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Okay, maybe that title is a little sensationalized. This is hardly a smackdown – it’s barely a schoolyard slap fight – but I’m gonna stick with it because it’s so dumb that it made me laugh aloud when I typed it. Today I kicked off a new lil’ experiment in which I’m going to compare a 3000K vs. 5000K LED grow light. The Plan I have 2 space buckets (you can check out the build here), and in each bucket, I’ve got a single Vero 18 COB LED. The only difference between the 2 buckets is that one of the COBs has a color temperature of 3000K, and the other has a color temperature of 5000K. My goal for the experiment is to see what difference, if any, the color temperature makes on the growth of the plants, as they progress from the young fellas you see in the pictures below, right through into the fruiting stage (if I can manage to go that long with killing them). I will be running these on the same timer for 14 hours a day, and will water both buckets at the same time. I admit, this isn’t a great experiment as I only have one pepper and one tomato plant in each bucket, but I’m hoping there will still be a visible difference despite my small sample size. If, after awhile, the tomato plants take over the whole bucket, I’ll take note of the peppers’ progress up to that point, then probably boot them out. Perhaps by then, I’ll have another couple lights to put the peppers under to continue the experiment. The Parts Here are the 2 buckets I’m going to be using. They are identical in every way, except for the COB color temperatures. Each COB is actively cooled by a CPU fan and is being driven at 1.4 amps by a Mean Well LPC-60-1400. The Participants I’ve selected 2 “Mexico Midget” tomato plants and 2 Caramel Moruga Scorpion peppers for this grow. These plants were all started under the same lights in my main grow tent, and I tried to choose pairs that were most similar in health and size. Predictions What do you think will happen? Will the color temperature make a difference, or will the end result be the same? Make your predictions now so you can say “I told you so” afterwards! Share this: Share Twitter Facebook Reddit |
Not to be confused with CIE 201 Class The Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) / Northern Ireland Railways 201 Class locomotives are the newest and most powerful diesel locomotives operating in Ireland, and were built between 1994 and 1995 by General Motors. They are model type JT42HCW, fitted with an EMD 12-710G3B engine of 3,200 hp (2,400 kW), weigh 108.862 tonnes (107.143 long tons; 120.000 short tons) and have a maximum speed of 164 km/h (102 mph). A freight version, the EMD Series 66, with the same engine is used on privately operated European mainline freight duties. History [ edit ] By the early 1990s, the locomotives operating passenger services in Ireland were becoming increasingly obsolete, with the newest type in service being the 071 Class introduced in 1976. The economic boom in Ireland in the mid-1990s allowed Iarnród Éireann to begin significant investment in the infrastructure of the railways, which began with an order for 32 brand new express locomotives from GM-EMD. Northern Ireland Railways also purchased 2. The first were delivered in 1994, with deliveries continuing until 1995. To allow clearance tests and driver training to commence in advance of the delivery of the main order of 201s, it was decided to transport the first locomotive, number 201, to Dublin by air. An Antonov An-124 was used to transport the locomotive from London, Ontario to Dublin Airport, arriving on Thursday 9 June 1994. The first light-engine test run operated from Inchicore works to Kildare on the Tuesday 14.[1] Unfortunately, the locomotives have had a chequered service history. The authors of Jane's Train Recognition Guide noted that IÉ had had problems with engine fires and bogie cracks.[2] Technical details [ edit ] Main Generator Assembly: AR8PHEH/CA6 Head End Alternator (HEP): Dayton-Phoenix, model E7145, 438 kVA, 220/380VAC, 3-phase, 50 Hz Standby HEP: 220 kVA from AR8, available only when stationary Auxiliary Generator: 5A-8147, [3] 18 kW (24 hp) 18 kW (24 hp) Air Compressor/Exhauster: Gardner Denver, model WLPA9B Multiple Working: All IÉ & NIR EMD locos Push Pull Working: Locos 206-209 & 215-234 Curve Negotiation Capability: Yard: 80 m (262 ft) Running line: 115 m (377 ft) Coupled to train: 141 m (463 ft) Equipment new to IÉ locos [ edit ] Air Dryer Teloc 2200 Event Recorder [4] Electrically heated windscreens Active noise control in both cabs Enclosed body style, last seen on 1950s Metro-Vic A and C Classes Head End Power (HEP) This system supplied AC power to the train for heating, battery charging, etc. and was intended to replace the Mark 2 & Mark 3 Generator Vans used at the time. In the event HEP was only used on the Enterprise cross-border De Dietrich service. HEP is no longer used due to noise while the train is in station, and reliability issues running the prime mover at high speed constantly. Four Mark 3 generator vans remain in use on the Enterprise service. The later CAF-built Mark 4 sets include their own generators in the Driving Van Trailer (DVT). EM2000 digital traction computer Train (carriage) door control D43 Traction Motors Super Series wheel creep control [5] Cab mounted electronic fuel gauges Fire suppression system, FM200 extinguisher Variants [ edit ] There are three versions within the Class 201: 201 to 205 & 210 to 214 Fixed buffers, shackle coupling 215 to 226, 229, 232 and 234 Retractable buffers, electronic fuel gauges, automatic or shackle coupling, Push-pull capability. 206 to 209, 227, 228, 230, 231 & 233 Retractable buffers, electronic fuel gauges, automatic or shackle coupling, Push-pull capability, fitted with HaslerRail 2500 Event recorder, NIR train radio and TPWS/AWS for cross-border service Fleet [ edit ] Abhainn na Life/River Liffey) at Limerick Colbert Station in 2006 Iarnród Éireann No.206 () at Limerick Colbert Station in 2006 An Abhainn Mhór/River Avonmore) at Grand Canal Dock DART station in 2001 No. 215 () at Grand Canal Dock DART station in 2001 208 In the old green Enterprise livery passing through Musgrave. 208 Was the only locomotive in the class to ever carry this livery Class Push/Pull Capable Number Built Number Range Operations Notes Primary Other 201 No 10 201-205, 210-214 None None In storage Yes 24 215-226, 229, 232, 234 InterCity Freight Belmond Grand Hibernian 225 in storage 206-209, 227, 228, 230, 231, 233 Enterprise InterCity Freight Belmond Grand Hibernian 208-209 Owned by NIR 230 in storage All fitted with TPWS and AWS InterCity [ edit ] Today push-pull equipped members of the 201 class operate the only passenger locomotive hauled services in the Republic of Ireland between Dublin and Cork. They operate with Mark 4 carriages which were introduced to the route in 2006/2007. The current livery was introduced in 2006 and it primarily consists of green and silver. All locomotives have full yellow ends to enhance visibility. Non push-pull locomotives were withdrawn from service because Mark 4 carriages operate a push-pull system and rolling stock on other InterCity routes was replaced by 22000 Class DMUs. The only other locomotive-hauled service is the Enterprise cross-border service to Belfast which is detailed below. Enterprise [ edit ] The Enterprise is a cross-border passenger service between Dublin and Belfast operated by Iarnród Éireann and Northern Ireland Railways. This is also a locomotive-hauled service and operates a similar push-pull system like services to Cork. As this is a jointly operated service, it is marketed as the "Enterprise" and the coaching stock and locomotives carry a separate livery to either operator's own services. It consists of light grey with a purple and red strip. Locomotives also have full yellow ends to enhance visibility. As the service is shared, locomotives (8)208 and (8)209 are owned by Northern Ireland Railways. The coaching stock is owned by operators, Iarnród Éireann own the odd numbered coaches and NIR own the even numbered coaches. In addition, Iarnród Éireann introduced four former Mark 3 generator vans in September 2012 to operate this route in a bid to improve reliability of the service and reduce maintenance costs. Previously the service operated with head end power and this caused regular locomotive failures, increased wear and tear and also contributed to locomotive 230 been removed from service after an engine fire while operating a passenger service with HEP in operation. Freight [ edit ] 201 Class locomotives also operate some freight services as required. There are two container flows between Dublin Port and Ballina and Belview (Waterford) and Ballina. There is also a timber flow between Waterford and Westport/Ballina. From late 2016, 201 Class locomotives will operate increased freight services as the weight and length of some freight services will be increased due to customer demand. Common livery [ edit ] Locomotives 231 and 233 are painted in a common livery which consists of light grey with a black stripe. The reason for this is they are assigned for Enterprise duties and as part of the refurbishment of the Enterprise in 2015-2016 only six were given the full livery. Prior to this some of those given the current livery had previously had the InterCity livery. As part of Iarnród Éireann's logo change all InterCity 201's will carry the new Iarnród Éireann logo which includes the Irish flag and for operational and safety reasons they will not operate cross border services so a common colour scheme was adopted. List of locomotive names [ edit ] The entire class is named after Irish rivers, with the IÉ locomotives carrying two nameplates, one in Irish and one in English, on each side of the locomotive. As 208 and 209 are owned by Northern Ireland Railways, they carry English language only nameplates. The nameplates are trapezium shaped, with the names in upper case. 8209 at Moira in the current Enterprise livery 210 in storage at Inchicore Works 225 in storage at Inchicore Works 216 at Inchicore Works Current operations [ edit ] All of the non push-pull capable locomotives (201–205 and 210–214) were placed in storage at Inchicore during 2009, the last being 214 in July 2009. This was due to the withdrawal of the Mark 3 fleet and their replacement with 22000 Class DMUs on the vast majority of passenger services. This left only the Mark 4 Dublin–Cork services and the cross-border Enterprise service (with De Dietrich rolling stock) as the only locomotive hauled passenger services operated by Iarnród Éireann. The reduction in the number of locomotive hauled passenger workings, combined with the withdrawal of older GM locomotives, has seen 201 Class locomotives used on freight workings, whilst four push-pull capable units were transferred to join the original four dedicated locomotives in use on the Enterprise. In 2010 Iarnród Éireann planned to store some of its remaining push-pull capable Mark 3 coaches,[6] which could potentially have been used with 201 Class locomotives to enhance Enterprise's service. However, most Mark 3 carriages were scrapped during 2013 and 2014.[7] A fleet of 10 Mark 3 coaches were sold to Belmond Grand Hibernian, while 216 and 225 will be returned to service to handle the extra traffic generated by Belmond operation. As of May 2016, 216 has returned to service however it's not expected that 225 will return before 2017. On Monday 15 February 2016, two 201 Class locomotives (226 & 209) operated freight trials with a long train of 15 HOBS ballast wagons plus one un-powered loco, possibly assessing the loco's capabilities for future freight services. As of October 2016, Iarnród Éireann are seeking solutions to re-power most of the fleet during a mid-life refurbishment. They are looking for floor-up engine and control gear solutions, which keep the existing cab controls and compatibility with the existing GM fleet and push/pull equipment. The body, cab controls, bogies, and traction motors will remain unchanged. 201 and 205 have been brought in from storage for internal and external inspection, possibly in relation to this re-powering. The re-powering was due to begin in Q1 2017, but now look more likely to be Q1 2018. In July 2017 230 is getting some bodywork repairs [8] after it suffered significant damage due to a fire in the HEP system[9] in 2013. The loco has been in store since. This work means it will possibly make it the first loco to be repowered. Model [ edit ] In the late 90's, Model Irish Railways produced a resin bodyshell kit with nameplates, numbering, brass grills and the standard yellow / black livery line transfers. Marks Models also released a resin kit for these locomotives in 00 gauge in c.2000. In 2001, Murphy Models commissioned LIMA to produce an '00' gauge 201 model loco.[10] They were produced in IÉ orange (201, 216, 217, 219, 230) and Enterprise (206, 207, 208, 209) liveries, in batches of 300 (except 500 of #207). [11] In 2011 Murphy Models launched a completely new version of the 201, with all wheel drive, centre can motor and preinstalled speaker. This was released in IÉ orange (original and revised), Green Intercity and NIR blue as well as NIR Enterprise original and revised. Railtec Transfers [12] and Studio Scale Models [5] make transfers for the full range of 201 liveries, No's 201-234, original and updated Orange, original and updated Enterprise and Green Intercity. The 201 Class has also been released in virtual form as a player driveable locomotive in the Microsoft Train Simulator add-on, "Irish Enterprise North", by Making Tracks,[13] and for OpenBVE by Celtic Trainsim.[14] |
Taking in a great movie can be a thoroughly rewarding experience. A great film can enrich the mind and bolster the spirit in ways that few other things can, even if they’re not perfect. Of course, those imperfections can be distracting, but in a great film, only momentarily. Sometimes, however, the imperfection is too distracting. Sometimes, you can’t help but wonder, “Everything was going so well. Why did they have to go and do that?” It happens when a movie (it can be a favorite or just one you admire greatly) does everything right, except for one nagging thing. I call it The Happer Effect. In 1983, Bill Forsythe wrote and directed one of my favorite films of the eighties, Local Hero. It concerns an oil company executive, MacIntyre, played by Peter Riegert, who is sent to a remote seaside town in Scotland to negotiate a massive land deal in which the company he works for, Knox Oil, will buy up the entire town and all of its coast for miles. Along the way, we get to meet his assistant in Scotland, Danny Olsen (Peter Capaldi), the accountant and innkeeper who will help them seal the deal, Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson) and a host of other locals, including Ben (Fulton Mackay), an old beachcomber who just may hold the deed to the whole damn beach. The characters are charming and the story moves along at a gentle, reassuring pace, never rushing the viewer or over-explaining the plot and character motivations. During the course of the movie, the town gets what it wants and MacIntyre finds his home and his soul. This is, in effect, the whole movie or, rather, it should have been the whole movie but, unfortunately, it’s not. There’s this side story that concerns the head of the oil company, Felix Happer (played quite well by Burt Lancaster) and his bizarre therapy sessions with a man named Moritz (Norman Chancer). This part of the film utterly works against the charms of the film, which is its first sin and, more importantly, feels like it belongs in another film altogether. Put quite simply, it feels out of place, and jarringly so. First of all, it fails as character development because, without knowing any background or childhood stories about Happer, his need to be belittled plays as little more than a very unfunny Freudian joke, which is, in fact, all it amounts to. This is not the fault of Lancaster or Chancer, by the way, who both do fine jobs playing these insufferable scenes as best they can. No, this one falls squarely on Forsythe’s head for taking an otherwise perfectly pitched movie and inserting a discordant scraping sound in the middle of a quiet sonata. And so The Happer Effect springs to mind anytime I come across a movie I otherwise like or enjoy or find compelling, except for that one little thing. Some of the movies that have had the distinction of employing The Happer Effect are among my favorites and employ it in varying degrees, from a brief awkward moment to plot-stopping disaster. One such film is The Caine Mutiny, a film long a favorite of mine. There are so many things in this movie to love: The great performance by Humphrey Bogart as the paranoid Captain Queeg. The way the evidence that Queeg is mentally unstable slowly, persistently and ominously begins to mount. The way the great Fred MacMurray manipulates Van Johnson and Robert Francis to mutiny while cowardly resisting all responsibility. Oh yeah, and then there’s that part where the whole movie comes to a numbing, bone-crushing, mind-killing halt as Robert Francis woos May Wynn. The character of May Wynn, by the way, is played by the actress May Wynn, who has the same name as the character because the actress, born Agnes Hickey, liked the character’s name so much she had her own name legally changed to match it. I tell you this because that one, tiny, insignificant piece of trivia is more interesting than the entire romantic subplot by orders of magnitude exceeding 100. It’s true, the romantic subplot is, indeed, a part of the novel, a much bigger part in fact. Also, Francis’ character, Ensign Willie Keith, is the central figure in both the novel and the film but in the film, he is singularly uninteresting. The relationship, too, is given short shrift (a few minutes at the beginning, the jarring interruption in the middle) and, as a result, is meaningless as anything other than a signifier of the passage of time between commanding officers of the Caine. The Happer Effect lives! Now, lest you think The Happer Effect is relegated to the best and the brightest of the cinematic world, let me direct you to Plan 9 from Outer Space. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “But Greg, isn’t that whole movie awful, not just part of it?” First, no, it’s not awful. Plan 9 from Outer Space is entertaining, well-paced and no less absurd than any handful of other sci-fi movies done on a shoestring budget in the fifties. It’s not polished (by a long shot), not professional, the quality of the acting varies wildly and the dialogue is, ahem, atrocious but it fulfills its basic purpose to entertain even without all the damned irony the hip modern viewer hurls at the screen with feckless abandon (You want bad? Try watching “Manos – the Hands of Fate” without the MST3K gabbers). Hell, I even hosted a blogathon on Ed Wood once, and opened it with a defense of him as a director. Having said that, Wood has his own share of Happer moments and none greater than 41 minutes into Plan 9 when we hear the narrator intone, “Meanwhile, at the Pentagon” at which point we are taken there and listen to the dullest conversation between two people ever recorded on film. Nothing so overtly bad in the dialogue that you can kind of enjoy the absurdity of it all. No, just dullness. And it goes on for six full minutes! Half of that is listening to a tape of Eros (the too-awesome-for-words Dudley Manlove) saying stuff that could be funny and entertaining were he saying it to Jeff Trent (Gregory Walcott) but on a tape recorder it’s just dry as hell (later, he does repeat most of it to Jeff Trent and, as expected, the results are glorious – “that’s all I’m taking from you!”). As it is, it stops the movie dead, no plan intended, 9 or otherwise. Sometimes, The Happer Effect shows up early and keeps the movie from hitting its stride until the first reel is up. Easy Rider starts this way for me. Their first visit at the farm is kind of dull but where Happer really rears his head is the commune sequence. Oh man, deliver me. Everything that happens afterwards – meeting Jack Nicholson’s wonderfully drawn southern lawyer, the campfire discussion of aliens, the darkening journey towards a Mardi Gras trip in a cemetary that feels like a horror movie – is what should have happened the whole way through. If they really wanted to make a point about self-sufficiency and spiritual living before crawling down to the underbelly of America, the farm sequence near the beginning suffices. The commune sequence puts an exclamation point on a statement that already had five or six pulling up the rear. And there are so many more: The fight scene in The Searchers, when Jeffrey Hunter gets into the fight over his girlfriend/fiance/not really either/person. The great thing about this scene, in relation to the rest of the movie is… NOTHING! I don’t care, get back to the damn search! The party scene in Serpico where Serpico dances like crazy and talks about art and philosophy and shows how hip he is so we know he’s not some dumb, square cop. Everybody together now – “Ugh.” Michael Douglas. The China Syndrome. “Nuke-uh-ler.” Could no one take him aside and tell him it’s pronounced New-clee-er? Seriously? No one could do that? Tiny Tim in practically every Christmas Carol ever done. A Hall of Fame Happer Effect. In The Pride of the Yankees, that scene on the train with Coop eating the Babe’s hat. Oh man… urge to kill growing. Or sometimes, having everyone do something in unison in an otherwise realistic setting really bugs me, like that moment in Close Encounters of the Third Kind when Francois Truffaut asks the thousand observers where the sound came from and you see a thousand fingers thrust up to the sky at once. I’m sure a lot of people like that moment. For me, it’s got Happer written all over it. Or in George Pal and Byron Haskin’s otherwise fantastic War of the Worlds, when they show the aliens and they look like this. I mean, come on, just keep it to shadows and a sense of dread. That kind of thing works wonders. Shoulder-padded, no-neck, sad-eyes, television-camera-faced aliens? Uh, no. But, hell, I could go on with this forever. That’s the great thing about art: It’s not perfect. Sometimes a Happer Effect is minimal in its annoyance, like the alien I just showed, and sometimes it’s deadly, like its namesake, Happer, and his relentlessly annoying therapy scenes. Sometimes, it happens and it doesn’t even bother me, though I know it should. Like in Psycho and Citizen Kane. Both end with a character explaining that which is already screamingly obvious to the viewer and thoroughly unnecessary. And yet, I don’t mind. Still, you gotta love, “Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn’t get, or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn’t have explained anything… I don’t think any word can explain a man’s life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a… piece in a jigsaw puzzle… a missing piece. ” Thanks, I didn’t get that from the entire movie preceding it that completely fleshed out that very idea. That’s why it’s almost preferable to have something to gripe about with even the best movies because, in a way, it makes its creators seem more human. More like the rest of us. And every now and then, we’re treated to a Happer Effect so massive, so oblivious to all that is good and right in this world, that we breathe a sigh of relief realizing that even the big boys sometimes stumble so hard they smash their faces in the pavement and gush buckets of “My God, what were they thinking” for all eternity, or at least as long as the movie is available to the public at large. Mr. Yunioshi, anyone? |
Tupac Shakur died violently, but is he resting in peace? Before his murder, the rapper left behind over 100 songs. Now Death Row — a label not known for its discretion — has cobbled together some of them for The Don Killuminati/The 7 Day Theory, credited not to 2Pac but to an alter ego, Makaveli. In this regard, Death Row has done right by him: If Shakur were alive to hear this mess, he wouldn’t want his name on it, either. Posthumous records are old news in the music business, but The Don Killuminati truly feels like a work in progress. The songs are riddled with repeated, numbing allusions to shoot-outs and Shakur’s inevitable premature death (”Automatic gunfire makin’ all my enemies run/Who should I call when I’m shot and bleeding?”). But if Shakur had been planning an album playing off Machiavelli’s theories on power, he neither thought it through nor completed it. The songs have only fleeting references to ”Makaveli” and occasional bits of Machiavellian advice (”Keep your enemies close/Nigga, watch your homies”). The same can be said of the Christ imagery: It extends no further than song titles like ”Hail Mary” and the cover art, which depicts Shakur nailed to a cross. Even the music feels unfinished. Dr. Dre and his posse livened up Shakur’s previous album, All Eyez on Me, but with Dre gone from Death Row, lesser-known producers were called in. The results are plodding, amateurish gangsta rap. The album is top-heavy with cameos from second-rate rappers, and the depths of absurdity are reached on ”Toss It Up,” which grafts a vitriolic Shakur rap onto a standard new-jack strut. The Don Killuminati isn’t just a mop-up operation; it’s a disgraceful exploitation that dishonors Shakur’s music and legacy. With so much attention focused on the violent nature of Shakur’s death and the machinations of his personal Machiavelli, Death Row CEO Suge Knight, it’s important to remember that Shakur had a cultural legacy. In the world of hip-hop, success comes with a price: Acquire too much fame and wealth and your friends start wondering if you’ve lost touch with the streets. The only remedy is to act harder. Shakur embodied that quandary. Defending women’s rights or black pride, he could be introspective, even analytical. But fast cash and chart-topping albums only seemed to goad Shakur into living up to his own ”thug life” image. His identity crisis manifested itself in his music, which developed an almost psychotic split personality: liberal-minded thoughtfulness one moment, raging, misogynistic hostility the next. Buried within the low-rent packaging and clotted grooves of The Don Killuminati are further examples of his inner conflict. During a simulated newscast that opens the record, Shakur explains that the bicoastal hip-hop feud is ”not about east or west,” yet the album ends with him trashing his New York competitors. In ”White Man’z World,” he ponders his mistakes, especially his behavior toward women; then, on ”Blasphemy,” he proudly explains a credo he learned from his father: ”M.O.B. — money offa bitches.” Put-downs have always played an important role in rap. But on this shameful cash-in, Tupac Shakur is the only one truly being dissed. D |
Dell EMC on Tuesday introduced its new-generation rugged PowerEdge XR servers, designed to work in harsh environments of industrial sites or even conflict zones. The new machines are equipped with Intel’s latest Xeon Scalable (Skylake-SP) processors along with up to 512 GB DDR4 memory and up to 30 TB of solid-state storage. In addition, the new PowerEdge XR2 features a special common access card that provides an additional way of authentication to drive data encryption and can instantly render the machines useless to the enemy once removed. As computing becomes pervasive, servers get needed everywhere, including severe environments, such as industrial sites, rural areas, conflict zones and others. Dell is among a few companies that offer ruggedized laptops, tablets, and other hardware, so the company was among the first to address such needs. Dell’s first-gen rugged servers were custom-built machines based on the company’s PowerEdge servers and were sold to select customers. Because of growing demand for such machines and because Dell realized that servers for harsh environments have to be designed for extreme conditions from scratch, the company introduced its first “official” rugged server called the PowerEdge R420xr back in 2014. Today, the company is launching its second-generation purpose-built rugged server (which really is the company’s third-gen rugged server platform) — the PowerEdge XR2. Just like the predecessor, the Dell EMC PowerEdge XR2 comes in 1U 20” deep chassis that features shock and vibration resistance, optional dust filtration and uses components certified to work in low and high temperatures (from -5ºC to +55ºC) as well as altitudes of up to 15K feet* (think specialized DRAM modules, SSDs, other chips). Meanwhile, the new machine is completely different from the system launched over three years ago and brings huge performance improvements. The PowerEdge XR2 is based on two Intel’s Xeon Gold (Skylake-SP) processors with up to 22 cores, 30 MB L3 cache and a 140 W TDP. Power consumption is a concern for ruggedized servers because of cooling, so Dell decided to stick to CPUs with a moderate TDP (after all, 44 cores is a lot). The primary CPU socket can be equipped with 10 DIMMs (4 channels at 2 DPC and 2 channels at 1 DPC), whereas the secondary CPU socket can support six DDR4 memory modules (6 channels at 1 DPC), for a potential 512 GB total DRAM per box (previously only 384 GB was supported by the R420xr). Such an unorthodox memory configuration may look a bit odd and physically Intel’s latest Xeon Scalable CPUs can support more memory, but for its rugged servers Dell intends to use certified DIMMs made for severe environments and their capacity is being limited to 32 GB per module today. The new storage sub-system is something that Dell must be proud of: the PowerEdge XR2 supports eight hot-swappable SATA/SAS SSDs featuring a total capacity of up to 30 TB capacity (up from 6.4 TB on the previous-gen model). Optionally, Dell may equip the system with self-encrypting SSDs, but by default the machine will encrypt the drives itself and will require Dell’s common access card to access/decrypt them. Once such card is removed, the drives cannot be accessed by unauthorized personnel or enemy, which will come in handy in various conflict zones. Depending on the needs, the PowerEdge may be equipped with a variety of RAID controllers. Two CPUs, multiple memory modules, and eight high-end SSDs consume a substantial amount of power. Dell equips the PowerEdge XR2 with a 550 W redundant PSU, which will feed the aforementioned components. Meanwhile, due to volume restrictions, TDP limits, and power constraints, the new machine will not support any accelerators, just like its predecessor. This may be a pity for oil and gas exploration applications many of which rely on NVIDIA’s Tesla accelerators, but typically oil and gas companies can afford to build custom hardware for their exploration needs. Depending on exact configuration, the Dell PowerEdge XR2 machines can be equipped with 1Gb, 10Gb BASE-T, 10Gb SFP+, and 40Gb QSFP+ networking cards. The XR2 machines are IPMI compliant and can support Dell’s proprietary iDRAC9 remote management. As for operating systems, expect the machine to be compatible with Microsoft’s Windows Server as well as various Linux builds. Dell PowerEdge XR2: General Specifications PowerEdge XR2 1U/20" CPU Two Intel Xeon SP processors Up to 140 W TDP (each): Intel Xeon Gold 6152 Intel Xeon Gold 6140 Intel Xeon Gold 6138 Intel Xeon Gold 6132 Intel Xeon Gold 6130 Intel Xeon Gold 6126 Intel Xeon Gold 5122 Intel Xeon Gold 5120 Intel Xeon Gold 5120T Intel Xeon Gold 5118 Intel Xeon Silver 4116 Intel Xeon Silver 4114 Intel Xeon Silver 4112 Intel Xeon Silver 4110 Intel Xeon Silver 4108 Intel Xeon Bronze 3106 Intel Xeon Bronze 3104 Chipset unknown RAM Up to 512 GB DDR4-2667 RDIMMs with ECC CPU1: 10 DIMMs, 4 ch at 2 DPC, 2 ch at 1 DPC CPU2: 6 DIMMs, 6 channels at 1 DPC 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB modules supported Storage Controllers PERC H330 PERC H730p PERC HBA330 Storage 2.5" SATA/SAS: up to hotplug 8 drives, 30 TB capacity M.2 SATA: 2 drives for fast boot, OS Up to three drive form-factor storage devices. Expansion 2 × PCIe x16 for NICs Networking Integrated Broadcom 5720 2 x 1GbLOM plus optional LOM Riser LOM Riser Options: Broadcom 5720 2×1Gb Broadcom 57416 2×10Gb Base-T Broadcom 57416 2×10Gb SFP+ I/O Front ports: - D-Sub, eSATA, USB 2.0, - Dedicated iDRACDirect Micro-USB Rear ports: - D-Sub, RS232, 2×USB 3.0, - Dedicated iDRAC network port Embedded Management IPMI 2.0 compliant iDRAC9 with Lifecycle Controller (Express, Enterprise) Quick Sync 2 wireless module optional Security TPM 1.2/2.0 optional Cryptographically signed firmware Secure Boot System Lockdown Secure Erase Integrated Common Access Card Reader Harsh Environment Testing MIL-STD-810G (temp, shock, vibration, altitude, sand/dust) MIL-STD-461G for conductive/radiative immunity DNV-GL for temperature, humidity, vibration, EMC PSU 550W redundant Dell EMC will sell its PowerEdge XR2 machines directly as well as through resellers and OEMs who may adapt them for particular needs by loading software and perform other customizations. OEMs can also install their own bezels and load BIOS with their logotypes and/or features. *Formally, the machines are compliant with MIL-STD-810G and MIL-STD461G requirements for temperature, shock, vibration, altitude, and conductive/radiative immunity, as well as DNV, IEC 60945 requirements for maritime navigation and radiocommunication equipment when it comes to temperature, humidity, vibration, and EMC. Related Reading |
Limited Run Games has announced that orders for its next physical release Saturday Morning RPG for PS Vita and PS4 will open tomorrow at set times. That everyone in the world has an equal opportunity to grab a physical copy, it’s going live in two batches. The first one goes up at 10 a.m. EST and the second goes live at 6 p.m. EST. A limited number of 2,500 PS Vita and 1,980 PS4 copies will be available worldwide each for $24.99. A physical soundtrack CD limited to 200 copies will be available via a PS Vita and PS4 soundtrack bundle each for $39.99 (including a copy of the game). Saturday Morning RPG is an episodic JRPG set in world heavily inspired by 1980s Saturday morning cartoons and pop culture. Players take the role of Martin “Marty” Michael Hall, an average high-school student who has just been granted an incredible power – a power that ultimately leads him to attract the ire of the world’s most notorious villain, Commander Hood. Saturday Morning RPG features a full soundtrack by legendary composer Vince DiCola (Transformers: The Animated Movie, Rocky IV) and his composing partner, Kenny Meriedeth (contributor for DuckTales, Power Rangers, X-Men, and others). Check out the Saturday Morning RPG PS Vita Screenshots: Check out the Saturday Morning RPG PS Vita Gameplay Video #1: Check out the Saturday Morning RPG PS Vita Gameplay Video #2: |
An Australian man who has been charged with selling 'cookie monster ecstasy' in the Philippines had been living there with his pregnant girlfriend before being arrested on suspicion of drug dealing. Damian Berg was arrested in Manila on Tuesday on suspicion of selling the small blue pills to an undercover police officer at a city centre hotel. The man, who is originally from Adelaide, is awaiting trial and could face the death penalty if convicted. On Thursday, as his parents issued an emotional statement of support for him, Mr Berg's life in the Philippines could be laid bare. Scroll down for video Damian Berg (above with his Philippine girlfriend Marvie Zanelucas) was arrested in Manila on Tuesday on suspicion of selling 'cookie monster' ecstasy pills Posing by the pool with his pregnant girlfriend Marvie Zanelucas, he appeared in a string of social media photographs taken before the arrest. Among them are many with Miss Zanelucas and a host of selfies that showed off his weight loss. On Thursday, as her partner remained in custody at a Manila police station, Miss Zanelucas told Daily Mail Australia she was 'preparing food' for him. His parents meanwhile issued an emotional statement through the Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs to insist he had their full support. 'What we do know is that Damian is in custody in Manila and is being treated OK. 'It will take time before his case is heard, and until then we can’t comment any more. As a family, we dearly love him and will be supporting him as much as we can,' they said. The man from Adelaide (left) denies the charges but has remanded in custody in the Philippines while he awaits trial. He was arrested alongside Canadian Jeremy Eaton (right) The pair are understood to be excited about the arrival of the baby. On Thursday Mr Berg's parents told him to 'hang in there' as he awaited legal help Mr Berg had been living in Manila with his pregnant girlfriend Marvie Zanelucas (above) until his arrest on Tuesday Mr Berg was arrested alongside a Canadian national after allegedly selling 170 of the pills to an undercover police officer (above) in a Manila hotel Mr Berg has been living in Manila for more than a year but regularly travelled back to Australia to visit family. He denied having any involvement with the drugs after being arrested with Canadian native Jeremy Eaton on Wednesday and was seen with his head in his hands outside the Makati City police station which police took them to. Prosecutors allege that an undercover police over bought 170 of the pills from the men, with the drugs carrying a street value of around 255,000 pesos (about AU$7,350). Mr Berg denies the allegation, telling the ABC he has no need to sell drugs because he has a 'good paying job'. Geoff Berg spoke outside his family's home in South Australia on Thursday to encourage him to stay positive while awaiting further help Mr Berg has been living in Manila for more than a year Police have accused Mr Berg and Jeremy Eaton, a Canadian national, of selling them the blue tablets (above) It is not clear what work the man was doing prior to his arrest. If found guilty of drug dealing, Mr Berg could face the death penalty under a new, harsher crime crackdown introduced by the country's new leader, Rodrigo Duerte. Duerte has a notoriously tough stance against drugs, once claiming he would kill his own son if he ever caught him taking them. The Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs is providing consular assistance to the Berg family, a spokesman said. 'The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian man arrested in the Philippines, in accordance with the Consular Services Charter. |
28-inch Barrels My test model featured 28-inch split ventilated-rib barrels with a single bead. It has a classic deep blued finish. Overall, the metalwork was decent, although there were some rough edges and what appeared to be material between the two barrels that was missed in the milling process. Tang-Mounted Safety/Barrel Selector The tang-mounted safety/barrel selector operated with a positive "click" when changing from safe to fire and between top and bottom barrels. Barrel selection can only be made when the gun is on safe. One thing I appreciated, although others might criticize as a safety issue, is that the safety does not reengage when the gun is opened. For occasional clay target shooting or hot dove shooting, I like this feature. Shell Extractors My test gun came with extractors, but an ejector model is also available for a few bucks more. The extractors operated flawlessly and raised the shells high enough to easily remove them in a hurry. Flush Chokes The gun shipped with five flush-mount choke tubes, a wrench and a small plastic choke tube case. I wasn't overly impressed with the quality. The threads seemed rough and gritty, even after I scrubbed them clean. And the threads were cut into the muzzle end, instead of the bottom end, of the choke tubes with two small notches removed from the tubes for getting purchase with the wrench. This exposes part of the barrel's threads to grime and dirt. Mossberg marked each choke with a series of small grooves on the muzzle end, with the number of grooves indicating the choke constriction. This doesn't look great, but it does allow the user to ID the choke when installed, which is a nice feature. Trigger At first I was unimpressed by the trigger. It broke awkwardly, with a hard back wall. But after a few rounds of clays, it seemed to break in and operated flawlessly, with an extremely fast reset time to the second barrel. I gave it a good workout by shooting some quartering-away targets, then following up each initial shot by shooting a piece of the broken target as fast as I could with the second barrel. By the time I sent it back to Mossberg, the trigger was one of my favorite features. If you buy one, give it a little break-in time to grow on you. Walnut Stock The walnut stock on my test gun had nice grain for a gun with an MSRP of $693. It was even on par with some of the popular over-unders you'd see in the $2,000 price range. It was given a satin, no-frills finish. I liked the slim butt stock. It came to my face quickly for fast shots on low, zipping outgoing targets. It has a standard pistol grip. Polished, Engraved Receiver The polished, silver-finished receiver was given a nice wrap-around scrollwork, an upgrade, in my opinion, from the roughly done gold-finished bird engravings on the original model. A Mossberg "M" is engraved on the underside. Action The gun locks closed with a steel slab in the bottom of the action. Although the gun opened and closed without too much resistance out of the box, I felt the action locked up good and tight. My only real complaint with the action was that the top lever occasionally swung back to the closed position when the gun was open. Several times I attempted to close it only to have the barrels come down on the locking slab in the action. Final Thoughts At less than 7 ½ pounds, this gun isn't too heavy to carry afield but is too light for high-volume shooting, in my opinion. After a couple rounds of skeet doubles, I felt the recoil in my shoulder. It felt a bit whippy on crossing targets and required a little more conscious control than I was used to with heavier sporting clays guns. But on outgoing and quartering-away targets, which are more like what this gun would be used for in the field, it was quick and steady to the target and is a natural shooter. For pheasants, rabbits and other upland game, it's definitely a winner. Plus, for less than $700, you shouldn't feel bad about dragging it through your favorite coverts. |
Not everyone has been thrilled with Microsoft's new PC/console unification program through Xbox Play Anywhere. Even before this was announced at E3, the confirmation that Quantum Break was coming to PC back in February ruffled some feathers. Some claimed it was the death of console exclusives and even further, that it might mean Microsoft is backing away from the console space. This is not the case, according to Xbox executive Albert Penello. Appearing on the latest Inner Circle podcast, Penello said bringing games to PC doesn't take anything away from the console market, but instead gives gamers more opportunities to play games. "There's a debate or a discussion that you can have with a certain type of people online and you want to argue details and argue nuance, but the reality is that most people don't make that kind of choice," Penello said about the idea that someone wouldn't buy a game just because it's on another platform. "Today, if you play games, you're playing games on just about everything you own," he added. "You're playing games on your phone, you're playing games on your console when you want to lay back in front of that big TV, and you're playing PC games when you want that keyboard and mouse, up-close, highly customized kind of experience. Even guys that are diehard console gamers, we know they play on their phone and PC." Similarly, there are hardcore PC gamers out there who also play on console and mobile. "So to me, the idea that you're bringing games to the PC suddenly means that people don't want consoles anymore...it doesn't ring true to how gamers really behave," Penello added. The Xbox Play Anywhere feature, as well as Microsoft's efforts to launch more games on Steam, is all about giving people more places to buy and enjoy games, Penello explained. "Giving PC guys the opportunity to play Quantum Break and Killer Instinct doesn't doesn't really take anything away from the console guys," he explained. "It just gives more people a chance to play great games on the device they want to play on." Some of the upcoming Xbox Play Anywhere games that will be released on Xbox One and PC include Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, and Halo Wars 2. No new numbered entries in the mainline Halo series have been announced for PC, but Halo 5's Forge tools are on the way to Windows 10 computers. A recent report claimed that future Halo games, including potentially Halo 6, could be released on PC. |
Karina Petri, founder of Project Flint, said grassroots organizations like hers are struggling to find a voice for residents who have given up, some of whom have gone back to using the tainted water because they no longer care about the health consequences. Almost a year after President Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint, the crisis continues to affect people there. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images There’s a lot of blame to go around and still no clean water in Flint, Michigan, where four more officials were charged Tuesday for their failure to protect people from health hazards caused by contaminated drinking water, bringing the total charged this year to 13. The charges come as activists in Flint see despair setting in among residents who have lived through the public health nightmare. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette charged two former state emergency managers, Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose, with multiple 20-year felonies for their failure to protect Flint citizens from health hazards caused by contaminated drinking water, according to a news release. Earley and Ambrose reported directly to Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. Former city executives Howard Croft and Daugherty Johnson were charged with false pretenses and conspiracy to commit false pretenses related to their roles in issuing bonds to pay for a part of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) pipeline project, which would not be possible without the funding, the release stated. Get the facts, direct to your inbox. Subscribe to our daily or weekly digest. SUBSCRIBE “All too prevalent and very evident during the course of this investigation has been a fixation on finances and balance sheets,” Schuette said in a press conference. “This fixation has cost lives. This fixation came with the expense of protecting the health and safety of Flint. It’s all about numbers over people, money over health.” A plan due in May will include strategies to improve distribution, enhance water quality, and minimize water main breaks, according to Arcadis, an engineering and design firm contracted by the city in response to concerns by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. Schuette has filed 43 criminal charges in the Flint water investigation, which has conducted interviews with about 200 witnesses. “The crisis in Flint was a casualty of arrogance, disdain and a failure of management. An absence of accountability. We will proceed to deliver justice and hold those accountable who broke the law,” Schuette said in the release. While Schuette is bringing charges, the State of Michigan is fighting a judge’s order to deliver water door to door. This is indicative of the “selective justice” Flint is receiving, said Nayyirah Shariff, executive director of Flint Rising, a grassroots organization formed in February to educate residents about the public health crisis. “We are still using bottled water and paying the highest rates in the country for water we cannot use,” she told Rewire in a phone interview. The Flint Rising coalition has demanded the government replace all damaged service lines and reimburse water bills dating back to April 2014 until the water is safe. The group also demands health and education services for all. Flint residents continue to grapple with an issue that some say isn’t just about water in what is one of the poorest cities in the country. The public health crisis started in April 2014 when Flint switched its water supply from the Detroit water system’s Lake Huron to the Flint River. Regulators failed to ensure proper treatment, exposing 100,000 people—who were overwhelmingly Black with low incomes—to toxic levels of lead in their tap water, which can cause permanent neurological damage in young children. Almost a year after President Obama declared a state of emergency in Flint, the crisis continues to affect people there. Many residents will never use tap water again even if the pipes were replaced overnight, said Michael Hood, executive director of Crossing Water, which has provided emergency response services in Flint since January. “The state has muddied, and I would even say bloodied, the waters to such a degree that residents won’t even let (government) officials on their porches,” he said. Hood, who has conducted filter checks in the city, estimated that more than half of those who have water filters don’t have them fitted right or working properly. Once the state stops providing free bottled water, Flint residents with low incomes will have to make the choice between buying bottled water and paying for their health care, rent, car payments, and more. “The long-term psychological impact and economic impact is devastating. You couldn’t ask for a worse scenario,” he said. Karina Petri, founder of Project Flint, said grassroots organizations like hers are struggling to find a voice for residents who have given up, some of whom have gone back to using the tainted water because they no longer care about the health consequences. “They are extremely exhausted. Some of them don’t want to wake up in the morning any more but they do because of their children,” she told Rewire. “They don’t believe their lives are worth anything. So it’s important for people like me to keep fighting for them.” Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans last week quietly ended the year-long investigation into Flint, over the protests of Democrats. Obama signed a $10 billion water infrastructure bill Friday allocating $170 million to address the lead problem there. Flint activists decried the allocation as far too little to address the human costs of the man-made water crisis. The funding comes late, and it is not nearly enough to address a problem that is far from over. With a new administration in January, Shariff said she fears that Flint will be forgotten, along with any hopes of future funding. Donations have already dried up as Flint has faded from the headlines. “This is a multi-generational issue,” Shariff said. “If we can’t get Flint right now, there will be many more Flints happening around the country.” In a recent investigation of lead testing results, Reuters found almost 3,000 areas across the United States with poisoning rates far higher than Flint’s. More than 1,100 of these communities had a rate of elevated blood tests at least four times higher than Flint’s, but have received little attention or funding. CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misspelled Michael Hood’s last name. In addition, a sentence on how Flint residents “will have to make the choice between buying bottled water and paying for their health care, rent, car payments, and more” has been updated slightly for accuracy. We regret these errors. |
Frantz Fanon A Biography Comprehensive and eloquent account of Fanon’s personal, intellectual and political life. Born in Martinique, Frantz Fanon (1925–61) trained as a psychiatrist in Lyon before taking up a post in colonial Algeria. He had already experienced racism as a volunteer in the Free French Army, in which he saw combat at the end of the Second World War. In Algeria, Fanon came into contact with the Front de Libération Nationale, whose ruthless struggle for independence was met with exceptional violence from the French forces. He identified closely with the liberation movement, and his political sympathies eventually forced him out the country, whereupon he became a propagandist and ambassador for the FLN, as well as a seminal anticolonial theorist. David Macey’s eloquent life of Fanon provides a comprehensive account of a complex individual’s personal, intellectual and political development. It is also a richly detailed depiction of postwar French culture. Fanon is revealed as a flawed and passionate humanist deeply committed to eradicating colonialism. Now updated with new historical material, Frantz Fanon remains the definitive biography of a truly revolutionary thinker. |
Most Christians have heard the names of John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Knox, and other giants of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. But there are many, many other men and women who worked to advance the cause of the Reformation! It is my pleasure to introduce you to five extraordinary women of the Reformation! Each of these women played an important role, either in disseminating the ideas of the Reformation, or using their political power to protect the preachers and teachers of these ideas. Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549) — The Diplomat Marguerite de Navarre was truly a Renaissance woman. Born in the same year that Columbus discovered America, Marguerite was the older sister of one of the most famous kings of France, Francis I, to whom Calvin dedicated his Institutes of the Christian Religion. She became a queen in her own right by marriage to the king of Navarre, Henry III. Her own upbringing was unusual for the time, as she received a nearly identical education to her brother, who was being trained for the crown of France. During her lifetime, she was one of the most educated women in France, as well as a powerful diplomat, one of the king’s closest advisors, and a literary and theological patroness. During Francis I’s captivity in Spain, Marguerite even travelled in person into enemy territory to negotiate his release with Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. It was also during these years, the 1520s, that she began to gain exposure to the writings of the Reformation. Later, she was persecuted by the powerful Roman Catholic Sorbonne University for the evangelical tendencies of her own writings, and one author claims she could have been burned at the stake had she not been the King’s sister. Her patronage extended from financial sponsorship of theologians and their work, to giving refuge to those fleeing the first persecutions of the early sixteenth century. At one time, she even took in John Calvin, who was fleeing Paris before going to Geneva. Other men she protected or supported include Gerard Roussel, Lefevre d’Etaples, and Clement Marot. Her correspondence includes an even wider circle, from Erasmus to a variety of Popes, to Calvin and many other reformers. She was comfortable in every setting, from reforming corrupt abbeys, to being the hostess of the king’s court, to working with spies and diplomatic intrigue. Marguerite lived in an unusual position in the early days of Protestant development in France, and she didn’t ever formally renounce the Roman Catholic church, choosing to stay on relatively good terms with both the Vatican and Geneva. By doing this, she managed to navigate within the existing political and religious structures to work towards the changes she saw were needed. Marie Dentière (c. 1495-1561)—The Lightning Rod Among these women, Marie Dentière is probably the one who stirred the most controversy within her own camp for her somewhat provocative statements and actions. She was born into an aristocratic family, and early on became an abbess in a Belgian convent. She left her convent after coming into contact with the ideas of the Reformation, and travelled first to Strasbourg, where she married a former priest, and then to Geneva. Her activities were quite varied! Marie went and encouraged nuns to join the Reformation and find husbands, started a girls’ school with her husband, wrote a history of Geneva’s “deliverance” from the Catholics, and even corresponded with Marguerite de Navarre. We know that Calvin criticized her at times for her very vocal opinions, referring in one of his letters to a time she addressed a crowd on a street corner in Geneva, apparently criticizing the reformed ministers of the city, including Calvin himself. And yet, at the end of her life, she wrote the preface for one of Calvin’s sermons on modesty—hardly something Calvin would ask of a woman he didn’t respect. I would like to think that she kept all her spunk, but tempered some of her opinions with age, thus leading Calvin to ask her to write the preface. Marie Dentière was an opinionated woman who was not afraid to witness to nuns or write on theology! Argula von Grumbach (1492-c.1554)—The Debater As with many of the women in this list, fire-cracker is one of the first words that comes to mind when I think of Argula von Grumbach. Born in 1492 to a noble family in Bavaria, Argula is most famous for writing a letter to the University of Ingolstadt faculty, rebuking and challenging with vim and vigor their trial forcing a student to recant his Lutheran beliefs. She viewed her public opposition as necessary when no one else would, it appeared, speak up against this miscarriage of justice. Argula even challenged the faculty to a debate on the doctrines in question! Luther himself both met and corresponded with her, and praised her highly, saying in one letter: “That most noble woman, Argula [von Grumbach], is there making a valiant fight with great spirit, boldness of speech and knowledge of Christ. She deserves that all pray for Christ’s victory in her . . . . She alone, among these monsters, carries on with firm faith, though, she admits, not without inner trembling. She is a singular instrument of Christ. I commend her to you, that Christ through this infirm vessel may confound the mighty and those who glory in their strength.” To close, here is one quote which shows her passionate and frank writing in her famous letter to the faculty at Ingolstadt: “What have Luther and Melanchthon taught save the Word of God? You have condemned them. You have not refuted them.” Olympia Morata (1526-1555)—The Scholar Olympia Morata, I must confess, is my personal favorite of all these women. Her life was tragically short, but a brilliant testimony to her faith and her incredible breadth and depth of learning. Her father was an Italian scholar, and brought her up so that by the age of 12, she was called as a companion and tutor to the young Anna d’Este of Ferrara, the future wife of the (infamous) François, Duc de Guise. During her time at the court of Ferrara, she was invited to lecture to the court in Greek and Latin! After leaving court to care for her declining father, she fell out of favor with the Duke. It seems that it was during this time that these convictions, previously held more intellectually along with her broad philosophical and literary interests, now awakened in her a true and living faith in Jesus Christ, and marked a turning point in her life. It was also during this time that Andreas Grunthler, a Reformed German doctor, classically-trained and a lover of literature, sought her hand in marriage. Olympia fell passionately in love with him, and they married around 1550. Life was not easy, as they travelled back to Germany where her husband hoped to find a position in a university. They met with persecution, were even imprisoned, and barely escaped with their lives before finally finding peace in Heidelberg. Her health suffered as a result, and when the Elector Palatine offered her the incredible position of lecturing at a university, she seems to have turned it down. She died shortly thereafter, followed by her husband and her little brother. Olympia’s faith seems to have only grown stronger throughout her life and its trials. During her life, she wrote dialogues, Latin and Greek letters (including love letters in Latin to her husband!), a popular Greek psalter, and more. Theodore de Beze, himself one of the Reformation’s greatest classicists and theologians, even wrote a eulogy for her. Her short but faithful life was well-summed up in her own words when she wrote, “There is no part of the world so distant that we would not be glad to live in it, if we could but serve God there with full liberty of conscience.” (The Life of Olympia Morata, 128.) Jeanne d’Albret (1528-1572)—The Politician One of the better-known women of the French Reformation, Jeanne d’Albret was the daughter of Marguerite de Navarre, and the mother of the future king of France, Henry IV. Jeanne was strong-willed and stubborn from childhood, qualities which prepared her well to become an unflinching leader in the Huguenot wars. She is (justly) famous for the anecdotes surrounding her first marriage to the German Duke of Cleves. Betrothed while still a child to him by King Francis, Jeanne seems to have taken it upon herself (after imploring the king to his face—an audacious act for anyone, let alone an eleven-year-old girl) to write a formal statement, complete with witness signatures, declaring her unequivocal opposition to the upcoming wedding. She did this again as the wedding approached, and when the wedding day itself arrived, had to be literally carried down the aisle. The marriage was never consummated due to her youth, and was later annulled because of changing political currents. To have showed such resolve at eleven years old, in the face of mother, father, and even king, is remarkable to say the least! How would such a young woman carry herself as an adult? The mature Jeanne took a very different approach to the Reformation than her mother, Marguerite de Navarre. Whereas Marguerite preferred to work discretely, through diplomacy and carefully-nuanced loyalties to both churches, and worked to reform the Roman Catholic church from within while protecting persecuted reformers, Jeanne decided, after her parents’ death, to convert publicly to Protestantism, and fight openly for the Reformation. Jeanne had to face opposition at court, from her own husband (a Catholic later in life), and from enemy armies as a major political leader of the Huguenots. Jeanne worked closely with men like Coligny and Condé during the Third Huguenot War, and even rallied the Huguenot troops in person. She instituted official Reformation policies in her own kingdom of Navarre and sponsored translations of the New Testament into her people’s native Basque. When Philip II of Spain sent an ambassador to pressure her at one point, Jeanne replied to him: “Although I am just a little Princess, God has given me the government of this country so I may rule it according to His Gospel and teach it His Laws. I rely on God, who is more powerful than the King of Spain.” Further Reading The Mirror of All Christian Queens – A Translation of Marguerite de Navarre’s Correspondence By Valerie Foucachon Queen, diplomat, reformer, philanthropist, poetess, playwright, novelist—Marguerite de Navarre seems to have deserved every epithet the Renaissance had to give. She served in many different vocations, and played many parts on the stage of life. This thesis is comprised of a translation and commentary on a selection of ten of Marguerite’s letters divided into three chapters, focusing respectively on her roles as defender of the persecuted, respected advisor to the king of France, and loyal friend of Renée de Ferrara. Understanding these roles in Marguerite’s life gives us insight into the historical context and political climate of the early Reformation in France. The Story of Marie Durand, by Francis Foucachon Stjerna, Kirsti. Women and the Reformation. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2009. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2009. Mckinley, Mary B. Translator and Editor. Marie Dentiere: Epistle to Marguerite de Navarre and Preface to a Sermon by John Calvin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Brown, Michael. “Olympia Morata: Champion of the Reformation.” Reformation Italy KcKinley, Mary B. “The Early Modern Teacher: Marie Dentière: An Outspoken Reformer Enters the French Literary Canon.” The Sixteenth Century Journal. 37, no. 2: 401-412. 37, no. 2: 401-412. Matheson, Peter. Editor. Argula Von Grumbach: A Woman’s Voice in the Reformation. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1995. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1995. Killeen, Bob. “Women of the Reformation, Part 1: Argula von Grumbach–Don’t Bury Your Talent.” Severance, Diane. “You Wouldn’t Want to Argue with Argula.” Valerie grew up in France where her father Francis Foucachon was a church planter with Mission to the World. She studied under Wesley Callihan in high school through Schola Classical Tutorials, and then attended Logos School where she graduated Summa Cum Laude. She graduated from New Saint Andrews College in 2015 with honors. Her thesis, The Mirror of All Christians Queens, is published by Roman Roads Media, and featured in Shield Wall, a quarterly academic journal by New Saint Andrews. An official Latin Nerd, she shows her love for the classics by quoting from the Aeneid at random times (in Latin of course). She married Dr. Matthew Abraham (also a Schola graduate) in 2016, and lives in Knoxville, TN. |
The White House says President Barack Obama is still committed to persuading Congress to ban some semi-automatic weapons, despite comments from the vice president that suggested he and Obama would instead embrace more politically popular gun reforms. "The president has been clear that Congress should reinstate the assault weapons ban and that avoiding this issue just because it's been politically difficult in the past is not an option," Matt Lehrich, a spokesman for Obama, told Yahoo News. Vice President Joe Biden told reporters on Thursday that he will issue a plan to the president next week to address the nation's gun violence problem. Though both Biden and Obama have voiced their support for an assault weapons ban, Biden didn't mention it on Thursday, instead focusing on proposals to close a loophole that allows gun buyers to forgo background checks and a bill to limit the size of ammunition magazines to 10 bullets. Biden also noted that many senators are opposed to a ban but are more receptive to magazine limits, according to the New York Times. Any assault weapons ban would most likely face a tough road in Congress. President Bill Cinton, who pushed an assault weapons ban through a majority Democratic Congress in 1994, said later that the ban fueled a Republican comeback, with the party winning back the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years in the next election cycle. Attitudes about assault weapons and gun control have also changed since the '90s: Polling shows that background checks and magazine limits enjoy majority support among the public, while an assault weapons ban does not. —Olivier Knox contributed to this report. |
Iraq War 'Blank Check' Balloons Besides demanding Iraq War money with no withdrawal timetables attached, the Bush administration has insisted on another kind of “blank check” – war spending that has more than doubled in four years while evading serious congressional oversight because it’s wrapped in “emergency” appropriations bills – a study says. Bookmark Digg Email Printer friendly The Congressional Research Service reported that the average monthly costs to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has reached about $12.3 billion, $10 billion for Iraq alone, more than double what it cost to fund the war in 2004. CRS also noted that nearly all the $516 billion allocated by Congress to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has come from “emergency” spending bills that deprive Congress of the routine opportunity to scrutinize how the Pentagon spends the money. Dozens of these “emergency” funding requests have zipped through Congress since 2001 in an unprecedented manner when compared with previous military conflicts, the CRS said. In past wars, the bulk of the spending went through the normal appropriations process. The Bush administration’s use of emergency supplemental appropriations to fund the five-year-old war in Iraq and the seven-year conflict in Afghanistan may have wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, according to the CRS, an investigative arm of Congress. “Over 90 percent of [the Defense Department] funds were provided as emergency funds in supplemental or additional appropriations; the remainder were provided in regular defense bills or in transfers from regular appropriations,” said the CRS report, issued in February. “Emergency funding is exempt from ceilings applying to discretionary spending in Congress’s annual budget resolutions. Some Members have argued that continuing to fund ongoing operations in supplementals reduces congressional oversight.” Veronique de Rugy, a senior research fellow and budget scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars through emergency legislation is both unusual and troubling because it complicates tracking the real cost. “While other wars have initially been funded using emergency supplementals, they have quickly been incorporated into the regular budget,” de Rugy said. “Never before has emergency supplemental spending been used to fund an entire war and over the course of so many years.” De Rugy has just published an article on this topic, “The Trillion-Dollar War,” in the May issue of Reason magazine. Skyrocketing Costs The CRS report also questioned the reasons behind the skyrocketing costs for the wars. “Although some of the factors behind the rapid increase in DOD funding are known — the growing intensity of operations, additional force protection gear and equipment, substantial upgrades of equipment, converting units to modular configurations, and new funding to train and equip Iraqi security forces — these elements” fail to justify the increase, the CRS said. Furthermore, a $70 billion “placeholder” request included in the fiscal year 2009 budget that the Pentagon says will be used to finance operations in Iraq does not include any details on how the money will be spent “making it impossible to estimate its allocation,” according to the report. The CRS added that the Pentagon has used these emergency supplemental requests to get Congress to fund equipment and vehicle upgrades that would otherwise come out of the Pentagon’s annual budget. “Although some of this increase may reflect additional force protection and replacement of ‘stressed’ equipment, much may be in response to [Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon] England’s new guidance to fund requirements for the ‘longer war’ rather than DOD’s traditional definition of war costs as strictly related to immediate war needs,” the CRS said. “For example, the Navy initially requested $450 million for six EA-18G aircraft, a new electronic warfare version of the F-18, and the Air Force $389 million for two Joint Strike Fighters, an aircraft just entering production; such new aircraft would not be delivered for about three years and so could not be used to meet immediate war needs,” the CRS said. The CRS recommended that Congress immediately begin to demand more transparent accounting of the Pentagon’s “emergency” spending in order to prevent any cost-shifting chicanery. However, in the short term, the Bush administration again is citing imminent budget shortfalls for the troops if Congress doesn’t approve the war funding requests immediately. On Wednesday, in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Gen. Richard Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, said the military will soon run out of cash if lawmakers don’t act to approve a $102 billion emergency supplemental spending bill to continue funding military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We start running out of military pay for our force in June, we start running out of operational dollars that we can flow to the force in early July,” Cody said. “It’s all about time now. Those will be the consequences of not getting the supplemental.” The CRS and the Government Accountability Office generally accept Cody’s time-frames on the prospective shortfalls, but note that the Pentagon could dip into its budget and transfer other funds to finance operations in Iraq until late September or early October, which would give Congress more time to scrutinize the emergency funding request. Dire Warnings These dire warnings from the Bush administration – about troops in a war zone running out of money – have become routine since Democrats won control of Congress in November 2006. Republican lawmakers and administration officials have said failure by Democrats to pass the emergency spending bills is tantamount to not supporting the troops, rhetoric that has often worked in spooking Democrats into capitulation. Last year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates threatened to fire more than 200,000 Defense Department employees and contract workers because congressional Democrats balked at approving the administration’s spending package for funding the Iraq War. The Congressional Budget Office and the GAO told Congress that Gates could tap into the Pentagon’s $471 billion budget to fund the war while Congress continued to debate the merits of giving the White House another “blank check” for Iraq. But the Congress soon blinked. The Democrats are likely to find themselves in a similar predicament this year, caught between political pressure to “support the troops” and accounting concerns regarding the administration’s financial data. In a letter to Congress on March 17, the GAO said the $108 billion in war funding that the Pentagon has recently requested is based on “unreliable” financial data and should be considered an “approximation.” A Pentagon spokesman did not return calls for comment. But a GAO spokeswoman said the DOD has been struggling with “deficiencies in the Pentagon’s financial management system” that contributed to the unreliable data. She would not elaborate. Some academic studies have projected the total cost of the Iraq War soaring past $2 trillion. However, the Congressional Budget Office said trying to estimate future costs for the war is difficult “because DOD has provided little detailed information on costs incurred to date.” Investigative reporter Jason Leopold is the author of News Junkie, a memoir. Visit http://www.newsjunkiebook.com for a preview. To comment at Consortiumblog, click here. (To make a blog comment about this or other stories, you can use your normal e-mail address and password. Ignore the prompt for a Google account.) To comment to us by e-mail, click here. To donate so we can continue reporting and publishing stories like the one you just read, click here. Back to Home Page |
A Chicago-area gun shop that wants to exhibit at comic conventions and other pop culture shows was thwarted in its initial attempt Thursday when producers of Wizard World Comic Con Chicago scratched the shop's participation. Barrington-based DS Arms owner Dave Selvaggio said he had planned since March to set up at the four-day show, which draws tens of thousands of comic and fantasy fans to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. The shop's booth was to include replica guns and promotions for services such as gun safety and shooting classes. But Las Vegas-based Wizard World pulled the plug on the booth following complaints that apparently stemmed from online reports that a dealer of real guns would be exhibiting at the show, which opened Thursday. "We want everyone to have a good time at the show," said Wizard World spokesman Jerry Milani, who declined to say exactly when the decision to nix DS Arms' participation was made. "We want this to be fun." The gun shop's booth, across from displays of stuffed toys and Hello Kitty totes, was up for about 90 minutes before a Wizard World staff member noticed it and took it down. Cheryl V. Jackson / Chicago Tribune The booth for Barrington-based DS Arms was up for about 90 minutes at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont before a Wizard World staff member noticed it and took it down on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. The booth for Barrington-based DS Arms was up for about 90 minutes at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont before a Wizard World staff member noticed it and took it down on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2016. (Cheryl V. Jackson / Chicago Tribune) (Cheryl V. Jackson / Chicago Tribune) Selvaggio said he worked through the Rosemont show's promoter, which he identified as The Loop/ Cumulus Media, to get the space and planned to have representatives roam the hall to promote the store. "Just because people are fans of comic books and sci-fi doesn't mean they're not interested in protecting themselves and their family and their belongings," he said. Comic Con attendees make for a natural market, he said, as many of the movies and games enjoyed by those fans involve firearms. "Maybe 90 percent of people walking around in costumes have (presumably fake) firearms," said Selvaggio, who added that his company has provided props for movies. "All of these movies are filmed with live guns, with firing devices and with replicas." DS Arms has bought space at car shows and horror movie festivals, and plans to exhibit at the massive fantasy and sci-fi focused Dragon Con in Atlanta next month, he said. Sword and blade dealers are common at such events, which attract comic, fantasy, sci-fi and electronic games fans who often dress up as their favorite characters. But recent years have seen the shows shore up policies involving weapons and props. Wizard World Comic Con policy bans "any parts or accessories that can readily cause harm" to conventiongoers. No real weaponry, such as live firearms or sharp blades, can be carried on the floor. Other restrictions are based on local laws and ordinances. Wizard World policy for blades sold at booths is to have any purchases checked in until the guests are ready to leave, Milani said. Cheryl V. Jackson is a freelance writer. |
NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Two teens, who police believe to be linked to the shooting at the Martin Luther King Day parade in Northwest Miami-Dade, are expected to appear before a judge Wednesday. Police took two subjects, 18-year-old Gerrell Brownlee and 17-year-old Robert Britt, into custody Tuesday morning. They are believed to be involved in the shooting that took place at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, on Jan. 16. Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez announced the arrests at the Board of County Commissioners meeting, Tuesday morning. “So, hot off the press, right now, Ricky Carter, the major from Northside District and his outstanding staff have two in custody responsible for the shooting of those people,” he said to applause. Miami-Dade Police held a news conference Tuesday, at 3 p.m., to address details of these arrests. Perez said his announcement was not about bragging about making the arrests but about sending a message to the community and to those who commit crimes with guns. “With all the leads we were able to obtain because of the information that came in, we’re able to make some arrests,” Perez said. Police said Brownlee has been charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, attempted second-degree murder and carrying a concealed fire arm. Britt is also charged with attempted second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a minor. Eight victims were hurt after being caught in the crossfire: 18-year-old Shawnteri Wilson, 20-year-old Jerome Battle, 30-year-old Michael Clarke, 14-year-old Lajada Benson, 15-year-old Nakyasenat Butler, 17-year-old Alfanesha Times, 13-year-old Keionna Green and 11-year-old Ciara Johnson. “The young men shot into a crowd. You have eight people that could have been easily killed,” said Minister Brian Dennis, the parade organizer. While the victims are all expected to be OK, they still carry the emotional scars of the day. “I was scared that I was gonna lose my life,” Green said. “I knew they was gonna catch them. I feel relief. I feel better.” Green’s mother, Shiqueta Brownlee, said she is relieved police made the arrests. “I just want to thank the police for putting in their hard work and catching them,” she said. One day after the shooting, Perez led a news conference at MLK Memorial Park to ask the public for information. “We’re not gonna take this any longer. Enough is enough on the gun violence,” Perez said at that the conference on Jan. 17. One week later, two teens suspected of being responsible were arrested, charged and hauled off to jail. Police said they will not release a lot of information to avoid jeopardizing their investigation. Copyright 2018 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
When Mike Babcock departed the perennial playoff contending Red Wings last May, he never thought that in April he’d be in position to help end their 24-year streak of post-season appearances. [np_storybar title=”Kadri pays price for diving” link=””] You can buy a lot of ham for US$5000. Which is what the NHL said to Nazem Kadri in a roundabout way on Friday afternoon, with a supplementary discipline fine in that amount for diving/embellishment. Kadri had accumulated three warnings flagged by NHL Hockey Operations for games Feb. 4 (New Jersey), March 12 (Ottawa) and March 21 (Calgary). The last two citations triggered the fines of $2000 and $3000. The praise Kadri has received from his coach and teammates for using his skill and foot speed to draw penalties has been steady and unofficial stats have Kadri leading the NHL in that area. But opponents are clearly infuriated that he can go down at the slightest provocation. That behaviour also caught the attention of the league. A few days ago, Toronto head coach Mike Babcock argued that the pendulum has swung too far the other way and figured an imaginary memo had been circulated to referees not to call anything on Kadri, regardless of severity. Kadri, who was also fined for a throat slash gesture against Calgary’s Mark Giordano on Feb. 9, will pay $4,000 if flagged again for diving this season. A $2,000 fine for Babcock would also kick in. The league also announced Friday that Nail Yakupov of thye Oilers and Martin Hanzal of the Arizona Coyotes were each fined $2000 for diving. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund. Lance Hornby [/np_storybar] A regulation Toronto win against Detroit on Saturday, should the Wings not have won Friday night at home against the Wild, would put them in a huge hole as they try and get back into a wild card spot. “I’d like them to get into the playoffs,” Babcock said Friday. “Why? Because I was there a long time (10 years) and I appreciate the people there. That doesn’t have any bearing on (Saturday). We’re playing hockey and trying to improve our group all the time.” Missing the playoffs is driving the hyper-competitive Babcock nuts, but he knew there’d be some lean years when he signed on. “If you’re a coach or a player at this time of year and you’re planning your off-season, it’s not very good. You don’t want to get used to doing that. If we do things well here we won’t be doing that a lot.” This final Saturday home date of the year for the Leafs is one of five remaining games, at least three of which could have playoff standing implications. Philadelphia, one of the teams just ahead of Detroit, hosts the Leafs Thursday and that could also be huge in the Eastern Conference picture. But veteran centre Brooks Laich dismissed the notion the recently improved Leafs have some secret switch they flip to ramp up efforts against playoff teams. “You are being judged and evaluated every night,” Laich said. “Every guy is competing for ice time tonight, tomorrow and next year. “You can say we’re not in the playoff race, but it doesn’t change how you play the game. We’re not trying to play spoiler, we’re trying to play the game hard to win it. You train yourself to play one way and that’s the only way you know. If you’re playing (for contenders) in Florida or Tampa Bay or Dallas your habits are your foundation. “It’s such a privilege to play in the NHL and any guy who takes that for granted … you’re going to be out of the league in a hurry.” The Wings have had a couple of close calls through the years keeping their streak alive, but can’t likely afford more than one regulation loss in their final five games. They’re in this fix because in March, they added just 12 points to the 75 in the bank at the end of February. “We are either going to make it or not — and we control it,” winger Justin Abdelkader told the Detroit Free Press on Thursday. “At the end of the regular season, there is no one one to blame but ourselves.” Jeff Blashill, who was Babcock’s understudy for years with the Grand Rapids Griffins before replacing him, has repeated a trade deadline message that this was the team he wanted and believes in. Now it’s up to the players to reward his faith. “We still believe we have the pieces to make it in here, for sure,” said forward Gustav Nyquist. “We still believe we are a good team, and I think we have shown that throughout the year at different times.” It was a year ago Blashill showed his worth behind the bench, when the Toronto Marlies were a win away from upsetting the Griffins in the opening round of the best-of-five AHL playoffs. They came all the way back, with Babcock and future boss Brendan Shanahan in the house for Game 5. The Marlies continue to have a strong presence in this Leaf lineup, four up and four down for Thursday’s 4-1 loss in Buffalo. Babcock had words of praise for young Tobias Lindberg and Kasperi Kapanen up front and he’ll likely use veteran farmhands T.J. Brennan and Andrew Campbell again on defence. Lindberg had his first NHL point, an assist on a Laich goal, after neatly eluding a check along the boards. “It’s one game, so let’s just watch him for a period of time,” cautioned Babcock. “He’s a big guy, who can skate, shoot the puck and it looks like he has some hockey sense. Let’s see how many days of the week he likes to do it.” |
Image caption Animal movements have been restricted at the farm in Preston A case of H7N7 bird flu has been confirmed at a poultry farm in Lancashire, the government has said. All birds at the farm in Goosnargh, Preston, are being humanely culled, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said. A temporary control zone imposed on Friday at the affected farm has now been replaced by a 10km surveillance zone and an inner 3km protection zone. Public Health England says the risk to the public is very low. The restrictions mean all poultry farms around the infected premises are not allowed to move poultry, captive birds or other livestock except under licence. Defra's chief vet Nigel Gibbens said the restrictions were "part of our tried and tested approach to dealing with previous outbreaks". He advised bird keepers to "remain alert" and report any suspected cases to the Animal and Plant Health Agency. The H7N7 strain is highly contagious in flocks and can cause deaths in birds, but is "very rare" in humans, the NHS says. The NHS website says no humans have been infected with bird flu in the UK. The Food Standards Agency has said there is no food safety risk for consumers. |
Arjun Tendulkar, son of Sachin Tendulkar, has been selected for the Mumbai Under-19 one-day side for the JY Lele invitational tournament to be played in Baroda from September 16 to 23. Arjun, who has also represented Mumbai in Under-16 cricket in 2015-16, will turn 18 on September 24. Although not a BCCI tournament, the team will represent the Mumbai Cricket Association, which could be a step closer to selection for official U-19 cricket. A left-arm quick, Arjun recently bowled in the nets in the lead-up to the Lord's Test between England and South Africa, sending Jonny Bairstow off with an injury scare when he hit him on the toe with a yorker. He has also bowled in India nets previously. A day after his selection on Saturday, Arjun played an important part in helping Parel CC draw their Kanga League B division match at Shivaji Park. He batted an hour for 15 runs, and returned figures of 1 for 14 in five overs. One of the opposition batsmen was former Mumbai wicketkeeper-batsman and coach Sulakshan Kulkarni. "I faced Arjun, and it seems he is an aggressive bowler," Kulkarni told Mid-Day. "The more he bowls the better he will get." Arjun's father, Sachin Tendulkar has in the past asked to spare his son any comparisons. "I am not interfering in his career because I think it is not fair," Sachin told Economic Times in April 2016. "He has to have freedom to express himself. I can guide him. Not on a regular basis, but when I feel that he needs to be told something, then I do. I don't take his class every evening when he comes back home. I do not want to lecture, but let him enjoy the game and fall in love with cricket, which he is (doing). I have told him things about hard work like any father would. "Unfortunately, he has the excess baggage of his surname and I know that is going to be there. It is not easy for him. For me, it was different as my father was a writer and nobody questioned me on cricket. I feel that my son should not be compared to me and should be judged for who he is." |
During the Democratic primary season, Bernie Sanders stressed some of the superiorities of Denmark over the U.S. And indeed Denmark is wealthy, has strong social and economic indicators, and it offers a comprehensive safety net. But is it the policies of Denmark that we should admire, or is there something special about being Danish? A closer look at the evidence shows a more complex picture and one actually pretty favorable to the American way. Nima Sanandaji, a Swedish policy analyst and president of European Centre for Entrepreneurship and Policy Reform, has recently published a book called "Debunking Utopia: Exposing the Myth of Nordic Socialism." And while the title may be overstated, his best facts and figures are persuasive. For instance, Danish-Americans have a measured living standard about 55 percent higher than the Danes in Denmark. Swedish-Americans have a living standard 53 percent higher than the Swedes, and Finnish-Americans have a living standard 59 percent higher than those back in Finland. Only for Norway is the gap a small one, because of the extreme oil wealth of Norway, but even there the living standard of American Norwegians measures as 3 percent higher than in Norway. And that comparison is based on numbers from 2013, when the price of oil was higher, so probably that gap has widened. Of the Nordic groups, Danish-Americans have the highest per capita income, clocking in at $70,925. That compares to an U.S. per capita income of $52,592, again the numbers being from 2013. Sanandaji also notes that Nordic-Americans have lower poverty rates and about half the unemployment rate of their relatives across the Atlantic. It is difficult, after seeing those figures, to conclude that the U.S. ought to be copying the policies of the Nordic nations wholesale. It is instead more plausible to think that Americans might learn something from the cultural practices of Nordic-Americans. Sanandaji says those norms include hard work, honesty, a strong civil society and an ethic of cooperation and volunteerism. My own view is that many groups work hard, but that a disciplined, family-based approach to education and human capital investment is the important norm in this context. All the main Nordic groups in the United States have high school graduation rates over 96 percent. That compares to an average of about 82 percent for the U.S. as a whole. Given all that, should one conclude that the American system of policies and laws is superior and the Nordics ought to try to copy the Yankees? Probably not. For one thing, Nordic immigrants to the United States probably came from the better trained, more literate and more ambitious segments of the population. For instance, data on Danish migrants from 1868 to 1900 show that laborers were underrepresented in the group and artisans and craftsmen were overrepresented by a factor of two. It is perhaps no wonder that the ethnic Danes in the U.S. are relatively high earners, because they are the results of a process of positive selection. And there is a growing literature showing that the cultural traits of migrants can persist to some degree for generations in their new countries. Furthermore, larger countries tend to have higher levels of income inequality than do smaller countries. The most successful producers in the U.S. are selling to larger home markets, and they will earn more than comparably talented producers in Denmark. And some of that trickles down to higher earnings for their doctors, dentists, and other service providers as well. But this cuts both ways. The less successful producers, or for that matter the unemployed, often have a harder time in the U.S. than in Denmark. A small country with higher ethnic homogeneity and with only a few concentrated population centers usually can provide higher levels of social insurance without experiencing the level of system abuse that might occur in the U.S. The goal should not be for either nation to copy the other, but rather to borrow the best policies of the other. Conservatives should note that when it comes to regulatory efficiency and business freedom, Denmark has a considerably higher score than does the U.S., at least according to the Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom. Most of all we should consider the option of greater freedom of choice for residence decisions. For all the anti-immigrant sentiment that is circulating at the moment, would it hurt the U.S. to have fully open borders with Denmark? It would boost American gross domestic product and probably also improve American education. History teaches that serious assimilation problems would be unlikely, especially since many Danes already speak English. Open borders wouldn't attract Danes who want to live off welfare because the benefits are so generous at home. How's this for a simple rule: Open borders for the residents of any democratic country with more generous transfer payments than Uncle Sam's. |
The king of Jordan attended the funeral of Major Rashed Hussein Zyoud, the officer killed during raids against suspected Daesh militants in the northern city of Irbid. (Photo: Royal Hashemite Court Twitter) King Abdullah II of Jordan attended the funeral of a fallen officer yesterday, and was pictured helping with the burial. Major Rashed Hussein Zyoud was killed during a raid on suspected Daesh militants by security forces in the northern city of Irbid on Tuesday. He was given a military funeral in his hometown in the Zarqa governorate. Zyoud’s funeral was also attended by Prince Feisal, Prince Hassan and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, General Mashal al-Zaben. Photos of the king’s participation in the funeral were posted on the official Royal Hashemite Court Twitter account. His Majesty King Abdullah II participates in the burial ceremony of Rashed Al-Zyoud #Jordan pic.twitter.com/Gs1hFsHbqa — RHC (@RHCJO) March 2, 2016 Security forces reportedly killed seven “outlaws” during a raid on a building in downtown Irbid on Tuesday. Four security personnel were injured, along with two civilians caught in the crossfire, according to the Jordanian state news agency, Petra. The seven killed “outlaws” were allegedly Daesh-affiliated, some wearing suicide belts, according to the General Intelligence Department (GID). They were apparently planning to carry out attacks on both civilian and military targets in the kingdom. |
by Terry Gotham Unless you’ve been under a sober rock, it’s been impossible to miss the recent barrage news/sites reporting on “microdosing.” The practice was mentioned in Rolling Stone & since then it’s appeared in dozens of media outlets. VICE actually did some interviews, while Alternet actually researched it and provided info & a lecture about it in 2011. But from what I can tell, the majority of coverage seems to just summarize and link back to the same 6 paragraph Rolling Stone piece. RS spoke to “Ken,” a month later, Breitbart is telling flyover country USA that Silicon Valley “executives” are taking LSD every day. Breitbart also used the opportunity to shit-talk Burning Man. There are a couple of things that haven’t been mentioned about the practice that I’d like to (be the only person) to mention. Firstly, the reports concerning microdosing are anecdotal. All of them. These individual reports suffer from not only confirmation & survivorship bias, but useless in extrapolating the viability of the practice on a larger scale. It’s an interesting premise, but we need to be careful because doing this isn’t as simple as deciding to take Omega-3 supplements. It requires a decently sized cache of drugs, which, as I’ve mentioned before, may not be entirely pure. Microdosing requires steady/uninterrupted access to quality/pure LSD, something an overwhelming majority of Americans do not have. I don’t care how “good” your guy is, most people don’t test their drugs, and even fewer regularly test their drugs from their usual dealers. If you’re not testing your stuff each time, there’s no reason to believe this kind of unsupervised experiment can’t go terribly wrong. If you suddenly get a bit of 2cb, 2ci or psilocybin instead, that will probably just remain non-psychoactive and your day will be fine. But if you get NBOMe or a 2nd/3rd generation bath salt instead of LSD, who knows where your day will take you. Also, you have to have enough disposable income to purchase two tiers of productivity enhancing drugs. The first being your Starbucks/e-cig/adderall/cocaine and your second tier being your LSD/psilocybin. That leads to a healthy budget being spent on psychoactive chemicals. Most urban office workers can’t even afford Starbucks every day, truth be told. Though with some Silicon Valley employees, money isn’t a problem of course. This leads me to my final point. Only certain industries have workplace culture that would allow people to get the dose right. Story after story mention that sometimes microdosers get the dose wrong and end up in a vaguely floaty, but not quite tripping state. If this happens to you and you’re a Google engineer, you can just relax in the ball pit or take an extended lunch to smooth yourself out. I can think of a dozen industries (healthcare, law & construction come to mind first) where making that mistake would not only be grounds for dismissal, but a healthy lawsuit. I think we need to temper our enthusiasm with this practice with a reminder that only the most privileged can do it. Of course, this doesn’t mean the individuals reporting positive experiences are lying/wrong/don’t know what’s good for them. If people are able to microdose in a way that doesn’t disrupt their professional life and benefits them day-to-day, I’m 100% in support of them doing this, without being harassed by their friends or Johnny Law. If you know someone who gets their drugs off the Silk Road, tests them, and has kept a journal documenting the effects of microdosing, more power to them & I’d love to talk to them about their experiences. And give them a high five because they’re living in the future and it sounds like a great time. But microdosing to enhance corporate productivity, as opposed to doing so to create a better mind/life for oneself, does seem to me a little counter-intuitive. To put a finer point on it, Silicon Valley has a halo around itself, but these companies aren’t exactly charitable organizations. The idea that Uber brogrammers are microdosing with LSD to figure out how to more smoothly & effectively obliterate the taxi industry seems like it would give Timothy Leary the willies. The fact that the strongest advocacy I saw for microdosing research came from Forbes makes alarm bells go off in my head. If you’re really interested in doing this, some info on how has been provided here and to VICE here. Good luck, but be honest as to why you’re doing this. Help others find Burners.Me Facebook Twitter Email Telegram Print More LinkedIn Tumblr Pinterest Reddit Pocket |
Federal investigators are using a device designed for counterterrorism to locate undocumented immigrants, The Detroit News reported Thursday. The device, which is known as a Hailstorm or Stingray, simulates a cell tower and fools nearby phones into providing location data. It can also interrupt cellular service in the targeted area. The newspaper obtained an unsealed federal search warrant affidavit documenting the use of device. ADVERTISEMENT Federal investigators are required to obtain a judge’s approval to use the controversial tool. FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Detroit used the mechanism during a case in March, the report said. Authorities were trying to find Rudy Carcamo-Carranza, 23, a twice-deported restaurant worker from El Salvador who had been accused in drunk-driving and hit-and-run cases. ICE spokesman Khaalid Walls defended his agency’s use of the device. “ICE officers and special agents use a broad range of investigative techniques in the apprehension of criminal suspects,” he told the News. “Cell-site simulators are invaluable law enforcement tools that locate or identify mobile devices during active criminal investigations.” ICE on Wednesday announced that Trump’s executive orders on immigration have led to surge in its immigration arrests and deportations. The agency said it had arrested more than 41,000 either known or suspected undocumented immigrants during Trump’s first 100 days, a 37.6 percent increase from the same period in 2016. |
Xiaomi today announced its third manufacturing plant in India. The manufacturing plant, in partnership with Hipad Technology, is situated in Noida and is company’s first facility in India for a product apart from smartphones. Spread across 230,000 sq. feet, the manufacturing unit is dedicated to Xiaomi Power Banks and has a starting production capacity of 7 power banks per minute. Hipad Technology already partners Xiaomi in China for power banks. On the sidelines of the event, Xiaomi also announced 10,000 mAh Mi Power Bank 2i and 20,000 mAh Mi Power Bank 2i. Xiaomi India has seen exponential growth in India and today it enjoys market leadership in the smartphone segment. I believe a key reason for our success in the smartphone segment has been our commitment to India. We want our India Mi Fans to enjoy the best quality technology at an affordable rate, and manufacturing locally helps us achieve our vision. We are extending our commitment of building a truly localized company and hope to bring the ecosystem of world’s best powerbanks to India with our partners Hipad Technology. – Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi & Managing Director, Xiaomi India Starting its journey in India in 2014, Xiaomi already has two plants for manufacturing smartphones in India and the company claims that over 95% of the smartphones sold in India are assembled locally. |
It’s amazingly easy to find good food in Japan, which is largely due to how hard many food industry professionals work when choosing ingredients are and preparing their dishes. Every now and then, though, the country stumbles across some new delectable that, by any logical standard, has no right tasting as good as it does while being so quick and simple to make. For example, this week Japan discovered a delicious cheese snack with just one ingredient that you could be enjoying in literally two minutes. Since we already let slip that it’s a cheese snack, we’re assuming everyone has already deduced that the single ingredient is cheese. So, how do you make it? Step 1: Place cheese on a baking sheet (and a plate if you’re feeling extra classy) in the microwave. Step 2: Set microwave for one minute and 30 seconds. Yup, that’s really all you need to do to whip up some delicious cheese crisps. The intense heat of the microwave vaporizes the moisture contained by the cheese, leaving it crispy like a cracker while the warmth enhances its aroma. People across Japan started popping dairy in their microwaves this week after Tuesday’s broadcast of television personality Matsuko Deluxe’s talk show. Among the night’s guest was cheese expert Izumi Kajita, who clued viewers in on the easy-to-make snack. After sampling one, the food-loving host declared it delicious, and offered the suggestion that they would go great with beer. Japanese Twitter users seem to agree. ▲ “Just made some of that microwave cheese they talked about on Matsuko’s show. Time to crack open some beer!” ▲ “Tried making some right away, and now I’m going through a ton of beer.” Some even knowingly embraced the way microwave cheese completely obliterated their willpower. ▲ “It’s too awesome! Operation Weight Gain is a go.” The recipe seems to work with any sort of cheese. Individually wrapped sliced varieties, due to their extra moisture, go through a particularly interesting metamorphosis, as they plump during the cooking process. While the TV program recommended 90 seconds for 700-watt microwaves, that seems to be more of a broad guideline than a set-in-stone rule. There’s actually room for experimentation depending on what type of cheese you’re using and just how crunchy you want the finished product to be. For example, here’s a four-minute example wrapped in a piece of nori seaweed for a little extra salty flavor. The current online record seems to be this nine-minute version, which essentially became cheese toast. ▼ Which, now that we think about it, doesn’t sound half bad. But before you set out to make some extra crispy snacks for yourself, please remember to check if your plate is microwave-safe or not. ▼ Cheese still looks good, though! Source: Naver Matome Top image: Twitter (1, 2, 3) |
The Premier League runners-up concluded talks over a deal to bring the Montenegro international to England on Monday, with the forward undergoing medical tests in Florence By Paul Clennam Manchester City have agreed a €27 million plus add-ons deal with Fiorentina for attacker Stevan Jovetic The 23-year-old's agent, Fali Ramadani, is set to travel to Manchester to meet with City sporting director Txiki Begiristain in the next 24 hours, with club officials confident of completing the move following those talks.City have agreed to a package that meets Fiorentina's €30m (£26m) asking price, with €27m (£23.3m) set to be paid up front and a further €3m (£2.6m) to be paid in performance-related bonuses.Jovetic visited the Fanfani Medical Centre in Florence for tests on Monday, accompanied by the Serie A side's doctor, Jacopo Giuliattini.City, who have sent a large group of staff to South Africa as part of their pre-season tour, also conducted similar assessments on Jesus Navas in Seville before his €21m move to the Etihad Stadium in June.Jovetic was later followed by Mario Gomez, who is set to complete his transfer from Bayern Munich to the Florence outfit imminently.Ramadani met with Begiristain at Mottram Hall last week to discuss terms, with City set to pay Jovetic an £80,000-a-week salary package on arrival in Manchester.The clubs have maintained a good relationship harboured following Stefan Savic's move from Manchester to Fiorentina last summer. |
The reentrant lock is a replacement for the easier to use synchronized statement when you need one of the following advanced techniques: lockInterrupibly, tryLock, lock coupling, multiple conditions, or fair locks In the cheat sheet, I have summarized each technique. And in the blog post, I give a detailed description of those techniques. Similar as synchronized this lock is reentrant, which means the same thread can acquire the lock multiple times. Lock Interruptible private final ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock(); public void m() throws InterruptedException { lock.lockInterruptibly(); try { // ... method body } finally { lock.unlock() } } Throws an InterruptedException, when the thread.interrupt method was called by another thread. This allows you to interrupt the processing even while trying to acquire a lock. Something which is not possible with the synchronized statement. Try Lock private final ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock(); public boolean m() throws InterruptedException { if(! lock.tryLock(2 , TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS ) ) { return false; } try { // ... method body } finally { lock.unlock() } return true; } Similar to aqcuireInterrubtable throws a thread interrupted exception when the thread was interrupted by another thread. Additionally, it allows you to give a time span how long to try to acquire the lock. Useful when you have a task which is only valid for a specific amount of time. You can also use it to avoid deadlocks. When you need to acquire two locks simultaneously. Acquire the locks with tryLock. If you can not acquire one of the locks at the given interval release both locks, wait a little bit and try again. Lock Coupling Multiple Conditions Condition notFull = lock.newCondition(); lock.lock() { while( condition not fullfilled) { notFull.await(); } } finally { lock.unlock() } The reentrant lock allows you to unlock a lock immediately after you have successfully acquired another lock leading to a technique called lock coupling.This can, for example, be used to lock a linkedlist. You can see an implementation here Create:Wait for Condition to become true Signal that condition has become true lock.lock() { notFull.signal(); } finally { lock.unlock() } Fair locks private final ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock(true); Benchmark Be cautious that you do not mix the methods from Condition, 'await', 'signal', with the methods from java.lang.Object wait, notify. Useful when you need to wait for different conditions. ArrayBlockingQueue, for example, uses two conditions one to wait that the queue becomes not full the other to wait till the queue becomes not empty.Threads get the lock in the order they requested it. This has a high-performance penalty, see the following benchmark for details The figure shows the throughput of synchronized vs reentrant lock in a fair and unfair mode for different thread counts . The benchmark was run on JDK 8 on an intel i5 4 core CPU using jmh. The source of the benchmark can be downloaded here. |
Curious as to what age people tie the knot in different countries around the world? This informative map, produced by Pricenomics, should offer a pretty good answer: The map, which uses data provided by the United Nations, shows the average age -- by country -- at which people get hitched. "The biggest differentiator of marriage age seems to be a country's income, with people in developed countries marrying later," writes the price comparison website of the data. "Nordic countries and Western Europe rank among the highest for mean age at marriage at above 30 years. Afghanistan has one of the lowest at 20.2 years." In the United States, the average marrying age for women is 26.9 and for men it's 29.8, per a 2011 report by the Pew Research Center. However, though people seem to be waiting later to get hitched in many countries around the globe, marriage still seems to be a popular life choice in most places. "In all but a dozen or so countries, 80 percent of men and women have been married by age 49, and even more people commit to comparable or similar 'consensual unions,'" Priceonomics writes. |
(Afp) "Noi siamo sotto attacco. L’Italia è un Paese dell’Unione europea e la culla della cristianità, dove ci sono rischi di attentati. Bisogna tenere alta la guardia come in tutta Europa puntando su una maggiore collaborazione tra forze di polizia e dell'intelligence. Per questo accanto ad Europol ho proposto una Fbi europea perché ci possa essere veramente un interscambio’’. Lo ha detto il presidente del Parlamento europeo, Antonio Tajani, a Catania commentando con i giornalisti, a margine di una visita alla Task Force regionale di Frontex, le recenti minacce dell’Isis al Papa e gli appelli dello Stato islamico ai foreign fighters a colpire l'Italia. "Non possiamo - ha aggiunto - assistere a carenze di collaborazione come è accaduto in Spagna tra la polizia catalana e le forze dell’ordine nazionali". Quanto ai migranti, per Tajani "l'impegno di Frontex dimostra fisicamente ciò che può fare l’Europa. Questo non basta. Bisogna fare molto di più. Bisogna investire in Libia sempre di più, bloccare il corridoio libico così come è stato fatto per il corridoio balcanico, così da impedire che la Puglia rischiasse di diventare luogo di presenza eccessiva di immigrati. Bisogna lavorare molto di può in Africa. Il problema oggi è di qualche migliaio di persone. Domani sarà di milioni di persone". |
The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has decided that it needs to "weigh into" the 2016 Federal Election. It has done so under the guise of "speaking up for the voiceless" and "thrown-away people", and their statement specifically lists many marginalised peoples who are most worthy of support – which ironically includes survivors of sexual abuse. A few salient facts on this point have been missed, such as that: a distressingly high number of abuse survivors emanate from abuse by religious personnel; religious institutions in particular, and the Catholic Church specifically, have actively contributed to the "throwing away" and "silencing" of those survivors through not believing and supporting them, not encouraging them to go to police, moving and protecting abusive priests, offering only derisory compensation and attaching confidentiality clauses to even those token amounts. The Atheist Foundation of Australia (AFA) suggests that the Catholic Church should prioritise getting its own house in order on these issues, prior to purporting to speak on the behalf of victims of abuse. As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse demonstrates, there is still a long way to go. However, there is a much deeper issue at work here. The Church has appropriated a number of causes of marginalised peoples – in order to marginalise people. Like LGBTIQ Australians, marginalised by: Being denied full participation and/or expressions of sexuality if they are religious and wish to remain welcome in their church; Having their call for belated equal marriage rights rejected with continued suggestions that recognising their loving. committed relationships will lead to the destruction of "marriage" and society as we know it. And Australian women, marginalised by: Having their reproductive and bodily autonomy rights yet again threatened and used as a political football by religious and conservative lobbyists; Holding virtually no leadership positions within the Church, and indeed within most religions; The continuing use of religious scriptures identifying women as somehow subservient or inferior to men. AFA President Kylie Sturgess noted: "The Atheist Foundation of Australia does not speak for minorities, or for people who consider themselves of 'no religion', or even all atheists. But at least we encourage them to speak up and be heard, rather than be spoken for by the people from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference. It's a better idea to respectfully listen to the people who do have experiences of being marginalised, than use their causes to advance your own agenda. If anything, this highlights the necessity of discussion and debate about the impact of religion on Australian society, if a group like those from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference honestly believes they have this much sway in politics." The AFA calls on all politicians in this election campaign to remember all marginalised and voiceless people in our secular society – without reference to disproportionately loud religious voices, no matter who they claim to speak for. Kylie Sturgess President Atheist Foundation of Australia Inc PO Box 3582 Parramatta NSW 2124 Phone: (02) 8007 4503 Email: president@atheistfoundation.org.au |
ASBURY PARK – Punk is more than guitar-driven music, brightly-colored hair, body piercings and tattoos. Punk is a fully evolved, diverse culture. Ricky Tomory, of Monroe, was sifting through racks of vinyl records at the Punk Rock Flea Market in Asbury Park Saturday morning. “I’m not limited to just punk,” Tomory said. “It’s a lifestyle, the last thing it is is just the music. It is about being yourself and not caring what anyone else thinks. Vinyl records were the biggest draw at the quarterly flea mall at the Asbury Park VFW post. Tomory’s brother, Bob, was sorting through retailers’ crates. “For me, it is the sound, the format and the packaging,” Bob said. “And it is more than punk records, I have a few rap albums right here.” Vinyl crates also included funk, pop, reggae, psychedelic and country albums, revealing that a culture known for aggressive, three-chord music in reality has deep, diverse and eclectic tastes. Cookman Ave. retailer Holdfast Records sponsors the flea market a few times a year around the city. “Kids are sick of getting something small, like a CD, with their music purchases – if they get anything at all,” Holdfast owner Joe K. said. “With vinyl, instead of just the music they get artwork.” For Deaglin Howlett, of Red Bank, vinyl invokes more listener participation. “There’s something about having to flip the record over,” Howlett said. “I think it’s cool. It’s more physical, you’re more attached to the music.” Howlett said he identified with the punk scene. “It’s just the mentality,” Howlett said. “The way you think about things, I think it’s liberating.” There’s more to the punk flea market than music in retro formats. Vendors sold clothing, jewelry, movies, posters, comic books, action figures and lunch boxes. “It’s such a big genre,” flea market organizer Tom Laing said. “It’s hard to quantify what punk is, nobody has a good answer. There are so many things it covers, but the community, the people, the youth, that’s what keeps it vital and together.” The flea markets are a growing event. “Last time, we had 1,400 people through the door,” Joe K. said. “Previously, we’ve had this at the Stone Pony, but we’re here to try to inject some life into downtown during the winter.” Joe K. said the next flea market would be held in April, and he would be looking for a new venue. “We would like a bigger place,” Joe K. said. “We want to triple our vendors.” The flea market coincides with a four-night New Years run by local punk band The Bouncing Souls, whose multi-night year-end concerts are an Asbury Park tradition. For Queens resident Jamie Kiminski, it was one of many Bouncing Souls shows. “I’ve been to over 40 easily, coming down to Asbury this time of year is almost mandatory,” Kiminski said. “I love punk culture, if I could live weird at my job, I would.” |
DETROIT -- The San Jose Sharks tonight will have a slightly different look from the last time they faced the Detroit Red Wings. Since the teams last met on Dec. 6, the Sharks have added forwards Ben Eager and Kyle Wellwood and defenseman Ian White. The Red Wings have won a season-high five consecutive games. The Sharks have won three in a row and are 12-3 in their last 15. "It's Detroit. Players get excited about playing against the Red Wings,'' Sharks coach Todd McLellan said after today's morning skate. "They're always a measuring tool. I think they get a little anxious because of how good their team is. There's always the threat of being embarrassed. That's often a motivating factor." Tonight will be Detroit defenseman Ruslan Salei's 900th NHL game. The game starts at 7:30 on FSD. No lineup changes for the Red Wings: Franzen-Zetterberg-Bertuzzi Hudler-Datsyuk-Cleary Draper-Helm-Eaves Miller-Abdelkader-Holmstrom Lidstrom-Stuart Ericsson-Rafalski Kronwall-Salei Howard (starting) MacDonald Here is San Jose's anticipated lineup: Patrick Marleau-Joe Thornton-Devin Setoguchi Dany Heatley-Joe Pavelski-Torrey Mitchell Ryane Clowe-Logan Couture-Kyle Wellwood Ben Eager-Jamal Mayers-John McCarthy Douglas Murray-Dan Boyle Marc-Edouard Vlassic-Jason Demers Niclas Wallin-Ian White Antti Niemi (starting) Carter Hutton Center Scott Nichol, defenseman Kent Huskins and goalie Antero Niittymaki are injured. |
"Kerguelen" redirects here. For other uses, see Kerguelen (disambiguation) The Kerguelen Islands ( or ;[2] in French commonly Îles Kerguelen but officially Archipel des Kerguelen, pronounced [kɛʁɡelɛn]), also known as the Desolation Islands (Îles de la Désolation in French), are a group of islands in the Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large igneous province mostly submerged by the southern Indian Ocean. They are among the most isolated places on Earth, located 450 km (280 mi) northwest of the uninhabited Heard Island and McDonald Islands and more than 3,300 km (2,100 mi) from Madagascar, the nearest populated location (excluding the Alfred Faure scientific station in Île de la Possession, about 1,340 km, 830 mi from there, and the non-permanent station located in Île Amsterdam, 1,440 km, 890 mi away). The islands, along with Adélie Land, the Crozet Islands, Amsterdam and Saint Paul Islands, and France's Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean, are part of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands and are administered as a separate district. The main island, Grande Terre, is 6,675 km2 (2,577 sq mi) in area and is surrounded by a further 300 smaller islands and islets,[3] forming an archipelago of 7,215 km2 (2,786 sq mi). The climate is raw[clarification needed] and chilly with frequent high winds throughout the year. The surrounding seas are generally rough and they remain ice-free year-round. There are no indigenous inhabitants, but France maintains a permanent presence of 45 to 100 soldiers, scientists, engineers and researchers.[4] There are no airports on the islands, so all travel and transport from the outside world is conducted by ship. History [ edit ] Kerguelen Islands appear as the "Ile de Nachtegal" on Philippe Buache's map from 1754 before the island was officially discovered in 1772. The Buache map has the title Carte des Terres Australes comprises entre le Tropique du Capricorne et le Pôle Antarctique où se voyent les nouvelles découvertes faites en 1739 au Sud du Cap de Bonne Esperance ('Map of the Southern Lands contained between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Pole, where the new discoveries made in 1739 to the south of the Cape of Good Hope may be seen'). It is possible this early name was after Abel Tasman's ship De Zeeuwsche Nachtegaal. On the Buache map, "Ile de Nachtegal" is located at 43°S, 72°E, about 6 degrees north and 2 degrees east of the accepted location of Grande Terre. The islands were officially discovered by the French navigator Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec on 12 February 1772. The next day Charles de Boisguehenneuc landed and claimed the island for the French crown.[5] Yves de Kerguelen organised a second expedition in 1773 and arrived at the "baie de l'Oiseau" by December of the same year. On 6 January 1774 he commanded his lieutenant, Henri Pascal de Rochegude, to leave a message notifying any passers-by of the two passages and of the French claim to the islands.[6] Thereafter, a number of expeditions briefly visited the islands, including that of Captain James Cook in December 1776 during his third voyage, who verified and confirmed the passage of de Kerguelen by discovering and annotating the message left by the French navigator.[6] Christmas Harbour, Kerguelens Land, dated 1811 by , dated 1811 by George Cooke Soon after their discovery, the archipelago was regularly visited by whalers and sealers (mostly British, American and Norwegian) who hunted the resident populations of whales and seals to the point of near extinction, including fur seals in the 18th century and elephant seals in the 19th century. The sealing era lasted from 1781 to 1922 during which time 284 sealing visits are recorded, nine of which ended when the vessel was wrecked.[7] Modern industrial sealing, associated with whaling stations, occurred intermittently between 1908 and 1956. Since the end of the whaling and sealing era, most of the islands' species have been able to increase their population again.[8] Relics of the sealing period include trypots, hut ruins, graves and inscriptions.[9] In 1800, Hillsborough spent eight months sealing and whaling around the islands. During this time Captain Robert Rhodes, her master, prepared a chart of the islands.[10] That vessel returned to London in April 1801 with 450 tuns of sea elephant oil.[11] In 1825, the British sealer John Nunn and three crew members from Favourite were shipwrecked on Kerguelen until they were rescued in 1827 by Captain Alexander Distant during his hunting campaign.[12][13] Illustration from John Nunn's book about the three years he and his shipwrecked crew survived on the island in the 1820s. The islands were not completely surveyed until the Ross expedition of 1840.[14] The Australian James Kerguelen Robinson (1859–1914) was the first human born south of the Antarctic Convergence, on board the sealing ship Offley in Gulf of Morbihan (Royal Sound then), Kerguelen Island on 11 March 1859.[15][16] For the 1874 transit of Venus, George Biddell Airy at the Royal Observatory of the UK organised and equipped five expeditions to different parts of the world. Three of these were sent to the Kerguelen Islands. The Reverend Stephen Joseph Perry led the British expeditions to the Kerguelen Islands. He set up his main observation station at Observatory Bay and two auxiliary stations, one at Thumb Peak ( ) led by Sommerville Goodridge, and the second at Supply Bay ( ) led by Cyril Corbet. Observatory Bay was also used by the German Antarctic Expedition led by Erich Dagobert von Drygalski in 1902–03. In January 2007, an archaeological excavation of this site was carried out. In 1874–1875, British, German and U.S. expeditions visited Kerguelen to observe the transit of Venus.[17] In 1877 the French started a coal mining operation; however, this was abandoned soon after.[18] French sailors officially reasserting possession of the Islands on 8 January 1893 In response to German operations in the area, France reasserted its sovereignty on the Kerguelen Islands, along with the islands of Amsterdam and St Paul, and the Crozet archipelago in 1893, and decided to administer these territories from Madagascar in 1924 (in addition to that portion of Antarctica claimed by France and known as Adélie Land; as with all Antarctic territorial claims, France's possession on the continent is held in abeyance until a new international treaty is ratified that defines each claimant's rights and obligations). The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis called at Kerguelen during December 1940. During their stay the crew performed maintenance and replenished their water supplies. This ship's first fatality of the war occurred when a sailor, Bernhard Herrmann, fell while painting the funnel. He is buried in what is sometimes referred to as "the most southerly German war grave" of World War II. Kerguelen has been continually occupied since 1950 by scientific research teams, with a population of 50 to 100 frequently present.[4] There is also a French satellite tracking station. Until 1955, the Kerguelen Islands were administratively part of the French Colony of Madagascar and Dependencies. That same year they collectively became known as Les Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (French Southern and Antarctic Lands) and were administratively part of the French Départment d'outre-mer de la Réunion. In 2004 they were permanently transformed into their own entity (keeping the same name) but having inherited another group of five very remote tropical islands, les îles Éparses, which are also owned by France and are dispersed widely throughout the southern Indian Ocean.[clarification needed] Grande Terre [ edit ] Monts des Deux Frères) Two Brothers Mountains ( The main island of the archipelago is called La Grande Terre. It measures 150 km (93 mi) east to west and 120 km (75 mi) north to south. Port-aux-Français, a scientific base, is along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Morbihan on La Grande Terre at . Facilities there include scientific-research buildings, a satellite tracking station, dormitories, a hospital, a library, a gymnasium, a pub, and the chapel of Notre-Dame des Vents. The highest point is Mont Ross in the Gallieni Massif, which rises along the southern coast of the island and has an elevation of 1,850 metres (6,070 ft). The Cook Ice Cap (French: Calotte Glaciaire Cook),[19] France's largest glacier with an area of about 403 km2 (156 sq mi), lies on the west-central part of the island. Overall, the glaciers of the Kerguelen Islands cover just over 500 km2 (190 sq mi). Grande Terre has also numerous bays, inlets, fjords, and coves, as well as several peninsulas and promontories. The most important ones are listed below: Notable localities [ edit ] There are also a number of notable localities, all on La Grande Terre (see also the main map): Anse Betsy [Betsy Cove] (a former geomagnetic station at ), on Baie Accessible [Accessible Bay], on the north coast of the Courbet Peninsula. On this site an astronomical and geomagnetic observatory was erected on 26 October 1874 by a German research expedition led by Georg Gustav Freiherr von Schleinitz. The primary goal of this station was the 1874 observation of the transit of Venus. Armor (Base Armor), established in 1983, is located 40 km (25 mi) west of Port-aux-Français at the bottom of Morbihan Gulf, for the acclimatization of salmon to the Kerguelen islands. [20] Baie de l'Observatoire [Observatory Bay] (a former geomagnetic observation station at ), just west of Port-Aux-Français, on the eastern fringe of the Central Plateau, along the northern shore of the Golfe du Morbihan. Cabane Port-Raymond (scientific camp at ), at the head of a fjord cutting into the Courbet Peninsula from the south. Cap Ratmanoff (geomagnetic station at ), the eastmost point of the Kerguelens. La Montjoie (scientific camp at ), on the south shore of Baie Rocheuse, along the northwestern coast of the archipelago. Molloy (Pointe Molloy), a former observatory 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of the present-day Port-Aux-Français, along the south coast of the Courbet Peninsula, or northern shore of the Golfe du Morbihan (Kerguelen), at . An American expedition led by G. P. Ryan erected a station at this site on 7 September 1874. That station was also established to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. Port Bizet (seismographic station at ), on the northeastern coast of Île Longue. This also serves as the principal sheep farm for the island's resident flock of Bizet sheep. Port Christmas (a former geomagnetic station at ), on Baie de l'Oiseau, in the extreme northwest of the Loranchet Peninsula. This place was so named by Captain James Cook, who re-discovered the islands and who anchored there on Christmas Day, 1776. This is also the place where Captain Cook coined the name "Desolation Islands" in reference to what he saw as a sterile landscape. Port Couvreux (a former whaling station, experimental sheep farm, and geomagnetic station, at ), on Baie du Hillsborough, on the southeast coast of Presqu'île Bouquet de la Grye. Starting in 1912, sheep were raised here to create an economic base for future settlement. However, the attempt failed and the last inhabitants had to be evacuated, and the station abandoned, in 1931. The huts remain, as well as a graveyard with five anonymous graves. These are those of the settlers who were unable to survive in the harsh environment. Port Curieuse (a harbor on the west coast across Île de l'Ouest ). The site was named after the ship La Curieuse , which was used by Raymond Rallier du Baty on his second visit to the islands (1913–14). , which was used by Raymond Rallier du Baty on his second visit to the islands (1913–14). Port Douzième (literally Twelfth Port, a hut and former geomagnetic station at ), on the north coast of Presqu'île Ronarch, southern shore of the Golfe du Morbihan. Port Jeanne d'Arc (a former whaling station founded by a Norwegian whaling company in 1908, and a former geomagnetic station at ), in the northwestern corner of Presqu'île Jeanne d'Arc, looking across the Buenos Aires passage to Île Longue (4 km, 2.5 mi northeast). The derelict settlement consists of four residential buildings with wooden walls and tin roofs, and a barn. One of the buildings was restored in 1977, and another in 2007. From 1968 to 1981, just east of Port-aux-Français was a launching site for sounding rockets, some for French (Dragon rockets), American (Arcas) or French-Soviet (Eridans) surveys, but at the end mainly for a Soviet program (M-100).[21] Islands [ edit ] The following is a list of the most important adjacent islands: Economy [ edit ] The French supply ship Marion Dufresne makes regular calls at the Kerguelen Islands and typically carries a small contingent of tourists. Principal activities on the Kerguelen Islands focus on scientific research – mostly earth sciences and biology. The former sounding rocket range to the east of Port-aux-Français is currently the site of a SuperDARN radar. Since 1992, the French Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) has operated a satellite and rocket tracking station which is located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) east of Port-aux-Français. CNES needed a tracking station in the Southern Hemisphere, and the French government required that it be located on French territory, rather than in a populated, but foreign, place like Australia or New Zealand. Agricultural activities were limited until 2007 to raising sheep (about 3,500 Bizet sheep – a breed of sheep that is rare in mainland France) on Longue Island for consumption by the occupants of the base, as well as small quantities of vegetables in a greenhouse within the immediate vicinity of the main French base. There are also feral rabbits and sheep that can be hunted, as well as wild birds. There are also five fishing boats and vessels, owned by fishermen on Réunion Island (a department of France about 3,500 km (2,200 mi) to the north) who are licensed to fish within the archipelago's exclusive economic zone. Geology [ edit ] Simplified geological map of the Kerguelen Islands The Kerguelen islands form an emerged part of the submerged Kerguelen Plateau, which has a total area nearing 2.2 million km2 (0.85 million sq mi).[22] The plateau was built by volcanic eruptions associated with the Kerguelen hotspot, and now lies on the Antarctic plate.[23] The major part of the volcanic formations visible on the islands is characteristic of an effusive volcanism, which caused a trap rock formation to start emerging above the level of the ocean 35 million years ago. The accumulation is of a considerable amount; basalt flows, each with a thickness of three to ten metres, stacked on top of each other, sometimes up to a depth of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). This form of volcanism creates a monumental relief shaped as stairs of pyramids. Other forms of volcanism are present locally, such as the strombolian volcano Mont Ross, and the volcano-plutonic complex on the Rallier du Baty peninsula. Various veins and extrusions of lava such as trachytes, trachyphonolites and phonolites are common all over the islands. No eruptive activity has been recorded in historic times, but some fumaroles are still active in the South-West of the Grande-Terre island. A few lignite strata, trapped in basalt flows, reveal fossilised araucarian fragments, dated at about 14 million years of age. Glaciation caused the depression and tipping phenomena which created the gulfs at the north and east of the archipelago. Erosion caused by the glacial and fluvial activity carved out the valleys and fjords; erosion also created conglomerate detrital complexes, and the plain of the Courbet Peninsula. The islands are part of a submerged microcontinent called the Kerguelen sub-continent.[24] The microcontinent emerged substantially above sea level for three periods between 100 million years ago and 20 million years ago. The so-called Kerguelen sub-continent may have had tropical flora and fauna about 50 million years ago. The Kerguelen sub-continent finally sank 20 million years ago and is now one to two kilometres (0.6 to 1.2 mi) below sea level. Kerguelen's sedimentary rocks are similar to ones found in Australia and India, indicating they were all once connected. Scientists hope that studying the Kerguelen sub-continent will help them discover how Australia, India, and Antarctica broke apart.[25] Climate [ edit ] Kerguelen Islands from space, 2016 Kerguelen's climate is oceanic, cold and extremely windswept. Under the Köppen climate classification, Kerguelen's climate is considered to be an ET or tundra climate, which is technically a form of polar climate, as the average temperature in the warmest month is below 10 °C (50 °F).[26] Comparable climates include the Aleutian Islands, Campbell Island (New Zealand), Falkland Islands, Iceland, northern Kamchatka Peninsula, Labrador and Wollaston Islands. All climate readings come from the Port-aux-Français base, which has one of the more favourable climates in Kerguelen due to its proximity to the coast and its location in a gulf sheltered from the wind. The average annual temperature is 4.9 °C (40.8 °F) with an annual range of around 6 °C (11 °F). The warmest months of the year include January and February, with average temperatures between 7.8 and 8.2 °C (46.0 and 46.8 °F). The coldest month of the year is August with an average temperature of 2.1 °C (35.8 °F). Annual high temperatures rarely surpass 20 °C (68 °F), while temperatures in winter have never been recorded below −10 °C (14 °F) at sea level. Kerguelen receives frequent precipitation, with snow throughout the year as well as rain. Port-aux-Français receives a modest amount of precipitation (708 mm (27.9 in) per year) compared to the west coast which receives an estimated three times as much precipitation per year. The mountains are frequently covered in snow but can thaw very quickly in rain. Over the course of several decades, many permanent glaciers have shown signs of retreat, with some smaller ones having disappeared completely. The west coast receives almost continuous wind at an average speed of 35 km/h (22 mph), due to the islands' location in between the Roaring Forties and the Furious Fifties. Wind speeds of 150 km/h (93 mph) are common and can even reach 200 km/h (120 mph). Waves up to 12–15 m (39–49 ft) high are common, but there are many sheltered places where ships can dock. Due to the island's southern latitude, it experiences a couple of weeks from December to early January in which there is no true night, only astronomical twilight, meaning that sun illumination is barely distinguishable at nighttime. Climate data for Port-aux-Français, Kerguelen Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °C (°F) 22.3 (72.1) 22.3 (72.1) 21.0 (69.8) 23.0 (73.4) 16.8 (62.2) 14.5 (58.1) 13.4 (56.1) 14.4 (57.9) 15.8 (60.4) 19.1 (66.4) 21.3 (70.3) 21.6 (70.9) 23.0 (73.4) Average high °C (°F) 11.1 (52.0) 11.5 (52.7) 10.5 (50.9) 9.0 (48.2) 6.7 (44.1) 5.2 (41.4) 4.7 (40.5) 4.6 (40.3) 5.3 (41.5) 7.0 (44.6) 8.6 (47.5) 10.1 (50.2) 7.8 (46.0) Daily mean °C (°F) 7.8 (46.0) 8.2 (46.8) 7.3 (45.1) 6.1 (43.0) 4.2 (39.6) 2.8 (37.0) 2.2 (36.0) 2.1 (35.8) 2.5 (36.5) 3.9 (39.0) 5.3 (41.5) 6.8 (44.2) 4.9 (40.8) Average low °C (°F) 4.4 (39.9) 4.7 (40.5) 4.1 (39.4) 3.2 (37.8) 1.5 (34.7) 0.4 (32.7) −0.3 (31.5) −0.4 (31.3) −0.2 (31.6) 0.7 (33.3) 2.0 (35.6) 3.4 (38.1) 1.9 (35.4) Record low °C (°F) −1.5 (29.3) −1.0 (30.2) −0.9 (30.4) −2.7 (27.1) −5.9 (21.4) −8.3 (17.1) −8.0 (17.6) −9.5 (14.9) −7.7 (18.1) −5.0 (23.0) −3.7 (25.3) −1.2 (29.8) −9.5 (14.9) Average precipitation mm (inches) 72.2 (2.84) 49.5 (1.95) 57.5 (2.26) 59.6 (2.35) 59.9 (2.36) 75.9 (2.99) 62.9 (2.48) 63.4 (2.50) 62.3 (2.45) 59.3 (2.33) 51.9 (2.04) 55.1 (2.17) 729.5 (28.72) Average relative humidity (%) 78 79 82 86 88 89 89 87 84 80 75 77 83 Source: MeteoStats[27] Flora and fauna [ edit ] Kerguelen cabbages The islands are part of the Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra ecoregion that includes several subantarctic islands. Plant life is mainly limited to grasses, mosses and lichens, although the islands are also known for the indigenous, edible Kerguelen cabbage, a good source of vitamin C to mariners.[28] The main indigenous animals are insects along with large populations of ocean-going seabirds, seals and penguins.[29] The wildlife is particularly vulnerable to introduced species and one particular problem has been cats. The main island is the home of a well-established feral cat population, descended from ships' cats.[30] They survive on sea birds and the feral rabbits that were introduced to the islands. There are also populations of wild sheep (Ovis orientalis orientalis) and reindeer. In the 1950s and 1960s, French geologist Edgar Albert de la Rue began to introduce several species of salmonids. Of the seven species introduced, only brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and brown trout Salmo trutta survived to establish wild populations.[31] Coleoptera [ edit ] In popular culture [ edit ] The islands appear in a number of fictional works. The title character in Edgar Allan Poe's 1838 novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, visits the islands.[32] French writer Jules Verne's 1897 novel An Antarctic Mystery offers a follow up to Poe's book, and revisits the Kerguelen Islands.[33] The 1874 short story "The Tachypomp" by Edward Page Mitchell tells of a hole through the center of the Earth with one end in the United States and the other in "Kerguellen's Land" (which is roughly antipodal to the United States and Canada). In Kipling's poem "McAndrew's Hymn" – about a ship's engineer – there are the lines: "Fra' Cape Town east to Wellington – ye need an engineer. Fail there – ye've time to weld your shaft – ay, eat it, ere ye're spoke, Or make Kerguelen under sail – three jiggers burned wi' smoke!" Henry De Vere Stacpoole set his 1919 novel The Beach of Dreams on the islands.[34] The Kerguelen Islands were the setting for a post-Second World War confrontation between W. E. Johns's recurring hero, Biggles and the crew of a gold bullion-bearing German U-boat, in the 1948 novel Biggles' Second Case. The fifth book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series, published in 1978, is entitled Desolation Island.[35] French author Jean-Paul Kauffmann produced a non-fiction account of his 1991 journey to the islands, titled "The Arch of Kerguelen: Voyage to the Islands of Desolation". In 2000 British journalist and former Conservative MP Matthew Parris spent four months on Kerguelen, staying with the researchers at Port-aux-Français. A series of articles were published in The Times in which Parris charted his visit, and a documentary "To The Ends of Earth: Dreaming on Desolation Island" was produced for UK television, which aired on Channel 4. The islands inspired the 2008 song "The Loneliest Place on the Map" by singer Al Stewart.[36] Kerguelen and island based research facilities are an important part of Craig A. Falconer's 2015 science fiction novel, "Not Alone"[37] and sequel "Not Alone: Second Contact".[38] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Coordinates: |
Thanks to a few thoughtful individuals and a 3D printer, Dudley the duck has a new lease on life. Still a duckling, Dudley and his siblings were placed in a cage at an animal shelter with some aggressive chickens. In a fight that left his siblings dead, Dudley’s leg was seriously injured and had to be amputated. The shelter’s owner, Brandon Schweitser, coaches jiu jitsu on the side. One of his students, Terence Loring, runs a 3D design company called 3D Pillar Designs. Schweitser asked Loring whether he might design a new leg for Dudley. After taking a few measurements, Loring whipped up a simple design for a leg attached to the stump with a tube at the top and a flipper at the bottom for walking and paddling. He sent his design to a local 3D printing firm, Proto3000—and just like that, Dudley had a new leg. The leg isn’t perfect, nor is Dudley’s new gait. But Dudley is a duck, at a shelter—with a custom prosthetic leg. Pretty awesome. (Check out video of Dudley on his new leg here.) Dudley isn’t the first animal to benefit from a 3D printed prosthetic. He’s not even the first duck. Buttercup, a duck in Tennessee, was born with a backward foot that had to be amputated. Now, like Dudley, Buttercup has a new foot. Unlike Dudley, however, Buttercup’s foot itself wasn’t 3D printed. Rather, the 3D printing firm, NovaCopy, scanned Buttercup’s sister’s foot. They used the subsequent digital model to 3D print a mould into which they could inject silicone for the foot. Silicone, they reasoned, would be more flexible than the traditional plastics used by 3D printers. Of course, there was no guarantee either duck would actually use their new prosthetics—but they’ve taken to them like ducks to water. It’s great to see 3D printing helping ducks with disabilities, but the technology helps humans too. 12-year-old Dylan Laas, for example, lost the fingers on his right hand to a condition known as amniotic band constriction. Prosthetics traditionally cost thousands of dollars, but 3D printing may bring the expense down dramatically. Laas is now the proud owner of a working $150 3D printed Robohand. And Alabama’s Zero Point Frontiers is designing a simple 3D printed hand that may cost as little as $5. Cheaper prosthetics are especially beneficial for children. Kids grow like weeds, and keeping them equipped with a properly fitted device just doesn’t make sense for most families—it’s much too expensive. Just as Loring made his design for Dudley’s new leg open source, Robohand’s designers, Richard Van As and Ivan Owen, likewise made their work open source and available on 3D design site, Thingiverse. What’s the upshot of all this? Perhaps in the coming years anyone with a 3D printer and a little time will be able to print and assemble a basic prosthetic at home for the cost of materials. Or maybe top quality products will still be manufactured by companies—only at a fraction of current prices. Image Credit: 3D Pillar Designs, Makerbot/Flickr |
(Fortune Small Business) -- All through the summer I thought maybe I was dodging a bullet. There was talk of recession, but my Chicago picture-framing and home-furnishings businesses - 120 employees, about $15 million in revenue - were doing fine. Then the stock market crashed, and my dashboard software showed sales taking a hit. Unlike in previous recessions, I didn't scratch my head and wonder what to do. I immediately started cutting expenses and staffing. The first time I went through a recession, in the '80s, I didn't know what to expect. Obviously business slowed, but I wasn't sure how to react because the changes were subtle at first. Everything looked and felt the same. If you're in manufacturing, your employees don't come to you and say, "Hey, boss, I'm going to be done around three o'clock. Should I go home early?" They stretch the work out. The activity is unchanged - until you run the numbers at the end of the month. If your revenue is off about 10%, that might not sound so bad. But because of fixed costs such as rent, that 10% decline can easily wipe out 100% of your profit. The big surprise comes if you don't make changes. In my case, most of my fixed costs were fixed, but I could have cut payroll. I didn't, and I paid dearly. There's an old saying, "Smooth seas make a poor sailor." Once you've weathered a few economic storms, you learn how to adapt. Here are some suggestions that might help you. I recently asked one vendor for a discount if I paid on delivery instead of the standard 30 days later. The salesperson was skeptical but called back after five minutes offering 10%. That's a huge savings. It turned out this particular vendor had 30 accounts that were more than 90 days overdue. The lesson? Opportunities present themselves during recessions. Not long ago I bought a machine that shreds discarded cardboard for use as packing material. It's saving me $10,000 a year (while producing less landfill). But here's the thing: You should always be looking for savings and efficiencies - not just when times are tough but even when you're growing. Growth can mask problems. Are you on top of purchasing? Shopping around aggressively? Adopting new technologies that can help your business run more efficiently? Spending your marketing dollars wisely? I've also saved by cutting back on Yellow Pages advertising in recent years - I think new media offers a better return. But don't be tempted to gut your advertising. Companies that continue to advertise come out ahead after a recession, according to studies by McGraw-Hill Research. And that makes sense: If your competitors are in retreat, you can build your market presence. Instead of cutting advertising when my sales fell last fall, I checked inventories. I realized that I needed to put my home furnishings on sale faster. I used to wait at least six months before discounting a product. Now if something doesn't sell, it usually goes on sale in four. That's another lesson I learned the hard way: You can survive decreased profits if you have cash flow, but the converse is not true - if cash flow takes a dive, you're in trouble. That will happen if you let your receivables or your inventories get out of control, which is surprisingly easy. That's because most small businesses are driven by sales. In good times, you never want to lose a sale by not extending credit or by running out of an item. But if you're not vigilant when sales slow, that mentality can fill your warehouse and empty your checking account. That concern recently drove me to the managers of my framing facility, who reported that they'd just cut employee hours across the board. I told them to consider laying off someone instead. Cutting everyone's hours might sound fair and reasonable, but it can do more harm than good. What happens is that everybody suffers, and eventually somebody quits. Too often it's the best person in the department who walks. I'd rather be in control of who stays and who goes. That's part of being a leader, which is what your employees want and need. Times may be tough right now, but they will get better. In the meantime, don't make the mistake I made in my first recession. Take action. You have more power than you might think. Jay Goltz employs 120 people at Artists Frame Service, Chicago Art Source and Jayson Home & Garden, all based in Chicago. He is the author of The Street-Smart Entrepreneur (Addicus Books). To write a note to the editor about this article, click here |
Reams of Paper Reportedly Missing From Donald and Ivana Trump’s Divorce Documents Share On FacebookTweet Post Documents Recount Trump’s Alleged ‘Cruel And Inhumane’ Treatment Of His Ex-Wife Court papers from Ivana Trump’s prenuptial challenge were obtained by journalists at New York Daily News—but many of the pages were missing. Amidst an ongoing effort by The New York Times to obtain Donald and Ivana Trump’s divorce documents, the New York Daily News managed to get their hands on court papers from Ivana’s prenuptial challenge. Over a hundred pages of the file have gone missing—either misplaced or removed without a court order. The missing pages include “key portions of a sworn deposition from Ivana”. The pages that were left in the file contain allegations that Trump “verbally abused and demeaned” his ex-wife. Ivana claimed he “lied” and said his treatment of her was “cruel and inhuman”. The papers also allege it was “unsafe or improper for them to be married”. Some of the documents recount Ivana’s surprise at learning that Donald, her husband since 1977, had his lawyer slip a clause into their prenup that revoked every gift he’d ever given her in the event the couple divorce. “I remember the part about the gifts”, she said in a deposition. “I had been very hurt. I had been confused by it. … I didn’t understand the whole concept, why I’m returning the gifts which are going to be acquired by my husband and given to me during our marriage.” The Daily News inquiry prompted the removal of the documents from public availability. They have now been added to the horde of other Trump divorce documents The Times and others are suing to unseal. “My inquiry so far has suggested that this file … was a matrimonial case and should have been sealed”, said Manhattan Supreme Court Clerk Milton Tingling. “How and why you and reportedly others have had access to it is now in question and has now been referred to the Inspector General’s office”. Regardless, Chief Deputy Clerk James Rossetti expressed disappointment that the records system was evidently abused. “There was a honor system. It was that way forever. If I gave you a file with 10 documents and you returned nine, I wouldn’t know that. There was no way to know that. The files are too voluminous.” Other employees at the clerk’s office said at least one box of Donald-Ivana case files is missing. They point to a recent fire on the Williamsburg waterfront as a possible culprit. Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images |
This article originally appeared in the January 1966 issue of Road & Track. It's an everyday occurrence for an editor to commission a story. But for the editor and publisher of automobilia's answer to American Heritage to commission the construction of a car is, to borrow a phrase, a case of man bites dog. Yet this is exactly how the car on this month's cover came to be. Scott Bailey, the man who is Automobile Quarterly, pried a bright red fastback Mustang out of Dearborn, got Alitalia to fly it across the Atlantic, and commissioned Carrozzeria Bertone to rebody it. As in any such commissioning, there were stipulations. There were to be no mechanical changes. Well, practically none. It was to be ready in time for the New York Automobile Show. (Like everybody else's exhibit, it was, but just barely.) And it was to be any color Nuccio chose as long as it was not the same color as when it left here. But that was it. No "It's got to be lower than the underside of a Fruehauf." No "I want a fastback just like Jayne Mansfield's Ferrari." No limits at all. Which makes Scott Bailey a good guy in any carrozzeria's eye. It's worth a moment to wonder why the Mustang should have been chosen as the foundation for this effort. There are two reasons: the magic of the name (like quietness, nothing from Crewe is sacred), and the fact that popular or no, the standard Mustang is not the most beautiful creature on four wheels. Opposed is the simple fact that the Mustang is nothing more than a drastic re-bodying of the Falcon/ Fairlane; a far more than skin-deep job but one that did not reach the suspension. A less visually oriented patron might have asked BOAC to fly the Mustang to England for the attentions of a suspension designer-fabricator. Road & Track Archives Anyway, the deed was done and here is the car. Here on these pages, not on these shores, for now that Don Frey and Lee Iaccoca have had their pleasures with this design exercise, it has returned to Europe to do the auto show circuit, Paris. London. Turin. It's a lovely car to look at and one may hope that it will become part of FoMoCo's traveling exhibit for the various domestic auto shows. Pending seeing it with your own eyes, let me describe it to you. If any common spirit pervades Bertone's wide range of automotive creations (see Carrozzeria Bertone, R&T June 1965), it is nothing more radical than his careful mixing of the functional— aerodynamics, visibility, ease of entry-exit and sheet-metal forming— plus an equally careful sprinkling of exotic tidbits. The Alfa Canguro and the Iso Grifo, both intended as colorful, way-out machines, have handsomely overdone slots in the front fenders to permit air to leave the engine compartment. This same function is served in a calmer fashion on the Mustang, a calmer car, with a grille that matches the texture of the one in front of the radiator. Road & Track Archives The latter is itself simple and tidy, almost inconspicuous. The tradition of identifying cars by the grille is probably the reason why the grille is now such a dominant feature in any production car's design. (Likewise taillights.) While racing GT cars have shown that grilles are unnecessary, saving thus both weight and dollars, this works only on very low cars. Despite several tricks that we will discuss later, this is still a somewhat taller car than those you see on racing circuits and some sort of grille is desirable. The simplicity of the one Bertone designed is very pleasing, filling the gap without detracting from the intense interest of the body, itself the identifying feature of this car. Before getting to the body. I'd like to get in some words in favor of Bertone's use of four headlights. Two will suffice: more illumination. The usual virtue of retracting them of course applies; they stay clean until they're needed. And by retracting them symmetrically. Signor Bertone has managed to ensure that they look "right" in either position, a solution not yet achieved by many. While the grille verges on looking too wide when the lights are folded away (see cover), retraction does save you offending those to whom "quad" lights are an abomination. Road & Track Archives The body itself is elegant in its simplicity, two words that are seeing hard use in this text. Its stainless steel roof lightens the canopy visually, a technique that says "expensive" while retaining structural simplicity. Yet the rear quarter window seems an awkward confluence of lines and shapes that merge no better than rush-hour traffic. The fake roll bar is too precious to help much in justifying the arbitrary angle of the trailing edge of the door window. But I'm picking on small details. Overall, the Bertone Mustang is as refreshing as a pretty girl. It's always fun to look at a pretty girl, but when it turns out she's the kid down the block grown-up, it becomes interesting too. Never thought her freckles would disappear, did you? Seeing Carrozzeria Bertone's handiwork on such a familiar car is rather like seeing a gourmet chef make an epic lunch out of last night's leftovers. Nothing wasted. Bertone didn't save every single part from the original body, but he didn't throw them all away either. It makes you realize that, like black and white and a multitude of grays, there is no hard and fast line between California Kustomizing and Carrozzeria Craftsmanship. Except that carrozzeria is not pizzeria. Taste is all. Lead, dum-dum, and the original parts are materials, raw and unvalued in themselves. Use them or discard them, alter them, invert them or throw them away— or even use them on another project. Road & Track Archives It's like a game to search this Mustang for Ford-built parts. Some are camouflaged, some are simply used unusually. The humble ashtray, for instance, is strictly FoMoCo and very stock. In fact, so is the contour of the lower surface of the dashboard into which it slides. I don't know if the dash metal itself is Ford in origin but its contour is. Because it's an acceptable shape, one that Bertone could work around with success, and because the ashtray fits it. And who wants to diddle around building custom ashtrays when there are fenders and hoods and roof panels to do? The rear jumpseat folds down to make a luggage shelf and then you recognize it too as stock hardware. So is the little door to the trunk. These are perfectly good items, well worth retaining, but they're reupholstered in light cowhide-like vinyl that's unmistakably non-Ford, of course. The gas cap is in the same place but the gross original has been replaced by a smaller one. Similar in appearance, horse emblem and tricolor patch in the center of a chrome circle, but now in appropriate scale to the narrow shadowbox tail section. Did Bertone have a modern-day Benvenuto Cellini carve this out of unborn chromium? Certainly not. It's the working hub of the original cap surmounted with the emblem pried off the horn button. The steering wheel, but of course, is wood-rimmed and what's more, its horn button is wood-trimmed. Automobile Quarterly, as befits its name, has for its emblem a quatrefoil with circular leaves, perhaps to symbolize wheels. Four of them to make a car, and for the four issues per year. Bertone's staff, being stronger on woodcarving and inlays than on solid gold salt shakers, made a wooden horn button with this quatrefoil inlaid in various grains and tones. Road & Track Archives That's not all that the driver enjoys. Bertone did insist on one change to the chassis. He installed a shorter radiator. It's a simple change, one we could do ourselves with the aid of any small town's radiator rebuilding shop. Just knock out about three inches and solder back together. One change, and what a cornucopia of benefits. The long hood can now slope downward from the inch or two lower cowl. The nose is now so much lower that it makes the standard Mustang look tall and perpendicular. For the driver, this is a genuine improvement. Now he can see the road close in front. It's not as good as a VW by far, but at least when you crest a hill, you don't have to propel yourself out of the seat to make sure the road is still in front of you. I don't know whether the amount sliced off the radiator will ever make a difference in cooling the regular-gas-burning 289-cu-in. V-8 on a summer day in Albuquerque, but even if it does, the embarrassed driver can console himself with the thought that warped Ford heads are cheaper to replace than warped Ferrari heads. Bertone fully exploited this minor modification. The hood panel itself has three bulges. Time was when we called them power bulges and once we'd seen aerial type Mustangs we opened the front of them for ram air pressure. Eventually we found this actually hurt carburetion so now on working show cars like this the bulge over the carb is closed, at least at the front. The two little scoops with real openings? A styling trick to accommodate the upper end of the front shocks. Let us leap to the driver's seat for a moment. The chassis is unchanged? Then how can the Bertone Mustang be any different to drive? Aha. That's one of the beauties of this business. You customize the body and the handling is improved. Take my word for it, it is. First there's the better visibility. Over your shoulders as well as the hood. There's no blind spot and in heavy traffic it's easy to keep track of the neighbors. Road & Track Archives I found the driving position dramatically better (and our family chariot is an all-too-standard Mustang with all the handling options). The key is not the lowered hoodline, however. Nor is it the handsome Reutter-equipped reclining seats, although they help. It's as simple an item as the chop job on the radiator. The steering column has an extra universal joint. It's in the vicinity of the dashboard. The last foot of steering column slants upwards and the wheel is at 28'/2 degrees from vertical instead of the 21 degrees on a standard Mustang. If (big word) the cowl had been lowered without this universal joint being added, then the wheel would have been closer to vertical than stock and I dare say the car would have been both uncomfortable to drive and nearly impossible to get in and out of. This solution is not one that will appeal to Detroit cost accountants, but perhaps I have the impression that the seating configuration is one of the first optimums to be traded off. In Detroit or anywhere else. Except in Italy, if one may be permitted a generality. Driving this Bertone-bodied Mustang is more rewarding than being in the normal one. There's lots of attention from other fastback-fanciers, only one of whom asked if this were a special Barracuda. (With all else they must put up with, New Yorkers on wheels have to be forgiven questions like this.) And on lonely roads, the Bertone Mustang seems closer by far to achieving that mystical purity we call the essence of sports car. The lively performance is now supplemented by a keener sense of control. You see with ease where you, the road, and its other occupants are at all times. The steering wheel fits your hands more comfortably, it connects to the optional quick-steering box, and aside from the giveaway Americanism of the V-8's exhaust, you can Walter Mitty yourself into a Ferrari with very little effort. On a parkway. Let me digress to explain why I can only presume what the mountain road behavior is. When Mr. Bailey installed me in his jewel, there were all the usual cautions. I must doff my non-existent hat to Scott for getting to me. "Uh, say, Steve, you know these wheels are specially cast of magnesium for Bertone. Well, he wrote me a letter when he shipped the car saying that because they had not been cast under his supervision, he could not warranty them. Whatsoever. And, uh, before you go, I'd like you to sign this release form. Just write your name here. It absolves me from all liability, you know, just in case. Well, it's the same form Ford Motor uses" (literally so, right off their pad) "and I know you don't mind signing for them." Hmm. I signed. My lawyer says never to read these things, it makes a better case later on. Better for him, I suspect. So I went tiptoe wherever I drove, visions of shattered wheels dancing before my eyes. So I can't report how much the 6-in. rims or the fat jolly 185-X-14 Pirelli Cinturatos help the cornering. Because when I got to my house I took them off, replacing them with the steel-mounted I65-X-15 Cinturatos that live on our family Mustang. But I still didn't practice the Great American Rally route. Another reason I swapped wheels and tires was because those Italian castings are ugly as sin. (In Italy that's ugly?) And I have a big thing about Baby Moons. See Automobile Quarterly if you want to know what the cast wheels look like. Or turn back to the cover. |
BREMEN, Germany — Balloons, airships, unmanned planes and other so-called pseudo satellites loitering in the stratosphere are likely to enrich the global communications and Earth-observation ecosystem in the not-so-distant future. Google, an especially deep-pocketed proponent of these satellite alternatives, demonstrated again this week that at least some high-altitude pseudo satellites have passed the purely research and development stage, when it dispatched its helium-filled balloons, developed as part of the Google Loon Project, to provide basic internet and text messaging services to a Puerto Rico still reeling from Hurricane Maria more than month ago. Facebook, another believer in internet through high-altitude platforms, sometimes called pseudo-satellites, successfully test-flew its Aquila drone earlier this year. At this year’s World Space Risk Forum in London, Antonio Abad, chief technology officer of Hispasat, said the Spanish telecom satellite operator is in fact looking into high-altitude platform technology and sees more potential in it than in small-satellite LEO constellations. However, Berlin-based start-up AlphaLink, presenting at this week’s Space Tech Expo in Bremen, Germany, says that quite a few technical problems need to be solved before high-altitude platforms can fully take off. “With high-altitude platforms, you deliver pretty much the same services as with satellites but you can do it much more cheaply,” said Daniel Cracau, general manager of AlphaLink, which has just recently spun out from the University of Berlin. “You can also be more flexible with your missions and reuse the platform for different missions.” Time in the air The AlphaLink team has looked at some of the major issues impeding their more-famous competitors and designed a solution, which they believe would allow high-altitude platforms to operate for much longer periods of time. Zephyr, Airbus’s high-altitude pseudo-satellite, or HAPS, can remain in the air for up to two weeks, which Airbus says is a world record for any unrefueled aircraft. AlphaLink believes their AlphaLink 3 model, currently in development, could remain in the air for up to 100 days using state-of-the-art battery and solar panel technology. “After that, the platform can come down, be recharged and operated again,” said Cracau. “Our later models, we hope, will be able to operate for up to a year and potentially indefinitely as solar panel and battery technology advances.” Wind stability While helium-filled balloons, such as those used by Google, are difficult to steer, aircraft, or one-wing solutions such as Facebook’s Aquila drone, frequently struggle with strong stratospheric winds, said Cracau. The platforms need a very long wing to accomodate a sufficient amount of solar cells but at the same time need to be extremely lightweight. That makes them vulnerable to bending and breaking when subjected to strong wind gusts. Making the aircraft sturdier and heavier thus would reduce the amount of communications or observation payload the platform could carry, said Cracau. AlphaLink approached the problem by designing the platform as a formation of several aircraft of smaller sizes connected at wing tips. “By combining several smaller aircraft, we achieve a long total wing length but because the aircraft are connected via joints at their wing tips, we can control the wind influences,” Cracau explained. “Because we can handle better these aero-elastical phenomena, we can in general build the aircraft lighter, which is why we can fly longer and also carry more payload.” If any of the aircraft in the formation experiences technical problems, it can be disconnected from the rest and send to a ground station for repairs, Cracau said, while a replacement aircraft could be send up to join the formation. Cracau said AlphaLink estimates the platforms could provide internet connectivity and other communication services to remote areas at 10 percent of the cost of satellite technology. From test to practical application Earlier this year, AlphaLink tested its concept with a small-scale model flying at a lower altitude. “We have launched three connected aircraft from a car and observed the flight performance to verify that our flight control system is able to handle such an aircraft,” said Cracau. “We are now looking into scaling the model to be able to show that the solution of connecting individual aircraft really works on the larger scale.” AlphaLink chief engineer Alexander Kothe has been developing the technology since 2012 as part of his PhD project at the University of Berlin. The company hopes to find a commercial partner to help fund the development. “In general, the interest and the need and the demand for high-altitude platforms really is visible,” said Cracau. “We have particular interest indicated by disaster management institutions, the Federal Office of Disaster Management and Civil Protection in Germany, as well as the International Disaster Management Association. We hope that here in Bremen, we will be able to find a particular client with a particular user case who would help us fund the development of the full-scale solution.” |
Over three hours early Sunday morning, Omar Mateen, barricaded inside a gay nightclub in a residential neighborhood of Orlando, shot and killed 49 people ; an additional 53 were wounded. The standoff ended around 5 a.m., when Mateen was killed by police. Sidebar Mateen carried two guns with him Sunday: a 9mm handgun and a .223 caliber AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle. Both guns were purchased legally within the last week in Florida, authorities confirmed Sunday. According to Mother Jones , the a model known as the "Black Mamba," and it "has a military-spec trigger and a magazine capacity of 30 rounds." The AR-15 is one of the most popular, and most easily obtained, guns in America. In 2013, the National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated there are somewhere between 5 million and 8.2 million assault weapons in circulation. each That number has undoubtedly increased in the intervening years, as sales of the gun spike after mass shooting . But precise numbers are anyone's guess, because the federal government does not track sales or require purchasers to register long guns. Nicole Hockley, who lost her child in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, explained the gun's appeal another way: The man who killed her son, she said earlier this year, "chose the AR-15 because he was aware of how many shots it could get out, how lethal it was, the way it was designed, that it would serve his objective of killing as many people as possible in the shortest time possible." In addition to Sandy Hook (26 dead; 2 wounded), the AR-15 was used in recent massacres at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012 (12 dead; 70 wounded), a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, in 2015 (10 dead; 9 wounded), and an office holiday party in San Bernardino, California, also in 2015 (14 dead; 22 wounded). The standard magazine for a Glock, like the one Mateen carried, is 15 rounds. The Sig Sauer MCX rifle Mateen used had double that capacity: 30 rounds. A Snapchat video taken at the scene in Orlando illustrates its devastating power: the shooter can be heard firing more than 20 shots in a single nine-second stretch. AR-15-style rifles can be modified, as the gun used in the Aurora shooting was, to use a magazine that holds as many as 100 bullets. AR stands for "ArmaLite rifle," after the company the developed the gun for use by the U.S. military in the 1950s. (The military's version, nearly indistinguishable from the AR-15, is called the M-16.) Today Colt holds the AR-15 trademark, but some 282 manufacturers make their own versions of the gun and its parts, according to a 2014 accounting by AR-15 enthusiasts. One of those is Remington, manufacturer of the Bushmaster AR-15, which was used in the Sandy Hook shooting. Remington's parent company, Freedom Group, is presently being sued by the families of the victims of that shooting. In a statement Sunday, lawyers for the families reiterated the crux of the argument they plan to use against the gunmaker in court: that the AR-15 is a military-style weapon, and that it should have never been sold to civilians. The AR-15 "was designed for the United States military to do to enemies of war exactly what it did this morning: kill mass numbers of people with maximum efficiency and ease. That is why the AR-15 has remained the weapon of choice for the United States military for over 50 years," lawyer Josh Koskoff said in a statement. "It is the gold standard for killing the enemy in battle, just as it has become the gold standard for mass murder of innocent civilians." Semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 were, at one time, banned nationwide. The 1994 federal assault weapons ban prohibited most versions of the rifle from being sold in the U.S. The gun re-entered circulation after Congress allowed the ban to expire in 2004. Subsequent efforts to renew the ban, or create other legislation that would limit assault weapons, have been unsuccessful. Last summer, Wal-Mart — the biggest gun seller in America — announced it would stop selling AR-15s , but as of Monday morning, AR-15 parts and kits were still available on the retailer's website. Update and correction: This piece has been updated to reflect the name of the AR-15 model used in the shooting, and corrected to reflect fact that the Snapchat footage from the scene of the crime captured more than 20 shots fired in a single nine-second stretch, not a 90-second stretch. |
Chris Herhalt, CP24.com Two of the four marijuana dispensaries raided by Toronto police on Thursday afternoon plan to reopen less than a day later. Cannabis Culture on Queen Street West was searched by officers Thursday and owner Jodie Emery says three of the store’s staff members were arrested. It is not yet clear if they were charged. Emery says Cannabis Culture will resume selling marijuana products without a medical prescription after a press conference attended by her husband, Marc Emery, dubbed by some as the “prince of pot” for his advocacy of marijuana legalization and four years he spent in a Louisiana jail for selling marijuana seeds to American customers. Officers also entered Canna Clinic stores in Kensington Market, Trinity-Bellwoods and near Yonge-Eglinton. One of the Canna Clinic outlets told CP24 that it would reopen after noon on Friday. A total of 23 people were arrested and charged with various drug trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime offences, police said. Marijuana, hashish and hash oil with a market value of $289,000 was seized, along with $29,500 in cash. Speaking in front of Cannabis Culture, Marc Emery said Toronto’s crackdown belies the fact that there is huge demand for marijuana in the city. “I believe the City of Toronto could handle easily 1,000 dispensaries and retail outlets and in a free market we would have that.” He said that marijuana outlets should be regulated no differently than a convenience store or a flower shop, criticizing the federal government’s approach to regulation so far, calling it “onerous and exclusive.” “We don’t believe (marijuana) should have any more regulation than cucumbers or coffee or flowers.” Cannabis Culture employee Natasha Grimshaw said she had the day off on Thursday and wasn’t there to see three of her colleagues taken away by police. “It’s a bit of a relief,” she said about avoiding arrest. As customers bought marijuana behind her on Friday afternoon, she said she fully expects police to return very soon. “We’re kind of expecting it to happen. That’s part of this whole thing; we need to make a change so we need them to push us and for us to push back.” Police first began cracking down on marijuana dispensaries in May when Toronto Mayor John Tory said that the proliferation of the stores, especially those near schools and other places for children, was turning into a crisis. Then on May 26, police raided 43 dispensaries, arresting 90 people and charging them with a combined 186 charges under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act along with 71 criminal charges. Canna Clinic and Cannabis Culture were not searched during the May 26 raids. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said police action against dispensaries would continue so long as the law will allow. |
Football may be moving more and more toward the passing game, but last year still saw 57 college players run for over 1,000 yards during the season. Both Melvin Gordon and Samaje Perine set the singe-game FBS rushing record. Gordon and Tevin Coleman both ran for over 2,000 yards. And there were 21 performances with at least 250 rushing yards by a player in a game. While players like Gordon and Coleman -- along with other stars like Todd Gurley -- are gone to the NFL, the running back position remains loaded entering this fall, thanks to Ezekiel Elliott's late-season breakout for Ohio State, along with what was one of the best freshman classes ever. Over the next several weeks, Sports on Earth will break down the best players returning to college football in 2015, position by position. These are not NFL draft rankings; they are evaluations of current college players and how they fit into the national landscape. So, to kick off the series, let's take a look at the 25 best running backs entering the 2015 college football season. Check back next week for the best linebackers. 25. Russell Hansbrough, Missouri. Missouri has had a wealth of options at tailback the last few years, but now it's Hansbrough's turn to emerge as the clear top option with Marcus Murphy gone. In splitting time with Murphy last year, Hansbrough ran 205 times for 1,084 yards and 10 touchdowns, flashing the ability to make explosive plays. He's not quite as consistent as you'd like, but as a senior he has a chance to shine as the star of the offense for a team that continues to subvert expectations in the SEC East. 24. Justin Jackson, Northwestern. A bright spot as a freshman for Northwestern in a tough 2014 season, Jackson now has a chance to emerge from the shadow of the numerous star running backs that dominated the Big Ten last year. After Venric Mark left the team, Jackson ran 245 times for 1,187 yards and 10 touchdowns and caught 22 passes for 201 yards for an offense with a struggling passing attack, and he was at his best in the last three games: 149 yards vs. Notre Dame, 147 vs. Purdue and 130 vs. Illinois. While only 185 pounds, Jackson runs hard and keeps his feet driving, allowing him to break tackles. 23. Kenneth Dixon, Louisiana Tech. Dixon burst onto the scene as a freshman under Sonny Dykes in 2012, as part of an offense that scored a national-best 51.5 points per game. That season, Dixon led the nation in scoring, with 28 total touchdowns, to go along with 1,149 rushing yards. Dixon has adjusted nicely to the transition from Dykes to Skip Holtz in 2013 after Dykes took the Cal job. Dixon ran for 917 yards in Holtz's first season, although he experienced a massive drop in scoring with only four touchdowns. Last year, he made up for it, rushing 253 times for 1,299 yards and 22 touchdowns and catching 30 passes for 385 yards and six touchdowns as a junior. Only Melvin Gordon and Jay Ajayi scored more touchdowns. 22. Jarvion Franklin, Western Michigan. The dominant performances of freshmen running backs weren't limited to the Power Five schools in 2014. As part of Western Michigan's turnaround from 1-11 to 8-5 in P.J. Fleck's second season, Franklin quickly became a MAC star, with 163 yards in his debut against Purdue and 211 in his second game against Idaho. In total, he ran 306 times for 1,551 yards and 24 touchdowns, although an ankle injury slowed him late in the season. The 220-pound Franklin was named both MAC rookie and offensive player of the year. 21. Shock Linwood, Baylor. For as much as Art Briles' system facilitates huge passing numbers, it also provides favorable conditions for running backs by creating more space than any other offense in college football. Linwood flashed stardom as a freshman in 2013, and last year saw more mixed results as he took hold of the lead role. He ran 251 times for 1,252 yards and 16 touchdowns, averaging 4.99 yards per carry, with an up-and-down season. With a veteran offensive line returning, he could be poised for big things in 2015, thanks to a low, shifty running style that makes him dangerous when he does get into open space. 20. DeAndre Washington, Texas Tech. Running backs can struggle to earn recognition in air raid systems, and Washington is no exception. Still, with musical chairs at quarterback continuing under Kliff Kingsbury, the 5-foot-8 Washington proved to be a valuable weapon for the Red Raiders. Texas Tech running backs have to make their mark in the passing game, and Washington did just that: He caught 30 passes for 328 yards and two touchdowns, on top of running 188 times for 1,103 yards and two TDs. In 2002, as Texas Tech's quarterback, Kingsbury hit tailback Taurean Henderson for a team-high 98 receptions. Washington won't match those numbers, but he does have a chance to emerge as one of the most complete running backs in college football. 19. Jalen Hurd, Tennessee. The SEC's other stellar running backs overshadowed Hurd's freshman season, but the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder showed promise as part of a young, still developing offense. He had four 100-yard games, rushing 190 times for 899 yards, and he showed his versatility by catching 35 passes for 221 yards, proving to be a valuable asset in the passing game. As with most of the Volunteers, Hurd just scratched the surface last year, and if the Vols have a breakthrough season, as expected, Hurd may be a big part of it -- if he can hold off juco transfer (and former Alabama signee) Alvin Kamara. He's a phenomenal athlete for a player with his frame. 18. Devon Johnson, Marshall. Everyone expected big things from the Marshall offense last year with the presence of quarterback Rakeem Cato. Nobody could have predicted an additional huge season from Johnson, who moved to running back from tight end last August. Nicknamed "Rockhead," Johnson immediately took to the new position and thrived with the help of a prolific passing game and a solid offensive line, rushing 206 times for 1,767 yards (8.58 per carry) and 17 touchdowns. He did that despite missing one game and getting a total of seven carries in two others thanks to a shoulder injury. The 243-pound Johnson will move closer to the spotlight now with Cato gone. 17. Aaron Green, TCU. Only quarterback Trevone Boykin really got national recognition for the superb turnaround engineered by the TCU offense in 2014, but he had plenty of help, however anonymous it might have been. A transfer from Nebraska, Green emerged as the Horned Frogs' top rushing option in the second half of last season, netting him second-team All-Big 12 honors. He ran 129 times for 922 yards and nine touchdowns, averaging 7.15 yards per carry, although he didn't get more than six carries in a game until November, when B.J. Catalon was sidelined for the season. Catalon left for the NFL, meaning Green is the clear centerpiece of the running back rotation as a senior, bringing big-play speed to a high-powered offense. 16. Alex Collins, Arkansas and 15. Jonathan Williams, Arkansas. The Bret Bielema era has been perfect for Collins and Williams, who have been the focal point of the offense behind a physical offensive line. Collins, a 215-pound junior, ran 204 times for 1,100 yards last season. Williams, a 223-pound senior, ran 211 times for 1,190 yards. Both ran for 12 touchdowns, and both have benefited from an effective timeshare that eases the individual burden and allows the Hogs to keep throwing fresh running backs at defenses that get pushed around by a massive offensive line. 14. Donnel Pumphrey, San Diego State. With a mediocre passing game, the Aztecs leaned heavily on their defense to carry them -- and they also leaned heavily on Pumphrey. After rushing for 752 yards as a freshman backup, Pumphrey broke out with 277 carries for 1,873 yards and 20 touchdowns as the lead runner, including 246 yards against New Mexico and 267 against San Jose State. He did all this despite having a 5-foot-9, 170-pound frame, relying on vision, lateral agility and balance that allows him to make sharp cuts and shake defenders. Related Articles The Power of Alabama Alabama no longer feels invincible after its Sugar Bowl losses, and it leaves the spring with lingering questions.… More» 2016 NFL Draft First Look While the 2015 NFL draft just ended, it's never too early to start thinking ahead to next year. With top prospects… More» Oregon Is Not Going Away As we speculate about how Marcus Mariota fits in with the NFL's Tennessee Titans, there's another side to the… More» CFB Breakout Team Candidates Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Arizona all achieved breakthrough seasons last year, leaving us to wonder which… More» The Realignment Champions Years of conference reshuffling appear to be finished, and while it got left out of the playoff last year, TCU may… More» 13. Kareem Hunt, Toledo. It's always tough for non-power conference running backs to get recognition, and Hunt deserves a lot more love. As a sophomore, he ran 205 times for 1,631 yards and 16 touchdowns, averaging 7.96 yards per carry. He did this in only 10 games because of a midseason ankle injury. Hunt ran for over 100 yards in every game he played, including 265 yards against Bowling Green and 271 yards and five touchdowns in the GoDaddy Bowl vs. Arkansas State. The 5-foot-11, 215-pounder has an elusive and explosive skill set that makes him a threat for a big play on every touch, although he's going to have to adjust to an entirely new offensive line. 12. Nick Wilson, Arizona. It's no secret that running backs tend to put up big numbers in Rich Rodriguez's offenses, and Wilson came through immediately as a freshman for an Arizona team that won the Pac-12 South. An ankle injury held him back in the middle of the season -- he missed a game, then had 19 carries for 36 yards over his next two -- but he still ran 236 times for 1,375 yards and 16 touchdowns, including 218 yards against a stingy Utah defense. A smooth runner with good vision, Wilson will undoubtedly rack up big numbers in this scheme. 11. Corey Clement, Wisconsin. Nobody churns out massive, overpowering offensive linemen like the Badgers, and that will surely continue under new coach (and former offensive coordinator and Wisconsin quarterback) Paul Chryst. That also means the endless supply of productive running backs will continue, even after the loss of 2,500-yard rusher Melvin Gordon. The Badgers always get a few backs involved heavily, and despite Gordon's significant workload, Clement ran 147 times for 949 yards and nine touchdowns last year, averaging 10.5 yards per carry as a sophomore behind Gordon. Now, Clement will run the show as the centerpiece of the offense. 10. Paul Perkins, UCLA. A lack of a reliable running game put too much responsibility for the success of UCLA's offense on Brett Hundley's shoulders in 2013, but Perkins solved that problem with a breakout performance as a sophomore last season. He somehow did not receive the recognition he deserved -- he was not voted to the all-conference team -- for leading the Pac-12 in rushing, with 1,575 yards and an average of 6.3 yards per carry. He also caught 26 passes for 201 yards, making him a versatile weapon who excels when he's able to turn the corner on the outside and make defenders miss in space. Now, he'll play a big role in easing the transition of a new starting quarterback. 9. Royce Freeman, Oregon. Freeman showed up to Oregon so ready to play as a freshman that 1,000-yard running back Byron Marshall moved to wide receiver. In an offense that revolved around Heisman winner Marcus Mariota -- and also had Thomas Tyner at tailback -- Freeman didn't put up the eye-popping individual performances of some of the other young stars at the position, but he ran for 1,365 yards and 18 touchdowns, bringing an powerful downhill running to Oregon's explosive, fast-tempo spread attack, in some ways similar to what LeGarrette Blount bought to the table in Eugene. 8. Devontae Booker, Utah. Booker carried the Utes' offense as a juco transfer last year, and he'll return for his senior season to get another heavy workload. The 5-foot-11, 212-pound senior ran 292 times for 1,512 yards and 10 touchdowns and caught 42 passes for 311 yards and two touchdowns, making him one of the most valuable players in college football (only Jay Ajayi and Melvin Gordon had more total touches on offense last year). Booker excels as a one-cut runner with vision and a decisive style, and the Utes will lean heavily on him with an erratic passing game around him. 7. James Conner, Pittsburgh. Conner excelled in the physical game favored by coach Paul Chryst, who went back to Wisconsin this offseason. Behind a powerful offensive line, Conner emerged as a workhorse as a sophomore, with four games with more than 30 carries -- and over 200 yards in three of those four. Overall, he ran 298 times for 1,765 yards and 26 touchdowns, earning ACC player of the year honors. The 250-pounder has even taken some snaps on defense as an end. New offensive coordinator Jim Chaney has a passing background, but he spent the last two years facilitating a powerful run game at Arkansas. He'd be wise to get the ball in the hands of Conner as much as possible. 6. Samaje Perine, Oklahoma. Melvin Gordon recorded the most impressive performance of the 2014 season with a record 408 rushing yards (all in three quarters) against Nebraska. Perine upstaged him a week later. In an enigmatic season for the Oklahoma offense, Perine, as a freshman, ran 34 times for 427 yards and five touchdowns against Kansas, breaking Gordon's record. A 237-pound battering ram, Perine finished his rookie year with 1,713 yards and 21 touchdowns (6.5 yards per carry). Now, he'll have to adjust to a new scheme as new coordinator Lincoln Riley -- with an air raid background -- tries to adapt to the Sooners' personnel, and he'll also have to adjust to an offensive line that loses four starters. 5. Dalvin Cook, Florida State. The Seminoles had many more problems than expected on offense last year, but Cook helped put a stop to them thanks to his second-half surge. The Noles often pulled escape acts to keep an unbeaten streak alive, and Cook emerged as a valuable playmaker as a freshman, sparking a stagnant running game and making big plays out of the backfield. Elusive and explosive, Cook ran for 1,008 yards on 170 carries, and he also caught 22 passes for 203 yards. His workload will expand greatly this fall, as he becomes the offense's star with Jameis Winston off to the NFL. 4. Derrick Henry, Alabama. Henry broke out in the Sugar Bowl at the end of the 2013 season, but he didn't carry that over into the 2014 quite as expected. That can change in his junior season this fall. With the frame of a middle linebacker, Henry punishes defenders while also possessing breakaway speed that allows him to succeed on the edge. Alabama often used him as a closer, barreling through and over worn-down defenses in the fourth quarter. With starting tailback T.J. Yeldon gone, and with offensive centerpiece Amari Cooper also gone, the Alabama offense should revolve around Henry and a power running game this year. 3. Leonard Fournette, LSU. Perhaps the most hyped running back recruit since Adrian Peterson, Fournette had no real chance of meeting such high expectations … at least not as a freshman. The 225-pound sophomore has enough speed that LSU also used him on kick returns, and given his combination of size, speed and physicality, he looks nothing like a sophomore; he looks like a five-year NFL veteran. Struggles at quarterback hurt the entire LSU offense last year, but Fournette can thrive regardless, as the foundation of what has always been a power-oriented LSU offense under Les Miles. The fact that he hasn't come close to his ceiling yet will cause sleepless nights among opposing defensive coordinators. 2. Ezekiel Elliott, Ohio State. By the time the first College Football Playoff ended, it became a frequently asked question: How was Ezekiel Elliott not voted to the All-Big Ten team? The question ignored what actually happened before the voting. In a conference also featuring Melvin Gordon, Tevin Coleman, Ameer Abdullah, David Cobb and Jeremy Langford, Elliott was too much of a late-bloomer to actually warrant a spot. It wasn't really until the Big Ten title game and the playoff that he became a star, with the help of an improved offensive line and with Cardale Jones next to him in the backfield. Now, Elliott may be one of the top-10 returning players in the country, at any position. Against Wisconsin, he ran 20 times for 220 yards. Against Alabama's vaunted run defense, he ran 20 times for 230 yards. Against Oregon for the national title, he ran 36 times for 246 yards. The 6-foot, 225-pounder junior runs hard with breakaway speed, and while he had offseason wrist surgery, the end of the season surge is enough to give him a strong argument for No. 1 on this list. Ezekiel Elliott is GONE. 85 yards to the house, and Ohio State leads Alabama 42-28 in the #SugarBowl: http://t.co/cvE0q8gqWG — ESPN (@espn) January 2, 2015 1. Nick Chubb, Georgia. The Bulldogs opened last year with a wealth of talent at running back, including Todd Gurley, perhaps the best player in the country. But his autograph suspension and subsequent torn ACL -- along with injury issues for Sony Michel and Keith Marshall -- turned Chubb into Georgia's workhorse. The Bulldogs couldn't give him the ball enough, with a mediocre passing game supporting the run game. The 5-foot-10, 220-pound sophomore packs a punch, running with a punishing style but also possessing nimble feet and superb vision. He had only 31 total carries in the first five games of the year, but he still finished with 1,547 yards and 14 touchdowns, averaging 7.06 yards per carry -- putting up 165 yards per game after Gurley's suspension. It's hard to know exactly what the Georgia offense will look like as it moves from Mike Bobo to new offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, but the answer should be obvious: Get the ball to Chubb as much as possible. Honorable Mention (alphabetical order): Leon Allen, Western Kentucky; Matt Breida, Georgia Southern; Tarean Folston, Notre Dame; Wayne Gallman, Clemson; Johnathan Gray, Texas; Jordan Howard, Indiana; Daniel Lasco, California; Akeel Lynch, Penn State; Elijah McGuire, Louisiana-Lafayette; Demario Richard, Arizona State; Rushel Shell, West Virginia; Anthone Taylor, Buffalo; Kelvin Taylor, Florida; Shadrach Thornton, N.C. State; Thomas Tyner, Oregon; Marteze Waller, Fresno State; Storm Woods, Oregon State * * * Contact Matt at matt.brown5082@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @MattBrownCFB. |
Which country has the most skeptics? Australia tops name-calling, limited, biased, ambiguous survey! Graham Readfearn, at Ecowatch, thought the USA would top the list. He was wrong: Published in the journal Global Environmental Change, the study found that 17 percent of Australians were “climate skeptics.” Norwegians come in second at 15 percent, followed by New Zealanders at 13 percent and then Americans at 12 percent. The UK tied for fifth with Sweden and Finland, where 10 percent of people were skeptics. The lowest ranked country for climate skepticism was Spain, where only two percent of people were classified as climate skeptics. The real number of skeptics is much higher. A better, more accurate survey in Australia showed that about 53% of the Australian population are skeptical; I note they stopped that annual survey after getting these clear results. This survey of surveys were more ambiguous than usual — “rising temperatures” from any cause is now man-made. The surveyors merely asked if you thought “rising temperatures” (magnitude unspecified) were “dangerous” , and so you know what to say, they added “for the environment”. All spin and attitude, otherwise meaningless. This is all so horribly confounded: While the survey did not directly ask people if they accepted the science linking climate change to human activities, the respondents were asked how dangerous rising temperatures would be for the environment. People who thought rising temperatures were “not very dangerous” or “not dangerous at all” and who also thought claims about environmental issues were exaggerated were classed as “climate skeptics.” While the authors accept in the paper that their approach was limited, they argue that the method enables them to do a valuable comparison of skepticism across countries. Well that redefines “skeptic” somewhat. Anyway… people were more skeptical if their governments were untrustworthy, and if that is the “driver” we can thank Rudd and Gillard for Australia’s shining role in this inconsequential meta-survey: Generally, the study found that climate skepticism tended to be associated with a lack of trust in governments and “positive attitudes” towards private enterprise. Those who can compete and win will want to; those who can’t, prefer government-managed redistribution. I’m not putting a judgement on this, it is simply the way it is. The group the “progressives” now love to hate: Skeptics also tended to be male and tended to vote conservative. What about the free will option — where people hear a theory and are unconvinced by irrational, contradictory arguments that break the scientific method. The globe stopped warming and paused when emissions were rising, the drought stopped and the dams filled, and the hotspot was never glimpsed. Children still know what snow is. Across all countries, the authors wrote that only three factors—“political orientations (conservative), gender (male) and being unconcerned about environmental issues”—were “relatively consistent predictors” of climate change skepticism. Their cause and effect assumptions are back to front. I used to vote Green back in the days when I was unskeptical. Now I don’t. My skepticism could be considered a “relatively constant predictor” of my intention to vote for parties that are unskeptical. With more voters being swinging and less loyal than ever, the old assumptions about people being voters first and thinkers second needs to be reassessed. VN:F [1.9.22_1171] please wait... Rating: 9.2/10 (98 votes cast) |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A North Carolina man has been charged with an alleged plot to buy a semiautomatic rifle which he planned to use to kill Americans to show his support for the Islamic State militant group, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Monday. Justin Nojan Sullivan, 19, of Morganton, North Carolina, who was arrested Friday, is due to appear in federal court in Charlotte at noon (1600 GMT), said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina. Sullivan is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to Islamic State and two counts of weapons charges. According to the complaint, Sullivan, who described himself as a Muslim convert, was tracked by the FBI after his father called the police in late April to report his son was trying to burn Buddhist religious objects in their home in an apparent Islamic-State inspired tirade and the family were scared to leave the house. This month, Sullivan plotted with an undercover FBI agent to buy a semi-automatic rifle at a gun show, telling the agent “the war is here,” according to the complaint. He then asked the agent to send him a homemade silencer as he planned on carrying out “minor assassinations before the big attack for training” and planned to send a video to Islamic State. He was arrested at his home after receiving the silencer through the mail, prosecutors said. A spate of mostly young men have been arrested in the United States in recent months, with many plotting ‘lone wolf attacks’ in support of Islamic State, a violent group which controls parts of Syria and Iraq and has vowed attacks on the West. On Friday, two men in Boston pleaded not guilty to plotting to behead Massachusetts police officers and another man was arrested in Ohio for attempting to provide material support to the militant group. Federal officials have said they are investigating such cases in all 50 states. |
Pad Pak Boong Fai Daeng, or stir-fried morning glory, is one of the tastiest dishes you can eat in Thailand. It’s also sadly missing from the majority of western Thai restaurant and takeaway menus. Those that do offer stir-fried morning glory Thai style tend to serve inauthentic, toned-down versions of this vibrant dish. It’s a shame really because stir-fried morning glory is a terrifically easy dish to cook. The hardest part of cooking Pad Pak Boong Fai Daeng at home is finding a store that sells morning glory. Also known as water spinach, this delicious vegetable is much-loved in Thai cuisine for its tender shoots and leaves that take on Thai flavors beautifully. Morning glory is the ideal stir-fry vegetable. The following recipe for stir-fried morning glory takes less than two minutes to cook from the time the ingredients first hit the wok. It really is that easy. Stir-fried morning glory Thai style Recipe: 1 bunch of morning glory. A minimum of 4 cloves of garlic. Three or more Thai chilis. 2 tablespoons oyster sauce. fish sauce 1 tablespoon 1 tablespoon fermented soybean paste (important ingredient for authenticity but not the easiest to find. The recipe still tastes really good without it.) . 1 teaspoon sugar. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil. Quarter cup of pork or vegetable stock (mix one stock cube with water). Steamed jasmine rice to serve. Method: Cut the morning glory or water spinach into 4-6 inch lengths after rinsing it briefly under cold water. The Smart Nut Company Bash the chilis and garlic together in a pestle and mortar until they are crushed but remain relatively whole. It’s important to use a good pestle and mortar – I recommend a good granite one, like the one sold by Heat the oil in a wok until it’s hot as hell. Add the garlic and chilis, stir-fry for about 15-20 seconds. Next, add the morning glory along with the fish sauce, oyster sauce, soybean paste, and sugar. Stir-fry for another 40 seconds. Add your quarter cup of stock and allow to heat for another ten seconds. Take off the heat and serve with steamed jasmine rice. Done! Isn’t it amazing how quick and easy that is to cook? Makes you wonder why it’s so tough to find a decent Thai takeaway or restaurant in any Western country that serves stir-fried morning glory Thai style! Quick pointers: The reason you use so much garlic is because the dish depends on a strong garlicky flavor. Leaving the garlic and chilis whole helps to impart their taste on the dish without you needing to eat big chunks of garlic and chili (although you are free to eat them if you want to!) If the idea of stock annoys you, replace it with three to four tablespoons of water. Thais will nearly always use stock, though (typically in the form of a powder). Get cooking and let me know what you think of this stir-fried morning glory recipe in the comments below! Shop This Recipe for Cookware and Ingredients Used Pestle and Mortar Pestle and Mortar Cast Iron Wok Cast Iron Wok Red Boat Fish Sauce Red Boat Fish Sauce Please note that links to Amazon products on this site are affiliate links, meaning I get a (teeny-bit) of the percentage of any sale. This helps to support my site and ensure I can post more great thai food recipes. All ingredients and cookware are products that I use daily in my kitchen. Thank you for your support. If you like this recipe, don’t forget to share it on social media. Thank you. 🙂 Please like, share, and follow |
On Friday June 17, 2016, $60,000,000 worth of a digital currency called ethereum (ETH) was drained into the accounts of an individual who exploited a logical error in a computer program. At the time, the total value, or market cap, of ETH was over $1.6 B. Two hours later the ETH market cap had plummeted nearly 30% to under $1.2 B and continued to fall to $0.8 B over the next 36 hours. The program exploited by the attacker runs on Ethereum, a decentralized computing platform powered by a currency called ether (ETH) in the sense that the execution of each instruction on the Ethereum platform must paid for with ether. Ethereum programs are a class of Turing complete programs called “smart contracts” that enforce fiducial relationships between parties to the contract. Turing completeness describes programs that can execute any logic available to computers. Ethereum contracts have the tremendous, and probably unnecessary, power to submit transactions, meaning that the contract itself can transfer money. The faulty program is part of a group of programs that operate a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO. Many decentralized autonomous organizations run on the Ethereum platform, but the DAO with the faulty computer program is confusingly called “The DAO”. The DAO (or any DAO for that matter) is a fully automated business that conducts all its operations on a decentralized computer, meaning no single person, or even group of coordinated individuals, controls the DAO. Instead, The DAO works like a corporation with shareholders who vote on company directives. This type of structure is possible because user accounts are represented in The DAO’s computer programs, and these accounts have balances that correspond to ownership. In addition to user shares, The DAO has its own ETH account, meaning that The DAO has a bankroll. The DAO’s balance originated from fundraising, where investors sent money to The DAO’s ETH account. In return, investors received shares of ownership. Because The DAO is an experimental entity, investors have the option to withdraw their investment through a process called a “split”, illustrated in Figure 1. The DAO attacker took funds contributed by shareholders, reducing the The DAO’s ETH balance from about $220 M of ETH to about $160 M. Figure 1. A split of The DAO allows investors to withdraw their investment. In the initial state of this example split (A) the investor has 1000 shares (worth 10 ETH) and 0 ETH. The process of a split begins with (B) withdrawing the funds, where 100 shares equals 1 ETH. The share balance is not yet adjusted. The split program (C) then checks the ETH balance against the amount that corresponds to the shares. If the ETH balance is too large after withdrawal, the split is invalidated. Otherwise, (D) the investor’s share balance is zeroed out. The net effect of this process is that the investor’s share balance is converted to to appropriate ETH balance. The ability for a computer program to be a DAO is tied to its ability to send a digital currency like ETH. Without this capacity, the program would have little influence on the state of the world outside of the computer on which it runs. With the ability to send money, a DAO can appropriate goods and services to achieve its directives, thereby serving the interests of its shareholders. Perhaps the defining property of a DAO is that it acts in perfect adherence to a charter consisting entirely of computer programs. This property is usually offered as a feature of DAOs because it renders them immune to the fallibility of human judgment. One pitfall, made obvious by the attack on The DAO, is that flaws in the computer programs that constitute a DAO are vulnerable to potentially devastating exploits. The type of flaw exploited by the DAO attacker is called “reentrancy”, which means that the attacker was able to repeatedly reenter a part of the computer code that sends the attacker money. The technical details behind this attack are extensive, but the premise is that the attacker was able to fool a check for maximum withdrawal, then execute the withdrawal 30 times in one cycle of the attack. On top of this, the attacker amplified gains by preventing the share balance from being zeroed at the end of each cycle, then repeating the multiple withdrawal for unlimited cycles. The attack is illustrated in Figure 2. Figure 2. The DAO attacker fooled a balance check for ETH, a balance rectification for shares, and forced a repeated withdrawal of ETH to the attacker’s account. The attack begins (A) as a normal split (Figure 1), with a withdrawal (B) of ETH corresponding to the value of the shares. The attacker used a logical loophole to repeat the withdrawal, each time (C) fooling a balance check that invalidates the transaction if the withdrawn ETH exceeds the value appropriate to the share balance. At the end of a normal split, the share balance is zeroed. The attacker fooled the splitting program into seeing no share balance by (D) transferring the shares to a proxy before the share balanced is zeroed (E). Before another iteration of the entire split, the attacker (F) moves back the shares, allowing the process to be repeated indefinitely. Outlined crosses are points at which Breakout Chain permissive smart contracts would stifle an attack, as described in the text. This attack exploits three properties of Ethereum’s scripting engine. The first property of Ethereum’s scripting engine that the attacker exploited is that of a shared state between different smart contracts. This part of the exploit happened when the attacker temporarily sent shares to a proxy account then sent them back after zeroing the share balance, depicted in steps D and E of Figure 2. Shared state vulnerabilities arise because the state of a contract can be changed by code that is not part of the contract. In the attack, the part of the state representing the attacker’s share balance was changed by a sending transaction. Key is that the contract itself had no control over these funds and was never privy to the state change represented by temporarily hiding shares. The second property exploited is that of unbound recursion, which means that the attacker was able to execute the same instructions repeatedly and essentially indefinitely. Although recursion is essential for Turing completeness, it must be controlled. Ethereum controls recursion by using the ETH as a sort of gas that is expended during a program’s execution. If the gas runs out before the program finishes successfully, execution is stopped and the program’s results are nullified, although the gas is not returned to the individual who ran the program. Ethereum’s approach to recursion puts bounds on a program’s execution. However, it puts no other limits on the number of times a particular stretch of code can execute in a given run. The third property exploited is the potential to share code between two smart contracts. Two contracts share code when the one contract executes the code of another contract. The DAO attacker exploited this property after step F in Figure 2. Each split is itself a smart contract that has code different from The DOA. In short, the attacker caused The DAO to execute a part of the split’s code, beginning yet another split. For each split, the balance check was fooled, shares hidden, and a withdrawal claimed. Breakout Chain’s planned permissive smart contract system (described in the white paper at http://wp.breakoutcoin.com/) has safeguards against each of these three vulnerabilities, indicated in Figure 2 as outlined crosses. Breakout Chain’s permissive smart contracts are Turing complete and work like Ethereum’s smart contracts but have some key differences. Most notably, Breakout Chain smart contracts cannot autonomously submit transactions. Instead, they permit or prevent transactions by parties to the contract. Each Breakout Chain smart contract is executed when a user submits a transaction. The first transaction submitted to a contract begins execution at the first instruction and stops at a specific place defined by the program. Unless execution reaches the end of the program, each transaction resumes execution where the previous transaction stopped, requiring that all transactions that execute a given contract have a specific ordering. These transactions are said to make a “transaction chain”. The segment of the program executed by each transaction is perfectly defined by the smart contract. The first key safeguard in Breakout Chain permissive smart contracts is that they do not share state. The state of each permissive smart contract is fully contained within the smart contract itself, either in data structures called stacks or in the contract balance. To a limited extent, a permissive smart contract may examine the historical state of a different smart contract, but a smart contract may not change the state of a different smart contract. The only possible way to change the balance of a permissive smart contract is through a transaction that requires cryptographic proof of spending authority and results in marking the money spent. This crucial latter step was bypassed in The DAO attack where the same money was essentially spent multiple times and never marked spent. The requirement of cryptographic proof of spending authority, combined with marking money spent, is indispensable for valid permissive smart contract transactions. This requirement would stifle an attack at the cross labeled “1” in Figure 2. The fact that a permissive smart contract can not modify the state of another would stifle an attack at the crosses marked “2” and “3” in Figure 2. The second second safeguard is that each cycle of permissive smart contracts can only be initiated by a new transaction, greatly reducing the speed of exploits that rely on recursion. The places in code execution where this type of throttling is applied are called transaction control points. Throttling is in general not a burden for permissive smart contracts because transactions make natural places to pause execution, as demonstrated in an example of crop insurance in the white paper. In crop insurance, smart contract execution is paused after purchase of the policy and after the buyer makes a claim, if any. Although not a burden in most cases, transaction control points add to the security of permissive smart contracts because they make exploits expensive in terms of time and money, especially if the contract checks for confirmation of previous transactions. The third safeguard in Breakout Chain permissive smart contracts is that they can not execute the code of other contracts. The reason is that such execution would require submitting a transaction (which permissive smart contracts cannot do). Execution is limited only to the transactions within the transaction chain of a contract. This means that not only can one permissive smart contract not access the state of another contract directly, it cannot even do so indirectly through code execution. This limitation in itself would have completely prevented the attack on the DAO, indicated by the cross labeled “4” in Figure 2. Breakout Chain permissive smart contracts are meant to mirror traditional contracts in that they define and enforce relationships between parties. They do not have the power to submit transactions nor do they share state. As we have seen from The DAO, the abilities to execute transactions and share state are unnecessary and highly prone to exploits. These properties dramatically increase the security of the smart contract platform without sacrificing its usefulness. |
Dropping a Chrysler slant-six engine into an E30 BMW 3-series is a very bad idea, and yet perfect for the 24 Hours of LeMons. We thought it would be hard to top that ill-advised engine swap, but a gang of wild-eyed California fabricators cooked up something even better (that is, even worse) for last weekend’s Sears Pointless race at Infineon Raceway: a Mazda Miata with Polaris snowmobile power. Three cylinders, two strokes—and a weight savings of nearly 800 pounds compared to the Mazda drivetrain.When they aren’t helping us with LeMons tech inspections or building cages for LeMons cars, the folks at West Sacramento’s Evil Genius Racing work on their bread-and-butter business: building and repairing cars for the Spec Miata world. Miatas are right there with E30 BMWs and Acura Integras on the “Cars We Aren’t Very Happy To See In LeMons Races” list—unless they’ve been hacked up with ridiculous modifications. An Evil Genius customer stacked this particular car on the track, it ended up sitting around the shop for a while, and then the mental gears started turning. In the words of EGR chief John Pagel: Advertisement - Continue Reading Below It was a very nice 1991 Special Edition BRG Miata. I looked after it for a customer, it got wrecked; right front frame rail bent way in and down, left front bent out. Bought it for $450 from the customer, proceeded to sell off $2500 worth of parts: engine, trans, left door and fender, interior, seats, dash, etc. It is a legit $0 car. We straightened it between two Ford Super Duties. Scott DeWinter had a Polaris motor and the build commenced. For the full story of how this car’s build process went, with technical details, check out this thread on the 24 Hours of LeMons forums. So, a 92-hp Polaris 600 three-cylinder went into the Miata. There is no transmission; the Polaris variable-speed belt-drive unit with centrifugal clutch was used. The entire engine and clutch assembly weighed about 85 pounds. No engine hoist necessary! All the power is transmitted through this belt. The team brought several spares. Two gauges, two pedals. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below There’s no electric starter in this setup. Instead, we saw the first-ever pull-start LeMons racer. Watch this clip to see how the starting process goes:In honor of its snowmobile ancestry, the car was named after the famous Alaskan sled dog . The team’s name: Idiotarod Racing. The end result was a Miata that weighs something like 1300 pounds. The Polaris engine makes about 20 fewer horses than the ’91 Miata’s factory engine, but the tremendous weight savings compensates for the power loss. What’s it like on the track? Fairly quick and shockingly reliable. We expected this SnoMoMiata to start spitting out drive belts in the first hour of the race, but that never happened. In fact, the team replaced the belt halfway through the weekend, but only as a preventive measure. Team Idiotarod’s best lap was a 2:11, about eight seconds slower than the very quickest cars but fast enough to hold its own against the hordes of E30s and Porsche 944s. We can’t help but think that an MG Midget or first-gen Honda Civic would benefit even more from a Polaris engine swap. For now, Team Idiotarod’s Balto is the only snowmobile-powered car in LeMons racing. |
Spring is on its way, and due to an unusually warm winter, allergy season is coming early this year. In fact, for some of you, it may have already started. Here are a few things you can do around the house to keep them from driving you crazy. If you have serious allergies, we recommend talking to your doctor about a higher strength medication, or even a round of allergy shots. However, if your allergies are just mildly annoying and your over-the-counter pills just aren't quite cutting it, here are a few other things you can try. Advertisement Know What You're Allergic To This may seem obvious to you, but the first step in preventing allergy symptoms is knowing what you're allergic to—even if it's in a very general sense. For example, mold allergies tend to be worse in the fall, when things are damp, and dust mite allergies tend to center around summer and fall. Pollen allergies can happen anywhere from Spring to Fall, so if your allergies come early in the year (and sometimes last for most of the year), pollen is probably the culprit. For more specific information, see an allergist, but if you can narrow things down a little bit, it can help you fine tune these tips for more effective prevention. Clean Your Home Regularly Advertisement Whether you keep your windows open or bring them in on your clothes, allergens like pollen and dust can quickly build up on the surfaces in your home. So, make sure you're extra diligent about cleaning: mop the floors, wipe down your counters, and vacuum your carpets. If you can use a vacuum with a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter, says WebMD, you'll pick up a lot more of those allergens on your carpet. You can also get a HEPA-equipped air purifier to clear some of the air in your home. Photo by Ivy Dawned. Keep Dirty Clothes Out of Sight, and Do Laundry Often Advertisement Your house may be clean, but those allergens will still lock onto your clothes like none other. Redditor thatwasntveryraven recommends keeping your dirty laundry far away from your bedroom. In fact, the farther away you keep it from your regular living space, the better. In apartments, this is tough, but if you have a house, that means the basement might be a good place to keep it (and if you already have your washer and dryer down there, all the better). If possible, you might even consider keeping some clothes handy to change into as soon as you get home, and throwing your pollen-covered clothes in the hamper right away. Photo by Amboo Who?. Exercise and Shower in the Evening Redditor thats_what_she_said_ (who inspired this post) suggested showering in the evening to alleviate allergy symptoms while you sleep. Michelle Hernandez, assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunity at the UNC School of Medicine backs this up: showering in the evening gets rid of the residual pollen in your hair and on your face, and thus keeps you from breathing it in all night long. Similarly, she says, try to keep from going outside in the morning, when pollen levels are the highest. That means if you like to exercise outside, try doing it in the evening instead (after all, you're showering at night too). Alternatively, you can exercise indoors, whether that means using a treadmill or just creating your own gym at home. Advertisement Keep Allergens from Getting Into Your Home Advertisement Lastly, even though you're cleaning regularly, you'll want to prevent those allergens from entering your home as much as possible. Keep your windows closed as much as possible, and if your house gets too warm, it's probably worth running the A/C for a little while to keep pollen from coming in through the windows. If you're allergic to mold, ABC News notes that a dehumidifier will help keep that mold growth at bay (as will those regular cleanings, especially of wet areas like the bathroom). While you're at it, make sure your house is clear of other things that may exacerbate your allergies, like smoke, animal hair, and products with lots of fragrance in them (like perfume). Photo by Glasseyes View. If your allergies are mild enough, attention to detail may be all you need to keep them from bothering you this season. However, like we said, you should consider this an addition to an over-the-counter pill or nasal spray of your allergies are more frustrating. Consult your doctor if you want to tackle the problem head on, and if you have lots of experience with allergies, be sure to share your tips with us in the comments. Title photo by 4736202690 (Shutterstock). |
Art by Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Buccellato Name : Angelo Espinosa : Angelo Espinosa Code Names : Skin : Skin First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #317 (Oct ‘94) Uncanny X-Men #317 (Oct ‘94) Powers : Six feet of extra skin : Six feet of extra skin Teams Affiliation: Generation X About One of the things the original Generation X, as well as the recent relaunch, got right was that not every mutant fits in. Not everyone gifted with an X-Gene turns into an Adonis with Jim Lee abs and Alan Davis hair, some end up sucking. Because the comics didn’t understand this until after the majority of the X-Men cast had been established as beautiful, WASP-y young adults, most of the characters who have these issues get relegated to the third string. That doesn’t make them bad, it just means writers have to try even harder to make characters like Skin resonate with audiences. Portrayed by Agustin Rodriguez in Generation X Angelo Espinosa was an LA runaway. As a Hispanic kid living in a bad part of town during early 90’s, he felt fated to be a gangbanger. It isn’t that he wanted to, he just didn’t see much of an option. He fell for a girl named Tores, whose cousin Lupo was involved in the gang life. He got closer to the gang and was caught in the crossfire that came with the lifestyle. The stress of his first shootout caused his mutant powers to activate and Angelo grew six feet of extra skin. Angelo was knocked out in the firefight and awoke to see a pickpocket running off with his wallet. Because of the fighting, a car exploded and killed the vagrant. Angelo realized that the man had his ID and decided to use that to his advantage by letting the world think that he was dead. Art by Ale Garza and Mike Rockwitz He managed to avoid detection until the alien race known as the Phalanx kidnapped him as part of their next generation of mutants. He kept much calmer than his captives Husk and Blink, he had been through worse. A ragtag group of X-Men associates saved the youths and took them back to Westchester with a plan. Xavier’s had long evolved beyond being just a school, something Emma Frost and Banshee wanted to change. They began the new Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters on the site of the old Massachusetts Academy. And though it took some coaxing, Skin decided to continue training there. Art by Rodger Cruz, Tim Townsend, and Steve Buccellato For the most part, Angelo got along with his teammates. He kept them at a distance, a habit he developed over his year on the street, and tried to keep a low profile. When an old friend ran into him in NYC, Skin made him swear to tell no one he was alive. As he spent more time with his new classmates, his rough demeanor began melting away. It got to a point that Skin helped Synch build a treehouse for buddies Artie & Leech just because he was a big old softie. Art by Chris Bachalo, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Buccellato Skin’s past soon came back to haunt him in a big way. The X-Cutioner blamed Skin for the death of regular, everyday human Angelo Espinosa and hunted Skin for his punishment. Skin and Chamber were able to outsmart the hunter (which, face it, wasn’t that hard) but Skin was left to confront the sins of his past. He and Chamber went on a road trip back to LA and Angelo visited his own grave. He saw Tores again, she seemed to be surviving but his mother wasn’t doing as well. Skin disguised himself and sat on a bench next to his mother. He tried comforting her but it was clear that he could never go back to his old life. He returned to the Xavier School, ready to face this new chapter in his life. Art by Chris Bachalo During Operation: Zero Tolerance, the students of Generation x were stranded and Los Angeles and needed help. Skin went to Tores and revealed his deception to her, but Tores had a secret of her own. The night Angelo’s mutant abilities manifested, Tores did as well. She discovered that she could generate explosive blasts and had spent the last few years living with the secret. At the same time, Angelo’s mother heard rumors that her son was still alive and went to confront Tores about it. She discovered that Tores was a mutant and Angelo listened while hiding. His mother was disgusted that Tores was a genefreak and Angelo had to hear about his mother’s hate of mutant kind. He knew he could never come out to her and reveal the truth. Art by Ale Garza and Mike Rockwitz As time went on, Generation X disbanded. Their school had been destroyed, their friends had been killed, and their mentors had fallen into depression. Skin and Jubilee decided to return to LA where Jubez pursued a career in acting. The two drew the attention of Church of Humanity who kidnapped them for a vulgar display of hate. They crucified the two mutants, alongside others, on the lawn of the Xavier Institute. The X-Men rushed them to their medical center and were able to save most of them thanks to Angel’s healing blood. Angelo, however, was too far gone. He became the latest casualty in an unholy war against people who are hated and feared simply because they are different. Art by Ron Garney, Mark Morles, and JD Smith Must Read I am a big fan of the original run on Generation X. It established strong characters quickly while never dwelling too long on their history. One of the few times it goes back is during Generation X #17-21, where Skin, Chamber, and Howard the Duck go on a road trip back to LA to confront Skin’s past. The friendship that is built between Jono and Angelo feels real and helps build depth for both characters. You’ll have to dig into back issue bins for this one, but it will be worth it. Art by Chris Bachalo Ranking Skin isn’t the worst member of Generation X, but he sure isn’t the best. M is the lowest ranked member of the main team, and she is miles ahead of Skin. Ancillary members Artie & Leech are further down the list but real talk, I like them more. Skin is just a character that I don’t care if I ever see again. His death was pointless and wasteful but it was also unimportant. No one had anything for him to do, he wasn’t a fan favorite, he was just a guy that stuck around for the life of a title. I like him more than Shatterstar, but less than Cypher, which just leaves Surge. Surge is another team member who never connected with me, but I tend to like Gen X more than the New X-Men kids. Because of that, Skin enters the list at number 57 in the Xavier Files. Skin was requested by /u/Nemesiskismet. Thank you for the request. If you have a request for how about you send it below? If you want to cut to the front of the two-year long line, we have a Patreon you can support Xavier Files for just $1 to get a line cutting reward. Click here if you want to see the full ranked list, with links to every entry in the Xavier Files so far. If you liked what you read be sure to follow Xavier Files on twitter, Tumblr, Facebook! Next week I test my luck with Domino! See you then! Character Request If you are human, leave this field blank. Who do you want me to write about? * Who are you/what name do you want me to thank you as for the request? * Liked it? Take a second to support Zachary Jenkins on Patreon! |
There were some great happenings for the Dallas Cowboys in the offseason, and some not-so-great ones as well. The most obvious negative being quarterback Tony Romo going down with injury before his 2016 comeback ever got started, while the positives revolve around the return of cornerback Orlando Scandrick and the tandem of rookie Ezekiel Elliott and running back Alfred Morris. Questions loom over their pass rush while the secondary has immediately improved, and this combines with the shining debut of rookie QB Dak Prescott which likely proves the Cowboys can and will win games until Romo returns. The regular season is only days away! Don’t miss any breaking news, take a second to sign up for our FREE Cowboys newsletter! All of this puts the Cowboys in a position to make the playoffs for now, with a pin in a possible run to Super Bowl glory pending how they handle themselves in the absence of their ship's captain. Taking all of this into account, our good friends at Bleacher Report have unveiled their NFL Power Rankings pre-Week 1. Even without Romo and with a suspect pass rush, the Cowboys still landed in the top 10. The first month or so for this team will be paramount if they are truly looking to make a deep run that doesn't end until February. Where power rankings may change from week to week and source to source, the Cowboy's goal of a sixth championship will not. |
On Wednesday October 15th I blogged about the Lab having issued a Grid Status update warning, those who use the viewer’s built-in browser may not be able to access certain websites. The notice was issued by the Lab as a result of the Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption (Poodle) vulnerability reported by Google. As noted in my original article, the Poodle vulnerability exploits a flaw in the design of the SSL 3.0 protocol, which despite being 18 years old, is used as a fallback security protocol within most browsers. By using a series of connection failures between a browser and website, an attacker can trigger what is called a “downgrade dance” where the browser eventually falls back to using the SSL 3.0 protocol to maintain communications. When this happens, the attacker can use the exploit within SSL 3.0 to grab sensitive data. There are a couple of caveats to the vulnerability; for the attack to work, the attacker must be on the same wireless network as you or in the path of your communications (as shown above), and your client must be running JavaScript. However, it caused Google to issue an advisory that SSL 3.0 support is disabled or that tools that support TLS_FALLBACK_SCSV (Transport Layer Security Signalling Cipher Suite Value) are used be websites, which prevent the “downgrade dance” attacks. This prompted some websites to remove / disable SSL 3.0 support, which in turn resulted in some websites becoming inaccessible when using the viewer’s internal browser or browser-related services. At the time the Grid Status update was issued, the Lab indicated they are working to fix the problem within the viewer’s browser capability. This has now been done, and release candidate version 3.7.18.295539 of the viewer, referred to as the “Browser Fix” viewer, removes SSL 3.0 usage from the viewer’s internal browser, allowing it to connect to sites which have disabled SSL 3.0 support. If you do use the official viewer and prefer accessing websites using the internal browser, you may want to download this RC. For those not using the official viewer and who have experienced issues accessing websites through the viewer’s internal web browser, try switching to using an external browser to open web links (set via Preferences), as per the advice on the original Grid Status update from the Lab. Related Links Advertisements |
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