his guns for hire to go to the former Soviet Union to retrieve something that was on a plane that crashed. Church doesn't tell him what he is getting. And Church sends a woman, Maggie with him to make sure he gets it. They find the plane and get the thing but some men take one of Barney's people hostage and the leader tells him to give him what they got or he'll kill his hostage. They give it to him but he kills his hostage anyway. Barney asks Maggie what was so important about that thing. She says that it showed the location of a Russian plutonium storage mine. Barney decides to track the man down and deal with him. They track them down and discover that the man they seek is Vilain who leads a group known as The Sangs and that they have taken all the men from the surrounding villages to work the mine. Written by rcs0411@yahoo.com |
ADVERTISEMENT The latest polls, insofar as they have meaning at all at this very early stage, have Hillary Clinton ahead by almost 45 points in the race for the Democratic nomination for president. It's a nearly insurmountable lead for any challenger. Yet it's becoming clear that this total lack of competition may be as much a threat to Clinton as a benefit. Without even a token race, she may be tempted into a complacent platform that will be highly risky in a general election. Challengers like former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont could force Clinton to adopt a more left-wing policy — and in the process put her on track to win in 2016. A clear illustration of the dangers faced by Clinton can be seen across the Atlantic. Left-leaning British folks have long lamented the spinelessness of the Labour party, exemplified by former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Labour and Conservative politicians too often are doughy, barely distinguishable products of the exact same institutions, whose respective policies merely offer a greater or lesser degree of incompetence, failure, and mass impoverishment — what Charles Stross calls the "beige dictatorship." Such a situation is greatly fueled by what British economist Simon Wren-Lewis calls "mediamacro," the idiotic yet fervent devotion to austerity found in the U.K. press, which is even worse than that of the U.S. Witness Channel 4's Jon Snow, who barks austerian talking points at Labour Party leader Ed Miliband that could have come from a Conservative Party press release. "You did not mention the deficit...that is the essence of our economic crisis!" (Utter hogwash.) Miliband pushes back on this argument, but weakly. He says the deficit is a low priority, but that he'll still reduce it. He doesn't take the stronger and more convincing course, which is to say that austerity is an affirmatively bad policy until full employment is reached, and that the prolonged spell of high unemployment following the 2010 election of the Conservatives was a direct result of their austerity policy. All of which is to say that a generation of neoliberalism has drastically weakened Labour. The cultural hegemony of austerity is such that he dares not challenge it — but it also makes it impossible to run on the anti-austerity merits, or to draw a strong contrast between Labour and the opposition. Something similar has happened to the Democratic Party over the last generation or so. In the 1980s and '90s, they discarded most of their New Deal traditions in favor of essentially laissez-faire policy. They thought the problems of capitalism had been solved, that markets could self-regulate, and that a bright future of innovation and prosperity awaited us all. It turns out that none of those problems had been solved, only kept in check by the fading momentum of New Deal policy — momentum that is now completely spent. And without a major political force pressing the case for social-democratic policy, and with Republicans sprinting ever-further towards the right, the cultural-political space for solutions to deal with failures of capitalism — like, say, a financial crisis, or skyrocketing inequality — has narrowed dramatically. In theory, now would be a great time for Clinton to simply dust off FDR's old playbook, make a few updates and alterations, and go on a barnstorming tour making her case. But it would be a steep uphill battle. The public is totally unused to hearing things like "Social Security is good and should be expanded," and bonehead mainstream commentators will react with stunned outrage at the idea that the deficit isn't going to throttle us in our sleep. So like Miliband, Clinton will likely run on meaningless centrist rhetoric, especially because that won't upset the donor class. On inequality, for instance, she's apparently concerned, but as yet has not proposed to do anything about it (compare that to FDR). That is distinguishable from Ted Cruz only in that Cruz preposterously claims government policy makes inequality worse. The fact that Cruz is talking about inequality at all means that the 2016 election will probably be fought on dramatically more left-wing ground than the last one. But the discussion will just be completely muddled. Clinton will shrug and talk about charter schools, while the Republican robotically repeats that food stamps cause poverty. This is where O'Malley comes in. He will almost certainly lose, so there is no reason not to run on a left-wing platform. It's the best fit for a time of stagnant median wages and booming inequality, and he's already putting parts of it together when it comes to financial policy. If he can put up a reasonable enough showing, he can force Clinton to actually argue over left-wing policy. That discussion will start the process of making the case to the public. And that, in turn, will put Clinton (or whoever wins!) in a decent position to actually argue the merits of Democratic policy against conservative agitprop. Because if she's got nothing better than the typical liberal mealy-mouthed lines about education and opportunity, there's a good chance she'll lose. |
Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to “Make America Great Again” by bringing manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. A new video from Trump’s opponent suggests he does not follow his own advice. Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a video Friday of two campaign staffers buying Trump merchandise in New York City’s Trump Tower. They said they bought a tie made in China, a shirt that was made in Peru and a polo made in Africa. “Was there really nothing in this bag that was made in America?” asked Zac Petkanas, Clinton’s director of rapid response. “I think the bag was made in America,” answered Jess McIntosh, Clinton’s director of communications outreach. Trump has repeatedly touted his brands — Trump wine, steaks, casinos and of course, Trump’s skyscrapers — as a sign of his ability to create a business empire. He has also tried to win over voters with a pitch that he will create jobs as president by forcing companies to manufacture in America. But that narrative has come under scrutiny, with the Clinton video as the latest challenge to Trump’s attempt to position himself as anti-globalization. As TIME previously reported, Trump has previously endorsed manufacturing overseas, saying in a 2005 essay that outsourcing jobs is “not always a terrible thing.” The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now “Losing jobs is never a good thing, but we have to look at the bigger picture,” Trump wrote. A comment from Trump’s campaign on the Clinton video was not immediately available. Contact us at editors@time.com. |
Felipe Massa seems unhappy with the Williams team. Earlier at Suzuka, team official Paddy Lowe said that while the Brazilian veteran is still in the running for 2018, Robert Kubica and Paul di Resta will be tested "in the next few weeks". Another rumour is that Pascal Wehrlein could get Massa’s seat, perhaps as part of a discount on Williams’ expensive Mercedes engine bill. Massa said in Japan: "I’m concerned that the team could choose a path that could bring difficulties for the team. "I think Lance (Stroll) has made a lot of progress through the year so perhaps Williams should keep the current lineup," he added. So when asked about Lowe’s admission that plenty of candidates are under consideration for the seat alongside Stroll next year, Massa said: "Paddy knows what’s best for the team. "Unfortunately, this is just formula one. I think if Williams acts professionally, they will leave everything as it is." Massa, 36, actually retired at the end of last year, and only returned to Williams when Valtteri Bottas headed to Mercedes at the last moment. Asked why he is now so keen to stay in F1 for another year, Massa explained: "In the past three years the cars did not suit my driving style. "There was not much grip, the tyres did not work in a good way — it was not fun and I could not compensate with my style. "Now, when I can feel that I can push to the maximum, the motivation increases. I still believe I can give a lot to the team," he added. |
The 8Pack OrionX features a ludicrous set of hardware, three water cooling loops and an over $39,000 price tag. The 8Pack OrionX features a ludicrous set of hardware, three water cooling loops and an over $39,000 price tag. Overclockers UK We’re only into the second month of 2017 but the gaming industry has already shown us a number of downright ridiculous devices. Acer opened the floodgates with the US$9,000 (AU$12,350) Predator 21 X, the realm’s first ever curved gaming laptop that equips an absurd 21-inch IPS monitor. Razer further busted walls with its three-headed hydra called Project Valerie, the first and only laptop in the world to furnish three fully automated displays. Now here comes 8Pack OrionX, the £24,000 (AU$39,300) gaming PC from Overclockers UK that’s just flat out preposterous. If the Acer Predator is the Bugatti Veyron of gaming laptops, then the 8Pack OrionX is certainly the Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita of gaming desktops. But unlike the limited edition Swedish sports car, the 8Pack OrionX is available in large quantities. So what exactly makes the most expensive gaming PC in the biosphere precisely that? For starters, the robust desktop was constructed by its equally buff builder, Ian “8Pack” Parry. Just like the famed overclocker’s previous projects, several components of the OrionX are custom-made. The OrionX is composed of two diverse systems packed inside a custom Phanteks Enthoo Elite 8Pack Edition case: a main machine that is intended to bulldoze its way through any task and a secondary system that works in tandem for simultaneous work and play. The primary system is powered by Intel’s latest Core i7-6950X (overclocked at a minimum 4.4 GHz), a Corsair Dominator Platinum 64 GB DDR4 DRAM, one Seagate Barracuda 10 TB HDD, an Intel 750 PCI-EX 1.2 TB SSD, two Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB SDDs and three seriously overclocked Nvidia Titan X Pascal 12 GB video cards in three-way SLI (a fourth card is also optional). The secondary system furnishes an Intel Core i7-7700K processor (overclocked at a minimum 5.1 GHz), a Corsair Dominator Platinum 16 GB DRAM, one Nvidia Titan X Pascal 12 GB graphics card, one Seagate Barracuda 10 TB HDD and two Samsung 960 Polaris 512 GB SDDs. Both systems are backed by a Super Flower Leadex Platinum 2000 W 8Pack power supply. The Orion X’s cooling system is anything but simple. Given its unholy amount of hardware, though, it’s only understandable. The ground-breaking goliath uses three custom-made water cooling loops to keep heat in check. “The loops have been designed in such a way that each component is kept at the lowest possible temperatures,” says Overclockers UK. “This is all thanks to the expertly designed pass-through plates which are fitted along the rear, front and mid-plate panels of the chassis.” So there it is, the most expensive gaming PC in the world. To those that can afford its over $39,000 price tag, the 8Pack OrionX is a no-brainer considering its sheer absurdity. For everyone else, it’s a great conversation piece. WATCH: 8Pack OrionX “Prepare for Launch!” Trailer | Overclockers UK 8PACK ORIONX SPECIFICATIONS UNIVERSAL Case: Modified Phanteks Enthoo Elite Super Tower Case with tempered glass side panels Power Supply: Superflower 2000 W 8Pack Edition 80+ Platinum Rated PSU with Phanteks Power Splitter and Custom hand-braided cables Cooling: Full triple loop custom water cooling, with custom reservoirs and custom built water cooling pass-through plates Options: Water cooling Fitting and Fluid Colours / Custom Cable Braiding Colours PRIMARY SYSTEM CPU: Intel Core i7 6950X Hyperthreaded Ten-Core, Twenty Thread Extreme Processor with maximum possible stable overclock (4.4 GHz minimum) with EK Supremacy Evo CPU Waterblock Motherboard: Asus Rampage V Edition 10 X99 Motherboard Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 64GB (8 x 8 GB) 2666 MHz DDR4 Graphics Card: 3 x Nvidia GeForce Titan X Pascal 12 GB Graphics Cards, Water cooled and Overclocked Primary Storage: Intel 750 1.2 TB PCI-E NVMe Solid State Drive – Water cooled Secondary Storage: 2 x Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB Solid State Drives in RAID 0 Tertiary Storage: Seagate Barracuda 10 TB SATA Hard Drive Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit SECONDARY SYSTEM CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K Hyperthreaded Quad-Core, Eight Thread Processor with maximum possible stable overclock (5.1 GHz Minimum) with EK Supremacy Evo CPU Waterblock Motherboard: Asus ROG Strix Z270I Mini ITX Motherboard Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) 3200 MHz DDR4 Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce Titan X Pascal 12 GB Graphics Card, Water cooled and Overclocked Primary Storage: 2 x Samsung 960 Pro Series Polaris 512 GB NVMe in RAID 0 Secondary Storage: Seagate Barracuda 10 TB SATA Hard Drive Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit RELATED STORIES: Acer Predator 21 X specs, price and release details: The Bugatti Veyron of gaming laptops Razer Project Valerie: The world's first triple display laptop is a sight to behold [VIDEO] |
Smartphones Can Be Smart Enough To Find A Parasitic Worm Enlarge this image toggle caption BSIP/UIG via Getty Images BSIP/UIG via Getty Images Smartphones aren't simply an amazing convenience. In Africa they can be used to make a lifesaving diagnosis. In fact, scientists are hoping to use a souped-up smartphone microscope to help them eradicate a devastating disease called river blindness. Onchocerciasis, as the disease is also known, is caused by a parasite that's spread by flies. Thirty years ago, it was simply devastating in parts of Africa, like Mali. "We went out to villages where 40 to 50 percent of the adults were blind," says Dr. Gary Weil, a parasitic disease specialist at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Worldwide, 300,000 people are blind as a result of this parasite, according to the World Health Organization. That situation changed dramatically when researchers discovered that a veterinary medicine called ivermectin could prevent river blindness in people. Since 1987, drugmaker Merck has donated more than a billion doses of this drug to fight river blindness and a related disease. The drug is given both as a preventive and after someone is diagnosed. "The ivermectin has had an amazing effect," Weil says. There's a massive campaign underway to use the drug to eradicate river blindness entirely with an annual dose. But there's a problem. In some areas, people are also infected by another parasite, a worm called Loa loa. And if someone has a raging Loa loa infection and you give them ivermectin, that can occasionally prove deadly. The workaround has been to look for Loa loa worms in people before giving them the drug. "The traditional way of making the measurement involves taking blood smears, looking at them under a conventional microscope by a trained individual, and counting [the worms] manually," says Daniel Fletcher, a bioengineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley. "And that's a far too laborious and long process to be used in a mass drug-administration program, which is what they were running." Enlarge this image toggle caption Daniel A. Fletcher, UC Berkeley Daniel A. Fletcher, UC Berkeley Fletcher has been working on novel ways to use iPhones as the centerpiece of inexpensive, portable microscopes. One day he got a call from Dr. Thomas Nutman at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, asking Fletcher if he could develop a device that could quickly and reliably detect Loa loa in a drop of blood. The worms don't make this job easy. They hide out in the lungs and "are only present in the bloodstream between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.," Fletcher says. "The tests all have to be done during that time frame, so being quick is really important." Fletcher's group at Berkeley set to work and came up with a way to detect the squirming motion of those worms when they emerge and circulate in the blood. They report their advance in the journal Science Translational Medicine. "The phone does pretty much everything," Fletcher says. A health worker collects a pinprick of blood in a small glass tube and pushes it into a compact and inexpensive microscope adapter that connects to the iPhone. "You press one button, 'go,' and the phone controls the movement of the sample, controls taking of a video and controls analysis and reporting of the results." In three minutes, start to finish, the process can tell the health worker whether it's safe to give the person ivermectin. But even producing an answer every three minutes still only translates to 40 results per day per phone, since the tests can be run only during a two-hour period. That's much faster than the conventional method, but the numbers are still daunting. Weil says it seems useful on a smaller scale, but "I don't see it how it could be scaled up to the scale of tens of millions of people" who currently live in areas where both the Loa loa worm and the river blindness parasite live. "And it wouldn't just be a one-time test," Weil adds, "since the treatment for river blindness is a once-a-year treatment, every year they would have to be tested." The real solution, Weil says, is to find a drug that can safely kill both parasites at the same time. Researchers are working on that right now. |
RadioShack-Nissan manager Luca Guercilena believes that Andy Schleck needs to start enjoying cycling once again if he is to recover from his difficult 2012 season and deliver fully on his potential. Related Articles Schleck, Voeckler and Greipel set for 2013 Tour Méditerranéen Video Exclusive: Andy Schleck interview Andy Schleck with a full schedule building up to Tour de France Andy Schleck rediscovering his way at Tour Down Under The 39-year-old Guercilena, who was a directeur sportif at the team for the past two years, oversaw his first training camp as manager in Luxembourg this week after taking over the reins from Johan Bruyneel during the off-season. Bruyneel took over as manager last year following the merger of the RadioShack and Leopard Trek teams but he departed in October in the wake of USADA’s reasoned decision on the Lance Armstrong case, which detailed his management of the systematic doping programme in place at the US Postal team. Schleck endured a trying 2012, compounded by the fractured pelvis that ruled him out of the Tour de France and his brother Fränk’s positive test for Xipamide at the race. “He needs to take pleasure in the bike again,” Guercilena told Le Quotidien. “This year, for different reasons, that wasn’t the case and that’s normal, I think. Fränk and Andy always had the feeling of losing something with the merger. [Team backer] Flavio Becca and Johan Bruyneel’s idea was to improve the team but psychologically, those who had been there for the creation of the team had the sense of losing something.” Guercilena said that Schleck would again target the Ardennes Classics and Tour de France, and that the team would be built around him in July. “It will be up to him to make the big effort, so as to find the inner-strength to make use of his great talent and find his level again,” he said. According to Guercilena, Schleck will ride the Tour Down Under, Tour Mediterranéen, Tour de Haut-Var, Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour of the Basque Country as preparation for the Classics, although his pre-Tour de France build-up is yet to be established. In 2012, Bruyneel opted to put the two Schleck brothers on separate race programmes, much to their chagrin. While Guercilena could understand the logic behind the move, he said that he would select Fränk for the Tour de France should he manage to avoid suspension for his Xipamide positive. “The idea of having a different programme isn’t bad in itself for certain races and that might even benefit Fränk in some circumstances because he’s also a rider capable of winning big races,” Guercilena said. “But for the big objective of a season like the Tour de France, you can’t lose a guy like Fränk from Andy’s side. I don’t consider them as brothers but as two guys with great strengths in the mountains.” Guercilena gave his support to Fränk Schleck’s claims that he had not knowingly used the diuretic Xipamide and expressed his hope that the Luxembourger might avoid a sanction. “I think we’re talking about a contamination, I’m convinced of that. I’m certain that he is right and respects the rules,” Guercilena said. “I hope that he won’t be suspended or at least that it won’t be a big suspension.” Taking over from Bruyneel Bruyneel’s heavy implication in the Lance Armstrong affair overshadowed his season at the helm of RadioShack-Nissan and the Belgian was finally replaced as manager in October. Rather than look for a big name manager from outside, chief backer Flavio Becca opted to recruit internally, selecting Guercilena, who was previously a coach and directeur sportif at Mapei Espoirs and QuickStep. “I can’t hide that I had a good experience with Johan Bruyneel,” Guercilena said. “I worked for 10 months with him and I recognised his qualities as a manager. He had his problems, we know what they are. He couldn’t stay in the job in those conditions. Mr. Becca decided to change and to put in place some new ideas. We can’t change the history of a team but we can improve it by adopting another vision. That’s Mr. Becca’s idea.” Becca’s “new vision” involves a greater emphasis on young talent but the sporting directors from 2012 all remain on board, with Kim Anderson, formerly number two to Bjarne Riis, and Bruyneel’s long-term collaborators Dirk Demol, Alain Gallopin and José Azevedo dividing responsibilities. Josu Larrazabal has also been recruited from Euskaltel-Euskadi as coach. “Josu has studied in Italy and has a lot of international experience,” Guercilena said. Speaking to Cyclingnews earlier in the week, Fabian Cancellara expressed his wish that Guercilena continues to work closely on a one-to-one basis with the riders in spite of his new role as manager, and the Italian said that was his intention. “I have an agreement with Mr. Becca and I’m going to work with the riders. I think that’s important. If you only do office work and you’re away from the races, it’s difficult to understand how to improve the team.” |
• Forward said to be open-minded about a move to Celtic • 28-year-old is out of contract with Cardiff this summer Celtic have joined the list of clubs with an interest in the Cardiff City striker Jay Bothroyd. Neil Lennon, the Celtic manager, watched Bothroyd during Cardiff's 3-0 play-off semi-final defeat by Reading in Wales on Tuesday night. Lennon is keen to boost his attacking options this summer, with the fact Bothroyd is out of contract this summer and his physical presence both appealing factors. Celtic have been long-time admirers of Reading's Shane Long, who scored twice in Cardiff, but may be priced out of a move for the Republic of Ireland international. Long has been rated at £4m by his club, a figure that would only increase were Reading to seal promotion to the Premier League. A source close to Bothroyd confirmed Celtic's interest in the striker, and that the 28-year-old will take two or three weeks to consider his future. He is thought to be open-minded about a potential move to Scotland, given Celtic's size. Cardiff, who refused to sell Bothroyd in January in an effort to boost their promotion chances, fear losing the forward for nothing, three years after he signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers for £300,000. The player has been coy about his future plans. Bothroyd's former team-mate Joe Ledley has been a key performer for Lennon this season and another Cardiff player, Adam Matthews, has signed a pre-contract to move to Parkhead in the summer. Bothroyd appeared as a substitute for England during their friendly against France last November, after which his scoring form dipped. The forward, who finished the season with 20 goals, has been linked with Everton. Sunderland and Birmingham City have also been mentioned in relation to the former Arsenal trainee. Such clubs could get in ahead of Celtic if Bothroyd decides he wants to play in the Premier League. The player said Cardiff would be wrong to dismiss their manager, Dave Jones, after a second successive play-off failure. The Cardiff board and Jones have said they will review his position in the coming weeks. "Cardiff would be mad to get rid of Dave Jones. He's been great, he's brought in quality," Bothroyd said. "It's not just the manager, it's a collective thing – we're involved as well. We're the boys that go out on the pitch and play the game and he can't affect that. All he can do is pick the team." |
When you look at the San Francisco 49ers, and how their most relevant story was Kaepernick’s kneeling, the last word you’d think is dynasty, however, this wasn’t always the case. San Francisco has an immensely rich history; tied with The Dallas Cowboys for 2nd on the All-Time Super Bowl win list, 4 of which came in the 1980’s. Drafting sleeper quarterback Joe Montana in the third round. Montana was the definition of a franchise quarterback; winning San Francisco 4 of their 5 Super Bowl rings. Featuring six Pro Bowlers, the 1981 49ers grinded through the postseason following a 13-3 regular season. Defeating the NY Giants in the first round (38-24), the aforementioned Cowboys in the second round (by a mere 28-27), they defeated the Bengals 26-21 to win their first Super Bowl championship. Montana won the MVP and SanFran was a force to be reckoned with from there on out. Roger Craig (49ers.com) With the next championship coming in 1984, the team went 15-1, featuring 10 Pro Bowlers. The 49ers blew through the playoffs, first dominating the New York Giants 21-10, next absolutely demolishing the Chicago Bears 23-0, and lastly rolling over the Miami Dolphins 38-16. The quarterback that will be getting mentioned a lot in this article, you guessed it, Joe Montana, won MVP of the game. The 49ers would take 4 years to get to the big stage again in 1988, during which they went 10-6 in the regular season, featuring 6 pro bowlers. The 49ers blew through the playoffs to win a hard fought Super Bowl over the Cincinnati Bengals. Montana’s first Super Bowl with arguably the greatest player of all-time, Jerry Rice, the 49ers rolled over the Minnesota Vikings and The Chicago Bears. They edged out the Bengals once again to win it. The ‘Niners would repeat, as the team went 14-2 in the regular season, featuring 6 pro bowlers. The 49ers had one of the easiest playoff runs ever, rolling over every team placed in front of them. They first thoroughly dominated the Vikings 41-13, before destroying the Los Angeles Rams 30-3, and lastly slaughtering the Denver Broncos 55-10 in the Super Bowl. After Joe Montana was moved to the Kansas City Chiefs, backup Steve Young proved to be a great quarterback as well. The last Super Bowl was led by Steve Young, in 1994, during which the team went 13-3 in the regular season, featuring 10 pro bowlers. The 49ers owned the 1980’s, behind the dominance of quarterback Joe Montana, and later, wide receiver Jerry Rice. The 49ers also proved they had talent on the bench with Steve Young which led to one more run in 1994. Before the ascension of Tom Brady, Joe Montana was considered the greatest quarterback to play the game, and Jerry Rice is still considered the greatest receiver to play. Which dynasty would you like to see covered next? Comment below! Share this: Twitter Facebook |
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